Delhi - The Pioneer

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aking the Congress head-on,
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Prime Minister Narendra
Modi on Friday said while the
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other Opposition parties want
Parliament to function, only
‘one family’ is disrupting the
Rajya Sabha to avenge the
Congress party’s rout in the
2014 Lok Sabha polls.
The Prime Minister was
addressing a public rally at
Moran in Assam’s Dibrugarh
district after inaugurating two
major projects — the Assam
Gas Cracker Project and Wax
producing unit of the
Numaligarh Refinery Limited
(NRL) at Lepetkata in the tea
and oil rich Dibrugarh district
on Friday.
Without naming the
Gandhis, Modi said, “Those
who were reduced from 400
seats to 40 seats are creating
obstacles. Opposition parties
want Parliament to function.
However, just one family which
is holding grudge for the defeat
is not allowing the Rajya Sabha
to function.”
“Friends, all the Opposition
parties want Parliament to
function. However, one family
is out to take revenge for their
defeat. They are not allowing
laws to be passed by the Rajya
Sabha. The NDA Government
wants to bring in laws that will
increase the bonus of workers
and will lead to increased navigation and trading activity in
Brahmaputra River. However,
these laws are awaiting nod of
the Rajya Sabha as the ‘one family’ is not allowing the Upper
House to function,” Modi said.
Modi also slammed the
Congress-led UPA Government
at the Centre and the Congressled Assam Government for the
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delay in executing the
C10,000-crore Gas cracker project and said the BJP-led NDA
Government has inaugurated
thousands of such projects,
irrespective of whoever,
laid the foundation stones of
those projects.
Referring to the Gas cracker and the Wax producing unit
of the NRL, Modi said that two
major projects are not only
important for Assam but also
for the entire country. “These
two projects not only carry
employment opportunity of
the State but also push the overall growth of the country,” said
the Prime Minister.
The Prime Minister also
appealed to the people of the
State to vote for the BJP in the
forthcoming elections and said
that welfare of Assam can
become a reality only if there
is a Government in Assam
which listens to the Centre.
Taking a potshot at the
Chief Minister Tarun Gogoiled Government in Assam,
Modi said the Government
has failed to provide houses,
drinking water, electricity and
education to tea tribes, who
have for generation workers in
the tea garden and gave Assam
worldwide recognition.
“You have given opportunity to all the parties in Assam. You
also know well who has done
what. Give us one opportunity to
serve you. There is a BJP led
Government at the Centre and
there should be a BJP
Government in the State as well
for overall development,” said the
Prime Minister while appealing
the people to vote for the BJP in
the forthcoming polls.
“Sarbananda ko lana hai,
kyunki aapke jeevan mein
anand lana hain (we must
bring in Sarbananda-the name
of Assam unit of the BJP president Sarbananda Sonowalbecause we must bring in pleasure to your life),” Modi said.
Incidentally, the Gas
Cracker Project was envisaged
by the then Prime Minister Late
Indira Gandhi in 1984 and
given a shape by Prime Minister
Late Rajiv Gandhi in 1985 at the
end of the six-year long antiforeigners’ agitation. Former
Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh had laid the foundation
stone of the project in 2007.
Executed
by
the
Brahmaputra Crackers and
Polymers Ltd, the project has
missed several deadlines and
overshot budget.
The petrochemical project
will use naphtha and natural
gas from the State’s oilfields to
produce ethylene for manufacturing polymers.
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n an election year, the Kerala
Iwomen
Government has abandoned
and chosen to go with
religious heads by backing an
age-old restriction on members
of the fair sex aged between 10
and 50 years from offering
worship to the “celibate” deity
at the holy shrine at Sabarimala.
Stating this in an affidavit
filed before the Supreme Court
on Friday, the State
Government retracted from
its earlier affidavit of November
13, 2007 which had supported
a PIL pending in the SC on
allowing women to enter
the shrine.
With the hearing on the
PIL slated for next week, the
State Government sought permission to withdraw the earli-
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er affidavit. The new affidavit
filed by Chief Secretary Jiji
Thomson openly backed the
claim by Hindu priests called
Tantris that barring women
between 10 and 50 years is part
of custom and usage followed
at the temple and these customs
form an “essential and integral”
part of Hindu religion, which
is protected under the umbrella of fundamental rights available to all religions under
Article 25 and 26.
The State further argued
that while it is for the court to
determine whether such a practice falls under the essential and
integral part of a religion, a SC
decision pronounced recently
in the Ritu Prasad Sharma vs
State of Assam case had held
that religious customs are
immune from challenge under
Article 14 (right to equality).
Continued on Page 4
after he was released from a
correction home, may be tried
as an adult under a new law
passed by Parliament in
December 2015. The Delhi
Police has urged the Juvenile
Justice Board (JJB) to treat the
boy as an adult as he allegedly
murdered the woman just five
months after kidnapping and
killing a 13-year-old boy for
which he was sent to the correction home.
If the JJB agrees, he would
be the first juvenile to be tried
under the Juvenile Justice (Care
and Protection of Children)
Act, 2015. The new law allows
people between 16 and 18
years of age to be tried as adults
if they are found to be involved
in heinous crimes like murder
and rape.
“We have submitted a written application to the Juvenile
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he CRPF, part of the
T
counter-insurgency security grid in Jammu & Kashmir,
has improved its kill ratio in the
Valley and minimised attacks
on own personnel and
camp/posts during the last
four years.
According to official data,
the paramilitary killed 42 ter-
rorists in 100 operations in
2015 in contrast to liquidation
of 35 militants during 97
offensives in 2014, 22 in 127
counter-terror actions in
2013 and 33 in 73 encounters
in 2012.
It has also contained own
losses from nine deaths in
2013 to just two in 2014 and
four in 2015. Stone pelting
incidents have also reported a
decline from 261 incidents in
2013 to 134 in 2014 and 128
last year.
With a downward spiral in
stone pelting incidents and
improved security environment, the number of CRPF
personnel injured has also
recorded a decline. From
injuries to 182 personnel in
2012, the figure jumped to a
staggering 504 in 2013 and
dwindled to 244 in 2014 and
219 last year.
Apprehension of terrorists
has also marginally increased
from 55 in 2012 followed by 54
in 2013, 15 in 2014 to 64 in 2015.
Attacks
on
CRPF
camps/posts registered a
notable improvement in 2015
with just one attack in 2015
where the number was
four in 2014, two in 2013 and
four in 2012.
Continued on Page 4
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hile the North and East
W
corporations have raised
hopes of an early end to the cri-
sis by accepting C300-crore
loan offered by the LieutenantGovernor as an interim relief to
pay salaries to the striking
sanitation workers, the Delhi
Government’s “unrealistic”
conditions like terminating
services of contractual sanitation workers and beldars and a
freeze on fresh recruitments,
have made it impossible for the
two civic bodies to avail the
C551-crore loan provided to
them by the Aam Aadmi Party
(AAP) Government. Sources
said the civic bodies have
rejected the conditions set by
the Government.
Following the L-G’s move,
municipal doctors said they will
rejoin duty on Saturday morning, however, the sanitation crisis in the national Capital is
unlikely to end anytime soon
even though the loan was
released on Thursday evening, as
these riders are just part of at least
half a dozen conditions imposed
on the two civic bodies.
A document related to the
fresh conditions imposed by
the Delhi Government on the
corporations said, “There will
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n the lines of feni of Goa, the
O
Jharkhand Government is
exploring the prospects of making
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exotic wine out of mahua, a forest
produce found in adequate quantity all across the State.
Excise and Prohibition
Department Secretary Satyendra
Singh, while counting on achievements of the department in the last
one year at Suchna Bhawan, also
added that online application for
auctioning of retail outlets of wine
shops will be invited from the next
financial year.
“On the lines of feni, prepared
in Goa out of State’s staple produce
cashew, we are also mulling on producing an exotic wine out of mahua,
which is found in abundance in
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Jharkhand,” said the Secretary.
Efforts are currently being
made to overcome technical hiccups
in this regard, he added.
Singh said, “Though, we lag
behind in consumption of liquor than
the two neighbouring States — Bihar
and Chhattisgarh — we are far ahead
of them in terms of per capita consumption of beer in Jharkhand.”
In order to provide quality
product and increase revenue in the
State, foreign made liquor, wine and
medium liquor have also been made
available in liquor shops from
September last year. Incidentally, foreign made liquor, wine and medium liquor were made available in
the markets in Jharkhand a month
ahead of the announcement made
by the neighbouring State to ban
liquor in Bihar.
Singh added that since the primary objective of the department
was revenue collection, it aims at
collecting revenue of over C1,200
crore this year. “Current figure of
revenue collection of the excise
department till January, 2016
was C671 crore which is 20.4 per
be no fresh recruitments, particularly of Group-IV employees, viz safai karamcharis, beldars and fresh regularisation.
The safai karamcharis and beldars engaged on a temporary
basis will be discontinued in a
phased manner within a year.”
This strongly violates the
AAP’s own principle as it had
vociferously advocated regularisation of all contractual
employees of the Delhi
Government before the
Assembly elections in 2015.
Among other conditions
imposed on the civic bodies is
that they would not only reassess all their schemes, but
would also not increase the
Continued on Page 4
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New Delhi: The Delhi High
Court criticised the municipal corporations for its
workers’ strike in the national Capital which has entered
the 10th day on Friday
and issued notices to all
the unions.
The court observed that
common people in the city are
suffering owing to the ongoing tussle between the BJPruled corporations and the
AAP-ruled Government. The
counsels for all the three corporations told the court that
salaries till January 31 have
been paid and the workers are
now on strike for arrears.
Detailed report on P2
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arket benchmark Sensex
M
jumped by 279 points on
Friday, amid fluctuations in
crude oil prices and talk of economic turnaround. The BSE
Sensex opened higher at
24,360.36 and shot up further
to 24,672.90 before ending at
24,616.97, showing a gain of
278.54 points or 1.14 per cent.
“We are seeing signs of
sharp improvement in global
sentiment with a fall in the dollar index, highlighting a chance
of change in preference to risky
assets like EMs,” said Vinod
Nair Head of Fundamental
Research, Geojit BNP Paribas.
On Friday, all the sectoral
indexes ended in green with the
shares of metal, healthcare and
banking recording gains. The
index had jumped by 115.11
points on Thursday.
Continued on Page 4
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17-year-old boy, appreA
hended for murder of an
elderly woman two months
Justice Board, urging them to
treat the juvenile, who is
around 17 years and 11 months
old, like an adult. This teenager could be the first to be tried
under the amended Juvenile
Justice (Care and Protection of
Children) Act,” a senior police
official said.
The teenager was released
from the juvenile home in
December last year for his
“good behaviour” after his parents applied for bail saying he
had to appear for Class X
exams. The teen was apprehended again from his residence in Faridabad on
Thursday on charge of killing
the elderly woman, identified as
Mithilesh Jain, a widow at
South Delhi’s BK Dutt Colony
under the jurisdiction of Lodhi
Road police station.
Continued on Page 4
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cent more than the last year,” said
the Secretary.
For the first time in the State a
plan fund of C36,98,91,500 has
been created under which, construction work of Excise Building
has been started at Kanke Road. It
is also having a provision of excise
laboratory in it, said Singh.
Besides revenue collection,
facility for online supervision of
bottling plant through CCTV cameras is being developed in the State,
he said.
“In a bid to make the department fully computerised, computers, laptops and other electronic
gazettes have been made available
to all excise offices so that issue of
permits and other regulatory works
could be done online,” said Singh.
Continued on Page 4
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he Delhi High Court on
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Friday stayed the Aam
Aadmi
Party
(AAP)
Government’s notification fixing four years as the upper age
limit for nursery admissions in
private unaided schools.
The court stated that the
parents of the children did not
get enough time to plan the
future as the notification was
issued on December 18, 2015,
on the eve of beginning of the
admission process.
The HC’s decision came as
another setback to the AAP
Government as it came on the
heels of the court staying
the Delhi Government’s
order scrapping management
quota and 11 other criteria
regarding nursery admissions
on Thursday.
The HC also directed that
“all children above the age of
four years desirous of seeking
admission in pre-school/nursery can apply for admissions for
the academic year 2016-17 on
or before February 9 by 4 pm.”
Continued on Page 4
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s the municipal corporations are crying over its
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empty cof fers, sources
informed this reporter that
more than C1,000 crore has
gone down the drain on various civic projects.
The three municipal corporations are splurging as
much as C65 crore over the
maintenance of their defunct
websites. The three civic bodies spend C12 crore annually
to maintain the website that
has gone up to a whopping
C65 crore in the last four
years.
According to an RTI
response, the monthly
expense for maintenance of eGovernment project is C1
crore per month and which
goes up to C12 crore annually. The three municipal corporations have spent total
amount of C65 crore on egovernment project till now.
If that was not enough, a
whopping C225 crore was
spent on constructing a multilevel parking facility in posh
Model Town area. The project
has been a failure as the facility has failed to serve its purpose due to its faulty design.
The parking was supposed to
accommodate 110 cars and
two-wheelers each. The North
Delhi Municipal Corporation
had inaugurated the ambitious three-storey parking
project to ease parking woes
in Model Town area, but the
entry point to the parking is
so narrow that vehicle just
cannot enter and hence the
very purpose of the parking
has been defeated.
Similarly, the South Delhi
Municipal Corporation’s project to come up with a multilevel parking in Hauz Khas
area met with the same fate.
The three-storey parking lot
was build at a cost of C 30
crore. The area which was
supposed to accommodate
more than 360 cars at the
same time failed due to its
faulty design. These projects
failed to generate any money
as it could never become
operational due to its bad
design.
Leader of Opposition
Mukesh Goel said projects’
failure showed incompetence
of the BJP-led municipal cor-
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poration, which has failed to
carry out these costly projects.
“It shows incompetence of the
corporation. There are so
many projects where the
municipal corporation spends
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money but is unable to generate any sort of revenue. It
has come to such a pass that
the workers have to protest to
get its salaries,” he added.
The construction of Rani
Jhansi Road grade separator is
a never ending story. Over18
years have passed and the
Rani Jhansi Grade Separator
project worth C225 is yet to be
a reality. The project was
supposed to cost C70 crore
when it was first proposed in
1998 but it met with certain
hurdles due to demolition in
areas of Azad Market, tyre
market and Modal Basti. The
1.6-km f lyover, f rom
Filmistaan Cinema to near St.
Stephen’s Hospital, was meant
to ease traffic on Rani Jhansi
Road, but due to the delay in
construction, the project has
ended up making traffic
worse. The project has been
hanging fire for the last 18
years.
The list doesn’t end here.
The C209 crore Bijwasan road
project is also biting the dust.
Under the S outh Delhi
Municipal Corporations, the
project was supposed to come
up by year 2012 but has failed
to bear any fruit. The project
includes Najafgarh-Bijwasan
Road, which was one of the
locations under an umbrella
programme, that included the
construction of rail over-
bridge (RoB) at Sultanpuri
railway crossing, remodelling
and covering of Madipur
drain, remodelling and covering of Ramesh Nagar drain
and construction of RoB at
Bijwasan railway crossing. In
a strange case, a consultant
firm — hired for construction
of C53 crore Bijwasan road
project
during
2010
Commonwealth Games —
had unlawfully turned out to
be the contractor under a
joint venture (JV) for the
same project due to which the
project is in ruins.
“The project is gathering
dust. In fact the construction
site has grass all over it as
work has not been completed
in last so many years,” said
Par vesh R ana, C ongress
councillor from Bijwasan
ward. Many other projects
like Mahila Haat, Kishanganj
rail over bridge worth C56.5
crores have also come a
cropper.
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hile the corporations are
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claiming they have disbursed salaries till December and
January, employees union said
they would not end their ongoing strike as only safai karamcharis have received salaries of
December while all other departments are still awaiting it.
“The corporations have
been misleading the agitating
employees that they have disbursed salaries up to January
but the reality is only sanitation
staff have received salaries of
December while other departments’ staff are still waiting.
Disbursement of January’s
salary is totally false,” said
Rajesh Mishra, president of
United Front of municipal corporation staff.
The unions further maintained despite an announcement of a loan of C551 crore for
salary payment, unions will
continue their strike as they
want permanent solution of the
crisis. The union leaders maintained one time loan will not
bring relief to ailing agencies as
<d]XRX_P[f^aZTabRPaahP]TUUXVh^U3T[WX2WXTU<X]XbcTa0aeX]S:TYaXfP[SdaX]VP
they are in huge burden.
_a^cTbcX]Ua^]c^U3h2WXTU<X]XbcTa<P]XbWBXb^SXP´b^UUXRTPc4PbcEX]^S=PVPaX]
“The Government’s pack=Tf3T[WX^]5aXSPh
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of our problem as it will not
help cash-strapped bodies. To
avoid such crisis in future, we
want proper solution,” said
Rajendra Mewati, president of
Delhi Pradesh Safai Mazdoor
Congress.
On Friday, massive protests
were held with garbage being
dumped on several sites and
road was blocked across the
city. The employees protested
at NH-24, Ghazipur, Civil
Lines, Shadipur depot, Karol
Bagh and Nizzamuddin area.
Most parts of East Delhi has
been the worst hit as protestors
not just dumped garbage on
roads but also blocked traffic.
Protests were also witnessed
outside offices of the three
municipal corporations,
including zonal offices. Early
morning, hundreds of sanitation workers staged protest at
various locations and burnt
effigies of senior leaders,
including Chief Minister
Arvind Kejriwal, East Delhi
Mayor Harsh Malhotra. Roads
of Laxminagar, Pandav Nagar,
Geeta Colony, Shahdra,
Durgapuri,etc also witnessed
dumping of garbage during
morning hours.
The agitating sanitation
workers targeted house of
Delhi Tourism Minister Kapil
Mishra in Yamuna Vihar. The
protesters gathered in front of
the house in large number and
shouted slogans against him
before littering garbage. “As we
have decided to intensify our
stir, we have been gathering at
residences of prominent leaders and are garbage. As the
agencies have been failed to pay
salaries and other dues, we have
no option than following this
way. We will keep agitating till
our due salaries were not
released,” said Sanjay Gehlot,
president of Swatantra Majdoor
Vikas Sanyukta Morcha.
,IZDJHVSDLGZRUNHUVFDQ¶W
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xpressing concern on the
plight of Delhities living in
E
harmful situation with garbage
not being cleaned from the
streets, the Delhi High Court on
Friday issued notice to 34 sanitation workers unions apart
from doctors, nurses and workers who were also on strike.
Sanitation workers cannot
“hold the city to ransom” by
going on strike if they have been
paid their salaries, Delhi High
Court said on Friday after the
municipal corporations claimed
that the wages have been paid.
“If salaries have been paid,
they cannot hold the city to ransom,” a Bench of Chief Justice
G Rohini and Justice Jayant
Nath said and sought responses from the corporations and
the unions of the sanitation
workers on a PIL seeking calling off of the strike.
The Bench also asked,
“how do we know salaries have
been paid,” and directed the
corporations to respond with
regard to the strikes called by
teachers, doctors and nurses
under their control and listed
the matter for hearing on
February 8.
“We are right now concerned about the third dimension, of hardship caused to citizens,” it said and asked whether
the Delhi Government intended to enforce the Essential
Services Maintenance Act
(ESMA).
Delhi Government’s counsel, Rahul Mehra, told the court
that enforcement of ESMA had
not been considered till now
and thus, he would need to take
instructions on the matter.
The Bench, however,
refused to pass any interim
order declaring the strike as
illegal, as was sought orally by
the counsel for the corporations, saying that without hearing the workers’ union, “how
can we declare strike as illegal”.
The three corporations
claimed they had received
funds from Delhi government
yesterday and had immediately paid wages to the workers up
to January.
However, the workers have
now raised new demands like
arrears of dearness allowance
and other such perquisites,
they said.
They also said that while
the workers were on strike,
garbage collection had been
outsourced to private companies, but cleaning of streets was
not being carried out.
They said they have issued
notices to their workers and
also appealed to them to return
to work, but there has been no
response from them.
The South Delhi Municipal
Corporation claimed in the
court that 40 per cent of its
workers from two zones have
returned to work and those still
on strike were being marked
absent and action would be
taken against them.
Meanwhile, the Delhi
Government told the court that
while the corporations are taking a “hands-off approach”, it
has deputed its public works
department’s resources towards
collection of garbage.
It also said that even though
it had released all the money
that it was expected to give to
the corporations, an additional sum of Rs 550 crore was also
released.
The court was hearing the
plea filed by Birender Sangwan
seeking directions to the sanitation workers and corporations
to call off the strike and ensure
cleanliness in the city.
19?APYhPBPQWP\T\QTa2WP]SP]<XcaPaTRTXeTbP\T\T]c^Ua^\=P]S:XbW^aT6PaVU^d]STaRWPXa\P]P]SRWXTUPSeXbTa
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o help less privileged peoT
ple — living across the
rural belt of the country —
benefit from corporate culture, professionals, including
policy makers and corporate
heads emphasised on educating them to adopt corporate
communication.
The discussion was held
out at the 3rd International
Conference on Sustainable
Corporate Governance in
Emerging Market by
Maharaja Agrasen Institute
of Management Studies on
Friday where students and
participants from various
countries, including Australia,
Zambie, Zimbabwe and Israel
were present.
“The thrust in India is to
bring corporate governance to
rural areas. Unless we do that,
India cannot progress. To
make the administrative set
up of panchayats more effective, corporate governance is
a key. We have to bridge the
divide,” said Rajya Sabha
member and Editor-in-Chief
of The Pioneer Chandan
Mitra, who inaugurated the
two-day international conference as the chief guest.
Quoting an example of
the Sarpanch, Chhavi Rajawat,
Mitra encouraged young students to follow her by trying
to spend more time in their
villages to understand people’s
needs and help in bringing the
change. He, however also
stressed that India was no
more a backward country.
“ Today, women like
Chhavi ride horses and wear
western clothes in the rural
part of country. I have travelled the length and breadth of
the country. Even though
there are poor villages in
States like Orissa and
Jharkhand, the stereotypes
are disappearing. There are
gas pipeline being installed to
free women from the smoke
of kitchen, children go to
schools and everyone aspires
to be someone in India,” he
added.
The three-hour-long session shed light on different
aspects of the corporate culture, its benefits and areas
which need improvement to
take every individual on board
as a beneficiary. The key
speaker, Sutanu Sinha, chief
executive and officiating secretary, Institute of Company
Secretaries of India, emphasised that sustainability of the
innovation is must but
“should not impairing the
earth while innovating”.
“World is changing but
innovation is creating challenges from the beginning of
the civilization. Anywhere,
any business or social activity happens, we are impairing
mother earth. It is the most
unfortunate we discuss everything in the boardrooms but
not our country. Now thinking about the sustainability of
India is we should give back
to earth and make green
industry. We must resist the
threats of global warming and
pollution,” Sinha said.
Barak Granot, Head of
Economic and Trade Mission,
Embassy of Israel, spoke about
the growing ties between
India and Israel.
Sharing the success stories
of country’s business tycoon’s
like Narayan Murthy, former
MLA and founder chairman
of Maharaja Agrasen
Technical Education Society,
(MATES) Nand Kishore Garg
said, “We have to learn to
uphold ethics, morals and
honest only that can make us
succeed. The youth must not
only demand but also bear the
responsibility towards the
country.”
