MPs united against Mann, seek action

Transcription

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MPs united against
Mann, seek action
PIONEER NEWS SERVICE n
NEW DELHI
OMINOUS VIDEO
n the centre of a massive row over
releasing video clippings of
IParliament
security apparatus, AAP
Lok Sabha member Bhagwant
Mann apologised to Speaker
Sumitra Mahajan on Friday, but that
did not defuse the situation. The
ruling and the Opposition MPs
came together to demand action
against the Punjab MP even as the
AAP defended him, saying the
BJP was raising a non-issue to divert
attention from attack on Dalits in
Gujarat.
As Mann’s filming of his drive
into Parliament building accompanied with a running commentary
rocked both Houses of Parliament,
the MP said he had deleted the
video from his Facebook page and
that his intention was not to compromise security of the institution.
In a letter to the Speaker, Mann
tendered an “unconditional apology” for the video and said he made
the “mistake inadvertently” and that
he had no intention of compromising the security of Parliament.
“My intention was not to compromise the security of Parliament.
I only wanted to apprise the people of the process of selection of
questions because they, at times, ask
us why their questions were not
raised. I wanted to show them that
the questions are selected through
a lucky draw. I have made an educational video,” he said.
As soon as both the Houses met
for the day, members of the NDA,
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CAPSULE
SEVERAL DEAD IN
MUNICH SHOPPING
CENTRE SHOOTING
Munich: Several people were
killed on Friday in a shooting
rampage in a Munich shopping
centre and the attacker or
attackers are still at large, police
said. The Bild newspaper
reported that a gunman ran
through the mall near the
Olympic stadium in the city,
firing on several people before
fleeing in the direction of a
nearby metro station. Three
armed assailants were involved
in the shooting, said a police
spokesman citing witnesses. He
was unable to officially confirm
the death toll.
yw Members of the NDA, along with regional parties like BJD and AIADMK, were
on their feet describing Mann’s action as “grave breach of
security” and demanding action against him
yw Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha
Mallikarjun Kharge said the House should come
together and condemn it
yw BJP MPs demanded Mann’s
disqualification as an MP
yw Mann said he had deleted the video from
his Facebook page and that his intention
was not to compromise security
of the institution
yw In the nearly 12 minute video,
Mann is seen giving a running
commentary as his vehicle
crosses security barricades and
enters Parliament
yw Defending Mann, AAP
leader Ashutosh said the Lok
Sabha member from Sangrur
was only trying to “show” the
procedure of asking questions
during the Zero Hour
along with regional parties like BJD
and AIADMK, were on their feet
describing Mann’s action as “ grave
breach of security” and demanding
action against him. Bedlam prevailed with vociferous members of
the BJP and the SAD demanding
action against Mann with many
rushing to the Well of the House.
Leader of the Congress in the
Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said
the House should come together
and condemn it. It is a problem for
members representing 125 crore
NDA members, BJD leader B
Mahtab demanded that a
separate committee be set up to
look into the issue.
Drawing attention to the
December 13, 2001 terror attack on
the Parliament House, Mahtab said
at that time, the terrorists did not
know where to enter. On that day,
Congress leader Sonia Gandhi had
called then Prime Minister Atal
Bihari Vajpayee to know what had
happened, Mahtab added.
Shiv Sena leader Anandrao
Adsul urged the Speaker to disqualify Mann immediately.
“Barkhaast kariya aaj hi” (remove
him today),” he said. AIADMK
member P Kumar also asked the
Speaker to look into the matter.
Mann, a popular stand-up
comedian in his State, himself
stood up in his seat and was seen
trying to speak on the issue. As the
uproar continued, proceedings were
adjourned for the day.
Before adjourning the House
for the day after the second
adjournment, the Speaker said the
matter was “serious” and under her
consideration. “Koi na koi karvayee karenge (we will take some
action),” and added that 13 people had laid down their lives for the
security of Parliament referring to
the terror attack in December 2001.
The sources said the Speaker
saw the controversial video film last
evening and was shocked, wondering if every MP indulges in such
an act, how then the dignity of
Parliament could be maintained.
Continued on Page 6
IAF plane with 29 on
board goes missing
IAF, Navy, Coast
Guard launch massive
search operation
across Bay of Bengal
PNS n NEW DELHI
n IAF transport plane, AN-32,
went missing on Friday with 29
A
services men on board while it was
on its way from Chennai to Port
Blair. A search and rescue operation
involving 15 ships of the Navy and
Coast Guard and five planes was
launched across the Bay of Bengal to
locate the ill-fated plane. A submarine was also pressed into service to
detect underwater flight transmitter
on board the plane.
The ships were rushing toward
three sites where the plane could
have gone down. They would reach
the these sites by midnight, official
sources said, adding the rescue
operations will continue thoughout
the night. The twin-engine plane
took off from the IAF airbase at
Tambaram near Chennai at 8.30 am
and had last radio contact with
Tambaram air traffic control (ATC)
at 8.46 am while flying at an altitude
of more than 20,000 feet.
It was scheduled to land at Port
Blair at 11.30 am after covering a distance of 750 nautical miles (1,300
km). When the plane failed to land,
the search and rescue mission was
launched at 11.45 am. Reports
indicated that radars had last seen
the plane about 9.15 am 200 km east
of Chennai.
Adarsh building gets SC
shield against bulldozer
Daya’s sister
files FIR against
foul-mouthed
BSP leaders
Centre asked to
take possession
of tower, ensure
no demolition till
legal battle ends
PNS n LUCKNOW
busive comments by BSP
workers against sacked BJP
A
leader Dayashankar Singh and
PNS n NEW DELHI
he illegally-constructed
Adarsh Society tower in the
T
posh Mumbai locality of
Colaba was spared demolition
after the Supreme Court on
Friday directed the Centre to
take charge of the building and
ensure it is not razed till its residents continue with their legal
battle to secure their property.
The 31-storey residential
complex, meant for Kargil war
heroes and war widows constructed on Defence land was
served with a demolition notice
by
the
Ministr y
of
Environment and Forests,
Government of India in
January 2011 after it was
noticed that the project did not
have a coastal regulation zone
(CRZ) clearance for being situated on the coastal area.
Allottees of the Adarsh society
have challenged this order
before the Bombay High Court,
even as the HC has ordered disconnection of electricity and
water supply to the tainted flats.
For the hapless residents
living under the constant fear
of the hammer, the order by the
apex court came as a major
reprieve. The bench of Justices
J Chelameswar and AM Sapre
directed the Centre to take possession of the society before
August 5 and asked the Centre
to “secure” the structure against
possible demolition action.
Solicitor General Ranjit
Kumar who appeared for the
Centre assured the court, “We
will secure the building and the
land and there will be no
demolition.”
The court further asked the
Registrar General of the
Bombay High Court to ensure
that he or his nominee shall
supervise the handing over of
the possession of the building.
Meanwhile, the residents were
allowed to maintain the inventory of documents of the
Society in order to pursue the
pending legal battle in various
courts of law.
Continued on Page 6
his family members during a
protest rally in Lucknow on
Thursday has snowballed into
an altogether different controversy now.
While Singh’s mother and
sister on Friday lodged an FIR
against senior BSP leaders,
including former Uttar Pradesh
CM Mayawati, BJP leaders condemned the foul language used
by the Blue Brigade leaders.
Singh is yet to be traced
even after the expiry of the 36hour ultimatum handed out by
the BSP while calling off their
stir on Thursday.
Police raided at least 20
places across the State but
could not net the BJP leader.
The FIR was lodged at the
Hazratganj police station by
Singh’s mother Tetra Devi who
was accompanied by Singh’s
wife Swati Singh. Senior police
officers confirmed that an FIR
has been registered against
BSP chief Mayawati, State party
chief Ramachal Rajbhar, Leader
of Opposition in the Council
Continued on Page 6
q Elaborating on the search and rescue mission, officials said the IAF deployed one
C-130J plane along with two AN-32 aircraft besides two P-8 long range maritime
aircraft of the Navy and two Dornier aircraft of the Coast Guard
q The main focus of these aircraft and 13 ships was to look for the ship ten
nautical miles in sea on either side of the flight path of the ill-fated plane
q A submarine was also diverted to the area to hunt for the beacon of the plane in
case it was under water
q Often called ‘workhorse’, as these planes are rugged and carry troops besides
maintaining logistical support to far flung posts of the Army all over the country, IAF
has over 100 Russian made AN-32s which were inducted in the mid 1980s
The services personnel on board
the missing plane included four
officers and 25 others, officials said
here. While the plane was manned
by a crew of six, other passengers
included 11 from IAF, nine Navy
men, two from Army and one from
Coast Guard. Port Blair is the home
to tri-services command.
“The plane, which was on a routine courier service, took off at
about 8.30 am from Tambaram and
it was scheduled to land at Port Blair
at 11.30 am but it is overdue,”
said IAF spokesperson Wing
Commander Anupam Banerjee.
The courier service flights fly
three times in a week. These planes
have enough fuel to fly over ocean
and land at an alternate base in
Campbell Bay or Car Nicobar in
Andamans in case they cannot land
at Port Blair. Elaborating on the
search and rescue mission, officials
said the IAF deployed one C-130J
plane along with two AN-32 aircraft
besides two P-8 long range maritime
aircraft of the Navy and two Dornier
aircraft of the Coast Guard.
Continued on Page 6
Modi exhorts youth to pick
development over casteism
PM lays foundation
stone of AIIMS
at Gorakhpur
PTI n GORAKHPUR
enouncing politics of
D
casteism and nepotism,
Prime Minister Narendra Modi
on Friday pitched for a BJP
Government in Uttar Pradesh
to promote politics of development but skipped any mention of the raging controversy
surrounding Dalits. Modi was
in Gorakhpur to lay the foundation stone of a new All India
Institute of Medical Sciences
(AIIMS) to be built at an estimated cost of `1,011 crore to
provide super-specialty health
care and create a large pool of
doctors in Uttar Pradesh.
“You (people) don’t need
those who play politics of
casteism and nepotism. You
have filled everyone’s pocket
but has your pocket been filled?
My dear youths, nepotism and
poison of casteism will not help
in development. Support politics of ‘vikasvad’ (development). I am here to urge you to
bless me with your support as
you have done earlier (in the
Prime Minister Narendra Modi reviews AIIMS Gorakhpur model on Friday
Lok Sabha polls),” he said at a
public meeting in an apparent
attack on the main Opposition
parties in Uttar Pradesh without naming them.
Exhorting the people of
poll-bound UP to shun politics
of family, Modi said, “There has
been enough of family and
caste politics. You supported
everybody. But did they support you as well? Were youths
and farmers benefited?”
In a speech delivered after
laying foundation stone for an
AIIMS and revival of a sick fertiliser plant, Modi skipped any
PTI
reference to the raging controversy stoked by one of his
party leader’s attack on
Mayawati or the violence
against Dalits in Gujarat.
He focused his speech on his
efforts to boost State’s
development.
The Prime Minister also
accused the Samajwadi Party
Government of being unable to
spend the Central fund
for the State’s health sector
and asked people to choose a
Government next year which
could run for them like him.
Continued on Page 6
Kabali wala triggers mad rush to cinemas
SUSPENDED JUDGE
ATTEMPTS ‘SUICIDE’
KUMAR CHELLAPPAN n
CHENNAI
New Delhi: Additional district
judge at the Dwarka court Pratap
Singh Malik, who had gone into
depression after his suspension
following a complaint by a
woman employee, was admitted
to a hospital here as his
condition deteriorated due to an
overdose of sleeping pills, police
said on Friday.
iwali, the festival of lights
and bursting of crackers
D
may still be three months away,
JILTED LOVER, SISTER
THROW ACID AT GIRL
New Delhi: A 22-year-old
woman got burnt badly and
was unable to open her eyes
after a man and his sister
allegedly hurled acid at her for
refusing his marriage proposal in
east Delhi’s Gandhinagar area,
police said on Friday. The girl
has been admitted to GTB
hospital with 30 per cent burn
injuries and is recuperating.
people and that of the nation, he
said. “If we do like this, it will be
a big problem for democracy,”
Kharge said and sought action
against Mann.
Former Home Secretary and
BJP MP RK Singh was also heard
seeking action against Mann.
“Tatkaal barkhast kariye (remove
him immediately)” he said, and
demanded a Breach of Privilege
Motion against Mann. Kirit
Somaiya (BJP) also demanded his
disqualification as an MP. Joining
AAP MP’s apology
fails to defuse LS
situation; Speaker
says it is a serious
matter, ‘will act’
Fans pour milk on a giant poster of
Rajinikanth celebrating the release
of Kabali in Chennai on Friday PTI
but Chennai celebrated its
Diwali on Friday. The release of
Kabali, the 156th movie of
megastar Rajinikanth, sent millions of his fans in frenzy and
threw normal life out of gear.
Rajinikanth had a special
screening of the movie in the
US where he is holidaying.
The frenzy was not limited
to Rajinikanth’s home State
where he made his debut in the
film world in 70s. The Kabali
mania spreads across the country and abroad as similar hype
and hoopla marked its release in
about 5,000 screens. The Tamil
drama, which has also been
dubbed in Hindi and Telugu,
ran to packed houses in metros
THALAIVA MANIA SWEEPS THE COUNTRY;
MOVIE SCREENED IN 5,000 THEATERS;
EARNS `223 CRORE IN ADVANCE BOOKING
like Mumbai, Hyderabad,
Bengaluru and cities across
Kerala as well as in hundreds of
theatres in the US, the UK,
Malaysia and Singapore.
The movie, which was shot
at a cost of `110 crore, has
raked in `223 crore for its producer Kalaipuli Thanu even
before the counters were
opened early this week for
reservation.
Chennai, which sleeps past
midnight, witnessed traffic
snarls along the arterial roads
from 3 am itself. The first-dayfirst-show (FDFS) was scheduled for 4 am in almost all the
100 plus theatres screening the
film in the city.
Cut-outs and banners of
the actor, known for his style
and gimmicks, were erected
outside theatres which
wore a festive atmosphere as
fans turned up in good numbers, adding colour to the
screenings.
In some places, special
prayers were held for the success of the film, reminding that
Rajinikanth’s popularity has
not taken a dent despite
back-to-back flops in
“Kochadaiyaan” and “Lingaa”.
Some of his die-hard fans
flew from Japan, where he has
huge following, to witness the
hype and drama typical of a
Rajinikanth release. Dialogues
like “Kabali da” and “Magizhchi”
(Happy) have become buzz-
words among the movie lovers
who recreated them happily
after the screening.
Amid chant of slokas,
frenzied fans performed milk
abhishekam (pouring of milk)
on the larger than life flex
boards of the superstar in front
of theatres. There were bursting of crackers and playing of
panchavadyam (percussion) by
hundreds of drummers
brought in from Kerala and
folk dance by artistes who
descended in the city from faraway places like Thanjavur
and Tiruchi.
Ardent fans, many of them
Dravidian party members,
warded off evil eyes by lighting small lamps in front of
Rajinikanth’s pictures and performed special poojas. The
day turned out to be a
holiday as many corporate
companies had declared a
closed day so that the staff
could see the FDFS.
If the reaction of the people
who came out of the FDFS is
any indication, Kabali is all set
new record in the history of
Tamil films. “Rajinikanth seems
to have retained his magic playing a role that suits his age and
persona,” said Bharat Kumar, a
well- known film critic.
And why this mad love and
worship for the aging actor?
In Kabali, Rajinikanth plays
the role of a messiah,
Kabaleeswaran, who takes up
arms for the poor Tamils and the
depressed classes in Malaysia.
The secret behind the success of
Rajinikanth is well explained by
Adam Ayub, his batchmate in
the film institute. “He did not
have the looks and complexion
required for a hero. Rajini was
dark and not good looking.
Continued on Page 6
city 02
LUCKNOW | SATURDAY | JULY 23, 2016
BJP gets ammunition
to hit back at BSP
PNS ■ LUCKNOW
brasive comments by
Bahujan Samaj Party workA
ers against Dayashankar Singh
and female members of his
family while registering their
ire against the sacked BJP
leader provided the right
ammunition to the Bharatiya
Janata Party, which was pushed
to the back foot till Thursday.
While Singh’s mother and
sister lodged a report against
senior BSP leaders, including
former Chief Minister
Mayawati, BJP leaders condemned the foul language used
by the Blue Brigade leaders
during their protest at
Hazratganj on Thursday.
Absconding since an FIR
was lodged against him on
Wednesday night, Singh is yet
to be traced even after the
expiry of the 36-hour ultimatum given by the BSP for his
arrest while calling off their
protest on Thursday. The police
raided at least 20 places across
the state but could not nab the
BJP leader.
Meanwhile, Singh’s family
members were agitated over the
derogatory language used by
the BSP leaders against his
wife and daughter and they
decided to lodge a cross FIR
against the BSP leaders.
Singh’s wife, Swati Singh,
alleged, “Such threatening
statements by the BSP leaders
against a woman and a girl also
amount to a crime like my husband has been accused of. The
BSP people were publicly saying ‘Unki patni, beti ko pesh
karo’. This has been very traumatic for my 12-year-old
daughter.”
She added, “An FIR must
be lodged against all those
abusing us on record. These
people should be held guilty for
mentally harassing my young
daughter who is now afraid to
attend her school. If anything
happens to my family, BSP
chief Mayawati should be held
responsible for it.”
“My husband was stripped
of his post and expelled from
the BJP for his utterances.
Besides, an FIR was lodged
against him despite his apology. But still Mayawatiji is not
satisfied. What these BSP leaders said on Thursday, should
they not be condemned and
should such people not be
removed from the BSP like my
husband?” she asked.
Swati Singh pointed out,
“Mayawati
said
that
Dayashankar had insulted a
woman. Agreed. But what
would she say about the act of
her party members. It is unfortunate that the BSP, which follows Dr BR Ambedkar’s ideology, abused me and my daughter in front of the statue of
Babasaheb Ambedkar. The
leader had great respect for
women but the BSP people do
not follow him,” she said. She
also took strong exception to a
BSP leader’s announcement of
paying Rs 50 lakh to anyone
who got her husband’s tongue.
Swati Singh said that her
husband had not contacted
her or any family member
after the FIR was lodged against
him on Wednesday night.
Meanwhile, in Ballia, supporters of Singh’s brother,
Dharmendra Singh, created a
ruckus at a police station on
Thursday night after he was
detained and questioned about
his brother for close to four
hours. In Lucknow, BJP state
general secretary Vijay Bahadur
Pathak also questioned the
stand of BSP leaders on those
who used derogatory language
used against the women kin of
Singh.
“We have punished Singh
by sacking him from the party
even after he tendered an apology. It remains to be seen what
Mayawati does to her supporters and leaders who used
foul language against women
members of Singh’s family. Are
the BSP leaders free to say anything against women?” he
questioned.
Pathak said the rule of law
was the same for everyone. “If
Singh could be booked for his
derogatory language, then why
not the BSP leaders?” he
argued.
SCPCR seeks video footage of BSP protest
Lucknow (PNS): Taking note of the abusive
language used by BSP protestors against
sacked BJP leader Daya Shankar Singh and
women members of his family, chairperson
of State Commission for Protection of
Child Rights (SCPCR) Juhie Singh asked the
Lucknow district administration to provide
them video footage of the protest within three
days.
“It was reported widely that during the
BSP’s protest on July 21 at Hazratganj area,
derogatory remarks were made against
some women and a 12-year-old child. It is
unfortunate and a serious issue,” Singh said on
Friday.
In her letter to the district administration,
Singh has sought video footage of the BSP’s
protest in three days so that the content of
speeches delivered by BSP leaders could be
examined.
Sources said the Commission had also
received individual complaints regarding Daya
Shankar Singh’s 12-year-old daughter being traumatised by the scathing remarks made by BSP
speakers at the protest.”
If the Commission finds the BSP leaders
guilty of using derogatory language against the
child, a case would be registered against them
and action would be taken under Juvenile Justice
(JJ) Act.
When contacted, District Magistrate Raj
Shekhar said, “As soon as we receive the communication from the Commission, we will act
accordingly.”
Naseemuddin defends party workers
PNS ■ LUCKNOW
efusing to apologise for the abusive words
used during Bahujan Samaj Party’s protest
on Thursday, senior leader Naseemuddin
Siddiqui strongly defended the party workers’
action on Friday.
He also charged the Bharatiya Janata Party
with conspiring with Dayashankar Singh’s family to give a new twist to the incident and save
him from legal proceedings for his unparliamentary comment against BSP supremo Mayawati.
“The party workers were angry and whatever was said during Thursday’s protest was to
register our ire and there is nothing wrong in
it,” Siddiqui asserted while addressing a press
conference in Lucknow on Friday evening.
“Yes, we used the word ‘dog’ for
Dayashankar Singh as what the expelled BJP
leader did was beastly,” Siddiqui said but refuted charges of using objectionable words against
Singh’s wife or daughter.
“Yes, the party leaders asked to produce
Singh’s wife and daughter, but we are not against
them. We just wanted to ask Singh’s family how
they had felt about Singh’s derogatory remarks
against BSP chief Mayawati,” clarified Siddiqui
while refusing to tender any apology.
Reacting to the move of Singh’s family members to get a case registered against Mayawati
and senior leaders of the BSP, Siddiqui said that
it was a well orchestrated conspiracy of the BJP
to defame the BSP leaders and a last-ditch effort
to save Singh. When asked about the party’s next
move as the 36-hour ultimatum for arrest of
Singh had expired, Siddiqui said that on
Monday, the leaders would again stage demon-
R
BJP demands action
against Siddiqui
Lucknow (PNS): The Dayashankar Singh
episode has taken a political turn with the
Bharatiya Janata Party coming to the rescue of
the expelled leader’s family and demanding
action against Bahujan Samaj Party leader
Naseemuddin Siddiqui, who allegedly used
derogatory words against Singh’s daughter.
BJP state president Keshav Prasad Maurya
said the party condemned the derogatory
words used by the BSP leaders during their
protest while sitting under the statue of
Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar. Maurya even
coined a slogan – ‘Beti ke samman mein,
Bharatiya Janata Party maidan mein’.
“It would have been better had Mayawati
expelled Siddiqui as the BJP took action
against its leader,” he said. “The BJP demands
the arrest of Siddiqui and all leaders against
whom Dayashankar Singh’s wife has filed an
FIR. The party will stage protests at all district
headquarters demanding action against these
BSP leaders,” he said.
Meanwhile, Maurya will hold the first
meeting of state office-bearers on Saturday in
which the party will decide the date of the state
executive meeting. According to sources, the
state executive meeting is expected to be held
on August 6 and 7.
stration at divisional headquarters except
Lucknow, as they had already staged a demonstration here on Thursday.
SP hits out at BJP, BSP
PNS ■ LUCKNOW
he Samajwadi Party
slammed the Bharatiya
T
Janata Party and the Bahujan
Samaj Party for attacking the
dignity of women in their war
of slander. It said that by their
conduct, both parties were creating social tension and threatening social harmony in Uttar
Pradesh.
The SP targeted the BSP
chief saying that Mayawati had
no right to adopt a moral high
ground over objectionable
comment by a BJP leader as she
had always targeted her political rivals in foul language, vitiating levels of political discourse in state politics.
The SP said that the battle
between the BJP and the BSP
had created a new crisis and
was a challenge for democracy
as the agenda of public discourse had touched a new low.
The SP alleged that both
parties, in their no-holdsbarred battle, were ignoring the
tradition of dignity of public
life. SP spokesman and minister Rajendra Choudhary said
on Friday that it was most
unfortunate to see BJP and BSP,
which claimed to be ‘ideologybased’ parties, attacking each
other in filthy and abusive language.
He added that while the SP
always respected the dignity of
women, this was hardly the
agenda of the BJP and the BSP.
Choudhary said, “The BSP
does not believe in dignity in
public life and its history is
replete with incidents of anarchy and slogans in filthy language.”
Condemning the intemperate language used by the
BSP leaders against women, the
SP leader said, “The BSP tried
to create havoc over one unpar-
liamentary comment by a BJP
leader, but the top BSP leaders
ended up doing the same thing
during their protest on
Thursday. Besides, the BSP
chief has been doing so all her
life.”
Choudhary also trained
his guns at the BJP and accused
it of attacking democratic conventions and public dignity.
“Ever since the BJP came to
power at the Centre, there has
been a long list of leaders who
have given provocative statements threatening public order
and social harmony. Spreading
rumours and creating disorder
is an old tactics of the BJP,” he
said.
Choudhary pointed out
that the BJP national president,
during his visits to UP, tried to
vitiate the atmosphere by using
intemperate language against
SP leaders and levelling false
allegations.
Centre, State engage in war of words over funds
PNS ■ LUCKNOW
ttar Pradesh is facing a
AUCTION NOTICE
29.07.2016, 12:00 Noon,
U.P. Cooprative Fedration
Limited, 32-Station Road,
Lucknow
Auction
of
Unserviceable
Petrol
Ambessdor Cars-3, Security
Rs. 5,000/- cash. For Each
Vehicale. Govt. Auctioneer I.P.
Singh.
NOTICE
No 9421876N, NK Raju Tamang
Vill- Gielle Tea Garden No-2 P.O
Rungli Rangliot Dist Darjeeling W.
Bengal, In my service document's
my wife Shova Tamang Subba
who's date of Birth has been entried
-20 may-1987 which is Incorrect as
per Madhyamik Admit Card. The
correct date of Birth is 20 May 1977
wife of 9421876N, NK Raju Tamang
5/11 GR "C" coy C/o 99 APO
piquant situation. While
U
Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav
has slammed the Bharatiya
Janata Party-led National
Democratic Alliance government at the Centre for not
releasing funds for the state,
Prime Minister Narendra Modi
has accused the state of not utilising the central funds.
Akhilesh Yadav has been
vocal in blaming the Centre for
not releasing funds for health,
irrigation and power sectors,
saying that the BJP-led government is partisan against nonBJP state governments.
“The 14th Finance
Commission has deprived the
state of over Rs 10,000 crore
revenue. The PM should intervene and provide additional
funds to the state government,”
Yadav said.
In recent past, the CM has
written a series of letters seeking funds for various projects.
On June 22, Yadav urged the
Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav welcomes Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his
arrival in Grakhpur on Friday
PM to provide subsidy on coal
freight. On March 15, he
sought another subsidy on
foodgrains for drought-hit people of Bundelkhand while on
January 29, Yadav sought a
fund of Rs 1,500 crore under
National Rural Water Mission.
On November 11, 2015, Chief
Minister had asked for funds
under Pradhan Mantri Gramin
Sadak Yojana.
But on Friday, PM
Narendra Modi was critical of
the SP government in UP for
non-utilisation of funds to
improve the health sector.
“The Centre has provided
Rs 7,000 crore but till date the
UP government has spent just
Rs 2,850 crore. This shows
that it is not concerned about
development of UP,” Modi said.
Union Health Minister JP
Nadda accused the UP government of lagging behind in
spending Central funds. “We
have given Rs 875 crore to the
state but it is yet to spend it.’’
SP spokesman and minister Rajendra Choudhary said
the allegations levelled by the
PM were far from truth.
“The truth is that the
Centre stopped funds for
102/108 ambulance services
because the state government’s
work had won laurels across the
world. It is also true that the SP
regime extended help on its
own to farmers who lost their
crops in unseasonal rains. We
did not wait for central assistance and when it came it was
not enough,” he said.
About allegations on
Health sector, Choudhary said
that he was not aware of a special grant of Rs 7,000 crore.
“To the best of my knowledge, the money sent by the
Centre has been utilised,” he
said.
Modi’s pep talk invigorates BJP workers
PNS ■ LUCKNOW
rime Minister Narendra
Modi’s 4-hour visit to
P
Gorakhpur has invigorated
Bharatiya Janata Party workers
who are now gearing up for the
battle of ballot in 2017.
Directives have been issued to
all party MPs to adopt at least
two Assembly constituencies
and ensure victory of the party
candidate there.
The directives came from
none other than the Prime
Minister, who told a dozen MPs
who met him in Gorakhpur to
ensure the victory of at least
two party candidates from
their parliamentary constituency.
An MP, who was part of
the delegation that met Modi,
told ‘The Pioneer’ that the PM
said that if the MPs ensured
victory of two candidates, half
the battle would be won.
The BJP and its ally have 73
MPs from Uttar Pradesh. Each
parliamentary constituency
comprise at least five Assembly
segments.
BJP state chief Keshav
Prasad Maurya and party’s incharge Om Mathur told the
PM that they would communicate his directive to all the MPs
of the state.
The PM, on his part, sang
paeans for the BJP MPs. In his
speech, Modi said that the
people had selected so efficient
MPs who did not allow him to
rest.
“These MPs even question me. They have welfare of
people in their minds and
always talk about their constituencies,” Modi said. He
even asked the people to greet
the MPs who were present on
the dais.
The pep talk did wonders
and the MPs promised victory
of at least two candidates from
each parliamentary constituency.
Not only the MPs, even the
BJP workers felt enthused by
the Prime Minister’s announcement to re-start the fertiliser
plant and set up AIIMS in
Gorakhpur.
“Now we have something
to talk about. Earlier, we used
to talk about Jan Dhan
Yojana and Ujjawala Scheme,
the benefits of which were
not fathomable as far as common man was concerned. The
fertiliser factory will bring
prosperity in the area as people will get direct and indirect
employment,” BJP’s district
unit leader Narain Chaudhary
told ‘The Pioneer’ from
Gorakhpur.
He said that if the construction of AIIMS started
before October, they would
win half the battle.
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
Helmet rule in need of LMC asks dist admn
to lodge FIRs against
proper implementation 1,000 govt employees
No dearth of weird reasons for commuters
PIONEER NEWS SERVICE n LUCKNOW
ratap Singh, a 48-year-old
contractor, ruminates for a
little while as he munches
paan masala with a chewingthe-cud-like expression and
after a prolonged and thoughtful pause he says that the helmet is a big obstacle in his frequent
spitting
habit.
Seventeen-year-old student
Anand Awasthi may not be
candid about what stops him
from wearing a helmet but it is
an open secret in his house that
he does not like having his
flamboyant hair style spoilt.
Fifty-five-year-old Deshraj,
who is a government driver
and well-conversant with the
driving rules, does not wear a
helmet while driving a moped
but does so when he rides a
mobike because he believes
helmets are not important
while driving lighter vehicles.
There is no dearth of odd
reasons people have for not
wearing helmets ranging from
the suffocating feel that it creates to the additional burden of
towing the object when they
reach their destination.
Incidentally, even as the
provisional notification has
been issued for making the
pillion riders in the state wear
helmets (as per the recent
decision of the Uttar Pradesh
Cabinet having approved an
amendment to the UP Motor
Vehicle Rules, 1988), the
Transport Department officials agree that the need of the
hour was a proper implementation of the rule for making
helmets compulsory for two
wheeler drivers.
As per the figures provided by the Transport department, there has been a substantial increase in the number
of bike accidents. In the state,
nearly 7,330 two-wheeler accidents had occurred in 2015 as
...for skipping BLO training sessions
P
ucknow
Municipal
Corporation has asked the
district administration to
lodge FIRs against more than
1,000 state government
employees for skipping the
booth-level office (BLO)
training sessions.
“In my zone-1 as many as
268 employees did not turn
up for the BLO and supervisor training session. We had
sent notices to them earlier
but did not get any response
from them. In such a situation
we had sent a letter to the district administration to lodge
FIRs against them for not
turning up for important government work,” zonal officer
(zone-1), Ashok Singh told
The Pioneer.
It may be pointed out that
the government employees
had been assigned BLO and
supervisor duties for the revision of local bodies’ electoral
lists of the city. It was mandatory for them to attend the
training sessions and take the
stationery required for the
task. Lucknow Municipal
Corporation was assigned the
task of holding training sessions at all the eight zonal
offices and the zonal officer
concerned was made incharge
for it. The government
employees from nearly all the
state-run departments were
asked to report to the zonal
officers for the training
sessions.
The situation in zone-3
was somewhat similar. Here
too, nearly 200 employees did
not turn up for training and
receiving stationery. Zonal
officer (zone-3), Vinay Pratap
Singh said for the BLO training session, some 367 employees were to come as per the
authorities concerned but only
L
A random survey
across the city
reveals that
nearly half of the
commuters who
are moving on
the roads are
without helmet
against 4,899 in the year 2014.
As many as 3,993 people were
killed in such accidents in
2015 as against 2,492 in 2014
and the number of injured was
3,398 in 2015 as against 2,382
in the year 2014.
A random survey across
the city reveals that nearly
half of the commuters who are
moving on the roads are without helmet. The Transport
department officials put the
figure as 50-70 per cent of the
drivers wearing helmets and
10 per cent of the policemen
not wearing helmets. The
department is unable to give
the gender divide in terms of
wearing helmets.
A senior Transport
department official admitted
the fact that non-wearing of
helmets had been the main
cause of deaths in the accidents
which had taken place in the
city. “In terms of enforcement
we carry out traffic awareness
programmes once a month
on various aspects of road
safety. We also issue circulars
on the mandatory provision of
purchasing a helmet when
they buy a new vehicle,” he
said. The official agreed that
short-term enforcement
showed quicker results in comparison to the long-term
efforts. “However there are
several problems in these
short-term enforcements
which include the shortage of
manpower, revenue realisation being less, perception of
the offence taken as a petty
crime and other priority work
of the department,” he added.
