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RNI No.2016/1957, REGD NO. SSP/LW/NP-34/2016-18
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OPINION 8
WORLD 13
SPORT 15
CELEBRATION OF CULTURES
FROM ACROSS THE WORLD
CONTESTED CONVENTION CAN'T BE
RULED OUT: REPUBLICAN CHAIRMAN
NEW ZEALAND FACE PAKISTAN
IN CRUCIAL WT20 MATCH TODAY
Established 1864
Published From
DELHI LUCKNOW BHOPAL
BHUBANESWAR RANCHI RAIPUR
CHANDIGARH DEHRADUN
Late City Vol. 152 Issue 80
*Air Surcharge Extra if Applicable
LUCKNOW, TUESDAY MARCH 22, 2016; PAGES 16 `3
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JOHN WANTS TO
MARRY CONTENT
WITH COMMERCE
16 VIVACITY
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Nobody can snatch
Dalits’ rights: PM
Modi raps Opp for spreading
canard; reiterates no dilution
of reservation for downtrodden
PNS n NEW DELHI
head of Assembly polls in
five States, Prime Minister
A
Narendra Modi on Monday
utilised the Ambedkar
Memorial Lecture to take on
his opponents, especially the
Congress, by seeking to once
again set the records straight on
the issue of reservation policy
for Dalits and underprivileged.
Asserting “nobody can snatch
their right”, he pointed out
how the BJP Governments at
the Centre and States never tinkered with it and accused his
opponents of “spreading
untruths” and doing only politics in the name of Ambedkar.
He also attacked the
Congress, without naming it,
by recalling how Ambedkar’s
progressive views by way of the
Hindu Code Bill arguing equal
rights for women had no takers then and he had to resign
as the Law Minister. He linked
his Government’s Waterways
Bill with Ambedkar’s views on
India’s maritime strength, and
outlined the slew of Ambedkarrelated initiatives taken by the
BJP Governments in the States
and the Centre. The Prime
Minister also compared
CAPSULE
WOMEN MAY NOT GET
ODD-EVEN EXEMPTION
New Delhi: The Kejriwal
Government may not exempt
women in the second edition of
the odd-even scheme starting on
April 15. The Government will take
a decision by April 8. While
Transport Minister Gopal Rai
refrained from confirming if
exemption to women will be
continued, he said 50 per cent of
seats in the “Paryavaran Bus
Sewa” — special buses during the
scheme — will be reserved for
ladies, indicating that women may
be excluded from the exemption
list this time around.
J&K IMPASSE: MEHBOOBA
LIKELY TO MEET PM TODAY
New Delhi: As the deadlock over
Government formation in J&K
continues, PDP president
Mehbooba Mufti is likely to meet
Prime Minister Narendra Modi
on Tuesday after efforts to revive
the coaliton hit a roadblock last
week. The visit comes a day after
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley
said, “We stand fully committed
as far as Agenda of Governance
is concerned,” in J&K.
AFRIDI TO BE SACKED
AFTER WORLD T20: PCB
Karachi: Flamboyant all-rounder
Shahid Afridi will be replaced as
Pakistan’s T20 captain after the
World T20 in India, PCB
chairman Shaharyar Khan
announced on Monday, while
hinting his days as a player were
also numbered.
P15
Constitution
architect
Ambedkar to Martin Luther
King, who had fought for the
rights of blacks.
Modi said, “Nothing has
ever happened to the reservation for Dalits, tribals, when we
are in power but still lies are
being spread to mislead people.
When Vajpayeeji became PM,
a campaign was run saying
reservation will be abolished.
He was the Prime Minister for
two terms and nothing of that
sort happened.”
“The BJP has ruled in
Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat,
Maharashtra, Punjab, and
Haryana for many years and the
quota policy never suffered a
scratch. Yet untruths are being
spread. People, who are only
interested in doing politics, fail
to come out of it,” Modi said.
Asserting that quota is the
“right” of the Dalits and the
underprivileged that nobody
can snatch, the Prime Minister
noted, “As I had said earlier also
that even if Ambedkar appears
today, he cannot snatch this
very right of yours. What are
we before Baba Saheb?”
Laying the foundation stone
for Ambedkar National memorial, the Prime Minister target-
UP honours 46 with
Yash Bharti awards
Prime Minister Narendra
Modi pays tribute to
Dr BR Ambedkar before
laying foundation stone for
a national memorial in
New Delhi on Monday PTI
13-year-old Anjali Mishra gets Ahilyabai Holkar Samman
Those who did not
work for 60 years
have given us a
chance to do this
and we take pride
in doing such
works like building
Ambedkar memorial
at 26 Alipur Road
ed his political opponents accusing them of “spreading confusion
and lies” on the issue and rued
that while its “serves their politics”, such things “weaken” the
social fabric of the nation. Modi
said it was for the first time that
the Prime Minister of the country was delivering the Ambedkar
Memorial Lecture being organised for the sixth time.
“Our pledge is to complete
the memorial by March 2018
and I declare here that I will
inaugurate it on April 14, 2018,”
Modi said amid chants of Bharat
Mata ki jai from the audience.
He repeatedly questioned
“why it took 60 years” to do it
and reminded that Ambedkar as
Law Minister had to resign
from Jawaharlal Nehru’s Cabinet
owing to lack of backing on the
Hindu Code Bill that was a progressive move aimed to codify
PNS n LUCKNOW
hief Minister Akhilesh
Yadav on Monday conC
ferred the Yash Bharti awards
and reform Hindu personal law
in India by giving the women
equal rights in many spheres like
property. Terming it “injustice”
to call Ambedkar only a messiah of Dalits, the Prime Minister
said that he was the voice of all
marginalised sections and was a
“Vishwa Manav”.
Linking the Waterways Bill
brought by his Government in
Parliament with Ambedkar’s
views on India’s maritime
strength, Modi said no work on
it happened in last 60 years and
the difference is visible “when
some bhakta (devotee) of Baba
Saheb comes in Government”.
Modi also said the electricity acts which created the
formation of boards in states
for distribution of power and
BJP, Cong take U’khand
crisis to Prez’s door
labours laws which fixed eight
hours were creation of
Ambedkar. Taking jibes at
Nehru dynasty, the Prime
Minister said “somehow history did not give credits to
Ambedkar for what all he did
for the country.”
“Some people don’t like us.
They don’t even want to see us.
They get fever on seeing us and
in fever, one loses control of
mind. That is why they say all
kinds of lies and all absurd
things. Those who did not
work for 60 years have given us
a chance to do this and we take
pride in doing such works like
building a memorial at 26
Alipur Road,” he said, taking
swipes at Congress leadership
and Nehru dynasty.
Cong expels rebels Saket Bahuguna, joint-secy Anil Gupta
Court seeks
Congress’ a/c
books during
Herald scam
PNS n NEW DELHI/DEHRADUN
PNS n NEW DELHI
he Uttarakhand political
T
crisis
reached
the
President’s door on Monday
with the BJP and the Congress
leading their respective delegations to Pranab Mukherjee to
apprise him of the developments in the State and seek
time to prove their majority in
the Assembly.
On his part, Uttarakhand
Chief Minister Harish Rawat at
a Press conference in Dehradun
accused the BJP of murdering
“both democracy and secularism in Uttarakhand,” while the
Congress expelled Saket
Bahuguna and State Congress
joint secretary Anil Gupta for
anti-party activities.
The five-member BJP delegation to the President comprised in-charge of party affairs
in Uttarakhand Shyam Jaju,
BJP general secretary Kailash
Vijayvargiya, State unit chief
Ajay Bhat, rebel Congress leaders Vijay Bahuguna and Harak
Singh Rawat. The delegation
said since the Rawat
Government had lost majority
after it failed to get the Finance
Bill passed, it had no moral
right to be in power.
Governor KK Paul had on
Saturday asked Harish Rawat to
prove majority on March 28.
However, the BJP delegation
requested the President to
direct the Governor to dismiss
the Rawat Government, claiming it had lost majority in the
Assembly. “We have also asked
the President to direct the
Governor to give us time to
prove our majority on the floor
of the House,” Kailash
Vijayvargiya said after the
meeting. While the BJP urged
the President to pre-pone
Rawat’s floor test from March
28 to March 22, it accused the
Uttarakhand Speaker of acting
like Rawat’s “agent.”
The Congress, on the other
hand, accused the BJP of destabilising its Government in the
State. Speaking after the meeting with the President, Leader
of Opposition in Rajya Sabha
Ghulam Nabi Azad said, “We
apprised the President of the
situation in Uttarakhand and
how the BJP, with the help of
the Centre, is trying to destabilize Congress Governments
across the county. We also
requested the President that as
per the Governor’s earlier decision, the CM should be allowed
to prove majority on March
28.” Apart from Azad, the
Congress delegation comprised
of senior party leaders AK
Antony, Motilal Vora, Ambika
Soni, Ahmed Patel and Kapil
Sibal.
Earlier in the day, toughening its stand on rebel leaders,
the Congress expelled from the
party for six years Saket
Bahuguna, son of former
Uttarakhand CM Vijay
Bahuguna and Anil Gupta.
The party accused Saket of
“masterminding” the rebellion
by nine of its MLAs.
Saket Bahuguna had contested the last Lok Sabha elections from Uttarakhand on the
Congress ticket. Sources said
the Congress High Command
has asked Rawat to go ahead
and tackle the rebellion with an
iron hand. The action indicated that the Congress leadership
was not in a mood to initiate
dialogue with the rebels and
that it was even willing to sacrifice the Government if need
be. The State goes to polls to
elect its new Assembly early
next year.
al account books during the
scam period of 2010-2011 in
the National Herald case.
The court also asked the
Associated Journal Ltd (AJL),
publisher of National Herald, to
produce its accounts for the
said period.
Metropolitan Magistrate
Lovleen’s strict direction came
after the battery of lawyers
appearing for the Congress
informed the court that the
party needed time to follow the
March 11 order for producing
the accounts. Senior lawyers RS
Cheema, Ramesh Gupta and
Badar Mahmood argued saying, “Summons were not clear
as to whether it was for 2010,
2011 or for both.”
The Congress was supposed to produce the documents on Monday. At one
point, the lawyers even said
they received the summons
only on Saturday and that too,
it was a peon in the AICC office
who had received it.
Continued on Page 7
In historic face-to-face meeting at Havana’s Palace of Revolution,
Barack Obama and Raul Castro hold groundbreaking talks aimed
at advancing diplomatic opening that both leaders have pursued
rushing off decades of distrust, US
B
President Barack Obama and
Cuban President Raul Castro
US President Barack
Obama meets Cuban
President Raul Castro
at the Palace of the
Revolution in Havana
on Monday
AP
shook hands on Monday in Havana’s
Palace of the Revolution, opening a
meeting aimed at advancing the
diplomatic opening that both leaders
have pursued.
Obama and Castro stood together as a Cuban military band played the
national anthems of Cuba and the
United States — stunning sounds in a
country where resistance to the US has
been part of the Government’s national mission for decades. Obama and top
US officials warmly greeted their
Cuban counterparts before the two
Presidents sat down for their meeting.
For Obama, there’s no better place
Yash Bharti included Irfan
Habib in the field of education,
Dr Naresh Trehan and Dr Ravi
Kant in the field of medicine,
Ustaad Ghulam Mustafa Khan,
Ustaad Gulshan Bharti and
Surabhi Ranjan for vocal music,
Sudhir Mishra, Vishal
Bhardwaj, Anurag Kashyap for
film direction, Ashok
Chakradhar for literature,
Arunima Sinha and Aparna
Kumar for mountaineering,
Brig D Prabhakar for medicine
and Sthavi Asthana for horse
riding.
The other awardees were
Raju Srivastava (comedy),
Hemant Sharma (journalism),
RP Singh (cricket), Anwar
Jalalpuri and Nahid Abidi (literature), Seema Punia (athletics), Jagbir Singh (hockey),
Major AK Singh (rowing),
Kamla Srivastava (folk music),
Abhin Shyam Gupta (badminton), Sunil Jogi, Gopal
Chaturvedi and Girja Shankar
(literature), Sunil Kumar Rana
(sports), Vijay Singh Chauhan
(athletics), Anuj Chowdhary
(sports), Nawaz Deobandi
(education), Wazir Ahmad
Khan (chess), Chakesh Kumar
Jain (art), Narendra Singh Rana
(powerlifting), Iqbal Ahmad
Siddiqui (ghazal), Kum Kum
Adarsh (kathak), Lalji Yadav
(wrestling), Imran Khan (poetry), Ankit Tewari (singing),
Madhukar Trivedi (journalism), Sudha Singh (athletics),
Dinesh Lal Yadav Nirahua (acting), Manu Kumari Pal (athletics). Alim Ullal (painting),
Servesh Yadav (shooting) and
Subhash Gupta (medicine).
■ See also Page 2
he trial court on Monday
T
fixed April 8 for a reluctant
Congress to produce its annu-
US, Cuba rewrite history after 88 yrs!
AGENCIES n HAVANA
on 46 eminent personalities
from different fields.
Congratulating the winners, Chief Minister Akhilesh
Yadav hoped that the awards
would also motivate and
inspire the younger generation.
The Yash Bharti award
comprises a cash prize of Rs11
lakh, a shawl and a certificate
for the recipient’s contribution
in the field of art, culture,
medicine, literature or sports.
The felicitation function
was organised by the Culture
department at Ram Manohar
Lohia Law University. It was
graced among others by
Samajwadi Party chief
Mulayam Singh Yadav.
The Chief Minister also
gave away the Ahilyabai Holkar
Samman and Rs 5 lakh to 13year-old Anjali Mishra of
Bareilly for saving two children
from drowing in the Ganga
river in Uttarakhand.
Lyricist Sameer was also
feted on the occasion for making it to the Guiness Book of
Records. “We are proud of
these Yash Bharti winners who
have made a name for themselves through their hard work.
These awards will inspire and
motivate the younger generation” the Chief Minister said.
Recounting the inaugural
function of the Yash Bharti by
his father Mulayam Singh
Yadav, the Chief Minister said
the he was taking the tradition
forward.
He said that those awards
allowed people to have a
different perception of the
state.
Speaking on the occasion,
Samajwadi Party chief
Mulayam Singh Yadav said
that he had instituted the Yash
Bharti awards during his chief
ministership to honour the
efforts of people making contribution in different fields.
“There were so many brilliant litterateurs, poets in UP
but they remained unrecognised and the awards gave
hope to them and others,” he
said.
Yadav Senior said: “When
these poets stand up to recite
in the kavi sammelans, they do
inspire people. Even government officers and journalists
who do good work should be
honoured with Yash Bharti
award.” Singer Surabhi Ranjan,
who also received Yash Bharti,
dedicated the award to her
father Udyabhan Singh, saying
her achievement was the blessings of her father and her
guru.
Eminent medico Naresh
Trehan told the audience that
his professional birth took
place in Lucknow when he
joined the King George’s
Medical College to study medicine in 1963. “We were taught
by eminent teachers who were
known across the world,
including the USA and the UK.
I am honoured to be getting an
award here,” he said.
Folk singer Kamla
Srivastava sang an Awadhi
song on saving the girl child.
The 46 reciepients of the
than Havana to show that engagement
can do more than isolation to bring
about change on the communist island.
Yet for the Cubans, the glaring question
is whether their own Government is
ready to prove the ambitious diplomatic
opening is more than just talk.
Rain, deserted streets and hordes
of police — this was the Havana greeting Barack Obama, who arrived
with his family. Obama is the first US
President to touch down on the
island, barely an hour’s flight from
Florida, in 88 years.
The view from Obama’s armoured
Cadillac, nicknamed “the Beast,”
would have been a long way
from the postcard vision of sunsplashed Cuban mansions and
sparkling blue seafront.
Continued on Page 7
SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, Uttar Pradesh CM Akhilesh Yadav with recipients of Yash Bharti Samman in Lucknow on
Monday.
PTI
BJP slams Tharoor
for sullying Shaheed
Bhagat Singh’s image
Red-faced Congress
says nobody can be
compared to patriot
PNS n NEW DELHI
he BJP on Monday took
strong exception to Shashi
Tharoor’s remarks comparing
JNUSU president Kanhaiya
Kumar with freedom fighter
Bhagat Singh even as the
Congress distanced itself from
its MP’s statement.
While senior party leader
Ghulam Nabi Azad said
“nobody can be compared to
Bhagat Singh,” his party colleague Manish Tewari dismissed Tharoor’s remarks saying, “There has been only one
Bhagat Singh. There is only one
Bhagat Singh.”
“There was only one
Bhagat Singh and he cannot be
compared with any of these
T
Bhagat Singh
was the
Kanhaiya Kumar
of his time
Shashi Tharoor
in JNU
boys of these days. Another
Bhagat Singh cannot be born
again,” Azad said.
Tharoor, while addressing a
group of students in JNU on
Sunday night, listed the names
of victims of sedition law under
British rule. “The biggest victims
of sedition law under the British
rule were Jawaharlal Nehru,
Mahatma Gandhi, Bal
Gangadhar Tilak, Annie Besant,”
he said. When a girl mentioned
the name of Bhagat Singh,
Tharoor lost no time in remarking that “Bhagat Singh was the
Kanhaiya Kumar of his time.”
Tharoor later sought to clarify
that he did not intend to equate
Kanhaiya with Bhagat Singh.
Continued on Page 7
ED attaches
Bhujbal’s land,
sugar mill in
PMLA probe
TN RAGHUNATHA n MUMBAI
aharashtra’s incarcerated
M
former Deputy Chief
Minister Chhagan Bhujbal’s
troubles mounted on Monday
as the Enforcement Directorate
(ED) attached a sugar mill and
290 acres of prime land worth
`55 crore in Nashik district in
connection with the ongoing
investigations into a money
laundering case involving
him, his family members and
associates.
In fourth of the attachment
orders that it issued under the
Prevention of Money
Laundering Act (PMLA)
against the properties of
Bhujbals ever since it registered
two money laundering cases
against them and others in June
this year, the ED acted against
the two assets owned by
Bhujbal’s firm Armstrong
Infrastructure. The agency
pegged the worth of the two
assets at `55 crore.
Continued on Page 7
city 02
LUCKNOW | TUESDAY | MARCH 22, 2016
Bollywood artistes among Yash Bharti recipients
Anurag Kashyap
SHARMILA KRISHNA ■ LUCKNOW
ell-known Bollywood
director Anurag
Kashyap, who was
felicitated with the Yash Bharti
Award, said that it was a great
feeling to be awarded in your
own home state and with your
parents watching you in the
audience. The actor received
his award from the Chief
Minister on Monday and in a
chat with The Pioneer said that
it was different from the film
awards that he had received.
The awards were given at a programme organised at the Ram
Manohar Lohia Law University
by the Culture department.
“It is certainly a great feeling to be honoured in the state
where you belong with your
W
Sudhir Mishra
Ankit Tewari
parents sitting in front of you.
The commercial awards have a
different flavour and the award
that you receive in your own
state is important in its own
way,” Anurag said. The director admitted that when he was
first informed about the awards
his father gave him a complete
background about them. “My
father told me the whole history of these awards,” he said.
On being asked whether he
would take the pension which
was being offered to the Yash
Bharti Award winners, he said
that for any cash award, he
always accepted the cash and
did not refuse it. “In case of any
cash award I always take the
award because I feel that then
I can use my discretion on how
to use it rather than leaving it
to any other person,” said
Kashyap. When asked that as a
gamechanger in cinema he
had changed the game of filmmaking by introducing hardcore cinema which was different from the fluff stuff that prevailed before him, the director
said that he felt that he had
done whatever he wanted to do
in cinema and there was nothing more to offer.
“I feel that whatever I wanted to do in cinema I have done
and there is nothing more left
but yes I am now on a journey
of my own and I am working
on my own film and am busy
with it at the moment,” he
added. When asked whether he
felt that various departments
associated with culture were
carrying out proper work, the
Yash Bharti recipient said that
he had always believed that it
was important to carry out
work on your own rather than
expecting others to do it. “I
have always believed in the philosophy that it was important
that one first perform himself
rather than expect others to do
anything,” he said.
Commenting on the state
government’s policies for films,
he said that he felt that the support from it was especially
encouraging. “The state government being supportive makes a
huge difference. I have been
shooting in the state and my last
film, ‘Masaan’ was shot in
Varanasi. The help coming
from the state government will
make a great difference,” he
said. Sudhir Mishra, a well-
known film director, said that
it was a great feeling to be
receiving the award in one’s
own city. “I am honoured and
feel strongly that the ghosts of
my forefathers are watching me
from above at this moment. The
house of my father still exists on
the Shahnajaf Road and the Jai
Narain College was named
after one of my forefathers.
They all must be watching me
today,” he pointed out.
Talking about the new film
policies of the state government,
he said that they would help
boost tourism. “Yes, the film
policy will help immensely in
boosting tourism and employment,” he added. On being
asked if he would apply for the
pension of the Yash Bharti
awards, he said, “If it is neces-
Sthavi aims for Oly gold
Lucknow (PNS): One of the
youngest recipients of the Yash
Bharti Award Sthavi Asthana is
a budding talent in the area of
horse-riding. The young winner
said that she was aiming at the
Olympic gold medal.
Sthavi, who is the daughter
of a bureaucrat, said that she
developed a passion for horses
when her father first took her for
horse-riding. “I was fascinated
by horse-riding and since then
have developed a passion for it,”
she said. The young lady, who is
pursuing a course in Law from
a Delhi institute, said that she
would like to have a career in
horse-riding. ‘I will like to follow
a career in horse-riding and am
aiming at the gold in the
Olympics,” she said. The young
equestrienne said that she would
earlier train at the Police Lines
but she was now training at New
Delhi. “I am now training at
Delhi. The challenge involved in
the training is that it is very
expensive,” she added. Sthavi has
won several championships, the
recent being one that was held
in 2014 in New Delhi. The
young achiever was very happy
on receiving the award.
sary and they give it, I will apply
for the pension. I will use it for
the Academy that I plan to set
up in the city which will be a
script academy.”
Ankit Tewari, who has
made his name in the field of
singing in Bollywood, said that
it was great moment for him.
“Getting recognition in my
own home state is a great feeling,” he said. On being asked
whether he will apply for the
Yash Bharti award pension, the
singer said that he would be
unable to comment on it at the
present moment.”
Comedian Raju Srivastava,
who was present for a few
minutes, had the audience in
splits when he walked away
with the award carrying it like
a coolie on his head.
Great encouragement, say awardees
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NOTICE
Be it known to all concern
that I have change the name of
my son aged about 6 years as
" Adhiraj Tangri" in place of
"Kushagra Tangri". Now he will
be known as " Adhiraj Tangri"
in future. Meenakshi Srivastava
Tangri 6/145, Kanchan Nagar,
Kalyanpur, Lucknow.
NOTICE
I,Ritu Agarwal W/o Amar
Kumar Agarwal R/o B/82,
Southcity Raibarelly Road
Lucknow My Receipt No.
433650 Date 24.6.2010 Amt.
120000/- Respectively Issued
by Omaxe Ltd. is Misplaced
somewhere any person who
finds it please return it to Mr.
Hitender Goel at Omaxe Ltd. 7,
LSC Kalkaji New Delhi-110019
or Call No. 9999999845
WANTED
Balram Krishan Academy,
Atrauli Mohanlalganj Lucknow.
226301 Requires Following
Assistant Professors to Teach
Degree Classes. One Asst.
Prof. Each for Hindi, English,
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Economics, MTH, Geography
and Education, Commercethree Asst. Prof. Apply within 15
days to the manager. Contact
No. 9415180307
Girja Shanker
Dr Ravi Kant
Aparna Kumar
Lucknow (PNS): Whether
they were young or old, male or
females all the Yash Bharti
Award recipients agreed that it
was a great encouragement for
them. The awards were presented on Monday at the Ram
Manohar Lohia Law University
in a programme organised by
the Culture department.
Interacting with The
Pioneer, historian Girja
Shankar said that it was a great
encouragement to receive this
award. “There is certainly a
great feeling of encouragement. My message to the young
people is that they should be
serious about research and
assessment of things which
they carry out,” he said. Talking
about the latest book, he said
that he had written about various political leaders in it. “In
the latest book which I have
written, I have portrayed the
struggle of the socialist leaders
in a very balanced manner,” he
said. When asked to make his
comment on the achievements
of the current state government, he said that he was first
and foremost a historian.
DIG, Technical Services,
Aparna Kumar, who conquered
peaks in five different countries, said that receiving the
award helped in facing the
challenges which one faces
while trying to achieve something. “It is indeed a great form
of motivation to receive the
awards because one has to face
so many challenges while trying to achieve something,” she
said. Currently preparing to
conquer Mount Everest, the
winner said that she had
become interested in mountaineering after she was posted in the Ninth Battalion at
Moradabad. “This post
includes a lot of postings on the
Indo-Tibetan border and it
was at this time that I became
interested in mountaineering.
And today it has become a passion,” she said. The official
agreed that it was a difficult balancing work, family and pas-
sion to do something. “Yes it is
difficult to balance all the three
which include family, work
and the passion and each is a
mountain in itself but this can
be carried out with proper
time management,” she said.
V-C of KGMU Ravi Kant
said that it was basically teamwork which had helped the
KGMU in carrying out various
activities. “We have in KGMU
a teamwork that exists and
apart from the departmental
work we have also been able to
help in case of accidents which
have occurred in the state.
Hence KGMU is now involving
itself in social causes,” he said.
Kathak danseuse Kumkum
Adarsh said that the award had
come late. “I am happy that I
have received the award but I
must say that it is late in the day
and it should have come earlier,” she said. On being asked
whether she would apply for
the pension under the Yash
Bharti Award, the danseuse
answered in the affirmative.
State president of Akanksha Samiti Surabhi Ranjan receiving Yash Bharti Award
Pioneer
from Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav in Lucknow on Monday
MDS student hangs self
Lucknow (PNS): A first year MDS (Master in Dental Science)
girl student ended her life at her hostel room in Sardar Patel PostGraduate Institute of Dental Science in PGI police area on
Monday. Prerna Chaudhary belonged to Dhoomanganj locality of Allahabad. On Monday, she was all alone in the hostel room
when she took the extreme step. Prerna’s brother called her on
Monday morning to enquire about her well-being but she did
not answer the call. Her brother kept trying to contact her and
later sensed trouble. He then contacted the college administration after which the hostel warden was alerted. The warden found
her room bolted from inside. She was later found hanging.
“College authorities called around 5 pm on Monday informing us about the incident,” the PGI SO said.
He said the girl was hanging from the ceiling with a dupatta tied around her neck. “No suicide note was recovered from
the room. She may have ended her life under a bout of depression but investigations are underway,” he added.
It surfaced during investigations that Prerna did not attend
classes on Monday morning and she was not very friendly with
her classmates. Other inmates told police that they did not see
Prerna outside the room since morning. “Since she used to study
in her room, we thought she would be busy and did not disturb
her,” one girl said.
Two held for contractor’s murder at DRM office
PIONEER NEWS SERVICE ■ LUCKNOW
he prime accused in the
murder of railway contracT
tor Ashish Pandey aka Natu on
DRM campus and one of his
aides were arrested on Monday.
The arrested were identified as
Kamal Kishore Singh aka Pappu
Singh of Gomti Nagar and
Shyam Lal Yadav of
Hussainganj. Ashish Pandey
was shot dead by Singh and his
cohorts inside the premises of
DRM Northern Railway office
in Hazratganj. Police had recovered a licensed .32 bore revolver,
three live cartridges of .32 bore,
a magazine, looted mobile of the
victim and a scooty which
Singh robbed from trader’s son
Ankit Sharma to flee the scene
after the shootout. Giving
details, SSP, Lucknow, Rajesh
Pandey said that Ashish had a
rivalry with Singh and his
group. “Singh is a native of
Faizabad and is a close aide of
Narendra Pahadi who orchestrated the murder plan,” he
added. The police chief said that
Narendra Pahadi used to work
as sharp-shooter for mafiaturned-politician Ajit Singh,
who was killed in Unnao several years back. He said that
police were hunting for Pahadi
in that connection. “He would
be charged with criminal conspiracy in the Ashish Pandey
murder case,” he said.
Last Friday, Ashish, along
with his friend Krishna Kumar
Mishra, had gone to the zonal
office inside the DRM campus
for checking their payments.
Singh was tipped off about his
location and he reached the
place along with Dinesh Singh,
Shyam Lal Yadav and few others. The group came to a head
inside the parking lot located in
the rear side of the DRM office.
“Owing to the old rivalry,
the two had a verbal spat and
Pandey later started beating
Singh. To save himself from the
onslaught of punches and kick,
Singh opened fire hitting
Pandey in his abdomen. He was
rushed to Trauma Centre of
KGMU and then to a private
hospital in Gomti Nagar where
he succumbed,” the SSP said.
He added one of the miscreants identified as Dinesh Singh
was arrested the same day.
“Police had also recovered the
SUV by which the miscreants
had come to the DRM office, Rs
5 lakh in cash and two shells
from the crime scene,” he disclosed. But police failed to
explain how Singh got a licensed
handgun issued in his name.
“He had a criminal past and was
a familiar face in the crime
world. Singh had a good rapport
with the lower rung cops who
used to work for him,” said
sources.
Interestingly, the SUV
recovered from the miscreant
bore the registration number of
a car owned by Ratan Lal Gupta
of Hussainganj. Gupta had
lodged a case of criminal breach
of trust against Pappu and his
aides in this connection. The
plate fixed on the car had
‘Advocate High court’ inscribed
on it.
Printed and Published by Vijay Prakash Singh for and on behalf of CMYK Printech Ltd., 4th Floor, Sahara Shopping Centre, Faizabad Road, Lucknow-226016 and Printed at Tin Tin Printech Pvt Ltd., C-33 Amausi Industrial Area, Nadarganj, Lucknow. Tel: (0522) 2438656 / 9336266608.
Editor: Chandan Mitra. Resident Editor: Vijay Prakash Singh. RNI No. 2016/57. Lucknow Telephones: EPABX: 4036600 Fax: 2345582. Allahabad Office: (95532) 2420818, 2421018, 3290460. Kanpur Office: (95512) 2304006, 2304416. Varanasi Office: (95542) 2414294, 2414295. Delhi
Office: Link House, II Floor, 3 Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi 110 002. Tel: (011) 23755271-274, 41509074.
city 03
Forces inimical to progress of
UP creating obstructions: CM
Haj pilgrims selected through lottery draw
PNS n LUCKNOW
hief Minister Akhilesh
Yadav said that the state
government was vigorously pursuing the agenda of
development while some forces
inimical to the progress of Uttar
Pradesh were creating obstructions.
Addressing a meeting after
selection of Haj pilgrims
through lottery draw in
Lucknow on Monday, Yadav
said the government had taken
measures for overall uplift and
welfare of the minorities and
other sections of society but
there were forces which were
against the development of UP.
The Chief Minister said
that despite the nefarious designs
and conspiracies of the communal forces, the SP government
had been successful in promoting harmony and benefiting all
sections of society with development schemes.
Yadav said the aim of all religions was to serve the cause of
humanity and there was no
place for dispute and strife. He
pointed out that the goal of
development could be achieved
only by adopting the socialist
model of economic development.
Listing the measures taken
for the welfare of minorities,
Yadav said that after clearing
legal hurdles, his government
C
Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and Minority Affairs Minister Mohammad Azam Khan at a programme to select Haj pilgrims
Pioneer
through lottery draw at Indira Gandhi Prathishtan in Lucknow on Monday
had given legal status to practitioners of Ayurveda and Unani
medicines in UP.
"A large number of people
from the minority community
have benefited from the
Samajwadi Pension Scheme,"
he added.
Yadav also lauded the efforts
of Minority Affairs Minister
Mohammad Azam Khan in
promoting education in the
community by establishing
Maulana Jauhar University in
Rampur.
The selection of Haj pilgrims began with recitation of
Quran. Prominent clerics,
including Maulana Kalbe Sadiq,
Maulana Khalid Rashid Firangi
Mahali, SP Rajya Sabha member
Munawwar Salim, Urdu
Akademi chairman Nawaz
Deobandi and a large number of
applicants were present.
In the computerised lottery draw, three persons from
Kannauj -- Mohammed Salim,
Mohammed Suhail and Rabia
Begum -- were the first to be
selected.
The Central Haj Committee
has fixed a quota of 21,828 pilgrims from UP. The UP Haj
Committee has received 48,683
applications.
DGP asks cops
to remain alert
PNS n LUCKNOW
irector General of Police Javeed
Ahmed alerted the cops and asked
D
them to take all necessary security measures and preventive steps to ensure
peaceful celebration of Holi.
He also told the intelligence sleuths to
remain on their toes in the backdrop of
terror threat looming large on such occasions.
In a circular dispatched to all district
police chiefs and other officers on
Monday, the DGP said that anti-social elements try to foment trouble during festivals, particularly Holi. He said that on
many occasions, minor incidents end up
in major communal strife and hence such
cases be dealt with an iron fist and
promptly.
Ahmed said that many people create
mischief by burning 'Holika' prior to the
auspicious time and this also leads to
clashes.
He ordered the cops to ensure that no
one forcibly threw colours on unwilling
people as this often led to trouble, and no
one threw stones or other objects at trains
and other vehicles as it could cause serious injuries.
The DGP also reminded the cops to
take preventive steps against proclaimed
offenders and check inebriated youths
from creating trouble during the festival.
Reminding the cops of possible disturbances by terror outfits, the DGP said
that adequate force be deployed at all sensitive and crowded places like markets, bus
and railway stations, theatres etc., and
proper anti-sabotage checks be carried out
in case of apprehension of trouble.
Ahmed asked the officers to launch an
awareness drive and tell people not to
touch any unclaimed object and instead
inform the police control room or nearest police station about it so that necessary measures could be taken to avert any
tragedy.
Doubts over ‘loyalty' of some Cong leaders
PNS n LUCKNOW
xpulsion of Uttarakhand's
former Chief Minister
E
Vijay Bahuguna's son Saket
and Congress state joint secretary Anil Gupta for six years
for ‘anti-party’ activities and
their role in the raging crisis
in the hill state had a cascading effect for the Bahuguna
family in UP also though no
one was ready to openly talk
about it.
Saket Bahuguna, his father
Vijay Bahuguna and seven
other MLAs have rebelled
against the Harish Rawat government in Uttarakhand, triggering a political storm.
