Delhi - The Pioneer

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n poll-bound Uttar Pradesh,
Ipended
the abuse hurled by susState BJP vice-president Dayashankar Singh
against Mayawati has come
handy for the Bahujan Samaj
Party (BSP). On Thursday,
thousands of BSP workers and
leaders laid siege to the
Hazratganj crossing in
Lucknow even as Dalits
protested across the country
against insult to their icon.
The BSP seemed determined to capitalise on the entire
unsavory controversy. While
keeping the heat on the BJP
inside Parliament, the party also
seemed to have sensed this was
tailor-made opportunity to fill
the fissure in the BSP Dalit votebank ahead of the UP polls.
To this end, Mayawati also
compared herself to Goddess,
claiming her insult was not just
another case that could be
allowed to be forgotten and forgiven. As she kept the pot boiling in Delhi, her supporters hit
the streets wherever the BSP has
any electoral base. The issue has
revived the party which had suffered reverses recently following
the resignation of two senior
leaders — Swami Prasad
Maurya and RK Chaudhary.
Criticising the BJP for failing to lodge an FIR against
Dayashankar, Mayawati
said, “To the underprivileged I
am like a Devi (Goddess).
They are angry.”
While thanking her supporters, who took to the streets
in a spontaneous show of solidarity, Mayawati said that just
sacking the BJP leader was not
enough and he should face
arrest for his statements.
“Removing from the party
is a normal process. It would
have been better if they (BJP)
had registered an FIR against
him. If BJP leaders themselves
filed an FIR against
Dayashankar, then they would
have won my heart,” she said.
Meanwhile, demanding
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Dayashankar’s arrest, BSP
leader from Chandigarh Jannat
Jahan-Ul-Haq has offered C50
lakh to anyone who brings his
tongue. As the BSP workers
held a protest in Chandigarh
against Singh’s remarks, Jannat
Jahan courted controversy with
her outburst.
“The derogatory language
used by Dayashankar against
our party chief shows the BJP’s
true character. They do not
know how to respect women.
They are anti-Dalits, anti-farmers and now anti-women also.
Such a person (Dayashankar)
should be sent to jail immediately,” she said during the protest.
She
then
added,
“Whosoever gets me his
(Dayashankar’s) tongue, Jannat
Jahan will give him C50 lakh.”
The BSP leader’s remarks
evoked sharp reaction from the
BJP, which said the party had
already acted against
Dayashankar and the matter
should not be politicised.
Continued on Page 4
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ndia on Thursday unleashed
an all-round attack on
Pakistan with Union Home
Minister Rajnath Singh accusing the neighbouring
country of “sponsoring’ terror
activities in Kashmir Valley
while the Ministry of External
Affairs condemned Islamabad
for abetting activities of
even internationally-designated terrorists.
Accusing Pakistan of
“destabilising” and “sponsoring
terrorism” in India, Rajnath on
Thursday asserted that the
youth being ‘mislead’ in
Kashmir will be brought back
to the mainstream and
announced an expert committee to work out ‘non-lethal
alternatives’ to be used during
I
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any standoff between security
forces and ‘stone pelters’ who,
he said, were recently dealt
with “maximum restraint.”
Replying to a debate on the
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Kashmir unrest in the Lok
Sabha, the Home Minister hit
out hard at the neighbouring
country, which, he said, was
formed on the basis of religious
identity but could not bring
about religious unity among
her own people. He asked
Pakistan to desist from “interfering” in the internal affairs of
India and charged it with trying to “speed up border infiltration” in Jammu & Kashmir
and informed that around 86
terrorists have recently been
neutralised by Indian security
forces in the border State.
He wondered why killing
of a terrorist in India should be
observed as “Black Day” in
Pakistan. He described Burhan
Wani, whose killing triggered
protests in the Valley, as a terrorist and commander of
Hizbul Mujahideen, which has
headquarters in Islamabad.
Rajnath said, “Wani was
radicalising youths on the
social media” and described
him as a “tech-savvy terrorist
of new generation” who had
exploited social media platforms to lure youths into picking up the gun.
Pakistani terror mastermind Hafiz Sayeed, the
Minister said had admitted
having spoken to Wani.
He said Pakistan played a “key
role” in fuelling tension and
that the situation was “normalising” gradually.
Rajnath said despite
provocations from stone pelters, Prime Minister Narendra
Modi instructed “maximum
restraint” by security forces
while dealing with youngsters.
Continued on Page 4
Related reports on P5, 6
he Rajya Sabha on
Thursday saw a heated
debate on the recent incidents
of Dalit atrocities in Gujarat
and other parts of the country
with the Government and the
Opposition tossing statistic
from the past and present at
each other to fix the accountability for the never-ending
plight of the Dalits. While the
Opposition listed series of incidents to claim that atrocities
against Dalits had gone up in
the last two years ago since
Narendra Modi came to power,
the Government asserted that
it will not tolerate such incidents against Dalits at any cost.
Replying to a short-duration debate which lasted more
than six-hours, Home Minister
Rajnath Singh said the Gujarat
Government has taken prompt
action in the case involving
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even Indian companies have
made it to the Fortune 500
list of the world’s biggest corporations in terms of revenue
with the retail giant Walmart
topping the global rankings.
Indian Oil Corp is ranked
highest at 161st among Indian
firms, ONGC has moved out of
the rankings for 2016. Private
gems and jewellery major
Rajesh Exports has made its
debut at 423rd position.