Incidentally, the administrative order which had been
issued a couple of years ago
regarding “no helmet, no
petrol” did not work when a
firing incident took place in
Ghaziabad last year when a
petrol dealer refused to give
petrol to a motorcyclist.
Helmet dealers in the city
said that most of the time buyers admit that they face problems while wearing helmets but
there were several new features
in helmets which could resolve
these problems.
Transport Commissioner
Ravindra Naik told The Pioneer
that they were carrying out discussions with the Traffic
department for better implementation of the helmet rule.
Minister detects anomalies at hosp
inister of state for
Maternal, Child and
M
Family Welfare Ravidas
Mehrotra inspected Virangna
Jhalkari Bai Mahila Hospital
on Friday and detected several anomalies.
On reaching the hospital
at around 1.30 pm, Mehrotra
noticed that parking fee was
still being charged from
patients’ attendants and the
hospital staff behaved rudely
with patients. He also found
the doctors irregular.
The minister ordered
Director-General (Family
Welfare) MR Malik to ensure
strict action against the
defaulters. He also directed the
DG to ensure that parking fee
was not charged anywhere in
the government-run hospitals
as the facility is free throughout the state.
Further, Mehrotra found
that the arrears due to pregnant women under Janani
Suraksha Yojana was pending
and the hospital administration had failed to take measures to create awareness about
the scheme.
He also sought a report
Minister Ravidas Mehrotra interacting with patients’ attendants at Virangna Jhalkari Bai Mahila Hospital
from chief medical superintendent Dr Anand Prakash on
the arrears. While interacting
with the patients in wards, the
minister found that the staff
realised money from them
promising better treatment.
A patient named Priti
Verma complained to the minister that a staff member had
taken Rs 800 from her after
she delivered a child.
Mehrotra also found that
cleanliness and hygiene at the
hospital was not up to the
mark.
Traffic snarls: Admn comes
up with contingency plan
HUJJAT RAZA n LUCKNOW
3 MECHANISMS TO
EASE TRAFFIC
CONGESTION
DURING PROTESTS
aking lessons from the
chaotic snarls due to the
T
stirs by the BSP and Congress
on Thursday, the Lucknow
district administration has
come up with a contingency
plan to combat such situations
troubling the public.
The district administration has now decided to put in
place three major mechanisms
to ease snarls during protests
— use of public address system
to make people aware of the
available routes, seeking help
from Civil Defence personnel
and use of temporary parking
lots to accommodate vehicles
of protestors so that they do
not coagulate the already
stressed traffic in Lucknow.
In the recent past, many
protests have taken place near
Vidhan
Bhawan
and
Hazratganj crossing which
turned out to be a nightmare
for the commuters. In such a
situation, traffic movement
was badly affected creating
trouble for schoolchildren and
ambulances
carr ying
patients.
“The setting up of public
address systems at major
crossings will enable commuters to take necessary diversions which will help in decongesting the alternative routes
which naturally come under
stress during such congregations,” District Magistrate Raj
Shekhar said.
“Besides, during the stir of
the BSP and Congress, vehicles
of the protestors were found to
be parked outside the GPO
Park and side lanes of
Hazratganj market close to
the main roundabout, which
constricted the road. We are
looking for temporary parking
sites in Hazratganj and also
near the diversion points for
smooth flow of traffic,” the
DM said.
“Apart from these, the district administration will take
the help of Civil Defense personnel and special police officers (SPOs) for helping the
police and traffic personnel for
crowd management and easing
traffic movement,” he added.
WATERLOGGING AFTER DOWNPOUR
Pioneer
The minister later directed the CMO to provide a
detailed report of anomalies
detected in the hospital and
instructed the DG to inspect
other maternal healthcare
facilities and ensure proper
treatment and hygiene.
22-year-old girl
hangs self
Lucknow (PNS): A 22year old girl, Shweta, on Friday
committed a suicide by hanging herself at her house in
Jalalpur falling under Para
police station. No suicide note
was found in the room.
However, a family member
told the police that she was having a love affair with a boy who
was living in the adjacent village but her ditched her for
another girl. The marriage was
to be solemnised in October
this month. Deceased’s father
Arjun Singh Yadav said his
daughter was a student of BScIII. She had dinner with her
father and mother Leena on
Thursday and appeared cheerful. She was sleeping with her
mother in a room on the
ground floor while her father
was in an adjacent room. At 6
am, she was found hanging
with a dupatta tied around
her neck. Police said investigations were on to know the
whether her ex-boyfriend was
responsible for the girl taking
the extreme step.
STERN ACTION
n As soon as the plan for
lodging an FIR against the
absentees was conveyed to the
employees, some of them
approached their respective
zonal officers but still their
number was low.
n The government employees
had been assigned BLO and
supervisor duties for revision of
local bodies’ electoral lists. It
was mandatory for them to
attend the training sessions and
take the stationery required.
150 to 170 turned up and
about 200 skipped it.
As soon as the plan for
lodging an FIR against the
absentees was conveyed to
the employees, some of them
approached their respective
zonal officers for training and
stationery but still their number was low.
“We were waiting for
more employees to attend the
training sessions as nearly
200 of them had turned up
earlier. Some of them came
late too. But still a good number of the employees skipped
the training session. I have
sent a letter to the district
administration for initiating
action against the absentees,”
zonal officer (zone-6) Binno
Rizvi said.
The situation in other
zonal offices was no better.
There too, the majority of
employees had not turned up
for training session. It is quite
apparent that the district local
bodies’ election department
will organise another round of
training sessions if the absentees come forward for carrying out the tasks assigned to
them.
Heavy rains in the city on Thursday brought down the temperature by eight degrees. The city recorded a maximum temperature
of 28.7 degree Celsius. The good news is that rain and thundershowers are likely in some areas of the city on Friday. City
received 0.8mm rains. The skies remained overcast throughout the day with heavy rains lashing intermittently. The rains
brought issues of waterlogging in several parts of the city. The state forecast is that rains are likely in isolated places of eastern
Pioneer
Uttar Pradesh.
LU increases 60 seats in BBA dept
Lucknow (PNS): The
Lucknow University has
increased 60 seats in the BBA
department from this academic
session. Addressing a press
conference in this regard on its
premises on Friday, head of the
department Sanjay Medhan
said that these seats had been
increased because of the general demand from the
candidates.
He said that a second
round of counselling would be
held on July 25 for the students
at the Institute of Management
Sciences.
“The first round of counselling for admission in BBA
(Hons) and the five-year-long
MBA course was held on June
4 and 5 and subsequently,
Lucknow University decided
that a separate section of 60
seats will be added and hence
we will be holding the second
counselling,” he said.
The head of the department said that after the admissions in June, nearly 45 seats fell
vacant with the students taking
admission in other universities.
“Hence, we will be holding
the second counselling for over
105 seats. All the SC, ST and
OBC candidates had been
offered admission in the first
round of counselling before the
vacant seats were offered to the
General category candidates.
However, in the best interests
of the students the SC, ST and
OBC candidates will be given
another option to opt for the
reserved seats in the new 60
BBA seats.”
In the counselling which
will be held for the second
round the sub-categories such
as the children of the University
employees, freedom-fighters’
children and others in the horizontal reservation have to
report by 9 am, those of the SC,
ST and OBC categories have to
report by 9.30 am and all the
other candidates by 11 am.
The head of the department further clarified that only
those candidates who appeared
in the LUGMAT-2016 merit list
were eligible to appear for
counselling and have to report
with all their original documents as had been prescribed
earlier.
city 04
Chain-snatchers’ gang
members arrested
wo members of an inter-district gang involved in chain
T
and purse snatching were
arrested near Shivlok temple in
Triveni Nagar area under
Aliganj police station late on
Thursday night.
They were identified as
Dinesh Kumar Modi and
Deepak Saini. The police recovered two gold chains, cash
amounting to Rs 4,700 and an
unregistered motorcycle stolen
from Madiaon recently from
their possession.
Sources said that Dinesh
was picked up from Triveni
Nagar on Thursday evening
and taken to the police station
for quizzing. He confessed that
along with his associate Deepak,
he had snatched the gold chain
of Ramkumari Rastogi recently. He also revealed that they
were involved in five incidents
of chain snatching in Aliganj
and Madiaon police station
areas. The motorcycle Dinesh
was riding was stolen from
Madiaon area.
On his information, the
police raided Deepak’s house in
Husainabad area late Thursday
night and nabbed him. Deepak
confessed that they were working for an inter-district gang
involved in chain snatching.
Meanwhile, the police
arrested a man selling stolen
software gadgets from the Goel
market in Chinhat police station area. He was identified as
Ravi Rawat. Five laptops, four
laptop chargers and four mobile
phones were recovered from a
bag he was carrying. Rawat confessed that the software were
stolen from rooms of students
of higher studies.
Focus on use of CST
tech applications
ecretary, department of
Additional Sources of
Energy Partha, Sarathi Sen
Sharma said the Confederation
of Indian Industries (CII),
along with channel partners,
should endeavour to motivate
the state industries to use concentrating solar thermal (CST)
technologies applications
which can be used for a wide
range of things, including heating, cooling and cooking.
Sharma expressed these
views at a workshop which was
organised by CII for focusing
on promotion of CST technologies for industries, at a city
hotel on Friday. It provided a
platform to a large number of
senior industrial representatives from Lucknow to have
open discussions with the consumers and manufacturers of
CST systems.
With an aim to promote
CST technologies beneficial to
various industrial sectors,
Global Environment Facility
and United Nations Industrial
Development Organization
(GEF-UNIDO) in partnership
with the Ministry of New and
Renewable Energy (MNRE)
are implementing the project
‘Promoting business models
for increasing penetrations and
scaling up of solar energy’.
A series of workshops and
site visits are being organized
under the project to create
awareness about the technology and its potential for application in the industrial sector.
Wide participation and support
from industry has been ensured
through close cooperation with
the State Nodal Agency Uttar
Pradesh New and Renewable
Energy Development Agency
(UPNEDA) and Confederation
of Indian Industry (CII) for the
workshop.
RP Goswami, director CST,
MNRE, said that a lot of innovation could be used in these
S
technologies.
“It is time for the industry
to take up green initiatives and
energy savings. MNRE has
empanelled 29 industrial sectors under this scheme and
with the funds that the ministry
is allocating for projects. It is
the right time for entrepreneurs
to join the renewable energy
brigade and aim to strengthen
the CST industry,” he added.
He urged industry associations to continue in the efforts
of promoting the message of
clean and green energy and
make the process of availing the
financial package offered by
MNRE through IREDA a ‘single-window’ process.
“Since payback period and
other financial details need
further elaboration, it would be
the responsibility of industry
associations and channel partners to continue the discussions
and support the industry in
implementing projects in CST
space,” he added.
Anil Misra, national project manager, UNIDO, demystified the barriers associated
with technology adoption, and
also shared details on the most
suitable solar thermal technologies namely, Parabolic
Troughs, Dish Collectors and
Linear Fresnel systems.
UNIDO has partnered
with IREDA to develop a financial package bundling the subsidy from MNRE and loan
funds from IREDA at reduced
interest rate using the funds of
the project. Atul Mehra, chairman, CII Uttar Pradesh State
Council, said that one of the
most energy consuming sectors
in the country was the industrial sector in UP and it was
known to be one of the most
vibrant industrial sectors in the
country. He mentioned that
even though solar technologies
had been available in different
forms since over 30 years, the
pace of adoption was yet to pick
up.
2 killed, 8 hurt
in separate
road mishaps
Cong to show strength next Friday
Lucknow (PNS): Two
persons were killed and eight
injured in separate road
mishaps in the past 24 hours.
40-year old Ram
Chandra was killed after a
mini-truck rammed into a
stationary tempo (UP32
CU6104) near Panchayati
Raj office in Bakshi-Ka-Talab
in which the deceased sustained injuries and was taken
to nearby primary health
centre. He was referred to
KGMU’s Trauma Centre
where he succumbed. The
condition of driver Gopal
Narain was stated to be critical while Ashish Shukla,
Deepak, Atiq and Ashutosh
were discharged from health
centre after first aid. The
errant driver managed to
speed off. Besides, Prakash
Chandra of Telibagh was
killed in a road at Telibagh
crossing. The tempo he was
travelling in was hit by a
speeding vehicle (UP32
CY4636).
fter being in political
wilderness in Uttar
A
Pradesh for the last three
CASH BAG LOOTED
Two unidentified miscreants looted took a cashier
of a paan masala agency on
gunpoint and snatched his
bag containing Rs 80,000
near Jain mandir in Ghazipur
area (B-block) on Friday
night. The victim identified
as Chand was returning after
collecting money from
traders when he was targeted by the miscreants around
9 pm.
decades, the Congress is set to
show its strength by organising
an interaction programme with
workers at Ramabai Sthal in
Aashiyana next Friday.
Sources in the party
claimed that over one lakh
Congress workers and leaders
would attend the day-long session which would be attended
by Congress vice-president
Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka
Vadra. He said the sole objective of the programme was to
send out a strong message
about the party’s revival in
state to the rank and file.
Interestingly, this is the
first time that the Congress has
selected Ramabai Sthal for any
programme. If the party manages to fill the massive ground
by its workers and functionaries, it will be send out an
ample message to the rival
parties about the resurgence of
Congress. UPCC media committee chairman Satyadev
Tripathi said on Friday that
over one lakh party workers
would attend the interactive
session with Rahul Gandhi
and other leaders next Friday
noon. Congress will be the second party in UP to go for interaction with booth-level workers after the Bharatiya Janata
Party organised such programmes in six phases early
this month.
Meanwhile, Congress pres-
ident Sonia Gandhi and her
deputy Rahul Gandhi would
flag off a mega three-day road
show with the slogan ‘27 Saal,
UP Behaal’ from party headquarters in New Delhi on
Saturday.
During the 600 km show,
the party will hold a series of
roadside meetings with leaders
addressing the people en route.
Tripathi said the road show
would have leaders like AICC
general secretary and in-charge
of UP, Ghulam Nabi Azad,
UPCC chief Raj Babbar, party’s
chief ministerial face Sheila
Dixit, campaign committee
chairman Sanjay Singh and
other senior leaders.
He said the road show
would start from New Delhi
and pass through Ghaziabad,
City hosps to use coloured bed sheets
s part of a cleanliness and hygiene
drive, government-run hospitals in
A
Lucknow are gearing up to provide clean
bed sheets in wards.
For this, Balrampur Hospital and
SPM (Civil) Hospital will soon start purchasing coloured bed sheets to be changed
everyday to ensure cleanliness and hygiene
in wards.
Bed sheets of different colours will be
procured so as to avoid the reuse of linen.
Balrampur Hospital administration plans
to purchase over 5,000 new bed sheets at
an estimated cost of Rs 10 lakh. It has
sought funds from the state government
and expects to get it by August end.
“The hospital will purchase coloured
bed sheets and ensure they are changed
daily in all wards. It will also make laundry facilities more patient-friendly,” Chief
Medical Superintendent of Balrampur
Hospital, Dr Rajeev Lochan, said.
On being asked about advantages of
the new system, Dr Lochan said, “Often,
we get complaints from patients about dirty
bed sheets in wards. However, there are
clear instructions to nurses to change bed
sheets daily. The problem of changing bed
sheets daily increases during monsoons as
it is difficult to dry bed sheets on time.”
The SPM Hospital has also placed an
order for purchase of coloured bed sheets.
But coloured bed sheets and white bed
sheets will be changed on alternate days.
Medical Superintendent Dr Ashutosh
Dubey said the order for purchase of 2,000
coloured bed sheets had already been
placed.
“This will help in ensuring cleanliness
and the staff would not be able to fool the
administration. However, the hospital will
start using coloured bed sheets from
September,” he said.
Meanwhile, use of coloured bed sheets
is likely to get delayed in RML Hospital.
Chief Medical Superintendent Dr Omkar
Yadav, said that they had not received any
formal order from the state government in
this regard.
CM to felicitate
winners of
science awards
Veena Tandon CITYBRIEFS
does Biotech SUPER DANCER
Auditions for the dance
reality show, Super Dancer,
Park proud
Lucknow (PNS): A senior
scientist of Biotech Park Veena
Tandon, along with her team,
has carried out extensive
research on worm parasites of
animals, some of which have the
potential to affect human health
as well. Her lifetime contributions cover a complete spectrum
of worm infections prevalent in
animals of food value, including
the mammalian livestock (cattle,
mithun, yak, goat, sheep, pig),
poultry, frogs, fishes and crabs in
the north-eastern region of
India. The database, created by
her research group and titled
‘Northeast India Helminth
Parasite Information Database
(NEIHPID): Knowledge Base
for Helminth Parasites,” had
been recently published in an
internationally-reputed Journal
and is also covered in ‘Nature
India.’ The database is one of its
kind and will help in understanding diseases caused by
worms in many tropical SouthEast Asian countries, including
India. The findings have resulted in some immediate successes in identifying causal agents of
neglected tropical diseases in
humans. The database is important for the development of
interventions and effective control strategies with regard to such
infections.
Hapur,
Amroha
and
Moradabad where leaders
would halt for the night. “On
Sunday, the road show will pass
through Moradabad, Rampur,
Bareilly to reach Shahjahanpur
where the participants will
have a night halt. On Monday,
the road show will head to
Hardoi covering Kannauj and
end at Kanpur where a public
meeting is slated,” he said.
“The road show will make
people of UP aware of the failures and misgovernance by
successive non-Congress governments in UP during the last
27 years,” Tripathi added.
Meanwhile, Raj Babbar
said that the old state committee of Nirmal Khatri would
continue to function till further
orders.
channel were organised at the
Royal Mount Academy on
Friday. The auditions saw participation of over 600 children.
Super Dancer is a distinctive
platform that has opened
doors to aspirants between
the age group of 4 and 13 to District Magistrate Raj Shekhar during a meeting regarding Ganjing Carnival with
Pioneer
showcase their dancing officials at his office on Friday
prowess and carry the mantle
of ‘Dance Ka Kal’.
Shabeehul Hasnain will inau- Rakesh Kapoor on Friday. The
gurate the programme on employees accused the
Monday. JTRI chairman Nursing Staff Association of
PERFORMANCE REPORT
Governor Ram Naik Justice SU Khan and director not supporting the Karamchari
handed over his performance Mehboob Ali will also attend Mahasangh in their bid.
report to Prime Minister the inaugural event.
Narendra Modi on the comBSNL CAMP
pletion of his two years in AMDAWAD MA FAMOUS
BSNL is organising special
office. Appreciating the move
Lucknow Expressions will camps on Saturday in
of the Governor to publish the be screening movie ‘Amdavad Lucknow and other district of
performance report, the Prime Ma Famous’ at Bhartendu UP East circle to distribute free
Minister said that the Natya Academy on Sunday. Sim cards and sell their prodGovernor had laid the foun- This movie is produced by a ucts. The camps will be held
dation of a good tradition. woman from Lucknow, under the supervision of
Naik has sent the copies of the Akanksha Tewari, and direct- senior officers. Around 250
report to the President, Vice- ed by her husband Hardik camps will be organised in the
President, all members of Lok Mehta. The film is a 30-minute circle, including 15 in
Sabha and Rajya Sabha from docu-drama which was award- Lucknow. In Lucknow the
UP, Chief Minister Akhilesh ed the coveted ‘Swarn Kamal’ camps will be held at Sahara
Yadav, MLAs and MLCs of UP. for best non-feature film of Estates, HAL gate, Lohia Park,
2016 by President Pranab Amity University, PGI gate,
Parivartan Chowk, Luckow
Mukherjee.
TRAINING
University, Shia pg College,
Judicial Training and
IET, Mohanlalganj, Charbagh
Research Institute (JTRI) will MEMORANDUM
organise a five-day training
SGPGI employees, under bus station, BBD College,
programme for probationary the aegis of SGPGI 14) Integral University, KKC
civil judges in the state from Karmachari Mahasangh, College, E-Block market,
Monday. Chief Justice of handed over a charter of Rajajipuram, Charbagh
Allahabad High Court Justice demands to director Dr station.
Lucknow (PNS): Chief
Minister Akhilesh Yadav will
felicitate the winners of the science awards at a function to be
organised at his residence here
on Saturday.
Cabinet Minister Narad
Rai announced the Science
and Technology awards at a
press conference which was
held at the Vigyan Bhawan on
Friday. He said that the amount
of prize money had been
increased fivefold. The Vigyan
Gaurav Samman will be given
to the Head of the Pulmonary
Department, KGMU, Dr
Suryakant. The Vigyan Ratan
awards will be given to the
Head of the Paedriatic
Department, KGMU, SN
Kureel, Professor Abhijit
Chandra
of
the
Gastroenterology Department,
KGMU, and Salil Tandon, urologist, at the NE Railway auditorium.
Amongst the five young
scientists who will be awarded
are Dr SK Tewari from the
IISR, Shahjahanpur, Dr
Mayank Singh from the Dental
Faculty of KGMU, Dr
Sudhakar Srivastava from the
Environment Department,
Varanasi, Dr Tariq Aftaab from
the Aligarh Muslim University
and Dr Wajahuddin from the
CDRI.
Workshop for teachers’ counsellors concludes
Lucknow (PNS): The second
day of the intensive training for teachers’ counsellors on ‘Counselling
Skills and Interventions for Students’
Problems’ started with the participants sharing their experiences of the
exercises they had done as a part of
their homework. The exercises were
described by Prof Pallavi Bhatnagar
as a litmus test for comfort level with
the self. The purpose of the exercises
was to drive home the point that for
being a counsellor it was necessary
to connect with oneself because if
one does not accept oneself he or
she cannot be expected to accept
others with all their problems.
Prof Bhatnagar, Head,
Department of Psychology, LU, who
has been conducting the entire
training since day one of the workshop, kept the discussions jargonfree so as to make it easier to be
understood by the teachers’ coun-
sellors who came from different academic backgrounds. She discussed
some very basic skills of counsleling like rapport building, empathic
understanding and listening and
demonstrated each with the help of
some activity. Most of the activities
were role play exercises in which the
participants formed teams of two
each in which one had to play a client
and the other acted as a counsellor.
The teams enacted the role before
the audience and then shared their
experiences with each other and with
the group as well. The group was
also encouraged to share their
observations about the roles they
had played so far.
Many participants felt stuck at
some point or the other, the discussion of which led to a better
understanding of the process of
counselling in them. One such issue
was the role of ‘silence’ which is very
important to facilitate sharing by the
clients. In this way the trainees learnt
the basic skills of counselling by
doing. Bhatnagar put great emphasis on ‘listening’ as a skill. She said
in counselling it was important not
to hurry up, give space, adopt an
open posture and move with the
pace of the client. She also asked the
teachers’ counsellors to remember
that they were only facilitators and
not the problem solvers.
SCHOOLSCAN
GANDHI MEETS
PM OF MAURITIUS
Founder
of
City
Montessori School Jagdish
Gandhi met Prime Minister of
Mauritius Anerood Jugnauth
at latter’s residence and discussed the issues to establish
effective international law.
Principal of CMS, Kanpur
Road, Vineeta Kamran
accompanied him on this
occasion. Gandhi informed
the Mauritian PM about the
efforts being initiated by CMS
towards world unity and
world peace, saying that a
combined endeavour by all
countries of the world unitedly
from a single stage, was needed for providing a safe and
peaceful future to the 2.4 billion children of the world.
Gandhi also informed him
about the International
Conference of Chief Justices of
the World organised by CMS
for the past 16 years.
nation 05
INSHORT
NATIONAL HERALD CASE
Hooda booked for money laundering
According to ED
officials, the case
was registered after
the Haryana
Vigilance Bureau
took cognizance of
offence under
various provisions of
IPC and PCA, in the
process of land
allotment to
National Herald’s
publisher during
Hooda’s regime
PNS n NEW DELHI
eeping the Congress leadership on tenterhooks in
K
the National Herald scam, the
Enforcement Directorate on
Friday booked former Haryana
Chief Minister Bhupinder
Singh Hooda, four officials of
Haryana Urban Development
Authority (HUDA) besides
officials of Associated Journals
Limited (AJL), the publishers of
the defunct newspaper, under
the Prevention of Money
Laundering Act.
The ED registered the FIR
for alleged swindling of money
in connection with the controversial land allotment in
Panchkula to AJL.
According to ED officials,
the case was registered after the
Haryana Vigilance Bureau took
cognizance of offence under
various provisions of IPC and
Prevention of Corruption Act,
in the process of land allotment
to National Herald newspaper’s
publisher during Bhupinder
Hooda’s regime. It is learned
that even though the FIR of ED
did not name the officials of
AJL, Congress leaders Motilal
Vora and Oscar Fernadez and
Sonia Gandhi’s trusted aide
Suman Dubey would be summoned, as they are the main
Directors of the AJL.
Vora, Fernadez and Dubey
are already charged as accused
in the main case of National
Herald along with Sonia and
Rahul Gandhi. The petitioner
Subramanian Swamy has
already filed a complaint to the
ED Chief for registering a case
under PMLA against Sonia
and Rahul for swindling of
Rs.90 crore in the National
Herald case, citing that the trial
court has already taken cognizance of the offence.
The Vigilance Bureau had
registered a case of cheating
and corruption against Hooda
and four officials, who were in
SC issues notice to EC on PIL
against convicted lawmakers
NEW DELHI
NGO LOK PRAHARI.
THE NGO’S FOUNDER
SN SHUKLA
SUBMITTED THAT THE
SC IN JULY 2013 HAD
STRUCK DOWN THE
IMMUNITY AVAILABLE
TO A CONVICTED
MLA/MP TO REMAIN
IN OFFICE BY FILLING
AN APPEAL
CHALLENGING HIS
CONVICTION ORDER
he Supreme Court on
Friday asked the Election
T
Commission to respond
whether its decision of 2013
disqualifying convicted MLAs
and MPs was being circumvented by legislators after a PIL
gave instances to suggest so.
A bench of Chief Justice
TS Thakur, Justices FM
Ibrahim Kalifulla and AM
Khanwilkar issued notice to
the poll panel on a PIL filed by
NGO Lok Prahari. The NGO’s
founder SN Shukla sought a
direction from the Court to
ensure that the Election
Commission should be supplied with a copy of the order
passed by the trial court that
any convicted MP or MLA,
who was sentenced to an
imprisionment of two years or
more, will attract disqualification under the provisions of
Representation of Peoples Act,
1951.
Shukla submitted that the
Supreme Court in July 2013
had struck down the immunity available to a convicted
MLA/MP to remain in office
by filling an appeal challenging his conviction order. With
this protection gone, any conviction in an offence punishable beyond two years will
automatically attract disqualification. However, this was
not the ground reality citing
instance of UP MLA Kailash
Nath Chaurasiya.
This legislator managed to
remain as a legislator despite
incurring disqualification after
he was sentenced to three
years imprisonment by a trial
court in UP last year. The UP
Assembly failed to issue his
disqualification order and in
the meantime, Chaurasia
obtained a stay on his sentence
from the District Judge, the
petition pointed out.
This is not the lone case.
When Shukla approached EC
to remedy this loophole, even the poll
panel was helpless.
The
Commission
received
information
of two cases
f r o m
Maharashtra
where the convicted MLAs,
despit suffering disqualification of membership,
continued to remain on the
post after an opinion was
given by the state Advocate
General who proposed that
disqualification will be effective only after the Governor
issued an order of disqualification.
Not marrying girl after engagement
to prove costly affair for boys
ABRAHAM THOMAS n NEW DELHI
ot deciding to marry after being engaged
to a girl could prove costly for prospecN
tive grooms. A boy who called off the marriage
after his pre-wedding “roka” ceremony learnt
it the hard way as he was slapped with a cheating case by the girl’s family who demanded
repayment of the Rs 1.55 lakh, incurred on the
arrangement of the pre-nuptial event.
His woes ended after almost three years
on Friday, when the Supreme Court set aside
the criminal case pending against the boy,
Sujoy Saha and handed over a demand draft
of Rs 1.55 lakh to the girl’s family as a full and
final settlement towards the case.
The engagement that turned sour took
place in 2012. Saha had decided to tie the knot
with a Punjabi girl settled with her family in
Thane. The roka ceremony was decided to be
held at the girl’s place where the girl’s father
Chandrashekhar Kohli extended lavish hos-
pitality to the boy’s family.
But just days after the ceremony, the boy’s
family informed that Sujoy was no longer
interested in proceeding with the marriage.
The girl’s family was emotionally broken, but
the father decided not to take it lying down.
He approached the local police station of
Kasarvadavli in Thane and lodged a case
against the boy for breaching trust of his
daughter and the entire family. He was
charged under Sections 420 (cheating) of the
Indian Penal Code. On February 27, 2013 the
Sessions Court in Thane issued summons to
the boy, following which he panicked and
rushed to the apex court to get the summons
against him quashed.
The bench of Justices JS Khehar and Arun
Mishra accepted his offer to pay the money
and settle the case to which the state police had
no objection. The girl’s family did not appear
in the apex court as the state prosecuted the
case on their behalf.
n a step ahead towards rejuvenation of River Ganga, the
IMinistry
of Water Resources on
Friday set up two high-powered committees. One would
prepare a draft legislation on
the river, ensuring cleanliness
and its uninterrupted water
flow, the other would set up
guidelines for de-silting the
river stretch between
Bhimgauda in Uttarakhand
and Farakka in West Bengal.
The first of the two committees will be chaired by 79year-old retired Justice
Giridhar Malviya. He is also the
chairman
of
Ganga
Mahasabha, which was set up
by his grandfather and founder
of Banaras Hindu University
Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya.
The committee will also have
IIT Professors - AK Gosain
(Delhi) and Nayan Sharma
(Roorkee) besides former
Secretary VK Bhasin and
members from National
Mission for Clean Ganga.
GANGA REJUVENATION
The other committee comprising four members will be
headed by Madhav Chitale,
member of National Ganga
River Basin Authority
(NGRBA). The Secretaries of
Ministries of Water Resources
and Environment, and
Director, Central Water and
Power Research Station (Pune)
will be the other members. The
tenure of both the committees
is for three months, which
may be further extended if
required. The committee has
also been asked to establish difference between de-silting and
sand mining and also to establish need for de-silting for
(ensuing) ecology and e-flow of
the river Ganga.
The
Malviya-led
Committee will take into
account various draft proposals for the purpose while formulating the act. According to
sources in the Ministry, the
purpose of the exercise is to
convert the NGRBA into a
commission under the act of
New Delhi: The Women and
Child Development (WCD)
Ministry is formulating a national
creche policy which will be
applicable for private,
Government as well as the
unorganised sector. In a reply to
a question in the Lok Sabha,
WCD Minister Maneka Gandhi
said, “The Government has set
up a Working Group for
formulating comprehensive
guidelines for National
Programme for Creche and Day
Care Facilities for children and its
funding pattern etc under the
chairpersonship of Secretary,
WCD.”
HUDA for allegedly re-allotting a plot to AJL in Panchkula
in 2005. Hooda was the then
HUDA chairman, an ex-officio
post held by him as the CM.
Officials said summons
will soon be issued to the
accused named in the ED FIR.
Hooda termed the action as
“political vendetta” and said
there was no wrong doing.
The plot had been initially allotted to AJL in 1982.
After the expiry of the lease
period in 1996, then Haryana
Vikas Party government led by
Bansi Lal took back its possession. It was re-allotted to AJL
after the Congress came to
power in 2005. The plot measuring 3,360 square metres is in
the prime location of Sector 6
in Panchkula.
The Vigilance Bureau had
alleged that the act by the then
HUDA chairman and the officials had caused a huge financial loss to HUDA as the plot
should have been sold through
open auction instead of being
allotted again to AJL.
TRIBUNAL TOLD TO LOOK
INTO ARMY PORTERS’ CASE
New Delhi: The Supreme Court
on Friday stopped short of
passing an order asking the
Armed Forces Tribunal to
examine the service conditions
of ‘Army porters’ who have been
agitating with the Centre for
regularisation of their services
and sought the ‘real picture’
about them. The apex court had
framed questions for the tribunal
to examine the issues plaguing
the army porters, the civilian part
of the army deployed in some
sectors like Nowshera (Rajouri)
in Jammu and Kashmir but the
Centre requested that it be given
a week’s time to analyse the
aspect.
Abnormal foetus:
Mumbai medical
board to examine
rape survivor
New Delhi: A medical board
will be set up at a Mumbai
hospital to examine the condition of an alleged rape survivor who wants to abort her
24-weeks-old ‘abnormal’ foetus, the Supreme Court on
Friday said.
A bench headed by Justice
J S Khehar asked the medical
board to examine the
woman at King
Edward Memorial
C ollege
and
Hospital
at
Mumbai,
by
Saturday and
submit its report
to the apex court
on Monday.
The bench also
comprising Justice
Arun Mishra said the
report of the medical board
with regard to the woman’s
condition will be assessed and
if necessary, some directions
will be passed.
Senior advocate Colin
Gonsalves, appearing for the
woman, will ensure that she
reaches the hospital by tomorrow for her examination, it said.
Solicitor General Ranjit
Kumar said that the Centre
was ready to constitute a medical board at All India Institute
of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)
where the woman could be
examined.
Gonsalves said that the
condition of the woman, who
is at present in Mumbai, is
very bad and she will not be
able to travel to Delhi.
“Delay in these matters is
very bad. There should not be
any delay in these matters,” the
bench said, adding that a larger issue of law will be dealt
with separately. The apex
court had on Thursday sought
reply from the Centre and the
Maharashtra Government on
the plea of the woman.