The speakers also discussed the role of the media in
corporate governance and a
conference proceedings book
with different research papers
was released on the occasion.
0UcTaVTccX]V9P]bP[PahS^Rc^abc^T]SbcXa
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fter getting the salaries till
January, the agitating
A
municipal doctors have decided to call off indefinite strike
with immediate effect from
Saturday. For the past ten days,
over 50,000 MCD employees
working for the corporation’s
health sector including doctors
and para-medical staff, technicians were on indefinite
strike demanding immediate
release of their salaries from
the Government.
On Friday, the senior med-
ical officials from municipal
hospitals held a meeting with
Deputy Minister Manish
Sisodia and Health Minster
Satyendra Jain following
which, they decided to call off
the indefinite strike.
Speaking with The Pioneer,
Dr RR Gautam president of
municipal
corporation
Doctors’ Association said,
“Deputy Minister has assured
official work for taking over
municipal hospitals under the
Delhi Government has started
and doctors have got the
salaries till January. Within a
day or a two, salary till March
will also come.”
“Not only this, Sisodia has
also assured that strike like situation will not come in future,”
informed Dr Gautam .
All the doctors of municipal-based dispensaries, maternity home, polyclinic and its
major hospitals, which include
Bara Hindu Rao, Swami
Dayanand, Kasturba and Rajan
Babu Tuberculosis hospital
had halted their medical services for the past ten days.
Only critical emergency services were taken up during the
strike period and other regular cases were sent back, due to
which Delhi Government hospitals were over crowed with
patients.
“We don’t want patients to
suffer anymore now. Therefore,
we have decided to withdraw
strike from Saturday morning,”
said Dr Gautam,
Around 1.5 lakh municipal
employees, including doctors,
nurses, engineers, teachers,
technicians, sanitation workers
and other class III and IV staff,
who have not been paid
salaries for up to three months,
are on indefinite strike
demanding for the release of
their salaries.
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he continuing strike by the
T
municipal employees that
entered day ten on Friday may
impact the safety and security
of the national Capital if it does
not end soon, according to
Special Branch, the intelligence
wing of the Delhi Police.
The Deputy Commissioner
of Police (DCP) of Special
Branch KK Vyas in a communiqué to the Principal Secretary
to Lieutenant-Governor Najeeb
Jung, Chief Secretary of Delhi
and Commissioners of three
MCDs has detailed the danger
that the strike poses to the city.
The letter warned that as
the strike — resulting in total
breakdown of various essential
services pertaining to health,
education and engineering
departments — progresses fur-
ther it is likely to spread to all
over Delhi with other associations and unions joining in.
In the communiqué, dated
February 3, the Special Branch
warned that the safai karamcharis may also take any
extreme steps like self immolation to attract media/public
attention in support of their
demands.
“Any situation necessitating
use of force or any untoward
incident causing injury to any
of the striking employees or
even natural death of any of
them could further aggravate
the deteriorating situation as
such incidents will be exploited fully by them and give
everyone a rallying point to
escalate this agitation even further,” the Communiqué said.
“The continuing strike has
led to serious law and order
3T\^[XcX^]^U<X[[T]]Xd\
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aintaining that ordering demolition of
M
Millennium Bus Depot at this
juncture would not be appropriate, the Supreme Court on
Friday granted one year time
to the Delhi Government and
the DTC to get the 2021
Master Plan amended failing
which it would have to shift
the bus shelter from the
Yamuna river banks.
A bench headed by Chief
Justice TS Thakur, however,
made it clear that no further
time on any ground whatsoever would be granted on
this issue. The bench, also
comprising Justices AK Sikri
and R Banumati, said the
decision in this regard can be
deferred for some time to
await the outcome of report of
an expert committee on the
identification of floodplain.
The court said a chance
was given by the Delhi High
C our t to the Delhi
Government and DTC in
October last year to have the
Master Plan of Delhi (MPD)
2021 amended, if it was permissible in law, within six
months.
“Exercise to consider the
aforesaid aspect has not taken
place, or for some reason or
the other, whether it was
because of dispute between
L&DO and DDA on the issue
of land ownership or otherwise,” it said in its 23- page
order.
However, the development which has taken place in
recent times, particularly the
orders of the National Green
Tribunal, point to the fact that
things have started moving
and it would be known in
near future as a result of
study conducted by the
Expert Committee, whether
area in question where the
Bus Depot stands, is viable for
this purpose or not, directing
the DTC to demolish the Bus
Depot at this juncture may
not be appropriate and the
decision in this regard can be
deferred for some time to
await the outcome of the
report of the identification of
floodplain, the bench said.
The court passed the
order while disposing of separate appeals filed by the
Delhi government and DTC
against the Delhi High Court’s
October 20, 2015 order. The
high court had refused to
extend the time to the authorities to shift out the bus depot,
situated next to Nizamuddin
Bridge and behind IP Power
Station.
problem with smooth traffic
movement being severally
impacted. The strike has also
gravely impacted the general
cleanliness and hygienic conditions in the city with garbage
piling up on the streets.
Approximately 8200 metric
tonnes of garbage is generated
every day.”
To bring an end to the
strike, the city Government had
agreed to provide loan to the
civic bodies only after the L-G
had written to Chief Minister
Arvind Kejriwal and his
deputy Manish Sisodia that
the on-going crisis could lead
to law and order situation in
the city.
In his letter, Jung has stated that the Delhi Police has
now reported that the crisis
may lead to a serious law and
order situation. The L-G had
said the situation demanded an
immediate initiative. He had
requested the Government to
consider a loan to the municipal bodies on an emergency
basis.
“In the interest of maintaining peace and tranquility in
Delhi besides sanitation, peaceful resolution of issues is essential,” it said.
0__c^
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=4F34;78
he New Delhi Municipal
Council (NDMC) is coming
T
up with a mobile application to
enable people to know more
about their council areas. It
could be launched in a couple
of months.
Speaking to The Pioneer,
Chanchal Yadav, Secretary of
NDMC said, “With the use of
mobile app, residents will not
only be able to pay their electricity and water bills, but will
also be able to locate
nearby parking areas,
metro
stations,
bus stops,
hotels,
parks, ATMs,
banks, toilets, schools, hospitals,
monuments and various shopping hubs in NDMC area.”
The app will also be helpful for the tourists who visit
NDMC area for shopping and
staying at luxury hotels. They
can get the information on
their mobile phones, said the
official. All the departments of
NDMC will be listed in the app.
“It is the smart interactive
move of NDMC, to connect citizens with the council,” she
said.
ith the strike by MCD
employees entering its
tenth day, driving on the roads
of Delhi has constantly been a
nightmare for the commuters
throughout the last week.
Friday was no different and
major traffic snarls were experienced in different parts of the
city.
Severely heavy traffic was
reported on UP Link Road
from Ghazipur towards NH24, and from Dharampura
towards Gandhi Nagar, due to
demonstration by MCD workers in the afternoon, said traffic officials.
Earlier in the day, both carriageways of GT Road were
blocked due to a demonstration
by the agitated employees of the
three municipal corporations.
Similar gridlocks were also
reported from Madhuban
BC055A4?>AC4AQ =4F34;78
he Delhi Government has
decided to solicit public
T
opinion on implementation of
the proposed second phase of the
odd-even car-rationing scheme
to curb pollution by directly
reaching out to at least 10 lakh
residents through “automated
calls”, supplementing a phone
line and email address that are
already in force.
The move came a day before
‘Jan Sabhas’, organised by the ruling AAP MLAs, are to begin
across the city, which will be held
on Saturday and Sunday seeking
people’s suggestions on the
implementation of second phase
of the scheme.
“Elected MLAs will on
Saturday begin a two-day exercise to ascertain the views of the
public on whether odd-even
plan for vehicles should be
brought back on the roads of the
national Capital. The Delhi
Government had decided to
conduct a two-day exercise on
February 6-7 and concerned
SDMs and MLAs were directed
to coordinate the exercise in their
respective constituencies,” said a
statement issued by the
Government.
Starting Friday, the calls
have started being made through
Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
technology, used by telecom
companies among others, and
are giving people a number of
options on the proposed measure to choose from.
The Government has
already opened a dedicated
phone line, a website, put up
online forms and launched an
email address on a six-point
questionnaire on the carrationing measures.
“Over 10,000 online forms
have been downloaded in less
than a week, more than 8,500
email responses have been submitted and around 45,000 calls
made,” a Government official
said. The official refused to elaborate whether majority of the
BC055A4?>AC4AQ =4F34;78
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he Special Cell - the anti-terrorist unit of the Delhi Police
T
bout 21,000 Delhi
- arrested a 28-year-old man ACongress workers are getwith suspected ISIS links from ting ready to expose the “misInter State Bus Terminus (ISBT)
near Kashmiri Gate. This is the
fifth arrest made by the Special
Cell in connection with a module of the terror outfit it had
claimed to have busted last
month.
“The accused, Ibrahim
Sayyed, was arrested last night
(Thursday night) based on a tipoff from a central intelligence
agency. Sayyed is a muezzin at
Malad in Mumbai. He had
come to Delhi to meet an associate,”
said
Special
Commissioner of Police (Special
CP) Arvind Deep.
Sayeed, who is believed to
be self-radicalised, was acting as
a financier and had given Rs
50,000 to the four persons who
were arrested from Haridwar last
month. All of them were found
to have links with a former
Indian Mujahideen militant who
later went to fight for ISIS.
“He (Sayyed) was in touch
particularly with Akhlaq, one of
the four persons arrested last
month,” Deep said. Meanwhile,
police are checking his background record and a special cell
team is trying to track down his
contacts in the national Capital.
The Delhi Police had last month
arrested four persons with suspected ISIS links from Manglour
in Uttarakhand and claimed to
have unearthed a terror plot to
target the Ardh Kumbh Mela at
Haridwar, especially the trains
headed there, along with some
strategic locations in the national capital.
The suspects were identified
as Akhlaq ur-Rehman,
Mohammed
Osama,
Mohammed Azim Shah and
Mehroz.
responses are in favour of its reimplementation or against, saying a clear trend was yet to
emerge.
The first phase of the
pilot plan was rolled out on
January 1 and it stayed in
force for 15 days.
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major issue each day to high4`_X¶d2[Rj>R\V_dRjdYZd
light
how the AAP
[X]Zb]TPa
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aRcejh`f]USV`SdVcgZ_X
citizens of Delhi by not
addressing any of their press:PbW\XaX6PcT 7VScfRcj"%Rdµ5ZdZ]]fdZ`_5Rj¶
ing problems. “On February
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Chowk towards Rithala, and
from Nirman Vihar towards
ITO. Many commuters complained of getting stuck on the
roads for hours.
Due to the protests, the
traffic was thrown out of gear
in nearby areas as well. In
some places, bumper to
bumper traffic stretched for
more than a kilometer. It was
only a matter of time that long
tailbacks were witnessed on all
roads passing through ITO
intersection and IP Chowk.
Commuters complained
of long tailbacks at Vikas Marg,
Bahadur Shah Zafar Road,
Tilak Marg, Mathura Road,
Sikandra Road, Barakhamba
Road, Firoz Shah Road, Purana
Qila Road, Asaf Ali Road etc.
Ring Road, Barapullah
Elevated Road, Outer Ring
Road and DND flyway towards
Delhi also witnessed long traffic snarls.
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rule and all- round failure” of
the Aam Aadmi Party
Government, by observing
‘Chhalawa Diwas’ (Illusion
Day) on January 14, when the
Arvind Kejriwal dispensation
completes its one year in office.
On that day they are to
present flowers with a message
of how the AAP Government
failed to deliver its poll
promises.
Delhi Congress leader also
criticised
the
BJP
Government at the Centre for
not keeping up to the expec-
tations of the common man in
the national Capital. “Delhiites
gave all seven Lok Sabha seats
to BJP and 67 of the 70
Assembly seats to AAP. But
both the parties are now shying away from their responsibilities.”
Addressing the media on
Friday, Ajay Maken of the
Congress said his party would
be observing February 14 as
“Disillusion Day” (‘Chhalawa
Diwas’)
as
the AAP
Government had allegedly
failed on all fronts to fulfill any
of its promises it had made to
the electorate before the
Assembly elections.
Maken said a large number
of party workers and leaders
will take out a candlelight at
5 pm from Rajghat to India
Gate on February 14to highlight how the AAP
Government had failed to provide good governance to the
Delhiites.
The former Union
Minister said from February 8
to February 14, his party will
be raising questions on one
14, our party will come out
with a booklet highlighting all
the failures of the Kejriwal
Government.”
On the issue of the unification of the three municipal
corporations in Delhi, Maken
said he was not opposed to the
idea but made it clear that it
was not a permanent solution
to solve the ongoing crisis of
the civic agencies.
“Who is stopping the
AAP and the BJP to go for
unification of the three corporations. If they think unification is the solution, they
should sit together and get it
done through an Act of
Parliament. But they need to
find a permanent solution to
the problem.”
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people were killed and 24
four of them seri3ously,7injured,
when a Gujarat State
transport bus in which they
were travelling plunged from a
bridge into Purna river in
Navsari district of South
Gujarat on Friday, police said.
“Thirty seven people have
died in the incident, while 24
others are injured when a bus
fell from a 20 feet high bridge
on Purna river,” Navsari
Superintendent of Police M S
Bharada said.
Though police are investigating the cause of the mishap,
some survivors and eye-witnesses said the bus driver lost
control of the vehicle when it
was passing the bridge and it
hurtled down into the river
after breaking iron railings.
The SP said the condition
of four out of the 24 injured
passengers was serious.
“The injured have been
shifted to four hospitals in
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Navsari. We are also checking
the possibility of shifting those
7T[SU^a!]S\daSTa &ha^[S
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From Page 1
The juvenile had allegedly
strangulated to death a 65-yearold woman, and fled with cash,
jewellery and mobile phones.
Police traced the teen when he
switched on one of the phones
which he had allegedly stolen
from Jain.
The woman was found dead
on Monday by her son-in-law
but the police had then claimed
that it was a case of natural death.
Things took a turn when Jain’s
relatives informed police that
some jewellery, cash and expensive items, including two mobile
phones, were missing from her
residence.
On being questioned, the
teen told the police that he had
7KDW¶VWKHVSLULW
From Page 1
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targeted the woman as he needed money to participate in a popular reality dance show.
It may be noted that in
September 2015, the juvenile,
along with his girlfriend, had
allegedly abducted and murdered a 13-year-old boy for
money which he needed for participating in a popular reality
dance show, police said.
The legislation lowering the
age of the juvenile involved in
heinous crimes from 18 to 16
years was cleared by the
Parliament on December 22 last
year after a prolonged debate.
The demand for the new law had
grown following release of the
juvenile convict in the December
16, 2012 gangrape case
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who are seriously injured to
hospitals in Surat if needed,”
the officer said.
The Gujarat State Road
Transport
Corporation
(GSRTC) bus was headed
towards Ukai when the accident took place near
the village, situated around 12
kms away from the district
headquarters.
“We do not know the
exact number of people travelling in the bus, but it is said
that it was full (to capacity),”
Bharada said.
He said the agencies like
police, fire brigade, 108 ambulance services were engaged in
rescue operation at the spot.
Expressing grief over the
incident, Chief Minister
Anandiben Patel twitted,
“Deeply pained to learn about
the unfortunate bus accident
on Purna River Bridge in
Navsari. My prayers are with
victims & families”.
“I have directed Navsari
collector & concerned officials to expedite rescue &
relief ops and provide
required help to victims &
their kin,” she twitted.
:_Fefc_<VcR]RW`cSR_`_ 8=B7>AC
From Page 1
The affidavit further
quoted the head Tantri of
the Sabarimala temple: “Since
the deity is a Naisthik
Brahmachari, it is believed
that young women should
not offer worship in the temple so that even the slightest
deviation from celibacy and
austerity observed by the
deity is not caused by the
presence of women.”
Ironically, while the State
opposed the ban on women
worshipping at Sabarimala
temple, it celebrated the spirit of diversity at Sabarimala
where devotees from all religions are allowed to worship.
This character of the temple
is further revealed by the
existence of a special shrine of
Vavar Swami, who was a holy
man from Islamic faith, within the precincts of Sabarimala
shrine. “It is only after paying
obeisance before Vavar Swami
that the devotees enter the
shrine of Lord Ayyappan.”
It will be interesting to see
how the SC views the change
of hear t by the State
Government. On the earlier
date last month, the apex
Bench headed by Justice
Dipak Misra had questioned
the gender discrimination
and sought an end to such
restrictions applying the constitutional freedom available
to all citizens.
The earlier affidavit of
the State Government had
said: “It is not fair to deny a
section of women from entering Sabarimala Temple and
worship there.” The present
affidavit said that while lakhs
of women devotees visit
Sabarimala every year, yet
the restriction on women in
the menstrual age (10-50
years) is from time immemorial.
“This is in keeping with
the
unique
pratishta
sankalp of the temple. The
same is an essential and integral part of the right to practice of religion of a devotee
and comes under protection
guarantee under Article 25
and 26.”
756ZLQVRI*U+\GHUDEDGPXQLFLSDOVHDWV
><4A50A>>@Q 7H34A0103
yderabad was painted pink
H
— the official colour of ruling Telangna Rashtra Samiti as
the party swept the the Greater
Hyderabad
Municipal
Corporation elections. Putting
up a stunning performance the
TRS hit a ton winning 102 of
the 150 seats in the civic body.
It has wiped out the major
political rivals Congress (2
seats) and the TDP-BJP alliance
(4 seats) while the Muslim political party MIM (41 seats)
retained its hold over the old city.
The next Mayor of
Hyderabad will be from the TRS.
With the TRS securing a
clear majority, MIM’s strategy
of sharing the power in GHMC
through an alliance has come
to a naught. It was a disappointment for the party, which
had shared the power with the
TDP and Congress in the past
In a bitterly fought election,
which culminated in a violent
showdown during the polling
on Tuesday, TDP-BJP alliance
came third and the Congress
party was reduced to a pathet-
?`%jVRcRXV
From Page 1
It asked the Director of
Education of Delhi Government
to ensure that applications of
Economically Weaker Section
(EWS) children are accepted
online.
“The schools are also directed to accept the admission
forms by February 9 and applications already filed shall be considered,” the Bench said.
The Bench posted the matter for April 18 for further hearing. It had on February 2
observed that children or their
parents, who may be aggrieved
by the AAP Government’s decision to fix four years as the upper
age limit for nursery admission
in the city schools could
approach the court.
The court’s observation had
come when the counsel for the
D e l h i
Government
agreed
to
exempt three
children, who
had
challenged its
December 18,
2 0 1 5
notification
but sought
that
the
exemption
should not be
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\TSXP^]CAB_Pach´bfX]X]67<2T[TRcX^]bX]7hSTaPQPS^]5aXSPh
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ic fourth position with seats.
The BJP and TDP could not
retain their hold on the 13
assembly and two Lok Sabha
seats they won in 2014.
TRS which went all out all
guns blazing into an aggressive
campaign to win the State capital was in full celebration mode
as party did very well in many
taken as a “precedent for others”.
It observed that as per the
Delhi Government’s counsel,
the age bar will not apply to
three petitioners, Uday Pratap
Singh Kapoor, Samridhi Singh
and Kamakshi M Prakaash.
The court was hearing a
number of pleas by minors,
filed through their counsel Akhil
Sachar, challenging the Delhi
Government’s December 18,
2015 notification fixing the
maximum age for nursery in
private unaided schools at four
years.
As per the notification
issued by the Department of
Education, the upper age limits
for admission in pre-school,
pre-primary and class-I has
been prescribed at four years,
five years and six years respectively as on March 31 of the year
in which admission is being
sought. The nursery admission
process in Delhi schools began
from January 1 and will conclude on March 31.
On February 1, the court
had asked the AAP Government
where it got the power to fix an
upper age limit for admission.
It had also observed that the
notification, by which the upper
age limit was fixed, did not
appear to have a legal sanctity as
it was not issued by the
Lieutenant-Governor or under
any statute
parts of the city. The victory for
the Chief Minister K
Chandrasekhar Rao was especially sweet as his party was
almost non existing in
Hyderabad city and surrounding areas. With great difficulty
it had won only 3 of the 25
Assembly seats in the 2014 elections. TRS rank and file gave the
entire credit for party’s spectacular performance to KCR’s son
and minister K Taraka Rama
Rao who was the main commander of the party campaign.
Even in the Seemandhra
strongholds of LB Nagar,
Vanasthalipura, Kukatpally,
Jubilee Hills Madhapur and
Kondapur the TRS performed
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itting out indirectly at the
H
Sangh Parivar for pushing
the saffron agenda in education, NCP chief Sharad Pawar
on Friday charged that “certain
people” were making determined efforts convert India
into a “Hindu Rashtra” which
would prove to be detrimental
to the country’s interests.
Without naming either the
Sangh Parivar, Pawar launched
a frontal attack on the saffron
organisations, by alleging that
“certain people” - in their attempt
to convert India into a “Hindu
Rashtra” -- were out to “distort”
history in school text books.
After addressing historians
and intellectuals at the YB
Chavan Centre here, Pawar
debunked the efforts by “certain people” dismantle the
very secular foundation of the
country. He said that awareness needed to be created
among the youth that “certain
people” were trying to “corrupt” their minds to spread
poison in the society.
From Page 1
The 50-share NSE Nifty
after testing the 7,500-mark to
hit a high of 7,503.15, ended
85.10 points or 1.15 per cent
higher at 7,489.10.
Shares of drug major Lupin
was the top gainer among Sensex
constituents with a gain 9.04 per
cent at Rs 1,801.45 despite
reporting 11.91 per cent decline
in consolidated net profit.
Reliance Infrastructure and
other group companies surged
by as much as 7 per cent after
RInfra sold its cement business
2A?5W^]Tb
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From Page 1
However, loss of ammunition by CRPF personnel registered an upward spiral with the
paramilitary personnel losing
70 rounds of ammunition in
2015 in contrast to just 20 in
2014, 48 in 2013 and 50 in
2012. The CRPF lost one arms
in 2015 whereas the figure for
2014 was zero and three in
2013 and zero in 2012.
Recovery of arms and
ammunition by the CRPF has
well leaving the TDP-BJP
alliance disappointed.
MIM retained its hold over
its assembly seats of
Charminar, Chandrayangutta,
Malakpet,
Nampally,
Bahadurpura, Yakutpura.
As picture became clearer
jubilant crowds gathered at the
TRS headquarters Telangana
Bhavan celebrating the victory
by bursting crackers, shouting
slogans of “KCR Zindabad”
and distributing sweets.
Notable winners of the
TRS include Vijaya Reddy,
daughter of late senior
Congress leader P Jana Reddy
Prominent losers include
former Mayor Karteeka Reddy
of Congress,
In 2009 Congress had
emerged as the single larget
party by winning 53 followed
by TDP at 46, MIM at 43 and
BJP 5. TRS was non existing at
the time.
Observers say the fact that
the TRS was ruling the State
and offered a balance mix of
development and welfare to the
city populace worked in favor
of the party.
arm to Birla Corporation for Rs
4,800 crore, a deal that will help
Anil Ambani-led Group lower
its debt burden.
Overseas, Asian and
European stocks showed a
mixed trend amid reduced
expectations of further interest
rate increases from the US
Federal Reserve this year.