Reliance Industries is the
top-ranked among three private sector Indian firms in the
list, followed by Tata Motors
and Rajesh Exports. SBI, BPCL
and HPCL too are on the list.
Detailed report on P10
S
16 accused and suspending
four police officials. The State
Government is also working to
set up a special court to try this
case within six months, he said.
During the day-long
debate, the Opposition blasted
the Government over attacks
on Dalits and minorities, alleg-
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elhi University’s School of
D
Open Learning (SOL) is
giving competition to its top
regular colleges as students
with 100 per cent marks in
their Class 12 examination are
applying for seats in the SOL.
This year, thirteen aspirants
with percentages above 95 have
already registered with the distance learning school —
attracting students from across
the country, mainly Uttar
Pradesh and NCR, whose registration had begun on July 15
to be on till August 31.
The trend is an outcome of
the interest of students in careers
like UPSC and Chartered
Accountancy, according to university watchers.
“Many students with 100
per cent and above 90 per cent
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marks have registered with
us... Students are attracted to
SOL because of the quality and
facility provided to them.
While they could have easily
pursued a course in any colleges the reason they choose to
do graduation through distance is the growing interests in
careers such as Civil Services,
Chartered Accountancy and
the choice of wise aspirants to
do experiential learning,”
Director of the Campus of
Open Learning, CS Dubey told
The Pioneer.
“And SOL has made their
journey easy. This is the future
of education in the country. We
are making audio and video
lectures in regular colleges
and countries like the US have
already drifted to online education. India is following
the same steps,” said another
DU expert.
Over the years, the SOL has
facilitated students with online
reading material — free of
cost — and updated
the syllabus of courses on the
lines of the top colleges of the
university.
According to last year’s
statistics, SOL had 1,43,000
students, out of which 55 to 57
per cent students had above 60
per cent marks while 12,000
students were those with above
80 per cent scores in Class 12.
“It means these students
could have occupied the seats of
six colleges having both evening
and morning batches. These
students are wise and intelligent.
Besides their focus on careers
which need hardcore studying
and preparations, they know in
a country like ours basic degree
is important thus opting.
Continued on Page 4
parts of India and questioned
Prime Minister Narendra
Modi’s silence over such issues.
Responding to the
Opposition’s charges, Singh
said the NDA Government
will not tolerate any physical
violence or verbal abuse against
Dalits and pointed out that the
Gujarat Government has
ordered a time-bound investigation and the Centre has
asked it to approach Gujarat
High Court seeking special
court for the trial of this case.
Continued on Page 4
Related reports on P5, 7
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aving served the nation for
nearly three decades,
world’s longest serving aircraft
carrier INS Viraat will have its
last operational journey when
it sails from Mumbai to Kochi
on Saturday. All the on-board
system of the 28,000-tonne
aircraft will be removed at
Cochin Shipyard, except electricity and fresh water plant.
The underwater hull will
be reinforced to withstand
vagaries of saline water for the
next 20 to 30 years if
it turns into a museum as proposed by the Andhra Pradesh
Government. The Defence
Ministry has yet to take call on
the AP Government’s request.
After refurbishment, tug boats
will bring back the ship to
Mumbai after three months
for formal decommissioning
from service.
India acquired this ship
from the UK in 1987 and
rechristened it INS Viraat from
HMS Hermes. It served in the
Royal Navy for more than 25
years after joining it in 1959
and took part in the Falkland
War. At present, the carrier has
the distinction of being the oldest operational warship in the
world with more than 60 years
of active service.
Giving details of the refurbishment plans, Navy officials
said here on Thursday that
weapon systems, radars,
propulsion, shafts, engines,
refrigeration plants and boilers
will be taken out. The Navy
plans to cannibalise most of the
functional parts like refrigeration system, electronic warfare
and computer system and fit
them on to other warships.
Four Sea King and five Chetak
helicopters, part of the INS
Viraat’s arsenal, will begin flying sorties from other warships
within the next few weeks. The
eight Sea Harrier fighter jets on
board the carrier were decommissioned in May this year.
After the propulsion and
other systems from the lower
part of the ship are taken out
following its dry docking, the
engineers will seal the hull
and paint it afresh. Officials
said the ship will be then ready
for proposed museum.
Majority of 1,500-strong
crew has already started relocating to INS Vikrant weighing
more than 40,000 tonnes now
under construction at Cochin
Shipyard. It is the first indigenously designed aircraft-carrier and once INS Viraat is finally decommissioned, the entire
team will then join the new ship.
It is likely to go for sea trials at
the end of 2018 and is expected to join service in 2019.
After INS Viraat is decommissioned, the Navy will have
to guard its area of interest with
only one available Russian built
aircraft
carrier
INS
Vikramaditya. It joined service
three years back after undergoing major refit at Russia and
cost the exchequer nearly three
billion dollars.
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the premises immediately.
“During search, copies of
passports of other foreign
women and phone numbers of
dozens of foreign women
belonging to Central Asian
countries were recovered from
the residence of the accused,”
said the police official.
“Messages exchanged
between accused Sanyal and his
associates revealed financial
transactions related to foreign
women. During search, the
foreign national girl also
attempted suicide by slashing
her wrist’s vein and she was
taken to hospital for treatment
by the Income Tax authorities.
The girl had come to India
on a tourist visa on February 25,
2016 and had visited Jaipur,
Sariska and Delhi. She also told
police that she was introduced to
accused Sanyal by one Col (Retd)
Ajay Ahlawat, whose involvement in the case is being investigated. Ahlawat is previously
involved in many cheating cases,
said Ishwar Singh the DCP of
South district.