The alleged rape survivor
has also challenged the constitutional validity of the provisions of the abortion law which
prohibits termination of pregnancy after 20 weeks even if
there is a fatal risk to the
mother and the foetus. PTI
Two high-powered panels formed
PNS n NEW DELHI
GOVT DEVISING NATIONAL
CRECHE POLICY: MANEKA
Parliament Act. The proposed
law will help the Ministry to
work out a more coordinated
approach to deal inter-state
river issues- spanning across
Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh,
Bihar, Jharkhand and West
Bengal.
Further, it is also expected
to provide more legal teeth to
NGRBA for exercising its
authority of cleaning up of the
river by providing provisions to
penalize the polluters including
industries. The proposed legislation, according to sources,
will thus come handy to help
stop the discharge of untreated water into the river.
In the present scenario, in
absence of a central legislation,
the respective local authorities
are left to tackle the issue of
river pollution under the existing Water (prevention and
control of pollution) Act. This
has not yielded result, the
issues being embroiled in various inter- state complications.
Further, the Act also lacks
punitive measures.
LEKHI TO HEAD LOK SABHA
PRIVILEGES COMMITTEE
Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal talking to the media at Parliament House during the Monsoon Session in New Delhi on
Friday. Congress MP Dipendra Hooda is also seen
PTI
SPECIAL STATUS TO ANDHRA
Ruckus in Rajya Sabha stalls
Cong MP’s Pvt Member Bill
NEW DELHI
Private Member Bill
moved by a Congress
A
member in the Rajya Sabha to
seek special category status in
the reorganised State of Andhra
Pradesh could not be taken up
due to noisy scenes created by
both the ruling and Opposition
benches on Friday.
While the political parties
issued a whip to respective
members to be present on the
occasion, attempts of Congress
member KVP Ramachandra
Rao’s Private Member Bill was
foiled strategically by ruling
BJP members who stormed
into the Well of Upper House
demanding arrest of Lok Sabha
member Bhagwant Mann on
charges of security breach of
DEPUTY CHAIRMAN
PJ KURIEN HAD A
TOUGH TIME IN
DEALING WITH BOTH
THE SIDES AND HE
SAID THAT THE
HOUSE SHOULD BE
ALLOWED TO
FUNCTION SINCE THE
SCHEDULE WAS
PRIVATE MEMBER
BILL
Parliament.
Deputy Chairman PJ
Kurien had a tough time in
dealing with both the sides and
he said that the House should
be allowed to function since the
schedule was Private Member
Bill. While the Congress members alleged that their BJP
counterparts were shouting to
foil Congress’ attempts to seek
special category for Andhra
through a Bill moved by a private member since the Centre
has failed to grant so, the ruling party ignored this and
rather pressed for action
against Mann.
The Congress issued a
three-line whip to all its 60
members in the 243-member
Upper House to vote for the
bill. Congress leaders had
thought the bill would be
passed as the party was able to
gather support from more than
100 members. Interestingly,
the Telugu Desam Party (TDP)
also extended its support to the
proposed legislation.
CBI arrests
two for forging
PM’s signature
PNS n NEW DELHI
he CBI has arrested a
Jharkhand resident along
T
with his accomplice hailing from
West Bengal for allegedly forging signature of Prime Minister
Narendra Modi on a letter which
claimed he had been invited to
organise a classical music programme for Independence Day
celebrations here.
The two accused Pandit
Swaraj Kumar Roy and
Suvendu Kumar Burman were
produced before Chief
Metropolitan Magistrate here
on Friday who remanded them
in CBI custody till July 27.
The letter written in May
last year and bearing the forged
signature of Modi was sent to
the Prime Minister’s Office
(PMO) which in turn referred
it to the CBI for enquiry and the
agency registered a case after
preliminary investigations.
“The allegations pertain to
forgery of signature of Prime
Minister of India on a letter purportedly issued by the PMO to
the said accused for arranging
classical music programme on
upcoming Independence Day,”
the CBI said in a statement.
Searches were conducted at
Bokaro steel City (Jharkhand)
and Bishnupur, District
Bankura (West Bengal), on the
premises of accused which led
to the recovery of a large number of “incriminating forged
documents and articles” relating to forgery of the signatures
of Prime Minister of India, the
agency added.
New Delhi: BJP leader and New
Delhi MP Meenakshi Lekhi has
been appointed as the
chairperson of the Committee of
Privileges of the Lok Sabha. She
replaces SS Ahluwalia, who
resigned on July 18 on his
appointment as a minister. “The
Speaker has appointed
Meenakshi Lekhi as Chairperson
of Committee of Privileges vice
SS Ahluwalia who resigned from
the Committee,” a Lok Sabha
bulletin said.
RAJNATH TO DISCUSS ISIS
ISSUE WITH B’DESH HM
New Delhi: Growing activities of
ISIS, radicalisation of youths
and cross-border crimes will be
high on the agenda of IndiaBangladesh Home Minister level
talks scheduled to be held next
week. Home Minister Rajnath
Singh will hold the delegation
level talks with his Bangladeshi
counterpart Asaduzamman Khan
Kamal here on July 28 during
which activities of the MiddleEast terror group, counter-terror
cooperation and how to check
cross border crimes will be
discussed threadbare.
MIN TO ORGANISE
MOTORCYCLE RALLY
New Delhi: The Department of
Empowerment of Persons with
Disabilities under the Social
Justice and Empowerment
Ministry is organising a
motorcycle rally ‘Ride 4
Accessibility’ on Sunday here to
create awareness and sensitise
the society towards disability
and the need for accessibility.
The Rally, which will include
about 500 young men and
women motorcycle riders will be
flagged off at India Gate by
Prakash Javadekar, HRD
Minister and Harsh Vardhan,
Minister for Science &
Technology while Thaawarchand
Gehlot, Minister for Social
Justice & Empowerment will
preside over the function.
APPLY TILL AUG 31 FOR
MINORITY SCHOLARSHIP
Union Minister of Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, Dr. Harsh Vardhan
with S&T Secretary Ashutosh Sharma, CSIR DG Girish Sahini and scientists from
CSIR-Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute (CSIR-CMERI), Durgapur,
West Bengal, after launching the ‘Solar Power Tree’ (seen in the backdrop) an
intervention aimed at utilising minimum land to harness maximum solar energy at
his residence at 8, Tees January Marg in New Delhi
Pioneer photo
New Delhi: The Government
has extended the deadline for
online submission of
applications by minority
students for availing pre-matric
and post-matric scholarships
this academic year by one
month. The students can submit
their applications till August 31
now, Union Minister of State for
Minority Affairs (independent
charge) Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi
said in a statement.
Govt to raise Kohinoor
issue with Britain
PTI n NEW DELHI
he Government is likely to approach
Britain soon to get back the famed
T
Kohinoor, one of the world’s largest diamonds,
which is currently set in a royal crown on display in the Tower of London.
The decision was taken at a high-level
meeting on Friday which was attended by
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj,
Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma and Cabinet
Secretary P K Sinha among others, sources
said, adding Britain may be approached on the
issue next month.
The meeting also discussed possibility of
signing a treaty with the UK wherein Britain
may be assured that India would not claim any
other artefacts that are lying in the museums
in that country except the Kohinoor, they said.
The meeting, that lasted for over 45 minutes, was called following the Prime Minister’s
direction to take steps to bring back the 108carat precious gem from the UK, they said.
nation 06
FAIZAN AHMAD n PATNA
hief Minister Nitish Kumar
has strongly denied any
C
attempt to make law for the
arrest of adult males on seizure
of liquor in their neighbourhood. He also denied the reports
that village mukhiya and
chowkidar be sent to jail if
liquor is found in their village.
Addressing the elected representatives of the panchayati raj
institutions, the CM said all
sorts of rumours were being
spread. “The rumours about
arrest of neighbours, mukhiya
and chowkidar on seizure of
Kejriwal meets Guj victims,
slams police for ‘inaction'
BIHAR LIQUOR BAN
No laws to arrest
neighbours: Nitish T
NAYAN DAVE n MOTA SAMADHIALA (GIR SOMNATH)
liquor, have been spread by
rumour mongers. It has
become a profession of some
people to spread baseless
reports to misguide common
people,” said the CM.
It had earlier been reported by some vernacular newspapers that the Bihar
Government was going to
amend the Bihar Excise Act,
2016 to make it more dreaded and even arrest male members of the family in whose
neighbourhood liquor would
be seized. Similarly, the
mukhiyas and chowkidar
could be arrested if liquor is
found in any house in their
villager. The report had reasoned that Government was
forced to go for amendment in
view of the release of accused
people from different courts
from whose houses liquor
was seized.
While addressing panchayat representative through
webcasting Nitish asked, “Am
I so crazy to make such a law
of sending mukhiyas to jail?
Can anybody imagine this?
Sometimes back it had been
rumoured that if liquor is
seized from any house even
the neighbours would be sent
to jail. Do you think it is possible?” The CM also asked
them to take pledge of not
consuming liquor and making
people aware about its ill
effects.
By using the phrase
rumour masters, Nitish was
referring to the BJP and its
leaders who after the publication of such reports had come
aking a dig on Gujarat
Police, Delhi Chief Minister
and Aam Adami Party (AAP)
chief Arvind Kejriwal on Friday
claimed that though there were
more than 40 people involved
in the alleged atrocities against
Dalits in Una, police have only
arrested 16 people.
The Delhi Chief Minister
was in Gujarat and visited Dalit
youths who were brutally beaten up by self-styled cow protectors. Kejriwal landed in
Rajkot and went to the civil hospital to meet injured Dalits.
From Rajkot he drove down
more than 200 km and reached
Mota Samadhiala near Una
town to meet other victims and
their family members.
He alleged that the local
police was inactive when the
Bihar Police personnel tripling a bike ride without helmets in Patna on Friday
down heavily on the CM and
called him a dictator. RJD
supremo Lalu Prasad too had
disapproved of any such move
by the Government.
Sources said that the
amended Act would be introduced in the coming Monsoon
Session of the Legislature
which might make possession of liquor a cognizable
offence.
Meanwhile, the Patna
High Court said since possession of liquor in the house was
not a crime under the law how
come FIR was lodged against
JD(U) MLC Manorma Devi.
Acting Chief Justice of the
court Iqbal Ahmed Ansari
asked this question to the SSP
of Gaya and asked him to furnish reply by July 25. He said
he members of the
Assam
Legislative
T
Assembly, cutting across the
party lines, on Friday
expressed concern over the
security of State Chief
Minister
Sarbananda
Sonowal and appealed that
the Chief Minister must avail
the Z+ security cover.
The matter came up for
discussion in the House on
Friday after BJP Legislator
Padma Hazarika raised the
issue of threat perception in
the State due to jehadi elements. Hazarika wanted to
culprits were supported by some
powerful lobby."
Replying to a question on
BJP allegation that he was doing
Dalit politics, Kejriwal answered
the difference between the two
parties was that the AAP fought
for justice while the BJP was protecting the accused. Just like
Rahul Gandhi, who visited the
village on Thursday, Kejriwal too
had a cup of tea at Dalit victim
Balubhai Sarvaiya's residence
and also gave his personal mobile
number to his daughter Vanita.
Kejriwal also demanded that the
Gujarat Government should give
a permanent job to Sarvaiya's
daughter who is doing a nursing
course.
Meanwhile, protests over
the atrocities against Dalits continued on Friday as incidents of
stone-pelting, arson and road
blockades were reported in parts
of the State.
PNS n KOLKATA
day after resuming her
attack on Prime Minister
A
Narendra Modi from a
Trinamool Congress mass rally
in Kolkata, Bengal Chief
Minister Mamata Banerjee proceeded further to keep the BJP
under pressure by deciding to
send a team of MPs to Una in
Gujarat on a fact-finding mission. The parliamentary delegation headed by TMC
spokesperson Derek O’ Brien
would inquire into the incidents
of alleged attacks on Dalits and
would also visit a hospital in
Rajkot where the victims are
undergoing treatment, party
sources said.
Banerjee, who had on
Thursday said that the Central
Government led by Modi was
killing federalism by making
unnecessary interferences in
the State affairs and unleashing
CBI and ED on the Opposition
leaders also termed the Una
incident as an "organised crime."
PTI
the Government is free to
bring whatever law it wanted
to introduce and it should not
wait for the judgment of the
court. “We are also waiting for
the new legislation,” he said
while hearing the writ petition
related to arrest of Manorma
Devi, who had earlier been
granted bail by the High
Court. The court said that
under the prevalent law, passed
only three months back, consumption of liquor was a crime
and not its possession.
Meantime, the Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation
has denied report appeared in
a section of media that the
Bihar Government was taking
services of the Foundation to
study the socio-economic
impact of the prohibition.
Jehadi threat? Assam CM
urged to avail Z+ security
ANUP SHARMA n GUWAHATI
Dalits were beaten but took the
culprits into custody only after
the Dalits started their protests
and media raised a hue and cry.
He demanded that the other 40
to 50 people who took part in the
incident should also be arrested.
Atrocities against Dalits have
taken place earlier too in Gujarat
but no one has been punished or
jailed, said Kejriwal, adding that
in the Una case the culprits
would be released on bail as soon
as the media would divert its
attention to some other issue.
He demanded that an
example needs to be set by giving stern punishment to the culprits. The Gujarat Government
did not act in time because the
attack on Dalits was blessed by
people at the top, he said, adding:
"Dalits were thrashed in front of
public. If such an incident is happening in the presence of the
administration it means those
TMC MPs’ team
to visit Gujarat
know from the Government if
the existing security cover
availed by the Chief Minister
is adequate to protect him considering the threat perception.
Replying to Hazarika,
State Parliamentary Affairs
Minister Chandra Mohan
Patowary said that although
the intelligence had suggested
Z+ security cover for the Chief
Minister, it is the Chief
Minister who had been refusing to avail the same.
At this all the members of
Opposition, including the
members of BJP, the AGP, BPF,
Congress, AIUDF and the
Independents appealed that
the Chief Minister must avail
Z+ security cover, which was
suggested to him by the intelligence. Patowary assured the
House that he would convey
the concern of the House to
the Chief Minister.
It may be mentioned here
that the Chief Minister
Sonowal after assuming charge
two months back decided to
avail extended security cover
as it often causes traffic snarls
due to the number of vehicles
in the cavalcade causing problems for the common people.
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
MODI EXHORTS...
“I have given Rs 7,000
crore to the State. This is not
less for the health sector but the
State Government has only
utilised Rs 2,850 crores as there
is a provision to show utilisation for taking rest amount.
This happened as the State
Government did not have the
strength,” Modi said.
“The Government which
cannot work for the health
doesn’t deserve to continue,” he
added.
The PM said the revival of
the fertiliser plant is going to
bring a big change as gasbased economy will start with
supply of gas in Gorakhpur
through Jagdishpur-Haldia
pipeline. “The gas being
brought by the pipeline for the
factory will go to every household in Gorakhpur and in a
same way water is supplied
through pipe. If electricity and
gas are provided, then industrialists line up. It is a beginning
of an industrial revolution in
the eastern UP. It is not merely inauguration of a factory but
the start of a victory march that
will defeat poverty, unemployment...,” he said.
In a dig at previous
Congress Governments at the
Centre, Modi said they used to
import urea and other fertilisers while plants remained
closed in India.
His Government, he said,
has decide to revive closed
plants and noted that most of
them, like in Sindri and
Barauni, were in eastern part of
the country, which needed to
be strengthened if India was to
develop. The PM said the chariot of development can run
only when both the wheels
were balanced and strong.
“One wheel is of eastern India
and another one is of western
states. If only one is strong, the
development chariot will not
move at a high speed,” he said.
The Prime Minister said if
the second green revolution
will start then it will start from
eastern UP. He said that after
taking over as Prime Minister,
he stopped black marketing of
urea and this was the reason
farmers were no longer
required to face batons to get
urea.
“But I can proudly say that
in past 1.5 years, I did not get
any letter from CMs for fertiliser as we have checked its
black marketing and initiated
ways to check their use by
chemical factories by using
neem coating. Now it is easily
available in the market,” he said.
“In future, we will not
import urea but are also making plans to make urea in foreign countries and bring it
here”, he said.
Giving credit for the foundation laying of AIIMS and
revival of fertiliser plant to the
people of the State, Modi said,
“If someone says that the plant
closed for 26 years will reopen
because of me, he is wrong.
Had the people of the State did
not give me mandate to form
a strong Government, this
would not have been possible.”
“You have voted for a
Government at the Centre,
which believes in working. The
credit goes to you all. If you
elect a Government keeping in
mind your interests, the
Government also keeps in
mind your interests and works
on it,” he said.
Modi said he has often
asked “when he sleeps” but
“you people have elected representatives, who don’t let me
sleep”.
He noted that for the first
time the Government has been
able to reduce the price of urea.
“If price of vegetables or tomatoes increases, then in 24 hours
people are ready to criticise the
Government. But when prices
of important things reduce or
important decisions are taken
nobody is ready to speak about
that,” he said.
“Today, I am feeling happy
to share with you that due to
policies of our Government
and for the benefit of farmers,
we have been able to reduce
cost of DAP fertiliser by Rs
2,500 per tonne. Before this no
Government thought about
providing fertiliser at such
cheap rates. This is the first
Government which thought
in this direction.”
He said the government
has launched PM Fasal Beema
Yojna under which farmers
would get maximum benefit by
paying minimum premium.
This scheme has come for the
first time after Independence.
Modi said that despite impact
on financial resources due to
drought, his Government has
been able to ensure payment of
93 per cent cane farmers.
Referring to AIIMS, he
said, “AIIMS is considered as a
standard in our country.
Whether it should be only for
the people of Delhi. Whether it
should not be brothers and sisters of UP. A 750-bed AIIMs
will be set up with a cost of
more than Rs 1,000 crore.”
DAYA’S SISTER...
Nasimuddin Siddiqui,
national BSP secretary Mewa
Lal Gautam and others.
“Such threatening by the
BSP leaders against a woman
and a girl also amounts to a
crime like my husband has
been accused of. The BSP people were publicly saying ‘Unki
patni, beti ko pesh karo’. This
has forced my 12-year-old
daughter into a trauma,” Swati
said.
She added, “An FIR must
be lodged against all those
abusing us on record. These
people should be held guilty for
mentally harassing my young
daughter who is now afraid to
attend her school. If anything
happens to my family, the BSP
chief Mayawati should be held
responsible.”
“My husband was stripped
of his post and expelled from
the BJP for his utterances.
Besides, an FIR was lodged
against him despite him apologising. But still Mayawatiji is
not satisfied. After what these
BSP leaders said on Thursday
should such people not be
removed from the BSP akin to
my husband?” she queried.
Swati pointed out,
“Mayawati
said
that
Dayashankar had insulted a
woman. Agreed. But what
would she say about the act of
her party members. It is unfortunate that BSP which follows
Dr Ambedkar’s ideology
abused me and my daughter in
front of the statue of
Ambedkar. The leader had
great respect for women but the
BSP people do not follow him,”
she said.
Also, she took strong
exception to a BSP leader’s
announcement of paying Rs 50
lakh to anyone who gets her
husband Singh’s tongue.
Swati said her husband
has not contacted her or any
family members after the FIR
was lodged against him on
Wednesday night.
Meanwhile in Ballia, supporters of Singh’s brother
Dharmendra Singh created
ruckus at a police station on
Thursday night after he was
detained and quizzed about his
brother for close to four hours.
In Lucknow, BJP State
General Secretar y Vijay
Bahadur Pathak also questioned the act of BSP leaders
against the women kin of
Singh.
“We have punished Singh
by sacking him from the party
even after he tendered an apology. It remains to be seen what
Mayawati does to her supporters and leaders who used
foul language against women
members of Singh’s family. Are
the BSP leaders free to say anything against women,” he questioned.
Pathak said the rule of law
is the same for everyone. “If
Singh could be booked for his
derogatory language, then why
not the BSP leaders?” he
argued.
MPS UNITED AGAINST...
Before Mahajan came to
the House, a number of MPs
from the Akali Dal, the BJP and
the Shiv Sena met her and
demanded action against
Mann, the sources said. After
her meeting with Mann, the
Speaker held consultations with
Deputy
Speaker
M
Thambidurai and some other
leaders to take suggestions on
the matter.
Members of the treasury
benches in the Rajya Sabha also
came to the Well of the House
demanding immediate arrest of
the AAP leader. They drew
attention to the 2001 terror
attack on Parliament and
demanded the AAP MP from
Punjab be penalised for streaming on social media the video
showing various layers of
screening and checks.
Amidst the noisy scene
both from ruling and
Opposition sides in the Upper
House, Food Processing
Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal,
who wanted to speak on the
subject, could not do so and
stood on her feet for almost 20
minutes until Deputy
Chairman PJ Kurien adjourned
the House for the day.
A politically significant
Andhra
Pradesh
Reorganisation Amendment
Private Member Bill was listed
in the Rajya Sabha for which all
political parties had issued a
whip for its members to be present but finally could not be
taken.
In the nearly 12 minute
video, Mann is seen giving a
running commentary as his
vehicle crosses security barricades and enters Parliament.
“I’ll today show you something
you would not have seen earlier,” he is heard saying. Mann
is then shown entering a room
where questions to be taken up
inside Parliament are being
sorted and seen describing the
ongoing process.
Defending Mann, AAP
leader Ashutosh said the Lok
Sabha member from Sangrur
was only trying to “show” the
procedure of asking questions
during
the
Zero
Hour.”Adityanath, Sakshi
Maharaj, Giriraj Singh are the
biggest threat to country’s security and these leaders will add
glory to Parliament, while
Bhagwant Mann will be
booked under NSA? What justice is this? (sic)” tweeted AAP
leader Sanjay Singh.
IAF PLANE...
The main focus of these
aircraft and 13 ships was to
look for the ship ten nautical
miles in sea on either side of
the flight path of the ill-fated
plane, they said. A submarine
was also diverted to the area
to hunt for the beacon of the
plane in case it was under
water, they added.
Moreover, Eastern Fleet
Commander Rear Admiral
Sunil Bokre also rushed in a
ship from Port Blair to oversee
the rescue operations, said
Navy spokesperson Captain
DK Sharma. Coast Guard officials said their reconnaissance
Dornier aircraft has reached
the site from where the IAF
plane had sent the signals for
the last time.
Often called ‘workhorse’, as
these planes are rugged and
carry troops besides maintaining logistical support to far
flung posts of the Army all over
the country, IAF has over 100
Russian made AN-32s which
were inducted in the mid
1980s. The missing plane had
undergone upgrade last year.
Incidentally, the last AN-32 air
crash took place in Arunachal
Pradesh in 2009 killing 19 personnel on board.
Meanwhile,
Home
Minister Rajnath Singh asked
the National Disaster Response
Force (NDRF) to assist the Air
Force, the Navy and the Coast
Guard to locate the missing aircraft. The Minister spoke to
NDRF chief OP Singh and
asked him to ensure assistance
in the search and rescue operation. The NDRF will provide
manpower from its Chennai
base, officials said.
KABALI WALA...
But he had the ability to
live the character he was asked
to play. That makes him different from all others,” said
Ayub.
Those who want to see
Kabali in Chennai theatres
may have to wait for a couple
of weeks as all theatres have
prominently displayed the “sold
out” boards.
Last heard: Hundreds of
Rajni fans who could not get
tickets for the first day first
show made it to neighbouting
Kerala where Kabali is shown
in 306 screens! “No other stars
in India have this much fan following,” said Sundar Das,
movie critic.
P Vasu, director of blockbusters like Chandramukhi
starring Rajnikanth, said Kabali
was a director’s movie. “It
reflects the style of Ranjith, the
young movie maker. More than
a Rajni movie, I rate Kabali as
Ranjit’s movie,” Vasu told The
Pioneer.
ADARSH BUILDING...
The society owners had
approached apex court expecting stay of HC’s order directing
demolition of the building.
The High Court, while ordering demolition on April 29,
2016 had stayed the operation
its order for 12 weeks for
enabling the residents to appeal
to the apex court. The order
was significant as the HC even
asked the Centre and the
Maharashtra Government to
consider initiating civil and
criminal proceedings against
bureaucrats, Ministers and
politicians for alleged acts of
corruption in granting clearances to the Adarsh Society,
where instead of war heroes
and war widows, Ministers,
bureaucrats and other influential persons secured homes.
The Adarsh scam as it later
came to be known generated
political heat in the state as it
led to the resignation of the
then Congress Chief Minister
Ashok Chavan. In February
2016, the Maharashtra
Governor accorded sanction to
the Central Bureau of
Investigation (CBI) to prosecute Chavan in connection
with this case following a judicial enquiry commission that
submitted incriminating details
against him.
nation 07
KASHMIR UNREST
ONE MORE KILLED IN FRESH VIOLENCE
Another succumbs to injuries in
hospital; Rajnath to visit Valley today
KHURSHEED WANI n SRINAGAR
between Chief Minister
Mufti's all-party
ImeetnMehbooba
on July 21 and Home
Minister Rajnath Singh's arrival
in Srinagar on July 23, Kashmir
Valley continued to remain on
the edge on Friday as law enforcing agencies shot yet another
youngster in south Kashmir's
Awantipora area while a youngster succumbed to his injuries in
a hospital. Massive protests were
held in various parts of the
Valley as curfew and shutdown
continued to cripple normal
life in the region.
Sources said that a group of
youngsters held demonstrations at Charsoo village in
Awantipora pocket of south
Kashmir after the Friday
prayers. They were intercepted
by police in the village located
on the Srinagar-Jammu
National Highway leading to
clashes. Police fired teargas
shells and opened fire on the
protesters. One youngster
Mushtaq Ahmad was hit by a
bullet. He was shifted to hospital where doctors declared
him dead on arrival.
Earlier, a youngster from
south Kashmir's Kokernag area
identified as ishfaq Ahmad
succumbed to his injuries at a
Srinagar hospital. Ahmad was
taken to hospital 12 days ago
after he was injured in security forces' firing in the area.
Sources said that police
also opened fire on protesters at
Kakapora and Pulwama in
south Kashmir. Sources said that
at least three protesters have
been wounded in the incident.
Among them a Class IX student
Asif Ahmad's condition was
reported to be critical.
Officials say that 45 people,
including three women and a
policeman, have died so far in
the two weeks of turmoil.
Hundreds of civilians and security personnel have been
wounded. The unofficial
counts put the death toll at 50.
Meanwhile, normal life
remained crippled throughout
the Valley for the 14th consecutive day as the authorities continued imposition of curfew in
the sensitive localities across
Kashmir. The areas without
curfew were affected by the
shutdown called by separatist
leaders Syed Ali Geelani,
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin
Malik who have constituted a
"joint resistance group" to spearhead the agitation that broke out
after Burhan Wani's killing.
The authorities barred
worshippers to access the
Srinagar's Grand Mosque
where Friday prayers were not
Protesters throw stones at paramilitary soldiers and policemen in Srinagar on Friday
AP
services. The suspension of
mobile telephony and internet
network continues for the past
two weeks.
Meanwhile, the Jammu &
Kashmir High Court has
directed the State Government
to take action against news
channels that have created
"hysteria" about Kashmir and
its people, and blamed the
television media reportage for
pushing the Valley's IAS officer
Shah Faesal "to the edge". A
Division Bench of the High
Court comprising Chief Justice
NN Paul Vasanthakumar and
Justice Muzaffar Hasnain Attar
has expressed displeasure over
the media coverage and
observed that the "hysteria created by some national news
channels" has created problems
for the Government.
held for the second consecutive
time. Mirwaiz Umar Farooq,
who is under house arrest like
most of the separatist leaders,
delivers weekly politico-religious sermon in the mosque.
The communication
blockade continued in the
Valley as authorities suspended telephone services barring
BSNL post paid landline,
mobile and broadband internet
Mumbai cops likely
to submit report on
Zakir Naik next week
Mumbai: The Mumbai Police
is likely to submit by next week
its report to the State
Government on controversial
Islamic preacher Zakir Naik,
who is facing multiple probes
over his alleged provocative
speeches, a high-ranked police
official said on Friday.
"The report is in the final
stages of preparation and it is
likely to be submitted by next
week," the police official said.
According to him, police
were planning to submit the
report a couple of days back
but the arrest of Arshi Qureshi,
associated with Naik's Islamic
Research Foundation (IRF),
prompted them to wait for
additional inputs, if any.
Qureshi was arrested from
Navi Mumbai yesterday by a
joint team of Maharashtra ATS
and the Kerala Police for
allegedly radicalising a Kochibased woman.
"This arrest delayed the
process. We are waiting for the
ATS report. The information
they provide to us will be
incorporated in our probe
report," he said.
The official added
although they are yet to get in
touch with Naik, the teleevangelist has not been given
a clean cheat yet.
"Police haven't given a
clean cheat to Naik yet," he
said.
Replying to a quer y
whether Qureshi's arrest will
help police in their probe
against Naik, the official said,
"Anyone can be associated
with an organisation, but it all
depends on the involvement of
this person in a criminal act."
Naik, a city-based tele-evangelist, who also runs Peace TV,
has been under scanner of various agencies after one of the
attackers involved in the Dhaka
terror strike posted he had been
influenced by the preacher.
Last week, Naik held an
interaction with the media in
Mumbai via Skype from Saudi
Arabia, wherein he had rubbished the charge his sermons
had inspired terror activity,
including the Dhaka attack.
He had also said he would
not return to India this year.
PTI
Water discharge
from Nepal ruins
Valmiki Nagar
barrage gate
Patna: One of the 36 gates of
Valmiki Nagar barrage on the
Gandak River in Bihar's West
Champaran district was partially
damaged due to pressure of water
discharge from Nepal and repair
works are underway.
Water Resources Department
(WRD) Minister Rajiv Ranjan
Singh today said, gate number 33
of the barrage on Gandak river was
partially damaged last night when
all the gates were being opened to
regulate discharge of 2.70 lakh
cusec water by Nepal following
heavy rainfall in catchment areas
of various rivers.
"However, there is no need for
panic by people residing in the low
lying areas of West Champaran
and other districts as the other 35
gates are functioning normally and
regulating discharge of river water
from Nepal," he said.
Singh said the barrage had
discharged 1.69 lakh cusec water
during the day yesterday, but the
discharge level suddenly jumped
to 2.7 lakh cusec in the night due
to heavy rainfall in the catchment
area in Nepal. The Valmiki Nagar
barrage has water discharge
capacity of 8.5 lakh cusec.
While WRD engineers were
deputed permanently at the
barrage, a private maintenance
team is working overtime to repair
the damaged gate, Singh said,
adding a team of engineers have
been rushed to Valmiki Nagar to
supervise repair and restoration
works of the barrage gate.
PTI
Dubai girls have emotional reunion with mother after 28 yrs in Hyd
OMER FAROOQ n HYDERABAD
fter six month long search
the Hyderabad City Police
A
have succeeded in uniting
two Dubai-based daughters
with their mother in the city.
Ayesha R asheed and
Fatima Rasheed from the
United Arab Emirates had an
emotional reunion with their
60-year-old mother Naziya
Begum at the office of the
S outh
Z one
Deputy
C ommissioner of Police
Satyanarayana.
Two girls, who were separated from their mother at a
tender age and had never
seen her again, had come to
Hyderabad six months ago to
search for the mother.
After they sought the help
WE ARE GRATEFUL TO
ALLAH THAT HE
BROUGHT US
TOGETHER. WE ARE
THANKFUL TO THE
POLICE OFFICIALS AND
ALL OTHERS WHO MADE
IT POSSIBLE
— DAUGHTER
from the DCP, the police
launched a campaign to
locate the lady in the old city.
Police also publicised her
photo which the girls had
brought from Dubai with
them. After searching for a
few days, the daughters
returned to Dubai but were in
Fadnavis defends Mins, says clean
chit given to Khadse in 2 graft cases
TN RAGHUNATHA n MUMBAI
aharashtra Chief Minister
Devendra Fadnavis on
M
Friday defended as many as
former and current Ministers,
including Eknath Khadse,
Pankaja Munde and Sambhaji
Patil-Nilangekar, who are facing allegations of corruption
and irregularities.
Dismissing most of the
allegations of corruption and
irregularities made by his former and current Ministers,
including Khadse and Pankaja,
the Chief Minister said,
“(Through facts), I have already
proven as to how incorrect are
the allegations made against our
(former
and
current)
Ministers)… All the same let
me tell you that the people have
elected us to provide a transparent Government. We are of
the firm view that we in the
Government are the trustees of
the people. We are a democracy. There should be criticism of
those in power. If we have
erred somewhere, you
(Opposition) should point out.
We
will
correct
ourselves...Otherwise democracy becomes dictatorship”.
Responding to each of the
allegations made against former and current Ministers in
his Government, the Chief
Minister said in the State
Assembly that the investigations had already proved that
there was truth in two of the
allegations against Khadse,
who had to resign from his
Minister’s post in the wake of
allegations of corruption, misuse of power and links with
Karachi-based underworld
don Dawood Ibrahim.
Fadnavis said that while
the authorities concerned had
given clean chit to Khadse in
the allegations that one
Gajanan Patil who claimed
himself to be his “personal
aide” for allegedly demanding
a `30-crore bribe from an
entrepreneur over a land allotment issue and that telephone
calls were made to his mobile
phone from the Karachi residence of Dawood Ibrahim.