“C ongress has given
ever ything to Hemwati
Nandan Bahuguna and his
family and even appointed
Rita Bahuguna Joshi as UP
Congress chief and her brother Vijay Bahuguna as Chief
Minister of Uttarakhand. But
every time, right from the
father to the children and
grandchildren, the Bahugunas
have always ditched the
Congress. They were never
loyal to the party and worked
for personal gains,” charged a
senior Congress leader and
former UP minister.
The Congress leader went
on to say that Rita Bahuguna
Joshi could leave the Congress
any time.
“Proximity of Rita
Bahuguna Joshi and several
other leaders with the present
Samajwadi Party government
or other parties is an open
secret. The next Assembly
polls in UP are sure to
expose the loyalty of many
leaders and their personal
agenda,” the Congress leader
said.
Another Congress leader
and former minister in
the United Progressive
Alliance government said that
the party was paying the
price for going soft on leaders
conniving with other
parties.
“Every one is aware that
some C ongress leaders
received benefits from the
governments of rival parties in
the name of having good relations. The recent example is of
Pramod Tewari and PL Punia,
who entered the Rajya Sabha
with the support of Samajwadi
Party,” the former minister
pointed out.
Without naming anyone,
the minister said that over
half-a-dozen sitting MLAs
were in touch with rival political parties and would switch
over just before the Assembly
polls so that their UP
Assembly membership is not
affected.
s the sun goes down the
Vrindavan skyline, a group
A
of young and aged women, all
But not all agree with her.
There are widows who are frank
enough to talk about the hardships they face in ashrams and
how they are forced to beg for
food and clothes when they do
not get the support from singing
‘bhajans’ in ashrams.
“Life is not easy here. I can
only say that a widow is a
woman and every one knows
what happens to a woman who
loses her husband,” says Urmila
Sarkar from Murshidabad.
The plight of these hapless
women surfaced after the
National Legal Ser vice
Authority sought protection for
them from the Supreme Court
after a widow died on the streets
of Vrindavan in 2012.
The apex court directed the
government to take pro-active
steps and asked an Sulabh
International to extend financial
help to them. The NGO adopted 1,500 widows and provided
for their basic needs besides giving them `2,000 to purchase
essentials of life. These women
are now learning the art of
making incense sticks (agarbattis) and garlands and this has
instilled a sense of security
among them.
The Sulabh International is
also trying to add colours to the
miserable lives of these widows.
Breaking tradition, on Monday,
thousand of these widows
played Holi, the festival of
colour, in one of the oldest
Krishna temples of the region
built in 1559. Priests chanted
‘shlokas’ as these women clad in
white sarees splashed colours at
each other to celebrate Holi,
unmindful of the so-called religious prohibition imposed on
widows on taking part in celebrations.
“It is an effort to break the
age old tradition of Hindu society that bars widows from play-
amajwadi Party is set to announce the
first list of its candidates for the 2017
Assembly polls.
The first list, to be announced in April,
is likely to have the names of only 100 candidates. The candidates for the remaining
seats will be announced in the next two
months.
In an attempt to overcome the antiincumbency factor, the SP leadership is
expected to take some harsh decisions and
deny tickets to 80-100 sitting MLAs,
including some present and former ministers.
By August last year, the SP had completed the spadework for 169 Assembly
seats that it lost in the 2012 polls. A committee, headed by party general secretary
Ram Gopal Yadav, was set up to screen
candidates for these seats. The other
members of the committee were Labour
Minister Shahid Manzoor, Naresh Uttam
and SRS Yadav and minister’s Kamal
Akhtar and Arvind Singh Gope.
Over 1,500 applications were received
for 169 seats from Kanpur, Jhansi,
Azamgarh, Basti, Gorakhpur, Lucknow,
Meerut, Saharanpur, Moradabad and
Bareilly divisions. Barring a few seats, the
panel finalised candidates for most of these
constituencies.
Sources in the Samajwadi Party said
the panchayat elections and Legislative
Council polls delayed the announcement
of candidates.
The conduct of party MLAs in both
these elections helped the committee in
finalising the candidates for these
Assembly constituencies.
S
Lucknow (PNS): People will not be able to carry
out bank transactions for five days this week as all
banks will close in UP starting March 23. The banks
will remain closed on March 23 and 24 on account of
Holi, and March 25 for Good Friday. The banks will
also remain closed on March 26 because of fourth
Saturday while March 27 is Sunday. In the last week
of March, the banks will open for customers only for
three days -- from March 28 to March 30. Banks will
remain closed for customers on March 31 on account
of annual closing followed by a holiday on April 1.
BISWAJEET BANERJEE n
VRINDAVAN
some time at a temple in
Hazarduari. Later, I decided to
come to Vrindavan and have
been staying here since 2001.
My daughter came once to take
me back but I refused. I am
more comfortable here,” she
said turning her head away to
hide her tears.
“I know I have a grandson
and I want to see him. But I will
return to my village only if my
son comes here and asks me to
go with him,” she said.
Vrindavan has hundreds of
widows in the age group of 22100, all abandoned by their
respective families and living
here in obscurity. Some of them
have been here for over 40
years.
One of them is Manu Ghosh
(86) who did not want to talk
about her family. “I got married
to god after the death of my husband. I am lucky to be here,” she
said.
PNS n LUCKNOW
BANKS CLOSED FOR FIVE
DAYS FROM MARCH 23
sColours bring smile to gloomy faces
draped in white sarees, scamper
to a temple to sing bhajans in
praise of Lord Krishna and in
turn get `10 each.
Majority of these women
have been abandoned by their
families after the death of their
husbands and now live in deprivation with the belief that they
will achieve salvation if they die
in this city.
The holy city of Vrindavan
is also known as the City of
Widows because of the large
number of women who seek
shelter here after being abandoned by their families. It is
believed that god does not let
anyone starve here and hence
the widows swarm the city after
being thrown out by their families. All these widows have one
thing in common — their tragic past and uncertain future.
Asha Devi Mandal (62)
recounts how the elder brother
of her husband tried to rape her
after she became a widow. When
she complained to her motherin-law, she was branded inauspicious and hurriedly packed off
to Vrindavan
Asha Devi recalled how she
was loved and admired by her
in-laws when she was young. “I
was my motherin-law’s darling.
But attitudes changed after my
husband’s death. I was not invited to marriage ceremonies and
other auspicious functions as
people in my village believed
that even my shadow would
bring them bad luck,” she said.
Monideepa was 32 and the
proud mother of a son and a
daughter when her husband
died in Murshidabad. She toiled
hard in agricultural fields to
earn a living and educate her
children. Her son graduated in
Science (Honours) and got a job
in a private company in
Burdwan. Ironically, after his
marriage, the son threw his
mother out of his house.
“I left my village and spent
Assembly polls: First
list of SP candidates
expected next month
ing colours,” said Bindeshwar
Pathak, chairman of Sulabh
Social Movement.
Hundreds of widows gathered in the courtyard of the temple and threw gulal and petals
at each other. The younger ones
jostled with each other to smear
gulal on the face while the
elderly ones quietly applied tilak
on the forehead of others with
singers singing Holi songs in the
background.
Soon, the white sarees of
these widows were shinning in
myriads of hues with their radiant faces painted blue, red and
green.
“I am so happy. I am playing Holi after 12 years.” said
Aruna Samaddar.
“We get just one day to celebrate life, let’s do it to the hilt,”
she added, throwing a handful
of ‘gulal’ at a group of widows
sitting at the gate of the
temple.
‘SP IS IN NO HURRY TO
START SELECTION OF
CANDIDATES FOR THE
SEATS IT WON IN THE
2012 ASSEMBLY POLLS.
FOR THESE
CONSTITUENCIES, THE
SELECTION PROCESS
WILL BE TAKEN UP SIX
MONTHS BEFORE THE
NEXT UP ELECTIONS’
The MLAs who rebelled against the
party's official candidates in these elections
are likely to face the heat. They will have
to do a lot of explaining to win over the
confidence of the leadership.
The sources said that the SP was in no
hurry to start selection of candidates for
the seats it won in the 2012 Assembly polls.
For these constituencies, the process to
select the candidates will be taken up six
months before the next Assembly polls as
the leadership is aware that many MLAs
and ministers are in touch with rival parties like Bharatiya Janata Party and
Bahujan Samaj Party in the hope of getting safe seat.
"Hence, the party will prefer to start
the selection process six months prior to
the next Assembly polls," the sources said.
In the 2012 polls, the SP had won 224
seats and later added seven more by winning the by-elections, taking the tally
to 231.
city 04
2 arrested for murderous Poverty drove Sitapur resident to crime
assault on constable
Drug addict kills companion
T
U.P. RAJYA VIDYUT
UTPADAN NIGAM
LTD.
OBRA
THARMAL POWER
STATION OBRASONEBHADRA
-231219
TENDER NO. TO-1116/CPDII/ATPS/2016-17 OFFICE
Central Procurement Division-II,
'A'TPS, Obra, Sonebhadra.
Material/Item: Supply of
stationery items. Estimated
Cost : Rs. 49,000.00 ONLY
Earnest Money Rs. 1000.00 in
favour of Dy. CFA & BO,
ATPS, Obra, Sonebhadra in
shape of FDR/DD Opening
Date : Part-I 04.04.2016 at
16.Hrs, Part-II 06.04.2016 at
16.Hrs. Date & Time for:
04.04.2016 upto 13.00 hrs. The
tender received after above
Submission of tender
schedule date of tender
submission shall be summarily
rejected. NOTE: Tender notice
and tender specification is
available on Nigam website
www.uprvunl.org.
The
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tender cost and other necessary
documents shall be acceptable
on submission before due date
of tender
opening.
EXECUTIVE
ENGINEER
CPD-II, No. 98 Date 19.03.2016
"SAVE ELECTRICITY IN THE
INTEREST OF NATION"
ith the arrest of two hardcore criminals from
W
Barigawan
area
in
Krishnanagar on Monday,
police claimed to have worked
out the murderous assault on
head constable Rajendra
Dwivedi in Sarojini Nagar on
March 13.
Those arrested were identified as Laxmi Narain Pandey
of Hardoi and Mayur aka
Dheer of Ashiyana. Police
recovered two country-made
pistols, two live cartridges, 10
stolen mobile sets, three stolen
pen drives, 39 recharge
coupons, a stolen television, two
stolen motorcycles and Rs 7600
in cash from the miscreants.
During interrogation, the miscreants reportedly owned up
their crime. Laxmi Narain disclosed that on the fateful day, he
and his aide were riding a bike
and were carrying fire arms. As
they attempted to break the
shutter of Vishwakarma jewellers in Hind Nagar locality,
head constable Dwivedi happened to pass by the road. As
the miscreants saw Dwivedi
approaching, they started fleeing the scene but Mayur was left
behind. Dwivedi interrogated
Mayur and pinned him down.
At this, Mayur asked his aides
to get him freed. Responding to
his call, Laxmi Narain walked
up to Dwivedi and shot him
from behind hitting him on his
waist. Dwivedi fell down and
Laxmi freed Mayur before fleeing the scene. SSP Rajesh
Pandey said Laxmi Narain is a
notorious criminal and has a
number of cases of house/shop
robbery in Alambagh and
Krishna Nagar. Similarly,
Mayur also has a number of
cases in his name. Rajendra
Dwivedi is the beat incharge of
Badali Kheda police outpost of
Sarojini Nagar. Around 3 am on
March 13, he left for his house
in Sarojini Nagar after his duty
hours were over. He was shot at
by the miscreants when he
challenged them to surrender.
o meet medical expenses,
a Sitapur resident took to
auto-lifting/chain-snatching.
The fact surfaced after the
Naka police arrested him on
Monday and interrogated him.
Mohammed Mustaqeem
owned up his crime. He told
police that he belonged to a
poor family and was suffering
from a disease. He added that
he had no money to meet medical expenses and other needs
and he took to crime as he had
no other alternative. Some of
the policemen interrogating
him were moved at the
disclosure of his painful
past.
Police said Mustaqeem
had snatched a purse containing Rs 85,000 from a trader in
Rajendra Nagar locality. “He
had committed theft at
Durgvijayganj in Naka too.
Besides, his involvement was
also found in cases of chainsnatching in Thakurganj and
Aliganj,” police said.
Police arrested him on the
tip-off of an informer near a
bank in Rajendra Nagar. A
stolen motorcycle and Rs 3,000
in cash were recovered from
him.
drug addict killed his companion for a
mere Rs 300 at his house and threw his
A
body on the roof of his neighbour’s house in
Saadatganj. As per reports, Ram Awatar Gupta
(50) was living with his family in Hasanganj
Bawli area of Saadatganj. He took to drugs and
tranquilisers some time back and thus developed a bonding with his neighbour Avinash
Pandey. Later, the duo started getting the high
at Avinash’s house.
Around 9 pm on Sunday, Ram Awatar
reached the house of Avinash for a session.
They picked up a fight over a money-related
issue. In a fit of rage, Avinash attacked Ram
Awatar with a lock. He later hit him with a stick
and a wooden shaft on his head killing him on
the spot. To conceal the crime, Avinash threw
the body on the roof of his neighbour and fled.
SSP, Lucknow, Rajesh Pandey said that the
police nabbed Avinash when he was planning
to flee the city. He said investigation into the
case revealed that Ram Awatar was accompanying Avinash the previous night. “Police took
ROAD MISHAP
Anoop Kumar Shukla,
aged 35, died after he was hit
by a moving train in Ashiyana
on Monday. Anoop was working as a cart-puller at a hard-
help of informers and managed to nab Avinash
from Yasinganj locality,” he added.
The miscreant owned up his crime and disclosed that he had given the sum to Ram
Awatar six months back. When he demanded
the cash to meet expenses on Holi, Ram Awatar
lost his cool and shouted at him. Infuriated
Avinash then killed Ram Awatar.
ware shop and was an alcoholic. He was living with his
family, including a 10–yearold daughter, in Ruchi Khand
area. Police said he had gone
near the railway tracks to
have liquor at a shop on
Sunday night when he met
with the mishap. “He was
crossing the railway tracks in
a drunken state when he was
hit,” police said.
SGPGI, Balrampur Hosp OPDs
to remain closed on Holi day
he out patient departments
of Sanjay Gandhi Post
T
Graduate Institute of Medical
S ciences (SGPGIMS) and
Balrampur Hospital will remain
closed on account of Holi on
Wednesday. However, emergency services will remain
unaffected. Balrampur Hospital
has also arranged an opthalmologist in the emergency
wing.
According to SGPGI
administration, the OPD will
not open on Wednesday on
account of Holi. However, special arrangements have been
made for patients who reach
here from distant places.
Consultation to critical patients
would be given in the emergency OPD and they could
be admitted, if need be,
thereafter,
SGPGI
spokesperson Monalisa
Chaudhari said. Patients
having appointments on
Wednesday would be given
fresh dates by post, she
added.
Balrampur Hospital has
also made arrangements in
this regard. A consultant
opthalmologist will be available in the emergency unit
till 4 pm. Hospital director
Dr Pramod Kumar said
other emergency services
like Emergency OPD, indoor
Emergency and ICU with
new block would remain
functional as usual on
Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the Health
department will ensure
availability of ambulances
at every police station of the
state capital. The district
administration had directed
the Health department to
press 108 ambulances into
service in view of Holi.
Chief Medical Officer
Dr SNS Yadav said: “The
Health department has made
extensive arrangements for
Holi. Ambulances will be n
provided at all police stations
of Lucknow. Hospitals have
also been put on alert for
Wednesday and Thursday
and asked to ensure emergenc y
ser vices
for
patients.”
LDA proposals for
JM Park cleared
Lucknow (PNS): The state
government has approved two
proposals of Lucknow
Development Authority
(LDA) for providing better
facilities to visitors coming to
Janeshwar Mishra Park. The
first proposal was to construct
six parking slots at each gates
of the park at the estimated
cost of Rs 5 crore.
Presently, there is only
one parking place which is
located at the main gate and
having the capacity to accommodate 300 four-wheelers.
Chief town planner JN Reddy
will be assigned the job with a
deadline of four months. The
capacity will increase to 2,400
four-wheelers at one time. The
one which is planned near the
railway crossing near Dilkusha
will have the capacity to park
600 four-wheelers at a time.
Reddy said that the main focus
would be on the security of
vehicles parked there. Source
said that over a dozen fourwheelers and two-wheelers
were stolen from the parking
slot located at the front of main
gate in the past 18 months. The
other proposal was to recruit
200 personnel as security
guards. LDA V-C Satyendra
Singh said that the security
guards would be deployed
round-the-clock to make the
entire park safe. The development authority had sent the
proposals to the state government in February first week for
the release of funds.
Strike called off
at RMLIMS
Lucknow (PNS): After
resorting to hunger strike for a
day and abstaining from work
for the last few days, the nonteaching staff at Dr Ram
Manohar Lohia Institute of
Medical Sciences (RMLIMS)
called off the strike on Monday
after director Deepak Malviya
offered them juice. It may be
mentioned that technicians,
nurses, clerks, etc had gone on
strike on 16, demanding payscale, perks and other facilities
at par with their of SGPGI
counterparts. A delegation of
Nurses’ Sangh met the administration and was assured that
the demands would be met in 20
days. President of Nurses’ Sangh
Amit Sharma said the emloyees
would now sport black ribbons
to remind the administration
about their assurance till their
demands were met.
CMEP on damage control orthopaedics
he Continuing Medical
Education Programme on
T
Damage
C ontrol
Orthopaedics was organised at
the Base Hospital from March
19 to 20, 2016. It was inaugurated by Lt Gen MD
Venkatesh, Commandant,
AMC Centre and College,
Lucknow.
‘Damage
C ontrol
Orthopaedics’ is the outcome
of a better understanding of
the physiology of inflammatory response to trauma. The
CME was attended by a large
number of delegates from the
Army, Navy and Air Force.
Also a large number of experts
from the civil deliberated on
the theme and shared their
experiences. This event
proved to be a veritable cornucopia of ideas which
enriched one and all. It will
serve as a useful reminder to
the surgeons of the age-old
adage of ‘first do no harm’.
The term ‘Damage
Control’ was coined by the US
Navy to describe tactical
approaches which permit a
vessel to absorb damage and
still maintain the mission’s
integrity. In orthopaedic trauma this concept applies when
a minimalistic approach
towards a case of polytrauma
can change the outcome for
the patient.
This outlook has been
evolving over the past two
decades, both in research and
clinical practice, with the new
generation of surgeons advocating a paradigm shift from
‘Early Total Care’ to Damage
Control’. The logo of the event
signifies the constant presence
of the doctor-soldier in the
SPECIAL TRAIN
the skies would be clear on Tuesday.
“The north-westerly winds were
blowing owing to temperature differences,” he said. The state forecast
is dry weather. On Monday, Lucknow
recorded the maximum temperature
at 34.2 degree Celsius while the minimum settled at 19 degrees.
Northern Railways on Monday
announced a special train between
Malda and Anand Vihar stations. The
special train (03429/30) will run from
March 28 to April 5 for two trips. The
train will have stoppages at New
Farraka, Sahibganj, Bagalpur,
Sultanganj, Jamalpur, Abhaypur, Kiul,
Patna, Aara, Buxar, Mughal Sarai,
Varanasi, Lucknow and Moradabad
stations. Meanwhile, NR also extended the trips of the Mumbai-bound special train from Lucknow. Lokmanya
Tilak Terminal-Lucknow AC Special
(02108/07) will depart from Lucknow
on April 3 till May 1. The train will
have five trips and will stop at Thane,
Kalyan, Nasik, Jalgaon, Bhusawal,
Habibganj, Jhansi, Orai and Kanpur
Central.
ABACUS CONTEST
WORLD METEOROLOGICAL DAY
World Meteorological Day will be
observed at its centre located at
Chaudhary Charan Singh Airport in
Lucknow on March 23. Met director JP
Gupta said the office would remain
open for general public from 9.30 to
5.30 pm. On the occasion, demonstration on how to operate the latest
gadgets relating to meteorological
instruments — Doppler weather radar,
satellite images, surface instruments
and airport Met instruments — will be
held inside the office premises.
MEETING
A meeting on the highlights of
Smart City proposals in the fast-track
round was held on Monday. District
Magistrate Raj Shekhar said Lucknow
was not selected in the first round
become of various reasons . “Luckily,
in the fast-track round, Lucknow
achieved first ranking and thus got one
more chance to submit revised project
details, last date for which is April 5 at
state level and April 15 at GOI level. All
the departments have been given the
format of MoU and they have studied
it and agreed to sign and submit it latest by March 27,” the DM said. He said
an MoU was a must in the fast-track
proposal to get proper commitment,
battlefield providing limb and
life-saving care to the fighting
soldier. The Base Hospital is
the largest orthopaedic centre
of the Indian Army. It has provided care and succour to
soldiers, veterans and their
families over the past seven
decades of its illustrious existence. The hospital also provides disaster relief through its
specialist teams. The Indian
Army Medical Corps has the
unique distinction of handling varied trauma scenarios
in both peace and war time.
The Army doctors have provided comprehensive care to
the common citizens in innumerable disaster situations
since Independence. They
have been widely appreciated
for the yeoman’s service provided during the Uttarakhand
deluge and the Nepal
earthquake.
SCHOOLSCAN
CITYBRIEFS
U.P. Rajya Vidyut
Utpadan Nigam
Limited,
Obra
Thermal Power Station,
OBRA-Sonebhadra "TIME
EXTENSION" This office Tender
No. T-23/O&MMC-V/BMDIII/BTPS/ 2015-16 for work of
Boiler Pressure Parts for
proposed Short Shut down of
unit no. 13 of 2x200MW, 'B'TPS,
Obra, is here by extended again
as below:- Last date & Time for
Submissision of e-Bids
(Technical & Financial) at e-procurement website: http://
etender.up.nic.in : 30.03.2016
upto 13:00 hrs. Last date and
Time for submission of Hardcopy
of required Documents in the
office
of
Undersigned:
30.03.2016 upto 13:00 hrs. Date
& Time of Opening of e-Bids :
30.03.2016 upto 16:00 hrs. All
other terms and conditions of the
tender shall remain unchanged.
Superintending Engineer
O&MMC-V, 'B'TPS, Obra No.
100 Date 21.03.2016 "SAVE
ELECTRICITY
IN
THE
INTREST OF NATION"
Pioneer
Students of National PG College playing with colours ahead of Holi in Lucknow on Monday
TRIBUTES
budget provisions, and timeframe for
work completion. “The MoU is a must
for time-bound commitment of work
under Smart City project. It will also
help in better supervision of the the
project by the district administration.
The next follow-up meeting will be
done on March 28,” he added.
ALL-INDIA SEMINAR
A two-day all-India seminar on
Hindi language, organised by the
regional office of Punjab National
Bank, was inaugurated on Monday by
bank’s general manager Arvind Tiwari
(pic above). Senior officers also attended the seminar. Tiwari urged the
employees of all ranks to use Hindi in
day-to-day work. Later, a meeting was
also held to review the use Hindi in official works. The speakers appreciated the
officers and subordinate staff for using
Hindi in the administrative work.
WINDY DAY
Denizens experienced a windy
day with strong north-westerlies on
Monday. Met director JP Gupta said
A function under the aegis of
Rashtriya Krantikari Samajwadi Party
will be held to pay tributes to Bhagat
Singh, Sukhdev and Rajuguru at GPO
Park on Tuesday.
CANDLE MARCH
A candlelight march will be taken
out by wives and families of jewellers
and bullion traders at 6 pm on Tuesday
to extend their support to the ongoing
strike. The march will start from
Subhash crossing near KD Singh
‘Babu’ Stadium and culminate at GPO
Park.
Jeevika Bhatia, a KG student of City Montessori School,
Kanpur Road, emerged champion in Abacus contest on
regional level. The UP chapter
of Abacus organised this contest in which students of several
schools of Lucknow participated to showcase their analytical skills. Jeevika applied
abacus tricks to solve maths
problems and came out winner.
ANNUAL FUNCTION
Minister for Education
Ahmad Hasan will inaugurate
‘Bachchon Ki Shaam-APJ
Abdul Kalam Ke Naam’ at the
annual function of Saqib Model
School in Rajajipuram on
March 30. School’s foundermanager Zahir Qizalbash said
prizes would be given away to
first, second and third position
holders. SP, Traffic, Habibul
Hasan will release a souvenir
on the occasion.
nation 05
Deonar landfill fire
finally put out
Two-member team will
probe incident, Javadekar
he fire raging for the last three days at the
Deonar dumping ground in Eastern Mumbai
T
and emitting toxic fumes was doused on Monday
Smoke rises on Monday from the fire that broke out at
Deonar dumping ground in Mumbai a few days ago
PNS n NEW DELHI
nion Information &
Broadcasting Minister Arun
U
Jaitley on Monday lauded photographers for doing “not an
easy” job and capturing
“moments of history” as he
referred to Dandi March saying
many have forgotten the yatra,
but it is the images of Mahatma
Gandhi walking with stick which
reminds all of the event. He was
speaking at the fifth national
photography awards.
“There are indeed several
visuals which we remember
really by the photographic visual and not by deep content of
what the event was. Have we
not repeatedly seen Gandhiji
PNS n NEW DELHI/ MUMBAI
even as Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar
said that a two-member special team will be sent
to investigate the incident, which he termed as “serious”. The civic authorities haven’t ruled out the possibility of the fire being an act of “sabotage”.
“The team will give full report within a week.
I have discussed it with Commissioner of
Mumbai and will discuss with Chief Minister
Devendra Fadnavis as soon as the report is
ready,” he said. He alleged that the incident indicates the carelessness on the part of the contractors and those involved in the operation of
managing the dumping waste.
Asserting that appropriate advice and direction would be given to the state government in
this regard, Javadekar said that the former would
be asked to initiate stern action against the violators. “We are issuing a new solid waste management rule in this fortnight. And that will actually give solution for all such waste problems.
Decentralized waste collection and utalisation,
segregation and its recycling,” he added.
While the ministers and civic authorities in
Maharashtra state government alleged, that the
incident was an act of sabotage, Javadekar
declined to comment on these lines, saying the
report of the special team will bring out the details.
Meanwhile, the fire which broke out on in the
evening of March 19, was extinguished after much
Jaitley lauds shutterbugs Draft MoP for judges’ selection
reaches PMO for approval
for capturing history
with a stick in his hand walking? asked Jaitley.
Jaitley termed the job of
lensmen as “complicated art,”
especially of those working in the
media, who are “always on their
feet”. During his speech, he also
joked that photographers are
“humorously” referred to as
“dictators” for they can ask the
President or Prime Minister to
“stand up or sit down” until they
get the “right shot”.
Delhi-based senior photo
journalist Bhawan Singh was
honoured with ‘Life-time
Achievement Award’ during the
event for his contribution in the
field. Jaitley recalled his excellence in capturing the visual journey of India from late 70s.
PTI
efforts on Monday morning and cooling operations are on at the site. This being the third incident of its kind at the site at Deonar facility,
Municipal Commissioner Ajoy Mehta, expressed
concern over their frequency. He did not rule out
the possibilities of a sabotage in this regard.
As preventive measures against the recurrence of such incidents, the municipal commissioner declared that the entire area of 132 hectares
of the dumping ground would be declared as
“prohibited zone”, allowing only restricted and disciplined entry within its premises.
Fences are being constructed around the
premises and security beefed up. The number
of personnel have gone up from the earlier 102
to 150, which would be deputed in three
batches. Further, 10 fire engines would remain
stationed at the ground in a standby mode.
Union Minister for Finance, Corporate Affairs and Information & Broadcasting,
Arun Jaitley and I&B Secretary Sunil Arora viewing an exhibition at the 5th
National Photography Awards in New Delhi on Monday
PTI
PNS n NEW DELHI
he final draft of the
Memorandum
of
T
Procedure for selection of
Supreme Court and High
Court judges has reached the
Prime Minister Office for
approval, following which
the Government will send it to
the Chief Justice of India
for clearance.
The existing MoP was
amended following the
Supreme Court decision
allowing Centre to make suitable changes after it received
representations from across
the country seeking more
transparenc y in judicial
appointments, fixing eligibility criteria for selection of
judges, having a complaints
mechanism to deal with errant
judges, and the need for setting of a permanent secretariat
to assist Supreme Court on
judicial appointments.
According to sources, the
draft MoP stresses on a more
constructive role played by
Centre and state governments
in recommending candidates
for both the Supreme Court
and High Courts, respectively.
The practice so far had been for
the Scollegium of Supreme
Court judges (Chief Justice of
India and four senior most
judges) to recommend names
to the Centre based on its own
ACCORDING TO SOURCES,
THE DRAFT MOP
STRESSES ON A MORE
CONSTRUCTIVE ROLE
PLAYED BY THE CENTRE
AND STATE
GOVERNMENTS IN
RECOMMENDING
CANDIDATES FOR BOTH
THE SC AND HC’S
RESPECTIVELY
assessment or the assessment
made by HC collegium.
The draft of the new MoP
allows Attorney General at the
Centre and Advocate Generals
in states to have a say in recommending suitable names
for judgeship. The revised MoP,
was recently approved by an
inter-ministerial group headed
by External Affairs Minister
Sushma Swaraj, following
which the Law Ministry made
changes and has forwarded it to
PMO for approval. Once all
changes have been incorporated, the final copy of the revised
draft will be sent to CJI, whose
consultation is also necessary
before finalizing the draft.
As a measure of transparency, the draft MoP has recommended that the collegium
while recommending a name
for HC or SC judge will be
required to share with the
Executive even the dissent note
of any collegium member
against the candidate. However,
on the question of bringing the
collegium proceedings under
RTI ambit, the draft MoP shies
away on the apprehension that
“interested parties” could seek
file notings and other details of
candidates jeopardizing their
right to privacy.
As a measure of eligibility criteria, the draft, for the
first time, introduces a quota
for elevation of deserving
senior advocates from the Bar
to the Supreme Court, of up
to three judges. In recent
times, two lawyers were
appointed directly as Supreme
Court judges, which otherwise
has only occurred once in the
history of the Supreme Court.
For elevating HC judges to
Supreme Court, the revised
MoP fixes certain yardsticks
such as evaluation of judgments delivered by the said
judge in the preceding five
years and initiatives, if any,
undertaken by the said judge
to improve judicial administration. Besides, seniority will
be an added criterion and will
take a backseat to merit.
The need for permanent
secretariat will also reflect in
the draft MoP while a
final decision is pending on
how to deal with complaints
against judges.
NIA releases photos of four Defence Procurement Procedure approved
Govt pays OROP dues
Navy deploys P-8 I
dead ultras for identification T
long-range maritime
to 13 lakh as Holi gift
PNS n NEW DELHI
RAKESH K SINGH n NEW DELHI
he National Investigation
Agency (NIA) on Monday
released the photographs of bodies of four terrorists killed in the
Pathankot airbase attack in
which apart from the other
details the agency has also mentioned about their circumcision
as an identification mark for
seeking information from the
public about their identities.
The agency has released
two photographs each of the four
liquidated terrorists. Apart from
mentioning their sex, height
and build, the agency has interestingly mentioned “circumcision present” in case of all the
four killed terrorists.
“Mention of circumcision as
an identification mark to identify the bodies of slain terrorists
is unprecedented as the NIA had
not released such details even in
the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks
case. In any case, how does circumcision of a person help anyone in identifying an unclaimed
body? Normally, marks on the
face or limbs or absence, if any,
of limbs are mentioned besides
the height and weight of the person whose details are sought
through such notices,” a senior
official of a security agency said.
While the photographs of
the Body No 1 put up by the
agency mention his sex as male,
height as 5’ 6’’ and build as thin,
the photographs of Body No 2
point out his sex as male, height
as 5’7’’but build as medium.
Likewise, the Body No 3 is
also of a male with height being
5’8’’, healthy build and no toes in
both feet. The Body No 4 is that
PATHANKOT TERROR ATTACK
T
The photographs of the terrorists who were killed inside Air Force Station
Pathankot while they were carrying out terror attack on January 2, 2016. The NIA
has annouced a reward of upto `1 lakh for any information regarding them
of another male with 5’7’’ height
having medium build.
“In case anybody can identify any of the above or has any
information regarding any of the
above, he/she may contact on the
following address : Address :
Superintendent of Police,
National Investigation Agency,
6th & 7th Floor, NDCC-II
Building, Jai Singh Marg, Palika
Kendra, New Delhi 110001,”
the agency said in the notice
issued to seek information from
the public.
The notice also mentions a
landline number 011-23438236
and mobile number 9654447345
besides e-mail address [email protected] for contacting
the agency to provide information of these terrorists.
These terrorists were killed
inside Air Force Station
Pathankot while they were carrying out terrorist attack on
January 2 this year.
The picture has been circulated and public asked to
share information about them.
Anybody giving “relevant and
correct” information would
be rewarded up to Rs 1 lakh,
NIA said.
The agency has already
approached the Interpol for
issuance of Black Notice for
the four. The international
notice is issued for identification of unidentified bodies
found in a country.
The NIA move comes
ahead of the visit by a
Pakistani probe team in connection with the Pathankot
terror attack on an IAF base.
he much-awaited Defence
Procurement Procedure
for year 2016 was approved by
the Defence Acquisition
Council (DAC) chaired by
Defence Minister Manohar
Parrikar on Monday. The new
DPP will be uploaded on the
official website on March 28
and applicable from April 2
with stress on ‘Make in India’
policy of NDA Government.
Announcing this here after
the nearly three-hour long
DAC meeting, Parrikar said
decision on issues like doing
business with blacklisted companies and forging strategic
partnership for big projects like
building submarines and fighter aircraft will be taken in the
next few weeks.
As regards the new DPP,
he said the DAC approved
chapters one, two, three, four,
five and seven while consultations for chapter sic pertaining to strategic partnership
were on. He said this chapter
KHURSHEED WANI/MOHIT
KANDHARI n SRINAGAR/JAMMU
eoples Democratic Party
(PDP) chief Mehbooba
P
Mufti on Monday afternoon
air-dashed to New Delhi, rekindling hopes for the renewal of
PDP-BJP alliance in Jammu &
Kashmir to form the next coalition Government.
In Mumbai, in a television
programme, Off the Cuff,
Union Finance Minister Arun
Jaitley said that the Central
Government stands by its package to J&K announced by the
Prime Minister “in toto”.
“If we stick to agenda for
governance in J&K, there
should be no problem.
Mehbooba Mufti has to make
up her mind,” Jaitley said.