“Details of his phone record,
bank accounts, emails and the
involvement of his associates in
the crime is being probed.
Investigation conducted so far
has revealed that accused Sanyal
has sent messages to
Government officials and other
senior functionaries, posing as
a Member of Parliament and
other senior functionaries in the
Government for getting favour
in certain business deals. The
analysis of his phone record is
being done to find out the
details of other associates and
victims,” the DCP added.
high profile sex racked
A
was busted after the Delhi
Police arrested a 62-year-old
man from Sajdarjung area on
Thursday, against whom the
Income Tax authorities had
sent a report containing details
of illegal and criminal activities.
According to a senior
police official, the accused has
been identified as Pritindra
Nath Sanyal. The Income Tax
authorities carried out search
and seizure operation in June
2016 at the residences of the
accused in Safdarjung Enclave,
Vasant Kunj and Lucknow
(UP) simultaneously. During
search, incriminating documents indicating his involvements in illegal activities like
human trafficking and impersonation came to the light.
Documentary evidence in
the form of WhatsApp messages
and SMSes were seized from the
residence of the accused.
Police said, during the search
operation, the Income Tax
authorities found a 23-year-old
foreign national girl at the residence of accused. The evidence
in the form of SMSes and
WhatsApp data of the mobile
phone of the girl showed that the
foreign national was being kept
by the accused against her will.
Her travel documents, including
passport, were forcibly kept by
the accused in his custody.
The Income Tax authorities
recorded the statement of the
girl wherein she stated that she
was feeling very insecure with
the accused and wished to leave
n what seems to be an
attempt to tarnish the image
of Delhi Police Commissioner
Alok Verma, a fake Twitter
account in his name has
allegedly been created. The
Twitter handle carried the
photo of the Delhi Police chief.
An FIR has been registered with
the Delhi Police and investigation has been taken up.
Meanwhile, the fake
Twitter handle was deleted late
on Thursday evening.
A senior police official,
who did not want to be named,
said, “The tweets and retweets
made through the fake Twitter
handle are of such a nature that
they are causing harm to the
image and reputation of the
Delhi Police Commissioner
and also of the Delhi Police as
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an organisation.”
The complainant, who is a
part of the Delhi Police’s social
media cell lodged a complaint
on Wednesday, alleging that
while going through the social
networking site, he came across
a Twitter handle with the name
@AlokVermaCPDP, wherein
the display name of the account
is Alok Verma.
“Since the verified Twitter
account of CP Delhi is
@CPDelhi, and the alleged fake
Twitter account is of the name
@AlokVermaCPDP, so I decided to check the Twitter handle.
On checking the account, it was
found that the Twitter handle
@AlokVermaCPDP was in the
name of Alok Verma and the
profile was having a profile picture of current Commissioner of
Delhi Police in uniform and was
impersonating as Alok Kumar
Verma, Commissioner of Police,
Delhi,” the complainant alleged.
The complainant further
said the account has been used
to make tweets and retweets of
harmful nature that are ruining
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he Delhi Police has arrested
one of the two thieves who
stole high end cars after being
inspired by super thief Bunty.
They had stolen a BMW from
Noida Sector 17 and Toyota
Fortuner from Panchkula in
Haryana on July 15.
According the DCP (West
district), the accused has been
identified as Robin alias Rahul,
who hails from Hisar, Haryana.
Robin was hugely inspired by
infamous notorious car thief
Bunty. He had watched movie
Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! several
times based on the life of Bunty
and imitated his modus operandi. He even used to venerate
Bunty and kept his picture all
the time with him. He used to
steal high end cars only such as
Audi, BMW, Fortuner,
Mercedes, Skoda and Cruze, etc.
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“Two could be seen brazenly driving on the streets as they
hopped from one house to
another stealing all they can.
Robin has been known in the
circle of car thieves for stealing
cars. He has already stolen
around 30 cars. He used to
strike in the morning hours
when residents were out for the
morning walk.He confidently
enter into their houses and
picked up things,” said the DCP,
adding that Rahul used a unique
modus operandi to carry out his
car robberies successfully.
Police said, the whole incident right from the moment of
stealing the car was captured in
CCTV camera. CCTV visulas
showed how the two thieves
managed to enter the gated
compound of Noida sec 17 and
drove past the security. With
this plan, they both targetted
many homes.
“The CCTV footage
showed shows the black Audi
A7 enter the compound at
6.59am through the main gate.
Interestingly the guards simply
let the car driver in without
stopping them. Once inside the
compound they hopped from
one house to another picking
up things like laptops whatever else they could lay their
hands readily until they reach
house no A-37 the home of
Ritesh Rupramka,” the DCP
further said.
On sustained interrogation, the accused confessed
that He disclosed that he was
actively involved in the world
of crime for last 14 years. His
operational areas were in Delhi,
Haryana, UP and Punjab. He is
a resident of Hisar, Haryana.
Police said that Robin used
to maintain good personality
and wore branded clothes to
impress and easily dodge the
guards. After zeroing a house,
he boldly it and steals or asks
the key of car from servant and
guards. Thereafter, he takes off
the car. He sells off the stolen
car to one Nawab, a resident of
Udham
Singh
Nagar,
Uttrakhand. Further investigations are on and efforts are
made to nab the other accused,
who is absconding.
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arge parts of West Delhi and
South Delhi, including
L
Dwarka, Green Park and Saket,
suffered long power outages on
Thursday after a section of
BSES contractual employees
disrupted supply.