Japanese stocks fell by 1.32
per cent after the yen strengthened against the dollar. Key
indexes in China and Taiwan
moved down by 0.63 per cent
to 0.84 per cent while Hong
Kong, Singapore and South
Korea firmed up by 0.08 per
cent to 2.53 per cent.
also improved during the period. It recovered 66 arms and
4,818 rounds of ammunition in
2012 followed by 53 arms and
1,389 rounds of ammunition in
2013, 58 arms and 1,585
rounds of ammunition in 2014
and 59 arms and 3,326 rounds
of ammunition last year.
The paramilitary also
recovered 90 grenades, seven
bombs and one rocket and one
IED besides 10 detonators in
2015. It recovered 2.65 kg of
explosives, 46 grenades, 30
IEDs and 14 detonators in
2014.
The number of violent
incidents also reported decline
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during the period with 145
incidents in 2012, 321 in 2013
followed by 199 in 2014 and
216 in 2015. The number of
encounters also increased during the last four years with the
figure standing at 18 in 2012
followed by 14 in 2013, 21 in
2014 and 23 last year.
“The overall improvement in the security scenario
is an indication of improved
intel ligence,
ef fe c t ive
counter-terror operations by
the security forces and dwindling morale and cadre
strength of the terror groups
operating in the Valley,” a
senior official said.
&LYLFERGLHVUHMHFW*RYW¶VFDOOWRRXVWFRQWUDFWXDOZRUNHUV
From Page 1
scope of any scheme and its
liability and ensure no new
scheme is launched without
approval of the AAP Government.
The civic agencies were told to
increase their revenue through
improved Property Tax coverage
and bring more properties under
the net.
The civic agencies have also
been directed to increase their revenue from advertisements, parking lots and other remunerative
projects.
Other condition imposed on
the civic bodies is that they should
not provide any concession or
rebate in taxes, fees or charges
levied by them. They have been
directed to implement the
Municipal Valuation Committee
report in the next two months and
also apprise the city Government
of the same.
The interest rate on the loan
from the Government would be 10
per cent annually subject to
change by the Government from
time to time. The amount of
interest rate would be deducted by
the Government from the grantin-aid for the corporations for the
year 2016-17.
The new conditions imposed
on the civic agencies to provide
salaries up to January 31 is bound
to have major political implications as the three corporations are
scheduled to go to polls in 2017.
It is estimated that there are
6,000-7,000 temporary sanitation
workers in EDMC and NMC.
Besides, there are 3,400 beldars in
NMC and 2,000 in EDMC.
Political pundits in the city are
of the view that the fresh conditions are likely to have major
implications as the AAP is also
planning to contest the municipal
polls in all the 272 wards in the
city in 2017.
However, Delhi Government
officials said that there was no
change in the conditions of loan
to MCDs. “The conditions are
similar to conditions of 2014-15
when loan given to MCDs,” said
officials.
Meanwhile, in a positive
development doctors and others
working with municipal hospitals
have decided to join work from
Saturday morning.
Dr RR Gautam, president of
Municipal Corporation Doctors
Association told The Pioneer:
“We have decided to call off the
strike and resume work as our
salaries till January have been paid
and they have been promised
that they will be paid salaries till
March in a day or two”.
Also, on Friday LieutenantGovernor Najeeb Jung ensured Rs
300 crore additional loan from the
Delhi Development Authority
(DDA) to the two NMC and
EDMC. After a meeting with
three mayors, Jung’s office said an
amount of Rs 300 crore will be
given to the NMC and EDMC
from the DDA and also appealed
to the protesters to end the indefinite strike in the “interest of the
city”. The amount of Rs 300 crore
is likely to be adjusted in the
Property Tax that has to be recovered from the DDA.
On Wednesday, the Delhi
Government had announced a
financial assistance of Rs 693
crore to the civic bodies out of
which Rs 551 crore was a loan.
Despite that, the civic employees
have refused to end their ongoing
strike saying that just providing
salaries was not enough and they
were demanding their arrears and
unification of the three municipal
bodies as well as a permanent
solution to the ongoing crisis.
Delhi Congress president Ajay
Maken has strongly condemned
the AAP’s conditions on the
municipal bodies. “It was totally
unjustified to put conditions like
removal of temporary sanitation
workers and beldars, despite the
fact that the AAP had promised to
make them all permanent. The
AAP Government was putting
condition for their removal for the
sanction of the loans to the MCDs,
which was totally unjustified and
inhuman,” Maken said
◆
&+$1*(2)1$0(
◆
I, Kanak Bala Chaurasia D/o
Radha Krishan Chaurasia,
R/o 63-B, DCM Railway
colony Delhi-110006 have
changed my name after my
name after marriage to Kanak
Yadav for all purpose.
PD(7146)C
I, Sonam Kaur Daughter of
Harvindar Singh R/o D-421
Govindpuri, Kalkaji, New
Delhi. Hereby declare that my
name is mentioned in my
birth certificate as Sonam
Singh & some places/
documents as Sonam Kaur.
Sonam Singh & Sonam Kaur
is same. Please known me as
a Sonam Kaur in Future.
PD(7147)A
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?=BQ =4F34;78
ongress vice-president
Rahul Gandhi on Friday
asked Prime Minister Narendra
Modi not to make excuses
over his non-performance and
said that his party would not let
him run a Government which
acts only in the interests of
three or four industrialists.
“The job of the Prime
Minister is to run Government,
job of the Prime Minister is not
to make excuses,” Rahul said
interacting with the media.
Rahul was responding to a
question on Modi’s accusation
on Gandhi family for disruptions in Parliament.
The Congress V-P’s
remarks came when his reaction was sought over Modi pinning the blame on the Gandhi
family for disruptions in
Parliament and the charge that
they are taking revenge for
C
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New Delhi: The Supreme
Court on Friday allowed the
Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind to
become a party in a suo motu
PIL instituted to deal with various issues, including gender bias against Muslim
women, with the
organisation contending that the court
cannot test the validity of personal law.
A Bench comprising Chief Justice TS
Thakur and Justices AK Sikri
and R Banumathi, which had
issued notices to the Attorney
General and National Legal
Services Authority on the PIL,
directed the Centre and the
organisation to file reply within six weeks.
In its plea, Jamiat Ulama-iHind has contended that the
apex court cannot examine the
constitutional validity of the
practices of marriage, divorce
and maintenance in Muslim
personal law on the ground that
provisions of personal laws cannot be challenged by the reason
of fundamental rights.
PTI
defeat in Lok Sabha polls. The
Government while announcing
the Budget Session on
Thursday had indicated yet
another round of disruptions
from the Opposition on several issues.
Taking a swipe at Modi,
Rahul remarked, “All the Prime
Minister has been doing for the
last 18 months is to make
excuses as to why the economy
is not running, why the farmers are not getting their due,
why the labourers are not getting what they should get”.
“India did not choose
Narendra Modi to make excuses. India chose a Leader and the
Leader should not make excuses, the Leader should do the job
that he has been elected to do,”
he said.
Rahul, who has been alleging Modi for crony capitalism
and that he has been helping a
select industrialists, said that so
?=BQ =4F34;78
he Supreme Court on
Friday booted out
T
Congress MP Adhir Ranjan
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far Congress has been talking
about how the Modi government does not work for the
poor, workers and the farmers
but now it is “puzzling that
even industrialists are crying
before us”.
“Big industralists are coming to us and telling that Modiji
may be running the
Government for us, but he is
3ULVRQHUVGHVHUYHWREH
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New Delhi: Expressing concern over the surging numbers
of those incarcerated in prisons
across the countr y, the
Supreme court on Friday said
overcrowding of jails has gone
up even after a slew of directions to check it.
The apex court
also said there was
no
noticeable
change in the condition of prisoners
and observed that
prisoners deserve to
be treated with dignity.
“It is clear that in spite of
several orders passed by this
Court from time to time in various petitions, for one reason or
another, the issue of overcrowding in jails continues to
persist...,” a Bench of Justices MB
Lokur and RK Agrawal said.
“Has anything changed on
the ground? The prison statistics available as on December
31, 2014 from the website of
NCRB indicate that as far as
overcrowding is concerned,
there is no perceptible change
and in fact the problem of overcrowding has perhaps been
accentuated with the passage of
time,” the apex court said.
The court, which passed a
slew of directions aimed at
prison reforms, said despite
various directions and assurances by the Government, there
has been no significant change
in the condition inside jails.
“The sum and substance ...
Is that prisoners, like all human
beings, deserve to be treated
with dignity,” it said.
The social justice bench
also noted that maximum overcrowding was in the jail of
Dadra and Nagar Haveli (331.7
per cent), followed by
Chhattisgarh (258.9 per cent)
and Delhi (221.6 per cent).
The court issued notice to
the Ministry of Women and
Child Development and
directed it to prepare a prison
manual after taking into consideration the condition of
juveniles who are in
Observation Homes.
On June 13, 2013 former
Chief Justice of India R C
Lahoti, had written a letter to
Chief Justice of India relating to
the inhuman conditions in 1382
prisons in India which was
reported in a newspaper. PTI
%-3KHDGTXDUWHUV JHWV
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344?0::D?A4C8Q =4F34;78
he ruling BJP has now both
‘good food’ and ‘food for
T
thought’ as it has a swanky new
library standing in leafy surrounding across a freshly done
canteen in the party headquarters.
The library, housed in the
single storey building, the latest of party’s acquisition and the
first in the knowledge sphere, is
meant for those party workers
or leaders who care for ‘Gyan
arjan’ and willing to tickle their
grey cells after having their fill
in the modern food court.
Interestingly, the BJP’s
library seems to engage the
Left-wing thought too with
rotating wire magazine racks
displaying Left publications
along with the magazines affiliated with the party.
Right-wing publications
like Panchjanya, Organiser and
kamal sandesh are giving company to the Left ideological
New Age, Lok Lahar and Mukti
Sangharsh.
A short flight of steps leads
one to the library hall as
famous and inspirational
quotes of Swami Vivekananda
could be read on the side wall.
“This is a time of globalisation and communication
should be with the content. The
library would provide BJP
workers to study and gain
information about the party,
country and the society,” said
BJP general secretary and headquarters in-charge Arun Singh.
The library is not open to
“outsiders” and entry to it
would be through a pass, the
BJP leader pointed out.
A fresh set of 10 volumes
on Veer Savarkar adorns the
shelf of the library along with
the complete works of Swami
Vivekananad.
The digital section the
library has, so far, 2000 e-books
with more being uploaded.
The range of books is dominantly in line with the BJP’s ideology of ‘Rashtravad’. Besides
Savarkar, books like ‘AurobindoAutobiographical Notes’ and
those relating to BR Ambedkar
have also been acquired.
In a pointer to the futuristic role of the library in pro-
viding reference material to
researchers, books on constituent assembly debates and
history of the BJP are available
in the library room which has
a modern setting with a pleasant view from the window.
The walls of the library
have a number of quotes from
many historical personalities,
writers and poets. “Learn well
what should be learnt and then
live your learning,” says a quote
from ancient Tirukkural of
Sangam Literature, authored by
famed Tamil poet Thiruvalluvar.
In the modern context,
Prime Minister Narendra
Modi’s message in reference to
the digital library too is on display. “We are a nation of mouse
charmers . Every young person
in India uses a mouse on the
computer,” speaks Modi.
Asked about the budget for
the library and new purchases,
Singh quips : “Knowledge has
no budget.” With the twosome shining facilities -canteen
and library-in place, BJP workers and leaders should now not
be having any gastronomical or
cerebral complaints.
not able to do our work. So
Modiji will certainly give excuses”, he said. He said this
Government “acts only in the
interest of three or four of their
crony capitalist friends”.
Earlier in the day, Rahul
held a meeting with the State
Presidents on the issue of
implementation of MGNREGA which completed 10 years
78C0=3AD=20B4
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New Delhi: Bollywood superstar Salman Khan was drunk and
driving his SUV when it ran over
persons sleeping on a pavement
in Mumbai in 2002, Maharashtra
Government on Friday told the
Supreme Court while seeking
reversal of the Bombay High
Court verdict acquitting him.
Terming the HC verdict as
“perverse”, “improper” and
“complete travesty of justice”,
Attorney General Mukul
Rohatgi, appearing for the State,
said that Khan was driving the
vehicle and “introduction” of his
driver as the person, who was
behind the wheels, was an “afterthought” that came to light after
13 years of the incident. The
bench comprising Justices J S
Khehar and C Nagappan, however, on Friday did not issue
notice to the actor and fixed
Maharashtra’s plea for further
hearing on February 12 as it
wanted to satisfy itself on the
aspect as to who was driving the
vehicle on the fateful night. PTI
this month. “They spoke about
how BJP CMs, Modiji and RSS
are disturbing and bypassing
programmes like MGNREGA
and Forest Rights Act in different states”, he said, adding
that the PCC chiefs also
informed him of how the BJP
was not taking forward policies
and programmes that the
Congress started for the poor.
Chowdhury’s request to stay
put in his Government bungalow and sent out a loud message that it will not tolerate the
“malpractice” of elected representatives overstaying in
Government accommodation.
It was the end of the road
for Chowdhury, for whom it
became an embarrassment
after his plea to continue occupation of his Type-8 bungalow
situated at 14, New Moti Bagh
complex was rejected first by
the Delhi High Court and
now the Supreme Court.
Coming down harshly on
the elected representative of
the Congress, the Bench of
Chief Justice TS Thakur, Justices
AK Sikri and R Banumathi
said, “There is something called
propriety. You have already
overstayed for nearly two years
in the house to which you have
no entitlement. Show some
respect.”
Advocate Bijan Ghosh
who appeared for the aggrieved parliamentarian argued
that the Government was acting vindictive towards his
client to settle political scores.
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He cited the fact that electricity and water connection to the
house had been snapped. “A
person has some basic human
rights and the Government
must respect it.”
The bench failed to understand how the MP could continue in occupation in a
bungalow to which he was
not entitled to. Chowdhaury,
a
four-time
MP
from Murshidabad, West
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?=BQ =4F34;78
s search and rescue operA
ations were on for the
third day despite bad weather
on Friday at Siachen, the Army
released the names of 10 soldiers of Madras Regiment who
were missing after an ice wall
collapsed on their post on the
Northern
Glacier
on
Wednesday.
The list of the soldiers
?=BQ =4F34;7838D
ome Minister Rajnath
H
Singh on Friday reviewed
the security along the coast in
Daman and Diu and asked the
authorities to ensure further
enhancement of the protection
of seas off the Union Territory.
“Rajnath Singh reviewed
the Coastal Security apparatus,
a Coastal Police station and an
operational detachment in the
UT Of Daman & Diu during his
visit. The coasts are guarded by
the four coastal boats and foot
patrol and one Coastal Police
Jetty at Daman is already operational. Construction of jetty at
Diu is in advanced stage. The
Home Minister inaugurated new
Coastal Police station at Diu and
construction of another one is in
advanced stage in Daman,” said
MHA in a statement.
The Home Minister inau-
gurated a newly- constructed 60bedded district hospital with
different speciality services built
at a cost of C27 crore. The Home
Minister said he would ask the
Civil Aviation Minister to launch
air connectivity on the
Ahmadabad-Diu sector at the
earliest and will also urge the
Shipping Minister to start
Catamaran services between
Mumbai, Daman and Diu for
improving the sea connectivity.
2?F3c^VT]TaPcT#!$<Fb^[Pa_^fTaQhBT_c
?=BQ =4F34;78
y September, several
Government buildings
B
across the country will be solar
energy efficient with the
Central Public Works
Departments (CPWD) setting
up rooftop solar panels on
them besides replacing conventional electrical fittings.
The environment-friendly
move will help the CPWD to
generate 42.50 MW of solar
energy across the country by
September and in a total saving of C115 crore per year.
Efforts of CPWD in this
regard and the consequent
gains in terms of saving in energy consumption were reviewed
Bengal was allotted the bungalow when he became the
Minister of State for Railways
in the earlier UPA regime in
2012. But since the new regime
came in 2014, Chowdhury
continued in possession for
about two years.
Chowdhur y’s lawyer
pointed out that he was paying the rent and awaiting a
decision for his request of a
suitable alternate arrangement.
But the bench was not
impressed. It said, “You must
vacate immediately and find
an alternate accommodation.
You cannot grab this house
and paying the house rent
cannot be a consideration to
permit you to illegally occupy
the house.”
With the writing on the
wall
getting
clear,
Chowdhury’s counsel referred
to the practice prevailing in
Lutyens Delhi where several
elected representatives are
overstaying in their bungalows
without being evicted. The
bench said, “It is a malpractice
that elected representatives
are overstaying in Government
bungalows. You have no legal
right to stay in a house to
which you are not entitled.”
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on Friday by Madhusudhan
Prasad, Secretary (Urban
Development).
The CPWD earlier signed
a pact with Solar Energy
Corporation of India (SECI) for
installation of grid connected
rooftop Solar Photo Voltaic
panels in all Government
buildings maintained by
CPWD across the country for
generation of solar power.
Consequently, SECI awarded
works to 14 bidders for undertaking works in 16 States, said
a senior UD Ministry official.
Ten MW of solar power will
be generated by May 2016 in
Phase-I covering Delhi (3 MW),
Uttar Pradesh (2 MW), NorthEast and UTs(2 MW) and 1
MW each in Andhra Pradesh,
Karnataka and Maharashtra.
In Delhi, Solar panels have
already been installed for a total
capacity of 1.50 MW over six
government buildings Nirman
Bhawan, Shastri Bhawan, East
Block and Sewa Bhawan (RK
Puram), Pushpa Bhawan near
Sheik Sarai and CGO Complex,
Lodhi Road.
In Delhi, a total of 16,613
LED lamps have so far been
installed in 261 of 268 government bungalows and 408 of 546
flats of MPs. The remaining
will be done so during the
Budget session of Parliament,
said the official.
During the last three
months, a total of 2,86,100
units of power has been generated from these installations
resulting in a saving of C11.50
lakhs in energy cost.
Prasad also directed the
CPWD and SECI to ensure net
metering at all the 200 buildings in the country to ensure
proper monitoring of net energy
consumption
by
Government buildings.
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include Subedar Nagesha TT,
Karnataka, Havildar Elumalai
M, Tamil Nadu, Lance Havildar
S Kumar, Tamil Nadu, Lance
Naik Sudheesh B, Kerala, Lance
Naik Hanamanthappa Koppad,
Karnataka, Sepoy Mahesha PN,
Karnataka, Sepoy Ganesan G,
Tamil Nadu, Sepoy Rama
Moorthy N, Tamil Nadu, Sepoy
Mustaq Ahmed S, Andhra
Pradesh and Sepoy Nursing
Assistant Suryawanshi SV,
Maharashtra.
Meanwhile, Army Chief
General Dalbir Singh Suhag
ordered deployment of additional resources including
radars to reinforce rescue
efforts at a height of more than
19,600 feet, officials said here.
Rescue teams were using ice
cutters and pneumatic
machines to break chunks of
ice which fell on the post.
However, no missing soldier
was traced to far, they said
chances of finding any survivors were remote.
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et another ruling party
MLA caused embarrassment to the JD(U), when his
video showing him dancing
with bar girls, with vulgar
Bhojpuri songs played in the
background, went viral on
social media. Shyam Bahadur
Singh, second term MLA from
Barharia in Siwan district is a
serial dirty dancer. On earlier
occasions too he was caught in
vulgar dance and indulging in
lewd acts with bar girls hit the
social media. But the 50-years
old lanky, unshaven lawmaker
had no remorse even though he
was once reprimanded by Chief
Minister Nitish Kumar.
In the recent video clipping, supposed to be shot in a
wedding function in Siwan,
Singh, in a drunken state, is
seen gyrating with two skimpily dressed bar girls and making
vulgar gestures. The bar girls,
who are usually brought to
marriage functions to entertain
the people, are also supposed to
taking pleasure in shaking legs
and performing ‘thumkas’
Y
(dance steps) by gently hitting
the MLA with their body parts.
During the last few years
Singh, who also has a habit of
jumbo riding, was caught in
such acts on camera. In 2010 a
local TV channel aired footage
of Singh dancing with bar girls.
Then again in 2012 yet another footage was aired in which
he was making similar gestures
towards bar girls at a marriage
function. In August 2015, the
MLA, who is married and
father of three, was seen dancing with girls on the tune of
Bhojpuri songs.
Every time Singh apologised for his acts but indulged
in the same act again and
again. Once he pleaded he did
it due to hangover of Holi.
Once on the eve of a JD(U)
rally in Patna, Singh at his official residence organised a night
long orchestra in which bar
girls had been brought. The
airing of this footage had
angered Nitish who publicly
chided him and the MLA apologised with promise not to
repeat his ‘mistake’.
However, the strange
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aspect is that the JD(U) never
thought of taking any action
against its serial dirty dancer
MLA. When asked JD(U)
spokesman Neeraj Kumar felt
sorry and said, “I will only
request the God to forgive him
because he does not even know
what sin he is committing
again and again.”
With younger brother an
MLA, Singh’s elder brother
Thakur Amarjeet Singh in May
last shot at a panchayat head
along with two others and left
them injured for no reason.
Recently, embarrassment
was heaped on the JD(U) by
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some of its MLAs who
indulged in illegal and immoral
activities like freeing a criminal
from police custody and misbehaving with a lade passenger
in train. Party has suspended
Jokihat MLA Sarfaraz Ahmad
who was accused of misbehaving with a woman passenger in Rajdhani Express but did
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not take any action against its
Rupauli MLA and former
Minister Bima Bharti who
allegedly freed her gangster
husband from a police station
misusing her position.
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New Delhi: The meeting of
Genetic Engineering &
Appraisal Committee (GEAC)
under Environment Ministry
held on Friday to discuss on
the issue of commercial cultivation of GM mustard in the
country did not arrive at any
decision.
Ministry has not yet made
any decision on whether to
allow commercial cultivation of
what could be its first geneti-
cally modified food crop, mustard, said Environment
Minister Prakash Javadekar
shortly after the meeting. “The
process is on,” said Javadekar.
The meeting is the third of its
kind to evaluate field trial data
on GM mustard.
Meanwhile, activists and
farmers staged dharna outside
the Ministry under the banner
‘Sarson Satyagrah’, also submitted a petition to Union
0BB0D;C>=C0=I0=80=F><0=
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engaluru police on Friday
arrested four more persons
for assaulting a Tanzanian
architecture lady student and
suspended two policemen for
not acting to prevent the assault
despite being present at the
venue. So far nine persons have
been arrested in this case and
search is on for more culprits by
the Karnataka police which
has now got into damage control mode. On Friday, the
Tanzanian High Commissioner
John WH Kijazi, along with
officers from Ministry of
External Affairs (MEA), met
the victim and spoke to other
African students about the
problems they face in the city.
“The lady said there were
four people in the car, other
friends said there were five. We
are verifying how many were
there actually. She also said in her
statement that there were policemen at the spot of assault. Two
constables have been suspended;
some more action will be taken,”
B
D=8>=;0F<8=8BC4A
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E8B8C43C7450<8;H
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Bengaluru Police Commissioner
NS Megharikh said.