The allegations against Khadse
in the Pune land deal were
being investigated by a commission of inquiry.
“It is I who gave clean chit
to Khadse in both the cases,
but the investigating agencies.
In the Gajanan Patil case, it was
the Lokayukta who gave a
clean chit to Khadse — based
on a report from the Anti
Corruption Bureau (which had
arrested Patil). In the Dawood
call log case, it was
Maharashtra ATS that gave a
clean chit to Khadse. The ATS
examined the call data records
of Khadse found that no calls
had been received from the
residence of Dawood as had
been alleged by Vadodara —
based hacker Manish
Bhangale,” the Chief Minister
said.
Khadse said that hacker
Bhangale had come to meet
him with the allegations of the
call exchange between
Dawood’s residence and
Khadse and he had referred the
latter to the crime branch’s
cyber cell of the Mumbai
police. “The Cyber cell did not
did not find much in
Bhangale’s allegation. I later
referred the matter to the ATS
which investigated the case and
found that there was no truth
Naziya was married off to a
fruit seller in Bidar town of
Karnataka, 125 kms away
from Hyderabad and she had
two sons and a daughter from
this marriage.
After police traced her in
Bidar, the two daughters
were informed. They again
came to Hyderabad and met
their mother for the first time
in 28 years.
It was an emotional and
touching moment when as
soon as they saw the forlorn
and aged woman, they broke
down and embraced her.
Naziya Begum said that
her memory of her daughters
had faded and she only
remembered that one of them
had six fingers on one hand.
A beaming Fatima
touch with the police.
“With the help of the feedback from the people of her
area in the old city we could
establish Naziya Begum’s identity but it took some time to
find her whereabouts”, said
Satyanrayana who was happy
with the reunion.
Ayesha R asheed Eid
Ubaid, the elder of the two
daughters said that Naziya
Begum was married to their
father Basheer Eid Ubaid Rifq
in 1981 in Hyderabad.
After spending a few years
in Dubai, during which she
gave birth to two daughters,
Naziya was divorced by Rifaq
and sent her back to India,
keeping the two daughters
with him.
Back in Hyderabad,
in the allegations against
Khadse,” the chief minister
said, adding that the State ATS
was currently investigating
into the violations of IT Act
indulged in Bhangale.
Alluding to the Pune land
deal case, Fadnavis said: “ I
would not like into the merits
and demerits of the Pune land
deal case. The State government has appointed a committee headed by retired high
court judge Dinkar Zoting to
investigate the allegations
against Khadse. The committee has been asked to submit its
report within three months”.
On the alleged irregularities in the tendering process
adopted by the Pankaja
Munde-headed Ministry for
Women and Child Welfare, the
chief minister referred to two
recent judgements by the
Aurangabad and Nagpur
benches of the Bombay High
Court and said that both the
verdicts had not found fault
with the conditions involving
the tendering process. “While
making allegations, impression was sought to be created
that tendering process and
conditions were violated to
favour certain contractors.
Both the verdicts have clearly
said that the conditions are in
conformity with the order of
the Supreme Court”.
“ The only difference
between the two verdicts is that
while the Aurangabad bench
has recommended that fresh
survey of the infrastructure
available with the contractor
concerned, the Nagpur bench
has validated all the processes
undertaken by us during the
tendering. We are seeking
opinion of the Law and
Judiciary department to examine both the verdicts and suggest us as how to go ahead
with the tendering process,” the
chief minister said, while
dimssing the allegations
against Pankaja.
Maha to come
out with white
paper on
revenue
defaulters:
Finance Min
TN RAGHUNATHA n MUMBAI
egging the revenue to be
collected from defaulters
P
in the State at `62,907.91 crore,
Maharashtra Finance Minister
Sudhir Mungantiwar said on
Friday that he would come out
with a white paper on the revenue defaulters and steps taken
to recover the dues, during the
Winter Session of the State
Legislature.
Replying to queries in the
State Assembly on the status of
recovery of tax and non-tax
revenue outstanding amounts,,
Mungantiwar said, “We have to
collect `62,907.91 crore from
the defaulters. There are 82,799
matters, which are sub—judice.
The big defaulters have hired
leading counsel for their cases”.
The Minister said that the
State Government was planning to appoint a top lawyer to
present its stand effectively in
arrear recovery cases pending
in various courts.
“This is people’s money.
We are making all the efforts to
recover the outstanding dues
from the defaulters,” the
Minister said.
Mungantiwar assured the
Lower House that that the
State Government would come
out with a white paper on the
pending dues from defaulters
and steps taken by the
Government to recover the
money.
Earlier, Leader of the
Opposition in Assembly
Radhakrishna Vikhe—Patil
said the burden on state was
increasing on the state exchequer owing to acute drought,
growing debts and accumulated interest.
Rasheed said that they will
now take care of their father
and will try to undo the injustice done to her all these
years. “We would love to take
her to Dubai”, she said.
Apart from the Deputy
Commissioner of Police V
Satyanarayana, another senior
officer Additional DCP K
Babu Rao also played a major
role in tracing Naziya Begum
with the help of the old
photo provided by the daughters.
"We contacted the old
Qazis who had performed
marriages in early 1980s and
also the marriage functions
halls", said Babu Rao, "The
posters and pamphlets with
the lady's photos were also
spread in the old city which
helped in tracing her", he
said.
The first breakthrough
came when Naziya's relatives
were traced in Santosh Nagar
area of old city and they
helped the police in reaching
Naziya in Bidar. Apart from
elder daughter Fatima, the
younger daughter Ayesha, her
husband and ten year old
son were also present on the
memorable occasion.
With tears rolling down
her cheeks Ayesha said, "We
were afraid that we will never
be able to see our mother in
this life time. But we are
grateful to Allah that he
brought us together. We are
thankful to the police officials
and all others who made it
possible".
Bombay High Court reserves order
on PILs over noise pollution
Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on
Friday reserved its order on a bunch of
PILs raising concern over nuisance created by organisers of religious festivals
with regard to noise pollution.
The PILs, filed by Mahesh Bedekar
and others, also challenged erection of
pandals (makeshift structures) on the
streets and footpaths. The order was
reserved by a bench headed by Justice Abhay
Oka after the Centre concluded its argument
on Friday. The Centre argued that loud-
speakers should not be allowed in silence
zones. The Maharashtra Government
had earlier submitted that Noise Pollution
Rules framed in 2,000 would have to be
interpreted harmoniously, especially 5 and
6, which deal with written permission to
use loudspeakers or public address system in a public place within the permitted decibel limits. This restriction is
applicable to areas within silence zones.
However, this restriction would not
be applicable to theatres or cinema halls
or any closed premises though use of
loudspeakers in such areas requires a
licence, government pleader Abhinandan
Vagyani had told the court.
If this rule is interpreted to mean that
legislature intended to completely ban the
loudspeaker or the public address system
in a silence zone, whether in a closed place
or in an open area, then it would lead to
a situation that all cinema halls within the
silence zone would have to close down,
Vagyani had argued.
PTI
opinion 08
www.dailypioneer.com
paper with passion
Stirring the Kashmir pot
Pakistan is fomenting trouble in the valley, again
here was a time when geo-political analysts and security strategies spent
reams of paper exposing Pakistan's double standards on terrorism and
counter-terrorism, on peace and conflict. Much was written, for instance,
about how Pakistan was running with the hare and hunting with hounds in the
global war on terror, and how it continued to nurture anti-India elements on its
soil even as it spoke the language of peace and reconciliation every now and
then. It was all a charade, and one that India, of course, has been acutely aware
of for a long time now. Today, as the rest of the world is coming to terms with
this reality, Pakistan itself has dropped the mask and exposed itself on the world
stage. This was evident, most recently, at the so-called Black Day commemoration of July 20 when the Government of Pakistan sought to officially protest
against the killing of terror operative Burhan Wani which triggered the recent
bout of violence and turmoil in Kashmir. The event was also to express support
for and solidarity with the people of Kashmir who, according to Government of
Pakistan, are being brutalized by an oppressive Indian regime. Empty rhetoric
apart, the event was part of a larger initiative that the Government there has been
pushing to depict India in poor light. This included raising the matter at the UN
and other international platforms, briefing foreign diplomats, holding special prayers
and wear black arm bands by Pakistani Government officials. Pakistani citizens
living abroad were also urged to
protests outside Parliaments, embassy
headquarters and UN offices around
the world. As such, the campaign
received a lukewarm response - from
the Pakistani public and the international community alike, marked only
by some anodyne statements. The
only group that responded with much
enthusiasm was a bunch of UN-designated terrorists. Leading from the
front was Hafiz Saeed, the mastermind
of the 26/11 terror attack in Mumbai,
who headed a 'Kashmir caravan' from
Lahore to Islamabad. He was supported by Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed
Salahuddin and Jaishe-e-Mohammed
chief Masood Azhar. This alone speaks
volumes about the kind of campaign
that the Pakistani Government has
been running, and its insidious intent. On its part, India has done well to largely ignore Pakistan's campaign of calumny. This is as it should be. Pakistan's efforts
haven't received any traction, and there is no reason why India should add to
the noise. Our diplomats have issued statements where necessary enunciating
India's views and positions on the issue, and that's more than enough. If Pakistan,
already isolated and cornered, wants to make a mockery of itself by engaging
in this sham, that is its prerogative. In its efforts to show India in a bad light, it
is only creating opportunities for the rest of the world to point fingers at it for
the far worse crimes and human rights abuse that happen in Pakistan on a
routine basis.
Moreover, there have also been reports that it is Pakistan has been fomenting trouble in the valley through its separatist proxies. This, in fact, fits perfectly within the larger picture of Pakistan-sponsored unrest that has been brewing
in the valley for quite some time now, following several years of relative peace.
The recent resurrection of the Jaish-e-Mohammed under the ISI's handmaiden
Azhar Masood is a good example of this. Similarly, the rise of a fresh wave of
militancy in the valley, evident in the case of locals blocking security forces during terror attacks and mosques once again blaring anti-India propaganda, also
points to the fact Pakistan has now upped the ante in Kashmir.
T
An unacceptable bargain
The infrastructure of
terror in Bangladesh
The recent arrest of three persons, including a professor of the North South University, highlights the
fact that Bangladesh's educational institutions need to be thoroughly investigated for terrorist links
he arrest on July 16 of
Professor Gias Uddin
Ahsan, Dean of the
School of Health and
Life Sciences, and acting
Pro-Vice Chancellor, North South
University (NSU), one of
Bangladesh’s best-known private
universities, underlines a harsh fact
— a thorough scanning and overhaul of Bangladesh’s educational
institutions is needed for halting
the drift of young students from
well-known schools, colleges and
universities, toward organisations
like the Islamic State of Syria and
the Levant, Al Qaeda, Jamaat-ulMujahideen Bangladesh, Ansar
al-Islam (erstwhile Ansarullah
Bangla Team) and Hizb ut-Tahrir.
Professor Ahsan and two of his
associates, have been arrested for
renting out his flat, and not informing the police about the fact of its
being rented out and details of the
tenants. The flat was subsequently used by the perpetrators of the
terror attack at Holey Artisan
Bakery and O Kitchen restaurant
in Dhaka on July 1, a Press release
by Dhaka Metropolitan Police
(DMP) on July 16 said that a probe
“has found that the militants gathered at Flat-A/6, House-3, BlockE on Road-6. The associates of the
militants rented the flat in May.
Following the Gulshan café attack,
the associates fled the flat.”
According to the police, they also
found a carton loaded with sand
which, they suspected, was used to
store the grenades used in the
July 1 attack.
The DMP started keeping
records of house-owners and tenants from November, 2016, and, on
February 29, 2016, Dhaka’s police
commissioner had formally
requested people to provide the
required “identification information” by March 15. Earlier, on
March 13, the Bangladesh High
Court had upheld the DMP’s right
to collect such information and take
any step under its rules and regulations of 2006 to prevent terrorism
and militant activity in Dhaka.
Besides professor Ahsan’s arrest,
NSU’s role has come under increasing scrutiny because of the activities of some of its students and faculty members. Nibras Islam, one of
the six identified as those attacking
the Holey Artisan Bakery and
killed by the police in the encounter
that followed, was one of its students. One of those taken hostage
but released later by the attackers,
Hasanat Reza Karim, taught at the
university at one stage. His whereabouts are unknown. The police,
who had taken him into custody,
say that he is no longer with them;
T
nor has he returned to his family.
Two of the 10 youths, Mohammad
Basharuzzaman and Junnun
Shikdar, listed by the police as missing — and suspected to have terrorist links — after the restaurant
attack, were students of NSU.
Abir Rahman, one of those
who attacked a police post guarding Bangladesh’s largest eid prayer
congregation at Sholakia in
Kishoreganj on July, 7, 2016, and
was killed, was a student of NSU.
The attack, which was repelled,
led to three deaths besides Abir’s
— two of policemen and one of
a woman bystander. The university’s salience in terms of terrorism, however, dates back to 2012
when Quazi Mohammad
Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis, who, following his confession, was convicted on the charge of attempting to blow up the New York
Federal Reserve Bank, and of
coming to the United States for
waging jihad. He was also a student of NSU before leaving for the
US. In Bangladesh, all young
men —Sadman Yasir Mamun,
Faisal Bin Nayeem Dwip, Ehsan
Reza Rumman, Maksudul Hasan
Anik, Nayeem Irad and Nafiz
Imtiaz —arrested for killing the
blogger and Ganajagaran Mancha
Chidambaram’s Kashmir statement is dangerous
hile the Congress has thankfully distanced itself from its senior party
leader P Chidambaram's galling comments on Kashmir, saying that those
only reflected his “personal opinion”, that, however, is not enough to
let the former Union Minister off the hook. Chidambaram is a respected leader
and veteran politician. His comments, even if they do not reflect the party line,
carry weight and gravitas with the public, and deserve to be scrutinised threadbare (which, unfortunately, did not happen when he made them live on national television). Referring to the current bout of unrest in Kashmir, following
the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen operative Burhan Wani, Chidambaram said
that the situation highlights the need for a “unique political solution” and suggested the Government return to the “original terms” under which Jammu &
Kashmir acceded to India in 1947. He spoke of “broken promises”, a “broken faith” and an exorbitant “price
paid for 40 years”, pleading for the
clock to be turned back to 1947. In
short, he called for the honouring of
the “grand bargain”. The first question here is: What exactly is this
“grand bargain” that Chidambaram
is talking about? It seems like he was
indicating that Kashmiris be allowed
more ‘freedom' to frame their laws
(within the ambit of the Constitution
— possibly added as an afterthought). Yet, the fact is that Kashmir
already has a special deal of sorts,
in form of Article 370, that gives it
exactly this sort of autonomy that
other States that acceded to Indian
in 1947 and after do not have.
Chidambaram also warned that
the situation in the valley would
“sharply deteriorate” if Kashmiris were not allowed a greater say in administration — yet, they do have a democratically elected Government.
Interestingly in this context, he also said that the BJP-PDP alliance ruling the
State is itself a provocation for Kashmiris. Someone should remind him that
both parties were elected to power by the people of Jammu & Kashmir in a
free and fair election, and it is in fact a coalition Government of the sort that
is now at the helm in the State that best represents the mandate of the people. And all of this is without even going into the history and politics of the
State which would then bring up even more awkward questions, such as: Does
Chidambaram concede that his party, which was at the helm of multiple Union
Governments, is also to be blamed for not honouring this so-called
“grand bargain”?
HIRANMAYKARLEKAR
My dear youths, nepotism
and the poison of
casteism will not help in
development. Support
politics of vikasvad
(development).
W
Prime Minister
—Narendra Modi
BESIDES
LARGE-SCALE
APPOINTMENT OF
JAMAAT
SUPPORTERS IN
UNIVERSITIES,
GOVERNMENT
ASSISTANCE HAS LED
TO A PROLIFERATION
OF MADRASSAS,
WHICH HAVE OFTEN
BEEN NURSERIES
OF JIHADIS
activist, Ahmed Rajib Haidar, in
2013, were its students.
The University has suspended
professor Ahsan after his arrest.
Earlier, it had dismissed four teachers for their links with the terrorist outfit, Hizb ut-Tahrir. Its vice
chancellor, professor Atiqul Islam,
has termed militancy as “cancer”
and said that the university would
root it out from the campus. The
authorities, he has said, wanted to
work closely with the Government
and the law-enforcing agencies; no
one was above suspicion and everyone would be under surveillance.
All this notwithstanding,
speculation continues as to
whether the NSU has become a
spawning ground of Islamist terrorism. Bangladesh’s University
Grants Commission sent a fourmember team to its campus on
July 14 as a part of its investigation of the university’s link with
terrorism. Much will depend on
its findings. But then it is not just
the NSU. Recent developments in
Bangladesh have brought under
the authorities’ scanner, the role
of all private universities, numbering 95, of which 85, with over
4,60,000 students, are conducting
academic activities. The matter is
of particular relevance. During the
SOUNDBITE
Peace TV was refused (broadcast rights) for security reasons. There are many Hindu
and Christian channels in
India, but no Islamic channel.
Islamic tele-evangelist
—Zakir Naik
tenure (2001-2006) of the second
coalition Government headed by
Begum Khaleda Zia of the
Bangladesh Nationalist Party,
Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, the
cradle of fundamentalist Islamist
terrorism in the country and a
coalition partner, had tried systematically to flood the country’s
educational institutions with its
nominees. One can get an idea of
the developments from a report
by Ekramul Huq Bulbul and
Masud Milad in the Bengali daily
Prathom Alo of August 12, 2004.
It reads in its English translation
by this writer:
“The allegation has been levelled of the jamaatification of the
Chittagong University by violating
all rules. Most applicants were not
appointed as teachers despite getting four first classes in their educational life. Yet there has been the
unprecedented occurrence of
appointment of the supporters of
Jamaat-e-Islami, a partner in the
present four-party coalition
Government, despite their being
without a single first class.”
The report further stated that
investigations by Prathom Alo
revealed that of the 122 teachers
appointed during this period, 57
had been appointed by ignoring the
recommendations of the
Departmental Planning Committee
and the number of posts advertised.
It cited a leader of the BNP-supported Democratic Teachers’ Forum,
Abdul Moktader, as saying, “We are
now in a minority. The university
has become devoid of intellectual
excellence as a result of wholesale
and irregular appointment of
Jamaat-supported teachers.”
Besides large-scale appointment of Jamaat supporters in universities, Government assistance led
to a proliferation of madrassas,
which have often been nurseries of
jihadis. Thus, between 2001 and
2005, the number of general education institutions and madrassas
receiving Government funds
increased by 9.7 per cent and 22.22
per cent respectively! Jamaat and its
student wing, Islami Chhatra Shibir,
also set up a number of coaching
institutions, libraries, hostel besides
giving books and cash assistance to
students from disprivileged backgrounds to win them over.
While a number of top leaders
of the Jamaat have been executed,
sentenced to death or imprisoned
on charges of war crimes, the educational and financial infrastructure
created by the Jamaat remains
largely intact. Fundamentalist
Islamist terrorism will continue to
dog Bangladesh as long as they continue to flourish.
I had never ever
desired or thought that I
would get to sing the
national anthem. I feel
blessed and honored. I
was very nervous.
Actor
—Sunny Leone
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Shaming India
Sir — This refers to the report,
“Dalit assaults rock Parliament”
(July 21). The growing intolerance
against anything which is not in
conformity with high-casteHindu and cow-belt-Hindustan is
a matter of grave concern. Not
only does it jeopardise our national unity and fraternity but it also
tarnishes India’s image abroad. It
is a shame that Indians themselves
are faced with escalating intolerance in their own land. If our
country has to remain united and
has to do well in its foreign policy, such myopia-causing agents
need to be quarantined.
Sujit De
Kolkata
Dozing off
Sir — This refers to the editorial, “No free pass for Rahul” (July
21). Once again, Congress vice
president Rahul Gandhi has been
caught on the wrong foot, albeit
sleeping. One can never say
whether Rahul Gandhi was dozing or was in a deep thought.
So, when Rahul Gandhi was
spotted in a video clip, with his
head bent, his arm and eyes
seemingly closed, the electronic
Rahul's tirade against
RSS will cause trouble
T
his refers to the editorial, “No free pass for Rahul” (July 21).
Unexpectedly, the Supreme Court has taken cognisance on a petition
filed by a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) worker, in which
Congress scion Rahul Gandhi, in an election congregation in Maharashtra
in 2014, had accused the RSS of murdering the Mahatma.
The apex court has warned Rahul Gandhi to either apologise to the RSS
or be prepared to face trial, on which his party has preferred the latter option.
Even if it is presumed that the Mahatma's assassin, Nathuram Godse, was
an RSS worker, it never surmises that the entire RSS was behind this diabolical act. Moreover, if the Congress' version is accepted, by the same logic,
it (Congress) can also be held responsible for the 1984 Sikh genocide.
As far as RSS is concerned, it is a social organisation, meant for preserving the national integration, fighting against those who are destabilising India and are causing communal harmony.
Sagar Singh
New Delhi
media had a field day, lampooning him for catching his 40 winks
while the Lok Sabha was discussing the Dalit sensitivities.
In all probability, the ‘shut
down’ was momentary, possibly
induced by the din in the House
or the heat outside, but interestingly Congressmen went in an
overdrive, trying to defend the
sleeping yuvraj. For, Rahul
Gandhi, of course, is a sleep veteran: He was ensnared in similar
circumstances in 2014 amid a discussion on inflation and escalating food prices.
Padmini Raghavendra
Secunderabad
Human behaviour
Sir — Several leaders from rival
political parties of the Congress
have been passing strictures and
comments on Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi who was
caught on camera with closed eyes
during Lok Sabha proceedings.
Rahul Gandhi is also a human
being who, like others, can have
sudden drowsiness, especially in
afternoon hours. It was like making a mountain out of a molehill
to give so much importance to a
normal human behaviour.
Madhu Agrawal
Delhi
Remain committed
Sir — This refers to the article,
“The road ahead for Sidhu and the
BJP” (July 21) by Amitabh Shukla.
Navjot Singh Sidhu’s behaviour
has been worse than those whose
favourite pass time is to criticise
Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
However, Modi must remain
committed towards his agenda of
development, people like Sidhu
will soon be forgotten.
Raghbendra Jha
Via web
No mercy
Sir — This refers to the editorial, “Pundits leaving valley” (July
20). It is unfortunate that
Kashmiri Pandits have been
forced to leave the valley, which
is their homeland. They have
become refuges in their own
country of fate. They cannot
even enjoy their basic rights
because of the violent and explosive situation created by the militants. These militants deserve no
mercy and should be dealt with.
Krishan Malhotra
Ambala Cantt
Send your feedback to:
[email protected]
3rdeye {saturday special} 09
Reinforcing people’s faith in participative governance
‘Passion does not need explanation.’
— NipunVinayak
rofessor Amartya Sen recounts in The
Argumentative Indian his experiences
P
during his visit to a village in 2004 when gen-
Providing poor sections of
society the right to speak is
not an act of benevolence but
a part of equitable justice
system. The book,
Disadvantaged People,
Opportunities and
Participative Governance: The
Raigad Experiments (Memoirs
of Collector, Raigad) sums up
how farmers were taken on
board to tap the great
potential of sea-side areas as
agro-tourist spots
KK SRIVASTAVA
eral elections in India were underway. He
met a villager, illiterate and poor, telling
Professor Sen, “It is not very hard to silence
us, but that is not because we cannot speak.”
The learned Professor drew a wise conclusion: though the recording and preservation
of arguments have an inbuilt bias in the direction of the articulations of the powerful and
the well-schooled, members of disadvantaged
groups can also provide many of the most
interesting accounts of arguments. Modern
world has been privy to flow of well-articulated points of view from those strata of
society which represents the marginal
denizens, unheeded and uncared for. India
is no exception. This is story-half-told in as
much as it provides a great impetus to move
development process towards these disadvantaged groups. What next? What about
opportunities? And by whom? Those farmers who don’t speak not because they cannot but because opportunities don’t come
their way look forward to someone equipping them with opportunities to mouth their
concerns and arguments. Hearing is a great
art and those not skilled in this art deprive
civilisations of many counter-factual propositions. Once opportunities come, the aftermath holds the same or even greater degree
of interest for all interested in consequences
of such an impetus. This brings me to a set
of experiments conducted by a young man,
Nipun Vinayak, an Indian Administrative
Service officer of 2001 batch and currently
posted as Director, Swachchh Bharat Mission
(Gramin), New Delhi, who has succinctly
epitomised these experiments in his memoirs titled, Participative Governance in
District Administration, published by Authors
PRESS, New Delhi.
The book is a reflection on Nipun’s faith
in good governance that, he feels, is all about
“passion, participation and partnership”.
Calling himself “a participative and facilitative development learner”, his career so far
has aimed at endeavouring to engage people in various development projects. This
book highlights experiments during his
tenure as District Collector, Raigad, a small
city near Mumbai. These experiments reflect
on a need to have a solid safety-valve for the
voice of the “disadvantaged group”. On an
optimistic tone, Aruna Roy and Nikhil Dey
in the Foreword to the book write, “This
book is a chronicling of hope, the commodity
the Indian people set great store by… In a
country where power is skewed, answers lie
in combination of common sense and principled action.” This is the best one can say
of this book.
The book has two parts: Part I. Maha
Mumbai SEZ — Facts, Drama and Impact;
and Part II. Development Programmes.
The first part has seven chapters; the second
four. While the first part highlights sense of
association of farmers in Raigad with the
process of land acquisition as contrasted with
sense of alienation elsewhere, the second part
is replete with stand-alone stories. I will try
to bring forth two crucial experiments as
culled out from the book.
Nipun narrates the chain of resistance
offered to Maha Mumbai SEZ (MSEZ) by
various groups on generic as well as specific grounds which, inter alia, included “inprinciple” opposition to SEZs, acquisition of
land of entire villages, flouting of rules by
MSEZ Company, etc. There was a virtual
impasse. The then Government decided and
directed the Collector to give individual hearing to the affected farmers whose lands were
proposed to be acquired. Here Nipun’s role
as Collector became vital. One of the most
remarkable innovations Nipun did in the history of land acquisitions was to address a
direct question to farmers, “Do you want to
part with your land?” This innovative
approach was hailed as “referendum”. And
Nipun rightly feels what was at stake was not
to be dubbed as “heroes” or “villains” but was
to have the contentment of having done
legally correct thing.
Nipun faced the first issue that was to be
resolved: “who to hear?” This issue was
important as only people whose lands were
actually getting acquired for the project need
be heard. Toward that end, a mechanism was
put in place whereby people would first be
identified as “affected farmers” based on their
views. The task of identifying persons was
given to local talathi (village revenue official),
kotwal and other Government functionaries.
For various tactical reasons, it was decided
that hearing would be conducted at multiple
locations so that at any one location the number of people would be less. Second challenge
was to obtain a structured and meaningful
opinion conveying farmers’ views unambiguously. The format in which public opinion was to be solicited was finalised. Since the
opinion was to be solicited in relation to the
MSEZ project, only three options existed: (i)
people wanted MSEZ project (ii) people did
not want MSEZ project, and (iii) people wanted MSEZ project subject to some conditions.
The format for recording opinion was,
therefore, designed accordingly. It was a one
page format, providing for (a) details of the
farmers, and (b) his clear opinion on the project. The affected persons had the option to
pinpoint reasons for their decision.
What was very important was to reach
out to all the people and explain the entire
process to them. A public notice was, there-
fore, issued in the local newspapers and
notices were also published in each of the 22
villages, explaining the process in detail.
Nipun ensured that all necessary precautions
were taken to have a smooth sailing. This
exercise of eliciting public opinion had, as
Nipun records in his book, ramifications
beyond Raigad, like setting a precedence to
elicit people’s opinion for a democratic project; setting a new high for transparency in
democratic institutions; kick-starting wider
debate on issues of land acquisition, especially for companies; redefining/questioning
the concept of “public purpose”.
Thus due to these efforts by Nipun, the
“pulse” of the people got widely known which
became a reason d’etre for a huge celebration
event for the affected people. He writes of the
aftermath, “I became a ‘villain’ in the eyes of
some, but a ‘hero’ in the eyes of many… The
law for land acquisition and rehabilitation has
finally been amended in 2013, making the
prior consent of at least 80 per cent of the
affected families compulsory in case of
land acquisition for private companies for
public purpose. This is a huge change in law,
ensuring the say of land owners in whether
they want to part with their land for what
has been construed as a ‘public purpose’ by
the State.” And further, “Till the time institutional structures for direct democracy get
strengthened, it will augur well for representational democracy to become more
representational.”
Second lesson stems from experiments
in the field of “agro-tourism”. “If those who
have sweated for generation do not want to
till land, would the ones willing just to spend
a weekend among nature do it seriously?” A
very fair and genuine question asked by one
Shekhar Bhadsavle, a pioneer in agrotourism, who having studied abroad, decided to come back and work as a “farmer”.
Nipun meets him and accepts that he is fortunate to meet the likes of Shekhar, as persons like him are “positives” — always smiling happy, full of enthusiasm; making one
wonder if they have no worries or if they ever
get tired. The first meeting Nipun had with
Shekhar and a few other farmers of the area
interested in agro-tourism was held at
Saguna Baug, during which, Shekhar shared
his wonderful idea, passion and vision.
For Shekhar, with the urbanisation
growing things that were part of everyday life
are becoming alien. City-bred children
hardly know what is agriculture, what is
rural. Shekhar envisions a “patronage” relation between a middle class/rich person from
Mumbai and a small-medium farmer in
Konkan. His argument is that a rich person
from Mumbai, who just wants a place
among nature, may help a farmer develop his
farm into such a retreat, rather than buying
land from a farmer and making him landless. According to Shekhar, a farmer today
has very trivial issues, which if sorted out sincerely, can bring him prosperity. The city person/patron/friend gets a place where he can
go for a brief holiday. He will also be relieved
of the responsibility of maintaining a farm
himself. He gets an assurance for a place, say
one cottage, for him/his family that can be
kept apart. Most importantly, he gets the
pleasure of having contributed in developing a field, the pleasure of having a friend for
life, the pleasure of not having difficulty in
explaining to his children what agriculture
is. For both, it is a win-win situation. But
bringing out such a relationship between the
“haves” and “have nots” is not easy. So there
occurs a challenge to have it as a policy and
propagate it. What did Raigad witness?
Attempt was made to prepare and train
the farmers in basics of agro-tourism intensively by involving agriculture department
in the entire exercise. The farmers were taken
around the Saguna Baug and the concept of
agro-tourism explained. Thereafter, applications were invited from the farmers,
desirous of starting agro-tourism in their
own farms. Twenty farmers were selected for
a crash course on agro-tourism, to be conducted by Shekhar under Nipun’s overall
supervision. With each trainee, Shekhar discussed the potential in his farm for tourism
and advised him to focus more on that so
that it becomes his USP. Of course, basic
training in “hospitality” was given to all,
which induced a high level of confidence in
them. They began to work very hard to develop something unique in their farms. Idea was
that each such farm would have its own USP.
Shekhar personally visited their farms and
gave them practical guidance.
Nipun visited Shekhar’s farm every
month accompanied with a key district official like Raigad SP and Agriculture Officer
to expose other key district officials to this
work. As and when the agro-tourism centres of these selected youth got ready,
Shekhar began to send guests to them from
Saguna Baug office (where there was always
a waiting list). He also hand-held
the youth in the initial days helping them
improve their processes through constant
interaction with them, and also by obtaining regular feedback from the guests visiting those farms. Soon, these centres started
working in a full-fledged manner.
In Raigad district, the talukas by the sea
side — Murud, Alibag, Pen, Srivardhan —
had great potential for agro-tourism. The
idea was taken to other talukas as well. In
most of these places, many people were
already offering services to tourists. Some of
them had developed their agriculture well
which proved to be an added attraction for
tourists. Thus, there were many takers for
such trainings and interactions. With the help
of agriculture department, meetings with
interested farmers were held taluka-wise.
How wonderful it was, to meet these farmers full of enthusiasm!
Ultimately what Nipun feels, he conveys
in these words, “Let me place on record, however, that I acted without any bias. I did only
what was directed by the Government or
what the law says. The end result was not in
our hands. The satisfaction of having done
what appeared correct to me is the only satisfaction. And it is immense.” Are these
experiments merely stories about providing
correct opportunities to poor, downtrodden
people or something else? A genuine mind
would feel these involve something more.
Thinking of opportunities for the poor and
disadvantaged. One ought to be capable of
thinking before one can embark upon such
experiments and Nipun meets this criterion perfectly. His book is a critique by a thinking man, as contrasted to hackneyed ones,
driven by true concerns about involvement
of neglected persons. He has shown providing poor sections of society the right to
speak is not an act of benevolence but a part
of equitable justice system. Of late, when the
country is witnessing progressive involvement of downtrodden segments of society
in overall evolution of a powerful India —
an immutable symptom of growing oneness
— what persons like Nipun leave behind will
continue to be met with élan and éclat, reinforcing faith of people in representative
democratic functioning.