According to a representative of BSES employees union,
an indefinite strike was called
on Wednesday by a section of
contractual employees. The
contractual employees of the
Reliance-backed discoms were
demanding that they be regularized, prompting a stern
warning from the Government.
The contractual staffers
claimed to have had the support of Somnath Bharti,
although the Aam Aadmi Party
(AAP) lawmaker distanced
himself from the strike, which
has been termed “illegal” by the
BSES. Representatives of the
workers on strike met Bharti at
his residence on Thursday.
Following the meeting, Bharti
said the strike has been calledoff with immediate effect.
“Unfortunately, they used
my name on the poster. This
strike did not have my consent.
Rather I was not even aware of
the image and reputation of the
Delhi Police Commissioner
and the Delhi Police force.
Apart from this the complainant further alleged that,
“the fake Twitter handle
appears to have been created to
mislead and misguide the general public. Some unknown
person has used the name and
photograph in uniform of Alok
Verma with intent to damage
and harm the reputation of the
Commissioner of Police as
well as the department and also
to mislead the public in general.”
After receiving the complaint, police registered an FIR
under Section 469 IPC and
Information Technology Act,
2000. “We have registered an
FIR on the complaint and further investigations are on,” said
the police official.
it. I do not support the strike
and it has been called off on my
behest. The strike was absolutely uncalled for,” he said.
“We have received complaints of disruption and sabotage and the discoms have
been asked to strongly deal
with such elements. They will
have to restore power at the
earliest,” Delhi Power Minister
Satyender Jain told reporters.
BSES’s Twitter helpline was
flooded with complaints but
the company’s standard reply
was “Inconvenience regretted.
Power demand is at an all-time
high. Doing our best to restore
interruptions.”
On Wednesday also, the
striking employees had disrupted supply causing power
outages. “An unrecognized
union called a strike and ille-
gal disruption of work today.
We had informed Delhi
Government about it. With
active support from majority of
our employees and the law
enforcing authorities, we were
fully geared up to meet any exigency. As a result, we were
largely able to ensure smooth
power supply to our 38 lakh
consumers and their families.
However, a few isolated pockets in west and south Delhi
were affected for short durations,” a BSES spokesperson
had responded.
Delhi’s power demand had
touched a peak of 6,188 MW
on May 20. Peak demand on
Thursday was 5,879 MW
recorded at around 3 pm.
A representative of the
BSES employees union alleged
that the workers tripped
switches at many places and
also damaged a transformer at
Punjabi Bagh.
“The problem is that the
discoms are exploiting these
contractual employees for a
long time. They are paid just
C10,000 despite the fact that
they are engaged in hazardous
work. I have taken up the issue
with the power companies and
the Government,” Bharti said.
34;78?>;8245>A<B
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<0HDAE870A<DA34A
New Delhi: A day after a 64year-old retired Government
employee from Kerala was
found murdered in his third
floor flat at Samachar
Apartments in East Delhi’s
Mayur Vihar Phase-I area, the
Delhi Police has formed 12
teams to investigate the matter.
Senior officers of the East district said that they are working
on all angles to probe the murder case.
The deceased identified as
Vijay Kumar lived with his wife,
Vasundhra who worked in the
Income Tax department. The
incident came to light at 2.15pm
when Kumar’s daughter, Ambali,
a senior producer at the Rajya
Sabha TV went to check on her
father. On Wednesday afternoon, Kumar was found stabbed
to death by his daughter Ambali.
Around 2.15pm, she came to
check on her father as her phone
calls went unanswered.
SR
a tragic incident, a man lost
life at Delhi High Court
IonnhisThursday
after he suffered
a heart attack while getting an
entry pass to attend a case proceeding. After he suffered an
attack, the people present did
not take him or told him about
the dispensary present inside
the court premises. Even the
PCR which came after some
time did not take him there for
an immediate relief.
On Thursday morning, 68year-old litigant Suresh Nayyar
reached Delhi High Court to
attend a property dispute case
trial along with his nephew.
While standing in a queue to
get an entry pass at Delhi High
Court Reception, he suffered
an attack. His nephew who was
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New Delhi: A 27-year-old
woman has been arrested by
the Delhi Police for allegedly
stealing C17 lakh from her inlaws’ house at Shastri Park in
North-East Delhi, police said
on Thursday.
Vimla Devi, a Shastri Park
resident, complained to the
police that she had received C17
lakh after selling a piece of land
at her native village and handed over the cash to her younger
daughter-in-law.
D e v i A`]ZTVbfZkkVU
alleged in her
c o m p l a i n t eYVh`^R_Re
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that after a
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between her hYVcVdYVYRU
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the daughterin-law on July 12, the woman
took away the money with
her, said Ajit Kumar Singla,
DCP (North-East).
Police questioned the
woman at her paternal home in
Aligarh where she had gone after
the quarrel with her husband
Kumar. She denied the charges
but the stolen cash was found
hidden beneath a heap of husk
at her maternal uncle Umesh’s
house in Aligarh, Singla said.
Umesh is also involved in
the crime and is absconding,
the officer added.
PTI
present there, called a PCR van
which took 10-15 minutes to
reach and took him took him
to Ram Manohar Lohia hospital where he was declared
brought dead.
According to Advocate
Ashok Aggrawal, this happened because of lack of awareness about the dispensary available inside the court premises.