Interestingly, Mufti left for
Delhi a day after Jaitley had
thrown notions that the BJP
was eager to continue working
on the agenda of alliance, a
roadmap set by PDP founder
Mufti Muhammad Sayeed and
Prime Minister Modi.
Mufti is expected to meet
the Prime Minister during her
stay in Delhi but only after
receiving the nod from the top
brass of the BJP. Jaitley appeared
to be praising late Mufti and
counselling his daughter to
shun stubbornness. “Mufti
Sahib had evolved into a statesman; he was moderate in his
tone. We lost him when State
needed him the most”, he said.
A group of PDP leaders —
including former Finance
Minister Haseeb Drabu and
young PDP leader Waheed
Parra — have also reached New
Delhi to work in the backchannel before the possible meeting
between Modi and Mufti.
However, there was no indication from the PDP camp that
they have received any formal
invitation from the PMO for the
meeting that is likely to clear the
air on the Government formation in the embattled State.
Mehbooba’s departure to
New Delhi assumes significance in the wake of her failed
attempt last week when she met
with BJP president Amit Shah
but no deal was clinched on
Government formation.
Mehbooba had earlier went
back empty handed last week
after BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav had made
it clear that the BJP was not
ready to accept new demands
listed by the PDP chief during
her crucial meeting with the
BJP chief Amit Shah.
The alliance partners had
almost come on the verge of
splitting but while the PDP
chief chose to stay mum after
reaching Srinagar and went in
PNS n NEW DELHI
In an effort to give a Holi gift to ex-servicemen, the government has
already paid dues under the One Rank Pension (OROP) to more than
13 lakh till last week and the remaining seven lakh will be covered in
the next few days, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said here on
Monday. Announcing this here, he said the payments under the
OROP to 13 lakh veterans amounted to Rs 2,293 crore and it was
released through State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank and
Defence Pension Disbursing Offices(DPDO). The OROP
implementation decision was taken in September last year and
notification for disbursement was issued in November. As on March
17, the DPDOs have released an amount of about Rs. 606 crore to
about 3.20 lakh defence personnel while the SBI as released Rs.
1,337 crore to 7.75 lakh pensioners which includes Family Pension
cases. The PNB has released as on March 17, an amount of about
Rs. 350 crore to about 2.07 lakh pensioners which includes Family
Pension cases, he said.
Efforts were also on to give
a big boost to small scale
industries engaged in defence
manufacturing as till now
these units were working in a
“stifling and choking” environment, Parrikar said adding
priority will be given to indigenously designed and manufactured weapons by Indian
industry. These industries
will have to have more than 40
per cent indigenous content to
bag contracts, he added.
reconnaissance
aircraft in Seychelles
New Delhi: The Navy for the first
time has deployed a P-8 I long
range maritime reconnaissance
aircraft to Seychelles since
Sunday for surveillance in the
Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)of
Seychelles, in accordance with
the MoU between India and
Seychelles. The Indian Navy has,
in the past, undertaken surveillance missions in the Seychelles
EEZ twice a year, by deploying its
warships. The last such deployment was undertaken in October
last year. The aircraft will remain
deployed till March 23 and will
undertake surveillance of Seychelles EEZ. The deployment will facilitate professional interaction between the aircrew and the Seychelles People’s Defence Force, navy
officials said on Monday.
PNS
Opp parties slam BJP over Bharat Mata ki jai’s insistence
PNS n NEW DELHI
he nationalism debate
escalated on Monday with
T
Opposition parties slamming
BJP’s “insistence” on ‘Bharat
Mata ki jai’ as the only way to
express this as an “unfortunate
replay” of Hitler’s tactics,
prompting the ruling party to
assert that opposing the slogan amounted to treason.
The Opposition parties
also accused BJP of stoking
the nationalism issue to
J&K impasse: Mehbooba in Delhi
PDP chief likely
to meet Modi
during her stay
was an extensive exercise as
the ministry has to take the
approval of the finance ministr y and the Cabinet
Committee on Security(CCS).
Highlighting the point that
focus was on ease of doing
business, the minister admitted change of mindsets of officials was the need of the hour
as they were scared of taking
decisions due to allegations at
a later stage. Parrikar claimed
the DPP aimed at injection
positivity and the mindsets
were now changing adding
there was too much secrecy
attached to defence deals
which was not needed.
Elaborating upon some of
the salient features of the new
DPP, he said DAC was
empowered to put certain
weapon systems if operationally required on fast track.
However, it will not be norm,
the minister said adding a
committed chaired by the
Defence Secretary will take the
final call on clearing fast track
projects.
to self-imposed hibernation for
two days, the BJP leaders
dropped tacit hints during their
two-day long National
Executive to go-ahead for
another round of parleys to
renegotiate the terms and conditions of the alliance.
Meanwhile, National
Conference Working president
and former Chief Minister
Omar Abdullah on Monday
called on Governor NN Vohra
in Jammu to discuss the current
political situation in the State
in the wake of undue delay over
Government formation.
Emerging out of the meeting Omar favoured mid-term
polls in the State to end the
cycle of political uncertainty
amid continuous flip-flop by
the PDP chief.
“If as party president she is
so indecisive how can she take
tough decisions sitting on the
hot seat. It is high time the PDP
chief should decide and say
either Yes or No to the question
of Government formation in
alliance with the BJP,” Omar
responded while answering
media queries. Omar also cautioned New Delhi against toying with the idea of splitting
any political party to regain
power.
shroud its “failure” in keeping
promises.
The BJP on its part maintained that “opposing” Bharat
Mata “for sure” falls in the category of treason and made a
strong pitch for “instilling”
feeling of nationalism as
“some people” have habit of
“eulogising” anti-nationalists
like Afzal Guru.
“Hindusthan Zindabad,
Jai Hind and Inquilab
Zindabad are nationalism. So,
nationalism can be expressed
in various forms. Now to
insist nationalism means only
the slogan (Bharat Mata ki jai)
that they want people to give
is very clearly an unfortunate
replay of how (Adolf) Hitler
used nationalism for the rise
of fascism in Germany,” CPI
(M) general secretary Sitaram
Yechury said.
Rajya Sabha Opposition
Leader Ghulam Nabi Azad
said people of the country are
“clever” and understand that
the debate is allegedly being
stoked to divert their attention
from BJP’s “failure” in keeping
poll promises of employment,
development and price rise
among others.
Concurring with Azad,
JD(U) leader Pawan Verma
said the issue is being escalated also in view of forthcoming
Assembly polls in five States.
C ountering
the
Opposition,
Union
Parliamentar y
Af fairs
Minister M Venkaiah Naidu
said there is a need to instill
feeling of nationalism as
“some people” have objections to chant ‘Bharat Mata ki
jai’ and have the “habit of
eulogising” anti-nationalist
like Afzal Gur u and
Yakub Memon.
Union Minister of State for
Minority Affairs Mukhtar
Abbas Naqvi said chanting
‘Bharat Mata ki jai’ is not a
“certificate of nationalism”, but
“opposing, abusing and criticising ‘Bharat Mata’ does fall
under category of “treason”.
Initiatives taken
to draw more
foreign students
to India: Irani
PTI n NEW DELHI
erming India an “affordable
destination” for quality eduT
cation, HRD minister Smriti
Irani on Monday said the release
of rankings of educational institutions and decision by IITs to
hold entrance tests abroad will
draw more foreign students to
the country.
Speaking at an event organised by Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), Irani spoke of the importance of educational and cultural diplomacy.
“The challenge before the country’s educational institutions is
whether the engagement with
foreign students is to be limited
only on the basis of scholarships
or can they be invited because of
excellence in various fields,” she
said. “India is an affordable destination for high quality education,” she said. Irani said the
rankings of Indian institutes under the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) will be
out on April 4 and asked MEA
officials to leverage this data to
reach out to foreign students.
Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare JP Nadda lights the lamp at the inaugural session of the ‘International Meeting for
Ending TB’. As part of the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP), Union Health Minister J P Nadda
launched Bedaquiline - new anti-TB drug for Drug Resistant TB and inducted over 500 Cartridge Based Nucleic Acid
Amplification Test (CBNAAT) machines in New Delhi on Monday
PTI
nation 06
Kerala’s rice distribution Blow to CPM: Actress drops out of poll race
plan under EC scanner I
VR JAYARAJ n KOCHI
PNS n NEW DELHI/KOCHI
he Election Commission
has questioned the proposed
T
distribution of free rice to about
20 lakh families in poll-bound
Kerala from April 1 and has
formed a Committee to examine whether the move violates
the Model Code of Conduct and
disturbs free and fair elections in
the State on May 16.
In a late evening development, the Kerala Government
said it would not hesitate to take
legal recourse if permission
was denied for the schemes.
Speaking to reporters here,
after a special cabinet meeting
discussed the issue, Chief
Minister Oommen Chandy said
Chief Secretary P K Mohanty
would write a letter to the
Election Commission seeking
permission for the schemes.
"The cabinet decided to take
legal recourse, if EC refuses to
give permission," Chandy said.
Model Code is in place in
Kerala since March 4, when elections to the Kerala Legislative
Assembly were announced by
the EC. Although the decision
to distribute free rice to below
poverty line (BPL) families was
approved last month as part of
Budget speech, its distribution
will begin on April 1, which has
been challenged by rival political parties as a move by the
Oommen Chandy Government
to garner votes. As per the
Government decision, each BPL
family will get 25 kilo rice.
The Chief Electoral Officer
(CEO) of Kerala EK Majhi has
taken cognisance of the scheme
and has constituted a committee headed by State Chief
Secretary PK Mohanty to
examine whether the move is
a Model Code violation.
Office of the Kerala CEO
said the State Government has
not been asked to defer the
implementation till elections
are over but the issue has only
been referred to the Committee
headed by the Chief Secretary
for further consideration.
State Food Minister Anoop
Jacob has said that any decision
to block the distribution of free
rice scheme will be challenged
by the State Government before
the Election Commission.
He cited a precedent in
2011 when the Kerala High
Court had set aside a similar
restriction issued by the then
CEO on the distribution of rice
at `2 per kilo to families of
Above Poverty Line (APL) category subject to certain conditions. Jacob stated that he was
confident that EC will consider the fact that the present
scheme was a “policy decision”
taken by the Government
“much before” the elections got
announced.
n a huge setback for the
Kerala CPI(M)’s move to
field film stars and other
celebrities as candidates for
the crucial May 16 Assembly
polls by neglecting grassroots
sentiments, actress KPAC
Lalitha on Monday turned
down the leadership’s offer to
make her the Left’s
Independent candidate in
Wadakancher y following
protests from within the party.
Though the 69-year-old
actress has cited health problems and commitments already
made in the film industry as
reasons for her withdrawal,
indications are that her decision is connected to the
protests in the constituency
against the proposal to field her.
The protests had appeared in
the form of poster campaigns
and demonstrations.
Lalitha has already
informed the CPI(M) leadership about her decision.
Denying that she had withdrawn from candidature due to
the protests, she said, “Nobody
had forced me to take this decision. There is no other reason
than my health problems.
Please don’t think otherwise,”
the actress, who had initially
refused to take the protests seriously, said.
“When I told the party
leaders about my decision,
they were sad. But I am sure
that I won’t be able to go
through the work the candidature would demand. I just
can’t…” she told newsmen.
Lalitha’s withdrawal is a huge
setback for the CPI(M) leadership as hers was one of the
first names the State party sec-
retariat itself had proposed for
candidature.
Moreover, the development
is sure to act as an inspiration
and give confidence to partymen and sympathizers who are
opposing the candidates proposed by the State and district
leaderships. “Wadakanchery
has shown the way. Now protesters in other places are sure
to get a new confidence,”
admitted a party leader in
Kollam where such issues have
already come up.
Objections have come up
to the leadership’s decision to
‘parachute’ candidates of its
choice in several constituencies.
Protests are said to be raging
within the party against the
leadership’s reported choice of
film star Mukesh as the Left’s
candidate in Kollam and its
proposal to field TV personality Veena George in Aranmula.
Though Lalitha had at first
refused to take the first protests
that appeared in the form of a
poster campaign three days
back seriously, she informed
the party leadership about her
decision to withdraw after open
demonstrations by partymen
and fellow-travelers were held
in Wadakanchery on Sunday.
Following this, a CPI(M)
team led by district secretary
AC
Moideen,
former
Wadakanchery MLA, had
called on her on Sunday night
to ask her not to give in to the
protests. In order to reassure
her, Moideen had taken Xavier
Chittilappilly, whom the protesters wanted as the party
candidate in Wadakanchery,
along with him on the visit.
“The development is
indeed a big reminder for the
party - that it should not field
candidates without taking into
account local sentiments.
CPI(M) may still have a centralized power structure but it
should understand that times
are changing,” said a former
CPI(M) theorist in Kochi.
“We have nothing against
Lalitha Chechi (Sister Lalitha).
She is a great actor and has
been a Leftist throughout her
life. But that is not the issue
here. When there are able,
energetic, committed and popular comrades who can work
effectively for the constituency,
why should the leadership
parachute candidates?” asked a
CPI(M) member who took
part in Sunday’s protests.
However, sources close to
the State CPI(M) leadership say
that the party is determined to
deal strictly with the partymen
who had forced Lalitha to
withdraw from the poll scene
with their protests and also
with those who have been
protesting against candidates
proposed by it in other constituencies.
Kerala BJP seals
seat-sharing pack
Now, Birbhum EC Didi leads poll rally with tainted leaders with major ally
Observer goes
on tourism spree
PNS n KOLKATA
fter Murshidabad, it was
the turn of Birbhum Special
A
Observer sent by the Election
Commission to go on a tourism
spree instead of concentrating
on the task assigned to one.
A Special Observer for
Birbhum was on Monday seen
taking a detour to see the
Ilambazar Fossil Park a popular tourist destination at the
head of an 11-car convoy, local
political leaders said wondering whether the senior officer
who was accepting the warmth
of the officers on whom he was
supposed to keep a tab would
be able to maintain the impartiality expected from him.
The Observer was scheduled to visit some villages on
Monday. “One wonders how a
top official will be able to maintain his objectivity after accepting hospitality of the subordinate officers on whom one is
supposed to keep a vigil” said
Congress’ Abdul Mannan.
A team of five Special
Observers had been sent by the
EC to take stock of the law and
order situation and report
against biased bureaucrats
before the coming elections.
Earlier a Special Observer
for Murshidabad was on
Sunday went around shopping
Murshidabad Silk sarees as the
“guest of the DM” on whom he
was supposed to keep a tab.
“We have both the information
and are sending it to the
Election Commission of India”
said Rabin Deb CPI(M) leader.
Birbhum is the most
volatile district which had in
the past couple of years seen
maximum amount of bloodshed. According to a report
filed by the local administration to the EC, 2665 bombs
and 87 fire arms had been
recovered from various spots
in the district until March.
PNS n KOCHI
SAUGAR SENGUPTA n KOLKATA
fter standing firmly with the
tainted Ministers by the
Narada expose, Bengal Chief
Minister Mamata Banerjee on
Monday led an election rally in
the State with the latters walking
beside her.
Two senior Ministers and
the Kolkata Mayor, all stung by
the Narada expose, walked
alongside Mamata in a huge election rally that the critics termed
the CM’s own way of neutralising the hitherto most potent
arsenal in the State Opposition’s
hand. Used to hitting the streets
whenever facing a popularity crisis Banerjee walked a couple of
miles leading a huge crowd covering three-four South Kolkata
Assembly constituencies including her own Bhawanipore seat.
The two senior Ministers
who walked along with the
Chief Minister were Subroto
Mukherjee and Firhad Hakim
and were joined by Kolkata
Mayor Sobhan Chatterjee —
also an MLA. All of them were
caught on camera accepting
bribes from a journalist of a
news portal who presented
he Kerala BJP, determined
not just to open account in
T
the Assembly but also to
A
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at an election campaign rally ahead of Assembly polls in Kolkata on Monday PTI
himself as a make believe businessman.
Apart from these leaders
there were 5-6 other MPs and
MLAs who were seen striking a
deal for money with the ‘businessman’ apparently hitting the
ruling TMC even harder than
the Saradha and other chit fund
scam worth several thousand
crores and affecting more than
18 lakh people.
Reacting on the Monday’s
march Bengal Deputy Speaker
and close Mamata confidante
Sonali Guha said “no crime is a
crime unless proven” adding
“The Trinamool will withstand
the Narada storm much like it
did in the case of Saradha.
When Saradha could do nothing
what will Narada do? Let him be
in heaven and we will rule in
Bengal under the leadership of
Mamata Banerjee as the people
will vote for her and none else.”
Incidentally, Banerjee and
her nephew Abhishek also a Lok
Sabha MP kept asking the voters not to look at who was con-
testing from a given constituency but to look at Mamata
Banerjee who nominated them.
“Consider my face when
you go for vote and not the candidate because it is Mamata
Banerjee who is contesting from
all the 294 seats and not the person who is filing the nomination.
So vote for me and not anyone
else and do not lend your ears to
any disinformation campaign
of the Opposition,” Banerjee
had been telling rallies in North
and South Bengal.
become a decisive force in the
legislature with the May 16
election, on Monday reached
an understanding on sharing of
seats with its major ally in the
State, the Bharat Dharma Jana
Sena (BDJS), a party of majority communities.
As per the understanding
reached at talks between the two
parties at Thiruvananthapuram,
the BDJS will contest 37 of the
total 140 Assembly seats. The
BDJS was floated on December
5 under the leadership of the
SNDP Yogam, outfit of Hindu
lower caste Ezhavas who constitute over 21 percent of the
State’s population.
After the talks with BDJS,
State
BJP
president
Kummanam Rajasekharan said
the seat-sharing discussions in
the Kerala unit of the party-led
NDA would be complete before
the close of the week while
Thushar Vellappally, president
of the new party, said the BDJS
would conclude selection of its
candidates for all the 37 seats
within two days.
Thushar also said reports
that the BDJS had complained
about the declaration of the
BJP’s candidates for 22 seats
before the seat-sharing talks
were mere media speculation.
The State BJP had on March 16
presented to the central leadership a preliminary list of
probable candidates for 22
seats in which names of all
senior leaders including the
State chief had figured.
As per the understanding
reached between the BJP and
BDJS on Monday, there will be
no change in the list of candidates already drawn up by the
former. However, the BJP
agreed to allocate to the BDJS
several crucial seats including
Kovalam that had not figured
in the list already drawn up.
A recent survey had predicted that the BJP might win
five or six seats in the upcoming election.
As per the first list drawn
up by the BJP, Rajasekharan
will contest in Vattiyoorkavu
while senior leader O Rajagopal
will be the party candidate in
Nemom, both in Thiruvananthapuram district.
Cong retains two Assam RS seats Cong leaders divided over creation K’taka ACB
ANUP SHARMA n GUWAHATI
he two candidates nominated by the ruling Congress —
former State Education Minister
Ripun Bora and former Union
Minister Ranee Narah — won
both the Rajya Sabha seats in
Assam on Monday; cross voting
by BJP and BPF members
helped Congress’ cause.
There were three candidates in the fray for the two
Rajya Sabha seats, currently
held by Congress’ Pankaj Bora
and Naznin Faruque. Both the
seats will fall vacant on April 2
this year.
While the Congress nominated Bora and Narah for the
two seats, city-based businessman Mahavir Jain had also filed
nomination as an Independent
candidate. Jain was backed by
Bodoland People’s Front (BPF),
the ruling party in the Bodoland
Territorial Council (BTC).
Although Bora polled 39
CPM RS CANDIDATE
ELECTED FORM TRIPURA
T
Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, APCC president Anjan Dutta (2nd L) with newly
elected Rajya Sabha members Rani Narah (L) and Ripun Bora (R) showing victory
sign during a Press conference in Guwahati on Monday
PTI
votes, one of the votes cast by
Congress legislator Robin
Bordoloi got canceled due to
technical reasons. Narah, however, got 47 votes.
Surprisingly, the BPF, who
backed Jain, decided to abstain
from voting alleging that the
Independent candidate has
entered into some understanding with the Congress.
Apart from 68 Congress
legislators, 16 All India United
Democratic Front (AIUDF) legislators voted for the Congress
candidates. Although the BJP
had decided to abstain from voting, BJP legislator from
Patacharkuchi, Manoranjan
Das-who was denied party ticket for the forthcoming Assembly
polls-cast his vote for the
Congress candidate.
Addressing the media later
TN witnessing multi-cornered
contest because of Jaya: Stalin
KUMAR CHELLAPPAN n
CHENNAI
Jayalalithaa, the general secretary of the AIADMK, got a
Jcompliment
on Monday from
an unexpected source, M K
Stalin, the DMK treasurer. The
DMK scion told a local newspaper that the poll-bound
Tamil Nadu is witnessing a
multi-cornered contest because
of Jayalalithaa. “The AIADMK
has meticulously created a
multi-cornered contest. But
the actual contest is between
the DMK and the AIADMK,”
Stalin told the newspaper.
As on Monday, there are
five political fronts vying for
power in the May 16 Assembly
election. The DMDK led by
Vijayakanth is yet to reveal its
strategy though Tamil Nadu’s
Grand Old Man is confident
that Captain would cast his lot
with the DMK.
The major development on
Monday was the declaration by
S Ramadoss, founder of the
Vanniyar dominated PMK, that
his party would not have any
kind of alliance with the BJP.”I
am not interested in having any
kind of relation with the BJP,”
said Ramadoss, who is also the
father of Anbumani, the party’s
Chief Ministerial candidate.
The PMK was a constituent of
the
BJP-led
National
Democratic Alliance during the
2014 Lok Sabha election. But
after the Lok Sabha election,
papa Ramadoss got upset when
his son Anbumani was not
included in the Union Cabinet.
The BJP retorted by Monday
with Tamilissai Sounderarajan,
the gynaecologist-turned-party
president making it known that
the saffron party too was not
interested in having alliance
with the PMK. Interestingly,
Ramadoss is a general physician
who gave up his medical practice long time back in order to
help Tamil Nadu.
“There is no possibility of
a tie-up with the BJP. Centre’s
policies are worse than what it
was right after the Lok Sabha
election. I don’t want any kind
of ties with the BJP,” said
Ramadoss while speaking to a
Tamil
news
channel.
Sonderarajan said the BJP
would soon come out with a
“unique alliance”. But she
declined to elaborate further.
Another development of
the day was Karunanidhi’s voice
bite to news reporters who
approached him at the DMK
headquarters on Monday. Dr
Kalaignar, as Karunanidhi
prefers to be addressed, told the
channel reporters that he was
confident of DMDK leader
Vijayakanth joining the DMK
front. “I am hopeful of a tie up
between the DMK and the
DMDK. However I cannot tell
you when. But an announcement may come soon,” said
Karunanidhi (93), the oldest
“player” in the country’s electoral politics.
Agartala: CPI-M candidate
for the lone Rajya Sabha seat
from Tripura Jharna Das
Baidya, the sitting MP, was on
Monday elected for the second term Baidya received 49
votes out of 60 votes and her
rival got 10. One voter, minister without portfolio Bhanu
Lal Saha, did not cast his vote.
in the evening, Chief Minister
Tarun Gogoi said “now, people
of the State will realise that I have
support from across the parties,”
he added.
PCC president Anjan Dutta
said “this is a signal before the
Assembly polls. We will show
the same performance there
too”. “Earlier I was sure of winning 70 seats but now I am confident of winning at least 78 seats
in the Assembly polls,” he said.
Alert in Jamnagar
after Gujarat Police
spots suspicious
terrorist movement
PNS n GANDHINAGAR
KESTUR VASUKI n BENGALURU
harp differences have
emerged in the Karnataka
SCongress
over the creation of
an Anti-Corruption Bureau
(ACB) as a section of the leaders have questioned why the
party was not consulted and
accused Chief Minister
Siddaramaiah of taking a “unilateral decision”.
Senior Congress leader and
former Chief Minister SM
Krishna openly questioned the
decision of Chief Minister to
form ACB and said it would
weaken the Lokayukta institution. Krishna termed it a ‘bad
development’ and said the
Karnataka Lokayukta is a
model institution which earned
good reputation under some
able Lokayuktas. “The decision
is certainly not in the state’s
interest,” he added.
Another senior Congress
leader and former Union
Minister B Janardhan Poojary
dubbed the Government’s
move illegal and demanded
the Government and criticised
the intention of the
Government to create the ACB
on the floor of the House. The
civil society finds this as a decision to weaken the Lokayukta
institution. Siddaramaiah has
come under fire for not consulting the party to form ACB
in a hurry. It is learnt Chief
Minister has to make a trip to
Delhi after the Budget Session
to explain to the party high
command.
It is learnt that the officebearers’ meeting of the
Karnataka Pradesh Congress
Committee held last week too
had expressed reservations on
the ACB. Some of the officebearers had questioned the
necessity of the ACB in the current circumstances when the
Lokayukta itself was embroiled
in controversy over the alleged
extortion of money. However,
Digvijaya Singh, AICC general secretary in-charge of the
party’s affairs in Karnataka,
said he was not aware of the
issue.
However Siddaramaiah
strongly defended the creation
of ACB and said it would not
dilute the powers of Lokayukta.
He also said there was no
question of going back on this.
Meanwhile, former Union
Minister and MP M Veerappa
Moily said the ACB would
reduce the burden on the
Lokayukta and both institutions would complement each
other. Justice Santosh Hegde,
who was the head of Lokayukta
when the institution was at its
peak, said, “I have no doubt this
executive move is meant to
destabilise Lokayukta and
remove its powers so they can
be saved from their illegal
activities.”
Former Law Minister BJP’s
Suresh Kumar said, “It is very
unfortunate that Siddaramaiah,
who was an important person
in the Government of
Ramakrishna Hegde, which
came out with this historic legislation creating Lokayukta, is
the one causing the end of
Lokayukta.”
Huge fire in dumping ground chokes Mumbai
T N RAGHUINATHA n MUMBAI
he Gujarat Police tracked
n Monday when air qualisuspicious terrorist move- Oty in several parts of
T
ment near oil refineries of Mumbai dropped to “poor’ and
Reliance Industries Ltd and
Essar Oil Ltd near coastal town
Jamnagar. According to
sources, four suspects sitting in
a black colour scorpio vehicle
near Sikka area did not stop at
police check point even after
police tried to stop it.
The police has learnt to
have issued red alert across the
district and Vadinar development area to nab the suspects.
The area (Sikka-Vadinar)
from where the incident is
reported has port logistics
infrastructure, marine operations and single buoy moorings
installed for oil refineries.
Oil refineries located near
Jamnagar district are on terror
hit list and so the vigil has been
increased in the area following
the report, said the police.
that it be revoked immediately. He said “It will definitely
send a wrong message and
damage the party’s reputation.”
BK Hariprasad, a senior
leader, also criticised the
Government decision to create
ACB. He said “Instead of giving more powers to the
Lokayukta to crackdown corruption, the Government has
diluted its powers by creating
the ACB.”
A senior Congress leader
told The Pioneer Congress
High command is not happy
with the decision of
Siddaramaiah to create ACB at
this juncture paving way for the
Opposition to attack the party.
It is also learnt that many leaders have complained to
Karnataka Congress in-charge
Digvijay Singh on the issue.
The Opposition parties —
both BJP and the JDs — have
started spitting fire and would
raise the issue in the ongoing
Budget Session of the
Assembly. BJP leader Jagadish
Shettar came down heavily on
“very poor” levels owing to the
smoke emanating from a massive fire at Deonar dumping
ground, people living in northeastern suburbs of the metropolis complained of breathlessness and extreme discomfort,
even hours after the civic fire
brigade personnel brought the
raging blaze under control.
Given that the fire that
broke out at 10 am on Sunday
is the second such massive blaze
that erupted at the Deonar
dumping ground since January
this year, Mumbai Municipal
Commissioner Ajay Mehta said
that he suspected sabotage
behind the latest fire.
Talking to media persons in
the evening, Mehta said that the
BMC had registered an FIR
with the Shivaji Nagar police sta-
tion. “We suspect sabotage
behind the latest fire at the
Deonar dumping ground. We
have registered an FIR with the
local police station. I have also
spoken to Mumbai Police
Commissi Datta Padsalgikar in
this regard. The police are looking into the matter,” Mehta said.
Though the civic fire
brigade officials battled with fire
all through Sunday night and
brought the blaze under control
at around 4 am, one could still
get to see bouts fresh minor
break-outs of fire and huge
clouds of thick smoke emanating from the Deonar dumping
ground, which is spread over 132
hectares of area.
With no let up in the toxic
smog that had enveloped the
skies of north-eastern Mumbai
and the continued low-visibility, normal life in north-eastern
suburbs like Deonar, Chembur,
Tilak Nagar, Pestom Sagar,
Shivaji Nagar, Mankhurd and
Baiganwadi was badly affected
for the second consecutive day.
While most people in the area
had closed their flat doors and
windows, there were complaints
of breathlessness and extreme
discomfort from the local residents. Scores of people rushed
to local hospitals for treatment
of their breathing and bronchial
problems.
Under flak from various
quarters for the recurring fires
and lack of security around the
vast Deonar dumping ground
which has been in existence
since 1927, the BMC has now
begun to secure the place by
repairing and rebuilding the
fence around the dumping area.
“Similarly we have increased the
number of security personnel
posted at the dumping ground
from 102 to 150 persons. We
have installed 12 CCTC cameras
in and around the dumping
ground. We will be installing 40
more night-vision CCTV cam-
era all over the dumping
ground,” Mehta said.
In an effort to combat the
threat of Methane gas emanating from the Deonar dumping
ground, the Indian Institute of
Technology (IIT) Bombay and
National Environmental
Engineering Research Institute
(NEERI) on Sunday advised
the BMC to undertake “slope
stabilisation” and to cover the
debris piled up at the dumping
ground with mud.
“We have already begun to
implement the recommendation
with regard slope stabilisation
and levelling of piled up debris
made by the IIT Bombay and
NEERI. We are creating internal
roads so as facilitate easy movement of fire brigade vehicles
inside the dumping ground. We
are enlisting the cooperation of
the IIT and NEERI in all our
efforts to deal with fire situations
at the Deonar dumping ground,”
Mehta said.
nation 07
Govt not to fritter away money on vehicles, machines VAT a hike!
RAJESH KUMAR n NEW DELHI
n a bid to check the procurement of expensive
machines and vehicles by departments, the Arvind Kejriwal
Government has put a cap on
the purchase of expensive photocopiers, scanners and vehicles
in the national Capital.
The decision was reportedly taken after the
Government received about
over two dozen proposals from
various departments in this
connection from its various
wings in the recent past.
An order to this effect
issued by Deputy Chief
Minister Manish Sisodia said
the Finance Department
would consider only such pro-
I
posals which were personally
certified by the concerned
Administrative Secretary that
the specifications for the proposed purchases were absolutely essential and they indeed
proposed to buy the cheapest
model available.
The order stated, “It has
been seen that towards the
end of the financial year many
departments have proposed to
procure expensive photocopiers, scanners, vehicles
etc… Mere endorsement of
junior officer’s note will not be
considered for concurrence by
the Finance Department. The
Administrative Secretary need
to give his/ her recommendation categorically.”
When asked, a senior offi-
Puts a cap on purchase
of expensive
photocopiers, scanners
and vehicles after
Government receives
about two dozen
proposals from various departments
cial of the Delhi Government
said the Finance Department
has returned several proposals
of various departments who
had sought expensive vehicles,
photocopiers and other items.
“In case, one Department has
sought a photocopier which
cost Rs 2.50 lakh for office pur-
poses,” said official.
The AAP Government’s
order has come in wake of the
instructions from the Centre
directing State administrations to avoid rush of expenditure on procurements during the last quarter of the fiscal year and in particular the
last month of the year so as to
ensure that all procedures are
complied with and there is no
in fructuous or wasteful expenditure.
The Centre had made it
clear that no fresh financial
commitments should be made
on items which were not provided for in the approved
Budget. It said the instructions
would be applicable to the
autonomous bodies as well.
Also, the Centre had asked
the State Governments to furnish monthly returns of plan
expenditure — Central,
Centrally sponsored or State
plan - to respective Ministries
or departments along with a
report on amounts outstanding in their Public Account.
The Centre had also directed
the Chief Controller of
Accounts to ensure compliance
of its directives as part of its
pre-payment scrutiny.
Earlier in a office memorandum, the Centre had put a
ban on holding of meetings
and conferences at five star
hotels. The memorandum said,
“Utmost economy shall be
observed in organising conferences, seminars and workshops. Only such conferences,
workshops, seminars etc which
are absolutely essential should
be held wherein also a 10 per
cent cut on budgetary allocations shall be effected…
Purchase of vehicles is banned
until further orders, except
against condemned vehicles.”
Pay Feb salaries to Opp lashes out at SDMC for not leashing stray dogs
all staff by March 29:
HC to civic agencies T
ANKITA SHARMA n NEW DELHI
PNS n NEW DELHI
he Delhi High Court on
Monday directed the three
municipal corporations to ensure
payment of February salaries to
all employees by March 29.” All
the corporations must ensure
that salaries of all the employees
for the month of February 2016,
be paid by the next date of hearing (March 29),” a bench of Chief
Justice G Rohini and Justice
Jayant Nath said.
The Bench — which had on
March 16 directed all the three
municipal corporations to pay
the February salary by today —
was informed that most of the
employees have been paid salary.
During the hearing, the
advocates appearing for the
municipal corporations told
the Bench that salaries of five
to 10 per cent employees were
to be paid now and in some of
the zones like West, 100 per
cent salaries have been paid for
the month of February. They
also gave details of the salaries
being paid to the employees for
the month of February. The
employees union, however, said
that salaries of all the employees have not been paid despite
the court’s order.
“They (corporations) are
saying there are some difficulties
due to which entire funds have
not been disbursed. They are saying whosoever has not been paid,
will be paid within a week,” the
Bench observed.
However, the counsel
appearing for the employees
union told the Bench, “this is
T
The Bench — which
had on March 16
directed all the three
municipal
corporations to pay
the February salary
by today — was
informed that most of
the employees have
been paid salary
happening every month. This is
a sorry state of affairs. They cannot play hide and seek.”
The Delhi Government’s
senior standing counsel Rahul
Mehra told the court that in this
issue, there are certain obligations of the Centre as well. “There are certain obligations of the
Centre. When the issue of powers comes, the Centre says we
have the powers but when there
is such a situation, the Centre
says State will handle it,” he said.