(KK Srivastava is Principal Accountant
General, Kerala, and an acclaimed poet,
reviewer and columnist. The views expressed
here are his own)
PERSPECTIVE
KURDISTAN: AN IMAGINED STATE?
he Kurds are known to be the
largest nation without a nationT
State till date. Arguably, the Kurds are
a nation in need of a State, they are
a crucial ally in the fight against the
dreaded ISIS. But some of its factions
are registered as terrorists in Turkey,
Syria and Iraq. A nation in the making is today scattered around four
countries — Iraq, Iran, Syria and
Turkey. And, sadly, all are fighting
their own battles for an independent
home without having a common
political platform. The Kurds are not
a strictly monolithic group. Neither
have they enjoyed a coherent linguistic or political identity, though
many scholars often describe them
as so. The nervousness reflected in
the Kurds across the region is understandable. As the past record shows,
the declaration of independence in
1922 and 1946 by the Kurds were
crudely crushed by the bigger powers. Many international observers feel
that this time it may be worse and
Kurds will remain divided forever.
The issue of unifying the Kurdish
military forces has been on the
agenda of their top leadership since
they acquired de facto autonomy
from then Iraqi President Saddam
Hussein in 1991. After launching
separate guerrilla wars against the
Iraqi Army in the 1970s and 1980s,
the two main political parties of the
Kurds — the Kurdistan Democratic
Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union
of Kurdistan (PUK) — came to an
agreement in 1992 that their respective Peshmerga (Kurdish militia
which means “one who confronts
death”) should be kept under one
single command.
Henceforth, they had largely
agreed to create the Ministry of
Peshmerga Affairs for looking after
the affairs of the army units.
Unfortunately with the outbreak of
the bloody civil war among the
Kurds in 1994, it stalled the process
of integration of the Peshmerga.
After long years of conflict, both the
KDP and the PUK signed a peace
agreement for unifying their
Peshmerga units in 1998. Eighteen
years on, the unification of
Peshmerga is elusive; and they have
remained as political armies fighting
for achieving short-term goals.
Realising the futility of the divided
armies, the Ministry of Peshmerga
Affairs was reconstituted as a joint
body in 2010. But many still feel that
the renewed body will even find it
too difficult to bring the much
required unity in warring Peshmerga
factions. When Western nations
rushed to offer military aid to Iraqi
Kurds on the face of the mounting
ISIS attacks in June 2014, they in fact
failed to develop a strategy for dealing with a non-State actor.
Ironically, lending military support to the Kurdish Peshmerga was
counter-effective to the American
vision of keeping Iraq a united
nation. Further, this military aid bolstered all the Iraqi centrifugal forces,
instead of building a unified force
against the ISIS. Delivered this way,
the risk of prolonging the ISIS-led
war is certain and in the process, the
Peshmerga unity will remain a
dream. Today Kurdish partners are
becoming more dependent on both
Turkey and Iran after the arrival of
the ISIS. The popular belief that the
coalition aid to the Peshmerga will
either intensify the fight against the
ISIS or at least will contain the same
so that the Western forces can oversee it from a safe distance. Kurdish
leaders also propagate the view that
once their armies receive advanced
weapons, the battle against the ISIS
will come to a close. But the evolving politics of Kurdish politics makes
rather an ambiguous turn: the rival
political parties, the KDP and the
PUK had moved away from a strategic framework agreement which
was supposed to bring peace after a
bitter fight between their respective
political armies. Today the reasons
for their failure to come up with a
unified front is wide open: the patriarchs of both these parties, Masoud
Barzani (KDP) and Jalal Talabani
(PUK), do not enjoy much support
among their followers and this waning influence may likely to unleash
an intra-elite power struggle within
the rank and file of the parties.
The demand for an independent
Kurdistan is at a fragile stage. The
current iteration of the war on terror, particularly aiming the ISIS
menace, is not bringing any new
hope to the Kurdish people, but surely it is igniting the old and brand new
internecine tensions, largely undermining what they had achieved in
the past. As the Kurdish political
leaders are constantly failing to build
up a single chain of military command, it is gradually paving the way
for external powers involvement in
their domestic affairs. Notably, Iran
is expanding its influence over the
Kurdish faction led by Talabani and
this has become more overt after the
US withdrawal from Iraq and the
outbreak of the civil war in Syria. At
best, it can be said that the emergence
of the ISIS, a Sunni Islamic fundamentalist force mainly in Iraq and
Syria, has accelerated the involvement of Iran in the affairs of Iraq.
On the other hand, the KDP has
historically found its ally in Turkey.
In fact, Iran’s relationship with the
Iraqi PUK and the Syrian People’s
Defence Force (YPG) of the Kurds
have broadly allowed to facilitate a
cross-border cooperation between
the two groups of fighters and their
leaders, complicating the already
deteriorating tensions across the
region. It also allowed the Iranian
Revolutionary Guard to control and
coordinate the actions of various Shia
militias in Iraq, which finally is leading to the fast disintegration of the
Iraqi military. Arguably, the Iranian
intelligence, military and politicians
are now influencing the Iraqi state-
craft much more vigorously than
before. Hence an Iranian agenda is
deeply embedded in Iraqi military,
civilian militias, and especially in the
PUK-controlled Peshmergas. This
may pose a serious threat to the
growth of Kurdistan and may even
be quite impossible to reverse in the
post-ISIS era.
Barzani and Talabani are facing
a huge financial crisis today. As long
as the revenues kept rolling, no one
quibbled. But the current Iraqi
Government has cut funding that it
used to transfer to the Kurdistan
Regional Government (KRG), some
$10 billion annually. With the falling
oil prices in the global market,
Barzani is facing an acute crisis and
it may exacerbate the succession battle in his party. Barzani the autocrat
is no longer in control of his people
and a deep divide is growing between
his cronies and the other leaders in
the party. At the same time, the
finances of Talabani too are in a
shambles, but his party has adopted
a more pragmatic approach to
Baghdad than the Barzani’s.
In the meantime, the Kurdish
fight for identity has become more
complex with the coming of the
Rojova Revolution, an attempt to
construct an autonomous rule for
Kurds in Syria. Rojova refers to west
and hence it advocates the establishment of a Western Kurdistan in
Syria. Since the Syrian conflict intensified with the demand for removal
of President Bashar-al Assad, the
Kurdish movement led by the PYD
(Democratic Union Party) has taken
control of the major parts of the
Kurdish region in the country. This
opens up a different challenge for a
would-be struggling nation which is
already failing to unify the warring
factions. In the meantime, the rivalry between Turkey and Iran is on the
rise and both the States are not in
favour of the establishment of a
Kurdish State. The Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) in Turkey
is a Left-wing anti-nationalist platform for the Kurds which is gaining
considerable support in respective
pockets. But the Kurdistan Workers
Party (PKK) has been waging war
against Turkey and it is a terrorist
organisation. So Turkey in no way
aspires to see the unification of the
Kurdish forces across the region as
it would mean creating a separate
land for them.
The contemporary Kurdish narrative of victimisation brings to
light a different saga of them. These
people spread out in four countries
across West Asia still believe that one
day they will have their independent
homeland. However, the staid and
often oversimplified historiography
of the Kurds have at times created
confusion over the identity, polity
and their very demand for an independent land stretching some of the
controversial borders marked especially by the historic Sykes-Picot
Agreement of May 1916. It is but
unlikely that the day for an “independent Kurdistan” is nearing, rather
recording their fractured past replete
with varied demands of warring factions may either complicate or push
for an indefinite period the “dawn of
their nationhood”. Despite Western
concerns for now or later, the absence
of a professional Peshmerga and a
relative unity among various factions
of the Kurds in Iraq, Iran, Syria, and
Turkey may eventually derail all the
peace missions in the region as the
Kurds are an indispensable partner
in the long-held conflict. But then
how long the Kurds will wait for their
homeland?
(The writer is a Senior Editor, The
Pioneer)
Despite Western concerns,
the absence of a professional
Peshmerga and a relative
unity among bellicose
factions of the Kurds in Iraq,
Iran, Syria, and Turkey may
eventually derail all the peace
missions in the region as the
Kurds are an indispensable
partner in the long-held
conflict against the ISIS. But
then how long the Kurds will
wait for their homeland?
MAKHAN SAIKIA
money 10
Decline in profit is driven by
slippages from the watch list,
which lead to a rise in both
gross NPA as well as net NPA
levels to 2.54 per cent and 1.08
per cent, respectively, in the
reporting quarter
AXIS BANK DEPUTY MANAGING
DIRECTOR V SRINIVASAN
BUZZ
FROM
CORP & GOVT
Deveshwar bets on tobacco
biz for ITC shareholders’ good
KOLKATA: Setting an ambi-
tious target of `1 lakh crore
revenue for ITC as India’s top
FMCG player by 2030, its
outgoing chief executive YC
Deveshwar on Friday said
growth of tobacco business
will continue to be good for
shareholders of the diversified
group.
He rejected suggestions
that the non-tobacco businesses of the group should be
made to grow faster than the
tobacco business, but rued
that ITC’s investment plans
were getting delayed due to a
long time required for getting
approvals.
Addressing the shareholders of ITC at their Annual
General Meeting (AGM) for
the last time in his joint capacity as Chairman and CEO, 69year-old Deveshwar said the
strategy to pursue multiple
drivers of growth has led to a
17-fold growth in the company’s non-cigarette businesses
since 1996, registering a net
segment revenue of `23,000
crore.
“Compared to the size of
ITC in 1996, the non-cigarette
businesses alone represent a
size akin to creating 5 ITCs of
that time,” said Deveshwar,
who has been heading the
company for almost two
decades.
Deveshwar joined ITC in
1968 and assumed office as its
Executive Chairman in
January 1996.
During the April-June
quarter, ITC’s revenue from
cigarettes increased 6.42 per
cent to `8,230.60 crore from
`7,733.43 crore in the yearago period.
He, however, said, “Some
shareholders are saying
growth of the tobacco business should be less while that
of others (non-tobacco)
should rise (but) that is not
the objective”.
Deveshwar, who will
relinquish his executive roles
in Februar y and would
become a non-executive
chairman, said, “We are not
competing within the company”.
“The growth of the tobacco business will be good for
the shareholders of the company,” he said.
The tobacco business is
increasingly coming under
prohibition by various
Government regulations but
continue to be the prime revenue driver.Deveshwar further
said ITC has seen a 10-fold
increase in revenue to over
`51,000 crore since 1996,
while Profit Before Tax grew
33 times to over `14,900 crore.
“In the last two decades,
market capitalisation has
grown over 50-fold to touch
an all-time high of `3,00,000
crore
recently.
Total
Shareholder Returns during
this period clocked a
Compound Annual Growth
Rate of 24 per cent,” he said.
When Deveshwar took
charge at the helm in mid-90’s,
ITC was confronted with for-
Vodafone India Q1 revenue dips 3.4%
PNS n NEW DELHI
r itish telecom major
Vo d afon e on Fr i d ay
B
announced a 3.4 per cent
decline in its India revenue
at 1,519 million pound for
the first quarter ended June
2016.
The figure stood at 1,573
million pound in the same
period a year ago.
Revenue of Vodafone
India, however, in local currency terms grew 3.92 per
cent to `11,477.5 crore (at
exchange rate of `75.56) in
the reported quarter, from
`11,016 crore (at `70.21) a
year ago.
“ The slower pace of
growth mainly reflects the
reversal of the leap-year
effect and lower intra-circle
roaming revenues. Data
browsing revenue growth of
22.3 per cent slowed from
the pace of prior quarters,
reflecting lower customer
growth,” Vodafone said in a
statement.
The company said its
organic growth of its service
revenue was around 6.4 per
cent.
Vodafone said it had over
199 million users in India at
the end of the reported quarter. The active data customer
base grew to 69.7 million,
from 66.8 million a year ago.
The average revenue per
us er of Vo dafone India
declined to `176.36, from
`183.5 a year ago.
According to the com-
pany, preparations are on
for a potential IPO for its
India unit. However, it preferred to stay cautious on
expansion of 4G network
rollout in India.
“In In d i a , we h ave
launched 4G in five circles,
covering 45 per cent of data
revenues and expect to reach
over 60 per cent in the current financial year (ahead of
spectrum auction). Given
the high cost of spectrum, we
intend to take a disciplined
approach to further 4G rollout,” Vodafone said.
The company claims to
have installed 9,700 mobile
sites for 4G services as of
now. It said the company
added 3,300 new 3G sites in
the quarter, taking the total
number to 59,000, covering
96 per cent of its targetted
urban areas.
The 3G and 4G customer
base rose 46 per cent to 32.3
million.
“Voice revenues returned
to growth as competition
eased despite lower average
minutes of use per customer,” Vodafone said.
The voice call usage on
its network increased to over
187 million minutes during
the 2016 June quarter as
against 180 million minutes
in the previous fiscal.
`2,298 crore a year ago.
On the rise in operating
expenses, he said while the
bank did not open a single
branch in the first quarter of last
fiscal, it has opened 102 branches in the reporting quarter,
which has taken its headcount
to 52,400 from 43,300 a year
ago. From January this year, the
private lender has opened 201
branches against 31 during the
same period last year.
“But still we maintained our
cost to income ratio at 38 per
cent,” Srinivasan said.
Gross NPA in absolute term
more than doubled to `9,553
crore from `4,251 crore as of
end June. Of this, NPA provisions stood at `1,823 crore as
against `1,046 crore a year ago
and `906 crore in the March
quarter of last fiscal.
Chief Financial Officer
Jairam Shirdharan said all the
provisions, including an additional `115 crore towards AQR
accounts identified by RBI last
December, have been met
through the balance-sheet only
and that nothing has been from
the `3,000 crore contingency
buffer created in the March
quarter.
In the March quarter, it can
be noted that, the Shikha
Sharma-led bank had tagged a
whopping `22,000 crore worth
accounts into a special watch list
and had warned that 60 per cent
of this might slip into NPAs over
the next eight quarters including the June quarter.
And this does not include
the AQR accounts. Of this total
watchlist, 53 per cent accounts
are from iron and steel and textile accounts.
Asked whether the bank
expects any negative surprises in
the second quarter from the
watchlist, Srinivasan said, “No.
We are also not revising our
NPA outlook for the September
quarter.” “This 10 per cent additional slippages in the
Junequarter from the watchlist
is as expected and I don’t see any
negative surprises either in the
second quarter.
“But since we don’t see any
Cairn India, Vedanta seal
merger deal with revised terms
Cairn India’s minority shareholders will receive 1 equity share and
4 redeemable preference shares with a face value of `10 in Vedanta
PNS n NEW DELHI
price (VWAP) of Cairn India
share price,” it added.
Unable to quickly absorb its
cash-rich oil subsidiary Cairn
India, sweetened the merger deal
by offering three additional preference shares. Agarwal had in
June last year announced merger of Cairn India with parent
Vedanta Ltd in a $2.3 billion allshare deal to create India’s largest
diversified natural resources company. That time, it was announced
that shareholders of Cairn India
will get one ordinary share and 7.5
per cent redeemable preference
share of Vedanta Ltd with a face
value of `10.
Terming transaction terms
as attractive, the statement said
the deal offer exposure to
Vedanta Ltd’s world-class metal
and mining assets, increased
free float and trading liquidity
and potential re-rating of the
merged company. “The simplified corporate structure will better align interests between all
shareholders for the creation of
long term sustainable value,”
said Anil Agarwal, Chairman of
Vedanta Resources Plc.
However, Sudhir Mathur,
CFO and Acting CEO of Cairn
India, said, “Cairn India shareholders will benefit from exposure to a diversified portfolio of
world-class, low cost, long-life
assets with significant growth.
We are confident that the financial strength and diversified
portfolio of Tier-I assets will provide de-risked earnings and stable cash flows, driving long-term
value. Cairn India shareholders
will benefit from the revised
terms, while retaining the upside
from Cairn’s strong oil & gas
assets.”
While Tom Albanese, CEO
of Vedanta Ltd, said the strategic rationale for merging
Vedanta Ltd and Cairn India
remains highly compelling.
Stating that companies with
diversified resources have delivered superior returns for shareholders historically, he said, “The
transaction consolidates our
portfolio of attractive tier-I assets
and simplifies the group structure, better positioning the group
to deliver superior value to all
shareholders over the longer
term.”
As the merger between
Vedanta and Cairn India was
announced on 14 June 2015, in
fact, the deal was scheduled to
close by March 2016 but a lingering retrospective tax issue and
winning over half of the minority shareholders proved the
merger to be a stumbling block.
midable challenges with diversification efforts either failing
or languishing. Its revenue
was less than `5,200 crore and
Profit Before Tax was `452
crore.
He is credited for leading
ITC’s transformation from a
cigarette maker to a diversified group with presence ranging from FMCG, hospitality,
paperboard and packaging,
IT and agri businesses.
Spelling out the future
plans, Deveshwar said, “Your
company aspires to be the No
1 player in the new FMCG
businesses and has set a revenue target of `1,00,000 crore
by 2030.”
“What may be uppermost
in your mind is the question
as to how ITC will achieve this
audacious goal. Undoubtedly,
such an aspiration in an
intensely competitive market
calls for an orchestra of effort
that demands significantly
superior enterprise strengths.
“It is, therefore, very reassuring that your company
has, over the years, built an
impressive array of competitive strengths, whilst several
others are in early stages of
formation,” he said.
At Friday’s AGM, shareholders voted on a proposal to
make Deveshwar non-executive director and chairman for
a period of three years with
effect from February 5, 2017,
after he decided to hand over
the baton to a “youthful leadership”. While it was his last
AGM as Chief Executive
Officer, Deveshwar told shareholders, “I hope to continue to
address you in the coming
years as Chairman of your
company”.
ITC was in a unique position to explore new opportunities in the area of perishables including fruits and vegetables, he said in the chairman’s speech at the AGM.
In this regard, ITC was
exploring the opportunity to
invest in state-of-the-art cold
chain top cover farm produce
including fresh, frozen and
dehydrated fruits and vegetables.
Also, there are plans to
cultivate medicinal and aromatic plants, he said. “The
company’s traditional, new
and developing enterprises
will help in achieving the `1
lakh crore FMCG goal by
2030,” he said.
PTI
IRCTC to launch
passenger insurance,
unreserved ticketing
COAI for mandatory nod to telecom
MUMBAI: Indian R ailway
Catering and Tourism
Corporation on Friday said it
is launching a host of initiatives, including passenger
insurance and unreserved
ticketing.
“We are going to start
passenger insurance soon and
have already issued letter of
award. We have short-listed
three companies. The insurance would be less than `2 per
trip for a sum insured of `10
lakh,” Arun Kumar Manocha,
Chairman and Managing
director of IRCTC, said here.
The public-sector undertaking of the Railways, which
handles catering, tourism and
Internet ticketing activities,
today also partnered with the
State Bank of India to enable
digital payments through the
SBI’s mobile wallet Buddy.
The company is also
working together to explore
other areas of railway ticketing activities, Manocha said.
“We are planning to enter
unreserved ticketing system; it
would be available in a few
months time,” he said.
Manocha said IRCTC is
integrating android software which will make
refund process of e-ticket
cancellation simpler.
PTI
solid recovery in the affected
sectors of steel, power and textiles, we are still sticking to our
March quarter assessment that
60 per cent of the identified a little over `22,000 crore may turn
dud assets,” Srinivasan said.
Of this total watchlist, fundbased accounts are worth
`20,295 crore and the nonfund are of `2,562 crore, he said.
On provisions, the Axis
Bank Deputy MD said he sees
provisions from AQR accounts
coming down going forward as
he sees no surprising spurt in
bad loans.
Total income of the bank
improved to `13,852.1 crore as
against `12,234.41 crore in the
same period last year. During
the quarter, the interest income
rose to `11,113.9 crore from
`9,936.14 crore.
During the first quarter, the
bank added `3,638 crore in
fresh slippages, which
Srinivasan said, was expected.
Of this, 92 per cent, or `2,680
crore, came from the watchlist
account that the bank had
eeping the market conditions in view and having
K
regard to underlying commercial
factors, mining billionaire Anil
Agarwal-led Vedanta group on
Friday announced revised terms
for the merger between Vedanta
Ltd and Cairn India after minority shareholders like the Life
Insurance Corporation of India
(LIC) which opposed the earlier
deal.
“Vedanta Ltd, Cairn India Ltd
and Vedanta Resources plc today
(Friday) announced revised and
final terms to the recommended
merger between Vedanta Ltd
and Cairn India that was
announced on 14 June 2015,” said
a statement released on Friday.
The development comes at a
time when key shareholder
Government-owned LIC is yet to
give its assent to the merger.
“Pursuant to the revised and
final terms, each Cairn India
minority shareholder will receive,
for each equity share held, 1 equity share in Vedanta, 4 Redeemable
Preference shares with a face value
of `10 in Vedanta, with a coupon
of 7.5 per cent and tenure of 18
months from issuance. Implied
premium of 20 per cent to one
month volume weighted average
companies for in-building infrastructure
NEW DELHI: Cellular operators body COAI has pitched
for a “mandatory” and “nondiscriminatory” grant of permission to all operators for
deployment of in-building
telecom infrastructure in public buildings including airports and Government offices.
Such permission should be
granted on non-discriminatory basis to all telecom operators by the respective builder
or a Government agency,
according to COAI.
These suggestions are a
part of COAI response to telecom regulator Trai’s consultation paper dealing with the
issue of ‘In-Building access by
telecom service providers’.
Since consumers spend a
lot of time indoors, Trai paper
had emphasised the need to
have quality telecom services
inside buildings through
deployment of in-building
solutions.
COAI noted that obtaining permission for setting up
sites in the commercial and
public buildings became difficult at times, and that deployment was often hindered by
owners and developers delaying the negotiations. Often
NPA provisions, expenses pull down Axis Bank profit 21%
MUMBAI: Axis Bank on Friday
reported a steep 21 per cent
decline in net profit at `1,555.5
crore for the three months to
June, roiled by a more than
doubling of its bad loan provisions, higher operating expenses (opex) towards branch
expansion and the resultant
salary outgo.
“Decline in profit is driven
by slippages from the watch list,
which lead to a rise in both gross
NPA as well as net NPA levels
to 2.54 per cent and 1.08 per
cent, respectively, in the reporting quarter.
“Another reason for the dip
in profit is the higher salary
outgo and investment into
branches which led to a 23 per
cent increase in operating
expenses,” Deputy Managing
Director V Srinivasan told
reporters on a post-earnings
concall late this evening.
He said the lower profit is
due to tepid other income or fee
income, which grew only 11 per
cent in the first quarter ended
June 30, to `2,738 crore from
The Government has assessed
the impact of Brexit on the Indian
economy. Thus far, India has not
only avoided adverse impacts, but
it has in fact emerged as a safe
haven for investors around the
world
FINANCE MINISTER ARUN JAITLEY
identified in the March quarter
and are in line with its own
assessment, he said, adding
recoveries and upgrades stood
at `140 crore while write-offs
stood at `32 crore during the
quarter.
Of the total NPAs, as much
as `2,911 crore came from corporate accounts while `306
crore of slippages came in from
retail and SME accounts, especially from the agri lending side
of retail loan book, as well as a
few accounts from healthcare
and education sector, Srinivasan
said.
But he was quick to add
that there is no reason for any
worries on the SME side.
“SME loan book constitutes 13 per cent of our total
assets, or `45,000 crore. We have
not seen any stress in the sector
as such and therefore we have
no reason to believe that this
sector per se is in trouble,”
Srinivasan said in response to a
question whether the SME sector is the next power and steel
sectors for the lenders.
PTI
operators are forced to enter
into agreements at unilateral
and exorbitant terms set by the
other parties.
COAI has said that a single online window should be
created for necessary approvals
for public buildings ( government-owned or PPP model)
such as airports, railway stations, Government offices,
government residential complexes and hospitals.
COAI felt the permission
to install telecom infrastructure should be granted to telecom operators only.
It said that denial of permission by building owners,
lack of clear framework and
fear of EMF (Electromagnetic
Field) acted as hurdles in
installation of solutions by
telcos.
New buildings, at the time
of construction should be
made ‘Telecom Infrastructure
deployment’ ready by creation
of one-time infrastructure
such as ducts, common area
for telecom facilities and network access points, and the
same should be mandated in
the Building Code itself, it
said.
The operators, under the
aegis of COAI, said they
should be given “legal rights”
to use the common telecom
infrastructure within a build-
ing free of charge just as other
essential services like water
and electricity.
New and under-renovation buildings should be granted Completion Certificate
only after they comply with
such common telecom infrastructure provisions, it
added.COAI said that given
the need to have quality
mobile coverage and network
presence inside residential and
commercial complexes, sharing of infrastructure should be
encouraged among telecom
operators.
In the same vein, it said
such sharing should be left to
mutual agreements among the
telecom operators as various
technical complexities are
involved in the installation of
in-building infrastructure.
According to C OAI,
operators have taken steps by
way of customer outreach to
identify problem areas, seeking suggestions on setting
up mobile cell-sites, optimised hand-offs between
2G,3G & 4G sites and installation of ‘in-building solutions’ and small cells for
improving coverage wherever permission is possible. PTI
Par panel approves debt recovery law with changes
NEW DELHI: Suggesting some
changes to the proposed
d e b t r e c o v e r y l a w, a
Parliament ar y p anel on
Friday submitted its report
on the bill which seeks to
expedite disposal of over
70,000 pending cases
involving more than `5
lakh crore.
The Joint Parliamentary
Committee has proposed
amendments, ranging from
definitions to several terms
such as company, financial
lease, and secured creditor,
to the Enforcement of
S ecurity Interest and
Recovery of Debts Laws
and
Miscellaneous
Provisions (Amendment)
Bill.
The Bill seeks to facilitate expeditious disposal of
debt recovery applications.
There are around 70,000
cases are pending in Debt
Recovery Tribunals involving more t han ` 5 lak h
crore.
T h e c om m itte e pro posed amendment to the
net owned fund for a secu-
ritisation or reconstruction
company.
“Hence for drafting clarity, the Committee decide to
insert word higher after the
words such other in proposed modified clause,” the
panel said in the report.
The C ommittee suggested relaxation of restrictions on holding controlling
interest in the capital of
Asset
Reconstruction
Companies so as to have no
restrictions on the composition of board of directors
of ARCs, it said.
The panel recommended that passing of an exparte order after the show
cause notice of 30 days of
the service of summons may
be a violation of the principles of natural justice.
“The Committee are of
t he v i e w t hat a d e qu ate
opportunity should be provided to a borrower before
an adverse adjudicator y
stance is taken against him,”
it said.
The legislation proposes to give RBI powers to
regulate asset reconstruction companies, priortise
secured creditors in repayment of debts and provide
stamp duty exemption on
loans assigned by banks and
financial institutions to
asset reconstruction firms.
T h e E n forc e m e nt of
S ecurity Interest and
Recovery of Debts Laws and
Miscellaneous Provisions
(Amendment) Bill, 2016 is
important legislation which
seeks to amend the
Recovery of Debts due to
Banks and Financial
Institutions Act, 1993 and
the S ecuritisation and
Reconstruction of Financial
Assets and Enforcement of
Security Interest Act, 2002
and make consequential
amendments in the Indian
Stamp Act, 1899 and the
Depositories Act, 1996.
The object of the
amendments proposed in
the Bill is to improve the
ease of doing business and
facilitate investment leading
to higher economic growth
and development.
PTI
money 11
{usp}
Telecom Minister to
meet telco CEOs over
call drops on Monday
London Stock Exchange
(LSE) CEO Nikhil Rathi
called on Chairman NHAI
Raghav Chandra along with
LSE Asia head Jasmine
Arora. Apart from
exchanging updates on
market developments, LSE
urged NHAI to list its Masala
Bonds on LSE. NHAI
expects to raise $500 million
to $700 million through
Masala Bonds. Masala
Bonds are rupee denominated
instruments through which
entities can raise funds from
overseas investors without
taking on the currency risk.
SCRIP
OPEN HIGH LOW
LTP CHANGE
TATAMTRDVR
321 330.95 319.25
330.7
11.7
TATAMOTORS 494.45 508.45 493.5 506.65
15.6
POWERGRID
163.5 168.05 162.85 167.55
5.05
ZEEL
454.8 465.75 451.9
464.6
11.5
INFRATEL
352.6 363.95 350.9
360.9
8.3
HDFC
1,333.95 1,361.15 1,326.70 1,361.10
28.2
TATAPOWER
71.5 72.45 71.05
72.15
1.4
HINDALCO
133.2
137 130.35 136.35
2.45
CIPLA
516 522.9 512.35 522.35
6.5
BPCL
577.7 584.95 568.55 583.35
7.1
AUROPHARMA 791.85 809.8 791.05 799.75
9.45
GAIL
391 402.8
391
395.5
4.7
IDEA
105.3 107.5 105.2
106.5
1.05
LT
1,560.10 1,577.90 1,552.55 1,572.80 15.25
RELIANCE
1,006.00 1,017.80 1,005.10 1,015.90
9.55
ADANIPORTS
223 225.95 221.6 225.25
2.05
NTPC
155 157.1 154.1 156.25
1.35
HCLTECH
725
730 721.6
729.5
5.95
LUPIN
1,691.75 1,704.90 1,678.25 1,700.05
13.5
TATASTEEL
362.3 368.9 356.45
365
2.7
ICICIBANK
262.35 264.4 258.85
263.8
1.9
HDFCBANK 1,233.35 1,234.65 1,221.50 1,234.55
5.95
EICHERMOT 19,825.0019,858.6019,610.0019,848.00
93
ASIANPAINT 1,047.85 1,054.00 1,042.05 1,047.00
4.3
TCS
2,498.90 2,524.00 2,492.00 2,514.95
8.9
M&M
1,437.00 1,446.65 1,436.60 1,439.00
4.15
YESBANK
1,155.00 1,166.35 1,149.30 1,157.00
2.35
BHEL
141 142.3 139.5 140.35
0.25
MARUTI
4,421.00 4,449.00 4,405.00 4,419.90
6.2
TECHM
507 508.5 504.4
505.8
0.5
INDUSINDBK 1,131.50 1,145.00 1,131.05 1,137.00
0.35
ONGC
222.9 223.65 220.8 222.65
0.05
ULTRACEMCO 3,650.00 3,652.05 3,602.90 3,638.50
0
BHARTIARTL
368 369.8 364.1 367.65
-0.2
KOTAKBANK
762 764.9 753.25 759.95
-0.7
HEROMOTOCO 3,266.85 3,283.55 3,252.15 3,262.95
-3.35
AMBUJACEM
267 267.05 262.3
265.6
-0.3
GRASIM
4,903.00 4,949.90 4,851.00 4,892.00
-9.2
AXISBANK
537.95 545.3 532.9
537
-1.05
COALINDIA
333 333.75 329.7 332.35
-1
ITC
253.15 256.2 247.15
249.6
-1
INFY
1,070.00 1,079.90 1,066.70 1,074.50
-5.4
HINDUNILVR
911.2
915
897 903.05
-7
SUNPHARMA
796
796
782
788
-6.2
DRREDDY
3,613.80 3,641.70 3,579.05 3,587.90
-29.1
BANKBARODA 152.4
153 149.5
150.9
-1.35
WIPRO
540
541
535
537.1
-4.9
BOSCHLTD 24,528.6524,796.5524,110.0024,300.00 -228.65
SBIN
225.4 225.9 222.1 223.45
-2.2
BAJAJ-AUTO 2,765.20 2,767.20 2,715.50 2,720.00
-50.6
ACC
1,700.00 1,702.85 1,675.15 1,675.15 -33.05
NIFTY NEXT 50
SCRIP
OPEN HIGH LOW
LTP CHANGE
CAIRN
179 198.4 174.1
191.5 14.65
VEDL
158 172.4 155.25 168.95 11.85
RECLTD
199.1 210.8
199
208.6
9.75
PFC
207.6 218.7 207.35
217
9.45
UPL
561.8
586 560.3
584.1
25
IBULHSGFIN
716.5 739.4 712.5
737 22.95
SAIL
47 48.45 46.15
48.05
1.4
RCOM
50.25
52 49.95
51.45
1.3
DLF
154.5 158.9 153.75
158.4
3.9
GODREJCP 1,625.00 1,658.00 1,612.05 1,647.40
35.6
NMDC
97
98.6 96.45
98.1
2.05
MOTHERSUMI
309.9 319.4 308.9
314.7
5.85
LICHSGFIN
504.7 512.4 502.1 511.25
8.45
GLENMARK
851.6
870 842.7
862.5
11.9
BAJFINANCE 8,707.00 8,874.90 8,683.20 8,829.95 122.1
HINDPETRO 1,166.00 1,176.00 1,146.75 1,176.00
16.1
DIVISLAB
1,191.00 1,214.00 1,186.00 1,204.05
16.2
BHARATFORG
726.5
740 725.2
737.2
9.25
BRITANNIA 2,816.00 2,855.95 2,808.00 2,850.00 35.25
NHPC
25.2 25.55 25.15
25.45
0.3
MCDOWELL-N 2,387.80 2,410.00 2,351.00 2,401.50
27.8
GSKCONS
6,447.55 6,539.45 6,403.00 6,523.00 75.45
CONCOR
1,448.75 1,474.00 1,439.10 1,461.00
15.5
SIEMENS
1,328.30 1,349.70 1,319.05 1,335.00 11.05
DABUR
303.2 308.85 302.9 307.35
2.25
ABB
1,292.50 1,311.90 1,280.80 1,282.00
8.2
CASTROLIND
415 417.4 411.95 413.45
2.3
TORNTPHARM 1,441.50 1,475.55 1,415.30 1,462.00
6.7
GLAXO
3,397.00 3,413.95 3,380.10 3,409.95
13.1
EMAMILTD
1,123.90 1,143.50 1,113.10 1,130.00
3.25
TITAN
410 412.15 405.7
410
0.8
SRTRANSFIN 1,169.00 1,193.00 1,155.00 1,168.00
1.4
APOLLOHOSP 1,340.15 1,343.95 1,329.60 1,334.00
1
BEL
1,237.30 1,246.50 1,226.60 1,238.00
0.45
IOC
522.15 524.65 513.1
521.5
0.1
PIDILITIND
728.5
738
726 729.55
0.05
HINDZINC
195
195
189
193.8
-0.1
OIL
376.35 378.75 371.75 374.55
-0.25
JSWSTEEL
1,605.00 1,624.70 1,590.10 1,610.75
-1.5
ASHOKLEY
98.25
98.7
96.4
96.75
-0.1
MARICO
277.85 279.8 275.95 277.45
-0.3
PGHH
6,405.00 6,405.00 6,316.40 6,335.35
-8.85
CUMMINSIND
894 895.05 880.6 882.35
-2.15
BAJAJFINSV 2,630.00 2,648.00 2,576.10 2,599.95
-8.75
COLPAL
959.8
961
947
955
-4.65
UBL
777.9 783.95 765.6
773.1
-4.8
CADILAHC
374.1 376.9 370.2
370.5
-2.8
SHREECEM 16,443.9516,499.0016,267.1516,275.00 -156.25
OFSS
3,627.00 3,649.40 3,565.00 3,565.00 -86.55
PNB
122.8 122.85 119.4 120.15
-3.5
elecom Minister Manoj
Sinha is scheduled to hold
T
his first meeting with CEOs of
Union Minister of State for Textiles, GoI, Ajay Tamta, declared open the 9TH edition of the Indian Fashion Jewellery and Accessories
Show (IFJAS 2016) on the last Thursday at state-of-art India Expo Centre and Mart, Greater Noida in a colourful ceremony here on
Friday. The fair is being organised by Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts from 21 - 23 July, 2016, informed Rakesh Kumar,
Executive Director - EPCH. Dinesh Kumar, Chairman- EPCH, Sobinder Kohli, President of the Fair, Neetu Singh, Vice President, Fair,
OP Prahaladka, Vice Chairmen, EPCH, members of committee of administration were present on the occasion.
Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS)
launched its young professional
programme through a workshop held on
the last Thursday at BIS Headquarters,
New Delhi. Regional Director,
International Electro-technical
Commision (IEC), Asia Pacific Regional
Centre, Dennis Chew, participated as the
speaker on International Standardisation
in the field of Electro-technical Sector.
The programme was attended by about
60 Young professional from different
Electro-technical Industries from India.
BIS has introduced BIS Young
Professional Programme with the
objective to help Young professionals in
the industry to appreciate the importance
of standards. Introducing the young
professionals to the initial concepts of
national and international standards
would also encourage them to take
active interest and participate in
standardisation work. By doing so young
professionals can acquire knowledge of
global trends within industry and better
understand their market development in
different parts of the world. This is the
first ever event of such kind in the
country being conducted by BIS.
NIFTY 50
PTI n NEW DELHI
A Special Brochure on
‘Innovations in Vigilance',
implemented by Union Bank
of India during 13th
Anniversary Celebrations of
Vigilance Study Circle,
Hyderabad, was released by
Central Vigilance
Commissioner, KV
Chowdary. (Seen in the
photograph is KV Chowdary,
Central Vigilance
Commissioner, V
Ramchandran, EX CTE, CVC
and Atul Kumar, CVO, Union
Bank of India at release
function held at Hyderabad).
Bse 500
Script
Traded
3MINDIA
8KMILES
AARTIIND
ABAN
ABB
ABBOTINDIA
ABFRL
ABIRLANUVO
ACC
ADANIENT
ADANIPORTS
ADANIPOWER
ADANITRANS
ADVANTA
AEGISLOG
AIAENG
AIL
AJANTPHARM
AKZOINDIA
ALBK
ALKEM
ALLCARGO
ALOKTEXT
ALSTOMT&D
AMARAJABAT
AMBUJACEM
AMTEKAUTO
ANDHRABANK
APLAPOLLO
APLLTD
APOLLOHOSP
APOLLOTYRE
ARVIND
ASAHIINDIA
ASHOKA
ASHOKLEY
ASIANPAINT
ASTRAL
ASTRAMICRO
ASTRAZEN
Last
Price
13920
1892.75
550.85
221.45
1283.75
4688.95
141.2
1352.25
1679
81.4
224.5
28.5
37.8
613.95
120.95
1016.9
623.65
1609.55
1520.05
74.2
1576.6
189.75
4.17
360
902.7
264.9
45.45
57.85
930
586.15
1339
157.85
312.6
168.3
167.3
96.7
1045.3
497.8
126
1044
Abs Change
Change
%
143.8
1.04
-6.5 -0.34
19.55
3.68
-1.35 -0.61
13.2
1.04
-35.25 -0.75
0
0
29.1
2.2
-21.9 -1.29
0.3
0.37
1.2
0.54
0.15
0.53
0.35
0.93
28.85
4.93
2.1
1.77
-14.45
-1.4
-11.3 -1.78
-10.7 -0.66
-17.5 -1.14
-0.2 -0.27
24.7
1.59
3.2
1.72
-0.01 -0.24
4.55
1.28
26.15
2.98
-1.15 -0.43
1.5
3.41
-0.4 -0.69
-10.2 -1.08
1.1
0.19
5.95
0.45
0.55
0.35
3.55
1.15
4.85
2.97
1.85
1.12
-0.15 -0.15
5.05
0.49
-9.95 -1.96
0.55
0.44
2.95
0.28
CEATLTD
CENTRALBK
CENTURYPLY
CENTURYTEX
CERA
CESC
CHAMBLFERT
CHENNPETRO
CHOLAFIN
CIPLA
CLNINDIA
COALINDIA
COFFEEDAY
COLPAL
CONCOR
COROMANDEL
CORPBANK
COX&KINGS
CRISIL
CROMPGREAV
CUB
CUMMINSIND
CYIENT
DABUR
DALMIABHA
DBCORP
DCBBANK
DCMSHRIRAM
DEEPAKFERT
DELTACORP
DEN
DENABANK
DHANUKA
DHFL
DISHMAN
DISHTV
DIVISLAB
DLF
DRREDDY
DYNAMATECH
ECLERX
EDELWEISS
885.3
97.55
228.45
701.9
2400
606
64.55
254
1020.35
519.7
705.95
330.5
251.5
954.1
1459.1
232.15
41.65
195.4
2066.5
73.3
122.6
885.65
485.2
307.8
1434
408
100.1
214
157.8
90
87.6
38.9
652
222.1
146.4
97.55
1207.8
158.85
3605.35
2562
1501
86.85
6.85
0.25
-0.75
33.3
24.35
11.25
-0.25
-7.95
20
4.3
8.4
-2.75
7.75
-6.15
16.4
-1.65
-0.75
-3.75
-9.4
1.1
0.4
3.45
-1.3
3.7
88.65
2.05
0.4
-1.1
-0.15
-0.3
0
-0.45
8.5
4.25
4.3
-0.8
25.2
4.15
-11.75
2
-12.8
3.55
0.78
0.26
-0.33
4.98
1.02
1.89
-0.39
-3.03
2
0.83
1.2
-0.83
3.18
-0.64
1.14
-0.71
-1.77
-1.88
-0.45
1.52
0.33
0.39
-0.27
1.22
6.59
0.5
0.4
-0.51
-0.09
-0.33
0
-1.14
1.32
1.95
3.03
-0.81
2.13
2.68
-0.32
0.08
-0.85
4.26
NSE: GAINERS
BSE: GAINERS
Current (Chng %)
Current (Chng %)
BIOCON
808.70 (15.28)
TATAMTRDVR
330.70 (3.67)
BHARATFIN
844.90 (10.58)
TATAMOTORS
506.65 (3.18)
CAIRN
192.00 (8.72)
POWERGRID
167.55 (3.11)
VEDL
168.95 (7.44)
ZEEL
464.60 (2.54)
CENTURYTEX
701.90 (4.98)
INFRATEL
360.90 (2.35)
-80.5
9.15
12.8
-0.7
-44.15
6.05
-2.9
-5.25
0
80.5
133.95
4.45
7.4
-0.05
-1.35
-1.2
-2.85
4.6
84.35
1.8
-1.9
25.25
-1.5
4.15
80.85
7.9
2.05
1.2
107.2
-8.6
2.65
-33.3
7.65
0.45
-198.7
6.15
37.1
-0.8
-10.6
19.55
3.7
22.5
1.7
-1.2
2.9
0.2
EICHERMOT
EIDPARRY
EIHOTEL
ELGIEQUIP
EMAMILTD
ENGINERSIN
ENIL
EROSMEDIA
ESCORTS
ESSELPRO
EVEREADY
EXIDEIND
FAGBEARING
FCEL
FDC
FEDERALBNK
FINCABLES
FINOLEXIND
FORCEMOT
FORTIS
FSL
GAIL
GATI
GAYAPROJ
GDL
GEOMETRIC
GESHIP
GHCL
GICHSGFIN
GILLETTE
GLAXO
GLENMARK
GMDCLTD
GMRINFRA
GNFC
GODFRYPHLP
GODREJCP
GODREJIND
GODREJPROP
GPPL
GRANULES
GRASIM
GREAVESCOT
GREENPLY
GRINDWELL
GRUH
ATUL
AUROPHARMA
AVANTI
AXISBANK
BAJAJ-AUTO
BAJAJCORP
BAJAJELEC
BAJAJFINSV
BAJAJHIND
BAJAJHLDNG
BAJFINANCE
BALKRISIND
BALMLAWRIE
BALRAMCHIN
BANKBARODA
BANKINDIA
BASF
BATAINDIA
BAYERCROP
BBTC
BEL
BEML
BERGEPAINT
BFUTILITIE
BHARATFIN
BHARATFORG
BHARTIARTL
BHEL
BIOCON
BIRLACORPN
BLISSGVS
BLUEDART
BLUESTARCO
BOMDYEING
BOSCHLTD
BPCL
BRITANNIA
CADILAHC
CANBK
CANFINHOME
CAPF
CAPPL
CARBORUNIV
CARERATING
CASTROLIND
CCL
2092.45
799.15
611.9
537.55
2720.75
403.25
239.5
2602.1
19.65
1781.35
8843.6
693.2
608
127.3
150.9
106.1
1094.5
569.25
3850
401.6
1237.75
982.2
235.9
519.9
844.9
735.75
368.95
141.05
808.7
536.6
111.15
5940.25
465
47.75
24286.3
583
2854
371.8
240.9
1280
673.9
1158.75
247.45
974
414.15
247.6
-3.7
1.16
2.14
-0.13
-1.6
1.52
-1.2
-0.2
0
4.73
1.54
0.65
1.23
-0.04
-0.89
-1.12
-0.26
0.81
2.24
0.45
-0.15
2.64
-0.63
0.8
10.58
1.09
0.56
0.86
15.28
-1.58
2.44
-0.56
1.67
0.95
-0.81
1.07
1.32
-0.21
-4.21
1.55
0.55
1.98
0.69
-0.12
0.71
0.08
19832.1
231.75
113
174
1124.8
225.2
709.1
234.8
248.35
207.8
270.85
181.4
4075
22.3
185.5
63.85
391.8
452.7
3220.15
180.8
50.95
395.05
175
627.9
275.35
219.45
334.65
203.35
319.35
4742
3398
865.1
81.5
14.23
158.35
1252.8
1645.05
445.7
368.4
180.1
143.85
4895
143.55
267.55
342.15
291.75
147.2
-3.3
-2.9
5
1.55
2.75
-8
13.45
-2.7
-0.25
5.95
6.8
5.05
0.5
-2.35
2.85
14.35
-0.3
223.75
0.6
0.85
4
0.8
4.15
-7.05
1.05
2.25
13.6
8.4
72.45
14.75
14.7
0.65
0.21
-12.9
30.2
33
15.25
0.05
3.55
0.3
0
-0.45
4.85
2.4
0.7
0.75
-1.4
-2.5
2.96
0.14
1.24
-1.12
6.08
-1.08
-0.12
2.25
3.89
0.12
2.29
-1.25
4.67
3.8
-0.07
7.47
0.33
1.7
1.02
0.46
0.67
-2.5
0.48
0.68
7.17
2.7
1.55
0.44
1.73
0.8
1.5
-7.53
2.47
2.05
3.54
0.01
2.01
0.21
0
-0.31
1.85
0.71
0.24
SENSEX
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
HMVL
HONAUT
HSIL
HTMEDIA
IBREALEST
IBULHSGFIN
ICICIBANK
ICIL
ICRA
IDBI
IDEA
IDFC
IDFCBANK
IFCI
IGL
IIFL
IL&FSTRANS
INDHOTEL
INDIACEM
INDIANB
INDIGO
INDOCO
INDUSINDBK
INFRATEL
INFY
INGERRAND
INOXLEISUR
INOXWIND
INTELLECT
IOB
IOC
IPAPPM
IPCALAB
IRB
ISGEC
ITC
ITDCEM
J&KBANK
JAGRAN
JAICORPLTD
JBCHEPHARM
JBFIND
JETAIRWAYS
JINDALPOLY
JINDALSAW
JINDALSTEL
JISLJALEQS
73.8
6500
128.65
610.25
558.05
593
6.74
32.1
332.95
376.45
23.7
40.55
729.3
1355.65
1231.45
101
126.3
3256.3
223.7
18.3
287.8
135.9
62.65
1169.05
902.9
193.65
1420
41.1
273.25
10000
303.5
78.85
86.35
735.05
263.55
889.05
3900
71.95
106.7
52.45
50.45
29.15
620
251.75
79.75
132.85
114.3
145.55
955.55
309.05
1136.95
361.25
1072.65
719.25
248.2
229.3
207.45
27.15
521.45
300
490.05
216.15
5002.8
249.55
153.95
66.9
178
79.35
265.6
206.15
566.9
441.1
52.85
69.2
70.5
1
71.65
1.35
-1.45
0.8
-0.55
0.19
0.45
-11.65
11.75
1.05
0.3
4.35
23.65
3
0.85
-0.95
-9.35
3.35
0.15
5.85
2.35
0
8.45
-7.25
0.45
20.05
-1.05
1
44.7
-2.25
0.1
-1.5
20.85
1.65
7.4
-2.8
0.15
1.35
1.05
0.05
1.1
6.85
11.65
0.65
-0.6
-0.35
-2.6
9.1
4.9
0.5
9
-7.7
-4.35
-4.4
1.5
-0.6
-0.35
1.85
-1.05
6.35
0.5
-3.5
-1.1
8.1
-0.6
-1.4
1
1.65
-0.3
15.55
-2.5
1
1.55
0.3
NIFTY
1.37
1.11
1.06
-0.24
0.14
-0.09
2.9
1.42
-3.38
3.22
4.64
0.75
0.6
1.78
0.24
0.85
-0.75
-0.29
1.52
0.83
2.07
1.76
0
0.73
-0.8
0.23
1.43
-2.49
0.37
0.45
-0.74
0.13
-1.71
2.92
0.63
0.84
-0.07
0.21
1.28
2.04
0.1
3.92
1.12
4.85
0.82
-0.45
-0.31
-1.75
0.96
1.61
0.04
2.56
-0.71
-0.6
-1.74
0.66
-0.29
-1.27
0.36
-0.35
1.31
0.23
-0.07
-0.44
5.55
-0.89
-0.78
1.28
0.63
-0.15
2.82
-0.56
1.93
2.29
0.43
JKCEMENT
JKIL
JKLAKSHMI
JKTYRE
JMFINANCIL
JPASSOCIAT
JPINFRATEC
JPPOWER
JSWENERGY
JSWSTEEL
JUBILANT
JUBLFOOD
JUSTDIAL
JYOTHYLAB
KAJARIACER
KALPATPOWR
KANSAINER
KEC
KESORAMIND
KIRLOSENG
KITEX
KOTAKBANK
KPIT
KPRMILL
KRBL
KSBPUMPS
KSCL
KSK
KTKBANK
KWALITY
L&TFH
LAKSHVILAS
LALPATHLAB
LAOPALA
LAXMIMACH
LICHSGFIN
LINDEINDIA
LT
LUPIN
LYCOS
M&M
M&MFIN
MAGMA
MAHABANK
MAHINDCIE
MAHLIFE
MANAPPURAM
MARICO
MARKSANS
MARUTI
MCLEODRUSS
MCX
MFSL
MHRIL
MINDAIND
MINDTREE
MJCO
MMTC
MOIL
MONSANTO
MOTHERSUMI
MOTILALOFS
MPHASIS
MRF
MRPL
MTNL
MUTHOOTFIN
NATCOPHARM
NATIONALUM
NAUKRI
NAVINFLUOR
NAVKARCORP
NAVNETEDUL
NBCC
NCC
BSE: SENSEX
Open
27832.45
Low
27646.21
Current value
27803.24
Previous close
27710.52
Change (Pts)
92.72
Change (%)
0.33
4.9
-1.75
-0.45
0.85
7.15
0.03
0.02
0.06
-0.3
4.2
1.9
10.4
-5.4
-1.15
8.25
1.7
-1.05
0.8
1.3
0.6
2.8
-0.7
-2.2
24.2
-0.65
9.4
-11.85
-0.05
1.1
-0.25
2
4.65
-2.55
6.4
-5.6
7.1
11.6
17.7
13.5
0.1
7.1
3.8
3.4
0
-2.2
2.6
0.1
-0.65
-0.9
3
0.75
60.9
-0.1
-1.1
2.7
-9.1
5.15
-0.45
1.85
-54.9
6.75
64
-1.45
-261.25
0.7
-0.1
3
10
0.85
7.25
22.45
6.15
0.05
2.15
1.1
0.69
-0.78
-0.11
0.95
12.61
0.24
0.18
0.96
-0.38
0.26
0.59
0.91
-0.97
-0.4
0.68
0.63
-0.33
0.57
0.89
0.22
0.57
-0.09
-1.61
2.24
-0.24
1.31
-2.97
-0.17
0.75
-0.23
2.67
3.87
-0.26
1.18
-0.15
1.41
3.58
1.14
0.8
0.67
0.49
1.2
3.29
0
-1.22
0.57
0.13
-0.23
-1.84
0.07
0.37
5.95
-0.02
-0.26
0.23
-1.61
1.07
-0.99
0.77
-2.22
2.19
15.24
-0.27
-0.76
0.88
-0.46
1.09
1.71
1.78
0.85
1.01
2.9
0.05
0.86
1.39
VITAL STATS
27721.72
High
710.05
223.85
418.95
90.25
63.85
12.55
10.91
6.32
79.45
1614.6
324.85
1153.15
553.3
288.85
1229
270
313.95
140.9
147.75
269
491.05
760.1
134.5
1103.5
268.5
724.6
387.25
29.45
148.2
107.95
76.85
124.9
981.2
549.9
3725
509.7
335.7
1573.95
1698.85
14.95
1441.85
320.85
106.9
33.05
178.2
460
75.1
277.05
47.95
4419
204.2
1084.75
554.15
423.1
1155
557.2
485
45
241.15
2413.05
314.45
483.85
540.5
34141.7
80.6
21.65
277.55
596
48.5
862.35
2244
218.25
93.7
251
80.2
Mumbai
Delhi
Kolkata
GOLD
30570
29700
30330
SILVER
47105
47105
47105
67.14
74.03
88.95
0.63
mobile service providers on
Monday to discuss industry
issues in general and call drops
in particular.
“The Minister has called a
meeting with chief executive
officers of telecom operators to
discuss industry issue, including call drops,” an industry
source told PTI. This will be
first meeting of Sinha with the
telecom leaders.
On the one hand, the
Telecom Ministry is gearing up
for mega spectrum auction
which will see airwaves worth
`5.66 lakh crore up for grabs.
On the other, Sinha has to
address the issue of call drops
as the Supreme Court recently struck down telecom regulator Trai’s order of making
operators compensate users
for every call drop subject to a
limit. In fact, to check call
drops, Trai has demanded more
teeth, including imposing a
fine of up to `10 crore on operators and jail term of up to two
years for their executives,
prompting the telecom companies to term such powers as
‘draconian’.
UK economy suffers ‘dramatic
deterioration’ from Brexit vote
LONDON: Britain’s economy
was battered by the Brexit vote
last month and faced a ‘dramatic deterioration’ in activity as
orders dried up and business
investments were canned, key
data showed on Friday. The
grim news the first indication of
economic contraction since
Britain's shock EU exit vote was
revealed at the end of a week in
which Prime Minister Theresa
May toured France and Germany
to soothe Brexit jitters. Private
NESTLEIND
NETWORK18
NEYVELILIG
NH
NHPC
NIITLTD
NIITTECH
NILKAMAL
NIRLON
NMDC
NOVARTIND
NTPC
OBEROIRLTY
OFSS
OIL
OMAXE
ONGC
ONMOBILE
ORIENTBANK
ORIENTCEM
PAGEIND
PCJEWELLER
PEL
PERSISTENT
PETRONET
PFC
PFIZER
PFS
PGHH
PHOENIXLTD
PIDILITIND
PIIND
PNB
PNCINFRA
POLARIS
POWERGRID
PRAJIND
PRESTIGE
PRISMCEM
PTC
PUNJLLOYD
PVR
7068.15
40.55
76.85
290.25
25.4
83.5
462
1239.75
212.55
98
721.9
156.55
298
3580.7
374
160.55
222.45
115.75
111.1
171
13639.7
401
1580.3
660
295
216.8
1956
40.05
6363.85
357.9
732.2
736.6
120.25
565.65
190.75
166.85
88.3
188.55
104.45
82.2
20.85
1064.2
234.55
-0.2
-1.05
2.65
0.25
0
6.3
36.65
0.4
2
-9.3
1.7
0.45
-45.1
-0.95
-0.8
-0.15
-1.4
-1.2
0
69.9
12.25
-27.2
25.75
3.45
9.5
6.3
0.05
41.95
11.9
3.35
-2.55
-3.45
0.15
-0.65
4.1
-2.4
0.6
0.35
1.75
-0.2
-28.05
3.43
-0.49
-1.35
0.92
0.99
0
1.38
3.05
0.19
2.08
-1.27
1.1
0.15
-1.24
-0.25
-0.5
-0.07
-1.2
-1.07
0
0.52
3.15
-1.69
4.06
1.18
4.58
0.32
0.13
0.66
3.44
0.46
-0.34
-2.79
0.03
-0.34
2.52
-2.65
0.32
0.34
2.18
-0.95
-2.57
sector business activity, as measured by research group Markit’s
Purchasing Managers Index
(PMI), sank in July to 47.7 points.
It was the lowest level since April
2009 following the global financial crisis, and sparked predictions
from some quarters of a painful
recession. The preliminary reading compared with 52.4 in June
and crucially took the PMI below
the boom-or-bust 50 points barrier that signals contraction,
Markit said.
PTI
SOBHA
SOLARINDS
SONATSOFTW
SOUTHBANK
SPARC
SPICEJET
SREINFRA
SRF
SRTRANSFIN
STAR
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
320
672
162
21.4
355
63.05
71
1391.7
1177.75
1166.5
186.1
787.75
254.05
425.65
920.25
209.15
18
63.35
2389.95
75.25
424.9
171
460
112.55
459.1
1663.8
131.65
505
506.4
329.4
72.05
639.9
365.3
353.05
2509.15
503.2
601
102.15
905.25
194.4
583.4
409.05
-4.7
-0.8
1.2
0
-1.8
0.7
-0.15
25.9
9.75
9.25
0.45
-6.2
1.2
18.3
-14.9
1.8
-0.1
-0.4
7.95
-0.15
-2.85
-0.4
2.7
-1.25
2.6
2.75
-0.05
0
15.75
10.65
1.25
-11.4
3
4.75
7.9
-0.85
12.9
5.1
-0.35
3.15
-6.75
0.9
-1.45
-0.12
0.75
0
-0.5
1.12
-0.21
1.9
0.83
0.8
0.24
-0.78
0.47
4.49
-1.59
0.87
-0.55
-0.63
0.33
-0.2
-0.67
-0.23
0.59
-1.1
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0.17
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3.21
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NSE: LOSERS
BSE: LOSERS
Current (Chng %)
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RAYMOND
457.65 (6.60)
ACC
1,675.15 (1.93)
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240.90 (4.21)
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2,720.00 (1.83)
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2092.45 (3.70)
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387.25 (2.97)
WIPRO
RADICO
RAIN
RAJESHEXPO
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RAMCOCEM
RAMCOSYS
RAYMOND
RCF
RCOM
RDEL
RECLTD
REDINGTON
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RELIGARE
RELINFRA
RENUKA
REPCOHOME
RKFORGE
ROLTA
RPOWER
RTNPOWER
SADBHAV
SAIL
SANOFI
SBBJ
SBIN
SBT
SCHNEIDER
SCI
SEQUENT
SFCL
SHARDACROP
SHILPAMED
SHK
SHOPERSTOP
SHREECEM
SHRIRAMCIT
SIEMENS
SIMPLEXINF
SINTEX
SITICABLE
SJVN
SKFINDIA
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89.9
34.85
436.75
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567
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457.65
51.3
51.35
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481.15
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845.05
423.5
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298
47.85
4500.05
652.6
223.45
520
142
71.75
128.55
117.2
367.2
548.5
244
366.7
16240
1885
1330
303.9
80.05
37.9
28.3
1394.3
1173.35
-1.45
0.25
-0.6
-1.6
1.5
-12.75
-32.35
0.7
1.2
1.3
9.8
-1.7
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8.25
8.1
0.65
10.65
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10.3
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0.7
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5.55
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7.05
-3.35
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10.4
1.15
-102.1
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6.15
2.95
0.2
0.3
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2.4
22.25
-1.59
0.72
-0.14
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0.27
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1.38
2.39
2.03
4.92
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0.8
0.24
1.93
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WABAG
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YAMNINV
YESBANK
ZEEL
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ZYDUSWELL
223.45 (0.97)
24,300.00 (0.93)
537.10 (0.90)
264.7
1458.15
170.7
1781.55
47.55
121.1
4692.75
537
39.55
300.8
2387
295.25
99.9
781.95
42.7
245
3636.05
303.9
126.5
2403.1
7.97
582.4
193.6
168.95
1428.9
104.6
42.75
520
125
334.5
354.95
1906.95
1079.95
586.75
5700
86.45
106.65
229.1
831.1
537.45
975.25
399.8
40.9
1158.35
466.1
988.35
784
-0.05
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24
0.15
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18.25
1
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1.1
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8.85
0
128.15
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world 12
Donald Trump vows to ‘put America first’
Hillary’s legacy is death, destruction: Trump
Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump waves as he exits the stage with wife Melania and son Barron on the final day
of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, on Thursday.
AP
PTI n CELEVALAND
onald Trump on Friday
promised
jitter y
D
Americans of restoring law
and order amid deadly shooting incidents, stop illegal immigration and bring back jobs as
he vowed to “put America
first” to garner support in the
epic race to the White House
after accepting the Republican
ticket.
Painting a bleak picture of
the state of affairs in the US and
the world under Democrats President Barack Obama and
his former secretary of state
Hillary Clinton, the 70-year-old
real estate tycoon said he would
“Make America great again”.
He also vowed to defeat
ISIS and reiterated his resolve
to build “a great wall” along the
Mexico border, seeking immediate suspension of immigration from countries that have
compromised on terrorism.
While accepting the nomination “humbly and grateful-
ly” here, Trump toned down his
previous proposal of a complete
ban on entry of Muslims in the
country even as he promised to
defeat ISIS and Islamic terrorism. Trump said his plan will
put
America
First.
Americanism, not globalism,
will be his credo.
“As long as we are led by
politicians who will not
putAmerica First, then we can
be assured that other nations
will not treat America with
respect that we deserve,” he said
amid thunderous applause. “In
this race for the White House,
I am the law and order candidate,” he said as he accused
Obama of sowing disunity
along racial lines. “The irresponsible rhetoric of our president, who has used the pulpit
of the presidency to divide us
by race and colour, has made
America a more dangerous
environment for everyone.
The “crime and violence
that today afflicts our nation
will soon, and I mean very
soon, come to an end,” he said.
“Beginning on January 20, of
2017, safety will be restored.”
Trump also painted his rival
from the Democratic camp
Clinton as incompetent. “This
is the legacy of Hillary Clinton:
death, destruction, terrorism
and weakness.”
He said if elected as the US
President in the November
elections, he will put in place an
immigration system “that
works, but one that works for
the American people”.
“Tonight, I want every
American whose demands for
immigration security have been
denied – and every politician
who has denied them – to listen very closely to the words I
am about to say. On January
21st of 2017, the day after I take
the oath of office, Americans
will finally wake up in a country where the laws of the US are
enforced. We are going to be
considerate and compassionate
to everyone. “But my greatest
compassion will be for our
Cleveland (PTI): Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump today
accused Hillary Clinton of leaving
behind a legacy of “death, destruction,
terrorism and weakness” as former US
secretary of state and blamed her “bad
judgement” for the rise of IS and
chaos in Iraq, Libya, Syria and Egypt.
“This is the legacy of Hillary
Clinton: death, destruction, terrorism
and weakness. America is far less safe
– and the world is far less stable – than
when Obama made the decision to put
Hillary Clinton in charge of America’s
foreign policy. I am certain it is a decision he truly regrets,” the 70-year-old
real estate tycoon said in his acceptance
speech here as the Republican presidential candidate.
“Her bad instincts and her bad
judgement – something pointed out by
(Vermont senator) Bernie Sanders – are
what caused the disasters unfolding on
Friday,” he said.
Reviewing Clinton’s record, Trump
said in 2009, IS was not even on the
map and the situation across the
Middle East was stable. He blamed
Clinton for giving rise to the IS and for
own struggling citizens. My
plan is the exact opposite of the
radical and dangerous immigration policy of Hillary
Clinton. Americans want relief
from uncontrolled immigration. Communities want relief,”
he added.
His speech that lasted for
over an hour also witnessed
interruption when a woman
waving a banner started yelling
more than 20 minutes into
Trump’s remarks following
which he paused for nearly a
minute while waiting for police
to remove her.
“Illegal border crossings
will go down. Peace will be
restored.
By enforcing the rules for
the millions who overstay their
visas, our laws will finally
receive the respect they deserve.
We must immediately suspend
sowing chaos in Iraq, Libya, Syria and
Egypt. “After four years of Hillary
Clinton, what do we have? IS has spread
across the region, and the world. Libya
is in ruins, and our ambassador and his
staff were left helpless to die at the
hands of savage killers. Egypt was
turned over to the radical Muslim
brotherhood, forcing the military to
retake control. Iraq is in chaos.
“Iran is on the path to nuclear
immigration from any nation
that has been compromised by
terrorism until such time as
proven vetting mechanisms
have been put in place,” he said.
“We don’t want them in our
country,” the New York billionaire said to huge cheers and
applause in his speech during
his party’s ongoing National
Convention amid chants of
“U-S-A” and “Trump, Trump,
Trump”.
Trump had earlier called
for a complete ban on Muslims
immigrants, which had drawn
widespread global condemnation.
He said to make life safe in
America, they must also
address the growing threats
the country faces from outside.
“America: we are going to
defeat the barbarians of ISIS.
Once again, France is the vic-
weapons. Syria is engulfed in a civil war
and a refugee crisis that now threatens
the West. After fifteen years of wars in
the Middle East, aftertrillions of dollars
spent and thousands of lives lost, the
situation is worse than it has ever been
before,” he said.
He said Clinton’s legacy does not
have to be US legacy. “The problems we
face now – poverty and violence at
home, war and destruction abroad –
tim of brutal Islamic terrorism.
“Men, women and children
viciously mowed down. Lives
ruined. Families ripped apart.
A nation in mourning. The
damage and devastation that
can be inflicted by Islamic radicals has been over and over –
at the World Trade Centre, at
an office party in San
Bernardino, at the Boston
Marathon, and a military
recruiting
centre
in
Chattanooga, Tennessee,”he
said.
To protect the US from terrorism, he proposed a three
pronged strategy. “We must
have the best intelligence gathering operation in the world.
We must abandon the failed
policy of nation building and
regime change that Hillary
Clinton pushed in Iraq, Libya,
Egypt and Syria,” he said.
will last only as long as we continue
relying on the same politicians who created them.” Trump said while Clinton’s
message was that things will never
change, his message is that things
have to change. “And they have to
change right now,” he said amid
applause.
Clinton fired off an icy rebuke on
Twitter during Trump’s speech, telling
him: “We are better than this.”
Countering Trump’s attack, the Clinton
Campaign accused him of painting a
dark picture of an America in decline
and said that his speech was yet another reminder that he is temperamentally unfit and totally unqualified to be
President. “ Trump painted a dark picture of an America in decline. And his
answer – more fear, more division,
more anger, more hate - was yet another reminder that he is temperamentally unfit and totally unqualified to be
President of the US,” Clinton Campaign
chairman John Podesta said.“He offered
no real solutions to help working families get ahead or to keep our country
safe, just more prejudice and paranoia.
America is better than this,” he said.
Instead, the US must work
with its allies who share the
goal of destroying ISIS and
stamping out Islamic terror.