“The doctors are available
inside. None of the staff at the
Delhi High Court reception
guided them to go inside and
get immediate relief. If anything happens to anybody
inside the courtroom, the doctor comes running to provide
relief. Nothing like that worked
out with Nayyar. His pulse
was running and he could
have been saved,” said Ashok
Aggrawal.
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25-year-old jeweller was
allegedly shot dead by
A
unidentified assailants in
Greater Noida’s Dadari on
Thursday morning. The
assailants shot him four times
when he was on morning walk.
Police officials are yet to
ascertain the motive behind his
killing.
Police said the deceased
has been identified as Arun
Kumar Verma (25), a resident
of Dadari. He was running a
jewellery shop in the Dadari’s
market. The incident took place
around 8 am when he along
with his dog went out for
morning walk, the police said.
Police said he was 40
meters away from his home
when two people came to him
and shot him four times.
He fell down in a pool of
blood and the police sent the
body for autopsy. The victim’s
father Rupchand has registered an FIR against Suraj and
an unknown person in Dadari
Police station. The Police have
registered the case under sections 302, and 234 of Indian
Penal Code and the police
teams have been formed to
arrest them.
Superintendent of Police,
Greater Noida Abhishek Singh
said that the family members
have suspected on Suraj, a resident of Meerut who lives in the
same locality. There was a dispute between both from last six
months.
“We are investigating the
case with all possible aspects.
The murder was planned as the
killers were awared about his
morning walk visit. The
accused will be arrested soon.”
Singh said.
Deceased Arun Kumar
Verma had married in 2012 but
later he got divorced in 2014
due to family dispute.
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fter issuing 41 challans and
2,136 notices to various
A
institutions/
houses/
Government buildings for not
following the dengue preparedness measures, this week the civic
body has issued notice to the
Kerala Bhawan, Doordarshan
Bhawan, UP Bhawan, Railway
Nursery for the presence of
mosquitogenic conditions.
With the monsoon rain
having started in Delhi, it has
brought the vector-borne diseases’ terror. The natioanal
Capital has till now reported 50
cases of dengue this year.
Earlier, The Pioneer had
reported that NDMC has issued
challans to All India Radio
(AIR), Dr Ram Manhor Lohia
Hospital, Lady Hardinge
Hospital, AIIMS, Delhi High
Court, Rajiv Gandhi Bhawan
and civil aviation, National
Buildings
Construction
Corporation Limited, Vardhman
Mahavir Medical College at
Safdarjung Hospital’s campus,
Askoha Hotel, Paryavaran
Bhawan, Meghdoot Bhawan,
Red Cross Society, Sanchar
Bhawan have been given notices,
National Art Gallery for the presence of dengue mosquitoes on
their premises.
Dr RN Singh, CMO
(Malaria), NDMC, said, “These
institutions have been noticed
and challaned due to the presence of ades mosquito breeding spots. Therefore, the preventive measures is our utmost
priority as there was dengue
epidemic last year.”
For disseminating the preventive measures of diseases,
NDMC
mobile
app
‘NDMC311’, Toll-free No. 1533
and social media is actively
spreading the dengue awareness preparedness messages,
said the official.
Dengue is transmitted by
Aedes mosquito which breeds
in stagnated water which is collected for more than a week.
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epresentatives of the transporter community met
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal
and Transport Minister
Satyendar Jain on Thursday to
discuss the recent National
Green Tribunal (NGT) order
regarding de-registration of
diesel vehicles older than 10
years old. The transporters
suggested that the Government
should ask the National Green
Tribunal for more time to
phase out the old vehicles.
“The transporters have
demanded that they should be
given fitness certificates for
their old vehicles so they could
transfer them outside Delhi.
However, we are still waiting
for the copy of the NGT order.
After we receive the copy of the
order, only after that we can
analyse it and consider if their
demand could be met,”
Transport Minister Satyendar
Jain said.
“We are all on the same
page when it comes to pollu-
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tion level in Delhi and the
transporters have also given
suggestions to reduce pollution.
We will have another meeting
to discuss those suggestions,”
he added.
Rajender Kapoor, president of the Delhi Goods
Transport Association, said
while all the concerned parties
agreed to the need of reducing
pollution in Delhi, the
transporters should be given a
fair opportunity to find an
alternate way.
“We
asked
the
Government to give us fitness
certificate for the old vehicles.
We also asked the Government
to plead in the court that
instead of simultaneously banning all vehicles older than ten
years, ban them in a phase-wise
manner giving time of four
BC055A4?>AC4AQ =4F34;78
ith flashing RTI reports
and other documents
W
against the AAP Government,
Delhi Pradesh Congress
Committee (DPCC) president
Ajay Maken has alleged that
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind
Kejriwal has spread false information about the huge amount
of money saved by his
Government on the construction
of several flyovers in the Capital.
AAP spokesperson Deepak
Bajpai slammed Maken’s accusations and said the Congress
had ruined Delhi.
While showing documents,
Makan said flyover from
Vikaspuri to Meerabagh
was tendered for C407
crore in February 2013
but
the
ruling
Government in Delhi
has spent C450 crore on
it and still other works
like horticulture, rain
harvesting, rainwater
pipe etc is pending.
“This Government has
made a loss of C43 crore whereas CM blatantly lies that he has
saved crores of rupees in the construction of this flyover. The
truth is the Congress Government had sanctioned C560 crore
in June 2012 for this flyover,” said
BC055A4?>AC4AQ =4F34;78
months in each phase for vehicles to find alternatives outside
Delhi. That is, ban more than
14-year-old vehicles first giving
those four months to move out
of Delhi followed by 13-yearold vehicles and so on,” he said.