Karnataka Government
has assured the Tanzanian
envoy and the team from MEA
that the State Government
would take all necessary steps
to prevent any recurrences of
such events in future. Home
Minister G Parameshwara told
the media after the meeting
with the Tanzanian envoy WH
Kijazi and a team from the
MEA that the incident was
unfortunate but given assurance that it such incidents
would not recur.
He said he had also reassured them that such incidents would not recur. "And we
have also explained the long-
term action plan to them considering the foreign students,
particularly the African students, about their safety, peaceful co-existence along with the
community and they are convinced about it."
Asked about the overstay of
foreign students, he said he had
asked officials to make verifications in that regard. "We
will keep in touch with MEA
and respective consulates and
instituitions and inform them
and take necessary steps."
Meanwhile, Union Law
Minister Sadananda Gowda
asked
the
Karnataka
Government to form a special
squad to keep a watch on foreign students, in the wake of
the Sunday incident.
Attacking the Congressled State Government for not
acting on locals' complaint
regarding the "wrong" behaviour of certain foreign students, he sought Central
Government's intervention to
find the truth about the assault.
He also said that innocent
people should not be arrested
as was being alleged by
the locals.
Environment Minister Prakash
Javadekar
asking
the
Government not to go ahead
with its plan to commercialise
GM Mustard.
The Environment Ministry
has received a proposal for
commercial cultivation of a
GM hybrid variety of the mustard plant developed by the
university’s Centre for Genetic
Manipulation of Crop Plants
(CGMCP).
PNS
?T^_[Tb3T\^RaPcXR?Pach_aTbXST]c<TWQ^^QP<dUcXfXcWQa^cWTaBhTSCPbPSd`
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?=BQ =4F34;78
ormer Union Minister
Anand Sharma on Friday
F
alleged that revelations about
huge allotment of land to a
company run by business associates of Gujarat Chief Minister
Anandiben Patel’s daughter
makes it clear that during his
tenure as CM, Narendra Modi,
who is now Prime Minister,
allowed nepotism, conflict of
interest and brazen plundering
of public land to promote
commercial and business interests of entities closely connected to the kin of the then
Revenue Minister.
Sharma has demanded an
independent probe by a
Special Investigation Team
(SIT) over reported land allotment to a company run by
business associates of
Anandiben’s daughter, Anar
Jayesh Patel and thereafter
also sought resignation of
Gujarat CM from her post.
“Under PM Modi’s watch
when he was Gujarat CM,
nepotism flourished and public land was plundered to promote commercial and business. For fair probe, it is necessary that then revenue minister and current Gujarat CM
Anandiben Patel resign from
her post. 250 acres of land near
Gir lion sanctuary was given
for C60000/acre whereas then
notified value of land was C50
lakh/acre,” Sharma claimed at
AICC briefing.
?a^QTPVPX]bceXVX[P]RTB?
EA90H0A09Q :>278
n a new twist to Kerala’s infamous bar
bribery scam, the Congress-led UDF
IGovernment
on Friday ordered a probe by the
Crime Branch of the State police against
Superintendent of Police (Vigilance) R Sukesan
who had investigated the scandal which has
pushed the Government into a deep crisis.
Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala gave
his nod for the probe on the basis of a report
submitted by Additional DGP N Shankar
Reddy, Director of the Vigilance and AntiCorruption Bureau (VACB) which said that
Sukesan might have entered into a conspiracy with whistleblower Biju Ramesh to implicate Ministers in the bar bribery scam.
As per the allegation, a CD containing
voice recordings
which Biju had submitted along with
some other statements regarding the
scam to a Magistrate had also contained talks
between him and Sukesan. The Vigilance
Director’s report to the Home Minister said a
conspiracy could be suspected on the basis of
these discussions.
‘It should be suspected that this probe is
part of a conspiracy between the Vigilance
Director and the office of Home Minister
Chennithala (head of the Congress’s ‘I’ group),”
said Biju Ramesh. “It is also part of a conspiracy to trap me in a criminal case after
I disclosed the names of more Ministers
(of the ‘I’ group) who had taken bribe,” he
added.
Biju had
first accused
KeralaCongress (M) chairman KM Mani of
taking C1-crore bribe from bar owners. Mani
resigned as Finance minister on November 10.
Sukesan, who investigated the charge against
Mani, said in his factual report that there were
evidences to prosecute him but in the report
of a further probe he exonerated him.
The whistleblower, who is also the working president of the Kerala bar Hotels’
Association, later alleged that Excise Minister
K Babu, close confidant of Chief Minister
Chandy, had taken C10 crore from bar owners. Babu resigned on January 23 following an
adverse court order over this but withdrew his
resignation a week later at the insistence of the
Chief Minister.
As per the latest disclosures by Biju
Ramesh, Home Minister Chennithala had
taken C2 crore
from the bar
owners when
he was the
State Congress
president and Health Minister VS
Sivakumar, belonging to the Congress’s ‘I’
group, had accepted C25 lakh from them. It is
said that it is this charge which had
allegedly irked the Vigilance and the Home
Department.
Legal experts point out that the Vigilance
and the Government had till now been arguing that the CD and its contents could not be
taken as evidences and the Vigilance itself had
got legal advice to this effect. The irony, according to them, is that it is the recordings on the
same CD which have formed the basis of the
probe against Sukesan.
It is said that the voice recordings on the
CD Biju had given to the Magistrate had shown
that he and Sukesan had been acquaintances
for a long time. It is alleged
that Sukesan had asked Biju to
raise allegations of bribery
against four Ministers.
Sukesan is also accused of
prompting Biju Ramesh to
raise this allegation through
the media.
“They have been trying
very hard to trap me in a criminal case. I can’t understand
the logic of basing their case
on a particular section – which
they say there is – of recordings on the CD when they are
not prepared to accept the
remaining part. I challenge
them to release the contents of
the CD through the media,”
Biju said.
32C3C:36CJD42>
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nder severe flak from varU
ious quarters over the controversial allotment of 2,000 sq
meter flat to actress-turnedpolitician Hema Malini at a
“throw-away” price, the BJP-led
Maharashtra Government has
made up its mind to revoke a
Government Resolution (GR)
issued in 1983 that enabled
allotment of land and subsidised rate for cultural and
educational purposes.
Official sources said here
on Friday that after revoking
the 1983 GR, the State
Government planned to come
out with a new set of fresh lease
rules to ensure higher rates on
allotment of State-owned plots.
In Maharashtra, as per the
1983 resolution, the State
Government has been allotting
land for educational and cultural purposes at 25 per cent of
rate prevalent in 1976.
Confirming
his
Government’s plans to have a
relook at the 1983 GR,
Maharashtra Chief Minister
Devendra Fadnavis stated in a
message sent to RTI activist Anil
Galgali that the State
Government would annul the
GR and “come out with new policy based on new market rate”.
Fadnavis told Galgali that
his Government would take a
formal decision at the next
week’s State Cabinet meeting.
Fadnavis’ brief communication to Galgali came in response
to a letter that the latter had written to the Chief Minister.
Galgali, who exposed the
allotment of land to Hema
Malini at a nominal rate, had
demanded changes in the 1983
land lease policy. He had told
the Chief Minister that owing
to this policy, the State
Government was losing considerable revenue. He said that
because of all such types of
:WPSXc^UTPcdaT
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?=BQ 7H34A010334;78
hadi will also feature as part of the International Fleet
Review programme which began in the Bay of Bengal
K
off the Vishakhapatnam on Friday. This is the first time
allotments in the past has
resulted in several crores of
rupees to the State exchequer
by crores during the 35 years.
Sources said that the Chief
Minister had asked the urban
development and revenue
department officials to prepare
a new lease policy for allotment
of land for cultural and education purposes at “ready reckoner” rates than the one that is
prevailing now.
The new land lease policy
would to a large extent put an
end to the practice of doling out
largesse to prominent personalities from cultural and educational fields at nominal rates.
Though the State Govt has
decided in principle to revoke
the 1983 GR under which
Hema Malini was granted
2,000 sq meter land at Ambivali
in Andheri, it is not clear yet as
to at what rates that the State
Government would allot the
land to the yesteryear actress.
Earlier, it had come to light
through a reply to an RTI query
raised by Galgali that the state
government had allotted allotted 2,000 sq meters of land at the
rate of C35 per square meter —
which meant that the actress was
to get the prime piece of land at
a throwaway price of C70,000.
On her part, Hema Malini
said here on Monday that she
was not grabbing any land as
was being made out and that
she would abide by all rules and
make necessary payment for
the acquisition of the plot.
“I am not grabbing any
land. I do not know why people are writing things like land
grabbing etc.. I have struggled
for getting this land. It is my
right to have this place. I have
been asking for it for the last 20
years. Everybody was keen to
give it me, but somehow it had
not happened. I will follow
whatever the laid down procedure for acquiring the land,”
Malini had said.
“I have not paid anything
as of now. I will follow all the
rules and regulations of the
government. Why speculate
the price when I don’t know
myself how much I have to
pay? Whatever will be the cost
I will pay it,” she had said.
Malini addressed the news
conference in the wake of an allegation made by the Opposition
Congress that the BJP-led saffron
alliance Government had allotted the land at a throwaway price
of C70,000.
The actress had also said:
“My main concentration would
be on Bharatanatyam, Odasi
and Kathak. I will give importance to all forms of classical
dances. As far as teaching
dances to actresses in Bollywood, I have not thought of
anything. May be one class a
week... But, it is my dream to
teach classic dances to
everyone”.
The actress has been allotted 2,000 square metres land for
setting up her dance institute.
Besides this, she has to develop a garden on the remaining
27,000 square metres land at
Ambivali in Andheri.
“I am getting 2,000 square
metres land for building dance
institute — Natyavihar Kalakendra Charity Trust,” she said.
The actress said that apart
from setting up the dancing
academy, she also had to create
a garden there and hand it over
to the Mumbai civic body. “The
garden is besides creating the
dance academy... So it is like a
white elephant for me,” she said.
Countering the Congress’
allegation that the BJP-led
Government had flouted rules
to allot land to Malini, Revenue
Minister Eknath Khadse had
said last week: “The state government has not violated any
rules in the allotment of land
to Hema Malini”.
CYdaeYUd_b\UQfU7efdU\\c?``
EA90H0A09Q :>278
istory was created in the
H
Kerala Assembly on Friday
when Governor P Sathasivam
asked the members of the
CPI(M)-led Opposition LDF to
khadi is featuring in an international fleet review “sit quiet or leave the House” as
they tried to disrupt his policy
programme.
Hosted by Indian Navy, the programme is a presti- address on the first day of the
gious event attended by Navies of countries from different Budget session. The Opposition
parts of the world. This time as many as 50 countries are boycotted the policy address.
Justice Sathasivam took both
participating in the event.
Congress-led
UDF
Being the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, the
the President of India, conducts the review... This review Government and the Opposition
is aimed at assuring the country of the Indian Navy’s pre- off their guard when the Left
members began their bid to dis- >__^bXcX^]<;0b[TSQhEB0RWdcWP]P]SP]bcPVTPbXcX]_a^cTbc^dcbXSTcWT:TaP[P;TVXb[PcXeT0bbT\Q[h^]cWT^_T]X]VSPh^UcWT
paredness, high morale and discipline.
?C8
Apart from the President, Prime Minister, several rupt the policy speech by shout- 1dSVTcBTbbX^]X]CWXadeP]P]cWP_daP\^]5aXSPh
Cabinet Ministers, and Chief Ministers are participating ing slogans demanding resignain the programme along with all the Chiefs of all the tion of the Cabinet of Chief like ‘Resign, Resign Oommen to cut short the address and Achuthanandan said the
Minister Oommen Chandy Chandy’, the Governor said, place it on the table, an act by Opposition had not shown any
armed forces and other dignitaries.
disrespect to the Governor. “We
The Khadi and Village Industries Commission has which is facing serious charges of “Beyond this nobody can tolerate. which it was taken as read.
When some Opposition have nothing against the Governor.
put up a stall as part of the mega fete that was organised corruption over the infamous I think there is a limit. I have to do
my Constitutional duty. I am members asked Sathasivam to We respect him. Our protest is
today evening as part of the celebrations. The ‘Khadi India’ solar and bar bribery scams.
“You have raised your point,” aware that your protest is not table the speech instead of read- against this Government of chamoutlet featured some of the best Khadi products produced
Sathasivam told Opposition against me but against the ing it out in entirety, he said, “I pions of corruption,” he said.
by artisans from different parts of the country.
Governor Sathasivam took
There will be live demonstration of manufacturing Leader VS Achuthanandan after Government. Entire nation is have full energy. I will read slowof Ponduru Khadi at the stall.
he made a statement on the cor- watching you. People are watching ly. This is my Constitutional duty. more than two-and-a-half hours
Please read the Constitution. You to complete his address in which
KVIC Chairman, VK Saxena, said that the event was ruption charges against the your objections.”
Sources in the Assembly and have raised your democratic he described the past five years of
a proud moment for the organisation since it would help Government and requested the
take the Khadibrand to the global arena. In another major Governor to take note of this. “You senior journalists who have been protest. You are opposing this the UDF rule as Kerala’s golden
step to promote khadi, the KVIC has persuaded Postal have to communicate it to the covering the House proceedings Government. That is enough. I era. “For Kerala, the last five
years were a golden age of oppordepartment in Uttarakhand to go the Khadi way for the people. (But) you have to allow me for several decades said this was am noting all your objections.”
Later, the Opposition walked tunities. It was an age when
uniform for its postmen and postwomen and other staff to do my Constitutional duty. the first time in the history of the
in the entire State. The Department placed an order with Either you sit quiet or you are free State Assembly a Governor had out of the House accepting the dreams came true,” he said enuspoken like this to the advice of the Governor and sat on merating the development prothe KVIC last week for supply of Khadi cotton and woolen leave the House,” he said.
the
Congress-led
When the Leftist MLAs per- Opposition. During similar occa- a dharna outside raising slogans jects
materials for shirting and coating as also jerseys for both
men and women. In addition, the order also provides for sisted in their protests with slogans sions in the past, Governors used against the Government. Government had initiated.
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><4A50A>>@Q 7H34A0103
he National Green
T
Tribunal (NGT) issued
notices to Ministries of Health
irlampudi village in East
K
Godavari district was turned
in to a fortress deploying 2,000
police and paramilitary personnel as former Minister
Mudragada Padmanabahm
along with wife Padmavathi
went on fast unto death at his
home demanding backward
class status to his Kapu caste.
Police surrounded the
entire village and no outsider
was being allowed to enter the
place or go near the residence
of Mudragada as the leader and
the women folk of his family
started their fast at 9 am.
Drumming of the steel plates
by the family members marked
the start of the fast.
A medical team led by Dr
B Srinivas examined the health
condition of the couple and
said that all the parameters
were normal.
Mudragada said that he
will not end the fast till the government accepts his major
demands of inclusion of Kapus
in the BCs list and release of Rs
2000 crore to the Kapu Welfare
Corporation. He also demanded probe by the Central Bureau
of Investigation in to the violent incidents in Tuni town on
Sunday in which a Express
Train, a police station and 25
vehicles were gutted and 19
people were injured.
Superintedent of police
Ravi Prakash who was camping in Kirlampudi village said
that no outside will be allowed
in to the village to maintain law
and order.
Several prominent Kapu
leaders including former minister Vatti Vasantha Kumar, K
Mohan Rao and former MLA
Gandhi Mohan visited
Mudragada family.
Mudragada urged his supporters and the Kapu community members not to come to
his residence but hold peaceful demonstrations at their
own place.
?=BQ =4F34;78
and
Family
Welfare,
Environment & Forests and
others on Friday based on a
demand to ban mercury-based
equipments in hospitals to
prevent spillage of the metal
which causes major diseases.
The green bench has sought
their replies within two weeks
on the issue.
The bench was hearing a
plea by lawyer Suryajyoti Singh
Paul, who approached the
panel against failure in management of bio-medical waste
containing mercury in various
parts of the country. Paul
referred to the Kodaikanal
mercury poisoning case where
Hindustan Unilever was
accused of contaminating a
lake in the process of making
thermometers, which subsequently led to the closure of the
factory in 2001.The matter is
listed for next hearing on
March 17.
In another hearing, the
green bench directed Central
Pollution Control Board
(CPCB) on Friday to submit
within a week the inspection
report on the waste-to-energy
and thermal power plants in
the capital, in a bid to address
the growing waste management problem.
A bench headed by NGT
Chairperson Justice Swatanter
Kumar expressed concern over
delay in operationalisation of
these plants and directed the
high-powered team constituted by it to submit the report
expeditiously.
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nfazed by the mega secuU
rity measures being taken
by the Election Commission of
India Trinamool Congress
leaders have dared the poll
panel to “try and defeat
Mamata Banerjee if you can.”
On whether his party
would be able to repeat the
2014 feat against a determined
effort of the ECI to ensure free
and fare elections Birbhum
district Trinamool president
Anubrata Mandal said “earlier
also such preparations were
taken but finally we blunted
everything and won 34 parliamentary seats. It will be an
action replay this time.”
Mandal a blue-eyed boy of
the Chief Minister for his
“excellent” organisational
prowess has a number of cases
registered against him including the ones asking his party
men in public to torch
Opposition houses and bomb
police vehicles if they intervene.
“We will win because the
people are with Mamata
Banerjee, we will win because
our men are with us and we
will win because we have bettered the art of conducting
polls taught by the CPI(M)” he
had earlier said.
Taking lessons from previous experiences, the ECI is
making unprecedented security arrangements this time relying almost entirely on the
Central forces which will be
mobilised in the State in record
numbers, sources say.
Accordingly Bengal is likely to get about 75,000 CPF personnel in place of 62,000
deployed in 2014. Similarly
the strength of State police is
also likely to be upped to about
26,000 from 22,000 used during parliamentary polls. They
will be used only to man the
outermost ring of the security
system, sources said.
This means each booth
will get about four armed CPF
men. This apart they are likely to be used for area-domination from weeks in advance so
as to instill confidence among
the voters to come out and
exercise their franchise.
Deploying them in advance
will also ensure that the CPF
gets an early impression of the
local geographical map so that
they do not have to rely on the
local police men to guide them
to the areas of unrest if it
happens.
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akistan’s Prime Minister
Nawaz Sharif did not air
something unimaginable when he said
recently that the
Pathankot attack of January 2 disturbed the peace process between
India and Pakistan that was moving in the right direction. That
significant sections in Pakistan’s
Army and rogue spy service, the
Inter-Ser vices Intelligence
Directorate, would do anything to
scuttle any peace effort between
the two neighbours promising
success, is no secret. Any doubt
that the Pathankot attack bears
their imprimatur has been demolished by reports that Pakistan
would seek more evidence from
India to carry its investigation
into the incident forward. Clearly,
a replay of the fraudulent investigations into the 26/11 attack,
where the ploy has been shamelessly used, is under way.
The fact is that, in the last
analysis, it is the Army that calls
the shots in Pakistan. Any Prime
Minister, who seeks to pursue a
course disapproved by it, ends in
the wilderness. The reasons for its
refusal to countenance the
prospect of peace with India are
no secret. First, peace will undermine its claim of being the protector of Pakistan’s safety against
India’s ‘designs’, which has been its
rationale for its stranglehold on
the country’s political life. The
loss of this stranglehold may, in
turn, eventually put at risk,
among other things, the huge
financial empire it has built up, an
empire whose dimensions have
been revealed in detail in Ms
Ayesha Siddiqa’s Military Inc.:
Inside Pakistan’s Military
Economy. This empire, as she
shows, is run not in the country’s
interest but for the personal benefit of members of its officers’
cadre, particularly those in the
higher echelons, and to expand
their hold over the country’s
political system.
The second reason is the
Pakistani military’s bitter and
relentless hostility toward India,
primarily as a result of the reverses it suffered in the 1947-48
Kashmir War, the wars in 1965
and 1971 and the Kargil War of
1999. It is particularly obsessed
with avenging its comprehensive
defeat at this country’s hands in
1971 as the final denouement of
Bangladesh’s liberation struggle.
The question arises: Why then
hold talks? Those favouring a dialogue will argue that it may further
show to the international community New Delhi’s commitment to
P
seeking peace with its belligerent
neighbour despite the latter’s continuing provocations. Second,
detailed and persuasive presentation of evidence during the talks
of Islamabad’s involvement in
cross-border terrorism against
India will have an impact on
Pakistan’s public opinion and help
in building up a demand for
peace. Third, it may one day lead
to a situation where the country’s
civilian leadership may be able to
convince the uniformed services of
the need to bury the hatchet in
Islamabad’s own interest, particularly if countries like the United
States and China join in the
process, and if a civil war unleashed
by Islamist fundamentalists forces
it to abandon its confrontation with
India to concentrate solely on
fighting the domestic menace.
None of the reasons is particularly convincing. The international community has had
enough evidence of Pakistan’s
complicity in terror strikes against
India, particularly in dastardly
attacks like the one that began on
26/11/2008 and the most recent
outrage at Pathankot. Yet that has
not stanched the flow of aid,
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and/or military supplies, to
Pakistan. The United States has
continued to pour money knowing full well that the bulk of it is
being used to buy weapons for
use against India and not the
Pakistani Taliban. The unvarnished reality, repeatedly underlined in history, is that countries
will pursue their own interests.
They will not protect the meek
from being trampled upon nor
act against the guilty unless it
benefits them to do so. Recall, for
a moment, the disgraceful betrayal of Czechoslovakia to Nazi
Germany in the Munich
Agreement of September 1938.
As for public opinion, the
surge in the number and militancy of Islamist fundamentalists in
Pakistan makes the chances of
voices of sanity being heard
increasingly slim. The assassinations of Pakistani Punjab’s Home
Minister, Shuja Khanzada, in
August 2015, of Salman Taseer,
Governor of the same Province,
and Shahbaz Bhatti, Minister of
Minorities in the Federal
Government, in January and
March, 2011, respectively — to
say nothing of Benazir Bhutto’s
B>D=318C4
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in December 2007 — have sent
a chill down the spines of
Pakistan’s moderate politicians
who are increasingly reticent in
their speech.
It is not just politicians. The
civil society has been terrorised
by murders like those Dr Rubina
Khalid, lecturer in radiology in
Karachi’s Dow University of
Medicine and Professor Khalid
Khan of Pakistan’s National
University of Modern Languages
in Islamabad, in November 2014,
of the distinguished Islamic scholar, Professor Shakeel Auj of
Karachi University and one of his
colleagues, visiting lecturer,
Maulana Masood Baig, in
September 2014, and Karachi
University’s Dean of Medicine, Dr
Jawaid Iqbal Qazi, in February of
the same year.
The message sent by the torture and murder of Syed Saleem
Shahzad, Pakistan’s outspoken
journalists by, according to all
indications, the ISI, in May 2011,
and the murder of Sabeen
Mahmud, Pakistan’s prominent
human and women’s rights champion in May 2015 and the
attempted murder in April 2014,
of Hamid Mir, noted journalist
and anchor, who survived with
gunshot injuries, is clear: One can
only challenge the Army, the ISI
and the fundamentalist terrorist
organisations at the risk of one’s
life. Brave voices are still heard but
the number of people prepared to
speak out has fallen sharply. In
such situation, the argument that
a critical public opinion may
one day persuade the Army and
other hardliners to seek peace
with India, can only indicate
either unbelievable naivete or
abysmal ignorance of the conditions in Pakistan.