After Mehra said the
process has to be followed, the
Bench asked “unless you pay
the salaries, how can they
work?” Mehra, however, said a
written proposal has to come to
the Government as the Budget
session will be on soon. The
court told the parties to file
their affidavits by the next date
of hearing on March 29.
“You file the affidavits and
then we will consider it. We are
concerned that the entire
employees should be given the
salary,” the Bench said. The
court is hearing three pleas filed
by three different individuals.
he South Delhi Municipal
Corporation’s failure to
tackle stray dog ‘menace’
despite increasing the Budget
allocation from `2 crore to
`10.40 crore in 2016-17 was
at the centre of attraction
when the SDMC House meeting was held on Monday.
Raising the issue, Leader
of Opposition Farhad Suri
and a host of councillors said
no visible change has been
noticed on the ground with
residents continuing to face
hardship as population of
dogs has gone up.
“Increasing the Budget is
not serving the purpose. The
SDMC needs to work on the
ground in order to ensure
some result. The agency has
failed in sterilising the dogs.
They are trying to get dog
vans but the condition of
these dog vans is pathetic. A
dog is known to have strong
sense of smell, so when these
vans arrive the dogs immediately run away due to the
stench,” said Suri.
According to estimates,
there are nearly two lakh
stray dogs in SDMC areas.
Says increasing Budget
allocation from `2 crore to
`10 crore is not working
as very little has been
done on the ground
During April-December 2015,
20,936 dogs were sterilised by
the SDMC. In April 2013March 2014, 14,349 dogs were
sterilised which rose to 19,398
by March 2015.
“The figures show that
only 10 per cent of dogs have
been sterilised by the
SDMC whereas to maintain
the status quo of the number
of dogs, at least 70 per cent of
dogs should be sterilised
other wise number of
dogs will grow tremendously,”
said Suri.
In 2015, some 3,430 cases
of dog bites were registered,
less than 2014 when 5,295
cases were reported.
Face of a psychopath
PRIYANKA PANDEY n
NEW DELHI
district police on
Monday picked up a suspect
Safterouth
getting a tip-off from an
eyewitness who saw a man
repeatedly stabbing a puppy
and three dogs at Green Park
Metro Station.
Sources said police are
questioning the man about
his involvement in the sickening incident captured by
CCTV cameras installed at
the metro station. The Delhi
Police on Monday refined the
video grab of the man who was
caught on camera stabbing
three stray dogs and a puppy
for around 18 minutes at Green
Park Metro Station. Using a filtered image, police circulated
posters across the Capital and
posted the CCTV footage on
YouTube in a bid to identify
the youth in his 20s. DCP
(South) Premnath said, “We
have accessed more footage
from a CCTV camera installed
in a shop near the metro station premises and obtained a
close-up image of the man,
who is yet to be identified.”
“The posters, in the form
of a Hue and Cry Notice, have
SDMC councilor from
Jangpura Extension, Abhishek
Dutt said more should be
done to address stray dog
menace and the unit of dog
catchers is severely short
staffed.
A month ago, the SDMC
promised to come up with
new centres in Bijwasan,
Mundela, Nangli and
Masoodpur which would
have a capacity to sterilise 100
dogs per day. But nothing has
come on the ground, said
sources.
However,
the
Commissioner said last year
21,000 dogs were sterilised.
“With the opening of four
more centres, the civic body
will be capable of achieving
the target of sterilisation of
35,000 dogs annually.”
Besides, the agency has
also planned to open four
more centres in Dwarka
Sector-9. These centres will
have the capacity to sterilise
200 dogs per day, he said.
SDMC will also procure 10
dog vans for catching them
and it has entered into an
agreement with some
organisations for a survey of
stray dogs.
Drinking dearer
PNS n NEW DELHI
he price of liquor is expected to be increased in the
T
national Capital as the Arvind
Kejriwal Government may
announce in the Budget session
beginning from Tuesday. The
announcement would be made
in the annual Budget to be
tabled in the House of Delhi
Assembly on March 28.
Top sources told The
Pioneer that the Government
is all set to announce increase
of VAT from 20 to 25 per cent
on liquor.
Source
said
the
Government might put five
per cent VAT on plastic waste,
textile and fabrics, readymade garments costing above
`2,000. A senior AAP functionary said any changes in tax
regime before the Budget presentation could have sent a
wrong message to the people
of the national Capital. “It is
better to introduce new taxes
only through the Budget document duly passed by the
State legislature.”
Sisodia, who holds the
finance protfolio, had recently
said 25 per cent of the total
Budget allocation would be
set aside for education, by
focusing on training programmes and physical infrastructure. In 2015-16 Budget,
the Government had allocated
Rs 9,836 crore for the education
sector out of which Rs 4,570
crore was given under the plan
outlay, which was an increase
of around 106 per cent.
The House will, however,
sit only for five days till March
31 to start with LieutenantGovernor Najeeb Jung’s
address, highlighting works
done by the AAP Government
which include subsidy on
power and water front, waiving
of `2,900 crore as outstanding
dues of water bills, proposal of
setting up 100 new mohalla
sabha, opening of a polyclinic,
8000 new classroom in
Government schools till july
2016, 45 new schools are being
Government
is all set to
announce
increase of VAT
from 20 to
25 per cent
on liquor
constructed.
After the L-G’s address,
the Economic Survey of Delhi
will be tabled in the House.
The Government is
unlikely to table any other bills
during the session. It would be
pertinent to mention that 18
Bills are pending with the
Ministry of Home Affairs for
clearance as they have not
been taken prior approval
from the L-G or Centre.
Delhi Chief Minister
Arvind Kejriwal and Deputy
Chief Minister Manish Sisodia
had met Union Home Minister
Rajnath Singh, urging him to
clear the pending Bills of the
Delhi Government. It is noted
that the L-G has also met
Union Home Minister and
reportedly apprised the factual status of these Bills.
The Winter session, which
was the longest in the history
of the legislature, had seen the
introduction and passage of 15
Bills, including the Janlokpal
and Delhi School Education
Amendment Bill. The House is
expected to discuss the issue
suspension of membership of
BJP leader OP Sharma after
found guilty by ethic committee of the House.
Perverted dog killer suspect arrested; police seek
public help to identify man — a danger to society
been issued to get information
about this maniac,” said a
police officer investigating the
case.
The man in the CCTV
footage is fair-skinned, sports
a beard and is wearing a jacket, shorts and slippers.
However, some locals who
have seen the grab were unable
to recognise the man.
Initially police had claimed
that all four dogs had died, but
senior police officials later
confirmed that only the puppy
had died while the three adult
dogs that were grievously
injured are undergoing a series
of surgeries. An NGO,
Humane
Society
International/India
(HIS/India)
has
also
announced a reward of `1
lakh for anyone who helps
identify the accused, police
said. “This incident exposes
the violent nature of this man
and it’s essential for the safety
of the animals and society
that this man is put behind
bars,” said NG Jayasimha,
managing director of
HSI/India.
by the Debts Recover y
Tribunal (DRT) in 2010 after
“gross under-valuation” at Rs
27 crore and was purchased as
party. The sources also said
that Bhujbals had invested
the “proceeds of crime” of
money laundering funds
which they generated when Sr
Bhujbal was the PWD
Minister in the previous DF
government.
Through earlier three
attachment orders, the ED
has already attached properties worth Rs 280 crore
belonging to Bhujbals.
An attachment order
under PMLA laws is aimed to
deprive the accused from
obtaining benefits of their
alleged ill-gotten wealth and
the accused parties can appeal
against the order before the
Adjudicating Authority of the
said Act within 180 days.
Bhujbal, was arrested on
March 14 by the ED after it
questioned him for more than
10 hours, in connection with
two money laundering cases
registered against him, his
family members and associates. After being in the custody of ED for two days,
Bhujbal was on March 17
remanded in judicial custodytill March 31.
Bhujbal is the second
member of his family to have
been arrested in connection
with the money laundering
cases registered against him,
his son Pankaj, nephew
Sameer and others in connection with
the two
Economic Case Information
Reports (ECIRs) registered
on June 17 against him, his
son Pankaj and nephew
Sameer others under the provisions of PMLA. Earlier, his
nephew had been arrested on
February 1 and is still in judicial custody. The two ECIRs,
registered against Chhagan
Bhujbal, his son Pankaj,
nephew Samir and 19 others,
relate to the alleged illegal
transactions to the tune of
several hundred crores, under
the provisions of PMLA.
Between 2007 and 2011,
Pankaj and Samir were directors of Parvesh Construction,
a firm which executes redevelopment projects in
Mumbai. Bhujbal, his son
Pankaj and nephew Samir
had come under the State
ACB’s scanner for the alleged
irregularities in handing over
the contracts to a developer
close to Bhujbals, KS
Chamankar for three projects
that the PWD had handed to
the latter while he was heading the ministry in the previous Democratic Front (DF)
Government.
ing that their countries would
begin normalising relations.
“The presence of a US
President on the island for the
first time since the 1959 revolution marks a transcendental
change in relations between the
US and Cuba,” said Michael
Shifter, head of the InterAmerican Dialogue thinktank.
But some tough issues are up
for discussion. Although the
embargo can only be lifted by
Congress, where Republicans
are far less keen on rapprochement, the Obama
administration is chipping
away at the edges of the sanctions.
For example, a trickle of
US visitors over recent years is
soon expected to turn into a
flood with the lifting of an
onerous requirement that they
go to Cuba as part of preapproved groups.
But while pushing for an
easing of the decades-long
sanctions regime, the White
House continues to press for
greater human rights in a
country where the Communist
Party maintains its grip on
every key institution and little
dissent is tolerated. On
Tuesday, Obama will meet
with a few human rights
activists. He will also give a
speech -- the main set piece of
his trip -- that will be carried
live on Cuban television, an
unprecedented concession
from the authorities.
He will round off the trip
by attending a baseball game
between the Cuban national
team and Major League
Baseball’s Tampa Bay Rays.
Although meant to be a
celebration of shared love for
the game, the occasion will also
highlight yet another cause of
tension: the talent drain of
Cuban stars attracted by the
lure of the big-money US
circuit.
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
BJP RAPS...
However, the BJP termed
Tharoor’s comment as an
insult to the “great freedom
fighter” as well as all patriots
of the country. BJP leader
and actor Paresh Rawal also
criticised Tharoor’s IQ for
such a statement. Rawal tweeted: “At the cost of repeating
myself
I
must
say
@shashiTharoor IQ is lower
than his shoe size!”
“Bhagat Singh went to the
gallows chanting Bharat Mata
ki jai while fighting for the
countr y’s Independence.
Comparing Kanhaiya Kumar
with Bhagat Singh is an insult
to the freedom fighter and all
the patriots. Shashi Tharoor
should tell if Kanhaiya is
Bhagat Singh, then what are
Rahul and Sonia Gandhi,”
BJP’s Shahnawaz Hussain said.
“Nowadays Congress leaders
have begun insulting our martyrs for cheap popularity.
Bhagat Singh went to gallows
hailing Mother India while we
all know what Kanhaiya is
accused of. You can praise
anybody you wish but you
should not insult martyrs,”
said BJP leader Shrikant
Sharma, noting that even
High Court’s conditional bail
order for the JNUSU student
spoke about “infection” of
anti-nationalism.
COURT SEEKS...
There was no senior
leader at that point to consult,
the lawyers said even as they
presented the peon in court to
justify their claim. Hearing
this argument, petitioner
Subramanian Swamy quipped
that the AICC office was like
a “haunted house” and these
were all clever arguments to
delay the process. He urged
the magistrate to give stern
directions. The Congress
lawyers sought to adjourn the
case to May, which Swamy
vehemently objected.
The lawyers also contended that Swamy had
already produced AJL’s balance sheets and there was no
need to produce the same
again. Lawyers even showed
printouts of some Tweets of
Swamy about the National
Herald case to the magistrate.
“We are taken for a ride. The
documents summoned are
already on the record of the
court. It’s only for the purpose
of publicity that the complainant has filed this complaint as he has been ‘tweeting’
about this case from his social
networking account Twitter,”
said advocate RS Cheema.
Swamy countered that the
magistrate has asked for the
account books of AJL during
the scam period and not the
balance sheets available in
public domain. He said that
Registrar of Company officials
were summoned earlier just to
verify who the directors in
AJL were during the relevant
period and not for the purpose of verifying the balance
sheets. Meanwhile, the
Income Tax department submitted documents in sealed
cover. The other five
Government departments like
the
ED
and
Urban
Development Ministry have
already submitted the documents last week.
Motilal Vora, the AICC
treasurer and an accused in
the case, has already challenged the magistrate’s order
summoning Government
documents from six departments, with the next hearing
in the case scheduled on April
4 in the Delhi High Court.
Congress president Sonia
Gandhi and party vice-president Rahul Gandhi have also
filed petition in this regard
before the magistrate for seeking a revision of the order.
In earlier hearing, the
magistrate decided to put the
Government documents in
the sealed cover considering
the case being heard in the
High C ourt. Swamy on
Monday argued that as there
was no stay from the High
Court, the sealed cover may
be opened, which was objected to by the Congress lawyers.
ED ATTACHES...
Sources in the ED said
that the agency had imposed
orders on the management of
the attached Gima Sugar Mill
against the “running the factory” and carrying out any
activities on the attached land
adjacent to it.
The investigations have
revealed that the Bhujbals’
firm had purchased the sugar
mill at an auction conducted
US, CUBA...
As Air Force One landed
in Havana, Obama cheerfully
began the landmark trip by
tweeting in local slang, “Que
bola Cuba?” — or “What’s
up?” Later, he noted that the
last US President to come,
Calvin Coolidge in 1928, needed three days to make the trip
by train and navy ship.
“This is a historic visit,” he
remarked to staff at the freshly reopened US embassy in
Havana. Obama opened his
first full day in Cuba by adjusting a wreath at the memorial
to Jose Marti, where a 59-foot
statue pays tribute to the
Cuban independence hero and
writer. He then entered the
Palace of the Revolution and
where he was met by Castro
before the two inspected a
military Guard of Honour.
The trip has been touted
mostly for its huge symbolic
value, and comes more than a
year after Obama and Castro
surprised the world in
December 2014 by announc-
opinion 08
www.dailypioneer.com
paper with passion
Development reminder
Divisive remarks dilute the positive work done
ddressing the Bharatiya Janata Party's National Executive meeting on Sunday,
Prime Minister Narendra Modi told workers that they must concentrate on
the agenda of development and not be sidetracked by irrelevant issues. He
cautioned them to not fall in the trap opposition parties routinely lay by hyping
up diversionary issues. Additionally, he reminded leaders that all of them need
not give their opinion before the media; there are those mandated to do so. Since
this is not the first time Modi has offered the advice, it stands to reason that his
previous exhortations have not been adequately adhered to. Even in recent weeks
there have been cases where senior party leaders have out-of-turn issued statements that caused some distaste. To be fair, the Opposition too has resorted to
provocations and twisting remarks by either BJP leaders or those of the Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh, leading to a response from the other side. A good instance
is that of chanting Bharat Mata ki jai. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat had said that
the country's younger generation must be inculcated with the values of nationalist slogans such as Bharat Mata ki jai. He added that patriotic sentiments must
come from within and not be forced upon the people. This is an absolutely sensible remark and yet the Opposition has blown it out of proportion and presented it as the Sangh's yardstick to judge
patriotism. The BJP naturally responded and has now reiterated that nationalism, along with inclusive development, forms the core of its philosophy. But keeping this matter aside,
Prime Minister Modi's concern, that
his party workers and leaders get carried away with the day-to-day need to
counter barbs from opposition parties
to such an extent that they fail to
impress upon people the good work
the Union Government has done in the
last 22 months in areas of agriculture,
economic growth and social sector, is
valid. The best route that BJP leaders
and workers, can, therefore, take, is
to keep the focus on development.
Indeed, there is no need for the
overactive leaders of the party to latch
on to side issues and cause damage to the work and vision of the Prime Minister
and his team. Unfortunately, there have been instances where even some of his
ministerial colleagues have made avoidable comments. It is to be hoped that
Modi's fresh reminder will make them mend their ways. The Prime Minister understands the value of public perception and how such perception must be managed to the party's and the Government's benefit. Thus, it makes no sense if the
Government has to grapple, for instance, with the perception of being intolerant or pushing a divisive social agenda (not that either of it is true). Instead, it
should be spreading the belief that many positive changes have happened in the
little less than two years of NDA governance, and more have been initiated. The
party should be strengthening the image of being pro-farmer (Budget 2016-17
is a good document to go to town with) and pro-poor (highlight the insurance
and pension schemes for the underprivileged), while having brought GDP growth
and investor sentiment back on track. A Government that has nothing to show
by way of progress often rakes up divisive issues, but the Modi regime has no
such compulsion.
A
Unlikely friends, partners
Cuba-US coming together is a modern miracle
hen assessing US President Barack Obama's foreign policy, it is usually
his feeble initiatives in West Asia, particularly Libya and Syria, that grab
all the attention, followed by his somewhat muddled approach to China
and in the Indo-Pacific. The nuclear deal with Iran has been a historic breakthrough, but because it remains so controversial, the brickbat has overshadowed
bouquets the President has received. Now, as he stands on the last leg of his
presidency, the question is: What will be Obama's foreign policy legacy? The
answer lies in Cuba. Efforts to restore diplomatic ties between the US and its
southern Caribbean neighbour were underway for the past three years, facilitated by Canada and the Vatican (including the personal involvement of the Pope,
who is the first Latin American leader of the Catholic church). In December 2014,
President Obama and his Cuban counterpart Raul Castro announced that ties
would be normalised, and since then a gamut of measures, including the release
of political prisoners from both sides and legalising travel to the other country,
has been taken to reverse the five-decade-old standoff. President Obama's threeday tour, which began on Sunday, is
arguably the most potent of these
measures. The last time a US
President stepped on Cuban soil, he
came on a battle-ship. It was a threeday journey. The year was 1928.
Almost a century later, this is a different world altogether, and the diplomatic breakthrough will bring in
more changes at the bilateral level,
even if gradually. In Cuba, President
Raul Castro, who came to power in
2008, has been slowly but steadily
easing state control. Cuba now has a
nascent private sector, even though
clamps on media and free speech
remain. The Cold War baggage hasn't disappeared either, and sharp differences exist between Washington,
DC and Havana. One example of the
challenges that lie ahead is that Obama's executive push notwithstanding, bilateral ties will remain stunted as long as the US Congress does not lift the trade
embargo. Currently, the Republican-dominated legislature is in no mood to play
ball with the White House, although it will presumably fall in line over the next
couple of years — especially as pressure builds from the American corporate
sector to normalise trade with Cuba. Also, the Republic argument against the
diplomatic initiative — that normalisation of ties with Cuba tantamounts to rewarding the Castro regime — does not have a leg to stand on. Isolating Cuba all these
years didn’t rid the nation of the Castro regime; it only made lives miserable for
the average Cuban. Bringing Cuba into the international system and giving it a
stake in the new world will be a more effective way to nudge the country towards
reforms. This is what the Obama Administration has also sought to do with Iran.
While the full impact of the Cuba outreach will take time to show, a beginning
has at least been made.
W
Celebration of cultures
from across the world
SANDHYA JAIN
In the Art of Living event controversy, we must not forget that three Yamuna Action Plans have
come and gone with nothing to show and zero accountability regarding fund utilisation
he sheer scale of The Art
of Living’s World
Cultural Festival on the
floodplains of the
Yamuna in Delhi evokes
comparisons with New York’s
Woodstock (1969) that drew nearly four lakh people for an exposition of ‘Three Days of Peace &
Music’. Woodstock is revered as the
most iconic moment in the history of Western popular music, the
high noon of Rock and Roll and the
counter-culture generation that has
been commemorated in films,
music and songs.
It was an epoch-making
event. The artists and bands who
performed included the legendary Jimi Hendrix; Johnny
Winter; Carlos Santana; Credence
Clearwater Revival; Joe Cocker;
The Grateful Dead; The Jefferson
Airplane; Arlo Guthrie; Joan
Baez; Janis Joplin; Crosby, Stills,
Nash & Young; Ten Years After;
The Who — the cream of the
1960s music world. Sitar maestro
Ravi Shankar was there; he called
it a “terrifying experience”.
Swami Satchidananda delivered an invocation extolling the
concert as a holy gathering. Glenn
Weiser (Woodstock 1969
Remembered) recalls, “I listened to
him and thought that it was bullshit. This was going to be a huge
drug party, pure and simple, and to
masquerade it as a spiritual gathering seemed phony to me. I had been
reading up on Yoga and Zen, and
I knew the difference between the
austere contemplative traditions of
the East and what Woodstock was
shaping up to be.”
Drugs and alcohol flowed
throughout; brotherhood and love
enveloped the gathering; many
became medical cases. Though the
participants arrived pre-loaded
with drugs (which takes some
planning), much of the ‘grass’,
hashish and alcohol was free.
Some couples reportedly had sex
in the open.
Since then, Woodstock is associated in public memory with
drugs, sex, and music. Ryan Kent
(Lehigh University, Class of 2003)
admits that ‘acid tents’ had to be set
up for the thousands needing medical treatment for tripping on acid,
smoking opium, snorting cocaine,
using psychedelic mushrooms, and
much more. Drugs united the
young wanting to change a culture
viewed as too conservative and corrupt; they opposed the Vietnam
War and racial inequality.
In the end, it achieved nothing. The Vietnam War was ended
by President Richard Nixon for
pragmatic reasons. Drugs remain
T
an American social evil, like
guns, and racial tensions today
are at an all-time high. The US
Army had to airlift food, medical
teams and performers to keep
Woodstock going and there is no
saying how much ‘official’ patronage it actually enjoyed.
Woodstock received undeserved (and questionable) adulation
from the American media, which
highlighted the peaceful nature of
the event and concealed the sex,
drugs and alcohol orgies. Even the
film, Woodstock, glossed over this
aspect, thus misleading youth to
join the so-called revolution whose
deleterious legacy blights American
society to this day.
Contrast this with the Indian
extravaganza. A similar number of
people (four lakhs), including guests
from 155 countries, attended Sri Sri
Ravi Shankar’s ‘Kumbh Mela of culture’ to commemorate the 35th
anniversary of The Art of Living
(AoL). Around 36,000 artistes from
around the world performed before
an enchanted audience on possibly
the world’s largest stage, even as the
event was beamed live to millions
across the nation and the world.
There was chanting of Vedic
Today, nationalism is
decided by whether
or not one must say
‘Bharat Mata ki jai'.
I'm happy to say it,
but should I oblige
everyone to say it?
Congress MP
—Shashi Tharoor
AOL EVENT WAS
DOGGED BY MEDIA
HOSTILITY AND
KILLJOY ACTIVISTS
DETERMINED TO
SCUTTLE IT TILL
ALMOST THE LAST
MOMENT WHEN THE
NGT STOPPED
SUPPORTING WHAT
INCREASINGLY
STANK OF ANTIHINDU PREJUDICE
mantras and some contemplation,
but mostly it was brilliant theatre as
musicians played in perfect harmony and hundreds of dancers pirouetted in perfect unison. It was an
impeccable choreography of spiritual exuberance. No one took ‘time
out’ for drugs, alcohol, sex.
Yet the event was dogged by
media hostility and killjoy activists
determined to scuttle it till almost
the last moment when the National
Green Tribunal finally stopped
supporting what increasingly stank
of anti-Hindu prejudice. The AoL
had planned the programme for
months and secured permissions
from different agencies. Yet, when
physical preparations were in full
swing, and foreign dignitaries had
confirmed participation, activists
began urging the NGT to cancel
the function on grounds that it was
being held in an ecologically-sensitive zone, ignoring the
Akshardham
temple,
Commonwealth Games Village, a
DTC bus depot and a Delhi Metro
station on the floodplains.
The NGT could have waited for
the function to be over before
assessing the real (irreparable)
damage, if any. Instead, it stoked the
SOUNDBITE
controversy by imposing arbitrary
fines with unrealistic deadlines,
until someone doubtless intervened and made it see reason. The
hue and cry failed to deter most dignitaries, though Zimbabwe’s
President Robert Mugabe left, feeling security was inadequate.
Unfortunately, President Pranab
Mukherjee succumbed to the raised
decibels and declined to attend,
making the Cassandras optimistic
that they could abort the event.
Yet, there was deafening
silence in 2006 when Greek composer and musician, Yanni, performed on the drying riverbed at
Agra, with the Taj Mahal as backdrop. The dignitaries who attended were mainly from the Congress
and then, too, the Army was
roped in to build pontoon bridges
for the safety of the crowds.
Modi, possibly a key factor behind
this grand showcasing of India’s cultural-spiritual continuum, rightly
chastised the negationists, “If we
keep criticising ourselves, why
would the world look at us?”
Certainly the event matched Modi's
style of wearing India’s ‘Hindu culture’ lightly on his sleeve, in contrast
to the secular appropriation of culture as mere performing arts without spiritual content.
In the week since the festival
ended, AoL volunteers and contractors have been busy cleaning the
venue and disposing the garbage in
designated landfills or sewage treatment plants. One does not know
who is assessing the ecological
damage, but no rational explanation
been offered for the five-crore-rupee
penalty. Since AoL is cleaning up,
does it still have to pay the fine?
Must it create a biodiversity park on
the floodplains, and is that ecologically desirable? How will farmers
who have traditionally been growing crops on this land, react?
Clearly the NGT has not thought
these issues through.
There remains the larger
question of the Yamuna. Three
Yamuna Action Plans have come
and gone with nothing to show
and zero accountability regarding
fund utilisation. The AoL asked
its volunteers to prepare an
enzyme (kitchen waste and jiggery fermented for three months)
in huge quantities and pour this
into the river at one spot, to
reduce its alkalinity and improve
its oxygen levels. Strangely, the
NGT told the organisers not to
pour the enzyme, but they had
probably already done so. This
raises the question: Is the NGT
equipped to serve the cause
of the environment?
I was raised in a
Catholic way and have
been true to my morals.
I never felt comfortable
being a sex symbol.
We, as women, have
come a long way.
We shouldn't have to
drop to our knees
before anyone (to
thank for success of
women's tennis).
Singer
—Gwen Stefani
Tennis legend
—Serena Williams
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Poverty-driven
Sir — This refers to the article, “The
many dangers of reservation politics” (March 21) by Joginder Singh.
The writer has aptly exposed the
hollowness of the caste-based reservation system in our country.
Poverty is a universal phenomenon
that exists in every human race, irrespective of religion, caste etc, and,
therefore, authorising constitutional benefits solely based on the
caste or religion of a citizen is illogical. Besides, it also violates the fundamental ethics of democracy.
Poverty should be the cardinal
reason for reservation, as poverty is
not confined to any particular
caste or religion. Our political leaders are aware of this inconsistency
and yet feign ignorance or deliberately neglect the issue, for clandestine reasons, thus impairing the
genuine interest of the nation.
TKM Kumbalamchuvattil
Muvattupuzha
United India
Sir — This refers to the editorial,
“Modi’s message of peace” (March
19). Prime Minister Narendra Modi
deserves praise for his strong words
against terrorism and the care he
took to separate religion from ter-
New building brings hope
of clearing backlog
T
his refers to the report, “‘Bench, Bar must strive for clearing pendency of
cases'” (March 20). With Chief Justice of India TS Thakur inaugurating a
grand new building of the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court, a
wave of relief has swept over the people, and justice-seekers in particular. Chief
Justice Thakur’s stress on the need for coordination between both the institutions — the Bench and the Bar — for the redressal of people’s problems,
assumes importance given the huge pendency of cases in courts.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav’s observation at the inaugural function that a better understanding among the three pillars of democracy
— judiciary, legislature and executive — is essential to meet people’s interests, carries weight, even as he has promised to continue his Government’s
support to the Bench as well as the Bar to meet further requirements of the
Bench. The state-of-the-art facilities that are available in the new building complex should help clear the case backlog to some extent.
Azhar A Khan
Rampur
rorism. It was encouraging to see
Modi speak about Islam while
quoting verses for the Quran and
paying tribute to Sufism for peace.
The phrase, ‘Vasudhaiva
Kutumbakam’ (the universe is a
family), used by Modi during his
speech, is a benchmark for the prisoners of narrow-minded dogmas
who harp on patriotism, nationalism and sedition. The culture
behind Sufism must swell across the
nation for communal peace and
harmony. Our political and religious
leaders have a key role to play in
uniting humanity by discarding the
practice of obscurantism.
Vinod C Dixit
Ahmedabad
Equal treatment
Sir — This refers to the article,
“Congress’s new nightmare” (March
18) by Rajesh Singh. Industrialist
Vijay Mallya’s loan issue is nothing
when compared to the Congress’s
National Herald scam. Why is it
then that the judiciary and the
Enforcement Directorate have different set of rules for a citizen and
a politician? Fraud is a fraud. One
defendent is being hunted down
with warrants and the other is getting free-pass for years.
Premolal
Via web
Endless sins
Sir — This refers to the article,
“Congress’s new nightmare”
(March 18) by Rajesh Singh. The
Congress enjoyed unlimited
power for nearly 60 years and had
committed great sins during its
rule, which cannot be washed
away so easily. BJP leader
Subramanian Swamy’s fixture is
just a part of it. When the present
Government digs deep, the tunnel of fraud will never end.
Venkataraman Jagadesan
Via web
Restraining people
Sir — This refers to the editorial,
“Owaisi’s new nonsense” (March
17). All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul
Muslimeen chief Asaduddin
Owaisi’s opposition to the utterance
of ‘Bharat Mata ki jai’, is senseless.
Of course, the Muslim community must not approve of his unsound
suggestion. It’s time that such rabble-rousers, who forget about
national unity, be restrained in the
larger interest of this country.
Nimai Charan Swain
Bhubaneswar
Send your feedback to:
[email protected]
3rdeye 09
POINTCOUNTERPOINT
Majoritarian view of democracy is being
propagated and promoted consciously and
deliberately. This has serious implications.
—Senior Congress leader
GHULAM NABI AZAD
Mess is not all Mallya’s fault
FIRST
COLUMN
You (BJP members) have to defeat the
conspiracy of the Opposition to trap the
Government on worthless issues.
—Prime Minister
NARENDRA MODI
GWYNNE DYER
The high-profile businessman is the chief protagonist in the failure of Kingfisher Airlines. But he should be seen as more of a tragic actor
than an outright villain. Government policies that were not business-friendly and detrimental to the aviation industry, hit him hard
In Havana, Obama
makes history
T
Though this is a watershed moment in US-Cuba ties, the
real change in the bilateral will happen when America
lifts the trade embargo on the Caribbean nation
British journalist compared the huge American delegation (8001,200 people) that is accompanying President Barack Obama on
his first visit to Havana to Japanese soldiers stumbling out of the
jungle to discover that the war ended a generation ago. And the Rolling
Stones, who are staging a free concert for half a million people in the
Cuban capital on Friday, explained that Obama was their opening act.
The US embassy in Havana has already reopened, but only the
US Congress can end the 55-year-old American trade embargo against
Cuba. Under Republican control Congress is not going to do that, so
this visit is really just a social call. Indeed, it was scheduled to coincide with spring break in US schools so the Obamas could bring their
daughters along.
Yet no journalist watching all this can resist speculating about
whether this opening portends great political changes in Cuba, maybe
even the end of the long dictatorship of the Castro brothers and the
Cuban Communist Party. Least of all me, as I have been speculating
about that in public, at intervals, for most of my adult life. I never went
to Cuba during the “heroic” years when the leadership lived in permanent fear of American invasion or subversion, and most Cubans really were ready to fight to defend the revolution. My first visit was in the
mid-1980s, when the bloom was already off the revolutionary rose.
Most of Latin America was living under brutal US-backed military
dictatorships at the time, and the Cuban dictatorship seemed to me
almost gentle by comparison. It didn't even kill people much. But Cubans,
unable to travel and aware that the regime's propaganda usually lied,
were in a stroppy mood. If you spoke even a little Spanish, they unloaded
their discontent on you. So I went home and predicted that the regime,
if not on its last legs, was at least in its last decade. This did not come
to pass on schedule, but when I next went to Cuba, in 1994, it certainly looked imminent. The collapse of the old Soviet Union had cut
off all the subsidies that had kept the Cuban economy afloat despite
the American embargo and its own huge inefficiencies.
During the “Special Period in Time of Peace”, which lasted through
most of the 1990s, nobody starved, but almost everybody went hungry and the average Cuban lost nine kilogrammes (20 pounds) in body
weight. Social order broke down, with crime rampant and desperate
young people openly selling their bodies in the streets. So I went home
and predicted the imminent collapse of the regime again. Communist
regimes in Europe whose people were quite well-fed had been falling
to non-violent democratic revolutions with scarcely any resistance in
the past few years, so it seemed implausible that this ageing, ramshackle dictatorship would last much longer either.
Wrong again. But when Fidel Castro retired after 42 years and handed power to his brother Raul in 2008, Western embassies in Havana
(minus the United States, of course) arranged for various “experts”
from their countries to visit Cuba and explain how things were done
in a real democracy — which they fully expected that Cuba would shortly become. I went as well, and came back convinced once again that
a democratic transformation was imminent, because most of those I
was speaking to expected it themselves.
But fast forward another eight years, and very little has changed.
Raul Castro says he will retire in 2018 (when he will be only 86), but
a new generation of Communist leaders is already being promoted into
key positions. I now think that the regime will probably survive until
and unless the US Congress ends the embargo and exposes Cuba to
the full force of international capitalism. Of course, I have been wrong
in the past.
his past week, the fifth edition
of the India Aviation Summit
was held in Hyderabad. The
summit highlighted India’s
potential in the civil aviation
market — a market that feels a bit calmer
now after the heady days in the middle
of the last decade. Back then, Vijay
Mallya was ‘the man’ — the poster child
of civil aviation in India. He had taken
on the establishment and upended the
airline market in India.
Make no mistake, despite all the outrage today, Mallya has built an amazing
brand. Yes, it was built on the back of bank
loans, but in 2008, Mallya was flying high
at the very first India Aviation Summit.
Ultimately, the disastrous acquisition of
Air Deccan was completed and Mallya
acquired his first wide-body Airbus A330
aircraft, one of which was proudly on display at the summit, and he was due to
receive five of the gargantuan A380 aircraft from Airbus by 2010.
He had rattled the established airlines
so much that a few days before the first
summit, Jet Airways, the sole survivor
from the first phase of private Indian air
carriers, had been forced to lay-off several cabin crew members. This became a
massive media issue, with television
news frightfully unclear about how businesses were run (something they still do
not understand), and being on the side of
the laid-off employees.