“This includes working
with our greatest ally in the
region, the State of Israel. Lastly,
we must immediately suspend
immigration from any nation
that has been compromised by
terrorism until such time as
proven vetting mechanisms
have been put in place,” he said.
Trump said anyone who
endorses violence, hatred or
oppression is not welcome in
the US and never will be.
Terming an attack on law
enforcement as an attack on all
Americans, Trump said: “This
Administration has failed
America’s inner cities. It’s failed
them on education. It’s failed
them on jobs. It’s failed them on
crime. It’s failed them in every
way and on every level. “When
I am President, I will work to
ensure that all of our kids are
treated equally, and protected
equally.”
He used his major primetime address as the opportunity to call for protecting the
“LGBTQ community”, elevating the issue to a Republican
nomination address for the
first time. Trump said he
recently pointed out that
NATO was obsolete, because it
did not properly cover terror,
and also, that many of its members were not paying their fair
share. “As usual, the United
States has been picking up the
cost. Shortly thereafter, it was
announced that NATO will be
setting up a new programme in
order to combat terrorism - a
true step in the right direction,”
he said.
Pakistan to ask UNHRC to send 5 charged over France truck attack
fact-finding team to Kashmir
PTI n WASHINGTON
pping the ante, Pakistan on Friday
decided to approach the UN Human
U
Rights Council over the Kashmir situation
and request it to send a fact-finding mission there as Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif
chaired a high-level meeting which was
dominated by the Kashmir issue.
“The Indian attempts to claim that the
deteriorating human rights situation” in
Kashmir is an internal affair of India is
“factually incorrect, legally untenable and
a violation of international law and UNSC
resolutions,” Sharif was quoted as saying
in a statement issued by the Premier’s
Office.
The statement was issued after Sharif
presided over a high-level meeting of the
National Security Committee here to discuss regional security, particularly the situation in Kashmir. “The meeting resolved
that Pakistan will approach the Human
Rights Council of the United Nations on
its own behalf and on behalf of the
Organisation of Islamic Cooperation
(OIC) Contact Group on Kashmir to send
a fact finding mission” to Kashmir for
investigating the “slaughter of innocent
civilians and impose a ban on the use of
pellet guns for dispersing people exercising their right to protest,” the statement
said.
Chief of Army Staff Gen Raheel Sharif
also attended the meeting in which a briefing was made on the situation in Kashmir
and Afghanistan by the Foreign Office.
“We have provided and will continue
to provide diplomatic, political and moral
support to the people of Jammu and
Kashmir for the realisation of their fundamental right to self determination in
accordance with the United Nations
Security Council resolutions,” Sharif said.
The statement said during the meeting, it was unanimously called upon the
international community to condemn
“human rights violations by Indian security forces” and play its role in ensuring the
realisation of UNSC resolutions.
It said the meeting expressed “grave
concern” over the law and order situation
in Kashmir following the killing of Hizbul
Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani.
The “continuing brutal oppression
by the Indian security forces of the innocent Kashmiris who have been peacefully protesting against the Indian violence
in the region” was condemned during the
meeting, the statement said.
“Brutal use of force is a blatant violation of fundamental rights of the Kashmiri
people which no civilised society permits,”
Sharif said.
The Premier reiterated that the only
solution to the Kashmir issue would be
“early implementation of UNSC resolutions — a fair and impartial plebiscite
under the UN auspices”.
GLOBE
scene the day after the carnage,
as it crawled with paramedics
and journalists.
The five were brought
before anti-terrorism judges on
Thursday and charged. They
are 22-year-old FrancoTunisian Ramzi A., 37-year-old
Tunisian Chokri C., 40-yearold Tunisian Mohamed Oualid
G., 38-year-old Albanian Artan
H., and his wife Enkeledja Z.
who holds both French and
Albanian nationality.
None were known to intelligence services, and only
Ramzi A., who was born in
Nice, had a criminal record, for
robbery and drug offences.
He led police to discover a
Kalashnikov and a bag of
ammunition on Thursday,
however the purpose of the
weapons was unclear. Ramzi,
Chokri and Oualid were
charged with being accomplices to murder by a terror
group. Ramzi and the Albanian
couple faced a second charge,
of breaking the law on firearms
in relation to a terrorist crime.
They are accused of providing
Bouhlel with the gun he fired
at police officers before he
was shot dead.
More than 400 investigators have been poring over evidence since the grisly attack last
Thursday, the third in France
in 18 months, and it was analyses of Bouhlel’s telephone
records that led them to the
five suspects.
While the Islamic State
group claimed the attack,
describing Bouhlel as a “soldier”, investigators have not
found direct proof of his allegiance to the jihadists.
Qandeel’s father wants son to be ‘shot at sight’
TROTTING
Kate Hudson dating
DJ Diplo?
Paris (AFP): Five suspects
have been formally charged
over the truck attack in the
French Riveria city of Nice that
killed 84 people, the Paris
prosecutor has said.
Mohamed Lahouaiej
Bouhlel, who mowed down
crowds of people enjoying a
Bastille Day fireworks display,
had long plotted the carnage,
prosecutor Francois Molins
said. The revelations come as
the French government continues to be plagued by questions over possible security
failings, prompting authorities to launch an investigation
into potential oversights.
Molins said photos on
Bouhlel’s phone showed he
had likely already staked out
the same July 14 event in 2015.
It also emerged that one of
the five suspects in custody, a
Tunisian named Mohamed
Oualid G., had filmed the
Leonardo DiCaprio raises
$45 mn at gala in France
Demi Lovato told Nick to
split from Olivia Culpo
Islamabad (PTI): The father of slain
Pakistani social-media sensation Qandeel
Baloch has said that his son, who killed the
26-year-old model-actress for ‘honour’,
should be “shot on sight” for murdering
his daughter.
“I say he should be shot at sight! He
suffocated my little one. We were drugged,
asleep upstairs. She must have called out
to us,” Qandeel’s father Anwar Azeem said.
Qandeel, Azeem said, was his ‘best
friend’ but claimed that his son
Muhammad Waseem had been ‘crazed’.
Qandeel’s mother also shared the pain of
loosing their daughter.
“We were mother and daughter, sharing all our sorrows and secrets. She used
to tell me - ‘Your daughter is working hard,
she’ll go far,” her mother was quoted as saying by BBC Urdu.
Qandeel’s mother also said that she
and her husband were also drugged by
Waseem the night Qandeel was first
sedated and then strangled to death. “My
husband and I fell deeply asleep. We had
drunk milk, it had been mixed with sedatives. In the morning, I called Qandeel for
breakfast... but she didn’t get up,” she
added.
Police had arrested Qandeel’s brother
Waseem last week. He has admitted to
strangling his sister to death for the “honour of the family”. Waseem said he gave her
a tablet to subdue his sister and then strangled her in their family home over the
weekend. Waseem said he killed his sister
due to her social media activities, which
included a series of risque video posts with
the prominent cleric, Mufti Qavi. Qavi,
who was suspended from the Ruet-e-Hilal
Committee in the controversy following
the video posts, has also been included in
the murder inquiry by the police.
Qandeel’s mother had accused Qavi,
her daughter’s former husband Ashiq
Hussain, and a man name Shahid of being
involved in the murder.
Prior to her death, Qandeel, whose real
name was Fauzia Azeem, spoke of worries
about her safety and had appealed to the
interior ministry to provide her with
security. In Facebook posts, she, spoke of
trying to change “the typical orthodox
mindset” of people in Pakistan. She faced
frequent abuse and death threats but
continued to post provocative pictures and
videos. The so-called ‘honour-killing’ has
sent shockwaves across the country and
triggered an outpouring of grief on social
media for Baloch.
Woman gets stuck in tree while playing Pokemon Go!
Los Angeles: Actress Kate Hudson is
reportedly dating DJ Diplo. The 37-yearold actress is said to be romantically
involved with Katy Perry’s ex, with whom
she partied in Ibiza earlier this month,
reported Us magazine. “They are dating,”
a source said. Hudson and the DJ first met
at the Met Gala ball in May, and they
ended up leaving the event at the same
time. Diplo dated Perry on and off from
late 2014 until the end of 2015.
Los AngeleS: Oscar-winning actor
Leonardo DiCaprio raised USD 45 million by throwing a star-studded fundraiser at St Tropez to support environmental
awareness and research for climate change.
The A-list attendees included Bono, Chris
Rock, Mariah Carey, Tobey Maguire,
Jonah Hill, Naomi Campbell, Bradley
Cooper and Edward Norton, reported
Aceshowbiz. Prince Albert of Monaco was
feted with New World Leadership Award.
Los Angeles: Nick Jonas has revealed best
friend Demi Lovato told him to be “free”
and part ways with his now ex, Miss
Universe 2012 Olivia Culpo. Jonas and
Culpo broke up in 2015 after dating for
two years. Lovato and Jonas, 23, shot for
Billboard magazine’s latest cover and
spoke about their thick friendship. Lovato,
23, divulged she did not like Culpo and
wanted Jonas to break up with her. “I
internalize things, so we have this rule .
New York (PTI): In a
bizarre incident in the US, a
woman got stuck up in a tree
inside a cemetery while playing the widely popular location-based augmented reality
game Pokemon Go and had to
be rescued by firefighters.
The New Jersey woman
was trying to catch Pokemon in
a cemetery in Clarksboro when
she ended up stuck in a tree
and had to call emergency
number 911 to rescue her. The
woman climbed the tree on
Tuesday night while playing
“Pokemon Go” on her smartphone inside the Eglington
Cemetery, authorities said. She
called 911, and the East
Greenwich Township Fire and
Rescue arrived to get her down
with a ladder.
“The biggest thing we are
trying to stress out of all this is
people playing this game need
to be cognizant about watching
where they are going and what
they are doing so no one gets
hurt,”East
Greenwich
Township Fire Chief Rob
Gouldwas quoted as saying by
WPVI-TV.
In a Facebook post, the fire
department warned “Pokemon
Go” players to “think about
what you are doing and where
you are going before you actually do it.” The woman is said
to have “reluctantly admitted”
the incident occurred as a
result of playing the game.
The incident comes amid a
surge in incidents of people
getting into trouble while playing Pokemon Go.
world 13
Waiting for the day Kashmir Bangla police give blood samples
of
Dhaka
cafe
attackers
to
FBI
becomes part of Pak: Sharif
PTI n ISLAMABAD
akistan is waiting for the
day Kashmir becomes its
P
part, Prime Minister Nawaz
Sharif said on Friday after his
party PML-N swept PoK’s legislative assembly elections.
Addressing a public gathering in Muzaffarabad, Sharif
said, “We are waiting for the
day Kashmir becomes (part of)
Pakistan.” In his first public
address following his return
from London after an openheart surgery in May, Sharif
urged Kashmiris “not to forget
those in Kashmir who are sacrificing their lives for their
movement for freedom”.
“Their movement for freedom cannot be stopped and it
will be successful. You are
aware of how they are being
beaten and killed.
All our prayers are with
them and we are waiting for the
day Kashmir becomes (part of)
Pakistan,” Sharif was quoted as
saying by Dawn News.
PML-N is set to form the
next government in PoK as the
unofficial results of the election
for 41 direct seats of the legislative assembly yesterday suggested a landslide victory for
the party.
“I saw the election results
at night and thought that if our
victory is evident, I will travel
to Muzaffarabad to congratulate my brothers and sisters. I
was told to go tomorrow or day
after tomorrow, but said I can’t
wait, I want to go tonight,” he
said.
The Premier thanked the
people of PoK for their support,
conveying his gratitude to the
crowd for their prayers for his
recovery. He slammed those
engaging in “negative politics”
against the PML-N and congratulated the people for voting for the party.
Prime Minister Sharif ’s
party emerged victorious in the
assembly elections held yesterday in which a total of 26 political parties and 423 candidates took part.
Pakistan People’s Party
(PPP), which won the last
polls, could only manage to win
two seats while cricketerturned- politician Imran Khan’s
Pakistan Tahreek-i-Insaf (PTI)
also got as many with the
Muslim Conference bagging
three.
It was expected that there
would be a stiff competition
between the three mainstream
parties — Pakistan Muslim
League (PML-N), PPP and
Pakistan Tahreek-i-Insaf but
the PML-N routed them, stunning political pundits.
A total of 2.674 million
Kashmiris exercised their right
to franchise yesterday to elect
members for the PoK
Legislative Assembly, which
will be the ninth since the parliamentary form of government was introduced there in
1975.
While the region is spread
over 14,245 square kilometres,
the polling process is not
restricted to this area and
instead stretches to entire
Pakistan because members for
12 out of the 41 directly elected seats are elected by 438,884
voters living in various parts of
the country.
Some 12 are reserved for
refugees from Kashmir in
Pakistan.
PTI n DHAKA
angladesh police today handed over to
the FBI for testing the blood and hair
B
samples of six Islamist militants who carried out the country’s worst terror attack
in which 22 people, mostly foreigners, were
killed.
“Hair and blood samples from the five
gunmen and their suspected aide have
been given to the Federal Bureau of
Investigation for testing,” said Deputy
Commissioner Masudur Rahman.
Immediately after the attack on July 1, US
Secretary of State John Kerry called
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
and offered her assistance from American
law enforcement agencies, including FBI.
The counter-terror unit asked for
hair and 20 mililitres of blood to be collected from the bodies for a second time,
Soheil Mahmud, assistant professor of
Forensics Medicine at Dhaka Medical
College and Hospital said.
Doctors on Wednesday collected hair
and blood samples from the bodies of six
“terrorists” to ascertain whether they had
been under the influence of drugs while
“carrying out” the attack on a Gulshan cafe,
Dhaka Tribune reported. The autopsy will
check if they were under the influence of
amphetamine-based drugs, namely
Captagon, that the IS uses to create ‘super
soldiers’, Mahmud said.
A forensic team of Dhaka Medical
College Hospital collected the samples on
req Transnational Crime unit of the
Dhaka Metropolitan Police. The move
came amid media reports that militants,
especially members of the Islamic State, are
popping addictive pills, which help “fuel
their fury”, before attacking the victims.
The gunmen, mostly in their 20s,
seized the upscale cafe, where they shot
and slaughtered 22 hostages, including an
Indian. Two police officers also died during the attack, for which the Islamic State
claimed responsibility.
The government said six attackers
were killed by army commandos, who
stormed the cafe the next morning.
Among them, five were members of the
banned Jama’aatul Mujahideen Bangladesh
(JMB), according to the police. They
maintained that the sixth person, the
restaurant’s chef, Saiful Chowkider, “was
assisting the killers”.
The remains of the attackers and their
alleged aide were at the mortuary of the
Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in
Dhaka.
Portugal’s ex-premier emerges Chinese military
Aleppo blast kills 38 regime forces
as frontrunner to succeed Ban unveils new weapons
after SCS verdict
PTI n UNITED NATIONS
PTI n BEIJING
ortugal’s former premier
Antonio Guterres, Slovenia’s
P
Danilo Turk and Bulgaria’s
Irina Bokova have emerged as
the frontrunners to succeed
UN Secretary-General Ban Kimoon after the first straw poll
involving 12 candidates, half of
them women.
After the secret balloting,
Ambassador Koro Bessho of
Japan, which holds the UNSC’s
presidency for July, yesterday
said “each candidate would be
informed of the results through
his or her country’s permanent
representative to the UN.”
The straw poll followed a
series of closed-door meetings
in which each of the 12 candidates, who have been nominated by their governments,
was introduced to the Council
members.
After the straw poll, former
Portuguese prime minister
Guterres, who served as UN
High Commissioner for
Refugees for 10 years, emerged
as the frontrunner, according to
diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Guterres was followed by
Slovenia’s former president
Danilo Turk and Bulgaria’s
Irina Bokova, who serves as
UNESCO Director-General.
Bessho said the straw poll is “an
indicative vote – to inform the
candidates where they stand in
the race, and to inform the
Council members how the race
might go from here.”
The current SecretaryGeneral, Ban Ki-moon, is the
eighth
occupant of the post in the
Organisation’s 70-year history.
hinese militar y has
unveiled a range of new
C
weapons, including long-range
Antonio Guterres
He took office in January 2007
and will be ending his 10-year
tenure on December 31, 2016.
Under the UN Charter,
the Organisation’s top official is
appointed by the General
Assembly on the recommendation of the Council.
The election process for
UN Secretary General has been
unprecedented this year with
the General Assembly taking a
more active role in the selection
process, aiming to make it
more transparent and inclusive.
For the first time in history, the candidates were asked to
submit their resumes and to
take part in informal briefings
with the Assembly.
Along with the informal
hearings, the UN last Tuesday
held its first-ever globally televised and webcast townhallstyle debate in the General
Assembly Hall, where 10 of the
12 confirmed candidates took
questions from diplomats and
the public at large.
The two candidates unable
to come to New York were
invited to send video messages to be used in the event.
Bessho said this is the first
time the Council had held
such informal meetings with
each of the candidates.
As for the date for the second round of the poll, he said
no decision has been made.
There is no definitive deadline for announcing candidacy,but anyone considering
throwing the hat in the ring
should come forward as soon
as possible, he added.
Since 1946, the Council has
discussed and voted behind
closed doors in straw polls
for members to “encourage” or
“discourage” a candidate to
continue.
These straw polls continue
until there is a majority candidate without a single veto from
a permanent member. That
name is then officially transferred to the Assembly, whosemembership historically chooses the candidate.
missiles, amidcalls by its top
officials to be combat-ready following a landmark verdict by
an UN-backed tribunal that
struck down China’s “historical
rights” in the South China
Sea. The Southern Theatre
Command of the People’s
Liberation Army (PLA) which
looks after the South China Sea
front has unveiled a series of
new weapons for sea and air
combat during a visit by top
military officers.
The weapons were shown
on state television in the wake
of a landmark international tribunal rejecting Beijing’s claims
to almost all of the South
China Sea and upheld the
claim of the Philippines.
Military experts said the rare
public display was intended to
show that the newly formed
Southern Theatre Command,
was well- prepared for any
potential military confrontation with the US, Hong Kongbased South China Morning
Post reported on Friday.
The display conceded with
the visit to the centre by
General Fan Changlong, vice
chairman of the Central
Military Commission (CMC),
China’s highest military official
after President Xi Jinping. Xi
heads the CMC and the overall high command of the PLA.
Fan has called on troops to
be ready for combat and for
improvements in equipment
and logistical preparation.
Officers and soldiers need to be
aware of current threats to
China’s sovereignty, security
and interests, state-run Xinhua
news agency quoted him as
saying in an official statement.
He asked the military to
research combat methods and
strategies pertinent to different
situations and foster special
forces reserved for key missions
and scenarios.
“Air and sea patrols should
be tightly organised to handle
all kinds of emergencies and
safeguard air and sea security
in border areas,” Fan said. Fan
was accompanied by Gen Ma
Xiaotian, commander of the
PLA Air Force and General
Wei Fenghe, chief of the army’s
Rocket Force, which operates
the country’s missile arsenal.
Beijing-based naval expert
Li Jie said Fan’s visit indicated
that the southern command
could carry out joint combat
operations of land, rocket,
naval and air forces as well as
other strategic support forces.
“All the weapons showed
on state media are defensive
arms of short to medium range
within 1,500 km, meaning
China so far is using restrained
deterrence to warn the US not
to challenge Beijing’s bottom
line in the South China Sea,” Li
said. State broadcaster CCTV
showed footage of troops in the
southern theatre handling the
DF-16 missile, which has a
range up to 1,000 km, the
report said.
The missile, which was
displayed last year to could
strike US military bases in
Okinawa.
Beirut (AFP): Nearly 40 Syrian soldiers and
pro-regime fighters were killed when rebels blew
up a tunnel under a government position in
Aleppo city, a monitor said on Friday The
Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human
Rights said 38 members of government forces
were killed in Thursday’s blast, which brought
down a building used by the regime in Aleppo’s
Old City.
The monitor had earlier reported a toll of
14. A video posted online by the Thuwwar alSham rebel group purported to show the incident, with members of the force walking
though a long tunnel and preparing barrels full
ofexplosives.
“We are now inside the tunnel that will be
detonated soon, God willing, the tunnel under
the traffic branch building, which is an important headquarters for the Assad regime and its
mercenaries,” a rebel says in the video.
The footage then shows a massive blast levelling a multi-storey building, filmed from multiple angles. A huge geyser of dirt and smoke
shoots upwards from the scene of the blast, after
which gunfire can be heard.
Aleppo was once Syria’s economic powerhouse, but it has been ravaged by the conflict
that began in March 2011.
The city has been roughly divided between
government control in the west and rebel control in the east since shortly after fighting began
there in mid-2012.
The east of the city has been under siege for
the past two weeks, since government forces severed the only remaining supply route into rebelheld districts.
The government advance has raised fears
for more than 200,000 people who remain in
the east of the city, where food shortages and
spiralling prices have already been reported.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, right, talks to Pavel Sheremet's son Nikolay at Sheremet's memorial ceremony in Kiev,
Ukraine, on Friday. Hundreds of local residents and journalists have come to pay their respects to a prominent journalist who
died in a car bombing in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev earlier this week.
Fans in Malaysia
New photos of Prince George Shaking baby can
be deadly: Study
brave rain to watch released on his third birthday
Rajinikanth’s ‘Kabali’
PTI n KUALALUMPUR
undreds of Tamil fans in
Malaysia braved the rain
and traffic jam to be in the theatres to watch the premiere of
superstar Rajinikanth’s latest
movie “Kabali,” which is set in
the city.
Fans reached the cinema
halls as early as 6pm for the
premiere, scheduled to start at
10 pm on Thu night. The spe-
H
cial screening was also attended by the president of
Malaysia’s largest ethnic Indian
based political party MIC president S Subramaniam, his
deputy SK Devamany, Deputy
youth and sports minister M
Saravanan, actors Jalaluddin
Hasan, Norman Hakim and
Dhansika, who star in the
movie as well.
In “Kabali,” Rajinikanth
plays the role of a don based in
Malaysia
known
as
Kabaliswaran. The movie first
became the talking point in the
country, when prominent local
actors like Rosyam Nor,
Norman Hakim, Zack Taipan,
Tony Kassim and popular
Taiwan actor Winston Chao
were offered roles.
Subramaniam lauded the
makers for shooting the film in
the country and adding to the
economic growth.
He noted that about 1,000
Malaysians took part in the
making of the movie and that
the money spent on it had contributed to the local economy,
local news agency Bernama
said.
Recent but undated handout photo issued on Friday by William and Kate, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, of Britain's Prince
George with the family dog Lupo, at Sandringham in Norfolk, England. Prince George celebrates his third birthday on July 22.
PTI n LONDON
ritain’s Prince George on
Friday celebrated his third
B
birthday which was marked by
the release of a new set of pictures by his parents Prince
William and
Kate in which the young
royal is seen enjoying in the
warm July weather.
George Alexander Louis,
third in line to Britain’s throne
and officially known as His
Royal Highness Prince George
of Cambridge, can be seen
sharing his ice cream with the
family dog Lupo in one of four
images taken at his Anmer Hall
family estate in Norfolk in the
east of England.
The photos were taken
earlier this month at the family’s country home. “The Duke
and Duchess of Cambridge
hope that people will enjoy seeing these new photographs.
They would like to thank
everyone for all the lovely messages they have received as
Prince George celebrates his
third birthday,” a Kensington
Palace statement said.
Sitting on a picnic blanket
in the garden of William and
Kate’s family home, George
holds out his ice cream to
Lupo who seems to be resisting the urge to lick it.
Kensington Palace tweeted
the image with the caption:
“Can’t believe it’s been three
years already!”
The moment was captured
by photographer Matt orteous,
who was recommended to the
family for the birthday photo
shoot.
“I really enjoyed the opportunity to take these photographs of Prince George. It
was a very relaxed and enjoyable atmosphere. I’m honoured
that they have decided to share
these images with the public to
mark his third birthday,”
Porteous said.
Another image shows
George balancing on a wooden swing marked ‘William &
Catherine’, a third image shows
him sitting on the swing and
the last image shows the little
prince looking inquisitive as he
walks through the garden.
The future king of Britain,
who is in line to the throne
after grandfather Prince
Charles and father Prince
William, is pictured barefoot in
two of the photographs and is
wearing shorts in all the pictures.
Washington (PTI): Shaking a
young child is capable of producing a life-threatening pooling of blood outside the brain,
severe retinal haemorrhage,
coma or death, researchers,
including one of Indian-origin,
have warned.
Recent media reports and
judicial decisions have called
into question the general
acceptance among physicians
of shaken baby syndrome and
abusive head trauma,
researchers said. General
acceptance of concepts in the
medical community is a critical factor for admitting medical
expert testimony in courts.
In cases of child maltreatment, courts often rely on
medical expert testimony to
establish the most likely cause
of a child’s injuries, they said.
“Claims of substantial controversy within the medical community about shaken baby
syndrome and abusive head
trauma have created a chilling
effect on child protection hearings and criminal prosecutions,” said Sandeep Narang
from Northwestern University
in the US. “Our study is the
first to provide the much needed empiric confirmation that
multidisciplinary physicians
throughout the country overwhelmingly accept the validity of these diagnoses, and
refutes the recent contention
that there is this emerging
‘groundswell’ of physician
opinion against the diagnoses,”
said Narang. Shaking a young
child is capable of producing
subdural hematoma (a lifethreatening pooling of blood
outside the brain), severe retinal hemorrhage, coma or
death, survey data showed.
The study examined survey responses from 628 physicians frequently involved in
evaluation of injured children
at 10 leading children’s hospitals in the US.
The represented specialties
included emergency medicine,
critical care, child abuse pediatrics, pediatric ophthalmology, paediatric radiology, paediatric neurosurgery, paediatric neurology and forensic
pathology. As many as 88 per
cent of respondents stated that
shaken baby syndrome is a
valid diagnosis, while 93 per
cent affirmed the diagnosis of
abusive head trauma.
sport 14
45 more positive
cases in retests of
2008, '12 samples
AP n LONDON
orty-five more athletes, including 23 medalists
from the 2008 Beijing Games, have been caught
F
for doping after retesting of samples from the last two
Russia facing all-out ban
AFP n MONTREAL
Pressure
continues to build
on IOC to issue
Russia with a
blanket ban from
the Rio de Janeiro
Olympic Games,
as the federations
of one of the
leading sports
refused to confirm
that it would make
such a decision
unilaterally
ussia was facing calls to be kicked
out of the Olympics after their
highly-regarded track and field
squad lost their appeal over being
banned from Rio for state-sponsored
doping.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport
(CAS) ruling on the athletics team is
seen as a key indicator as the
International Olympic Committee
(IOC) debates whether to order a blanket ban on Russia from the Rio Games
that start August 5.
The IOC executive board is to hold
more talks on Sunday and a decision on
a ban could be announced after, an
Olympic spokesperson said.
The World Anti-Doping Agency
(WADA) asked that the IOC "consider
its responsibilities."
WADA said they were "satisfied"
with the CAS decision, claiming it
helps ensure a "level" playing field at next
month's Games.
"It is now up to other international
federations to consider their responsibilities under the World Anti-Doping Code
as it relates to their Russian national federations and up to the International
Olympic Committee... To consider its
responsibilities under the Olympic
Charter," the WADA statement said.
Fourteen national anti-doping agencies, including the United States, Canada
and Germany, sent a joint letter to IOC
President Thomas Bach on Thursday
calling on him to ban Russia from Rio.
Citing the "short amount of time
remaining" before the Games, "we
believe it is appropriate and necessary
for the IOC to take decisive action to
R
SINGLES
KSCA POSTPONES AGM
BENGALURU: The Karnataka State Cricket Association
(KSCA) on Friday postponed its Annual General
Meeting and Managing Committee polls scheduled on
August 7 after the Supreme Court-appointed Lodha
Committee recommended a freeze on elections in the
Indian Cricket Board. "We wish to inform you that the
Managing Committee of the Karnataka State Cricket
Association at its emergent Managing committee
meeting held on 22nd July, 2016 at 2 PM resolved to
postpone the Annual General Meeting and the elections
to the Managing Committee scheduled to be held on
Sunday, the 7th of August, 2016," Karnataka State
Cricket Association Official spokesperson Vinay
Mruthyunjaya said in a statement here. "The decision is
in deference to the directions of the Secretary —
Supreme Court Committee constituted for the
Implementation of The Lodha Committee
Recommendations," he added. The Lodha Committee
had sent the directive to all BCCI office-bearers —
including President Anurag Thakur, secretary Ajay
Shirke, treasurer Aniruddh Chaudhary and joint
secretary Amitabh Chaudhary.
RAMKUMAR IN QF OF US CHALLENGER
BINGHAMTON: Young Indian Davis Cupper Ramkumar
Ramanathan fought past Jose Statham in a three-setter
to make it to the singles quarterfinals of the $50,000 ATP
Challenger tournament, here. The 214-ranked 21-yearold Indian, who made his Davis Cup debut last week in
Chandigarh against Korea, rallied to beat his Kiwi
opponent 2-6, 6-4 ,7-6(3) in two hours and 22 minutes
and booked a last-eight berth in the hard court event.
Ramkumar said it was a relief to win a tie-breaker after
losing quite a few in the last few weeks.
FUTSAL IS LIKE LIKE T20 CRICKET: GIGGS
MOBOR: Former Manchester United legend Ryan Giggs
today compared futsal with Twenty20 cricket, saying the
format is quick and different from 90 minute football.
"We have seen how Twenty20 format has brought
younger people, a newer audience to cricket. Hopefully
this will be the same for futsal because it is quick. It is
similar to Twenty20 cricket, it's instant and different
from 90 minute football," said Giggs who is playing for
Mumbai 5s in the ongoing Premier Futsal. Asked about
his motive behind taking part in tournament, Giggs said,
"There are number of reasons. First I had never been to
India before so I was quite keen to come to India. Also I
like the concept, the legends (taking part), the futsal
players and also local talent," he told reporters.
AMANDEEP CRUISES TO 11-SHOT WIN
BENGALURU: Amandeep Drall carded one under 71 on
the final day to claim a comfortable 11-shot victory in
the Women's Pro Golf Championship, her second title of
the season, here on Friday. Kolkata's Neha Tripathi
finished second with a score of 224 and was followed by
Kapurthala's Gursimar Badwal (225). Panchkula's
Amandeep had a shaky start as she carded a bogey on
the very first hole. She, however, regained her
composure immediately and carded consecutive birdies
on the second and third holes. She dropped another
shot on the seventh hole in her front nine. On her return
journey, she carded two more birdies on the 11th and
15th holes while dropping a shot on the 18th hole to
finish the round with a total score of 213. She won this
title with a comfortable margin of 11 shots. Agencies
WADA to IOC: Consider responsibilities over ban
MONTREAL: The World Anti-Doping
Agency on Friday asked the International
Olympic Committee to "consider its
responsibilities" as it debates whether or not
to ban all Russian competitors from the Rio
Games.
A statement from WADA said the
global anti-doping group was "satisfied"
with the Court of Arbitration for Sport
(CAS) decision today to deny an appeal by
Russian track and field athletes for Rio
reinstatement, saying it helps ensure a
"level" playing field at next month's Games.
"It is now up to other international
federations
to
consider
their
responsibilities under the World AntiDoping Code as it relates to their Russian
national federations and up to the
International Olympic Committee... To
consider its responsibilities under the
Olympic Charter," WADA statement said.
Evidence of a state-supported doping
scheme by Russia at the 2014 Winter
uphold the Olympic Charter and the
integrity of the Rio Olympic Games,"
said the letter, posted on the website of
the anti-doping Canadian Centre for
Ethics in Sport.
The agencies also called for the
establishment of a "task force" to "apply
a uniform set of criteria to determine
whether individual Russian athletes
should be permitted to participate in the
Rio Olympic Games under a neutral
flag."
The other anti-doping agencies that
signed the letter represent Austria,
Denmark, Egypt, Finland, Japan,
Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway,
Olympics and other events was unveiled
Monday when the findings of a WADAcommissioned report were released.
IOC executives talked on Tuesday
about a ban on all Russians competing at
Rio but set aside a decision to check legal
issues and see what CAS would rule on the
IAAF ban appeal.
Under IAAF Rules, Russian track and
field athletes are ineligible to compete in
international competitions unless they
satisfy specific criteria.
"WADA firmly believes this is not about
punishing some athletes for the actions of
others," WADA president Craig Reedie said.
"It is about the IAAF requiring its
member national federation (from Russia)
to live up to the IAAF's World Anti-Doping
Code compliant rules by enforcing them
effectively in their jurisdiction. This is vital
to ensure that all athletes are competing
on a level playing field."
AP
Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.
Russia is a sporting powerhouse
whose absence from Rio would create
the biggest crisis in decades for the
Olympic movement. But there have
been widespread calls for exemplary
sanctions against the state-orchestrated
cheating campaign.
"This will scare a lot of people, or
send a strong message that the sport is
serious about cleaning up," six-time
Olympic sprint title winner Usain Bolt
of Jamaica said of the court ruling.
CAS said it had unanimously "dismissed" an appeal by the Russian
Olympic Committee and 67 athletes
against the International Association of
Athletics Federations (IAAF) ban.
Russia's Sports Minister Vitaly
Mutko called the CAS decision "politicised" and illegal. Russia has denied any
state involvement in the doping crisis.
The 67 included two time Olympic
pole vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva
and world champion men's 110m hurdler Sergey Shubenkov. Not all international sports bodies were supporting a
blanket ban with the International Judo
Federation (IJF) insisting all clean athletes should be allowed to take part in Rio.