India will have to depend on
its own military strength in dealing with Pakistan’s unconventional war against it through crossborder terrorism. For this, it
needs not only adequate military
hardware but an effective strategy, including the launching of
unconventional operations that
compel Pakistan to abandon its
aggression by steeply increasing
its cost.
Volunteering to talk in the
face of repeated rebuffs, and
without Pakistan fulfilling the
conditions set by India after an
outrage like 26/11 or Pathankot,
only suggests New Delhi’s lack of
resolve to stick to a hard line.
This, in turn, encourages Pakistan
to persist with its unconventional war against this country and
the West to turn a blind eye to it.
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@bUQSXY^WbU\YWY_^
Sir — This refers to the editorial,
“Checking radicalisation” (February
4). Union Minister for Home Affairs
Rajnath Singh’s outreach to the
Muslim community to counter the
growing threat of the Islamic State
terror group is laudable. Like all religions, Islam too stands for peace
and denounces all kinds of violence
in the name of religion.
The Imam enjoys a prestigious status and should have a
strong grip on the Muslim youth.
It is the Imam’s duty to preach every
Friday at mosques and show the
Muslim youth the real path of Islam
and how terror groups misinterpret
and manipulate religious teachings.
Asif Iqubal
Delhi
>QdY_^Q\Y^dUbUcd
Sir — This refers to the editorial,
“Checking radicalisation” (February
4). Union Minister for Home Affairs
Rajnath Singh’s outreach to the
Muslim community leaders with
regards to the growing threat of the
Islamic State, is welcome. Prior to
it, hundreds of Islamic scholars and
clerics, including the Shahi Imam
of Jama Masjid, had issued a fatwa
against the Islamic State.
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AP\_da
National interest should be of
utmost importance as any kind of
nefarious activity, by any
unscrupulous element, can divide
us. The editorial has rightly said
that, though a handful of Indian
youths joined the Islamic State, this
is not something to be smug
about, as a small fire can turn into
a conflagration if not checked on
time. It is also the duty of the clergy to tell the audience during
Friday prayers about the verses in
the Quran. Nowhere does the
Quran preach killing innocents.
Sagar Singh
New Delhi
9C`_Yc_^
Sir — This refers to the editorial,
“Checking radicalisation” (February
4). Union Minister for Home Affairs
Rajnath Singh has done a commendable job by meeting Muslim
community leaders to counter the
threat of the Islamic State in India.
It is heartening to see that
Indian Muslims in general and clergies in particular have not been
affected by this growing threat.
Indian Muslim leadership — political and religious have now come
out in the open to condemn the IS
movement with harsh words and
fatwas to nip this ideology in the
bud. In Kashmir it has been used
to create a false impression to
boost their own separatist approach.
Let the Indian Muslims be appreciated for their restraint.
PN Saxena
Via email
@e^YcXY^WSe\`bYdc
Sir — The shocking incident of a
Tanzanian woman student who
was beaten up and stripped by a
mob, has shamed us globally.
Rapes, molestation and crimes
against women are on the rise and
a record number of incidents are
registered in Bangalore alone,
which is known the world over as
an IT hub.
Outraging the modesty of a
woman is a grave crime, and the
law and order machinery cannot
be a silent spectator to this form of
abuse and criminality.
Cases involving crimes
against women should be tried in
fast-track courts for speedier justice. Stringent punishment should
be handed over to people convicted of such crimes so that the right
message goes out unequivocally
to our society.
Jubel D’Cruz
Mumbai
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or India, one of the biggest diploF
matic challenges is to secure a
permanent seat on the UN Security
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Council. It would be an ultimate
recognition of our stature and emergence on the world scene although
one could argue whether any tangible benefit would accrue to us from
that development.
Nations too behave emotionally.
A very senior Indian Government
official told me some 25 years ago that
the real reason for India not signing
the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
(NPT) was that we did not want to be
consigned forever to the B league and
that if the nuclear weapons were to be
regarded as a benchmark of big
power status we too would produce
nuclear weapons.
India has unquestionable credentials to seek a place on the global high table: Second largest population, third largest economy in PPP
terms, leading IT power and largest
troop contributor for UN Peace
Keeping operations. Add to that the
moral dimension and image of a
peace loving nation which produced
the likes of Buddha and Gandhi,
which Prime Minister Narendra
Modi invoked recently on an overseas tour. While this may not weigh
in much with those who call the
shots in international affairs, its
appeal is sure to find resonance in
many African and Latin American
capitals. But would India get its legitimate due soon?
While membership of the UN
has increased nearly fourfold since
its birth in 1945, the UNSC has been
expanded only once in 1965 by
increasing the number of non-permanent seats from 6 to 10. There is
thus an imperative need to undertake
further expansion of this body to
reflect the current global dynamics
and to give equitable representation
to different geographical regions in
the world.
The United Nations was set up
by Second World War victors. Global
peace and security architecture cannot continue to remain based on the
supremacy of those allied powers.
For years, the process of UNSC
reforms has remained stalled. New
emergent powers who have joined
hands as G-4 (India, Brazil, Japan
and Germany) have been pressing for
permanent seats on the Council. All
of them deserve permanent seats
based on the size of their economies
and other objective criteria. Their
candidature, however, is actively
opposed by their regional rivals and
those countries (known as ‘Coffee
Club’ countries such as Italy, Spain,
Turkey, Argentina, Mexico, Pakistan,
South Korea and Indonesia). They
have lobbied hard to block any
progress in the matter.
UNSC expansion would require
charter amendment which cannot go
through if opposed by any P-5 country. Securing the support of two
thirds of UN membership should be
relatively easier since developing
countries are generally supportive of
the reform process even though
Africa’s position could prove to be an
obstacle. Ezulwini consensus adopted by the African Union in 2005
demands two permanent seats for
Africa but the finalisation of specific candidates would be contentious
since there are many claimants.
Chances of that happening soon
appear remote and that could well be
used by the Coffee Club members to
stall the reform process in the name
of building consensus. These circumstances could also lead to
increased clamour for creating a new
category of semi permanent members, not just in Africa but globally,
comprising 10-15 middling/emerging powers to serve on the Security
Council on a rotational basis. Quite
frankly, this rotational formula,
which has been on the table for quite
some time, is a red herring and is
being pursued by detractors only
with an intent to stall the reform
process.
Let us examine the position of P5 countries on this important question. The USA appears quite content
to see opposing factions continuing
to quibble. It is against any hasty move
on the expansion of the UNSC and
wants more urgent reforms relating
to management and accountability
addressed first.
In any case, it does not favour
any large-scale expansion of the
UNSC. As regards specific countries,
it initially supported the candidature
of Japan and Germany but President
Obama has also explicitly endorsed
India’s candidature by declaring in
his address to the joint session of our
Parliament in November 2010 that
he looked forward “to a reformed
UNSC that includes India as a permanent member.”
The UK and France have shown
greater flexibility and publicly support the candidature of all G-4
countries as well as permanent representation for Africa. But they have
also suggested an interim solution by
creating a new category of seats for
these countries with a term longer
than two years which would be
renewable with a provision for a
review of the arrangements after an
initial phase whereby it “could be
decided to turn these new types of
seats into permanent ones.”
It has been argued by several
commentators that their support is
only on the surface and that they do
not find any need to actively oppose
the reform process as long as the
negotiations remain stalled.
Russian stated position favours
the Coffee Club countries. It is against
any “artificial deadline” and wants
final decision to be supported by a
“broad majority” comprising most of
the countries, not just two thirds as
legally required. Russian Foreign
Minister Lavrov has himself noted
that in the eyes of several “well-established countries of medium size”
opposing the G-4 demand “the UNSC
will be much less legitimate than it is
now if it is reformed by voting
against their desire for consensus.”
In the light of irreconcilable
differences between opposing groups
it has advocated search for a compromise solution. Notably, Russia,
along with the USA and China, has
also not provided any inputs for the
negotiating text.
China has also rejected imposition of any time limit and wants consensus to be achieved through consultation to accommodate the interests of all parties, especially small and
medium-sized countries. It is firmly opposed to any permanent seat for
Japan and, in all likelihood, would
also be reluctant to support India. In
fact, rather than induction of any
specific countries as permanent
members it favours the principle of
regional rotation. China is actively
lobbying at the UN and in African
and Latin American capitals to prevent any concrete progress in the
UNSC reform process.
We seem to have drawn much
satisfaction from the resolution
adopted last year on the initiation of
text-based negotiations. It is no
doubt a significant step but it would
be naive to expect any early breakthrough given the continuing indifference and even opposition from
permanent members. I have followed
this process closely since 1988 when
I was posted to our Mission to
United Nations in New York.
Ironically, I was told by a senior then
that a deal was about to be stitched
up. Nearly thirty years down and we
are still waiting!! Personally, therefore, I am very sceptical about India
getting a permanent seat in UNSC
anytime soon. Let us face the truth;
existing permanent members are just
not interested in their primacy and
power getting diluted by addition of
new countries in their group. We
have seen them holding progress for
the sake of consensus which they
otherwise hardly bother about and
lending their support for alternative
proposals which do not at all meet
our expectations.
What options do G-4 countries
and India in particular have if the
international community continues
to ignore our genuine aspirations?
How long are we willing to wait – 5
or 10 or maybe 20 years? Surely we
cannot wait indefinitely. PM Modi in
his speech in France last April
‘demanded’ a permanent seat on the
UNSC as India’s right, noting that
days for India to beg for the seat were
long gone. Are we willing to logically
follow up on this assertion and
what are our choices?
It would be imperative for G-4
countries to remain united. There are
attempts to divide us and individual
countries are being told in private
that abandoning one or two members would strengthen their chances.
But those temptations might prove
elusive. Collectively, G-4 enjoys considerable weight and clout and that
is the biggest advantage in its favour.
One option for the G-4 countries
would be to increasingly utilise G-20
for playing their legitimate role in
international affairs. Although conceived primarily to deliberate on
global economic and financial issues,
the G-20 summits have occasionally taken up political and security
issues. In fact, at the last summit in
Turkey these issues dominated the
discussions in the backdrop of Paris
terrorist attack. During their presidency, the French had tried to
broadbase the G-20 agenda but we
ourselves were undecided and somewhat suspicious of the French
motives. We should have rather welcomed those efforts since our desire
to be involved in global peace and
security issues through UNSC was
not gathering much traction. Set up
in 1999 and with regular summits
since 2008, G-20 comprises 19 countries and EU with the presence of all
the top world economies and representing 85% of the world GDP.
These attributes make G-20 eminently qualified to deal with world
issues particularly since economic
power has replaced military power
as the touchstone of a country’s place
in the world power structure.
Other option for at least India
and Brazil would be to work for
enhancing the role of BRICS. New
development bank is a commendable
initiative in that context. We should
perhaps seek expansion of the group
with the inclusion of a couple of
emerging economies in order to
dilute the influence of China.
If these strategies do not work we
would be left with no option but to
think in terms of threatening to leave
UN or in the very least reducing our
exposure to that organisation by
downscaling our participation in
peace keeping and other UN activities. In order for this to be effective,
it would need to be carefully coordinated with other G-4 countries.
This may sound too radical but then
no organisation can really survive if
it fails to adjust itself to the changing global dynamics. History bears
testimony to how the League of
Nations founded in 1920 had to be
wound up when it failed to prevent
Second World War. It was perceived
as a ‘league of victors’ created by
Allied Powers which had remained
slow in decision making. Most of this
probably holds true for UN as well.
Our objective should be to ensure
that India gets its rightful and equitable place on the world stage. If UN
fails to provide us the desired role, we
should have no hesitation in seeking
to work through other organisations
which are capable of enabling us to
play our legitimate role.
(The writer retired from the
Indian Foreign Service recently. His
last assignment was as Indian High
Commissioner to South Africa. He
also served at the Indian Mission to
the United Nations in New York)
?4AB?42C8E4
$PHULFDQKHJHPRQ\+RZORQJZLOOWKHEDODQFLQJDFWODVW"
ow enduring is “American hegeH
mony” or “empire” in a world
with a “rising China”, globally
“assertive Putin” and an endemic crisis in West Asia and Africa wherein
the US is being constantly projected more as an imperialist power than
as a champion of liberal democracy
and global justice? This overarching
question gives rise to a number of
subsidiary questions through which
America’s continued legacy of
“unipolar world” could be seriously
examined.
Immanuel Wallerstein rightly
notes, “Since the end of the Second
World War, the geopolitics of the
world-system has traversed three
different phases. From 1945 till 1970,
the US exercised unquestioned hegemony in the world-system. The period from 1970-2001 was a time in
which American hegemony began to
decline, but the extent of its decline
was limited by the strategy that the
US evolved to delay and minimise the
effects of its loss of ascendancy. In the
period since 2001, the US has sought
to recuperate its standing by more
unilateral policies, which have, however, boomeranged — indeed actually accelerating the speed and depth
of its decline.”
Even it is strongly argued that
America has unwittingly morphed
into a new and strange kind of a
political system where both the economic and political powers are
increasingly conjoined. It is gradually losing the power to respond to
its own populace the way it did in the
recent past and virtually leading to
a kind of inverted totalitarianism,
leaving no space for the ever-growing home for the world’s most
promising liberal democracy. The
Summer Issue of the Journal of the
American Academy of Political
Science in 2011 brought out that “it
is a common theme that the US,
which only a few years ago was hailed
to stride the world as a colossus with
unparalleled power and unmatched
appeal, is in relative decline, ominously facing the prospect of its final
decay”. The business of America, is
business as Calvin Coolidge once
proudly remarked, has now turned
this statement into a mere tautology.
0]0\TaXRP]bWX_T]cTabcWTSXb_dcTSB^dcW2WX]PBTP
Currently America is either engaged
in direct or proxy wars around the
world to secure its narrow interests
and it is finally leading to its decline
than many pundits believe it to be.
However, the interesting part is
that how long American hegemony
will last will not be determined by
China’s rise or an ever-growing
threat of global terrorism. Noam
Chomsky arguably notes, “the commonly drawn corollary that power
will shift to China and India is highly dubious. They are poor countries
with severe internal problems. The
world is surely becoming more
diverse, but despite America’s decline,
in the foreseeable future, there is no
competitor for global hegemonic
power.” It is true that emerging
global powers like India and China
are pressed to be seriously involved
at their homeland because of their
chronic problems than America in
the years to come. Their journey to
claim global ranks has very recently begun unlike the US, as historian
Geoffrey Warner recorded how
President Roosevelt was aiming at
United States hegemony in the postwar world. By then China and India
were just planting their roots for
homegrown nascent political systems
to just begin their nationhood. It
seems an uphill task for both these
nations at least for some good
decades though they may keep growing faster than a declining US economy at the moment.
The American empire is not a
traditional empire, but rather a sui
generis one which it has acquired
inadvertently in course of time with
its sheer economic, military, political and finally, through its technological might. “No other country in
the world possesses, has ever possessed, or is likely to possess, in this
century such a world straddling
vehicle for the enforcement of its will.
More to the point, the US-dominated system shows no signs of falling
apart. Even the revelations that
America and its English-speaking
allies have been spying on the leaders of their NATO peers have not led
to calls for the dissolution of NATO.
The American system may not last
forever, but its remaining life may be
measured in centuries rather than
decades. Cycles of hegemony turn
very slowly because systems of hegemony are very robust. The American
power network is much bigger,
much stronger and much more
resilient than the formal American
state as such” (Babones).
Indeed it would decline, but
this duration of fall would be longer
than expected. Even experts like
Barry R Posen states that the US
enjoys the “command of the commons” — command of the sea,
space and air. But technically, air
space belongs to respective countries
and commons in the case of sea, but
space are areas that don’t belong to
one nation, though there are limits
assigned as per international norms.
But when it comes to command of
these commons either forcefully or
through mutually beneficial ways, it
is only the US that can steer the
wheel further and can make it operational. In “contested zones”, around
the world like “South China Sea”, the
US military might have a disadvantage and it is always advisable to
engage its power selectively in such
cases.
Unlike the US, China is constantly facing tough resistance and
competition from its immediate
neighbours like Japan, South Korea
and India on all fronts while trying
to emerge as a global power and from
the Asian baggage. It is likely and historically recorded that the Asian
powers would more welcome a US
leadership than a Chinese one. The
recent escalations of conflict in the
South China Sea underline how
China’s adversaries are willing to
engage or trying to resort directly to
the US assistance. Thus the strategic
challenge posed by China is exaggerated and the lasting impact combined with acceptability of its authoritarian growth model may not permeate across. China’s alarming
human rights violation records and
an authoritarian political system
have its own perennial problems
which might shake the Middle
Kingdom in the years to come. But
for now China is managing its global clout with a relatively peaceful and
stable political system, though a
sustained demand for change and
transparency are rising every passing day. Moreover, despite China’s
call for a multipolar reserve currency system, it seems the lack of stable alternatives might help dollar
continuing to dominate the global
financial system at the moment.
Barack Obama, the 44th
President of the US, has brought a
new age into the history of the country by successfully closing the “tumultuous era” during which his
Republican predecessor George W
Bush had primarily set the nation on
a confrontational course in its global relations both with its allies and
enemies. But in true sense of the term,
close on the heels of his two terms of
presidency, Obama could hardly
come out of the burden of the past.
Tall claims that US hegemony is
coming to an end seem absolutely
premature. When many in global
politics thought about the replacement of the Washington Consensus
with an immediate rise of the Beijing
Consensus, experience shows that
the Chinese annual growth rate is not
very encouraging. Also the emergence of the China model in contrast
to the free market liberal democratic paradigm constantly promoted by
the US leadership with a mega agenda is not deepening across the
nations, though there has been a regular and potential disdain developed
about the way the US is behaving.
Experts feel that the US will surely
demonstrate great resilience as the
country is best endowed with economic flexibility, highly luring to the
migration of the best of the skilled
manpower; granary of the best universities of higher learning and
finally it possesses “the most networked society and economy in the
world” (Anne-Marie Slaughter).
Though China might grow much
faster than the American economy,
yet it remains to be seen how long it
would continue.
The US has the option of more
margins to choose from a big basket
than any other nation in the world
and that is where its leverage lies in
global politics. Acclaimed American
intellectual Joseph S Nye Jr advocates
that “power in a global information
age is distributed like a three dimensional chess game. The top military
board is unipolar, with the United
States far outstripping all other
States, but the middle economic
board is multipolar, with the United
States, Europe and Japan accounting
for two-thirds of world product, and
the bottom board of transnational
relations that cross borders outside
the control of governments has a
widely dispersed structure of power”.
With this scenario in mind and
an effort to intensify the prospect of
a multipolar world under the rubrics
of BRICS, ASEAN and a large array
of international NGOs and civil
society organisations which play a
significant role in global governance, it is really impossible for the
US to go alone or even with its allies
in remaining as the hegemon for a
longer period.
It would be worth watching
how America would manage the
contradictions between economic
multipolarity and military unipolarity in the years to come. Its sustenance as a global hegemon will be
largely determined by both domestic and geopolitical actors notwithstanding its near successful sojourn
from colony to superpower in its
long history. It remains a contested
and open question how long
America will rule at the top or will
there be an imminent fall in the days
to come.
(The writer is an independent
political analyst based in Delhi)
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=4F 34;78) Budget for the
next fiscal needs to provide
C1.10 lakh crore for implementing the OROP and 7th
Pay C ommission award,
besides a higher allocation
for the farm sector, Finance
Minister Arun Jaitley said on
Friday.
Ad d re s s i ng
t he
C onsultative C ommittee
attached to the Finance
Ministry, he also said that
India has potential to grow at
a much faster pace even as he
exuded confidence that fiscal
deficit target for current
financial year will be within
target.
“During the financial
year 2016-17, the Central
Government has to make
provision for about C1.10
lakh crore in order to meet
the liabilities on account of
implementation of 7th Pay
Commission recommendations and One Rank One
Pension (OROP) Scheme,”
Jaitley said.
He also said that the
agriculture growth in the
last two years has suffered
mainly due to insufficient
monsoons and highest ever
amount was given to the
states for drought relief during the current financial year,
2015-16.
“More incentives will be
given to agriculture sector for
increasing agriculture production and productivity,”
he said. India, he said, continues to be one of the fastest
growing economies in the
world, but there is still poten-
tial to grow at a much faster
pace.
“The world economy is
passing through an uncertain
and fragile situation... The
silver lining is low international commodities and oil
prices which in turn has
helped in better macroeconomic situation of the country,” Jaitley said.
The 7th Pay Commission
in November recommended
increase in remuneration of
about one crore government
employees and pensioners
which is estimated to impose
*RYWORRNLQJWRDGGUHVVFKDOOHQJHV
SODJXLQJLQIUDVHFWRU-D\DQW6LQKD
=4F34;78)Seeking more pri-
vate investment in ongoing
infrastructure projects worth
$100-150 billion, the
Government on Friday said
project structure and regulations are being reviewed to
offer investors attractive
returns.
On the second-day of an
summit with sovereign wealth
funds, private equity and pension funds, Minister of State
for Finance Jayant Sinha
showcased brownfield as well
as greenfield projects in sectors including highways, railways and energy.
“We are working very
hard to understand what the
issues, challenges are. What
further we need to do as far
as the law, regulation and
project structuring is concerned, so that we can be able
to present you attractive
returns and where risks are
much lower,” he said.
Addressing investors at
the India Investment Summit
here, Sinha said projects
worth about $100-150 billion are in various stages of
completion.
“We are going through a
process where these projects
are being reassessed, new
financing coming in... So I
think for these projects there
will be very attractive investment opportunities as the
capital structure is reset,” he
added.
He asked investors to consider brownfield projects,
along with greenfield, as NIIF
would also fund stressed
assets.
Speaking at the summit,
RBI Deputy Governor HR
Khan said, “We are open for
regulatory changes as situation demand nothing is cast
in stone. We are sensitive to
(your) demand.”
Sinha also said the government is trying to rethink
the whole manner of refinancing greenfield projects
and trying to ensure that
these projects get to cash
flow as early as possible.
A number of funds like
Apollo, Blackstone, Edelweiss
are looking at these brownfield stalled projects, he said.
Outlining the variety of
projects that are on offer for
investors, he said there are a
set of stalled projects, there
are greenfield projects, as also
portfolios of cash generating
developed projects that you
can package together into relatively solid attractive yield
generating portfolios.
“All three investment
opportunities are now available,” he said.
The Government in
December had set up the Rs
40,000 crore National
Investment and Infrastructure
Fund (NIIF). While the government holding in the fund
would be 49 per cent, the
remaining would be held by
private investors.
The Government is showcasing investment opportunities in India’s infrastructure
sector through the two-day
summit.
?C8
EQWRUDLVHEQFXWGHEW
an additional burden of C1.02
lakh crore in 2016-17. The
new pay scales, subject to
acceptance by Government,
will come into effect from
January 1, 2016.
The Government had last
year announced that it will
implement OROP under
which a uniform pension
would be given to armed
forces personnel retiring at
the same rank with the same
length of service.
The scheme would be
implemented from July 1,
2014.According to a Finance
Ministry statement, Jaitley
saidthis year was the first
time that the real expenditure amount was higher than
the Budget proposal.
During the meeting, the
members suggested that tax
exemption limit for middle
and salaried class be raised
from existing C2.5 lakh to C4
lakh as well as more stress be
given on widening of tax
base, while there should be
severe punishment for those
evading taxes.