Mallya then stepped into the issue and
assured his ‘rival’ Naresh Goyal, the usually reticent chairman of Jet Airways, of
a potential Jet-Kingfisher alliance. At the
first summit, the then Civil Aviation
Minister, Praful Patel, climbed into a golf
cart with Mallya and Goyal, and the
media, with this writer who was then a
civil aviation beat correspondent for a
business magazine chasing them.
Mallya was his usual boisterous self
when the media caught up, but suddenly, snapped at a reporter who asked him
a simple question: Where was the money
to back up all those ambitious growth programmes because Kingfisher was burning through almost `100 crore every
month? “Don’t teach me how to run an
airline, I know how to run an airline and
I have the best professionals”, Mallya
snapped at the reporter. That reporter was
this writer, and there is a certain perverse
satisfaction that one has been proven right.
Mallya clearly did not know how to run
a profitable airline. His ego got in the way
of sensible decision-making. He was a
media darling, after all.
Mallya made massive mistakes in
running his airline. While the service standards were from another planet, his cabin
strategy was confused. There was no clear
strategy on aircraft types and he went
ahead and ordered wide-body aircraft to
start international operations just two
years into his flight operations, knowing
it well that Government regulations,
then like now, prevented airlines from flying abroad until they achieved five years
of flying experience with at least 20 aircraft in their fleet.
Mallya, who counted on Patel and his
party leader Sharad Pawar as close
friends, fully believed that the policy
would change. After all, he argued, correctly, if airlines such as Air Arabia and
Air Asia are given flying rights to India
A
KUSHAN MITRA
Vijay Mallya, who
counted on then
Aviation Minister
Praful Patel and his
party leader Sharad
Pawar as close
friends, fully
believed that the
policy would
change. After all, he
argued, correctly, if
airlines such as Air
Arabia and Air Asia
are given flying
rights to India after
weeks of
establishment, why
should Indian
carriers need
to wait?
after weeks of establishment, why should
Indian carriers need to wait?
The policy was not changed. But
Mallya, who had impetuously ordered big
planes, needed to deploy them. Denied
international flying rights, he set about
acquiring them. He first forced Jet
Airways into a defensive acquisition of Air
Sahara in 2005. In 2007, Mallya bought
Air Deccan which had just turned fiveyears-old and acquired flying rights. Air
Deccan, celebrated as India’s first low-cost
carrier was founded by former Army
Captain and helicopter pilot GR Gopinath.
It had gained a modicum of success but
was bleeding money; in a deep financial
hole, it was selling most of its tickets well
below costs.
It can be fairly argued that the acquisition of Air Deccan is what sealed the fate
of Kingfisher Airlines. The multiple
cabin strategies was another nail in the coffin. Was Kingfisher a full-service carrier
or a low-cost carrier? Nobody knew. Still,
until 2010, things were relatively smooth,
as the cracks could be papered over, and
after all, Jet Airways was confused too.
And Air India? Well, some suspect they
still do not know what sort of airline it is.
But had the Government policy changed
to become more rational, maybe
Kingfisher would have survived.
Yes, two other airlines with equally
horrible financial track records — Air
Deccan and Air Sahara — would have
possibly collapsed, and there would have
been an outcry. Yet, business failures are
part and parcel of life. And several airlines
have folded in the past, some rather dramatically in the mid-1990s with allegations of the Mumbai underworld being
involved. A year before Kingfisher shut
shop, Chennai-based Paramount Airways
too had shut down. Other airlines collapsed as well; detritus from those failures
such as broken aircraft and other equipment still litter some Indian airports today,
as do several Kingfisher ATR aircraft at
Chennai, now probably flood-damaged
and likely unable to fly.
And it did not stop there — Mallya
had wanted to fly to San Francisco via
Dubai to offset India’s massive fuel
costs. Aviation fuel in India was the
only fuel the Government allowed the
oil marketing companies to sell at cost,
as global crude prices shot up.
Permission was never given to that
flight, and permission for Kingfisher to
hedge on global fuel prices by importing its own fuel was also denied, as oil
marketing companies, which were
bleeding by selling massively subsidised fuel, refused to play ball.
Mallya was also refused permission
to fly the lucrative routes to Arab countries and his appeals for the Government
to allow international airline investors in
Indian airlines was only accepted just as
Kingfisher was failing. The only one to
benefit from this decision then was
Mallya’s rival Naresh Goyal, whose Jet
Airways effectively sold itself to Abu
Dhabi’s Etihad Airlines.
There is another chapter in the
Mallya tale: Wherein Mallya is probably
guilty of colluding with bank officials.
However, that will have to be proven in
court. In 2012 and 2013, as Kingfisher
Airlines was imploding due to a combination of the factors listed above, crippling
debt, massive aviation fuel prices and, of
course, Mallya’s own ineptitude in running
the airline, there were some banks, particularly Government-owned that not
only forwarded him more money but also
Prashant Kishor’s UP missing link
The PR man delivered for Narendra Modi in Lok Sabha and Nitish Kumar in Bihar. He has now been asked to do an
encore for the Congress in Uttar Pradesh. But there is a difference: Congress does not have a face in the State
hen the Bharatiya
Janata Party, under
the leadership of
Modi, won the Lok Sabha election in 2014, social media was
abuzz with praises for election
strategist Prashant Kishor.
Kishor was given the title of
‘master strategist’ and political
pundits labelled him as
Modi’s Chanakya.
However, things went
wrong when, after the massive
victory, Modi and Kishor parted ways. Meanwhile, Bihar Chief
Minister Nitish Kumar saw an
opportunity, immediately contacted Kishor and signed him
for the Bihar Assembly election.
After an outstanding victory in Bihar, where the Nitish
Kumar-Lalu Prasad-led mahagathbandhan won with a
thumping majority, Kishor was
hailed as the most sought after
‘commodity’ in politics. The
rule of the market is that each
W
and every investor wants to
invest in that ‘commodity’.
Large investors also want to join
the gravy train. Same is the case
in politics. Now, every political
party wants to invest in that
much-wanted ‘commodity’
called Prashant Kishor.
Of late, there has been
much noise about nationalism
and sedition. Each and every
political party is busy preaching about nationalism in its
own way. In this scenario of
fierce political debate, the
Congress has invested in
Kishor. The grand old party has
roped in Kishor for the elections in Punjab, Gujarat and
Uttar Pradesh that will be held
in 2017.
However, in political corridors, speculation is rife that
Kishor will work with the
Congress till the 2019 Lok
Sabha election. This will, however, depend on the results in
Punjab, Gujarat and Uttar
Pradesh. Those who know
Congress culture are of the view
that it will be difficult for
Kishor to play a long-inning
with the party.
Meanwhile, Kishor has
started making strategies for the
Congress in Uttar Pradesh,
which will go to polls in the first
half of the next year. He has
already met senior leaders of
the Congress and is planning to
meet district-level leaders of the
party in the coming days.
Political pundits are underlining this as a major political
coup by the Congress.
Kishor’s biggest challenge is
perhaps the fact that he was initially a part of the Modi campaign. At a time when scams
after scams and a major policy
paralysis had given the UPA
Government a bad name, and
anti-incumbency was clear, it
was Kishor who put the final
nail in the Congress-led
regime’s favour by projecting
Modi as a leader with a strong
will. The result is known to
everybody.
When Kishor came to the
Nitish Kumar camp, he played
a masterstroke. It is widely
believed that he was the person
who persuaded the Chief
Minister to form an alliance
with Lalu Yadav’s Rashtriya
Janata Dal. It was Kishor who
also convinced Nitish Kumar’s
Janata Dal (United) to give up
more than 25 of its seats for the
RJD to contest. This was an
accurate political move, keeping in mind the caste equation
of the State. Kishor pitched the
Lalu Prasad-Nitish Kumar
combine against Modi. He portrayed Kumar as the ‘Bihari’
pride and clearly, his election
strategy of bihari versus bahari
paid rich dividends.
However, the assignment in
Uttar Pradesh is different from
the last two assignments of this
celebrity pollster. The Congress
in Uttar Pradesh is in its worst
phase. When the party won 21
Lok Sabha seats in Uttar
Pradesh in 2009, it was said that
Congress vice president Rahul
Gandhi had revived the party.
At that time, the Congress won
almost 18 per cent vote share.
But after that, the Congress
fared badly in the 2012
Assembly and 2014 parliamentary elections. Gandhi worked
hard and spent many days in
UP, especially for the 2012
Assembly election, but the
Congress mustered only 12
per cent vote share.
Now, the Congress has given
the baton to Kishor for its revival.
After Kishor took over the
responsibility, it was reported in
the media that Priyanka Gandhi
may be the face of the Congress
in Uttar Pradesh. But till now this
is just political gossip.
Strategists of the Congress
feel that since Kishor has
worked with Modi for a long
willingly took over clearly over-valued
equity in exchange for that debt. This,
while it was obvious for all (and not just
beat civil aviation correspondents) to see
that Kingfisher Airlines was crashing.
Mallya is guilty of a business failure,
one that could well have been avoided had
he run his business better and if he had
put his love for the front pages aside. How
ironic it must feel to him that today, in failure, he is getting more primetime coverage than ever. But blaming Mallya alone
for the failure of Kingfisher Airlines is
disingenuous. Do keep in mind that as a
result of the Kingfisher Airlines failure,
Mallya lost control of United Spirits and
will likely soon become a minority shareholder in United Breweries as well. His
dream of being an airline magnate has
ended in total failure.
The number of people flying domestically in India is still abysmally low, with
an estimated 100 million passengers
expected to fly this year with the industry helped along with low-cot fuel. Once
accounting for multiple trips that most flyers make, it can be safely assumed that
optimistically only 20 to 25 million
Indians actually fly on airplanes. That
number can only grow.
Maybe, had Kingfisher not been
crippled by the Government’s indifference
and the weight of Mallya’s ego, the airline
might have survived and we would be
singing a different tune today. We celebrate
our rail networks, and rightly so, but we
must also remember the vast distances in
our country. And while flying is only
restricted to India’s ‘One Percenters’
today, it must reach more people, as the
economic benefits of air travel are manifold. Either that, or Kingfisher Airlines
will not be an isolated story.
think
now
ANANT VIJAY
time, he can make out the
weak points of the Prime
Minister and successfully
counter him. But this theory
is rooted more in belief than
in rationality.
It is a fact that Kishor has
written a success story with
Modi and Nitish Kumar, but at
the same time, it is also felt that
for writing a success story,
Kishor needs a leader like Modi
or Nitish Kumar to be the protagonist. In Uttar Pradesh, the
Congress has neither a Modi
nor a Nitish Kumar, although
Kishor is searching for a leader
who can lead the State.
It will be interesting to see
Kishor’s Uttar Pradesh strategy.
It is widely believed that
Congress leaders are not in
favour of any alliance — be it
with Bahujan Samaj Party chief
Mayawati or Sammajwadi Party
chief Mulayam Singh Yadav.
(The writer is a journalist
working with IBN7)
onventionality is not morality.
Self-righteousness is not
religion. To attack the first is
not to assail the last. To pluck the
mask from the face of the
Pharisee, is not to lift an impious
hand to the Crown of Thorns.
These things and deeds are
diametrically opposed: they are as
distinct as is vice from virtue. Men
too often confound them: they
should not be confounded:
appearance should not be
mistaken for truth; narrow human
doctrines, that only tend to elate
and magnify a few, should not be
substituted for the worldredeeming creed of Christ.
C
—Charlotte Brontë
nation 10
ODD-EVEN PHASE II IN DELHI
Decision on women exemption by April 8
Focus of scheme
seems to have shifted
to reducing congestion
rather than pollution
VISHAV n NEW DELHI
he Delhi Government may
reconsider exempting
T
women in the second edition of
the odd-even scheme, a decision on which is expected to be
taken by April 8.
Interestingly,
while
Transport Minister Gopal Rai
refrained from confirming if
exemption to women will be
continued, he said 50 per cent
of seats in the “Paryavaran
Bus Sewa” (special buses that
will be run during the scheme
period) will be reserved for
women, indicating that women
may be excluded from the
exemption list this time
around.
“We will decide by April 8
as to which vehicles will be
exempted under the odd-even
scheme this time. A list of
exemptions will be sent to
Lieutenant-Governor Najeeb
Jung and a notification for it
will be issued again,” said Rai.
While the focus of the
scheme seems to have shifted
to reducing congestion rather
than pollution, which was the
original plan, Rai said the
Government will monitor the
air pollution levels across the
National Capital Region during
the odd-even scheme.
Rai said the second phase
of odd-even scheme will start
from April 15 and will be on till
April 30. “We had the first
coordination meeting in which
officials of Traffic Police, Delhi
Metro, Delhi Transport
Corporation, Transport Department, Environment Department and Revenue Department
took part. We have started
preparations for the second
phase of the scheme,” said the
Minister.
Rai said like last time, contract carriage buses will be
hired on same terms and con-
ditions this time as well under
the “Paryavaran Bus Sewa” for
the convenience of the passengers that will leave their cars
behind on alternate dates.
“These buses will be registered from March 28 to April
14. The registration will be
done in DTC depots and they
will be given a special permit
for 15 days. But unlike last
time, the school buses will not
be included this time,” said Rai,
adding that 50 per cent of
seats in the special bus service
will be reserved for women and
all the buses will have marshals.
Apart from that, to provide last
mile connectivity to the commuters who are expected to
switch to public transport during the scheme, the route of
Delhi Metro feeder bus services
would be rationalised and further shortened.
Rai further said the Traffic
Police and Delhi Metro will
submit their plans for the oddeven scheme in the next meeting. To enforce the odd-even
restrictions, the SDMs will not
be pressed into service this time
around. However, 400 ex-servicemen will be recruited to
help enforce the system. Rai
said that the recruitment of exservicemen would be completed by April 1.
Favourable weather conditions
improve Capital’s air quality
Capital fares better
than Mumbai
STAFF REPORTER n NEW DELHI
elhi air quality has been
rated as ‘good’ due to
D
favourable weather conditions as
compared to several Mumbai
areas on Monday oscillated between ‘poor’ and ‘very poor’.
According to System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting
and Research (SAFAR), the average level of fine respirable pollutants PM 2.5 fell in “good” category in Delhi.
Even in terms of air quality
index, Delhi fared better than
Mumbai when checked around
6pm. AQI of the SAFAR’s Delhi
monitoring stations were moderate while two stations in
Mumbai had ‘very poor’ AQI
and four had ‘poor’. An AQI of
DELHI’S POLLUTION METER BY SAFAR MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCE
Pollutants
PM 10
PM 2.5
Today
135.9
57
301-400 is considered very poor
which may give rise to respiratory illness on prolonged exposure. When its is between 201300, it is regarded as poor, which
may cause breathing discomfort
on prolonged exposure.
At 6.20 pm, the real time
readings of PM 2.5 in Delhi and
Mumbai were 57 and 97.8 micrograms per cubic metre (ug/m3). The corresponding PM 10
levels were 135.9 and 138.5
respectively. The safe limits of
PM 2.5 and PM 10, microscopic particles that can enter and
embed deep into the lungs and
subsequently bloodstream, are 60
and 100 ug/m3 respectively.
Fresh smoke was witnessed
Advisory status
Moderate
Good
on Monday morning at the
Deonar dumping ground, where
the fire which has been raging for
three days now intensified last
evening even as people living in
the vicinity complained of discomfort due to the fumes emanating from the site.
Areas close to Deonar such
as Chembur had air quality in the
very poor category. Chembur
and BKC stations of SAFAR
recorded AQI of 301 and 309
respectively.This is the second big
blaze in the area in less than two
months. A massive fire had broken out at the dumping yard,
spread over 326 acres, on January
27, leading to a thick blanket of
smog in various parts of Mumbai.
Sixth car-free day today India affordable destination for quality education: Irani
STAFF REPORTER n NEW DELHI
elhi will celebrate the sixth car-free
day on Tuesday as the road stretch
D
on Loni Road between Shahdara
Terminal and Loni circle will go car-free
from 8 am to 4 pm.
While usually, the monthly car-free
day is kicked off with a cycle rally, often
led by the Chief Minister Arvind
Kejriwal himself and accompanied by
many of his Ministers, this time, there
won’t be any cycle rally. In place of the
rally, the Government is planning to organise an awareness march to educate
people about environment.
To ensure sufficient transport facilities
for the commuters on the said stretch,
DTC will run a special shuttle bus service
with a frequency of five minutes.
“DTC has made special arrangement
for the operation of special buses along
the route on which Car Free Day is
Gujarat lawyer
sets self afire
on HC premises
PNS n GANDHINAGAR
n a shocking incident, a
lawyer set himself on fire
inside the premises of Gujarat
High Court and rushed towards
the court of the Chief Justice on
Monday.
Witnesses of the incident
said that there were chaotic
scenes as lawyer Kishore
Agrawal from Surat was seen
rushing towards Chief Justice’s
court. The other lawyers present
immediately doused the fire
and rushed Agrawal to nearby
Sola civil hospital for treatment. He is learnt to have sustained 15 per cent burns and
though critical, is believed to be
in stable condition.
This is not the first time that
courts have witnessed an incident of attempted suicide. In
2013, a rape victim had attempted suicide within the courtroom
in Gujarat High Court by consuming a poisonous substance.
Agrawal was to appear in
Gujarat High Court in a case
involving financial embezzlement and cheating of women.
According to the complainant
women, Agrawal had cheated
them of funds in the name of
getting them benefits of several State Government schemes.
Agrawal has been alleged to
have collected lakhs of rupees by
duping these women and they
alleged that perhaps to avoid
being punished, he has resorted to the step.
I
The road stretch on Loni
Road between Shahdara
Terminal and Loni circle
will go car-free from
8 am to 4 pm
observed for the convenience of commuters. A special shuttle bus service having No 273 Shuttle will be operated from
8 am to 5 pm between Shahdara
Terminal and Loni Circle with a frequency of five minutes. Sufficient number of officers and traffic supervisory
staff will be deployed by DTC to prove
all possible help to the commuters,” said
Dr RS Minhas, Dy Chief General
Manager (PR), DTC.
The Government observes car-free day
on 22nd of every month in different areas
of the city to encourage people to use public transport.
The last edition of the car free day
took place on Februar y 22 from
Munirka T-point to Hyatt Hotel
T-point on Vivekanand Marg for eight
hours from 8 am to 4 pm. However, the
event was deemed to be a failure as a
huge number of cars were seen plying on
the stretch.
Paswan for SC/ST quota
in private sector jobs
PNS n GANDHINAGAR
ven as the issue of reservation in education and
E
Government jobs is becoming
headache for couple of BJPruled State Governments,
including Gujarat, Union
Minister for Consumer Affairs,
Food and Public Distribution
Ram Vilas Paswan advocated
reservation in private sector too
and linked it with the rising
Naxalite movements.
Addressing a Press conference in Ahmedabad on
Monday, Paswan went on to say
that the Union Government
should think in the direction of
reservation in the private sector for the candidates coming
under Schedule Caste (SC)
and Schedule Tribe (ST) categories. Lands of backward class
people are being taken away
and their youth force to take
wrong path in search of livelihood, he said, adding that
hence it is essential to keep special quota for SC/ST in private
sector jobs apart from the
Government sector.
“Government jobs cannot
be provided for everybody.
The Government can only create an environment for job creation,” said Paswan, adding
that in case a private sector firm
or company takes funds from
the Government, they should
adopt reservation policy of the
Government. He further said
that his political outfit Lok
Janshakti Party (LJP), which is
OMER FAROOQ n HYDERABAD
he Telangana Government is
all set to go all out to retain
T
its image of the “Tollywood
part of the BJP-led NDA
Government, had demanded
this provision earlier too. He
however praised efforts of
Modi Government saying that
the Central Government gives
priority to Babasaheb
Ambedkar and developing his
memorial at his birthplace
Mhow in Madhya Pradesh.
Taking a dig at his own
State’s Chief Minister Nitish
Kumar and his Government,
the LJP chief claimed that
reservation should be for the
upliftment of the backward
class people but caste shouldn’t be used for political gains.
The Government in Bihar is
the result of caste based politics, added the Member of
Parliament from Hajipur constituency in Bihar.
The 69-year-old Minister
also informed that the National
Food Security Act (NFSA) will
be implemented in 10 more
States from fiscal 2016-17
(from April 1st). Already 11
States have implemented
NFSA, said Paswan. He also
hinted about computerisation
in public distribution system
(PDS).
130 Air India passengers
face 13-hour ordeal
PTI n NEW DELHI
technical problem with an Air India
Dreamliner from Kolkata coupled with Flight
A
Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) for a pilot of another Dreamliner led to an overnight ordeal for around
130 passengers who reached Delhi after a 13 hour
delay. The ordeal began after the Delhi-bound flight
with 236 passengers on board including CPI(M)
general secretary Sitaram Yechury suffered a technical problem.
Even a change of aircraft did not mitigate the
suffering of the stranded passengers, with some
of them accusing the State-run airline of misinforming them on the actual departure of the
delayed flight.
Air India, however, said it tried every possible step to fly the stranded passengers to their destination at the earliest.
“AI 701 (Kolkata-Delhi) had push back at 5.30
pm and after push back there was a snag.
Engineers tried to rectify the snag. However, since
the problem could not be resolved, the aircraft was
declared grounded at 10.10 pm,” an Air India
Telangana
chalks out plan
to retain
Tollywood hub
spokesperson said.
He said the airline deplaned all the passengers
as another Air India flight was landing at Kolkata
airport at 10.30 pm and it was decided to operate
this incoming aircraft to Delhi.
“Meanwhile, one of the pilots who was to operate the aircraft came under Flight Duty Time
Limitation (FDTL) by the time the boarding of all
passengers could have been completed. This forced
the airline to reschedule the departure again to 6.30
am,” the spokesperson said.
Since the flight was to leave only at 6.30 am,
passengers were requested to deplane and move
to the terminal building, the spokesperson said.
Sources said of the 236 passengers, 105
including Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul
Basit took other flights on Sunday while others
spent several hours on board the two airplanes before being taken to the terminal building past midnight. Some preferred to stay inside the aircraft.
An AI statement said the airline had put all
possible efforts to arrange for an alternate aircraft
to fly the remaining 131 passengers who stayed
behind.
hub” and prevent any possible
exodus of the Telugu film industry to neighbouring Andhra
Pradesh.
A Cabinet sub-committee,
which met in Hyderabad on
Monday, decided to introduce a
single window system to give
clearance to every film in 48
hours. If no reason was shown
for any delay, the approval will
be deemed to have been granted. This solves one of the biggest
grievances of the film industry
in the State as clearance of a film
depended on the whims and
fancies of the officials causing
huge financial losses to the filmmakers. The panel also recommended forming a panel of
prominent leaders of film industry to identify suitable land for
film institute in Hyderabad. It
finalised several sops to promote
small films by introducing a fifth
show in all the cinema theatres
for them. Any film which is
released in less than 50 theatres
will be recognised as small film,
officials said.
Another committee headed
by Cultural Advisor to the State
Government to suggest a suitable name for the State
Government’s film awards. In
the united Andhra Pradesh, the
film awards were called Nandi
Awards but Telangana
Government wants to come up
with a new name with a local
touch.
The sub-committee also
recommended allotment of 9
acre land for “Chitrapupri
Colony” for the film personalities in the city outskirts and
asked the Ranga Reddy district
collector to identify the land for
the purpose.
Minister stresses
on importance of
educational diplomacy
between other
countries and India
RAHIBA R PARVEEN n
NEW DELHI
reating easy access for foreign students is the new goal
C
of the HRD Minister Smriti
Irani, who stressed on the importance of “educational diplomacy”
between other countries and
India. Speaking at an event
organised by the Indian Council
for Cultural Relations (ICCR),
Irani said while India is an
“affordable destination” for quality education, the Government
was doing everything possible to
create avenues to meet the interests of foreign students, who wish
to attend the top ranked institutions of the country.
She said the Government
would release the rankings of
educational institutions on April
4 and decision to hold IIT JEE
Advanced tests abroad.
“The challenge before the
country’s educational institutions is whether the engagement
with foreign students is to be limited only on the basis of scholarships or can they be invited
Recognising the need to increase the
inflow of foreign students, the IIT
council took a unanimous decision to
ensure that in 2017 students from eight
nations, including SAARC nations,
would be allowed to sit for
IIT-JEE (Advanced) exam
HRD MINISTER SMRITI IRANI
because of excellence in various
fields,” she said.
“India is an affordable destination for high-quality education. We have to take steps to
bring foreign students not only
through scholarships but also to
those students, who want to take
education from our best institutes of technology,” she said.
Irani said the rankings of
Indian institutes under the
National Institutional Ranking
Framework (NIRF) will be out
on April 4 and asked MEA officials to leverage this data to reach
out to foreign students. “Over
3,600 higher education institutes
have provided their data for
these rankings..I am hopeful
that it will attract those students
who look for the best ranked
institutes of India,” the HRD Minister said, referring to IIT council’s proposal to hold entrance
tests in eight foreign countries.
“Recognising the need to
increase the inflow of foreign students, the IIT council took a unanimous decision to ensure that
in 2017 students from eight nations, including SAARC nations,
would be allowed to sit for IITJEE (Advanced) exam,” she said.
Addressing a gathering
which included ICCR chief Prof
Lokesh Chandra and several
official from External Affairs
Ministry, Irani said, “Cultural
diplomacy has been at the forefront of her Ministry’s engagement with the MEA for too
long.” “The PM now has given an
added push through education
diplomacy. I am hopeful this
educational diplomacy is a part
of diplomacy that will take us
from strength to strength in the
times to come,” she said.
Indian Council for Cultural
Relations chief Chandra, in his
speech, said ICCR annually
offers around 3,350 scholarship
slots to international students,
wishing to study in India in various programmes and disciplines. “These scholarships cover
traditional courses in Indian
Classical dance and music,
Ayurveda and Yoga. To modern,
secular and development studies... More than 6,000 foreign students from around 120 countries
of the world are on the roll of
ICCR almost at any given point
of time,” Chandra said.
Ban on gifts to legislators from
next year: Nitish
FAIZAN AHMAD n PATNA
s fallout of the controversy over the distribution of
A
expensive gifts to the legislators
during the Budget session of
the Bihar legislative Houses, the
Government decided not to
allow any department to distribute gifts in 2017. But the
BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi
who had raised hue and cry
over the gift policy failed to
return the goodies due to technical snags on Monday.
Chief Minister Nitish
Kumar, who neither took any
gift during his membership
nor supported the practice,
has expressed his unhappiness
over the display of the goodies
being handed out to the lawmakers and said, “The recent
controversy will give me a
strong excuse to ban this practice from next year.”
On Monday, the day before
the closure of the House for
Holi and other leaves, senior
BJP leader and Leader of
Opposition in the Upper House
Modi came loaded with suitcases, mobile phone and
microwave oven — which he
received during the ongoing
session courtesy various
departments — to return them.
He put up about half a dozen
trolley bags, one oven and one
mobile phone but no official of
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar with Assembly Speaker Vijay Chaudhary during
Holi Milan function of Chamber of Commerce in Patna on Sunday
PTI
the legislative council was ready
to take them back. “We are only
supposed to handover the gift
coming from various departments but not authorised to
take them back if any member
want to return it after accepting,” one staff said.
Modi said he wrote a letter
to the CM asking him to discontinue the gift tradition and
also instruct the officials to take
back the gifts he wants to return.
Nitish said the gift policy
was very old and he saw it in
1985 when he came as MLA
first time. He remembered that
the Education Department
then had given a good brief
case to the legislators. “But I
never appreciated the practice
of putting up the cartons of the
gifts inside the A.ssembly with
members being distributed in
full view of media and others.
A better practice would have
been if these gifts were delivered at the legislators’ houses,”
he said.
Most of the departments
maintaining the decades old
tradition distribute trolley bags
the day of the presentation of
the budgetary demands of the
department. However, some
departments have started gifting mobile phones and tablets
and education department this
time gave microwave oven to
all the members. The recipients
of these goodies are 243 members of the Assembly and 75
members of the Legislative
Council or the Upper House.
“I was against this practice
from the very beginning but
could not implement the ban
in view of the overwhelming
view of the legislators of all the
parties. But now this practice
will be banned,” he said. He
also recalled that two years
back he had ordered for distribution of the packets of
organic potato grown in his
home district Nalanda to all
the legislators to promote this
variety of potato.
A couple of days back
Modi had decided to return the
gifts and leader of opposition
in Assembly Prem Kumar and
State BJP president Mangal
Pandey, a member of the
Council, had also toes his line.
Modi on Monday said some
MLAs of his party have also
conveyed their decision to
return the gifts.
However, Modi’s possessions were kept outside his
chamber in the Council as
nobody came forward to take
them back. This reminded the
BJP leader of an old incident.
He recalled that in early
nineties when the then Speaker
Ghulam Sarwar had distribute
gold plated wrist watches to the
members. Modi said he wanted to return the expensive
watch but could not due to
technicalities so he had gifted
the watch to one orphanage.
Despite financial crunch, Telangana legislators to get huge hike in salaries
OMER FAROOQ n HYDERABAD
ndeterred by a huge debt
burden adding to the finanU
cial woes of Telangana, the
State legislators are in for a
whopping 400% hike in their
salaries.
The amenities committee of
Telangana Legislature headed by
the Speaker Madhusudhan
Chary has recommended the
monthly salary of MLAS and
MLCs from `1.25 lakh to `3.5
lakhs.
The committee meeting on
Monday, attended by Legislative
Council Chairman Swami
Goud, Finance Minister Etala
Rajender, Irrigation Minister T
Harish Rao and the floor leaders of different parties, also
recommended many other sops
for the members and the
Ministers. They include increasing the vehicle loan for each
member from `15 lakh to `40
lakhs, hiking the monthly salary
of member’s PA to `25,000,
and monthly pension for the exMLAs and ex-MLCs from
`50,000 to `65,000. Even after
the death of the former member his or her spouse will continue to benefit from the pension if the recommendations of
the committee were accepted.
Committee also recommended unlimited medical
assistance to the former members of both the Houses.
If all these decisions were
implemented they will put additional burden of `100 crore on
the ex-chequer, officials said.
This was coming at a time
when the state debt burden has
reached a mammoth `1.3 lakh
crore, equivalent to the annual
budget of the State and the TRS
government was still exploring
the avenue for raising more
loans for its welfare programs
including free two-bed room
housing scheme for the poor. As
budget has not provided a sin-
gle rupee for housing and other
schemes, the government need
to raise `52,000 crore loans to
implements the.
While the proposed hike
in the pay of the legislators
was coming under criticism
from various quarters, the
State Government has defended it. Deputy Chief Minister
Mahmood Ali said that the
demand was pending for a
long time and it can not be
ignored.
money 11
To use a traffic analogy, policies
with few adverse spillovers
should be rated “green”; those
that should be used temporarily
could be rated “orange”; and
policies that should be avoided
at all times would be “red
BUZZ
FROM
RBI & GOVT
RBI GOVERNOR
RAGHURAM RAJAN
We are not able to get the
required number of SC/ST
entrepreneurs. So we have
decided to accept enterprises (to
bring into the procurement policy)
in which SC/ST persons are
partners
UNION MINISTER KALRAJ MISHRA
Rajan for new global pact to
RBI’s rate cut hopes push Sensex
up by 333 pts, Nifty by 100 points
deal with monetary policy issues
PNS n NEW DELHI
NEW DELHI: RBI Governor
R a g hu r a m
R aj a n
on
Monday said the world is
facing “increasingly dangerous situation” and a new
international agreement on
the lines of Bretton Woods
is needed to prevent central
banks from adopting policies that could hurt other
economies.
“What I have in mind (is
that we) will eventually
require a new international
agreement along the lines of
Bretton Woods, and some
reinterpretation of the mandates of inter nat ionally
influential central banks,” he
said in a commentary posted on the website of Project
Syndicate.
He said that central
banks in developed countries find “all sorts of ways”
to justify their policies,
without acknowledging the
unmentionable – that the
exchange rate may be the
primary channel of transmission.
“If so, what we need are
monetary rules that prevent
a central bank’s domestic
mandate from trumping a
c o u nt r y ’s i nt e r n at i o n a l
responsibility,” Rajan said.
Setting the rules will
take time, he said, adding
the international community has a choice.
“We can pretend all is
well with the global monetary non-system and hope
that nothing goes spectacularly wrong. Or we can start
building a system fit for the
integrated world of the
twenty-first century,” Rajan
added.
He said the world is facing an increasingly dangerou s s itu at i on and b ot h
advanced and emerging
economies need to grow in
order to ease domestic political tensions.
“If
G ov e r n m e nt s
respond by enacting policies
that divert growth from
other countries, this ‘beggar
my neighbour’ tactic will
simply foster instability elsewhere. What we need, therefore, are new rules of the
game,” Rajan added.
The Bretton Woods conference led to the setting up
of IMF, World Bank.
He said to bring growth
back to pre-2008 levels, the
remedy may be to write
down the debt to revive
demand.
“It is uncertain whether
write-downs are politically
feasible or the resulting
demand
sustainable.
Moreover, structural factors
like population ageing and
low productivity growth –
w h i c h w e re pre v i ou s l y
masked by debt-f uelled
demand – may be hampering the recovery,” Rajan said.
Po l it i c i a n s , h e s a i d ,
know that structural reforms
– to increase competition,
foster innovation, and drive
institutional change – are
the way to tackle structural
impediments to growth.
“But they know that,
while the pain from reform
is immediate, gains are typically delayed and their beneficiaries uncertain,” Rajan
added. All monetary policies
have external “spillover”
{usp}
effects,Rajan said, adding
circumstances today are,
however, not normal and
domestic demand may not
respond to unconventional
policy.
“To use a traffic analogy,
policies with few adverse
spillovers should be rated
“green”; those that should be
used temporarily could be
rated “orange”; and policies
that should be avoided at all
times would be “red”.
He said globally countries are far from having
cle ar agre ement on t he
colour of policies today, even
with the best data, models,
and empirical work.
“So we must begin a discussion. We could start with
background papers from
eminent academics and
move on to multilateral
institutions such as the
Int e r n at i on a l Mon e t a r y
Fund and the G-20.
“There will be a lot of
fuzziness initially, but discussion will lead in time to
better models and data – and
will push policymakers to
stay out of the clearly red,”
he said.
Central bankers face a
different problem: inflation
that is flirting with the lower
bound of their mandate.