The transporters also
requested the Government to
set up a “transport hub” outside
the city limits, promote use of
bio fuel, and also enable transport of goods on ring rail into
the city after which it could be
transported to last mile
locations using smaller CNG
goods vehicles.
Rajender Kapoor said the
Chief Minister appreciated
their suggestions and directed
to set up another meeting with
Transport Minister Satyendar
Jain to discuss the feasibility of
their practical application.
&RQJUHVV$$3DWORJJHUKHDGV
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Makan and displayed RTI
reports on the matter.
“In December
2012, C464 crore was
taken as the estimated
cost. In February, 2013,
after competitive tendering C407 crore was
fixed as the cost of the
project and sanctioned
by the Government. But shamelessly, the AAP Government
spread the word that they have
saved C110 crore; calculation
falsely based on the sanctioned
amount of C560 crore in June
2012, rather than the competitively tendered amount of C407
crore,” he further added.
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a reshuffle in the Delhi
IandnCabinet
on Thursday, Health
Transport Minister
Satyendra Jain was given additional charge of the Urban
Development Department. So
far, the Department was with
Deputy Chief Minister Manish
Sisodia. The move is being seen
as a step to minimise the workload of Sisodia who, according
to sources, wants to focus more
on education sector.
Besides, being the Deputy
Chief Minister, Sisodia takes
care of chief ministerial work in
absence of Kejriwal who in the
coming time will be busy campaigning in Punjab, Goa,
Gujarat, where elections are
schedule next year.
However, the Government
has attributed the change to
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Same is true in the constructions of Mangolpuri to
Madhuban Chowk flyover,
Madhuban Chowk to Mukarba
Chowk cases, he said.
Bajpai said, “Maken is
unemployed. The Congress is
the most corrupt party. It
ruined Delhi. Our Government
has already made it clear in the
Assembly about how we have
saved money while making the
flyovers. It is the Congress
Government that is discredited
with how they performed during the Commonwealth Games
and gave flawed estimates while
constructing the bridges in the
city. They stand exposed.”
better coordination of work
between Sisodia and Jain, who
are holding important portfolios in the Kejriwal Cabinet.
The Deputy CM holds
charge of about eleven
Departments,
including
Education, Finance, Planning,
Land and Building, Revenue,
Vigilance, Services, Administrative reforms, Information
Technology, Law and Justice.
Jain, who now has the Urban
Development Department in
his kitty, also holds important
portfolios like Power, Home,
PWD, Transport, Health and
Industries.
The Urban Development
plays an important role in the
Government
as
the
Department looks after the
works of municipal corporations and development in
unauthorised colonies.
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eader of Opposition
Vijender Gupta on
L
Thursday led a demonstration
at CM Kejriwal’s house in Civil
Lines over the AAP worker
Soni Mishra’s alleged suicide on
Tuesday in outer Delhi’s Narela,
demanding CBI enquiry and
punishment to the accused.
Bindeshwari Goswami, the
father of deceased Soni turned
up at the spot with demonstrators including BJP MLA
Om Prakash Sharma, number
of municipal councillors, BJP
workers and residents.
Gupta said, “Delhiities
want to know when they voted
for him in the last election in
2015, why has he left them in
a lurch. We (demonstrators)
demand adequate compensation to the family of deceased,
Anas and CBI enquiry into
desilting scam.”
Addressing the demonstrators, Gupta demanded CBI
enquiry into the circumstances
leading to the death of Soni as
well as the people responsible
for abatement of suicide.
“Kejriwal and Swati Maliwal
should resign owning moral
responsibility for her death.
Dilip Pandey must be arrested
for his connivance in the rack-
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et. Also other accused including
Ramesh Bhardwaj should be
nabbed,” added Gupta.
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senior figure of the separatist Khalistani movement based in the UK had
"predicted" the killing of the
then Prime Minister Indira
Gandhi months before her
assassination in October 1984,
according to newly declassified British government documents.
Jagjit Singh Chauhan,
described by UK officials as a
"self-styled president of the
Sikh Republic of Khalistan"
was among a number of suspect individuals on which the
then Margaret Thatcher led
government considered "further action".
"The Indian authorities
have repeatedly complained
about statements made in the
UK by a Sikh, Dr Jagjit Singh
Chauhan,
self-styled
'President' of the Sikh
'Republic of Khalistan'. In
June this year he 'predicted'
the death of Mrs Gandhi; he
has subsequently spoken of
Rajiv Gandhi being a 'target',"
reads a note prepared by UK
foreign and home office officials in 1984.
It goes on to warn that
Chauhan's presence on UK
soil could harm bilateral relations between India and the
UK.
"His remarks have drawn a
sharp response from the Indian
government and there is a risk
of severe damage to our bilateral relations. Other Sikh
extremists in the UK, some of
whom have sought asylum,
constitute a further threat
to bilateral relations," it warns.
The documents released
today also mention India's
concerns over Hashim Qureshi,
then Jammu and Kashmir
Liberation Front leader, and his
alleged involvement in the
murder of Indian diplomat
Ravindran Mhatre in
Birmingham.
A
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28-year-old BDS student of
Jamia Millia Islamia
allegedly committed suicide at
her friend's residence in SouthEast Delhi's Okhla area on
Tuesday night.
No suicide note has been
recovered from her possession, but her friends claimed
that she was depressed after
being asked to "vacate her hostel room" an allegation that has
been rubbished by the university authorities. The girl was on
leave from the hostel and hence
so far the authorities have not
put defaulters name on the
notice board, said university
sources.