"We hope that by allowing participation of Russian athletes in Rio 2016,
we will send out a positive message to
all the young people who deserve to be
given examples of friendship instead of
examples of Cold War," said IJF president Marius Vizer.
The IAAF ban covers all international competition and follows an investigation by WADA last year which found
widespread "state-sponsored" doping.
High jumper Maria Kuchina — a
medal hopeful for the Games — was
competing at an event near Moscow that
she hoped would be a warm-up for
Brazil when the news she had been
dreading came through.
"My first reaction was: It's just not
true! How can it be! The world's going
crazy," 23-year-old Kuchina told journalists.
Originally, 68 Russians had appealed
against the IAAF ban but the governing
body has cleared US-based long jumper
Darya Klishina to compete in Rio.
The IAAF has said Russian athletes
who prove they were not tainted by their
country's corrupt system could be
cleared for the Games.
Olympics, the IOC said on Friday.
The new cases bring to 98 the total number of athletes who have failed tests so far in the reanalysis of
their stored samples from Beijing and the 2012
Olympics in London. Using "the very latest scientific
analysis methods," the latest round of retests produced
30 "provisional" positive findings from Beijing and 15
confirmed positives from London, the IOC reported.
The International Olympic Committee stores
doping samples for 10 years so they can be retested
when new methods become available, meaning
drug cheats who escaped detection at the time can
be caught years later.
The retesting program has targeted athletes who
were in contention to compete at the upcoming
Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, but has also been
widened to cover many medalists.
"All athletes
found to have
infringed the antidoping rules will be
banned from competing" at the Rio
Games, the IOC said.
The announcement comes at a time
when the IOC is
weighing whether to
ban Russia from the
Rio Olympics over
allegations of systematic and state-run
doping.
On Thursday, the Court of Arbitration for Sport
upheld an IAAF ban on Russia's track and field athletes from the games. The IOC executive board is
scheduled to hold a meeting Sunday amid calls by antidoping bodies to exclude Russia entirely from Rio.
The IOC said the previous first wave of retests
had found 30 positive cases from Beijing and 23 from
London. The Russian Olympic Committee has said
22 of those cases involved Russian athletes, including medalists.
A total of 1,243 samples have been retested so far
in the first two waves of the reanalysis program.
The 30 new positive cases from Beijing involved
athletes from four sports and eight countries.
The 15 athletes caught in the new London tests
represent two sports and nine countries. The IOC did
not say whether any were medalists.
A third and fourth round of retesting will continue throughout and after the Rio Games, the IOC
said. "The new reanalysis once again shows the commitment of the IOC in the fight against doping," IOC
President Thomas Bach said in a statement.
The IOC said it was informing the national
Olympic committees and international sports federations affected by the latest positives, clearing the way
for disciplinary proceedings to begin against the athletes.
The IOC said it could not provide more details,
including the names of the athletes, "for legal reasons."
‘New format in Olympics is good for us’
PTI n BENGALURU
ndian men's hockey team chief
coach Roelant Oltmans on
IFriday
said the new competition
format of having quarterfinals in
place of direct semifinals in the
upcoming Rio Olympics is not
only beneficial for the Men in Blue
but all small teams.
"If you have teams like
Argentina, Germany and Holland
in your group, it becomes that difficult to end up being the top two
teams in your group. It is not
impossible to qualify, but now if
you finish in top four, you have a
chance to play in the quarterfinals,"
Oltmans said at the Sai South
Centre here.
"This format will give India
and every other teams including,
Canada a feel that they have a
greater chance of making it to the
quarterfinals," he said.
Unlike previous editions, the
International Hockey Federation
(FIH) has introduced a new competition format in Olympics.
As per the new format 12
teams have been divided into two
pools of six with each team initially playing round-robin games
within their pool. Following the
completion of the round-robin
games, the top four teams from
each pool will advance to the
quarterfinals.
Previously, after completion of
round robin games top two teams
from each pool used to directly
qualify for the semifinals.
In a significant but surprise
move, Hockey India has named
senior goalkeeper PR Sreejesh as
the captain of the national team for
the Rio Olympics in place of long-
standing skipper Sardar Singh.
Asked Oltmans about the logic
behind the decision, the Dutchman
said the move to relieve Sardar from
captaincy was purely taken to free
him from excess responsibilities.
"I can assure you the group
dynamics are good or may be even
better under actual circumstances.
Sardar can now completely focus
on his game, and let rest of the
players shoulder more responsibility. This exactly was the aim when
we discussed it (replacing Sardar
with Sreejesh)," he said.
"Sardar along with (vice-captain) SV Sunil, VR Rahunath
Manpreet Singh and Sreejesh forms
a group of captain. I believe it is a
positive endeavor," Oltmans added.
The 16-member Indian team
has a mixture of youth and experience. It consists of seven players
who played in the 2012 London
Olympics while nine new faces
were inducted.
Asked whether the players who
were part of the London Olympics
squad were sharing their experience
with the new faces, the coach said:
"They have experience but the
problem is their experience is not
positive. They had played 2012
Olympics and unfortunately that
was not the best Olympics for
India. So, they bring quite negative
thoughts."
To overcome the problem,
Oltmans said he shares his successful Olympics experiences with the
youngsters.
"I have a very good and positive experience of playing in the
Olympics and therefore I share my
experience, discuss about it and
talk about it to prepare the youngsters as good as possible," he said.
India will miss the services of
experienced defender Birendra
Lakra in Rio after he failed to
recover in time from a knee injury.
"I really wanted him (Lakra) to
play, but if it is not possible, it is not
possible. He is India's one of the
best defenders," Oltmans said.
"However, it wouldn't be good
for any team to heavily depend on
one player. In couple of tournaments like in the Azlan Shah Cup
in Malaysia and the Champions
Trophy, we had to play without
him as well and the replacements
did well," he said.
The men's hockey team will be
departing for Rio de Janeiro via
Spain on Saturday midnight.
FC Goa's fine reduced to `6 crore
MUMBAI: In a massive reprieve
for FC Goa, the appeals panel
of ISL on Friday revoked the
15-point penalty imposed on
the club for "bringing disrepute" to the event following last
year's final besides reducing the
Rs 11 crore fine and lifting the
ban on the franchise owners.
In an unprecedented decision in May, FC Goa were
slapped with a whopping fine
of `11 crore, which was today
reduced to `6 crore, while
their co-owners Srinivas
Dempo
and
Dattaraj
Salgaocar were banned for
two and three seasons respectively for 'bringing disrepute'
to the tournament.
However, the Indian Super
League Regulatory Commission
reconsidered the decision after
an appeal made by Football
Sports Development Limited
(FSDL), a joint venture between
IMG-Reliance and Star India,
and FC Goa.
The final of the 2015 edition of the ISL was marred by
violence and controversy when
players and officials of FC Goa
and Chennaiyin FC engaged in
scuffles after the conclusion of
the match, with the Goans
also boycotting the prize distribution ceremony.
"Appeals Panel has reduced
the FC Goa's financial penalty
to ` 6 crore from the earlier `
11 crore. The Appeals Panel
also stated that this amount to
be paid to FSDL, should be
utilised for investments solely
in grassroots development programmes for football in the
country. Appeals Panel also set
aside Rs. 1 crore penalty levied
on FC Goa to be paid to
Chennaiyin FC as part of the
latter's legal expenses," the ISL
said in a statement.
The dispute ensued after
FC Goa alleged that Chennaiyin
FC captain and marquee player Elano Blumer had assaulted
their co-owner Dattaraj
Salgaocar, prompting a boycott
of the prize distribution ceremony by the Goan club.
"ISL Appeals Panel has
revoked the respective ban on
two of FC Goa's owners, viz.
Dattaraj Salgaocar and Srinivas
Dempo. The decision was
taken (on the) basis of letter of
regret submitted by the owners
and Elano Blumer, to the ISL
Appeals Panel, terming the
incidents as something that
happened in the heat of the
moment.
PTI
German soccer player Mario Gomez and his wife Carina kiss after their civil
marriage at the registry office Schwabing in Munich, Germany on Friday,
Sam hired to manage Eng
AP n LONDON
am Allardyce pledged to
make England proud of
Sits perennially-underperforming national team after being
hired as its manager on
Friday, following an embarrassing European Championship
showing
under
Roy
Hodgson.
In a break from previous
lengthy deals for managers,
the
English
Football
Association only handed
Allardyce an initial two-year
contract through the 2018
World Cup after securing his
release from Premier League
club Sunderland.
Allardyce takes over one of
football's most high-profile
and challenging jobs after a 25year management career that
yielded no major trophies but
won him plaudits for overachieving with modest teams.
"It is no secret that this is
the role I have always wanted,"
Allardyce said.
"For me, it is absolutely the
best job in English football. I
will do everything I can to help
England do well and give our
nation the success our fans
deserve.
Above all, we have to make
the people and the whole country proud."
The 61-year-old Allardyce,
like Hodgson, was never selected by England during his playing career.
Hodgson's hopes of extending his four-year stint
with England were dashed
when its Euro 2016 campaign
ended in June with a humbling
loss to Iceland in the round of
16.
sport 15
VIRAT 200 FOR SKIPPER KOHLI
Captain’s maiden double-hundred steers India to 404/4 at lunch on day 2 against West Indies
‘To do well, you
need big heart’
PTI n NORTH SOUND (ANTIGUA)
irat Kohli cantered to his
maiden double century in
Tests as India cruised to 404
for 4 at lunch on day two of the series
opener against the West Indies here
on Friday.
Kohli (200* off 281 balls ), resuming at an overnight 143, reached the
milestone at the stroke of lunch and
was ably supported by Ravichandran
Ashwin (64*).
The duo batted the entire session,
extending their fifth wicket stand to
168 runs as the West Indies failed to
pick up a wicket in 29 overs.
The double century was also
first for Kohli at the First Class level
with his previous highest being 197.
India had started off the day at
their overnight score of 302/4, with
the two batsmen looking to bat as
long as possible. And it was obvious
from their watchful demeanour, as
the West Indies had opted for the new
ball straightaway. Shannon Gabriel
(1-56) and Jason Holder (0-83) then
started off the proceedings, as on day
one, but the pitch seemed to have
eased out considerably as compared
to the first morning.
Gabriel though was still impressive, and worked up his pace every
over. He troubled Ashwin and got
him driving, inducing a couple
edges that fell short of the slip cordon. Then he induced another edge
in the 98th over of the innings - and
the 8th of the morning — only for
keeper Shane Dowrich to put down
a regulation chance. Ashwin was on
43* at that time.
Meanwhile, Kohli continued his
march without any discomfort at all.
First up, he crossed the 150-mark off
208 balls as the 100-partnership
came up in the 96th over. Then he
went past his previous Test highest
score of 169 scored against Australia
at the MCG in December 2014.
The duo had scored at a good rate
and the first hour of play resulted in
50 runs. There was a short spell when
Devendra Bishoo (3-131) was introduced into the attack, wherein the
runs calmed down. But as soon as the
V
hikhar Dhawan has always
had the uncanny knack of
Sproducing
goods when the chips
two batsmen got accustomed to his
spin again, the scoring rate went up
once again. Ashwin made good of the
life given to him and reached his seventh Test fifty off 127 balls. In doing
so, he helped India past the 400-mark
in the 118th over and indeed brought
up the 150-partnership with Kohli off
272 balls. The West Indies were
looking lethargic in the field as the
partnership sucked out all energy,
even as the wait was now for Kohli's
impending milestone.
And he didn't disappoint, getting
there just before lunch, in the 119th
over. Kohli played Roston Chase (057) for a simple single to midwicket
and became the first Indian skipper
to score a Test doubled hundred overseas since 1932.
On day 1, Dhawan had scored 84
runs and put on 105 runs with Kohli
to help India past 300-mark after they
won the toss and elected to bat.
are down which he attributes to
his "big heart" and the "backing"
he has got from skipper Virat
Kohli and coach Anil Kumble.
Dhawan scored a polished
84 and is certainly feeling a bit
less pressure after there were
unconfirmed reports that KL
Rahul, with back-to-back halfcenturies in practice games will
replace him in the playing XI.
"I feel it is important for any
player if the captain and the
coach are backing you and it
gives a lot of confidence. That's
what matters and you also need
to have self-belief that you can do
that and it is a mixture of everything," Dhawan told mediapersons after the first day's play.
"Opening is the toughest
job and you need a big heart for
it, when facing the new ball on
a new (fresh) wicket. Bowlers
also bowl with full energy and
as opener your technique
should also be good because
you have to leave a lot of balls
and you need patience as well,"
said Dhawan.
"The middle order needs it
too but a new ball has its own
challenge. Vijay got a good ball
and it was a very quick ball. I was
luckier in that sense as Gabriel
was bowling really well," he further added.
The Delhi left-hander was
however a touch disappointed
that he couldn't get to a coveted three-figure mark as he was
trapped leg-before by leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo.
"I felt disappointed that I got
out especially when I was set and
scoring runs. I had spent enough
time out there in the middle and
came so close to scoring a hundred," he lamented.
"At the same time, I am
happy that I started on a good
note and would like to carry on
my good performances in coming matches. I want to use the
form I am in."
Dhawan did well to survive
the first session when pacer
Shannon Gabriel was extracting
a lot of bounce from the strip.
Along with Cheteshwar Pujara,
the southpaw saw off the session
adding 60 runs.
"I feel that in the first session
the wicket was fresh and the
bowling was very good. So I was
respecting the good balls and
knew that I cannot afford to take
a chance because there was extra
bounce on the wicket. So I was
playing close to my body and
was not in a hurry and relaxed
at the crease. It helped me later
in the innings in both my partnerships with Pujara and Virat,"
Dhawan explained.
Ton-up Cook falls as
BOWLERS NEED TO BE PATIENT: BISHOO
Amir answers boo-boys W
est Indies leg spinner Devendra
Bishoo has said the pitch at the
Sir Vivian Richards Stadium is batting friendly where the bowlers need
to be patient in order to get wickets.
Courtesy Virat Kohli's attacking
unbeaten 143, India have reached 302
for 4 with Bishoo emerging as the
most successful bowler with figures
of 3 for 108.
"I think this is a very good pitch.
It's a batting pitch," Bishoo said after
the day's play.
"We, as bowlers, have to be
patient as much as possible and take
it one ball at a time. Day one pitches don't turn that much. On days
three, four and maybe day five, it's
going to turn more," the pint-sized
AFP n MANCHESTER
lastair Cook marked his 50th
Test as England captain with
A
a century before he fell to
Mohammad Amir on the stroke
of tea at Old Trafford on Friday.
That meant England were
210 for two heading into the
final session of the first day of the
second cricket Test.
Cook, who won the toss, was
out for 105 off what became the
last ball before tea when he was
bowled off an under-edge by an
Amir delivery that kept low.
Together with vice-captain
Joe Root (87 not out), Cook put
on 185 for the second wicket after
Alex Hales (10) was bowled by
Amir. At tea, Amir had taken two
for 48 in 12.4 overs.
For left-arm quick Amir, who
made his return to Test cricket in
Pakistan's 75-run win in the series
opener at Lord's — the scene of his
2010 spot-fixing crime — Cook's
wicket was an ideal response to
the repeated cries of "No-ball!" he
had to endure from some sections
of the Old Trafford crowd.
By contrast Pakistan leg-spinner Yasir Shah, who took 10
wickets at Lord's, had tea figures
of none for 69 in 18 overs.
Left-handed opener Cook's
29th Test century saw him extend
his own England record and drew
the Essex batsman level with
Australia great Don Bradman's
tally. Bradman, however, played
just 52 Tests while this was Cook's
leg-spinner added.
"We could have been in a better
position probably. At the end of the
day, it's a good pitch and the Indian
batsmen kept relishing it. We just didn't put the ball in the areas as much,
but we bowled well in patches.
"We just have to take it one over
at a time and take it session by session. Put the ball in the right areas for
as long as possible, and make it hard
for them. At the end of it, we have to
be patient," he added.
While he finished with three
wickets, it was pacer Shannon Gabriel
who bowled the best on day one,
putting openers Shikhar Dhawan
and Murali Vijay in a spot of bother.
He looked dangerous in every spell.
"I think Shannon bowled really
good upfront today and he started off
very well. He bowled with great
pace. The rest of the bowlers, as I said,
bowled well in patches. We need to
be a bit more patient because the
wicket is good," said Bishoo.
When asked if West Indies
missed a trick by picking only four
bowlers plus debutant Roston Chase,
he replied in negative.
"No. At the end of day, whatever
team we have to play with as a team,
we have to play. We support each
other and give our 100 percent. I'm
not going to put anything on anybody. To play good cricket, bowlers
have to do their job and batsmen have
to do theirs."
Bishoo didn't speak much about
Kohli's hundred, only outlining that
the hosts can fight back in the days
to come.
Leander wants to beat Krishnan’s Davis Cup record: Vece Paes
131st match in the format.
More signficantly, this was
Cook's first century in 20 Test
innings since his monumental 263
against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi in
October. Amir had Hales dropped
in the gully on six by Asad Shafiq.
But three balls later, having
repeatedly moved the ball away
from Hales, Amir skilfully swung
the ball back into the right-handed opener.
The delivery also cut off the
seam a touch and knocked over
Hales's middle and off stumps.
England were now 25 for one
after seven overs.
Shah saw his second ball
Friday cut in front of point by
Root for four.
Cook then cashed in on a rare
Shah short ball with a pull to the
mid-wicket rope.
Root, in the manner of
Yorkshire and England great
Geoffrey Boycott, forced both
Wahab Riaz and fellow left-arm
quick Amir through cover-point
off the back foot for fours.
At lunch, England were 95 for
one with Cook 40 not out and
Root 41 not out. Root just beat
Cook to the fifty milestone, getting there in 86 balls to the captain's 90. Cook reached the landmark in style with a straight-driven four — a clear sign he is in top
form — off Shah.
A similar stroke saw him into
the 90s and raised the 150 stand.
Sania hopes to perform well at Rio Olympics
HYDERABAD: Tennis ace Sania Mirza on Friday
said she is excited to compete at the upcoming
Olympic Games in Brazil and hoped to put up good
performance along with other athletes.
“I am leaving for Canada tomorrow and then for
Rio Olympics from there. I am looking forward. We
are the biggest contigent that’s going. We are really
excited and hopefully we can put up a good performance,” Sania, told reporters on the sidelines of a fashion show event here. Sania will team up with
Prarthana Thombare in the women’s doubles and
with Rohan Bopanna in mixed doubles in the Games.
Earlier, after inaugurating the fashion show, Sania
Mirza said “Comfort for me is the most important.
I always say this. I actually don’t know a lot about
fashion to be very honest. I have great stylists.
Actually, my sister also helps me...I have a good team
around me.”
“For me the most important thing is to be comfortable and to look nice and presentable. I really don’t
care about the new trends and that’s not my thing.
It’s about just being cool and comfortable. My style
statement is comfortable and easy,” Sania added.
PTI ■ KOLKATA
tennis icon Leander Paes aspires to win
not only a second Olympics medal but also oblitIeratendian
the Ramanathan Krishnan’s Davis Cup
record of most singles win for India.
The 43-year-old legend is preparing for his
record seventh appearance at Rio next month.
“He has a few goals ahead of him, and one of
them is to win a doubles medal in the Olympics.
The other two are winning the World Doubles
Championship and to get past Ramanathan
Krishnan’s most (50) singles win,” his father Dr.
Vece Paes told PTI.
Asked that Leander does not play singles anymore, Paes senior said,” Yes, it’s been a long time,
but he’s is a man of records. He sets his goals. He
wanted to play singles at the Davis Cup in
Chandigarh, as it was a dead rubber. But eventually he pulled out so that his focus is firmly on
Olympic. He hopes to play singles again, he is two
shy of equalling Krishnan’s feat.”
Leander has 48 singles wins apart from 42 doubles victories for a Davis Cup tally of 90 wins.
Ramanathan Krishnan enjoyed 50 singles wins and
19 doubles victories.
Leander had come close to winning a second
in the doubles with his partner Mahesh Bhupathi
in Athens-2004. But it only remained a dream after
the duo lost in a draining three-hour 58-minute
battle to Croats Mario Ancic and Ivan Ljubicic.
Dr Paes feels Leander, who holds the record
of most number of Olympic appearances by a tennis player in the world, has tactically matured since
then. “He used to be very aggressive. Now he’s calm,
very calculative and tactically matured. If you have
noticed, he hardly gets into any showdown,” the
1972 Olympic bronze medalist in hockey said.
The winner of 18 Grand Slam titles had to deal
with uncertainty in yet another controversial build
LOCAL EVENTS
CANTT SPORTING BLANK CMS
Cantt Sporting blanked CMS, Aliganj 2-0 in a
District Football League match at Chowk Stadium on
Friday. Ashfaq struck twice for the winner. In another
match, Awadh Club defeated Vijayant Khand Club 30. Alok scored in the 25th and 50th minute while
Himanshu found the net in the 15th minute.
In the matches played at La Martiniere ground, Blue
Bird Club and Aliganj Football Club won their respective games.
Blue Bird Club defeated APS Club 2-1 while Aliganj
Football Club registered a 2-1 win over HAL Boys.
YOUTH CRICKET CLUB WIN
Youth Cricket Club crushed Young Challenger Club
by eight wickets in a league match of U-16 PP Dua
Memorial Cricket Tournament at Christian College on
Friday.
BRIEF SCORES:
YCC: 101 (Ajeet 33, Arjun 24, Ankush 24; Satyam 16/2)
Youth Club: 102 (Satyam 38, Vineet Pal 22, Sarthak 16;
Ajeet 15/1, Shivam 18/1).
Match between Blue Bird and APS Club in progress
up but Leander always said he and Rohan
Bopanna make the best doubles pair.
Having got the qualification by virtue of his
world number 10 ranking, Bopanna preferred
Saketh Myneni over Leander as his doubles partner before the AITA intervention cleared hurdles
for the six-time Olympian’s road to Rio.
“Leander is a pro for last 23 years and one who
understands the politics of the game. It’s time to
put aside your personal differences for the country. Playing for the country is way beyond any personal ego or differences.”
Bopanna’s apparent logic was that his style of
play was not compatible with the senior pro for
whom the service would be a matter of concern.
“Rohan is also a professional player and he
knows well how to adjust and adapt to a particular style. I’m just happy that they’re playing together. We’ll have the best doubles team in Rio,” he
added.
vivacity {48 hours} 16
S H O R T
AYUSHMANN
KHURANA
Our cinema is evolving. In the
West, actors only lip-sync to
their own song, music and
vocals. Actors singing in India
is a very good trend. When
people see their favourite
actor singing, I think it just
helps the song and the music
as well
C I R C U I T S
RANNVIJAYSINGH
ABHAY DEOL
MILA KUNIS
SARAH JESSICA PARKER
Men in India feel that
masculinity is all about
showing your power and
molesting or raping a
woman. The real man
stands up and speaks up
against injustice. For
women, it is time to speak
up. If you do not speak
up, nobody will understand your plight.
Diana Penty is a natural
comic. Comedy is all
about timing. I think
comedy is such that if it's
there in you and if you're
automatically comical,
then it comes very naturally. The good thing with
Diana is that she doesn't
think much...She just
reacts.
Why do I breastfeed my child
in public? Because I have to
feed my child. She’s hungry. I
need to feed her whether it’s
out of a bottle or out of my
boob. It took us a little back
because people actually
looked at us in a shameful
(way), and we were like, ‘Oh
my God,’ because it’s so not
a sexual act.
For Sex In The City, I
really wasn't keen on
doing nudity and language issues. But Kevin
insisted I do it as he
thought it was different and
nobody
had ever
done this.
SNEAK PEEK 30 MINUTES
The Return of the King
Couturist ROHIT BAL looks to Czarist Russia for inspiration and distills it with
home-grown craftsmanship in his collection for the finale. By RINKU GHOSH
e bought a book 18 times from
Bahri and Sons, everytime misplacing it while reading and for some
reason never being able to rescue it from
his pile of books. Yet so fascinated was he
by its contents and cover that he would
buy it again and resume reading from
where he had left off. “It had this lovely
flower motif that I could not get out of my
head. And I could not find it as it would
inevitably get lost in the stacks of other
books which currently occupy two
rooms with no space to move. Finally,
the shop owner told me that he had
sold 22 editions of the title and I
had picked up 18 of them. I was
persistent and obsessive about
it,” Rohit Bal said, roaring
with full-throated laughter.
But then the city would not
have indulged Gudda had
he not been anything
but passionate and
innocent.
You can never
beat an original
when it comes to
couture. You can
never beat the
inspiration
when it comes
to painting a
canvas. And you
can never beat novelty when it comes
to presentation.
So it was
with designer Rohit Bal’s
warm afternoon preview of his
60-piece collection that is
expected to close the
FDCI India Couture
Week tomorrow. It is
expected to be an orchestra of ideas with Gudda
being the master of ceremonies. Sharing tidbits
over a lavish lunch at the
very select A Ta Maison
in Sundernagar, Gudda
brought back the couturier’s studio, explaining every detail of his
bejewelled collection,
which has been inspired
by Czarist Russia, in his
mind the ultimate
H
he resplendent notes of sarangi transported
us to the grandeur of sybaritic Nawabs with
the ramp doubling up as a court bedecked
with a giant crystal chandelier, purposely-done
grimed mirrors and the quintessential hanging
gajras. Add to this perfect frame, a splendid rendition of a stunning kathak dancer. Tarun Tahiliani
managed to score high on Day 2 of India Couture
Week by doing what he does best, painting charm
on a canvas.
The collection, besides holding a strong signature of his, had some new elements and a lot of
drama, which is expected out of him. Majorly a
bridal collection, the ace designer brought out what
comes naturally to him. Not complaining, as bridal
is what sells in India in the name of couture but
acknowledging the long lost and forgotten charms
of women of courts with the theme, “Last dance
of a Ccourtesan,” was something novel and stirring.
Speaking on his ode to these women and seeking
inspiration from them, Tahiliani said, “They used
to be the bastions of culture and most often have
been misconstrued in popular culture. They were
the custodians of beauty, glamour, art and fashion.”
T
expression of luxury.
So there were the Czar, Czarina and the
crown prince in black velvet and jewels in their
regal reception room as guests clinked coloured
crystalline glasses, another of Bal’s product line
that rolls out in August. He even showed us
the jewel-crusted pure crystal wine glasses, the
result of a year of his travels and research.
“I don’t do anything much. Just travel,
experience and express,” he told us. This experiential range also means his artistry is in full
flow. But it is in tempering it with subtlety, selfcontrol and grace that he comes through in the
collection, each piece as wearable and regal,
worn as an ensemble or in parts.
The collection — black and gilded, and
accented with ruby, emerald and diamond
neckpieces, tiaras and crowns — has fusion
intricacies. Muted zardozi and fine Kashmiri
kaani blend with crewel work and petit point
and chain stitch, velvet meets hand woven silks,
rich jewels adorn autumn leaves while poppies
and irises unobtrusively criss-cross jackets and
quilted gowns. Though Bal gives credit to his
team for seeing him through six months of
work, his jewellers, Shri Ram Hari Ram from
Dariba Kalan, insist the time and energy he put
behind crafting each piece. “He sat four
hours at a stretch to decide the combinations,
lustre, cut and play. He was that particular.” We
loved the trimmings on the assymetrical
folds and lapels of the Czarina.
Bal thoughtfully calls his collection
A lost dream
TARUN TAHILIANI recollects the era of courtesans and draws images from
the charm of old-fangled decadent royalty. By DEVI SINGH
THE MUSE
The show kicked off with one of the classical
dance exponents in India, Manjari Chaturvedi. The
diva showed off her talents on the ramp amidst well
appreciated cheers and applause, flooring everyone. Tahiliani’s baritone had set the mood for the
evening already where he celebrated the life, art and
beauty of a courtesan and how one can source inspiration for a bridal dream. The show was an attempt
to think beyond the stereotypical image of these
strong women, who have been reduced to a mere
object of fancy by Bollywood classics, good, bad
and ugly. It was a manifestation of how their presence could light up the courts and how the royals
used to treasure them not for their beauty but for
their remarkable aura.
THE COLLECTION
Fabrics of sheer like tulle, light chiffons, silks
and light brocades mixed with fine thread work and
crystals with stylised cuts made their presence felt
on the ramp. There was the sleeveless anarkali as
jump suit, the corsetted kurta drape, the shararas
with tulle and gota. For the chic appeal, Swarovski
crystals were added for imparting the modern character to the pieces like encrusted opal on chikankari
sarees, draped brocade lehengas, panelled jackets
and voluminous skirts.
There were also men or the grooms so to speak.
Dressed in fabrics such as brocades, velvet, silks and
georgettes, in hues ranging from creams, to royal
blue, the men looked every inch the royalty.
Sherwanis and kurtas embellished with chikankari
and gota embroidery, and accented by French knots,
were a few pieces from the heavy collection which
the men carried off with élan. The pearl highlights
marked with embroidered cummerbunds and
draped dhotis produced a sense of elegance and distinctive aura to the collection.
THE COLOUR PALETTE
The hues ranged from the signature Tahiliani
whites and beige. The next set had bright oranges,
a few blacks, strong reds and maroons. The show
came to an end with pastels, blush pinks accentuated with green, peaches and ivory with orange.
THE ADULATION
The front row, albeit without worth mentioning names, hit a spot with a certain highstrung.
Tina Tahiliani Parikh, sister of the designer, was
conspicuous enough with vivid displays of her
bouncing-off-the-walls excitement for her
beloved brother’s collections or maybe she was
thinking too strongly about which piece to put in
her notable bridal store next. Time will tell.
Kehkashan (galaxy) and writes, “It is deeply
entrenched in the unmitigated philosophy of
extreme luxury. I was overwhelmed by the
incredible treasures and the immeasurable
excesses of what was once, perhaps, the
richest and most glamorous royal
regimes the world has ever seen. My
time spent at the incredible palaces
and museums of St Petersburg, the
Hermitage, the Winter Palace, St
Isaac’s Cathedral, The Church of the
Spilled Blood all left me spellbound. I
travelled literally through time into a
labyrinth of a bizarre reality of excess wealth
and absolute power. It was plain to see that
there had to be a revolution in a land so brutally divided between an insensitive aristocracy and the suffering peasantry. In
Moscow, the Kremlin, the armoury, the
Almazny Fond (the diamond fund) were
bewildering and left me awestruck. This
collection is my personal interpretation
and understanding of this opulence
and beauty. For me this is a contemporary collection of a bygone period of
excess toned down by my understated philosophy of style and timeless
chic. This story sees an amalgamation of two distinct cultures and
thought processes, that of Russian
grandeur and the almost austere
craftsmanship of my absolute
true love, Kashmir.” And
perhaps this is his way of
making the twain meet.
Given Bal’s penchant for rescuing heritage,
this is the second time that he is collaborating with Chandni Chowk’s first jewellery shop,
225 years old, for his setpieces. “We first import
all the diamonds, then cut them for customisation. We have done rubies and cuts for the
show. We have tried to curate a line that is
not per se traditional Indian polki. You can
probably carry one of these pieces with a
Western dress in the evening,” said the
young descendant Umang Gupta.
Dangling a heavy strand of about Rs
15 lakhs, the jeweller told us, “It’s not a lot,
looking at the size. Also, this is not of low
quality. There are two types of diamonds.
One is syndicate and the other non-syndicate. The first is lustrous and shiny. Nonsyndicate ones are a bit chalky. Also, our
work is Bikaneri kundan, which compared
to Jaipuri kundan, is finer and set in a thinner golden mesh. We have used polki with
silver foil at its back to make it more luminous.” Recasting tradition with drama and
living it everyday. That’s Bal for you.
The tales
of love
The second day of India Couture
Week had Anita Dongre weaving a
love story. UNNATI JOSHI brings you the
highlights of Epic Love
her collection at the
Ethexhibiting
FDCI India Couture Week on
second day of the five-day
extravaganza at Taj Palace on
Thursday, Anita Dongre
captivated the audience
with her signature gota
patti-infused creations.
With fusion folk
music creating an
earthy background, the
collection was an intriguing take on how a bohemian
Indian bride would be. It was
meant for the new-age feisty
bride.
The bridal couture collection marks Dongre’s debut at
ICW. Epic Love was inspired
by Rajasthan’s architecture.
We asked the designer about
her fascination with
Rajasthan to which she
said, “Rajasthan remains
the core of all my inspiration. It is amazing how it
never ceases to inspire
me. With each trip that I
take to the state, I return
abuzz with new ideas. A
considerable amount of
my childhood was spent
in Jaipur. The architecture, crafts,
colours and festivities, all come through in my
designs and are a part of my DNA.”
Talking about the difference
between Indian and Western couture, the designer said, “In India,
couture is all about bridal wear.
Weddings are when people buy
beautiful couture. It is a great time
for designers to put the most lavish collection together. We presented beautiful chintz-inspired
prints on lehengas teamed with
bohemian blouses”, Dongre told
us. We also asked the designer
the dos and don’ts for brides this
season. “Pick styles that allow
your persona to shine through
and wear them with panache. Don’t
overdo the heavily embroidered
look as it weighs you down. It is
important for brides to enjoy their
most important day”, she said.
Celebrities like Shabana Azmi,
Bhumi Pednekar, Pernia Qureshi
and designer Manish Malhotra
graced the event.

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