“ Wit h i nt e re s t r at e s
already very low, advanced
economies’ central bankers
know that they must go
beyond ordinary monetary
policy – or lose credibility
on inflation. They feel that
they cannot claim to be out
of tools.
“If all else fails, there is
always the ‘helicopter drop’
whereby the central bank
prints money and sprays it
on the streets to create inflation,” he added.
He admitted that setting
such a rule will take time.
“But the international community has a choice. We
can pretend all is well with
the global monetary nonsystem and hope that nothing goes spectacularly
wrong. Or we can start
building a system fit for the
integrated world of the 21st
century”.
PTI
ith hopes of rate cut by
Reserve Bank of India
W
(RBI) in its Monetary Policy
Review to be held in the first
week of April, market’s mood
was quite upbeat on the Dalal
Street and the BSE benchmark
Sensex soared 333 points to
close at 25,285 - a nearly 11week high, while NSE’s Nifty
gained around 100 points, ending at 7,704.25 on Monday.
Experts are of view that an
accommodative stance of the
US Federal Reserve that fuels
more capital inflows and the
Government’s decision to slash
rates on small savings also consolidate expectations that the
RBI will step up and lower rate
at its first policy meet of 201617 on April 5. Besides, lower
retail inflation at 5.18 per cent
in February provides more
room for the central bank to act
positively for the domestic
stocks which see an upward
trend due to sustained foreign
fund inflows and a rising rupee.
“Overseas stock markets
continued to cheer the Federal
Reserve’s accommodative policy stance announced last week
while Chinese stocks also edged
higher after authorities signaled
a loosening stance towards mar-
gin trading,” said Shreyash
Devalkar, Fund Manager,
Equities, BNP Paribas MF.
The 30-share Sensex wrested control of the 25,000-mark
again, advanced to a high of
25,327.45 and ended up 332.63
points, or 1.33 per cent, at
25,285.37 - its highest closing
since January 6. The gauge had
Jindal Shadeed all set to tap
$6 bn construction mkt in GCC
PTI n MUSCAT
nticipating pick-up in
demand in construction
A
and road sector in the GCC
Prime Minister, Narendra Modi during the PFA Foundation Stone Laying Ceremony of Dr Ambedkar National
Memorial and Dr Ambedkar Memorial Lecture in the presence of Minister of Social Justice & Empowerment,
Thaawarchand Gehlot, Minister of Science & Technology and Earth Sciences, Harsh Vardhan, and both MoS
Krishan Pal Gurjar and Vijay Sampla on Monday at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi.
Minister of Power, Coal and MNRE, Piyush Goyal, with CEO & MD, TPDL, Praveer Sinha, and Chairman Smart Utilities Group at
Tata Power-DDL's exhibition stall at the India Smart Grid Week (ISGW) 2016 - International Conference & Exhibition on Smart
Grids & Smart Cities in New Delhi. Tata Power Delhi Distribution is the Host Utility of ISGW 2016. ISGW has been organised
under the aegis of India Smart Grid Forum (ISGF) from March 16-18 at Manekshaw Center, New Delhi. ISGF is a public private
partnership initiative of the Ministry of Power, with the mandate of accelerating smart grid deployments across the country.
region, industrialist Naveen
Jindal feels Jindal Shadeed Iron
and Steel (JSIS) with its 1.4
MTPA rebar facility is all set to
take advantage of the $6 billion
market opportunity in the
region.
JSIS, a subsidiary of the
steel-to-power group Jindal
Steel and Power (JSPL), has
invested $1.2 billion to set up
a 2 million tonne per annum
(MTPA) steel melting shop
and a 1.4 MTPA rebar mill at
the industrial port city of Sohar
in Oman.
The firm, which boasts of
the third largest steel plant in
the GCC, hopes to beat competition from China and other
steel-surplus nations to get a
significant pie in the region’s
USD six billion TMT bars
market with the newly inaugurated rebar mill.
Gulf Cooperation Council
or GCC is a political and economic alliance of six nations –
Oman, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait,
Bahrain, Qatar and the United
Arab Emirates.
According to market analysts here, GCC requires
around 15 million tonnes of
steel annually. The current
prices have gone up from $360380 a tonne to $410-420 per
tonne, which is a significant
market in the region.
Jindal’s rebar facility gives
his firm inroads in this 15 MT
market opportunity in the
GCC region, of which around
3-4 MT is imported.
“Unlike other producers
in the region, we have an edge
when it comes to the cost of
production since this technology would allow us to produce
TMT bars directly from the hot
metal that comes out from the
steel melting shops,” Jindal told
reporters here.
He added the company
through its specialised products
(TMT bars) will get an edge
over Chinese export of steel billets.
“Having specialised products gives us an edge over
imports here of billets from
China. We are giving customers here better products,”
Jindal noted. After acquiring
Shadeed Steel and Power in
2010 for $500 million, Jindal –
Chairman of JSPL - invested
another $700 million to set up
the steel melting shop and
rebar mill.
So far, the company has
produced billets and other
related products and sell them
to local steel producers who
would use them to produce finished products. It also exports
specialised steel products to
auto component manufacturers
in Europe.
With the rebar mill, Jindal
Shadeed can sell TMT bars
directly to the customers not
just in the GCC region but will
also tap the markets in Africa
as well as other neighbouring
countries.
Jindal hopes to produce
other value-added products in
the future though he declines
to give a time-frame, saying the
focus of the company would
now be on consolidation.
He said listing of the unit
on domestic bourses is also an
agenda, but it will all depend
upon the market condition,
which is somewhat subdued
now due to present oil crisis.
The oil crisis has also
forced the local governments to
cut down investments on
developing infrastructure, but
Jindal is not apprehensive.
Steel demand here is
bound to grow as all the investments do not necessarily come
from the states. On top of all,
the aim of the company would
be to replace the burgeoning
imports, mainly from China,
with local produce.
China, he claimed, has also
been playing havoc with the
local market, the same way it
has been impacting the Indian
market back home. Jindal said
the local government should
also take a cue from India and
impose minimum import price
(MIP) on imports of steel
products to help the domestic
industry counter competition.
Jindal Shadeed buys pellets,
the raw material used for ironmaking, from Brazilian major
Vale, which has a pellet plant
near Jindal’s plant here.
Asked whether the company would divest Jindal
Shadeed to repay its mounting
debt, he answered in the negative.
“We are committed to
Oman. Our focus is now on
integrating the plant fully. Debt
restructuring is a continuous
process.”
gained 275.37 points on Friday
as foreign funds continued to
pump in money amid a firm
global trend after the Fed indicated a slower pace of rate
increases in coming days. The
50-share Nifty too recaptured
the 7,700-mark and ended at
7,704.25, up 99.90 points, or
1.31 per cent.
Banks on 4-day
holiday from
Thursday
NEW DELHI: Customers won’t be
able to conduct bank transactions at branches for 4 days in
a row this week as all banks
will be closed from Thursday,
although the lenders assure
that they will fully load ATMs
for meeting people’s cash
needs.
Thursday will be a holiday
for celebrating the Holi festival, followed by Good Friday
and the weekend.
Banks are closed on second and fourth Saturdays every
month. Hence, 4 continuous
offs for the bank employees.
Banks are trying to ensure
that ATMs remain operational
during these days so that people don’t have any cash problem, a senior public sector
bank official said.
They are trying to put
higher denomination notes in
ATM machines to ensure
meeting the cash demand, the
official added.
IDBI Bank may be closed
for an extra day if the strike call
given by a section of officers
and employees of the bank on
March 28 (Monday) materialises.
The staffers, belonging to
the All India Bank Employees
Association (AIBEA) and All
India
Bank
Officers
Association (AIBOA), have
given the strike call to protest
against the Government move
to privatise IDBI Bank.
The Government owns
around 80 per cent stake in the
bank.
PTI
Jewellers divided on calling off strike
Lt Gen Harminderjit Singh Sachdev, Param Vishisht Seva Medal, Ati Vishisht Seva Medal, Sena Medal, Director
General Assam Rifles flagged in the DGAR Cycle expeditions from the six North East States at a grand ceremony at
Laitkor, Shillong. DGAR congratulated the various state expedition teams on successful completion of their mission.
Six teams of Assam Rifles representing each state had traversed in two different routes to travel a stretch of almost
1474 km. Each of the state teams rode for a week during which they experienced and interacted with the locals, gained
glimpses of various cultural lives en-route and enjoyed the rich flora and fauna along the beautiful country side.
Executive Director (Human Resource), Power Grid Corporation of India Limited, Meenakshi Davar, has been conferred with ‘Amity Woman
Achiever Award 2016' for her pioneering efforts in the field of Human Resource with a rich experience of 33 years in the field. The award was
given by Vice Chancellor, Amity University Noida - Prof (Dr) Balvinder Shukla at a function organised at University Campus Noida.
NEW DELHI: A section of jew-
ellers and bullion traders continued their strike for the
20th day here on Monday,
demanding rollback of the
proposed 1 per cent excise
duty on non-silver jewellery,
even as major associations
called off the stir after meeting Finance Minister Arun
Jaitley. Most jewellery shops
and establishments in the
national capital remained shut
on
Monday
despite
Government’s assurance that
there will be no harassment by
excise officials.
Some jewellers kept their
shops shut in Mumbai as well.
All India Sarafa Association
Vice-President Surinder
Kumar Jain said the strike in
the national capital will go on
for an indefinite period until
the government rolls back the
proposed excise duty.
Jewellers, bullion traders
and artisans are organising
‘dharna’ at Chandni Chowk
here to intensify the agitation,
he added.
Meanwhile, major jewellery associations, including
All India Gems and Jewellery
Trade Federation (GJF), India
Bullion and Jewellers
Association (IBBJ) and Gems
Jewellery Export Promotion
Council called off the strike
on Saturday after a meeting
with Jaitley.
Jewellers in various cities
including Jaipur in Rajasthan
also continued the strike.
Jaitley has proposed one
per cent excise duty on jewellery without input credit or
12.5 per cent with input tax
credit on jewellery excluding
silver other than studded with
diamonds and some other
precious stones.
PTI
Govt sets up panel to look
into jewellers’ demand
PNS n NEW DELHI
he Government has constituted a panel under former chief economic advisor Ashok Lahri to look
T
into demand of jewellers who are protesting against
imposition of 1 per cent excise duty on non-silver
jewellery items. The panel, which has been asked to
submit its report in 60 days, will look into issues related to compliance procedure for the excise duty, including records to be maintained, forms to be filled, operating procedures and other relevant issues.
The sub-committee of a high level committee
constituted earlier to suggest steps to sort out taxation problems being faced by trade and industry will
have
three representatives of the trade.
“All associations will be given an opportunity to
submit representation before the Sub-Committee in
writing and the all India associations to state their
case in person,” the Finance Ministry said in a statement on Monday. Even as major associations of the
jewellery industry have called off their stir following
assurance by the Government to look into their concerns, a section of jewellers in the country continue
to protest against the budget proposals.
Late Saturday, major associations, including All
India Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation (GJF),
All India Bullion and Jewellers Association (IBJA)
and Gems Jewellery Export Promotion Council
(GJEPC) called off strike after Government’s assurance that there would be no ‘Inspector Raj’. The
Finance Ministry further said till the recommendations of the sub-committee are finalised there will
be no arrest or criminal prosecution of any jeweller. There will also be no search and seizure of
stocks by any central government officials. Further,
the Central Excise Officers will not visit the manufacturing units/ shops/ place of business/residence
of the jewellers; and all payments of Central Excise
duty will be based on first sale invoice value till committee’s recommendations are finalised.
money 12
CAD narrows to 1.3% Finmin holds review meeting Jet more interested
of GDP in Dec qtr: RBI with banks on loan recovery in codeshare pacts
MUMBAI: India’s current account
deficit (CAD) narrowed to 1.3
per cent of GDP in third quarter of the fiscal as against 1.5 per
cent in the same period last year,
mainly on account of lower
trade deficit.
“India’s CAD at $7.1 billion
(1.3 per cent of GDP) in Q3 of
2015-16 was lower than $7.7 billion (1.5 per cent of GDP) in Q3
of 2014-15 and $8.7 billion (1.7
per cent of GDP) in the preceding quarter,” Reserve Bank of
India said.
While releasing the Balance
of Payments data during the
October-December quarter of
2015-16, it said the contraction
in CAD was primarily on
account of a lower trade deficit
($34 billion) as against in Q3 of
last year ($38.6 billion) and
from a year ago.
The central bank also said
that after moderating in second
quarter, net foreign direct
investment again picked up
and stood at $10.8 billion in
third quarter.
“Non-resident Indian
deposits moderated significantly
in Q3 of 2015-16 over their level
in Q3 last year as well as the preceding quarter,” RBI said.
Foreign exchange reserves
(on a BoP basis) increased by
$4.1 billion in third quarter of
2015-16.
During April-December,
there was an accretion of
$14.6 billion to foreign
exchange reserves (on a BoP
basis) compared with $31.3
billion in the corresponding
period of 2014-15.
PTI
$37.4 billion in the preceding
quarter.
On a cumulative basis, the
CAD narrowed to 1.4 per cent
of GDP in April-December
from 1.7 per cent in the corresponding period of 2014-15, on
the back of the contraction in
the trade deficit.
RBI further said net services
receipts moderated on a yearon-year basis largely due to fall
in export receipts in transport
and financial services, though
there has been a marginal
improvement over the preceding quarter.
Private transfer receipts,
mainly representing remittances
by Indians employed overseas,
amounted to $15.8 billion, a
decline from their level in the
preceding quarter as well as
‘Brexit could cause ‘serious shock’ to UK’s eco’
PTI n LONDON
ritain’s exit from the
European Union could
B
cause a ‘serious shock’ to the
country’s economy, potentially
costing it 100 billion pounds
and nearly one million jobs, a
business report has warned.
According to the report
commissioned
by
the
Confederation of British
Industry (CBI), the exit could
cost the UK economy 100 bil-
potentially lost, said the report conducted by accountancy firm
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
“This analysis shows very clearly why leaving the European
Union would be a real blow for
living standards, jobs and
growth. The savings from
reduced EU budget contributions and regulation are greatly outweighed by the negative
impact on trade and investment,” said Carolyn Fairbairn,
director general of CBI.
lion – the equivalent of 5 per
cent of GDP – by 2020 and
would lead to long-lasting economic damage from which it
would never recover.
Household incomes could
be between 2,100 pounds and
3,700 pounds lower if Britain
voted to leave the EU, while the
UK's unemployment rate, currently one of the lowest in the
EU at 5. 1 per cent, would be
between 2 and 3 percentage
points higher, with 950,000 jobs
NIFTY 50
SCRIP
OPEN HIGH LOW
LTP CHANGE
AMBUJACEM
222.3 233.95 221.5 231.85
9.8
ULTRACEMCO 3,111.05 3,244.60 3,111.05 3,225.95 115.3
BOSCHLTD 18,734.1019,480.0018,734.1019,420.05 645.95
HINDUNILVR
847.1
883 847.1
877 28.65
SBIN
193 197.3
193
197
5.75
ACC
1,344.35 1,378.00 1,338.00 1,376.00
38.8
LT
1,201.00 1,232.55 1,194.35 1,231.90
32.6
TATAMOTORS 367.25 375.5 365.75 374.85
8.8
SUNPHARMA 820.55 838.05 816.8
835.5
19.5
PNB
85.4
87.5
85.1
86.3
2
YESBANK
818 834.5 812.75 833.55
19.3
BHARTIARTL
345
355 343.2
351.6
7.3
BANKBARODA 145.65 147.8 144.7
147.1
3
ICICIBANK
231.55 235.6 231.45 234.95
4.75
AXISBANK
439 445.5 437.9
444.9
8.8
GRASIM
3,662.00 3,749.90 3,640.10 3,730.00 73.05
HDFC
1,130.00 1,155.85 1,128.05 1,151.00
21.7
ITC
326.75 336.2 326.25
330.7
5.95
VEDL
93.2 94.85 92.45
93.8
1.5
CAIRN
153.5
158 153.5
157.4
2.5
HDFCBANK 1,033.00 1,047.35 1,032.25 1,044.45 16.05
CIPLA
530 538.4 527.5
536.1
7.85
WIPRO
554.4 562.4 541.8
559
7.75
MARUTI
3,630.10 3,678.80 3,605.00 3,669.00
47.6
RELIANCE
1,027.95 1,041.50 1,022.75 1,040.60
13.4
BPCL
864.75 879.9 860.35
868
11.1
ONGC
214 217.5
213
217.1
2.5
POWERGRID
136.55 138.45 136.25
138.4
1.55
TCS
2,426.00 2,454.95 2,420.00 2,451.25
25.4
TATAPOWER
58.5 59.35
58.4
59.1
0.6
HINDALCO
85.7
87
84.3
86
0.8
TATASTEEL
302 305.95 300.65 304.05
1.85
ADANIPORTS 238.95
245 236.75 243.15
1.2
HEROMOTOCO 2,804.50 2,822.85 2,776.95 2,802.00
11
BAJAJ-AUTO 2,307.90 2,320.00 2,289.40 2,311.55
8.2
M&M
1,229.00 1,230.00 1,216.15 1,226.95
4.4
KOTAKBANK
660.05
665 652.6
661
2.2
DRREDDY
3,157.00 3,199.00 3,126.55 3,180.00
8.7
INDUSINDBK
930 936.5 922.8 930.75
1.75
ZEEL
392.8 393.55 385.25 390.95
0.3
IDEA
102.2
103 101.55
102.1
0.05
HCLTECH
828
828 815.2 823.95
-0.2
INFY
1,188.00 1,199.00 1,180.05 1,193.00
-0.4
TECHM
492.45 498.4
486
491.2
-1.25
NTPC
127.45 128.7 126.3 127.05
-0.4
GAIL
367.15 368.5 360.1 362.55
-1.8
COALINDIA
297.25 298.5
295
296
-1.75
BHEL
113.4 113.8
111
111.9
-1.5
LUPIN
1,572.00 1,572.00 1,501.10 1,532.20
-22.2
ASIANPAINT
873.25
875 852.4
855.6 -19.75
NIFTY NEXT 50
SCRIP
OPEN HIGH LOW
LTP CHANGE
ASHOKLEY
97.5 103.45 97.45
103.1
5.8
IBULHSGFIN
620
651 618.25
648 35.65
CONCOR
1,153.00 1,204.90 1,152.30 1,201.90 54.05
GLAXO
3,398.95 3,535.00 3,370.65 3,525.00 125.4
AUROPHARMA
730
748 728.2
746
25.1
BHARATFORG
858.5 878.9 855.6
876.1 27.05
PETRONET
248.5 256.8 248.5
254.5
6.4
PFC
170.9 174.35 169.95 173.85
4.15
SRTRANSFIN
909
936 902.05
931.4 21.45
INFRATEL
382.7 391.9 376.75
389.2
8.55
BRITANNIA 2,691.00 2,749.00 2,691.00 2,745.05 59.25
SIEMENS
1,052.00 1,075.00 1,052.00 1,074.00 21.55
M&MFIN
238.45
242 235.1
241
4.75
LICHSGFIN
465.25 472.95 461.1
472.9
9.3
BANKINDIA
97.3 99.35
97.2
98.4
1.8
GLENMARK
802
817
795 815.05 14.65
RELCAPITAL
369 374.75 365.3
374
6.65
MOTHERSUMI
252 257.5 251.2 254.25
4.2
HINDPETRO
754 768.15 749.55
760 12.45
OIL
313.5
320 312.15 318.35
5
FEDERALBNK
50
50.7
49.8
50.65
0.75
DABUR
251 253.9
250 253.05
3.45
TITAN
341 344.45 337.25 342.35
4.55
CANBK
192.3 193.8 191.2 192.75
2.45
OFSS
3,459.00 3,503.45 3,449.25 3,491.40
40.6
IOC
393.7 398.8 392.5
395.5
4.45
CUMMINSIND
849.8 854.6 835.5
849
9.45
APOLLOHOSP 1,400.00 1,415.00 1,379.60 1,412.00
15.6
UPL
442 446.45 433.6 445.65
4.65
TATAGLOBAL
119.2 120.9 118.75
120
1.1
RECLTD
169.1 171.45 168.5
170.4
1.55
MCDOWELL-N 2,596.00 2,648.80 2,576.15 2,612.20
21.9
JSWSTEEL
1,208.05 1,222.00 1,198.35 1,219.25
6.35
SUNDARMFIN 1,263.00 1,275.90 1,240.00 1,268.00
5.6
GODREJCP 1,316.00 1,350.00 1,296.00 1,332.05
5.1
DIVISLAB
980
999 969.1
986.3
2.45
RELINFRA
512 515.7 505.5
511.3
1.05
NMDC
97.25
98.5
96.4
98.25
0.15
RCOM
52.2
52.6 51.65
52.1
0.05
TATACHEM
362.5 365.9 359.05
362.5
0.2
BAJAJHLDNG 1,437.00 1,454.90 1,427.00 1,427.00
0
MRF
34,799.0035,030.0534,501.2534,700.00 -16.9
GSKCONS
5,850.00 6,000.00 5,850.00 5,966.00
-3.8
EICHERMOT 18,564.0018,600.0018,180.0018,400.00 -13.45
UBL
808.2
815 805.05
811
-1.8
MARICO
243.55 250.5 243.55 247.05
-0.65
BAJAJFINSV 1,653.05 1,662.05 1,635.00 1,645.00
-4.4
COLPAL
855 858.7 840.1
848
-2.9
SAIL
43.15 43.55 42.65
42.7
-0.15
EXIDEIND
137.5 137.5
135 135.55
-1
Bse 500
Script
Traded
3MINDIA
8KMILES
AARTIDRUGS
AARTIIND
ABAN
ABB
ABBOTINDIA
ACC
ADANIENT
ADANIPORTS
ADANIPOWER
ADANITRANS
ADVANTA
AEGISLOG
AIAENG
AIL
AJANTPHARM
AKZOINDIA
ALBK
ALLCARGO
ALOKTEXT
ALSTOMT&D
AMARAJABAT
AMBUJACEM
AMTEKAUTO
ANANTRAJ
ANDHRABANK
APLLTD
APOLLOHOSP
APOLLOTYRE
ARVIND
ASAHIINDIA
ASHIANA
ASHOKA
ASHOKLEY
ASIANPAINT
ASTRAL
ASTRAMICRO
ASTRAZEN
ATUL
Last
Price
10785
2130.55
481.8
475.3
184.5
1168
4620
1375.05
68.5
243.75
31.15
33.8
450.5
99.85
929.55
583
1355
1289.75
53.85
157
5.16
378.2
906
232.05
31.35
32.65
52.15
610.6
1400.6
178.15
276.8
142
133.15
184.35
102.85
859.55
400
107.65
1171.1
1515
Abs Change
Change
%
36.1
0.34
3.45
0.16
2.7
0.56
3.85
0.82
-1.75 -0.94
15.3
1.33
7.35
0.16
38
2.84
-0.05 -0.07
2.3
0.95
0.85
2.81
0
0
3.35
0.75
-1.75 -1.72
3.25
0.35
7.7
1.34
14
1.04
-9 -0.69
1
1.89
-0.85 -0.54
-0.23 -4.27
-7.05 -1.83
7.75
0.86
10.1
4.55
0.3
0.97
0.8
2.51
1.05
2.05
-0.95 -0.16
5.05
0.36
0.7
0.39
2
0.73
3.75
2.71
0.8
0.6
4.65
2.59
5.55
5.7
-15.35 -1.75
0.8
0.2
4.85
4.72
8.75
0.75
1.6
0.11
CCL
CEATLTD
CENTRALBK
CENTURYPLY
CENTURYTEX
CERA
CESC
CHAMBLFERT
CHENNPETRO
CHOLAFIN
CIPLA
CLARIS
CLNINDIA
COALINDIA
COLPAL
CONCOR
COROMANDEL
CORPBANK
COX&KINGS
CRISIL
CUB
CUMMINSIND
CYIENT
DABUR
DALMIABHA
DBCORP
DBREALTY
DCBBANK
DCMSHRIRAM
DEEPAKFERT
DELTACORP
DEN
DENABANK
DHANUKA
DHFL
DISHMAN
DISHTV
DIVISLAB
DLF
DRREDDY
DYNAMATECH
ECLERX
PNS n NEW DELHI
he Finance Ministry on
Monday held a meeting
with senior officials of public
sector banks (PSBs) to review
their efforts for loan recovery,
including from Kingfisher
Airlines.
“This is routine review
meeting to assess various
recovery efforts. We are stepping up recovery efforts,” said
a senior official at the ministry.
Asked if Kingfisher’s bad loans
were part of the discussions, the
official said that all the cases of
defaults were reviewed. The
meeting convened on Monday
was part of the ministry's exercises to clean up balance sheets
of PSBs. It also deliberated on
the ways banks can be more
proactive in dealing with cases
of wilful and genuine defaulters. Gross NPAs of PSBs rose to
T
MUMBAI: The Centre on
Monday urged exporters to take
advantage of Free Trade
Agreements with other countries
and assured its support in leveraging such trade pacts. “India’s
Free Trade Agreements (FTAs)
with various countries are not
being leveraged fully by Indian
exporters. Our department is
200.05
1125.8
70.65
166.35
518.35
1818.75
473.95
53.85
197.45
682
535.95
135.3
601.5
296.8
848.85
1198.55
179.5
39.6
192.85
1780.15
90.5
849.2
436.05
253.2
792.75
307.25
43.95
77.85
134.6
149.2
63.15
89.7
29
581
185.4
337
84.95
989.25
109.2
3182.9
1690
1265
6.6
9.05
1.9
1.2
5.3
30.45
-0.45
0.9
1.85
13.85
7.6
-1.3
2.8
-0.85
-1.75
51.1
5.55
0.6
2.6
-19.8
1.95
8.4
12.1
3.8
62.85
-6.55
0.2
0.4
0.05
-2.6
1.1
3.05
0.45
2.2
8.15
-6.45
0.85
5.15
1.9
12.5
87.6
-4.65
3.41
0.81
2.76
0.73
1.03
1.7
-0.09
1.7
0.95
2.07
1.44
-0.95
0.47
-0.29
-0.21
4.45
3.19
1.54
1.37
-1.1
2.2
1
2.85
1.52
8.61
-2.09
0.46
0.52
0.04
-1.71
1.77
3.52
1.58
0.38
4.6
-1.88
1.01
0.52
1.77
0.39
5.47
-0.37
Current (Chng %)
Current (Chng %)
TTKPRESTIG
4874.00 (16.10)
AMBUJACEM
231.85 (4.41)
BLUEDART
6199.00 (12.86)
ULTRACEMCO
3,225.95 (3.71)
740.20 (10.52)
BOSCHLTD
PRESTIGE
153.20 (9.90)
HINDUNILVR
877.00 (3.38)
JUBILANT
441.60 (9.14)
SBIN
197.00 (3.01)
PERSISTENT
AUROPHARMA
AVANTI
AXISBANK
BAJAJ-AUTO
BAJAJCORP
BAJAJELEC
BAJAJFINSV
BAJAJHIND
BAJAJHLDNG
BAJFINANCE
BALKRISIND
BALMLAWRIE
BALRAMCHIN
BANKBARODA
BANKINDIA
BASF
BATAINDIA
BAYERCROP
BBTC
BEL
BEML
BERGEPAINT
BFUTILITIE
BHARATFORG
BHARTIARTL
BHEL
BHUSANSTL
BIOCON
BIRLACORPN
BLISSGVS
BLUEDART
BLUESTARCO
BOMDYEING
BOSCHLTD
BPCL
BRITANNIA
CADILAHC
CAIRN
CANBK
CANFINHOME
CAPF
CAPPL
CARBORUNIV
CARERATING
CASTEXTECH
CASTROLIND
742.95
397.85
443.55
2311
379.65
197
1648.1
18.75
1425.6
6658.7
605
563.8
97.55
147.2
99
805.25
497
3712.05
369.25
1177.9
1068.3
229.85
590.2
874.75
350.55
111.95
36.15
470.7
388.9
131
6199
375.25
46.3
19301.55
869.85
2731.2
341.25
157.05
192.95
1026
410.1
1016.05
172.85
911
5.85
381.55
22.05
-4.45
7.6
9.15
-0.2
3.25
-3.7
-0.12
-2.55
24.8
2.7
5.3
0.8
3.15
2.4
20.7
9.2
75.95
7.85
77.45
51
4.2
1.85
27.6
5.9
-1.4
-0.2
11.55
12.75
-0.4
706.3
11
0.65
519.4
14.2
43.8
0
2.2
2.85
1.4
7.95
17.55
0.2
0.3
0.27
10.3
3.06
-1.11
1.74
0.4
-0.05
1.68
-0.22
-0.64
-0.18
0.37
0.45
0.95
0.83
2.19
2.48
2.64
1.89
2.09
2.17
7.04
5.01
1.86
0.31
3.26
1.71
-1.24
-0.55
2.52
3.39
-0.3
12.86
3.02
1.42
2.77
1.66
1.63
0
1.42
1.5
0.14
1.98
1.76
0.12
0.03
4.84
2.77
EDELWEISS
EICHERMOT
EIDPARRY
EIHOTEL
ELGIEQUIP
EMAMILTD
ENGINERSIN
ENIL
EROSMEDIA
ESCORTS
ESSELPRO
EVEREADY
EXIDEIND
FAGBEARING
FCEL
FDC
FEDERALBNK
FINCABLES
FINOLEXIND
FORCEMOT
FORTIS
FRL
FSL
GAIL
GATI
GAYAPROJ
GDL
GEOMETRIC
GESHIP
GHCL
GICHSGFIN
GILLETTE
GLAXO
GLENMARK
GLOBOFFS
GMDCLTD
GMRINFRA
GODFRYPHLP
GODREJCP
GODREJIND
GODREJPROP
GPPL
GRANULES
GRASIM
GREAVESCOT
GREENPLY
bad loans so that it doesn't
make banks worried about
lending in future.
However, the Finance
Minister also made it clear
that individual misdemeanours will be ‘looked into
differently’. Rajan had said
“we have to be careful as we
go forward” and criminal
actions are penalised. “But at
the same time, we don't
indulge in a broad fishing
expedition which then
becomes a reason for banks to
get worried about making
loans which then hamper the
recover y as well as the
absolutely important investment in infrastructure that
have to take place.
“So, as a country, as a system, we have to draw that balance very carefully and we are
hopeful that we can manage
that,” the governor had said.
than global clubs
PNS n NEW DELHI
et Airways on Monday
indicated it was more interJested
in stitching partnerships with other international carriers through codeshare
pacts than joining any of the
three global clubs and said its
ne w Europ e an gate way
Amsterdam offers stronger
proposition over Brussels.
The domestic carrier is all
set to commence operations
f rom
D utch
c apit a l
Amsterdam with daily nonstop flights from Delhi,
Mumbai and Toronto from
March 27. As of now Brussels
is its European hub for international services.
The Mumbai-based pri-
vate airline has also entered
into a codeshare partnership
with KLM Royal Dutch
Airlines and Delta Air Lines
to provide convenient connections for passengers to
and from destinations across
Europe and North America
via Amsterdam.
“I work with partners.
For me bilaterally is the way
that this airline has always
grown. And we work with all
the airlines across all the
three alliances. They have
partners with Star (Alliance),
OneWorld and Sky Team. All
of them are our partners.
And they work bilaterally,”
Jet Airways Whole-Time
Director Guarang Shetty told
reporters.
Centre to assist exporters in SBI leads mobile banking chart with over 38% mkt share
leveraging FTAs, says Teaotia MUMBAI: State Bank of India, the nation’s 2015.
NSE: GAINERS
BSE: GAINERS
`3.61 lakh crore at the end of
December 2015, while that of
private lenders were at `39,859
crore. Gross NPA ratio as percentage of advances rose to 7.30
per cent while for private
banks, it stood at 2.36 per cent
as of December-end.
There are some 7,686 wilful defaulters who owe `66,190
crore to PSBs, 6,816 suits have
been filed and FIR has been
lodged in 1,669 cases. Banks
have initiated action under the
Securitisation
and
Reconstruction of Financial
Assets and Enforcement of
Security Interest Act (Sarfaesi)
Act in 584 such cases.
Amid outrage over embattled Vijay Mallya's alleged
massive loan default, Finance
Minister Arun Jaitley and RBI
Governor Raghuram Rajan
had cautioned against going
on a ‘fishing expedition’ on
19,420.05 (3.44)
59.3
18372.45
208.5
104.15
133
954.85
165.95
728
165.15
135
157.1
243.65
136.5
3850
20.45
177.7
50.35
255.75
373.55
2734.5
182.45
131.45
34.35
362.05
110.95
508
265.05
197.5
308.2
111.95
214.6
4425
3524
813.7
231
65.65
11.8
1182.7
1338.7
341.95
287.65
177
121.45
3730
123.5
176
3
-30.65
15.4
0.4
0.2
14.7
3.75
0.3
-9.5
3.7
0.35
-0.7
0.45
-30
-0.05
-4.35
0.45
13.55
-6.4
143
1.6
-1.7
0.35
-2.1
1.85
-6.25
11.65
2.25
4.4
0.75
4.2
19.7
126.4
11.9
-11
0.3
0.24
-2.15
11.4
1.55
5.65
10.2
2.2
70.65
1.3
0.3
5.33
-0.17
7.98
0.39
0.15
1.56
2.31
0.04
-5.44
2.82
0.22
-0.29
0.33
-0.77
-0.24
-2.39
0.9
5.59
-1.68
5.52
0.88
-1.28
1.03
-0.58
1.7
-1.22
4.6
1.15
1.45
0.67
2
0.45
3.72
1.48
-4.55
0.46
2.08
-0.18
0.86
0.46
2
6.12
1.84
1.93
1.06
0.17
ready to assist our exporters in
leveraging these FTAs better,”
Commerce Secretary Rita
Teaotia said after inaugurating
‘'CAPINDIA 2016’ exhibition
here. India has signed FTAs with
several countries to reduce trade
barriers, including import quotas and tariffs, and to increase
trade of goods and services.