They also suggested that
the threshold limit of C2
lakh for mandatory Pan Card
quoting for any transaction
be raised to C5 lakh.
“Some members suggested that there should be
accountability of assessing
officers for passing unreasonably high tax liability
orders to harass the assessees
which are later on turned
d ow n by t he App el l ate
authorities,” said the statement.
They also suggested that
higher allocations be made to
improve the agriculture related irrigation projects in different states which are in
bad shape.
There was also suggestion
to change the labour ratio in
MGNREGA such that it can
be more productive and used
for infrastructure building
along with providing jobs, it
said.
?C8
DTR_UR]YZeGH
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0?Q 5A0=:5DAC
olkswagen says it is postV
poning release of its fullyear earnings as well as its
annual shareholder meeting
due to open questions about its
diesel emissions scandal.
The GerDman carmaker
said on Friday it would give
new dates for the earnings
release, formerly slated for
March 10, and for its shareholder gathering originally set
for April 21. It said questions
about how the matter will be
resolved left open what it
described in a statement as “valuation calculations.”
Volkswagen says it is sticking to its plan to publish the
findings of its investigation
into the background and
responsibilities of the scandal in
the second half of April.
It said that when released,
the company’s operating earnings before one-time items
would be at the level of the year
before, within the expected
range for the fiscal year 2015.
The Wolfsburg, Germanybased automaker has admitted
equipping cars with software
that let them cheat on diesel
emissions tests in the US. The
US Environmental Protection
Agency is suing the company in
federal court over what it says
were 600,000 such vehicles.
=4F 34;78: Disputing Trai’s
data that found mobile operators having failed on call-drop
tests, the companies on Friday
said their figures tell an opposite story and asked the telecom
regulator to withdraw its test
reports.
The operators argued that
Trai’s data, which were published on the regulator’s website
yesterday, do not portray the
actual performance of their
networks and there was a wide
divergence between the results
of the tests done by them and
those by the regulator.
Questioning the findings of
the audit on call drops done at
the behest of Trai, the telecom
players, through industry bodies COAI and AUSPI, have justified their position, saying
their own drive test reports are
at odds with the regulator’s.
According to the Telecom
Regulatory Authority of India
(Trai), most telecom operators, including state-run
MTNL, failed random drive
tests conducted by it to check
quality of their network and
services as part of its efforts to
rein in the call drop menace.
As per the test report, none
of telecom operators showed
improvement in call drops in
Mumbai,
Pune
and
Bhubaneswar.
The operators contended
that the results put up on the
website do not provide the
actual picture as results of the
quality of service (QoS) parameters varied.
,0)KRSHV,QGLDZLOOLPSOHPHQW
µFULWLFDOO\LPSRUWDQW¶UHIRUPV
?C8 Q F0B78=6C>=
ullish on India, IMF chief
Christine Lagarde has
B
hoped that the Government
would be able to implement a
series of “critically important”
economic reforms including
GST for unleashing the country’s growth potential.
“The IMF is quite bullish
about India, and our forecast for
2016, 2017 is 7.5 per cent
growth,” Lagarde said in
response to a question at the
University of Maryland yesterday.
“So we see India as benefitting, actually it’s one of the
major beneficiaries of the lower
oil prices. When you look at the
scale of benefits for particularly the emerging countries, India
comes out, you know, way
ahead,” the IMF Managing
Director said.
“IMF also believe that the
monetary policy, the taming of
inflation is also going to benefit the very large domestic market of India,” she said, noting
that consumption is also going
to be one of the key drivers.
“All of that of course, with
the hope and the provision, if I
may say, that the trend of
reforms identified by Prime
Minister Narendra Modi, can
actually proceed, whether it’s in
the fiscal area, by way of imple-
menting the Goods and Services
Tax, significant reform like the
land reform that is considered,”
Lagarde said.
She said those reforms are
actually going to be “critically
important” for the unleashing of
growth potential that India has
to offer.
“One additional component which we regard as important, and that would be the
investment in infrastructure
that is so badly needed in many
countries, but in India in particular, where there are bottlenecks, both in terms of physical infrastructure, as well as, I
would say, administrative infrastructure, and those are key
policies to implement,” she said.
GST, which will subsume all
indirect taxes such as excise
duty, service tax and sales tax
into one uniform rate, is stalled
in the Rajya Sabha as Congress
is pressing for three changes.
The Congress has stalled
the passage of the constitutional amendment Bill, derailing the government’s plan to roll
out GST from April 1, 2016.
The three demands are a
cap on the GST rate in the
Constitution itself, removal of
the proposed 1 per cent additional tax on inter-state movement of goods and setting up
a judicial panel to adjudicate
disputes among states.
?C8 Q ;>=3>=
illionaire Lakshmi Mittalled ArcelorMittal on Friday
B
said it will raise $3 billion from
investors and sell $1 billion
stake in Spanish auto-part
maker Gestamp, to reduce debt
after the losses widened 7-fold
in 2015 to $7.9 billion.
The world’s largest steelmaker outlined a plan to reduce
its $15.7 billion net debt by
nearly a quarter.
Mittal, who owns about 37
per cent of ArcelorMittal, will
maintain his stake and will
sign up to its entitlement of the
share issue, worth about $1.1
billion.
Continuing to suffer from
the Chinese industry’s overcapacity that has driven down
world prices, the company
reported net sales declining to
$63.58 billion in 2015 against
$72.28 billion in 2014.
Net loss reported $7.9 billion was mostly because of
$4.8 billion writedowns on the
iron ore mining business and a
$1.3 billion charge on inventory due to the global steel price
plunge.
A year earlier the group
made a loss of $1.1 billion.
The firm reported a widening of its net loss to $6.69 billion in the December quarter
against a net loss of $955 million in the year-ago period as it
faced a “very difficult” 2015,
which witnessed iron ore and
steel prices slide further.
The Luxembourg-headquartered company’s revenue
fell by 25 per cent to $13.98 billion in the October-December
quarter of 2015, from $18.72 billion in the same quarter of 2014
fiscal. The firm follows JanuaryDecember as its fiscal year.
On the impairment charges,
the firm said: “FY 2015 net loss
7HOFRVWRFRQWHVW7UDLYLHZV
RQDXFWLRQSULFLQJEHIRUH'R7
=4F34;78)Telecom operators
will approach DoT to contest
Trai’s recommendations on
spectrum auctions, especially
on pricing of the premium 700
Mhz band.
“We will write to DoT by
the end of next week for deferring auction of 700 Mhz band
and on possible errors in calculation of price of 700 Mhz
band (spectrum). Trai has fixed
priced based on formula given
2012. Lot of things in the
industry have changed since
then,” COAI Director General
Rajan S Mathews told the news
agency.
Leading operators had
requested the regulator to defer
sale of 700 MHz spectrum, saying that ecosystem for providing services in this band was
not developed and sale would
lead to under-utilisation of the
spectrum for several years and
block industry’s crucial fund.
The Telecom Regulatory
Authority of India has recommended a record high
base price of C11,485 crore per
Mhz for 700 Mhz which
alone. If all the available fre-
“This is despite the fact that
tests were conducted on the
same routes and using the
same methodology as adopted
by the Trai-appointed agencies,”
the letter said.
quencies gets sold at Trai suggested price then it alone will
yield a whopping C4 lakh
crore.
As per Trai’s paper, the
cost of delivering mobile services in 700 Mhz band is
approximately 70 per cent
lower than 2100 Mhz band,
which is widely used for 3G
services.
The auction plan suggested by total potential revenue of C5.36 lakh crore from
the spectrum sale, expected to
be held during May-June this
year, is more than the double
of gross revenues of telecom
services industry. Telecom
service providers had gross
revenue of C2.54 lakh crore in
2014-15 financial year.
Trai has used its old formula given in April 2012
spectrum price recommendation to fix price of 700 Mhz
at four times of 1800 Mhz
band spectrum price -- widely known as 2G spectrum.
Most of telecom operators
who have purchased 1800
Mhz band in 2012 or later are
using it for 4G services. ?C8
The letter further said even
though its member operators’
comments, along with drive
test reports depicting the contrary results, have been published on the website, these do
of $7.9 billion including $4.8 billion of impairments (primarily
due to mining impairments).
“And $1.4 billion of exceptional charges (primarily related to the write-down of inventory following the rapid decline
of international steel prices).”
Breaking down the
impairment
charges,
ArcelorMittal said the mining
segment hit of $3.4 billion
consists of $0.9 billion with
respect to goodwill.
Besides, $2.5 billion related to fixed assets mainly due
to a downward revision of cash
flow projections relating to
expected persistence of a lower
raw material price outlook at
ArcelorMittal Liberia ($1.4
billion), Las Truchas Mexico
($0.2 billion), ArcelorMittal
Serra Azul in Brazil ($0.2 billion) and ArcelorMittal
Princeton coal mining operations in the US ($0.7 billion).
not find any mention in the
reports of the agencies appointed by Trai, which “gives out a
wrong impression to the public”.
On their part, the operators
have asked for drive test logs
and other details from the regulator, but so far Trai has not
obliged.
“It is disappointing that
instead of providing the logs to
telecom service providers, Trai
has chosen to publish our
request to provide the logs.
This method of publishing
unratified drive test reports and
operator comments alongside
is misleading, incorrect and
misrepresentative of actual performance of QoS parameters of
the member operators’ network,” the letter said.
It added that this will only
lead to confusion resulting in
“wrong perception” and may
hurt the brand image of mobile
operators.
The letter spoke of the
need for reconciliation
between’operator-assisted drive
tests’, which are supervised by
the same very auditors, and the
independent drive test results.
“It is extremely important
that we (both the regulator and
the operator) reconcile the
large variance between the two
test results for any meaningful
outcome and actionable steps,”
it added.
The operators are of the
view that unless the logs are
shared and analysed, the results
should not be published. ?C8
7R\RWDVD\VQHWSURILWMXPSV
WREQUDLVHV)<IRUHFDVW
05?Q C>:H>
oyota on Friday said ninemonth net profit jumped
T
nearly 10 per cent to 1.9 trillion
yen ($16 billion), despite falling
sales in most regions, with the
world’s top automaker focused
on squeezing more productivity out of its plants.
The Corolla and Prius
maker also slightly raised its fiscal year profit forecast to 2.27
trillion yen, but unit sales were
down in most regions, including Europe and Japan, while
North America rose.
The region has stood out
for Japanese automakers, with
rival Honda last week saying it
was a bright spot that helped
offset sluggish sales at home.
Toyota and its domestic
rivals have benefited from
healthy growth in the US where
low interest rates proved a
boon to consumers, although
the slim possibility of rate
hikes this year could dampen
sales.
Weakening demand in
emerging markets such as
Thailand and Indonesia, as
well as a planned consumption
tax hike in Japan next year,
could also eat into the market,
analysts said.
Sales in China, the world’s
top vehicle market, ticked up,
Toyota said, adding that
demand for it its RAV4 sport
utility vehicle was strong in
North America.
“A further slowdown in
emerging economies may affect
(Toyota’s) sales overseas, and an
expected rate hike in the
United States would dampen
customers’ appetite” for new
cars, said Shigeru Matsumura,
analyst at SMBC Friend
Research Center.
“These are potential risks.”
The weaker yen has made
Japanese automakers relatively more competitive overseas
and inflated the value of repatriated overseas profits,
although the unit has strengthened recently.
Toyota has said all its
domestic parts plants would
shut for a full day next week,
expanding a production suspension that is set to be its
longest since the March 2011
earthquake and tsunami disaster.
The move was due to a
components shortage following
an explosion at a supplier.
It was not clear if the temporary production shutdown
would affect results in the current quarter.
“We are going to take all
the necessary measures for a
speedy recovery of production,” Toyota managing officer
Tetsuya Otake told a news
briefing.
“The impact of the suspension is not taken into
account in our forecasts - it is
difficult to evaluate for the time
being.”
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xternal Affairs Minister
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called on Sri Lankan Prime
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al partnership in all areas,” they
said.
Wickremesinghe also proposed to make the Joint
Commission meeting an annual affair. The two leaders also
talked about state university
linkages. The joint commission was set up in 1992 as a
mechanism to address issues of
bilateral cooperation. The last
meeting of the Joint
Commission was held in New
Delhi in January 2013.
Wickremesinghe briefed Swaraj
on the latest political developments in Sri Lanka.
The Sri Lankan Prime
Minister had last month said his
Government was ready to
devolve power to minority
Tamils under a new
Constitution, aimed at resolving
the ethnic conflict and achieving reconciliation with Tamils.
Swaraj, who arrived here today
on a two-day visit, was received
by her Sri Lankan counterpart
Mangala Samaraweera at the
airport. The two leaders will cochair the 9th Joint Commission
meeting to discuss key bilateral and regional issues on Friday.
The talks will cover the
entire gamut of relationship
pertaining to economic coop-
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?=B Q =4F34;78
-commerce industry is likely
to generate 2.5 lakh jobs in
online retail this year, as the hiring in the sector is expected to
grow at 60-65 per cent, says a
report. Majority of e-commerce
departments and businesses have
increased their turnover since last
year and present a good opportunity for the industry to develop further, says the Assocham
report. India’s e-commerce market was worth about $3.8 billion
in 2009, it went up to $17 billion
in 2014 and to $23 billion next
year. It is expected to touch $38
billion mark by 2016, it said.
“E-commerce industry is likely to generate nearly 2.5 lakhs jobs
in the online retail in 2016 including temporary employees, supply
chain, logistics, ancillary units etc,”
it said. There are nearly 3.5 lakh
people working under e-commerce industry.
Also increasing smartphone
ownership and investment from
retailers are fuelling the rapid
growth of mobile-commerce in
India. Mobile-commerce (mcommerce) represents only 20-25
per cent of the country's e-commerce market.
This share is expected to
E
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Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe
who sought Indian investment
and offered partnership in setting up a Special Economic
Zone besides briefing her on
latest political developments in
the country.
Swaraj, who arrived here on
her second visit to the country
within a year, held talks with
Wickremesinghe at the Prime
Minister's Office ‘Temple Trees',
and the two leaders had a "fruitful exchange of views’. During
their 50-minute long meeting,
the Prime Minister sought
Indian investment in Sri Lanka
and proposed partnership in
setting up an SEZ in
Trincomalee, officials said.
“Their talks began with the
discussion on the Indo-Lanka
Joint Commission meeting and
the Prime Minister said this is
a very important forum for the
two sides to advance in bilater-
grow as businesses, including
those operating in the online to
offline space such as taxis and
restaurants, look to seize greater
market share. It is also likely to be
further accelerated by advancements in mobile technology and
improvements in security and
connectivity of shopping and
payment platforms.
“The hiring activities are
expected to grow by over 60-65
per cent in this sector and may
help create between 5-8 lakh
employment opportunities in two
to three years," Assocham
Secretary General DS Rawat said.
The chamber said m-commerce
is growing rapidly as a stable and
secure supplement to the e-commerce industry.
As per the report, one-third
of MBA students from top business schools, including the IIMs,
prefer working for the fledgling
e-commerce sector, over traditional favourites like consulting
and financial services jobs. “India
is successful in becoming the
largest e-commerce market in
the world. The rapid transformation in logistics, innovation,
consumerism and productivity
prove to be an interesting case
study for other emerging
economies,” Rawat said.
R^\_[XP]cQ^]Sb
?=B Q =4F34;78
he third largest public sector
lender Punjab National Bank
(PNB) on Friday raised C1,500
crore from Basel III-compliant
bonds through private placement. “The bank has raised
C1,500 crore tier II (Basel III
compliant) capital bonds,” PNB
said in an exchange filling, adding
the debt instrument carries an
annual coupon of 8.65 per cent.
Domestic banks have to
comply with Basel-III standards
by March 2019, which require
them to have higher capital base
to prtotect themselves from
financial risks emanating from
global headwinds.
The new stringent capital
norms were framed after the
2008 global financial crisis.
Following this the Reserve
Bank has issued the Basel-III
norms for implementation
in a phased manner till 2019.
Many banks have been
raising funds to meet these
r e q u i r e m e nt s . A Fi t c h
Ratings report estimates a
requirement of $140 billion
by the banks to fully comply
with the Basel III norms by
March 2019.
T
eration, trade, power and
energy, technical and maritime cooperation, social, cultural and educational matters, science and technology,
defence cooperation, health,
civil aviation, tourism and
people-to- people contact.
The fishermen issue is
expected to figure during Joint
Commission meeting. The fishermen issue continues to be a
major irritant in Indo-Lanka
ties. Sri Lanka accuses Indian
fishermen of straying into its
territorial waters, while India
maintains they are only fishing
in their traditional areas, especially around Katchatheevu, an
islet ceded to Colombo in 1974.
Though the fishermen's
associations of the two sides are
in regular touch with each
other, they have not been able
to reach a mutually-acceptable
solution to end this problem.
Swaraj will also call on President
Maithripala Sirisena and former
president
Chandrika
Kumaratunga besides meeting
other top leaders.
eserve Bank is open to
regulatory changes so as to
give a boost to investment in
infrastructure sector, its
Deputy Governor HR Khan
said on Friday.
“We are open for regulatory changes as situation demand
as nothing is cast in stone. We are
sensitive to demand,” he said at
India Investment Summit here.
RBI has announced several steps
in the last few months including
with regard to external commercial borrowings (ECBs).
The apex bank had relaxed
ECB norms with fewer restrictions on end uses and allowed
loans from sovereign wealth
funds, pension funds and
allowed loans from sovereign
wealth funds, pension funds
and insurers to attract more
overseas fund.
On rupee volatility, he said,
“On a specific rate, I can't comment. Our approach is to avoid
undue volatility.” He, however,
admitted that international environment will have impact on
India and this has been highlighted in the policy statement.
=Xa\P[PbPhbST_T]ST]RT^]
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?=BQ =4F34;78
ommerce and industry
Minister
Nirmala
C
Sitharaman on Friday raised
serious concerns over increasing
imports of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and asked
the experts and industry to
work in the direction to reduce
the dependence on imports.
“When we are setting up
pharmaceutical and biotechnology hubs. The dependence
on imported APIs worries me a
lot,” she said here at the Global
Biotechnology Summit.
Sitharaman said as India is
a global hub of generic medicines and biotechnology centres,
industry, academia and experts
should work in reducing the
increasing imports.
India is hugely dependent
on China for import of the APIs,
which are the raw materials for
medicines. Indian firms imported APIs and intermediates
worth nearly $3 billion in 201011 with China alone accounting
for $1.88 billion. The minister
said both developing and developed countries are dependent on
India for affordable generic
medicines. Further, the commerce ministry is requesting the
states to give additional concessions in special economic zones
to the pharma related units to
reduce the API imports. Talking
about startups, she said the government's action plan for the
sector focuses on all kinds of
startups including areas related
with biotechnology sector and
not only on IT and e-commerce.
“We hope that 1,000 to
1,500 starts will come in
another four years, who will
be focusing on biotechnology,”
she said adding the
Department
of
Pharmaceuticals are expected
to launch a C1,000 crore venture capital fund in order to
help start-ups which will
focus on bio-technology.
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ikiLeaks founder Julian
Assange should be
allowed to walk free immediately and compensated for his
“arbitrary detention” of over
five years by the UK and
Sweden, a UN panel ruled on
Friday, a finding hailed by the
whistleblower as “vindication”
of his innocence.
The Geneva-based fivemember Working Group on
Arbitrary Detention “considers that the various forms of
deprivation of liberty to which
Julian Assange has been subjected constitute a form of
arbitrary detention,” said
Seong-Phil Hong, head of the
expert panel of the Group.
“The Working Group
maintains that the arbitrary
detention of Mr. Assange
should be brought to an end,
that his physical integrity
and freedom of movement be
respected, and that he
should be entitled to an
enforceable right to compensation,” Hong added.
Assange told reporters via
video link from the
Ecuadorean embassy building
in central London, where he
has been holed up, that “it is
now the task of the states of
Sweden and the United
Kingdom as a whole to implement the verdict”, which he
hailed as “vindication” of his
innocence.
W
He described the ruling as
a “really significant victory
that has brought a smile to my
face”. “The lawfulness of my
detention is now a matter of
settled law,” he said.
Assange’s lawyer Melinda
Taylor also called the ruling “a
resounding vindication of Mr.
Assange’s position”.
The computer hacker,
who founded the WikiLeaks
in 2006 that released 500,000
secret US military files on the
wars in Afghanistan and Iraq
and 250,000 diplomatic cables
enraging Washington, has
been confined to a small in
the embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden to face a rape
investigation.
However, both Sweden and
the UK rejected the non-binding legal opinion, saying it
“changes nothing”.
The UK said it will formally
contest the opinion, which
Foreign Secretary Philip
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Hammond termed as “ridiculous” while Sweden said the
panel had no right to “interfere”.
The Working Group said
it “requested the two countries to ensure Assange’s physical integrity and to facilitate
the exercise of his right to
freedom of movement in an
expedient manner”.
“The Working Group also
considered that the detention
should be brought to an end
and that Mr. Assange should be
afforded the right to compensation,” it said.
6SDUNVIO\DW&OLQWRQ6DQGHUVGHEDWH
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illary Clinton and Bernie
Sanders clashed as never
H
before in their first one-on-one
Democratic presidential debate
on Thursday night, arguing bitterly over purported Wall Street
links and an economy and
political system that, Sanders
asserted, is “rigged against
ordinary Americans”.
Clinton, livid at the
Vermont Senator’s “artful
smear” of her reputation over
accepting campaign donations
and speaking fees from Wall
Street institutions, virtually
challenged him to show if she
had ever changed a view or a
vote because of a contribution.
The gloves were off once
Sanders spoke of a Clinton-affil-
iated super PAC raising $15 million from Wall Street in the last
quarter, commenting: “If we do
not get a handle on money in
politics and the degree to which
big money controls the political
process in this country, nobody
is going to bring about the
changes that is needed in this
country for the middle class and
BeccYQ^QYbcdbY[Uce^TUb]Y^Y^W
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05?Q 0<BC4A30<
ATO head Jens Stoltenberg
said today that Russia’s air
N
strikes in Syria targeting rebel
forces are “undermining”
efforts to find a non-military
solution to the war.
“What we have seen is that
the intense Russian air strikes
mainly targeting opposition
groups in Syria are undermining the efforts to find a political solution to the conflict,”
Stoltenberg said as he arrived
for talks in Amsterdam with
EU defence ministers.
Syrian peace talks in
Geneva earlier this week broke
up acrimoniously as longtime Moscow ally President
Bashar al-Assad launched a
fresh offensive against rebel
forces in Aleppo with massive
Russian backing.
The UN Security Council
is due to meet later on Friday
to discuss the situation, with
the negotiations on hold until
February 25.
On Friday, US Secretary of
State John Kerry said he had
warned Moscow to stop targeting the Syrian opposition in
what he described as a “robust”
phone call with Russian
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Stoltenberg said NATO
strongly supported efforts to
end the war in Syria, which has
cost more than 250,000 lives
and displaced half the population, many of them fleeing to
Europe in its worst migrant crisis since World War II.
He said the air strikes and
Moscow’s military build-up in
Syria and the eastern
Mediterranean were a challenge for the US-led alliance
and especially for key member
Turkey, whose airspace Russian
planes have violated.