The victim identified as
Hina Peakar is from Sambhal,
Uttar Pradesh. According to
sources, she had completed
her BDS course from Jamia
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joint team of Maharashtra
Anti-Terrorism Squad and
Kerala Police on Thursday
arrested a youth allegedly associated with controversial
Islamic preacher Zakir Naik's
foundation in connection with
a case registered in Kochi.
A senior police official said
A
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Arshid Qureshi, who was associated with IRF Foundation of
Zakir Naik, was nabbed from
Navi Mumbai.
A case under IPC sections
120 B (criminal conspiracy)
and 153 A (promoting enmity
between groups) as well as
under the Unlawful Activities
Prevention Act was registered
in Kochi.
He was produced before
the Belapur court in Navi
Mumbai which granted Kerala
Police his transit remand till
July 25.
Kerala Police will now produce him in a court in Kochi.
was residing at
her friend's resiB747032><?;4C43
dence
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Ahmad Zaidi,
her friend,
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and on
346A44
Tu e s d a y
night, he
but was pursuing one-and-a- found her hanging from the
half-month course related to ceiling fan. When she was
her professional degree. "For taken to the hospital by police,
the same she wanted to extend she was declared brought dead.
her stay in the hostel. After the Meanwhile, her body was sent
hostel authority approved her for the post-mortem.
The police official privy to
stay, she was unable to pay
hostel fees. So the adminis- investigation said the exact
tration had asked her to reason behind the suicide is yet
vacate the hostel," the source to be ascertained.
Denying Zaidi's claim,
added.
For the last one week she Jamia authorities said Peakar
?=BQ =4F34;78
ith large parts of the
W
country reeling under
the scourge of vector-borne diseases year after year, a petitioner who approached the
Supreme Court questioning
lack of preparedness on part of
the Government and municipal agencies returned distraught after the top court
found no merit in the petition.
The petitioner, one NGO,
complained to the Court about
the deteriorating civic health
and hygiene situation existing
across major parts of the country, which aids breeding of
mosquitoes and leads to outbreak of life-threatening diseases such as dengue, malaria,
and chikunguniya.
Instead of blaming individuals, the petition blamed
those manning the system —
municipal agencies and health
department officials for failing
to take preemptive steps that
led to loss of innocent lives.
As public health is a subject
of governance, the petition
sniffed corruption while questioning the fate of huge funds
employed
by
State
Governments last year to prevent such an outbreak in future.
Although the petitioner
has been pursuing the matter
with State Governments and
civic agencies, he had thought
that a direction from the apex
court could tighten the screws
on health departments, making them more responsive
and reactive to the ground situation.
On November 27, 2015,
the apex court had dismissed
the petition but with the count
of dengue cases beginning to
rise in June and July across
Delhi and among States such as
Odisha, the petitioner filed yet
another petition for reviving his
dismissed petition.
Dismissing this petition
last week, a Bench of Justices
Madan B Lokur and RK
Agarwal reiterated its earlier
order of November 27, 2015
where it said, "The scope of the
writ petition and the allegations
made are too vague and the
prayers are incapable of being
enforced. The writ petition is
accordingly dismissed."
According to National
Vector Borne Disease Control
Programme data, till June 28
this year, around 8,307
dengue cases have been
reported throughout the
country and 10 people have
lost their lives due to the disease. Last year, Delhi saw a
staggering 15,867 dengue
cases, the worst in 20 years
with the disease claiming 60
lives, as per data provided by
municipal bodies.
Even this year, the past
three months have witnessed
600 cases of vector borne diseases including dengue in
Odisha while 50 fresh cases
have been reported in the
Capital, showing signs that
lessons have not been learnt
from the past.
3T\^RaPRhX]B0UaXRPaTZX]S[TS ´<Q^[Qd_bUc`_^Td_9^TYQ
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Johannesburg: The dawn of
democracy in South Africa
brought a new spotlight on the
life and times of Mahatma
Gandhi, who came to be celebrated with a "universal
embrace", the Indian envoy
has said.
Indian
High
Commissioner
Ruchi
Ghanashyam made the
remarks at a ceremony here to
release a new coffee-table book
that documents the rise in
interest among South Africans
in Gandhi's role in the country's democracy after Nelson
Mandela became its first democratically-elected President.
4hTc^D?B2
cP[T]cbeXTU^a
From Page 1
It gives them the opportunity to do part time skill learning,” added Dubey.
So far, four students with
100 per cent have registered to
take admission in BCom
(Hons) -New and BA
Programme while nine students are with above 95 per
cent marks.
While Tanveer Khan,
Abhishek, Virat Kohli with
100 per cent marks have registered for BCom (Hons)- New,
Shahdab (100 per cent) and
Mehtab with 98 per cent have
registered for BA Prorgamme.
Ankush Mangla and Preerit
Goel with 97 per cent have registered for BA (Hons) and
BCom respectively. Aakriti
Bansal, Shivam, Mehak Gupta
Shashank Bansal, Aastha Sinha
and Gaurav Goyal have scored
96 per cent in Class 12 and
applied across different courses in the SOL for the next academic session.
The SOL was created for
those students who could not
meet the criteria of the merit
list. So far, 4122 students with
percentages between 40-59,
3167 students percentages
between 60-69, 1885 students
with percentages between 7079, 826 students with percentages between 80-89 and 198
students with percentage above
90 per cent have registered to
take admissions at the SOL.