SENSEX
GRINDWELL
GRUH
GSFC
GSKCONS
GSPL
GUJFLUORO
GUJGAS
GULFOILLUB
GVKPIL
HATHWAY
HATSUN
HAVELLS
HCC
HCL-INSYS
HCLTECH
HDFC
HDFCBANK
HDIL
HEIDELBERG
HEROMOTOCO
HEXAWARE
HFCL
HIMATSEIDE
HINDALCO
HINDCOPPER
HINDPETRO
HINDUNILVR
HINDZINC
HITACHIHOM
HMT
HONAUT
HSIL
HTMEDIA
IBREALEST
IBULHSGFIN
ICICIBANK
ICIL
ICRA
IDBI
IDEA
IDFC
IFBIND
IFCI
IGL
IIFL
IL&FSTRANS
INDHOTEL
INDIACEM
INDIANB
INDIGO
INDOCO
INDUSINDBK
INFRATEL
INFY
INGERRAND
INOXLEISUR
INOXWIND
INTELLECT
IOB
IOC
IPAPPM
IPCALAB
IRB
ISGEC
ITC
J&KBANK
JAGRAN
JAICORPLTD
JBCHEPHARM
JBFIND
JETAIRWAYS
JINDALPOLY
JINDALSAW
JINDALSTEL
JISLJALEQS
676.05
239.2
65.15
5980
137.65
510
525.5
470
6.63
35.75
408.8
300
19.25
42.15
822.8
1152.05
1044.25
70.85
80
2802.75
269.4
14.3
201.05
85.95
52.65
763.5
880.35
171.15
1145.05
44.85
8499.4
286
79.05
53.85
645.2
234.8
932
3515
70.2
101.95
38.15
330.95
24.45
535.55
188.35
73.6
97.95
84.7
107.2
848.5
267.35
928.55
390
1195
648
196.1
271.6
202.05
28.7
394.85
295.8
559.35
231.9
4264.5
330.4
60.8
151
68.85
250
180.6
546.1
442.9
39.3
60.3
56.5
-3.55
4.95
0.7
0.3
4.85
16.2
4.75
5.35
0.03
-0.6
1
8.35
-0.1
0.05
-1.25
24.4
15.6
1.45
2.15
-30.15
-0.6
-0.2
2.45
0.85
1.8
16.55
34.3
-0.4
0
0.4
33.4
5.2
-0.95
0.9
33.35
4.45
-5.8
-37.4
3.05
-0.15
0.35
-2.65
0.25
15.25
4.25
1.2
2.6
3.95
4.75
42.25
-6.55
1.35
8.65
4.8
18.05
0.5
5.45
-0.2
0.95
2.95
4.75
2.85
0.65
95
5.4
-0.1
4.75
-0.65
1.5
1.5
23.45
6.55
0.2
-0.15
0
NIFTY
-0.52
2.11
1.09
0.01
3.65
3.28
0.91
1.15
0.45
-1.65
0.25
2.86
-0.52
0.12
-0.15
2.16
1.52
2.09
2.76
-1.06
-0.22
-1.38
1.23
1
3.54
2.22
4.05
-0.23
0
0.9
0.39
1.85
-1.19
1.7
5.45
1.93
-0.62
-1.05
4.54
-0.15
0.93
-0.79
1.03
2.93
2.31
1.66
2.73
4.89
4.64
5.24
-2.39
0.15
2.27
0.4
2.87
0.26
2.05
-0.1
3.42
0.75
1.63
0.51
0.28
2.28
1.66
-0.16
3.25
-0.94
0.6
0.84
4.49
1.5
0.51
-0.25
0
JKCEMENT
JKIL
JKLAKSHMI
JKTYRE
JMFINANCIL
JPASSOCIAT
JPINFRATEC
JPPOWER
JSWENERGY
JSWSTEEL
JUBILANT
JUBLFOOD
JUSTDIAL
JYOTHYLAB
KAJARIACER
KALPATPOWR
KANSAINER
KEC
KIRLOSENG
KITEX
KOTAKBANK
KPIT
KPRMILL
KRBL
KSCL
KSK
KTKBANK
KWALITY
L&TFH
LAKSHVILAS
LAOPALA
LAXMIMACH
LICHSGFIN
LINDEINDIA
LT
LUPIN
LYCOS
M&M
M&MFIN
MAGMA
MAHABANK
MAHINDCIE
MAHLIFE
MANAPPURAM
MARICO
MARKSANS
MARUTI
MCLEODRUSS
MCX
MHRIL
MINDTREE
MMTC
MOIL
MONSANTO
MOTHERSUMI
MOTILALOFS
MPHASIS
MRF
MRPL
MTNL
MUTHOOTFIN
NATCOPHARM
NATIONALUM
NAUKRI
NAVNETEDUL
NBCC
NCC
NESCO
NESTLEIND
NETWORK18
NEYVELILIG
NHPC
NIITTECH
NILKAMAL
NIRLON
BSE: SENSEX
Open
largest lender, is also the leader in digital banking in the country in both volume and value
terms, handling over 38 per cent mobile banking transactions a month. The bank, quoting
the Reserve Bank data for December 2015, on
Monday said in December 2015, SBI accounted for 38.44 per cent of total mobile banking
transactions in terms of volume and 35.97 per
cent market share in terms of value. SBI leads
the mobile banking space with 151.83 lakh
transactions worth `17,636 crore in December
25327.45
Low
24988.27
Current value
25285.37
Previous close
24952.74
Change (Pts)
332.63
Change (%)
1.33
0.65
-0.2
9.15
0.55
2.7
0.06
0.21
0.01
1
3.6
37
37.4
4.75
1.1
-7.8
3.8
-3.2
0.75
2.45
2
3.25
-0.6
14.95
1.7
2.75
-0.5
0.9
-1.3
4.5
-0.2
8.4
45.8
6.75
7.2
28.55
-23.55
-0.8
5.7
4.95
-0.3
0.15
-0.25
-7.95
-0.05
0.3
0
40.55
-1.8
29.55
-1.25
2
1.2
7.65
6.8
3.75
-2.7
-34.35
67.75
-0.05
0.05
0
3.5
0.1
-15.55
0.4
1.9
1.8
7.1
58.5
1.4
0.55
0.1
1.4
14.15
-2.6
0.1
-0.07
2.78
0.66
6.98
0.83
2.46
0.22
1.41
0.3
9.14
3.13
0.74
0.39
-0.82
1.98
-1.16
0.62
1.18
0.5
0.49
-0.42
1.93
0.8
0.68
-1.32
0.89
-1.13
7.91
-0.23
1.44
1.4
1.46
2.74
2.38
-1.51
-3.89
0.47
2.1
-0.38
0.52
-0.13
-1.85
-0.14
0.12
0
1.12
-1.01
3.62
-0.33
0.3
3.35
3.47
0.42
1.5
-0.96
-7
0.2
-0.09
0.29
0
0.74
0.25
-1.98
0.49
0.2
2.53
0.47
1.13
3.23
0.83
0.45
0.29
1.28
-1.41
VITAL STATS
25007.56
High
620.1
291.9
337.8
83.3
41.4
7.33
8.75
4.63
71.7
1215.1
441.6
1233.6
644.65
283.15
942
195.95
273.4
121.05
210.5
405.35
661
142.6
788.6
213.8
405.5
37.5
102.45
113.9
61.4
85.95
590.45
3309.4
470.3
269.8
1227.8
1535.35
19.75
1227.9
241.2
78.8
29.1
195.25
421
36.1
247.5
49.6
3670.1
177
845.2
373.6
667.25
37
227.85
1621
253.65
280
456.45
34747.95
57.15
17.55
177.8
473.3
40
768
81.95
951.35
72.95
1532.8
5258.1
44.8
67
22.3
492.45
1123.9
182.1
Mumbai
Delhi
Kolkata
GOLD
28700
28200
28880
SILVER
37865
37865
37865
66.50
74.92
95.87
0.60
NMDC
NOVARTIND
NTPC
OBEROIRLTY
OCL
OFSS
OIL
OMAXE
ONGC
ORIENTBANK
ORIENTCEM
PAGEIND
PCJEWELLER
PEL
PERSISTENT
PETRONET
PFC
PFIZER
PFS
PGHH
PHOENIXLTD
PIDILITIND
PIIND
PNB
POLARIS
POWERGRID
PRAJIND
PRESTIGE
PRISMCEM
PTC
PUNJLLOYD
PURVA
PVR
RADICO
RAIN
RAJESHEXPO
RALLIS
RAMCOCEM
RAMCOSYS
RATNAMANI
RAYMOND
RCF
98.2
643.75
127.5
240.6
475
3481.85
317.2
141.2
217.05
92.65
152
11700
347.95
966.5
740.2
254.4
173.7
1665.9
36.5
6170
326.85
594.25
573.45
86.5
213.7
138.05
83.65
153.2
81.8
64.2
22.75
48.2
709.9
99.1
29.4
610.15
175
421.6
708.9
432
391.4
37.2
As against this, the closest rivals, who are
all private sector lenders, pale. ICICI Bank, the
second largest lender, had just about 70.01 lakh
transactions, followed by Axis Bank with
60.28 lakh and HDFC Bank with a low 39.13
lakh, in volume terms.
Commenting on the achievement, SBI
chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya said in
terms of mobile banking volume, the bank has
been consistently maintaining leadership position since April 2015.
0.1
-6
0.1
0.45
-0.8
36.2
4.65
0.45
2.5
1.6
6.45
34.65
10.85
8.95
70.45
6.85
3.9
37.7
0.3
-73.15
-7.05
1.05
10.95
2.15
-1.1
1.25
0.25
13.8
1.7
0.7
0.5
0.65
-0.15
2.6
0.6
9.25
0.5
24.7
-19.45
-2.6
4.6
1.1
0.1
-0.92
0.08
0.19
-0.17
1.05
1.49
0.32
1.17
1.76
4.43
0.3
3.22
0.93
10.52
2.77
2.3
2.32
0.83
-1.17
-2.11
0.18
1.95
2.55
-0.51
0.91
0.3
9.9
2.12
1.1
2.25
1.37
-0.02
2.69
2.08
1.54
0.29
6.22
-2.67
-0.6
1.19
3.05
SREINFRA
SRF
SRTRANSFIN
STAR
STRTECH
SUNASIAN
SUNDRMFAST
SUNPHARMA
SUNTECK
SUNTV
SUPREMEIND
SUVEN
SUZLON
SWANENERGY
SYMPHONY
SYNDIBANK
SYNGENE
TAKE
TATACHEM
TATACOFFEE
TATACOMM
TATAELXSI
TATAGLOBAL
TATAINVEST
TATAMOTORS
TATAMTRDVR
TATAPOWER
TATASPONGE
TATASTEEL
TCI
TCS
TECHM
TECHNO
TEXRAIL
THERMAX
THOMASCOOK
TIMKEN
TITAN
TNPL
TORNTPHARM
TORNTPOWER
TREEHOUSE
1.45
1.33
2.53
-0.46
2.67
-1.94
-0.31
2.42
-0.3
0.65
0.02
-0.94
0
-0.65
1.04
-0.38
-1.81
-1.98
0.15
0.39
0.51
1.76
0.63
-1.29
2.36
2.98
1.2
-0.79
0.3
2.75
0.68
-0.56
2.31
0.65
0.01
-0.34
4.91
1.24
3.65
2.63
1.48
1.52
Current (Chng %)
Current (Chng %)
MPHASIS
456.45 (7.00)
ASIANPAINT
VAKRANGEE
205.30 (4.38)
LUPIN
5.16 (4.27)
0.8
16.05
23
-4.7
2.15
-0.55
-0.45
19.75
-0.7
2.35
0.15
-1.85
0
-0.4
25.6
-0.25
-7.35
-2.85
0.55
0.35
1.85
33.75
0.75
-6.35
8.65
7.95
0.7
-3.75
0.9
7.6
16.4
-2.75
11.4
0.65
0.05
-0.65
20.2
4.2
7.6
34.5
3.6
1.15
NSE: LOSERS
BSE: LOSERS
ALOKTEXT
55.9
1224.65
931.25
1022.05
82.75
27.75
143.5
835.65
232
364.4
791.1
195.95
13.02
61.5
2481.75
65.9
398.05
141.2
362.3
90
365.85
1950.5
119.65
485.3
374.55
274.35
59.15
473.35
302.9
284.25
2443.65
490.3
505
100.8
772
189.3
431.65
341.9
215.65
1347.25
246.4
76.7
855.60 (2.26)
1,532.20 (1.43)
BHEL
111.90 (1.32)
DBCORP
307.25 (2.09)
COALINDIA
296.00 (0.59)
NAUKRI
768.00 (1.98)
GAIL
362.55 (0.49)
RCOM
RDEL
RECLTD
REDINGTON
RELAXO
RELCAPITAL
RELIANCE
RELIGARE
RELINFRA
RENUKA
REPCOHOME
RICOHQ
RKFORGE
ROLTA
RPOWER
RTNPOWER
SADBHAV
SAIL
SANOFI
SBBJ
SBIN
SBT
SCHNEIDER
SCI
SEINV
SEQUENT
SFCL
SHARDACROP
SHILPAMED
SHOPERSTOP
SHREECEM
SHRIRAMCIT
SIEMENS
SIMPLEXINF
SINTEX
SITICABLE
SJVN
SKFINDIA
SKSMICRO
SMLISUZU
SOBHA
SOLARINDS
SONATSOFTW
SOUTHBANK
SPARC
SPICEJET
52.15
66.05
170.25
114.85
383
373.45
1036.2
290
511.55
14.87
591.35
532.25
343.8
77.6
47
11.03
269.2
42.85
4166
501
196.65
389.8
154.35
66.5
179.8
165.2
116
227.25
420.55
360
12600
1525
1069.3
236.2
70.3
35
29.05
1224.95
534
765.4
271.55
3462.4
149.7
17.9
299.3
60.45
0.15
0.9
1.35
2.15
6
6.5
11
5.05
1.7
-0.04
7.5
-36.5
7.2
1.3
0.25
0.03
9.8
0
2.3
-0.65
5.6
4.25
10.7
0.55
3.65
1
8.85
5.85
7.3
6.4
267.55
6.25
16
10.4
0.6
-0.7
0.05
22.35
9.8
14.15
12.75
39.55
-2.55
0.2
5.95
3.9
0.29
1.38
0.8
1.91
1.59
1.77
1.07
1.77
0.33
-0.27
1.28
-6.42
2.14
1.7
0.53
0.27
3.78
0
0.06
-0.13
2.93
1.1
7.45
0.83
2.07
0.61
8.26
2.64
1.77
1.81
2.17
0.41
1.52
4.61
0.86
-1.96
0.17
1.86
1.87
1.88
4.93
1.16
-1.67
1.13
2.03
6.9
TRENT
TRIDENT
TRITURBINE
TTKPRESTIG
TTML
TUBEINVEST
TV18BRDCST
TVSMOTOR
TVSSRICHAK
TVTODAY
TWL
UBL
UCOBANK
UFLEX
ULTRACEMCO
UNICHEMLAB
UNIONBANK
UNITDSPR
UNITECH
UNITEDBNK
UPL
VAIBHAVGBL
VAKRANGEE
VEDL
VGUARD
VIDEOIND
VIJAYABANK
VINATIORGA
VIPIND
VOLTAS
VRLLOG
VSTIND
VTL
WABAG
WABCOINDIA
WELCORP
WELSPUNIND
WESTLIFE
WHIRLPOOL
WIPRO
WOCKPHARMA
WONDERLA
YAMNINV
YESBANK
ZEEL
ZENSARTECH
ZYDUSWELL
1509.8
50.45
100.25
4874
6.71
378
41
305.1
2460
296.25
97
813.75
38.05
157.1
3221.6
213.5
130.65
2616.95
5.14
19.4
445.7
350
205.3
94.05
849.9
107.8
31.4
398.6
98
274.7
383.05
1607
771
533.2
5875
97.5
97.5
199.8
686.95
557.35
947.75
356.2
23.15
831.55
390.9
857.95
705.5
10.9
-1
0.5
675.95
0.63
2.95
1.55
18.3
105.25
1.85
1.5
1.15
0.65
2.6
111.35
0.9
2.6
30.65
0.07
0.2
4.9
-2.15
-9.4
2.15
18.45
-1.35
0.75
-0.9
1.55
5.8
15.05
-20.95
5.55
24.65
440.35
-1.6
3.75
0.7
18.05
10.7
13.65
-2.7
0
17.35
-1.45
6.35
-0.05
0.73
-1.94
0.5
16.1
10.36
0.79
3.93
6.38
4.47
0.63
1.57
0.14
1.74
1.68
3.58
0.42
2.03
1.19
1.38
1.04
1.11
-0.61
-4.38
2.34
2.22
-1.24
2.45
-0.23
1.61
2.16
4.09
-1.29
0.73
4.85
8.1
-1.61
4
0.35
2.7
1.96
1.46
-0.75
0
2.13
-0.37
0.75
-0.01
world 13
Contested convention can’t be Aus PM threatens early election
...over Senate
ruled out: Republican Chairman deadlock
S RAJAGOPALAN n
WASHINGTON
mid the growing feeling
that Republican front-runner Donald Trump could fall
short of the requisite number
of delegates to clinch the presidential nomination, the party
leadership has for the first
time stated publicly that it is
preparing for the eventuality of
a “contested convention”.
“I think it’s possible and
we’re preparing for that possibility,” Republican National
A
Priebus believes nominee may
still be Trump, Cruz or Kasich
Committee Chairman Reince
Priebus said on Sunday, making it clear that a candidate will
have to get 1,237 delegates to
win the nomination outright,
failing which the party convention will select the nominee.
Even so, Priebus, in a qualified response, tended to discount the possibility that the
chosen nominee would be
someone other than the three
currently in the fray — Trump,
Senator Ted Cruz or Ohio
Governor John Kasich.
“I can’t 100 per cent guarantee that. But I can’t imagine
right now sitting here believing
it would be anyone but the
three remaining candidates,”
Priebus told ABC News against
the backdrop of speculation
AP
that the Republican convention
could nominate a senior party
figure who may have kept out
of the race. Trump, who is well
ahead of his other two rivals in
the delegate count, is clearly not
amused by what the Republican
bosses may have in store for him.
On Sunday, he stated pointedly
that it would be “very unfair” to
deny him the nomination if he
ends up on the top but a little
short of the majority.
“If I’m a little bit short —
and one of the reasons was we
had so many candidates. I
mean, we started off with 17
candidates,” Trump told the
same network in a separate
interview, adding, “There are so
many candidates, so it’s very
hard to get over that number.
It’s very unfair.”
Trump, with a tally of 678
delegates right now, needs about
560 more to reach the magic figure of 1,237. With only 900 or
so delegates still to be allocated
in the remaining primaries,
Trump will have to win around
60 per cent of the available delegates to reach his target.
It’s a far more daunting
proposition for Cruz, while
for Kasich, it’s a mathematical
impossibility. Even so, the
Republican leadership is clear
that the precise number must
be met, failing which the convention in Cleveland in July
will go through multi-balloting
by the delegates, if need be, to
decide the nomination.
Defending the process,
Priebus told CNN, “When
someone’s a little bit short,
you let the process play out.
And generally if it’s that close,
generally that’s what happens. But certainly what I
would say is that the minority of delegates doesn’t rule
for the majority.”
PTI n MELBOURNE
n a surprise move, Australian Prime
Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Monday
Ithreatened
to hold early general elections
in July if the Senate fails to end a deadlock
and pass two key labour bills aimed at
curbing union corruption. The Senate has
rejected bills put forward by the lower
house aiming to re-establish a construction industry watchdog and regulate
union management. Turnbull, 61, said he
had sought Governor-General Peter
Cosgrove to ask him to recall both houses of Parliament on April 18 to sit for three
weeks and pass key trade union laws,
declaring “the time for playing games is
over”. “If the Senate fails to pass these laws,
I will advise the Governor-General to dissolve both Houses of Parliament and
issue writs for an election,” Turnbull said,
setting the date for July 2 this year.
“The restoration of the ABCC
[Australian Building and Construction
Commission] is a critical economic reform.
The time for playing games is over,” he said.
The next election for the House of
Representatives must be held on or before
January 14 next year. Media reports said
that following the Prime Minister’s advice,
Cosgrove has used his constitutional powers to recall both houses of parliament next
week. The Senate would now meet to discuss a bill for restoring Australian Building
and Industry Commission and another
bill imposing tougher governance measures on trade unions that has been
rejected twice. “The go-slows and obstruction by Labor and the Greens on this key
legislation must end,” Turnbull said,
adding that he would be bringing the
budget forward a week.
He said the decision was taken last
night and the Cabinet were informed this
morning. “The time has come for the
Senate to recognise its responsibilities and
Nepal signs transit treaty with Investigators
China, to have first rail link have trouble
N Korea fires 5 short-range missiles into sea
Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, shakes hands with Nepal Prime Minister Khadga
Prasad Oli, left, inside the Great Hall of the People on Monday
AP
AFP n SEOUL
PTI n BEIJING
orth Korea on Monday
fired five short-range misN
siles into the sea off its east
coast - the latest in a series of
missile launches ordered by
leader Kim Jong-Un amid rising military tensions. The
launches came just days after
the North test-fired two medium-range missiles, in what the
UN Security Council described
as an “unacceptable” violation
of UN resolutions. Tensions
have been soaring on the divided Korean peninsula since the
North carried out its fourth
nuclear test on January 6, followed a month later by a longrange rocket launch that was
widely seen as a disguised ballistic missile test. The Security
Council responded earlier this
month by imposing its toughest sanctions on North Korea to
date. In recent weeks,
Pyongyang has maintained a
daily barrage of nuclear strike
threats against both Seoul and
Washington, ostensibly over
ongoing large-scale South
Korea-US military drills that
the North sees as provocative
rehearsals for invasion. An
official with South Korea’s Joint
Chiefs of Staff said the five
short-range missiles were
launched from near the eastern
city of Hamhung, beginning
just before 3:20pm (local time),
and landed in the East Sea (Sea
of Japan). He said analysts
were still gathering intelligence
on the precise missile type. The
North had fired two shortrange missiles into the East Sea
on March 10, using what state
media described as a new highcalibre multiple rocket launcher. Existing UN sanctions ban
North Korea from conducting
any ballistic missile test,
although short-range launches
tend to go unpunished. Last
Friday the North upped the
ante by test-firing two medium-range missiles, which were
seen as far more provocative
given the threat they pose to
neighbours like Japan. They
were the first medium-range
launches for two years and fol-
GLOBE
TROTTING
Gigi Hadid & Zayn Malik
snuggle together with Cat
New York: Gigi Hadid posted on her Instagram
page Sunday a
photo of herself and
boyfriend Zayn
Malik cuddling up
with an orange
tabby cat Sunday,
but their moment
appears to be bittersweet. In the caption, she wrote, we
love you always
chub," and includes
emojis of an angel
and a cat. The 20year-old model did
not elaborate or
respond to the
scores of fans who
speculated about
the pet and offered
their condolences. Malik retweeted her photo
and made no further comment about it. Hadid
also posted on her Twitter page a black and
white photo showing the cat and other one lying
on a bed. "Brothaas," she wrote. Gigi appeared
to be in good spirits the night before she posted her photo with Malik and the cat. She was
spotted smiling while exiting the West
Hollywood nightclub The Nice Guy with sister Bella Hadid, 19.The photo of Hadid with
Malik and the cat appears to have been taken
in February, after the 23-year-old former One
Direction singer dyed part of his black hair pink.
Malik, who has changed his hair several times
over the years, reverted back to his former look
later that month. On Sunday, he shared on his
Twitter page a new photo showing him sporting a shaved head.
Ellie Goulding open to
reuniting with Poynter?
London:“Love Me Like You Do” singer Ellie
Goulding is reportedly open to get back with
ex boyfriend Dougie Poynter. The “Starry Eyed”
hitmaker recently split from the McFly bassist,
just a few weeks after they got back together,
and though she wants
to be single and “get
her head sorted” for
the forseeable future,
friends admit the pair
could get back
together again eventually,
reported
Female First. “Ellie
hasn’t ruled out a
reunion with Dougie,
but for now she needs
some space to work
out what she wants.
Their relationship
became so toxic, it
was damaging for
both of them so she just wants to be single for
now and get her head sorted,” a source said.
Swift performs at Reese
Witherspoon’s b’day party
Los Angeles: Actress Reese Witherspoon celebrated her 40th
birthday
on
Saturday with a private performance by
Taylor Swift and a
duet with Keith
Urban. The “Legally
Blonde” star marked
the age milestone on
Tuesday, but her
family helped her
get into the party
spirit a little early by
throwing a big bash
in Hollywood this
weekend, with a
string of celebrity
friends in attendance. Guests at the event, held at the Warwick,
included Kate Hudson, Matthew Mc
Conaughey, Robert Downey, Jr, Courteney Cox,
Tobey Maguire, Jason Bateman, and Jennifer
Aniston and her husband Justin Theroux,
reported Hollywood Life. Nicole Kidman was
also spotted at the party, where her husband
Keith was part of the night’s entertainment,
alongside surprise performer Taylor.
lowed an order from Kim JongUn for his military to prepare
a series of missile launches as
well as an eventual nuclear warhead explosion test. In a meeting with senior aides earlier
Monday, S Korean President
Park Geun-Hye warned of a
“very crucial time” for the
Korean peninsula. “Even after
the international community
adopted strong sanctions,
North Korea continues to
attempt reckless provocations
as shown through Kim JongUn’s recent order,” Park said.
Government officials, meanwhile, said they were fully prepared for the possibility of
another North Korean underground nuclear test.
hina on agreed to Nepal
Prime Minister K P Oli’s
C
request to build a strategic
railway link between the two
countries through Tibet to
reduce land-locked Nepal’s
total dependence on India, as
the two sides cemented their
ties by signing 10 agreements
including a landmark transit
trade deal.
Oli, who arrived here yesterday on his maiden seven-day
visit to China, was given a red
carpet welcome by Premier Li
Keqiang at the Great Hall of the
People. He also called on
Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Oli’s high-profile visit
Israel marks Turkey
‘unsafe’ after 3 of
its citizens’ murder
PTI n JERUSALEM
has raised the alert
level on Turkey declaring
Ithesrael
country as “unsafe” for its
citizens after three Israelis
were killed and 11 others
wounded in a suicide bombing
in Istanbul.
The Prime Minister’s
Office in a statement said it has
decided to “upgrade existing
travel warning and recommend that the public avoid visiting Turkey”.
Amid a spate of attacks by
the ISIS groups and Kurdish
separatists, and especially
Saturday’s bombing, “it was
decided to update the existing
travel warning vis-a-vis Turkey
from an ongoing potential
threat to a basic concrete
threat,” the statement said.
Prime Minister Benjamin
help advance our economic plans, rather
than standing in the way,” he said. Under
the existing schedule, the House of
Representatives was set for an extended
break until May 10, when the budget was
due to be handed down.
Now both houses will be sent back to
Canberra on April 18 to deal with the
ABCC legislation and the Registered
Organisations bill. The ABCC bill seeks
to re-establish the ABCC, a watchdog
monitoring the actions of unions.
The Registered Organisations bill
seeks to hold unions to higher standards
of transparency and accountability. If the
bills are rejected by the Senate during the
three-week sitting period, Turnbull is
expected to call a rare double dissolution
election. The Industrial Relations (IR) laws
have been opposed by the Labor and the
Greens, stating the government should not
be singling out one industry and that the
building commission’s powers go well
beyond a court.
The government needs the support of
six of the eight crossbench senators to pass
the bills. Australia’s upper house (Senate)
can reject legislation proposed by its
lower house.
A double dissolution is a mechanism
designed to break deadlocks. The last time
it was used was in 1987. When a bill is
repeatedly blocked in the Senate the
prime minister can ask for both houses to
be dissolved, and an election to take place.
Netanyahu in his reaction said
Israel was at the front line of a
global war on terror, adding
that those who failed to condemn terrorist attacks were in
effect supporting them.
“There could be no justification for terrorism. Israel is at
the forefront of the fight against
international terrorism. This
fight is primarily military, but
no less than that, it is moral,”
the Israeli premier said at the
beginning of the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday.
“The key point of the moral
struggle against terrorism is
clear — terrorism, the murder
of innocent people, has no justification anywhere — not in
Istanbul, not in the Ivory Coast
and not in Jerusalem.
“Those who do not condemn terrorism support terrorism,” he emphasised.
China urges Indonesia to release
crew as sea row escalates
Jakarta: China called on Indonesia on Monday to release the crew
of a Chinese fishing boat detained during a maritime confrontation, as Jakarta lodged a furious protest in the escalating
row. The incident happened Saturday as Indonesian surveillance
vessels tried to detain the trawler suspected of operating illegally near Indonesian islands in the South China Sea. After stopping the boat and removing eight crew members, the Indonesians
were towing the vessel to shore when the Chinese coastguard
appeared and rammed into the detained boat, helping to release
it. However, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua
Chunying insisted today that the area near Indonesia’s Natuna
Islands was a “traditional Chinese fishing ground”, and that the
Chinese boat had to be rescued by coastguards after facing harassment from an Indonesian vessel.
AFP
comes as Nepal seeks to open
more supply routes from China
amid fears of a repeat of recent
nearly six-month long crippling
blockade when the Indianorigin Madhesis blocked
Nepal’s trade-routes with India,
throwing normal life out of
gear. During the talks, the two
Prime Ministers made a comprehensive review of bilateral
relations and expressed satisfaction over steadily growing
relations between the two
countries.
“The two sides exchanged
substantive views on further
strengthening and consolidating mutual trust and understanding as well as promoting
mutually beneficial coopera-
tion in various fields,” according to a press release issued by
Nepalese Foreign Ministry.
Trade diversification, cross border connectivity and infrastructure development, cooperation on energy, tourism,
finance, education and culture
were among the matters that
figured prominently during
the talks, it said.
During his talks with Li,
Oli mooted extension of
China’s strategic railway link
with Tibet further to Nepal.
Briefing the media after Li-Oli
talks, Hou Yanqi, deputy head
of the Chinese Foreign
Ministry, said: “Nepal Prime
Minister wanted to explore
two rail lines.” Hou said the
government would encourage
Chinese firms to look at the
internal rail plan and that
China was already planning to
extend the railway from the
Tibetan city of Shigatse to
Gyirong on the Nepal border.
“Of course, a further extension
from Gyirong is an even longterm plan. It’s up to geographic and technical conditions,
financing ability. We believe
that far in the future the two
countries will be connected by
rail,” she said.
The two countries sealed
10 agreements including the
much- publicised transit trade
treaty which will end Nepal’s
total dependency on Indian sea
ports for third-country trade.
with crashed
plane’s data
Moscow: Russian investigators said they can not immediately read data from the
flight recorders of a Dubai
plane that crashed in southern
Russia last week, killing all 62
on board. Sergei Zaiko, deputy
chairman of the Inter-State
Aviation Committee which
investigates the crash, told
Russian television on Monday
that the black boxes have been
damaged to the point that the
experts could not immediately read the data. He said, however, that they have copied
data from the data recorder and
have yet to do that for the voice
recorder. Once it’s done, the
experts will see if they can
extract the data, he said. Fly
Dubai’s Boeing 737-800 nosedived and exploded in a giant
fireball before dawn on
Saturday on the runway of
Rostov-on-Don after trying to
land for a second time in
strong winds.
AP
US mom burns daughter in oven
PTI n HOUSTON
n a shocking incident, a
mother in the US state of
ITexas
put her 2-year-old
daughter in an oven causing
severe burns to the child. Police
responded to a report of a child
who had been burned inside a
home in Glen Rose, Texas,
and arrested Tasha Shontell
Hatcher after witnesses told
deputies that she put her twoyear-old child in an oven.
Hatcher, 35, was charged with
injury to a child with serious
bodily injury - a first-degree
felony - and arraigned over the
March 17 incident with a bond
set at USD 300,000, according
to the Glen Rose Reporter.
Witnesses reported she had
Tasha Shontell Hatcher
placed her child in the family’s
oven. Somer vell County
Sheriff ’s Department confirmed that the child was taken
by ambulance to Texas Health
Harris Methodist Hospital in
Fort Worth and then transported via air ambulance to
Parkland Burn Center in
Dallas. Officials said the child
has since been taken from the
family’s custody and is being
treated for second and third
degree burns. A former coworker of Hatcher’s said the
child is believed to be in stable
condition.
The incident comes after
another shocking incident in
the US state of Ohio in which
a four-year-old boy died after
his stepmother allegedly put his
legs in scalding hot water as
punishment. Anna Ritchie, 25,
put her stepson Austin Derreck
Cooper’s legs in very hot water
in a bathtub before sending
him to bed at their home in
Franklin, Ohio. Ritchie was
charged with child endangering.
Vitamin B3 supplements may delay ageing
PTI n LONDON
se of nutritional supplements for Vitamins B and
U
its derivatives may serve as
potential tools for delaying the
ageing process in humans and
age-related diseases such as
diabetes, a new study suggests.
Scientists from the Spanish
National Cancer Research
Centre (CNIO), University of
Valencia, and IMDEA Food
from Madrid, tried to increase
the global antioxidant capacity of the cells, rather than just
one or a few antioxidant
enzymes.
To achieve this, researchers
have focused on increasing the
levels of NADPH, a simple
molecule that is important in
antioxidant reactions. The
researchers used a genetic
approach to increase NADPH
levels. They generated transgenic mice with an increased
glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) expression in
their bodies, one of the important enzymes for production of
NADPH. The results show that
an increase in G6PD and therefore in NADPH, increases the
natural antioxidant defences of
the organism, protecting it
from oxidative damage, reducing ageing-related processes,
such as insulin resistance, and
increasing longevity. When
researchers analysed long-lived
transgenic animals, they found
that their levels of oxidative
damage were lower than in
non-transgenic animals of the
same age. They also studied the
propensity of these animals to
develop cancer and found no
difference, suggesting that
enhancing G6PD activity does
not have an important effect on
the development of cancer.
When researchers measured
the ageing process in the transgenic mice, they found that the
animals with a high G6PD
expression and high levels of
NADPH, delayed their ageing,
metabolised sugar better and
presented better movement
coordination as they aged. In
addition, transgenic females
lived 14 per cent longer than
non-transgenic mice, while no
significant effect on the
longevity of males was
observed.
14
[
[
BEFORE THE WORLD CUP, WE KNEW WHAT
WE ARE CAPABLE OF. WE KNOW THE
STRENGTH OF OUR TEAM. WE ALWAYS BACK
OURSELVES TO WIN THE WORLD CUP. IT WAS
GOOD TO SEE TWO WINS UNDER OUR BELT.