“The increased Russian air
activity in Syria is also causing
increased tensions and violations
of Turkish airspace,”he said.
working families.”
Slamming the “innuendo”
and “insinuation”, Clinton shot
back: “I just absolutely reject
that, Senator. And I really don’t
think these kinds of attacks by
insinuation are worthy of you.
And enough is enough. If
you’ve got something to say, say
it directly. But you will not find
that I ever changed a view or a
vote because of any donation
that I ever received.”
“I think it’s time to end the
very artful smear that you and
your campaign have been carrying out in recent weeks,”
Clinton said against the backdrop of other reports that she
had received a hefty $600,000
as speaking fees from
Goldman Sachs.
7PUXiBPTTS[TPSb
P]cX8]SXPaP[[h^]
³:PbW\Xa3PhX]?PZ
Lahore: JuD chief and Mumbai
attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed
on Friday led a march in
Islamabad and his outfit across
several cities, ranting on the
Kashmir issue, showing defiance in the face of India asking
Pakistan to "rein in" the terror
group. A day after Saeed warned
of more Pathankot-style attacks,
the Jamaat Ud-Dawah men
took out rallies in cities like
Lahore, Faisalabad, Islamabad,
Karachi, Peshawar and
Muzaffarabad to mark 'Kashmir
Solidarity Day'. The JuD chief
led the rally in Islamabad while
his relative Hafiz Abdur
Rehman Maki addressed a big
gathering in Lahore.
PTI
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Moscow: Russian forces could
reach the outskirts of the Baltic
capitals in less than 60 hours
because Nato lacks the forces to
defend its eastern-most members, new analysis has shown.
According to several war
games scenarios conducted by
a US think-tank, it would take
between 36 to 60 hours for
Russian battalions to occupy
the Estonian and Latvian capitals of Tallinn and Riga.
8CF>D;3C0:4
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It highlights, the report
says, how ineffective Nato’s
forces have become, as they
would be entirely under-prepared for any potential attack
launched by Moscow.
The report comes amid
rapidly declining relations
between Putin and the West.
This week, it emerged
Sweden has re-militarised an
old Cold War frontier base on
the island of Gotland, in
=0B0b_PRTRaPUc
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ASA’s New Horizons
spacecraft has captured
N
images of frozen nitrogen glaciers on Pluto carrying numerous ‘floating’ hills that may be
fragments of water ice, giving
an insight into the dwarf planet’s fascinating and abundant
geological activity.
These hills individually
measure one to several kilometres across, according to
images and data from New
Horizons.
The hills, which are in the
vast ice plain informally named
Sputnik Planum within Pluto’s
‘heart,’ are likely miniature versions of the larger, jumbled
mountains on Sputnik
Planum’s western border.
They are yet another example of Pluto’s fascinating and
abundant geological activity,
NASA said.
Since water ice is less dense
than nitrogen-dominated ice,
scientists believe these water ice
hills are floating in a sea of
frozen nitrogen and move over
time like icebergs in Earth’s
Arctic Ocean.
The hills are likely fragments of the rugged uplands
that have broken away and are
being carried by the nitrogen
glaciers into Sputnik Planum.
response to what it believes to
be a rising threat from Russia,
the BBC reports.
Sweden’s
Supreme
Commander, General Micael
Byden, said: “This is one of the
great challenges right now:
What are they up to, and why
do they do it?” The analysis by
the army research division of
the Rand Corporation predicted Russia would most likely launch a two-pronged assault
across the Latvian border, sending heavily-armed battalions in
a pincer movement towards
Riga, fighting Latvian and Nato
battalions along the way.
The Independent
United Nations: At least 200
million girls and women in 30
countries are estimated to have
undergone female circumcision,
half of them in Egypt, Ethiopia
and Indonesia, the UN children’s
agency has said in a report.
The Unicef statistical report
said on Thursday the global figure includes nearly 70 million
more girls and women than it
estimated in 2014. It said this is
due to population growth in some countries and new data from
Indonesia. The UN General
Assembly unanimously approved a resolution in December
2012 calling for a global ban on
female genital mutilation, a centuries-old practice stemming
from the belief that circumcising
girls controls women’s sexuality
and enhances fertility.
One of the targets in the new
UN goals adopted last
September calls for the practice
to be eliminated by 2030.
Unicef Deputy Executive
Director Geeta Rao Gupta said
in a statement coinciding with
the new report that “determining the magnitude of female genital mutilation is essential to eliminating the practice.” While there
has been an overall decline in the
prevalence of female genital
mutilation over the last three
decades, UNICEF said it isn’t
enough to keep up with increasing population growth.”
AP
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elhi is known for its food, and time
to time, food festivals have been
organised in the city to satiate the
never-ending love for food. In continuation to that,
one more food festival has been added to the list.
The Great Indian Golchakkar carnival is being
organised for food lovers to enjoy not only the
food from the city’s well known restaurants but
also from the gullis of Chandani Chowk.
The GIG carnival is all about to promote those
dishes which are great in taste but do not get
noticed by people and remain unpopular. This festival is not just only about promoting the food,
but is also about promoting the art from various
part of the country. At the centre of Jawaharlal
Nehru Stadium ground, there was a separate platform where the food from different states were
displayed on stalls.
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If you like to taste food from different parts
of the country, then you must visit the festival.
Whether it is Benarasi chaat, Amritsari kulche,
paav bhaji from Mumbai and many more, you
have it all here. The spokesperson of Sheesh Mahal
Kulche Wala from Amritsar said, “Our chole
kulche is quite famous in Amritsar and people call
us for marriages and party catering.” We tasted
gobhi ke parathe from Rambabu ke parathe stall,
who had come from Agra. It was served with aalu
ki sabji, curd, and chutney.
There were also food stalls from the embassies
of Turkey and Indonesia. They presented authentic food from their country. Zekiye Ding, second
secretary from the Turkish Embassy said, “We
have presented the famous cuisine from our country and for that, we have called a chef from
Ankara.” They had meramek kofte (dal kofte), cigeratte barek, sarma misket kofte (meat balls). For
dessert, they served bakhlava and turk
lokumu.
The Indonasian embassy had
chicken satay combo, veg puff, in the
shape of gujiya. “It has a filling of egg,
potato and carrot,” said Mia Senbiring,
who was looking after the stall.
0AC0=32A05C
The carnival was not only about
food. We saw art and craft from different states of the country, too. GK
Chaurasia, a perfume maker from
Kannauj, UP, said that his family has
been involved in making perfumes for over a century. He makes perfumes from flowers and other
natural resources. We took in a whiff of one perfume which he had made from soil and it reminded us of the smell of wet earth. He told us that it
takes about 15 days to make a small bottle.
Traditional Rogan Art, was showcased by
Abdulgafur D Khatri who hails from Kutch. He
showed antique ghaghra which was made by his
grandfather 50 years ago. “My family has been
working in this field since three centuries and my
son is the 30th generation. We want people to
know about this art form which is now an endangered craft. I am trying to revive it,” Khatri said.
>A60=8B4AB?40:
“It’s a unique celebration of cultures, crafts and
cuisines. We are proud to organise The GIG carnival,” said Sonny Walia, organiser of The GIG
canival. He also said that he is a food lover and
that is why he had organised this carnival. He
said, “My main motive was to promote those
street food which tastes really good but people are
unaware of it.”
_W^c^bBP]YTTe:d\Pa
radhuman Singh was just a regular handsome guy, “as successful
or not as successful as anybody
else.” But life has not been the
same for him ever since he was
cast as the lookalike of Osama
Bin Laden in the comedy
movie Tere Bin Laden in 2010.
The movie is not a conventional sequel or a spin-off
of the original because it
does not pick up from
where Tere Bin
Laden ended. In
fact, the movie
shows Singh
not as Noori,
but as an aspirant singer Pabbi Singh, who
goes to Mumbai. “Manish Paul, in the
movie is struggling to make it as an director. These two people meet each other and
Manish’s character hatches a brilliant idea
of making a movie starring Pabbi Singh as
a lookalike of Osama. The plan was to make
him a star by his face,” he said.
The movie that they make is a fictional version of Tere Bin Laden, he told us. Like
in reality, the movie in the movie, becomes
successful and they want to make a sequel.
But it gets canned because by that time,
Osama was already dead. “While USA
claimed that they killed Osama, people were
demanding proof of death. What happens
when these two decide to make a movie on
the confusion of whether or not he is alive,
is the story of this movie,” he said.
One would expect Singh to be recognised in
public as the Osama lookalike but he told us otherwise. “Nobody recognises me. I do not wear a
turban and do not have that long a beard, so there
are no chances of identifying me. Without them,
I am just another regular good-looking guy,” he
laughed. In fact there have been times when he has
gone up to people and told them that he was the
guy who had played the lookalike in the movie.
“The reaction that I got were priceless because people somehow have the notion that the guy who
played the Noori would be 45 to 60 years old, be
from Pakistan and not capable of speaking
English,” he pointed out.
It was his dream to be an actor but he never
had the guts to go to Mumbai. But one day he
found himself on his way to the city. “It was as if
God pushed me,” he butted in.
No one in his family knew he was doing such
a role until the trailers were out. “After my mother
saw the trailer I told her it
was me and she was
really happy. She
supports me a lot,”
he wrapped up.
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ditya Roy Kapur fluttered many hearts when
he softly crooned Sun Raha Hai Na Tu for his
film Aashiqui 2. You may still hear the faint
sighs as the song plays even today putting many in
a reminiscence mode. The suave actor is again back
with director Abhishek Kapoor’s Fitoor, based on
Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations, opposite the
gorgeous Katrina Kaif. It releases on February 12.
The tag of a ‘romantic hero’ is now inevitable but
the former VJ is fine with it “as long it is a good tag.”
It is not very usual for an actor to admit that getting into films or acting wasn’t really their forte at
first. For Kapur, “it just happened.”
“I was a VJ which, at first, I was reluctant about
but then I did it and started loving it. I did it for fourand-a-half years, interviewed many people from the
film industry but I never grew up watching Hindi
films or idolised any actor. The idea of being an actor
was a fantastical one,” shared the 30-year-old.
It was after bagging a role in Vipul Shah’s London
Dreams (2009) that Kapur, who is also popular
Bollywood producer Siddharth Roy Kapur’s brother, stepped into to the film industry but as a supporting actor which then continued till his breakthrough
with Aashiqui 2.
“During that time, my world suddenly changed.
I grew to love acting while acting,” he exclaims.
With no formal training in acting, Kapur fondly remembered getting up on stage during his school
as that guy in the background who would only do
plays to bunk lectures.”
“Even while filming London Dreams, I remember just learning my lines, deliver them and be like
‘I’m done,’” said the Guzaarish actor.
He also starred in Ayan Mukherji’s Yeh Jawani
Hai Deewani alongside Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika
Padukone and said that “I needed to do YJHD for
Aashiqui 2 to happen.”
“I met Ayan and he told me that we wanted me
to do this role but again it was a supporting one which
A
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I wasn’t keen on and wanted to step up. It was a
Ranbir-Deepika film but to Ayan’s credit, he put
up everything on the screen that was in the script.
People remember that film as an ensemble
film. At that time, that was quite a decision
for me to take. I had told myself that I will
be working with a good production
house, good actors and I'll be seen in a
right place so I just took that leap of faith
and went for it. I got a call for Aashiqui
2 when I was shooting for YJHD as the
creators had seen my pictures from the
film’s photoshoot. So work gets you
work and you have to keep going,” he
explained.
He elaborated that in order to play
the character of Noor in Fitoor, he had
to go through a “bunch of avenues.”
“I had to lose a lot of weight since
I had put on so much after Daawat-eishq and Abhishek (Kapoor) wanted me
to be lean. I lost about 18 kilos in about
10 months I got into the crazy routine
and was pretty obsessed with that but
it helped me focus on other things as
well. Some characters also require you
to acquire a skill so as to make it look
more convincing. Plus Noor, is a
painter and works with wood and
metal as well. I took a bunch of classes to look the part,” he shared.
He also spent some time in Kashmir conversing with the locals as well. “Their pace of
life and state of mind are different as well. I
also had to wrap my head around the idea of
being in love with a person and not have that
love reciprocated. This was something I’d never felt.
But I needed to understand the character and it fairly was a complex one,” he concluded.
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nly people with a lot faith
and conviction in themselves have the guts to leave
everything behind to follow their
dreams. Harshvardhan Rane wanted to be an actor so badly that he
ran away from home and came to
Delhi. For years he struggled to do
the work he loved and, has finally
cracked into Bollywood with
Sanam Teri Kasam.
“I had to feed myself and for
that I required money and for that,
I needed a job. I worked as a book
recorder at an STD booth for C10.
One day a guy noticed me and said,
‘You have a nice handwriting. Why
don’t you come and work at my
Internet cafe?’ The offer was good
because he paid me C20 per day because then I could
buy a pouch of shampoo every now and then,” the actor
laughed as he reminisced about those frugal days.
But nothing lasts forever, right? Similarly Rane overcame that lean phase with the help of a friend who
encouraged him to pursue his dreams. “Luckily, all my
life I have come across positive people who have pushed
me forward,” he said.
The 32-year-old actor, apart from charming good
looks, is witty and humble. One could not miss the passion in his voice as he spoke about his role in Sanam
Teri Kasam. “It was a role I wanted to do. In all the
movies that I have done before, I have never played a
conventional role but this was one that I just had to do.
There was a voice inside me, telling me to do it and when
you receive that call from within, you know that its from
your heart,” he said. We realised that the character meant
more to him than one could comprehend, so we let him
continue, “He was exactly like my father, who is no more,
— he appears raw and tough on the outside but once
you get to know him, you will find that he is a gem of
a guy. He did not get by the norms of the society, either.”
Rane’s first tryst with the entertainment industry
was playing a character in the television show Left Right
Left, after which he moved to Hyderabad. “I did eight
to nine films in the South,” he pointed out. It was then
that he got a call from John Abraham’s office and was
offered a role in the movie Satra Ko Shaadi Hai, which
he accepted. It so happened that he received the script
of Saman Teri Kasam but could not commit to the dates
because of his engagements in Abraham’s film.
“By the time I went to the directors, the casting was
already complete and they were to go on the floors in
a few days. I had a very small window of opportunity
O
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ith the thought Vasudhaiva kutumbakam (the
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world is my family), Zee entertainment
W
announced the much awaited award show of the
tarted in the year 1998, Zee cine awards
year, Zee Cine Awards 2016. This year, as the award
last year. Goenka cleared
Sthetookair abybreaksaying,
function is back after a gap of a year, it is going to
“We were busy in
B^]PZbWX
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onakshi Sinha
joined the converSsation
and said, “I am
going to perform on
several songs.” She
added, “What I
love about my
profession is performing on stage.”
Sinha continued,
“When I came to
know that Anil
Kapoor is going to
perform, I told
Mercy (choreographer) that no one
is going to look at
my performance.”
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to convince them otherwise. It was a desperate attempt and I remember telling
them, ‘This is my role. You cannot take
it away from me.’ It was tough but
I did that in two days,” he said.
He is not the first actor to
have worked in both
Tollywood and Bollywood,
and he certainly will not be
the last. But considering
the fact that this is his
debut Bollywood performance, does he find any
similarity or difference
between the two? Rane
told us, “The passion is
similar. The manner of
storytelling is also same to
a huge extent but
Baahubali did change the way a film is
picturised. If you had asked me this five
years ago, my answer would have been
completely different. Today there is so
much of exchange happening all around
that nothing ceases to be different.”
But that still does not change the fact
that he has worked with John Abraham,
and the actor could not stop praising
him. Self-made people inspire him
and he was, and still is, in awe of
Abraham. “It happens to be one of the
best memories of my life. I have seen
how he has grown — from a model,
to an actor and finally a producer. And
when your first production is a movie like
Vicky Donor — it says a lot about who you
are as a person. Then he
produced and acted in
Madras Cafe. The
kind of work you
choose to do also
says a lot about
you,” he said.
Sanam Teri
Kasam is the first
of the many
movies that he’ll
be doing in Bollywood
and we felt the excitement in his voice as he spoke of
all the directors he wants to work with. “Sanjay Leela
Bhansali — I would love to work with. I want to work
with people who are passionate about cinema, who have
vision and can work hard,” he concluded.
24;41A8CHC0;:"<8=DC4B
launching our TV channel, &TV and our
resources were invested in
that.” Speaking on the
transparency of the
awards, he said, “No one
is involved from my team
in any of the process.
Jury members take the
decision, right from the
nominations to the
winner.” For the first time,
winners have been decided by selected jury members. Before this, the winners were decided by viewer votes. “But there
is a segment called viewers
choice awards for best film,
actor- male and female and
best song of the year,” Goenka
pointed out.
RaX\X]P[RPbTcWPcbW^^Z0\TaXRP³beTahU^d]SPcX^]!
be full of surprises. We bring you some of the highlights of what to expect this year. Regional cinema
would also be included for the first time in the
award function. And not only this, but there will
be anchors hosting segments of awards in Marathi,
Bangla and Telugu. On the award night, we will also
get to see Sushant Singh Rajput performing for the
first time.
At the press conference of the forthcoming show,
celebrities like Shahid Kapoor, Anil Kapoor,
Sonakshi Sinha, Kriti Sanon and Punit Goenka, MD
and CEO, Zeel and Sunil Buch, chief
business officer, Zeel were available for a media briefing. And,
this is what they had to say about
the night of celebration.
0]X[:P_^^a
resent at the
P
event,
Anil
Kapoor said, “This
time, I am hosting
the show and will
perform after many
years.” He continued, “I am really
excited for the show
but at the same time
I am nervous as it
has been a long gap.”
“I am fortunate to be
a part of this show
this year and I hope
that everything goes
well,” the
actor
added.
BWPWXS:P_^^a
hahid Kapoor
said that he will :aXcXBP]^]
Sbe hosting
the show
along with director
here ever yone
Karan Johar. “Apart Wwas
talking
from me and about their perforKaran, Anil sir
(Kapoor) will
also host a
segment,”
he revealed
saying that
he can not
hold this secret
anymore. He also
praised Priyanka
Chopra and said,
“We are proud of
her and also of the
fact that she is taking India on a global
platform.”
Kapoor added, “I
don’t like vulgar
comedy so, I will
not use it in my
hosting.”
mances, actress Kriti
Sanon tried not to
reveal much information about her performance. “I am asked
not to reveal about
my performance at
the event. As this
is my first performance so it will
be a secret for
everyone,” said
Sanon and added,
“I am very excited about my
performance.” She
promised
that everyone will
love her performance.
F74=2DAC08=A8B4#$<8=DC4B
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R^]cXVdXch1hDC?0; :10=4A944
ri Aurobindo (1872 — 1950), born
Aurobindo Ghosh, was an Indian
Snationalist,
philosopher, yogi, guru
and poet. Having studied for the
Indian Civil Service at King’s College,
Cambridge, he returned to India, took
up various civil service works under the
princely state of Baroda and began to
involve himself in politics.
Having joined the Indian movement for independence from British
rule, he became one of its most influential leaders. He then became a spiritual reformer, introducing his visions
on human progress and spiritual evolution. He was imprisoned by the
British for writing articles against
British rule in India and was released
when no evidence was provided.
During his stay in the jail he had mystical and spiritual experiences, after
which he moved to Pondicherry, leaving the path of politics to work for the
land’s spiritual regeneration.
Boma (The Bomb), recently
presented by Bratyajon from
Kolkata in NSD’s Bharat Rang
Mahotsav, was set in the above context and re-capitulated the annals of the
armed movement in the then Bengal
and its contiguity. Directed by the thespian Bratya basu, the play chose the
years immediately prior to shifting of
the capital to Delhi in 1912, while
Kolkata was still the nerve-centre of
the colonial Empire. Influenced by
the ideals of Aurobindo Ghosh, the
members of Bengal Revolutionary
Party, Barin Ghosh, Ullaskar Dutta,
Hemchandra
Kanungo,
Upendranath Bandyopadhyay and
several others, were undeterred in
their armed movement for freedom
of the country. The failure of their
bid to eliminate the sadistic magistrate Kingsford became a turning point for the English rulers,
leading to the capture of the top
process and those that were incarcerated in the Andaman cellular jails. The
play was an audio-visual narrative on
that period: with as much drama built
in as possible, and with some undercurrents of betrayal. The aloof
Aurobindo (Debshankar Halder) was
excellent although a little mannered
and Kalpana (Poulami Basu) was
pleasant and entirely plausible, though
historically a “figment of imagination”.
Notes on an interaction with the
director:
OHow was the play Boma conceived?
Boma had remained only an idea,
a promise, in my mind. After a long
while, the promise was born, breaking
through the dark to an elevated manifestation. Boma is placed at the commencement of the 20th Century —
pre-independent India and Bengal’s
revolution.
OWhat was your factual framework?
leaders and causing disintegration of
the revolutionaries. In the play, the boiling cauldron of those troubled times
was cast: beginning with the incipient
hunger fro freedom and the impatience
of a few with the prevailing politics of
non-interference. In fact, those few
deliberately chose the path of armed
struggle, manufactured secretly bombs
based on formulae discretely brought
from abroad, took on head-long the
colonial perpetrators of tyranny and
attempted to “eliminate” them: at the
cost of their own life and limbs.There
were many, many martyrs in the
We wanted to frame and use this
production for picking up a few details:
out from the historical pile-up, of the
massive revolutionary struggle of the
pre-independent Bengal. Absence of
adequate infra-structure, lack of longterm planning, power struggle, futility of compassion and empathy — all
these various aspects could be explored
in a new dimension to make living
worthwhile.
OAre your characters real?
All the characters in this play are
real and historical except Kalpana. The
play thus knits imagination with historical facts.
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he rich and diverse culture of
India’s Northeast was on display in all its splendour as curtains went up on the 12th South
Asian Games in a colourful opening
ceremony with Prime Minister
Narendra Modi and a host of other
dignitaries in attendance.
PM Modi declared the Games
open at the Indira Gandhi Athletics
Stadium to mark the formal beginning
of the 12-day event to be competed by
more than 2600 athletes.
Eight countries — Afghanistan,
Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal,
Pakistan and Sri Lanka, besides India
— will be vying for the top honours in
the Games to be co-hosted by Shillong.
“I declare the 12th South Asian
Games open,” Modi said amid cheers
from a capacity crowd at the stadium.
Present on the occasion were governors of Assam and Meghalaya, chief
ministers of the two states, besides
Union Sports Minister Sarbananda
Sonowal and IOA president N
Ramachandran among others.
Postponed several times due to various reasons, the much-delayed but the
biggest ever South Asian Games being
held under the aegis of South Asian
Olympics Council begins after a delay
The highlight of the sports section
— the other being cultural section —
was the digital lighting of the Games’
flag with former India football captain
Bhaichung Bhutia doing the honours.
Sikkimese Bhutia, who was Indian
football’s poster boy for many years
before his retirement in 2011, took the
Games torch from Gagan Narang,
Monalisa Baruah, Bhogeshwar Barua,
Rani Rampal, Krishna Poonoia and
Anju Booby George.
Just as Bhutia touched a spot at the
central platform of the stadium, the digital fire spread in two concentric circles
with the inner ring showing a burning
fire before the actual one was lit atop
the stadium stand.
This was followed by fireworks and
show of laser lights in the ceremony
which lasted two hours and 45 minutes.
T
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of four years.
The ‘Gender Equal Games’ will
have 23 disciplines and 228 events, with
all the sports having both men and
women’s sections for the first time,
making this edition the biggest ever
sporting spectacle in South Asia.
There will be 228 gold, 228 silver
and 308 bronze medals on offer this
time. The two North Eastern cities will
play host to 3,333 athletes and officials.
India, who had topped the medal
tally in all the editions so far, have the
largest number of participants with 521
athletes (245 women).
The ceremony began with the athletes’ march past alongside the Games
mascot ‘Tikhor’ leading it. Afghanistan
led the march past with hosts India
coming in the last.
Each country’s contingent had two
children — one boy and one girl — in
?C8
front holding the waters from a river
from their country.
Understandably, the Indian contingent led by flagbearer and squash
player Sourav Ghosal got the loudest
cheer though the athletes from Pakistan
and Nepal also got a big round of
applause from the crowd as well.
Ghosal later took the oath on
behalf of all the athletes to play in fair
manner under rules and regulations.
<4670;0H0;465A><C>30H
Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma
will officially launch the Meghalaya leg
in a two-hour opening ceremony.
The ceremony will begin at
5.30pm at the Jawaharlal Nehru
Stadium here as the organisers expect
a sellout crowd of 10,000 even as the
games have already begun.
The highlight of the ceremony will
be the performances by Shillong
Chamber Choir.
2cTYVcd`_eRcXVe]VeU`h_Z_W``eSR]]
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eturning from a prolonged layoff, defending champion Tarundeep Rai produced his best along with
R
country’s Olympic hope Deepika Kumari to top their
respective qualification rounds as India reigned
supreme in recurve archery of the 12th South Asian
Games here on Friday.
India also topped in the compound section with
Abhishek Verma and Purvasha Shende claiming the
honours in men’s and women’s sections respectively.
Following the Asian Games protocol, two archers
from each country made the cut into the elimination
round as India’s Olympian archer Jayanta Talukdar made
an exit with promising Army archer Gurucharan Besra
(666 points) making the last-16 along with topper
BaX;P]ZPP]S=T_P[_[PhTabX]PRcX^]X]6dfPWPcX
Tarundeep, who logged 676.
?C8
The next best was Bangladeshi Sojeb Shiek who had
a score of 653 to finish third in the men’s recurve.
Having finished top two, the Indian duo will get a
bye into the quarters as they also topped the team event
along with Jayanta Talukdar as the hosts will get a bye
into the semifinals of the team event.
In the women’s recurve event, Deepika lived up to
her expectation to finish top along with Bombayla Devi
Laishram with scores of 668 and 646 respectively as
Laxmirani Majhi, who had won the national ranking
here in January, failed to make the cut.
However, there was disappointment for reigning
champions India as they had to be content with a goalless draw against lower-ranked Maldives in the women’s
football competition. The Indian eves dominated but
couldn’t find a goal as Maldives, ranked 129 in FIFA
rankings, compared to India’s 57, stole a point.
;P]RTabQTPc
FPeTaXSTab#
Explore the potentials
in the North East
17D10=4B7F0A) Kalinga
2 16
Lancers rode on Glenn Turner's
twin field strike to cruise to a
comfortable 4-0 win over Delhi
Waveriders and register their
fourth victory in the fourth
Hockey India League.
Turner scored two brilliant
field goals in the fifth and 56th
minutes as Lancers produced an
inspirid show before their home
crowd. As expected, the Lancers
started the first half on an
attacking note and drew the first
blood through a spectacular
field goal from star Australian
Turner as early as in the fifth
minute, giving the hosts an
early lead of 2-0 as according to
new scoring rule in HIL one
field goal is counted as two.
With this win, the Lancers
have 22 points in their kitty and
now lead the points table with
four wins and two losses from
six games. The Waveriders are
languishing at the fifth spot with
17 points from seven games.
Kalinga Lancers will next
host Jaypee Punjab Warriors on
Sunday, while the Waveriders
will play Dabang Mumbai. ?C8
Shri Narendra Modi
Hon’ble Prime Minister of India
Inauguration by
February 12-14, 2016
Dr. Jitendra Singh
Pragati Maidan, New Delhi
davp 11101/13/0013/1516
Union Minister of State (I/C), DoNER
on February 12, 2016
at 10.00 A.M.
Event Highlights
Scheduled Sessions on
• Exhibition Stalls : Displaying activities
taken up by various Ministries
• Other Attractions include exhibition of
produce of NER, Cuisine, Music, Dance,
Fashion Shows etc.
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)
g)
Tourism
IT-ITES
Livelihood
Micro Finance
Skill Development
Startups
Handicrafts
MINISTRY OF DEVELOPMENT OF NORTH EASTERN REGION
Website : mdoner.gov.in
For any further information please contact : Dr. Harmeet Singh, E-mail : [email protected]
D<d\QPRadbW
3PQP]V3T[WX
" &
14=60;DAD) Defending champions U Mumba came back
with a bang to completely outclass Dabang Delhi KC, who
crashed to their fourth successive loss in the season 3.
U Mumba, who had slipped
a bit losing to Jaipur Pink
Panthers at Vishakhapatnam,
carved out a clinical 30-17 win
which takes them to the fourth
spot in the points table. Dabang
Delhi KC remains in the eighth
spot with a solitary point. The
tone was set by U Mumba with
an all-out in the ninth minute of
play as Anup raided well to score
three points. He had support
from ever reliable defence where
Surender Nada and Rishank
Devadiga ruled the territory in
the match thereafter.
?C8
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90C8=E4A<0Q =4F34;78
ndian spearhead Mohammad Shami
was included in the team for Asia
Cup and World T20 by the selection
committee headed by Chairman of
selectors Sandip Patil, BCCI Secretary
Anurag Thakur and Indian captain
Mahendra Singh Dhoni and other members despite the pacer is recovering from
a Hamstring injury.
The squad for Asia Cup and World
T20 is almost untouched after Men in
Blue clean swept the Baggy Greens
away 3-0. Pawan Negi’s name was only
the addition in the squad.
Shami hasn’t played any ODI since
2015 World Cup where he picked up a
knee injury. The pacer was in fine tune
picking up 17 wickets in seven matches. He was also named in the Indian
squad for tour down under but before
the ODI series, Shami picked up a
hamstring injury during training session
and returned from Australia.
On his inclusion in the team, Patil
said, “He (Shami) has been our best
bowler in recent times and it was time
to take a final call on him. What I know
is that he has recovered from the
Hamstring injury and has started bowling in the nets. There is still a month
before the World T20 begins and I think
he will be fit by then.”
A few days ago, Delhi lad Pawan
Negi was named in the team for upcoming T20 series against Sri Lanka and the
young all-rounder found his place for the
Asia Cup and World T20 as well.
Negi is still uncapped and will most
likely make is T20 debut against Sri
Lanka starting Febraury 9th. India will
play three T20’s. The board has also kept
faith in Ashish Nehra, Yuvraj Singh and
Harbhajan Singh and has named them
in the squad for the two events.
Senior off-spinner Harbhajan Singh
who was there in the team against
Australia, but didn’t play even one of the
T20 was named in the squad.
Speaking on his inclusion, chairman
of selectors, Patil said, “Harbhajan has
been a part of this team. The selectors,
team management and the captain have
faith in him, his record and the contribution he has made to the team is great
and unbelievable.”
I
Medium pacers, Jasprit
Bhumrah and Hardik Pandya
who were lauded by skipper
Dhoni for their performances
down under also found place on
the squad announced by Anurag
Thakur and Sandip Patil here on
Friday. Also on the day, Women’s
team was also announced. The
team is unchanged which went
to Australia recently.
Patil said the team management had done its share of
experimentations during the
Australia tour. “We experimented during Australia tour
and discussed which players would
be good for replacements.”
A lot has been discussed about
who is suitable at No. 4, 5
for the team. There was a
big debate if the selectors
would go with Ajinkya
Rahane who showed his
capabilities and caliber or
with Manish Pandey who
got his big break courtesy Ajinkya
Rahane, who was injured in the fourth
ODI. Pandey held his nerve and was
there when the national team needed him the most.
Pandey scored match-winning
century and helped the Indian
team to avoid a clean sweep of 50 down under.
But on Friday, after the selection
committee was over and the squads were
being announced, the selectors took
Rahane’s name and excluded Manish
Pandey from the team indicating they
were looking for experience players
over rookies.
“We’ve been going with a horses-forcourses policy which is serving us well,”
Patil said. “Pandey did very well in
Australia tour and is a future prospect
but we’ve picked players according to our
needs. His name was discussed in the
team and we’ve tried to look at those who
can get us those quick 10-12 runs late in
the innings.” he said.
“When selectors pick a team, we
always give importance to domestic
performance. It is not that we are only
looking at seniors; we have looked at the
performance, fitness and record of the
domestic players as well. We have taken
<4=´BB@D03
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into account all the performances of not
just 15-16 guys but all the domestic players and then picked these 15 players,” he
further explained.
Among the ignored were the pace
combination of Ishant Sharma and
Bhuvneshwar Kumar. While Ishant has
not represented India in this format since
2013, Bhuvneshwar had an awful run
down under and was forced to return
after he too picked up an injury.
Speculation have been revolving
about Dhoni’s captaincy and his form
after losing the ODI series 1-4, but
Captain Cool proved the critics wrong
by winning the T20 series and making
a statement that he is still the right man
to do the job for the team.
On Friday, chairman of selectors Patil
affirmed his faith in MSD’s leadership qualities and about people thoughts of him calling it a day he said, “We have no right to
tell players when to retire, we have total
faith in Dhoni’s captaincy. He is the right
person to lead in Asia Cup and World T20.”
The Asia Cup is scheduled to be held
in Bangladesh from February 24 to
March 6, followed by the World T20
from March 8 to April 3 in India.
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Former captain Sunil Gavaskar feels
including injur y-prone pacer
Mohammed Shami in India’s T20 World
Cup squad is a bit of risk but the team
announced for Asia Cup and WT20 on
Friday has “terrific balance”.
“It will be a bit of risk (including
Shami). However, this format is short so
(he can bowl four overs). More than a
month is left for World T20 and he will
get a fair bit of bowling in the Asia Cup
too,” Gavaskar told NDTV.
Overall, Gavaskar said Shami and
left-arm spinner Pawan Negi’s inclusion
will strengthen the squad though he
wanted a leg-spinner too. Offie
Ravichandran Ashwin and left-arm
tweaker Ravindra Jadeja are the leading
spin pair of the team.
“This is a good team, in my view a legspinner would have given more options but
selectors have stuck with the same team.
The balance of the team in Australia was
terrific and that balance hasn’t changed. In
fact inclusion of Negi and Shami has
strengthened the squad,” he said.
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CCI president Shashank Manohar may
have earned plaudits from the ICC
B
member nations on reviewing the constitutional amendments which give more powers to the ‘Big Three’ but his decision of not
consulting the BCCI top brass has not gone
down well with a lot of influential members.
“I think Shashank Manohar is the BCCI
representative in the ICC board and our
nominee for the chairman’s post. He has gone
there and expressed his views but the ideal
process would have been to call a meeting and
apprise the members of his decision. The
decision to compromise on BCCI’s interests
has been unilaterally taken by Manohar,” a
senior BCCI official from central zone said.
“It’s still under review but one needs to
understand that if BCCI’s position is compromised, then it also happens to hit our
revenue generation. Now if Lodha
Committee reforms are implemented in
toto, the advertisement revenue itself will
take a massive hit. So it will be double trouble for us financially,” the official explained.
Under Manohar, the ICC Board decided: “Chairman will not be allowed to hold
any post with any Member Board and may
be re-elected at the expiry of the term with
a maximum limit of three terms.”
In fact, there is some discontentment in
the BCCI about this decision as the antiManohar faction believes that this is done
with an aim of self-preservation.
“There is a feeling among a section of the
BCCI members that Manohar will come back
at ICC after this term, especially once he is
done with BCCI presidency in year 2017. Since
a chairman has three terms, Manohar will still
have two terms in his kitty. It will be interesting to see what he does post 2017,” source said.
%RDUGQRWORRNLQJIRU DQ\ 9^TYQVQSUXYWXc`YbYdUT>Q]YRYQY^A6
HVFDSHURXWH7KDNXU I
scuppering the African minnows’
hopes of a surprise place in the
quarter-finals.
The umpires, who initially did
not give the decision, asked the West
Indies players if they wanted to
uphold the appeal and after receiving
confirmation, the matter was referred
to the third umpire which confirmed
that Ngarava’s bat was not behind the
line. “I mean, a law is a law, right?”
Gill told AFP when asked for a
comment on the controversy.
064=284BQ 50CD;;07<8A?DA
90C8=E4A<0Q =4F34;78
the past few days, the Apex
has been coming hard on
IthenCourt
Board for Cricket Control in
India (BCCI) and telling them to
implement the Lodha committee
recommendations, BCCI General
Secretary Anurag Thakur on
Friday made it crystal clear that
the board is not looking for an
escape route.
“We believe in transparency
and accountability. In the last
nine months or so, we have
proven that steps what BCCI has
taken is in the right direction. The
certain changes that we have
brought in the structure and in
the organisation have been
applauded by everyone. Now if
you see, Justice Lodha has recommended many things. We have
requested the state cricket associations to look into that.”
“They are the member of the
board. They form the board. So
every member has the right to
look into the recommendations,
come up with suggestions and
yes, our Legal committee met
and again we are going to meet
on February 7th.
The Special General meeting
has been called in the third week
of this month. We have requested the state associations to come
out with their recommendations
before that. It is a due process that
we have adopted.
And as well as the details of
the recommendations of Lodha
committee is concerned, during
the next hearing in the Supreme
Court we will definitely go and
give our views on that.” he further added.
However there are also views
that the BCCI and State associations are going slow ‘deliberately’
on accepting the recommendations or even deliberating. Giving
his views, the Secretary said, “See
we need to understand that the
report is not just of one page. It’s
detailed report which will have
consequences on working of the
BCCI and the functions of the
board. And when a committee has
taken nearly 12 months to come
out with a report, we are taking
close to two months to discuss
and debate and after deliberation
come to a consensus to implement that report.
We are not slow, when the
report came; I had written letters
to all the associations to call their
12286T]TaP[BTRaTcPah0]daPVCWPZda[TUcSdaX]VP_aTbbR^]UTaT]RT^]5aXSPh
meetings. We are not shying away.”
The BCCI also on Friday
gave a lifeline to Delhi and
District Cricket Association
(DDCA), giving the body time till
February 8 to have the necessary
compliance certificates if they
want to host World T20 match.
Speaking about the matter, he
said, “As far as the DDCA is concerned, we have discussed this
matter at the ICC meeting and it
has been decided that the deadline be extended to February 8th
by which they have to get all the
required NOCs. In case they fail
to get the NOCs, we have a Plan
B ready which we will immediately implement.”
Being the president of
Himanchal Pradesh Cricket
Association, Thakur gave his
views on if all the Lodha recommendations can be implemented or not, he said, “I think I will
reserve my say on this until the
BCCI’s AGM. We are meeting
today to discuss the recommendations.
All I can say is, even in the
media there have been so many
discussions, debates on what could
be implemented, what might be
the repercussions that we will
have. So these are certain issues
where things are not very clear. So
I think, till the time we look into
details, what could be the way out,
I think we need to sit and discuss
and the BCCI collectively should
see what could be the way out so
that it should not affect the functioning of state associations and
the BCCI.” he said.
However, Thakur indicated
that the board is not entirely
happy with the Lodha recom-
?C8
mendations.
“If you look at 1983 World
Cup winning team we were
unable to give enough money to
them. Thirty years down the line
we have done something good. It
has paid off. I mean it can’t be that
everything is wrong within the
BCCI. You can’t say that. I think
what we have achieved in last 3040 years should also be looked at.”
he explained.
Thakur also had a word for
Ex ICC president N. Srinivasan
when question of spot-fixing
came into role. “We are paying
the price for the mistakes made
in the earlier era. What happened was loss of face and credibility. Lack of decision-making
during that regime also hurt the
image of the board. But in the
last nine months, we have tried
to restore the image of the
board. Everyone knows that
who caused damage and who
restored the image.”
He also took a jibe at the popular topic about ‘Conflict of
Interest’. “What actually is
Conflict of Interest? he asked
smiling and jokingly.
Kevin Pietersen is playing in
the T20 leagues and also is commentating in the same tournament. Lot of players in other
countries like Australia are doing
the same. So is that you will term
as conflict? Bharat mein toh yeh ho
gaya hain, ki hum Conflict of
Interest ko leke aaye, kuch logo ne
isko aadat bana li hain. Ek platform
bana lia hain ki roj case daal do
jaake court mein. But having said
that, whatever measures we have
taken from our side to improve is
in the right direction.” he said.
ndia will aim to build on their dominant showing in the pool stages
when they take on an unpredictable
Namibian unit in the quarterfinals of
the ICC U -19 WC here today.
India went about their job in clinical fashion beating Ireland, New
Zealand and Nepal by big margins in
Group D. However, they can’t afford
to take their quarterfinal opponents
likely as Namibia head into the
knock-out phase after showing the
exit door to South Africa.
On paper, India possess a formidable unit and should have little difficulty in getting past Namibia.
India captain Ishan Kishan would
be pleased to get some runs under his
belt in the last game against Nepal after
failing in the previous two innings.
The opposition will also have to
worry about Sarfaraz Khan, who
goes into game at the back of two
fifties in three games. Madhya
Pradesh-born pacer Avesh Khan has
been the standout bowler for India
with nine wickets at an average of
10=6;034B7A4027<0834=B5
10.00 and economy rate of 3.21.
Namibians, on other hand, have
nothing to lose tomorrow and they
can go out and play fearless cricket
against their fancied opponents.
They will be high confidence after
a sensational win against South Africa,
effectively sending them into the
quarters. But they would want to put
their sorry outing in the last game
behind. Bangladesh bulldozed Namibia
on Tuesday after dismissing them for
65, eventually winning by 8 wickets.
F82>0273454=3B³<0=:03´
West Indies coach Dwain Gill on
Friday defended a controversial runout at the ICC Under-19 World Cup,
which sparked a furore on social
media, saying the “Mankad” was
well within the rules.
Zimbabwe needed only three
runs in the final over with one
wicket in hand in Tuesday’s game in
Chittagong when Keemo Paul ran
Richard Ngarava out without
entering his delivery stride,
Skipper Mehidy Hasan and Zakir
Hasan scored unbeaten half-centuries to help Bangladesh defeat a
valiant Nepal by six wickets after a
tense run-chase and storm into their
first-ever semi-final of the ICC U19
Cricket World Cup here on Friday.
Mehidy and Zakir enabled the
hosts to recover from early setbacks
and surpass Nepal’s 211 for nine with
10 balls to spare.
Brief scores
Nepal: 211/9 (Raju Rijal 72) lose to
Bangladesh: 215/4 (Hasan 75*, Hasan
55*; Dhamala 2/33) by six wickets.
3320cPZTb72a^dcT FW^fX[[QTbcPaSPaZW^abTX]8?;PdRcX^].
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?C8Q 14=60;DAD
?C8Q =4F34;78
he Delhi and Districts
Cricket Association
T
(DDCA) on Friday moved
Delhi High Court seeking
directions to the south
municipal corporation to
issue it an occupancy certificate to hold matches of
upcoming T20 World Cup
at Ferozshah Kotla stadium
in March this year.
DDCA in an application has said it has been
granted a no objection certificate (NOC) from Land
and Development Officer
(L&DO) for getting occupancy or completion certificate from South Delhi
Municipal Corporation
(SDMC) and placed the
NOC before the court.
DDCA has sought
directions to SDMC to grant
the occupancy certificate
“upon applicant (DDCA)
furnishing the undertaking
subject to SDMC’s satisfaction for obtaining all the requisite compliances/NOCs
within three weeks so that
World Cup T20 matches
can be held at Ferozshah
Kotla ground”.
The court is expected to
hear the matter next week.
In its application filed
through advocate Sangram
Patnaik, DDCA has also
sought that the T20 WC
matches be held under the
supervision of Justice (Rtd)
Mukul Mudgal.
It has also stated that the
demand of C83 lakh made
by L&DO for issuing the
NOC was actually payable to
DDCA and not the other
way round.
In its fresh plea, DDCA
has said L&DO has apologised for the same and has
assured return of the money
(C83 lakh) already lying
with it and the amount (C83
lakh) deposited by the association, that is of C166 lakh.
The high court on
November 18, 2015, while
allowing DDCA to hold the
India-South Africa test at
Kotla, had directed it to
obtain all clearances and
NOCs from local authorities, including L&DO, by
March 31 this year.
As per SDMC, there
was no provision under the
law to issue a provisional
occupancy certificate
eteran Yuvraj Singh and
rookie all-rounder Pawan
V
Negi could be among those
who trigger a bidding war
when 351 cricketers go under
the hammer in the Indian
Premier League players’ auction here today.
Negi, who has just been
named in the Indian team for
the World T20 and is known to
hit big sixes apart from his
accurate wicket-to-wicket
bowling, has a base price of
only C30 lakh. The 23-year-old
is likely to fetch way beyond
that amount when the eight
franchises bid.
This year’s auction will see
two new franchises — RPG
owned Rising Pune Supergiants
led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni
and Intex mobiles’ Rajkot based
team Gujarat Lions led by
Suresh Raina.
With a base price of C2
crore, Yuvraj, who is the biggest
Indian draw in the eight-player
marquee bracket, has notched
up the highest price at the two
previous auctions for the Royal
Challengers Bengaluru and
Delhi Daredevils.
It is expected that Yuvraj,
along with Kevin Pietersen (Base
Price of C2 crore) are likely to hit
the million dollar mark once
again. Pietersen, who has a huge
draw in India, is also a big name
from the marketing perspective
of all the franchises.
Some of the lesser known
names who could find franchises interested in them are
Bangladesh left-arm pacer
Mustafizur Rahman (BP C50
lakh), who has enjoyed a lot of
success against India, and
stockily built Delhi wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant
(BP C10 lakh), who recently hit
the headlines with the fastest 50
in the U-19 World Cup.
With Indian players available at a premium, even
mediocre performers like
Dhawal Kulkarni and Stuart
Binny, with base prices of C2
crore, could see teams fighting
for them.
Irfan Pathan has always
gone richer from every IPL
auction and at a base price of
C1 crore, it may not be different this time.
Among the foreign players,
explosive New Zealander
Martin Guptill, with a modest
base price of C50 lakh, may find
takers along with Australia
T20 captain Aaron Finch (BP
C1 crore) and South African
speedster Dale Steyn.
Perennial woodenspooners
Delhi Daredevils again have the
maximum purse of C37.15
crore to shop from while
defending champions Mumbai
Indians only have a kitty of
C14.40 crore.
Sunrisers Hyderabad also
have C30.15 crore to shop for
players while KKR will be able
to spend C17.95 crore. Kings
XI Punjab have C23 crore
while Royal Challengers
Bangalore have C21.625 crore
respectively.
It will be interesting as to
how Pune and Rajkot build
their teams as they would be
needing a minimum of 11
players and a maximum of upto
22 players with a purse of C27
crore each.