SO, ONCE WE GET TO THE SEMIFINAL WE
TAKE IT FROM THERE INTO THE FINAL
Economy Rate for West Indies'
spinners in game against Sri
Lanka, their best in a T20I in
which they've bowled at
least five overs
— 3.12
—Andre Fletcher, WI player
After team’s win against SL
D D C A F I A S C O
Fate of World T20 semi-final at Ferozshah Kotla uncertain
DATELINE NEW DELHI
PNS
he fate of the upcoming World
T20 semi-final match at
T
Ferozshah Kotla stadium is uncertain
as Delhi and District Cricket
Association (DDCA) on Monday
failed to get any relief from Delhi
High Court over lack of completion
certificate for its old club house there.
The petition by the cricketing
body seeking a direction to South
Delhi Municipal Corporation
(SDMC) to issue the certificate for
the R P Mehra block came up for
hearing before Justice A K Pathak,
who referred the plea to a division
bench observing that DDCA's issues
are pending before it.
At the outset, the bench said, "I
cannot allow you (DDCA) to hold
matches at this stage until you get the
completion certificate." The semifinal match is slated on March 30.
Senior advocates Sandeep Sethi
and Rajiv Nayar, appearing for
DDCA, said the R P Mehra block is
there since 1996 and the occupancy
certificate has already been issued.
Sethi said the concern was
Justice (Retd) Mukul Mudgal's view
regarding this block due to which
the International Cricket Council
(ICC) is seeking clarification from
the DDCA.
"Event by event, the court has
directed SDMC to grant us the certificate. SDMC is not objecting to
the structure (R P Mehra block).
This matter deserves clarification
from the court. We are aggrieved by
Justice Mudgal's letter (to BCCI).
The T20 world cup is yet to complete. A semi-final match is in
Delhi," he told the court.
Sethi further said "it is not the
SDMC which is bothering us. It is
Justice Mudgal's view which is the
problem. ICC is seeking clarifications on this from us."
To this, the bench said, "Your R
P Mehra block is not as per the sanc-
Delhi District
Cricket
Association on
Monday failed to
get any relief
from Delhi High
Court over lack
of completion
certificate for
its old
club house
tioned construction plan."
Justice Mudgal, who has been
appointed by the high court to oversee the functioning of DDCA, has
asked the cricketing body not to sell
tickets for R P Mehra block, having
a capacity of around 2,000, and that
it be used only for the broadcasters
and the media.
Sethi referred to the National
Capital Territory of Delhi Laws
(special provisions) Second Act
2011 and said that the R P Mehra
block cannot be held illegal or
unauthorised since the act provides
for regularisation of the structure.
DDCA's petition is likely to
come up for hearing tomorrow
before a division bench headed by
Justice S Muralidhar.
During the hearing, the court
referred to a March 8 order passed
by division bench before which
SDMC had said occupancy certificate
was for the entire stadium barring R
P Mehra block, which falls within
100 metre of a protected monument
and lacks clearance from
Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).
The division bench had said the
issue of R P Mehra block was for the
DDCA and SDMC to sort it out.
During the hearing, Delhi government senior standing counsel
Rahul Mehra told the court that
DDCA was aware of this fact when
F U L L T I M E
INDIAFILE
‘We are hard side to beat’
AUSTRALIA SCRAPE THROUGH
ndia's premier off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin on
IMonday said that "under favourable conditions", the
hosts are "hard side to beat" in the ongoing WT20.
"I think, we are a very good team. On our day
and under conditions favourable for us, we are
going to be a pretty hard side to beat," Ashwin told
bcci.Tv. But as exception proves the rule, it can
happen with Men In Blue too. "There will be exceptions. We lost
a recent game in Pune against Sri Lanka and another one in
Nagpur against New Zealand. On both occasions, opposition
read the game better than us," said Ashwin.
Middle-order Mahmudullah’s smashing 49 takes Bangladesh to 156/5
DATELINE BENGALURU
PTI
n-from opening batsman Usman
Khawaja struck an impressive half
Icentury
as Australia overcame a
mighty scare due to a middle-order
batting collapse to eventually beat
Bangladesh by three wickets and
bounce back in their World Twenty20
campaign here today.
Australia, who needed to win
today to remain in contention after
losing to New Zealand in their lung
opener, were cruising along nicely
before suffering a batting collapse and
they had to scamper at the end to
chase down the target of 157 with
nine balls to spare at the M
Chinnaswamy Stadium.
With the win on Monday,
Australia collected two points to
remain in contention for a semifinal
berth while a winless Bangladesh
found themselves on the brink of
elimination. Australia were well placed
at 95 for one in the 12th over when
captain Steven Smith (14) was bowled
by a fine delivery from Mustafizur
Rahman and that opened the floodgates and gave a chance for
Bangladesh to come back into the
match. From there, they lost six wickets in 6.3 overs for the addition of 57
runs as Australia put themselves in
trouble from a seemingly comfortable
position. Their brisk rate of scoring
before the batting collapse saved
them from a possible defeat as they
huffed and puffed to their first win of
the tournament.
Khawaja was out two overs after
Smith’s departure as he was bowled by
Al-Amin Hossain after making a fine
58 which came from 45 balls and studded with seven fours and one six.
David Warner (17) hit
Mahmudullah for a four and a six in
consecutive deliveries in the 13th over
but gave away his wicket in the 15th
over, caught and bowled by Shakib Al
Hasan. Mitchell Marsh (6) followed
I’m focussed on situation: Yuvi
is small knock of 24 against Pakistan was
worth its weight in gold and Yuvraj Singh
H
said that his "focus was on right things" like
batting according to the demands of the situation rather than get overwhelmed by the
vociferous capacity crowd at the Eden
Gardens.
"I wanted to bat according to the situation no matter
how big the occasion was. It was important to focus on right
things. I just wanted to watch the ball and rotate the strike
and I was able to do that. Unfortunately, I could not finish the game. Virat is in sublime form and Dhoni came and
finished the game," Yuvraj told bcci.Tv.
‘99% sure India will win WT20’
ormer opener Virender Sehwag feels India remain
overwhelming favourites to win the World Twenty20
F
title and showered praise on Virat Kohli, saying that even
his kids can't move away from the TV set when the batting star is at the crease.
"I had picked India, New Zealand, South Africa and
West Indies before the start of the tournament. I still feel
that way, with India winning the title 99 percent. Okay,
they lost to New Zealand in Nagpur but the same thing
happened in 2011 (when India lost to South Africa in
Nagpur) and we went on to the win the World Cup,"
Sehwag told 'NDTV'.
India's next match is against Bangladesh on March
23 and Sehwag sees the hosts winning it comfortably.
SMASHING: Mahmudullah pauses after playing a shot during their match against Australia in Bangalore, on Monday
suit in the next over but Glenn
Maxwell (26) was hitting a couple of
fours and sixes as Australia kept on
losing wickets while also scoring at a
brisk pace.
Despite losing Maxwell and John
Hastings (3) in the 18th over, Australia
needed five runs from the final two
overs with three wickets in hand and
James Faulkner (5 not out) eventual-
ly hit the winning runs as Australia
reached 157 for 7 in 18.3 overs.
For Bangladesh, who dropped two
catches during the Australian run
chase, Shakib Al Hasan grabbed three
wickets for 27 runs while Mustafizur
Rahman took two four 30 runs.
Earlier, middle-order batsman
Mahmudullah top-scored with an
impressive 49 not out off 29 balls as
Vijender's bout
PTI ■ LONDON
PTI ■ NEW DELHI
ndian boxing star Vijender
Singh's next bout was on Monday
postponed from April 2 to April 30
due to technical reasons.
The fight will now be held at
the Copper Box Arena instead of
the Harrow Leisure Centre here.
"It had been announced that
Singh would feature on April 2
show at the Harrow Leisure
Centre in London, but following
a reschedule he has been moved,
instead, onto the undercard of
Billy Joe Saunders' WBO World
Middleweight title defence against
Max Bursak,"
Vijender, who took his record
to 4-0 in Liverpool earlier this
month with a blistering fourth
round stoppage of Alexander
Horvath, will fight in a fourround contest against an opponent
to be announced later.
The star will then fight on
Friday May 13 at the Premier Suite
in the Macron Stadium, Bolton, on
the undercard of his stablemate Jack
Catterall who will defend his WBO
Intercontinental Super-Lightweight
title against Joe Hughes.
The next month, the 30-yearold is scheduled to make his
highly-anticipated homecoming
in India where he will fight for the
WBO Asia title.
alismanic midfielder Sardar Singh will lead
an experimental 18-member India hockey
team, which will be without as many as seven
players including senior goalkeeper and vicecaptain PR Sreejesh, in the 25th Sultan Azlan
Shah Cup to be held in Ipoh, Malaysia next
month.
The move to leave out seven players from
the Hockey World League Final squad was taken
keeping in mind the Olympics as Hockey India
selectors wanted to give phase-wise rest to all
the senior players, who are expected to form the
core of the Rio-bound team.
Apart from Sreejesh, the most notable omission from the Azlan Shah-bound squad are
striker Akashdeep Singh, midfielder Dharamvir
Singh, drag-flicker VR Raghunath and ace
defender Birendra Lakra. Devinder Walmiki
and Lalit Upadahyay were the other two players who were not picked.
Sreejesh's place in the team was taken by
young Akash Anil Chikte while SK Uthappa and
strikers Mandeep Singh and Nikkin Thimmaiah
also made their comebacks.
Live-wire forward SV Sunil has been
appointed Sardar's deputy for the Azlan Shah
Cup to be held from April 6 to 16.
When contacted Hockey India selection
committee chairman BP Govinda clarified
that the changes were made to manage fatigue
and give players rest ahead of Rio Olympics.
In Sreejesh's absence, Harjot Singh will be
the senior goalkeeper and the tournament will
give him much-needed exposure.
I
PTI
Bangladesh shook off a wobbly start
to post a decent 156 for four after
being put to bat.
Bangladesh made a poor start as
they were reduced to 26 for 2 in the
sixth over but a fine contribution from
Shakib Al Hasan (33 off 25 balls) and
a late flurry from Mahmudullah took
them to a fighting total in their crucial match.
Sardar to lead
squad in Ipoh
postponed to April 30
OTHERSPORT
the matter was heard by the division
bench and this issue should have
been raised there.
"They (DDCA) are now hunting.
All these things were known to them
when the matter was pending before
the division bench. This is unfair.
They should have filed this petition
before the division bench," he said.
To this, Sethi said the division
bench has nowhere said that the R
P Mehra block is unauthorised.
"Justice Mudgal is harbouring a
view that there is an ambiguity on
the use of R P Mehra block," he said.
However, counsel appearing for
SDMC said the matter should be
referred to the division bench.
Bangladesh batsmen struggled
for most part of their innings and they
shook off the shackles only in the last
five overs with Mahmudullah taking
charge. They added 52 runs from the
final five overs — scoring 15 and 17
runs in the 18th and 19th overs — to
cross the 150 mark after they were
placed at 104 for 4 at the end of the
15th over.
Indian boxers head
to China for Oly qualifiers
T
Vijender Singh
PTI
"I'm thrilled to be fighting on
the same card as the WBO World
Middleweight Champion Billy
Joe Saunders on Saturday 30th
April at the Copper Box Arena.
Saunders is in the position that I
want to be in one day, the middleweight champion of the world,"
Vijender said.
"Then I can look forward to my
next date on Friday 13th May in
Bolton, where my good friend and
gym-mate Jack Catterall is headlining, which will be another great
night. So it's a busy few months
ahead and then of course I will be
making my big homecoming in
India which will be absolutely
amazing and I can't wait," he added.
KNOCK THEM DEAD: Mary Kom
PTI ■ NEW DELHI
etermined to keep the
Olympic dream alive
D
despite the long-standing
administrative mess, a spirited
Indian boxing team, featuring
the likes of M C Mary Kom and
Shiva Thapa, will take off on
Monday night for the Asian
Qualifiers.
Ten men and three women
form the 13-strong team which
will be in action from March 25.
In the men's competition, only
the top three boxers in each
weight category will make the
Olympic cut with the third spot
decided via a box-off between
the two bronze-medallists.
None of the Indian boxers
have so far qualified for the
Olympics. During last year's
World Championships, Shiva
(56kg) won a rare bronze medal
for the country but could not
seal an Olympic ticket owing to
his loss in the quota box-off.
It is not going to be any easier at the continental qualifiers
either. "If you start thinking
about the difficulties, you only
make it tough for yourself. So
it's better to focus on what one
actually can do. We have
trained hard just the way we do
before any big event and hopefully, we shall deliver," said
Shiva, who recently won a gold
medal at the South Asian
Games in Guwahati.
The men's team also
includes Commonwealth
Games silver-medallists L
Devendro Singh (49kg) and
Mandeep Jangra (69kg), Asian
silver-medallist Vikas Krishan
(75kg) and former Asian
medallist Manoj Kumar (64kg)
among others.
In the women's squad, fivetime world champion and
Olympic bronze-medallist
Mary Kom (51kg) is joined by
former Asian champion L
Sarita Devi (60kg) and Asian
Games bronze-medallist Pooja
Rani (75kg).
F A I R S H A R E
Do or die for
Indian eves
DATELINE DHARAMSALA
PTI
nlucky to have lost the
previous tie against
U
Pakistan by just two runs via
D/L method, the Indian
women's cricket team will be
fighting a survival battle when
it takes on a strong England
side at the ICC World
Twenty20 here on Tuesday.
A defeat on Tuesday
would virtually throw the
home team out of the competition and the Mithali Raj-led
side would hope to put their
best foot forward against the
English eves.
Unlike the previous edition, where India women
were ousted in the group
stages, they are a strong contender this time around,
courtesy their recent good
showing in the T20 format,
including a historic 2-1 away
series win over mighty
Australia in January followed
by the 3-0 whitewash of Sri
Lanka in the run up to the
ongoing World T20.
In their last match also,
India could have won the tie
had rains not played spoilsport on Saturday.
NZ eves prevail
over Australian
DATELINE NAGPUR
PTI
ew Zealand continued
their unbeaten run at
N
the Women's WT20 cricket
tournament by coasting to a
convinving six-wicket win
over Australia to register their
third consecutive win in
Group A, here on Monday.
Electing to bat after winning the toss, Australia
Women could only muster
103 for eight, a paltry target
which New Zealand Women
overwhelmed with ease in
16.2 overs for the loss of just
four wickets.
Australia Women witnessed a horrendous start to
their innings as Kiwi off-spinner Leigh Kasperek ran
through the top-order to
reduce their opponents to 4 for
4 in 4 overs. Kasperek's impressive figures of 4-0-13-3
includes two wickets in consecutive balls of the second over.
15
It will be the 15th T20 match
between the two teams and fifth
T20 WC. Pakistan have won eight
and lost six in 14 previous
matches. They have won three
and lost just one in four matches
played in T20 WC
[
[
AS FOR BOWLING AT THE END, I THINK
WHEN YOU ARE ABLE TO SPIN THE BALL AS
MUCH AS HE HAS ON THE SURFACES WE
HAD, TRYING TO HIT THAT IS PARTICULARLY
DIFFICULT. SO, WE ALWAYS FELT HE IS A
GOOD OPTION AT THE BACK END
— MIKE HESSON, New Zealand coach
On Ish Sodhi bowling at depth
T O D A Y I N A C T I O N
New Zealand vs Pakistan | MOHALI Live Star Sports 7:30 pm
ALL SET FOR CRACKLING CONTEST
Pakistan face confident New Zealand in crucial Super 10 encounter today
DATELINE MOHALI
KARTHIK RAMAN
ew Zealand and Pakistan face contrasting fortunes when they meet
each other here in a crucial Super
10 encounter here today.
For Pakistan it is a must-win after losing their last game against tournament
hosts India, while New Zealand can afford
to slip up after sitting atop of the Group 2.
However, the Kiwis will look to seal the
last-4 birth today with a win over Pakistan,
thereby allowing the benched players a
chance to enter the field in their final Super
10 clash against Bangladesh.
New Zealand have certainly lived up to
the dark horses tag so far in the tournament
with two massive upsets, beating India in
the opener and following it up with a crucial win against their arch-rivals Australia
in the second match.
The win against India was even more
impressive for the island nation. After being
touted as the clear underdogs against the
Men in Blue, New Zealand produced one
of the biggest shock.
They were not able to put up a challenging total and and were restricted only
for 126 runs. But, Black Caps bowled brilliantly, aided by their spin trio of Mitchell
Santner, Ish Sodhi and Nathan McCullum,
humbled India to a mere 79 runs.
They followed it up against their fierce
rival Australia in the next match. After
putting on 142 runs, New Zealand bowlers
yet again provided the rescue act by
restricting Aussies to a mere 134 runs to
clinch a 8-run victory.
On the other hand, Pakistan find
themselves in a spot of bother. The Asian
side may not be just yet be ousted from the
tournament if they lose to New Zealand.
However, the possibility of them qualifying will become very difficult as Pakistan
will have to heavily depend on other
team's results.
Pakistan started the World T20 in style
but brushing aside Bangladesh in their
opener with a 55-run win. Both their batting and bowling clicked in that specific
encounter.
However, they couldn't build on that
incredible start as yet again they fell short
to their old foes India in a World Cup. As
a result of which Pakistan's net run rate
took a big hit. They still remain in second
position, but a loss against New Zealand,
followed by a win either for India or
N
PITCH
REPORT
Mohali pitches
are traditionally suited for pace bowlers
and Tuesday's wicket
very well might be no
different. With grasses spread over the
pitch, the pacers are
expected to have the
main say on Tuesday.
So both teams might
go into the match
with atleast three fast
bowlers in their
ranks.
FOR PAKISTAN THE PACE
ATTACK HAS BEEN THE
BIGGEST STRENGTH AND
THAT DEPARTMENT HAS
FIRED REALLY WELL. WITH
THE LIKES OF MOHAMMAD
AMIR AND MOHAMMAD
SAMI, THEY ARE DIFFICULT
TO SCORE RUNS FROM.
HOWEVER, THE
INCONSISTENT BATTING
HAS BEEN THE MAIN
PROBLEM FOR
PAKISTANI TEAM
CAUGHT IT: Pakistan players during their training session before team’s match against New Zealand at Mohali, on Monday
Australia in the next match, both
these sides could well pip Pakistan
for the coveted second position.
For Pakistan the pace attack
has been the biggest strength and
that department has fired really
well so far. With the likes of
Mohammad
Amir
and
Mohammad Sami, they are difficult
to score runs from.
However, the inconsistent batting has been the main problem for
Pakistani team.
After a good display with the
bat against Bangladesh, the old
problems returned for them.
‘Pitch not in favour of Pak’
DATELINE MOHALI
KARTHIK RAMAN
ith not even a ball being bowled, the conditions in Mohali has already started to
ignite a difference of opinion between the
Pakistan and New Zealand team.
The state of argument has gone beyond
the obvious analysis of whether the pitch is
a bowler friendly wicket or a batsman
favouring one, as the main question hanging over everyone's head is which country
does it favour?
Kiwis coach Mike Hesson believes the conditions in Mohali are very similar to that they
have in New Zealand. However, Afridi rejected it outright.
When asked about New Zealand
coach's opinion, Afridi said,
"From my experience here,
its always been a good
pitch. The pitch is covered
now, and we have time till
tomorrow. To say that it's
in New Zealand's favour, I
don't agree. The pitch will
be same for both the teams
and more important is how
we play on it."
Prior to Afridi, Hesson
said playing Pakistan many
times recently will help them,
particularly in a conditions which
is similar to that of New Zealand.
"It helps both sides because we
know each other pretty well.
Obviously we played those games
in New Zealand conditions. Mohali
is probably more like New Zealand
conditions than perhaps Nagpur and
Dharamsala," he added.
Afridi may not have agreed with
his counterpart coach's view, but he still
had nice things to say about them.
"They are playing really well in this
format. Their win against India on a
good spin track was amazing. The team
is well balanced and have good spinners," Afridi explained during a prematch press conference.
'Boom Boom' Afridi is also not
ready to say much about Tuesday's
crunch game against the Black Caps
as he is looking to do all the talking in
the field.
"There is a time to talk and there is a time
W
to act. Now is the team to act on what has been
spoken. We spoke over two days and planned,
and tomorrow is action time," he said.
Afridi is also looking too deep into the criticism which he or his teammates receive. "Even
before the tournament started, people had written us off. But, I have stayed away from Twitter
and Facebook.
I have just kept me on one side because I
know how people are reacting back home.
Whatever happens there is a thing for the
future, but right now all we can do is perform
well," he explained.
Pakistan skipper added that the reason
behind India's defeat was because of too many
mistakes his team had committed.
"The team that wins, wins because it makes
lesser mistake than the other side. We made
more mistakes, we did not read the pitch right
and also lost the toss.
If we had won the toss, we would have also
bowled first because the conditions were overcast and the pitch was covered for most part
of the day," he explained.
He undoubtedly had good things
to say on Kohli's knock. "I won't give
any excuse, but Virat Kohli was the
biggest difference. In the Asia Cup
too, he had singlehandedly won the
match.
In the last match India
played well and won, but that's
history now. For me, tomorrow's match is the most important and the team's focus is on
that," he said.
Earlier, Mike also reckoned it will be tough to play
against an 'unpredictable'
Pakistan side.
"They are unpredictable, but very skillful. They have got a lot
of pace of left-arm variety and with Irfan they
have a difference in
terms of bounce. Their
bowling attack in particular is very challenging. As a batting unit,
they are relatively predictable in the way they
play and that gives us
more opportunity with
the ball," he signed off.
Against India, they struggled to
score runs and managed a mere 118
runs in 18 overs.
If Pakistan are going to
reignite their chances in this tournament, they have to start clicking in both the departments. The
likes of Mohammad Hafeez,
Shehzad Ahmed, Shoaib Malik,
Umar Akmal and Shahid Afridi,
who scored an incredible 19-ball
49 runs, have to step up.
Having said that New
Zealand's batting has neither lived
up to the level. Having struggled
for runs in both the matches so
far, the Kiwis will hope for the
power hitters, Martin Guptill,
Ross Taylor and Kane Williamson
will finally start scoring the runs
that is expected from them.
Nonetheless, this will be a game,
in which bowlers are expected to
dominate all the headlines.
If the pitch in Mohali is similar
to the one that was present in
Nagpur and Mumbai, then New
Zealand are likely to go with three
spinners.
Although New Zealand's coach
Mike Hesson is yet to finalise the
play eleven. The coach said based on
P R I C E
P A I D
HE IS CAPTAIN
TILL THE WORLD
CUP UNDER THIS
UNDERSTANDING
AND HE HAS
SAID HE WILL
RETIRE AFTER
THE EVENT. EVEN
IF HE CHANGES
HIS MIND AND
WANTS TO
CARRY ON WE
WILL HAVE TO
SEE WHETHER HE
CAN BE PICKED
AS A PLAYER
OR NOT
— PCB CHIEF
ON SACKING
SHAHID AFRIDI
AS T20 CAPTAIN
WE ARE LOOKING
AT IT. WAQAR
(YOUNIS)'S
CONTRACT. I
DISCUSSED THE
MATTER WITH
SENIOR PLAYERS
AND THEY SAID
WHETHER WE
APPOINT A
FOREIGNER OR
HAVE A LOCAL
COACH HE
SHOULD BE ABLE
TO PRODUCE
BEST RESULTS
FROM THE TEAM
— PCB CHIEF
ON WAQAR’S JOB
PTI
the conditions and the opposition,
a decision will be made only on
Tuesday.
For Pakistan, irrespective of
pitch, pacers such as Amir, Sami and
Wahab Riaz are expected to start. If
it is a spinning track, the onus will
lie mainly on Afridi and part-time
spinner Malik to do well. Whereas
for New Zealand, the likes of Tim
Southee, Mitchell McClenaghan,
Trent Boult and Corey Anderson
will be the ones to watch out for.
SQUAD
New Zealand: Kane Williamson
(capt), Martin Guptill, Henry
Nicholls, Luke Ronchi, Ross
Taylor, Colin Munro, Mitchell
Santer, Nathan McCullum, Grant
Elliott, Mitchell McClenaghan,
Tim Southee, Trent Boult, Adam
Milne, Ish S odhi, C orey
Anderson.
Pakistan: Shahid Afridi (capt),
Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib
Malik, Mohammad Irfan, Sharjeel
Khan, Wahab Riaz, Mohammad
Nawaz, Mohammad Sami, Khalid
Latif, Mohammad Amir, Umar
Akmal, Sarfraz Ahmed (wk),
Imad Wasim, Anwar Ali,
Khurram Manzo.
F I R E P O W E R
For who bowlers will do trick?
Bowlers will be in spotlight in this crucial match
DATELINE MOHALI
KARTHIK RAMAN
Tuesday's encounter between
Zealand and Pakistan variIousnNewinternal
battles are expected to
be witnessed, but the one intriguing
clash will be the pace attack of
Pakistan team against the spin of the
New Zealand side.
The Green Shirts pace attack is
a well-known one, as from the days
of Imran Khan, Wasim Akram,
followed by Shoaib Akhtar and the
present crop of pacers such as
Mohammad Sami and Mohammad
Amir, Pakistan have always used
pace as their mainstay to threaten
the opposite numbers.
However, the surprising factor
has been the Black Caps resurgent
spin attack. Following Daniel
Vettori's retirement in 2015, the
Kiwis foothold in the spin department was set to be lost.
However, the present New
Zealand team has shocked everyone
with their impressive performances
so far in this World T20.
Mitchell Santner is undoubted-
LET’S SEE: Mitchell Santner of New Zealand (left) and Pakistan’s Mohammad Amir
ly their main weapon in that department, producing impressive performances so far in the tournament.
After his mind blowing 4/11
against India in the opener, he followed it up with another noteworthy contribution against arch-rivals
Australia in the next match to pick
up two wickets for 30 runs.
Overall, he has 13 wickets from six
games in 2016, which includes both
T20Is and ODIs.
Ish Sodhi is another who has
helped the Kiwis fly high in that
department.
Following his 3/18 against India,
he was impressive against Australia
with 1/14. Not to mention he has 2
more wickets to his name against Sri
Lanka in the warm-up.
Despite being a surprise inclu-
PTI
sion in the World T20 squad,
Nathan McCullum has also helped
the team massively in that department.
He picked up two against India
in the opener and was very economical by giving just 15 runs. He
managed two more against England
in the warm-up game.
When Pakistan's pace is taken
into account, one doesn't have to see
beyond Amir.
After his spectacular spell
against India in the Asia Cup, when
he picked 3 wickets in the space of
3 runs, the left-arm pacer has lived
up to the level with consistent performances.
The 23-year-old has three wickets to his name so far in World T20.
He may not have hit the heights he
reached in Asia Cup, when he managed seven wickets from just three
games. But, Kiwi batsmen will be
very much aware of him and know
that if he starts to hit the blocks, then
it will be difficult to play against him.
Amir is well supported by
Mohammad Sami and Wahab
Riaz. Sami may not have lived up
to level he raised when he first
burst into the scene. However, he
has been quite effective.
He was quite effective against
India with a 2/17. He scalped
three more in the Asia Cup. But
on his day Sami can be as deadly as any pace bowler.
Riaz is another who has
become a mainstay against in the
Pakistan line-up. He was quite
economical by giving only 16
runs and also got the prized
wicket of Yuvraj in the match,
although by time the damage
was already done as the Men in
Green eventually lost to India.
However, it is not quite sure
who the pitch will favour, but if
both New Zealand's spin and
Pakistan's pace does live up to the
potential, then Tuesday's match
might be in for a thriller.
N E T L O G
Amir rested
DATELINE MOHALI
KARTHIK RAMAN
owling sensation Mohammad Amir
was rested as he did not take part in
B
the team nets session here on the eve of
Paksitan's match between New Zealand.
The 23-year-old, who has struck
fear into opposition eyes with his
deadly pace bowling, has been in
good form recently.
He has three wickets so far in World
T20, which was followed by an impressive seven wickets in the Asia Cup,
including a 3/18 against India.
Although he did not bowl in the nets
on Monday. A coaching staff of Pakistan
team said he was just rested and has no
injury worries.
Apart from him, the rest of the session was a normal one as both batsmen
and bowlers spending valuable practice
time. Among the batsmen, Shoaib Malik
and Umar Akmal batted till the end.
Akmal had a decent outing against
India last time around with a 16-ball 22
runs and so was Malik with a well constructed 26. They both will look to build
on it against New Zealand today.
For the Kiwis, Henry Nicholls, a left
hander, was heavily involved in the nets.
He batted for a long while and came
up with some good strikes.Among other
surprises, Kane Williamson — a powerhitter — was spending extra time in
bowling. If the pitch does turn today in
Mohali, Williamson might fancy his
chances with the ball, although it looks
very unlikely. Southee, apart from his
bowling, was also heavily involved with
the bat. One of the team coaching staff
particularly heaped praise on his drives.
vivacity 16
Looks have
become important
ARJUN KAPOOR, who is gearing up for the
promotion of his film Ki & Ka, says today
looks have become important to everybody.
“If you are a good actor,
all these pressures
doesn't matter. I feel this
society has created this
pressure. Looks
have become
important to
everybody. I think,
for an actor, you
should look the
way your character
needs you to look. It
should not be more
or less than that,”
Arjun said.
Arjun will be seen
playing an IIT
graduate and a house
husband in the R.
Balki directorial.
Asked about his
comparison with his
uncle and actor Anil
Kapoor, he said,
“When you start,
you don't have a
reference point. Suddenly, I came as an actor.
Comparisons with Anil stopped after one
film.”
“There was no similarity to my performance. I
have got flashes of the Kapoors, but then
thank God there was no comparison.”
If there is a
remake of
Baazigar, I would
love to play a role
like Shah Rukh sir.
I would love to
play an anti-hero. I
feel that apart
from comical
roles, I should also
explore romance,
action, but slowly
—Kartik Aaryan
Tangerine, the
designer brand for
home solutions, made
this a reality. As part
of a unique CSR
initiative, it got
renowned Bollywood
celebrities to
autograph on its
bedroom makeover
accessories. For every
one celebrity
signature, they donated twenty five bed
sheets to NGOs.
Sonam Kapoor, Siddharth Malhotra, Sushant
Singh Rajput, Kalki, Malaika Arora Khan,
Javed Akthar Govinda, Bhoomi Pednekar,
Athiya Shetty, Kabir Bedi, Anu Malik came
together and signed for a cause.
Adele's personal
photos hacked
S inger ADELE's personal photographs have
been hacked and posted on social media.
The 27-year-old, who has a three year old
son, is said to be furious after images
including a photograph of her newborn baby
swaddled in blankets, an ultrasound scan
from when she was expecting the baby, and
a selfie while she was
pregnant were circulated
on a group on Facebook.
One of the members of
the group was so
shocked by the
breach that he
contacted the Hello
hitmaker's
management to let
them know. “I was
appalled and upset
for Adele when I
saw the
photographs.
They are really
private and
should not be
passed around. I
think it is
disgusting
that her socalled fans
were sending
them around
and I thought
it should be
stopped,” a newspaper
quoted
the member as saying.
Man
of the
moment
At the promotional tour of Rocky
Handsome, John Abraham shared
details about his month-long training in
Thailand, leaning new martial arts
techniques and how he would soon
make a film which will bring bikes back
to the fore. Shrabasti Mallik reports
e have seen him beat up the bad guys and deliver some hard packed punches but with Rocky
Handsome, John Abraham will be taking action
in movies (especially in Bollywood)to a whole new level.
If you have seen the trailer of the movie, you will know
what we are taking about. And what’s more interesting is
that the actor himself believe that the forms of martial arts
that are depicted in the movie will soon become a trend
in the industry. “Specially the Silat. It is a form of martial
arts which uses knives and it will catch up soon,” Abraham
sounded optimistic.
From the looks of it, the movie is going to be a thorough action film but we were told that everything in the
movie generates from the bond that Abraham’s character
shares with a seven-year-old girl. Abraham said, “It is a
fantastic film, fully commercial emotional and action roller
coaster. It is two hours of relentless action.”
In many ways both the director and the actor feels that
the movie will raise the bar of how India sees action. And
Abraham believes in real action and not just saying it. So
all the action that the trailer gives a glimise of is all
Abraham. It was when the two were deciding on the movie
that they realised they needed to present action which wre
W
a few notches higher than
Force, the first film they did
together.
“When we decided to do
this film we knew that we had
to push the envelope. We
decided to take it a few notches higher and went higher to
the oriental belt — Chinese,
Japanese, Korean and Japanese
martial arts. We hired a team
from Thailand and they
demonstrated it and we
realised how difficult it would
be to pull it off. But John went
there and train to get in tune
with that kind of action,”
Kamath explained.
Speaking about his character, Kabir Ahlawat, Abraham
shared, “The character is comlex and layered. He is hard and
there is a lot that has happened in his life. And as the story unfolds, the
audience will know the experinces the character has been through and
why he is like that. Also the way Nishi has put the screenplay out there
to the audience is fantastic. When you see it you will understand what
a beautifully and emotionally charged film it is.”
Apart from all the action and the fighting, there is a little girl at the
heart of the movie. Both Kamath and Abraham were all praises for her.
Abraham said, “We feel that it is difficult to work with children. But Diya
has been very special because she has been always been on time and is
a very disciplined kid. It was a joy having her in the film,” to which the
director added, “We were initially worried about how we would manage a six and a half year old kid because they are impatient and at the
end of the day get cranky and exhausted, But with Diya we had no such
problems.”
Unlike others in the industry, neither of them denied the fact that
the movie is based on a 2010 Korean film titled The Man
From Nowhere. In fact Kamath said, “It is adapted
because no matter how hard you try you cannot make a
Korean film. It will not be palatable for the Indian audiences. It was adapted with Indian sensibilities or rather my
sensibilities. Also, inspite of being an action film, it is a musical — it has five songs. You cannot take a Korean film and
put in songs. I took the story because it was interesting and
then moulded it to the way John was playing the character.”
Did you know that Kamath plays the villain in the
movie? “Something that I will never do again. It happened
by accident because I had to fill in for the actor when he
backed out. I am used to doing theatre but acting and direction I have never done together. It is scary because I used
to get confused on the sets. But direction has always been
my first love and I enjoy acting but never the two together,” he laughed.
Talking about his love for bikes, Abraham said that he
is loking forward to doing a movie that would bring bikes
to the fore. “Nowadays bikes are used as props where people dance around it. I want to change that,” he pointed out.
photos Pankaj Kumar

Lucknow - The Pioneer

Transcription

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