As the registrations are
still on, the data collection at
the SOL is in progress which
indicated that the numbers
could go up. The school has no
limit of intake of students.
Every year, the school enrolls
one and a half lakh students
while it has around four lakh
pursuing degrees at the
moment.
BHARAT SANCHAR NIGAM LIMITED
BHARAT SANCHAR NIGAM LTD.
had applied for leave on July
15 to visit her local guardians
in Okhla whose name was
already in the endorsement
list.
Adding to it, the authorities said there is no question
that she can't afford the hostel fees fee installment JulyDecember amounting to
C15,150 as she was getting
almost the same amount as
stipend every month.
Jamia administration categorically denied that Peakar
was asked to vacate her hostel
because she was unable to pay
the fee, arguing that the university had still not put a notice
for fee payment.
Some BDS students also
rubbished the report that she
was not in a position to pay her
hostel fee and hence was
depressed.
Meanwhile, cops are investigating the matter.
?TcXcX^]`dTbcX^]X]V6^ec´bX]PQX[Xchc^
cPRZ[TeTRc^aQ^a]TSXbTPbTb`dPbWTS
0/0 Dy. General Manager, Telecom Projects
A-1/4, Sector A, Aliganj, Lucknow -226024
NOTICE INVITING TENDER
For Optical Fibre Cable construction works
NIT: DGM-TP/LW/OTN Patch work/T-2 to T-6/T-2-LKO-KURSI-MMBD-BISWAN-STP/2016-17/7
dated 21.07.2016
On behalf of BSNL, E-tenders are invited by the Addl. GM TP
Lucknow for OFC Construction work(OTN Patch work) of (1) LUCKNOW-KURSI-MMBD-BISWAN-SITAPUR (2) Faizabad Gola
Bazar-Sultanpur (3) Faizabad Civil line- M/W Shahadatganj
Faizabad (4) Barabanki-Ramsaneni Ghat -faizabad Civil line Sultanpur-Patti Satharia (5) RTTC Lucknow-MOHAN-SANDILABENIGANJ-HARDOI OFC routes. The bidders may go through
e-tendering process, registration & digital Signature Certificate
ete. as detailed in tender document. The Last date for submission of tender is 12/08/2016 up to 13.30 Hrs which will be electronically opened at 14.00 hrs of same date. For details, log on
to websites www.bsnl.co.in and www.tenderwizard.com/BSNL.
D.E.T.P (Survey) LKO
Gandhi had become a
renowned leader in South Africa
in opposing the discriminatory
laws of the time, particularly
against the Indian community
but the apartheid government
did not recognise his efforts, said
journalist Fakir Hassen, who has
authored "101 Gandhian
Inspirations" released on
Wednesday.
"Indeed the dawn of
democracy in South Africa (in
1990) brought a new spotlight
on the life and times of the
Mahatma in South Africa.
He came to be celebrated
with a universal embrace," she
said, adding the new wave of
public acknowledgment of the
great leader's role was sparked
particularly by comments made
by the late President Mandela.
Hassen said his book is a
collection of articles and pictures by him done over the past
two decades of diverse state and
private Gandhian activities.
Commenting on the book,
Gandhi's granddaughter Ela
Gandhi, who continues to run the
Phoenix Settlements started by
Gandhi during his tenure in
Durban, said in a message read
at the launch: "It certainly is not
laborious reading and yet captures
the essence of what Gandhiji said
and who he was.
PTI
?C8Q 2>;><1>
has received a number of proposfrom India to try and resolve the fishing
Srow,rialsbutLanka
Colombo will take a decision only after
consulting its fishermen, the Fisheries Minister
said on Thursday.
"We have not given consent to any of the
proposals although there have been many"
Minister of Fisheries Mahinda Amaraweera told
reporters.
"No decisions will be taken without consulting our fishermen," he said.
Amaraweera's remarks came following
reports that Sri Lanka was planning to grant
Indian fishermen access to fishing in Sri Lankan
waters subject to conditions.
Amaraweera said that despite pressures from
Indian side none of the boats confiscated by Sri
%63FDVKHVLQRQ
VOXUSURWHVWVHUXSW
From Page 1
“Our party has already
acted in the matter. Our senior
leader Arun Jaitley has
expressed regret over the matter. What else do they want?
Now, Jannat Jahan is making
such remarks, a wrong cannot
be countered by another wrong
to make it right,” said
Chandigarh BJP president
Sanjay Tandon.
However, the BSP leader
stuck to her remarks and told
reporters after the protest that
she stands by what she has said.
“I stand by my statement.
Mayawati ji is an iron lady of
BSP, using such derogatory
remarks cannot be tolerated,”
she said.
In Lucknow, after a call by
the BSP’s UP unit late on
Wednesday, thousand of party
workers and leaders from
across the State converged near
the statue of Dr Ambedkar in
Hazratganj on Thursday morning and shouted anti-BJP slogans and burnt the effigy of
Dayashankar. Senior BSP leaders Nasimuddin Siddiqui,
Ramveer Upadhaya and
Brajesh Pathak were present at
the protest.
The protesters brought
traffic movement to a halt in
the busy thoroughfare and its
adjoining areas for several
hours. They broke barricades
put up on the road by the police
and clashed with them at several places.
Later in the afternoon,
Siddiqui announced the suspension of the demonstration
and handed out a 36-hour
ultimatum to the administration
for
arresting
Dayashankar. He said that if
the Government failed to nab
the accused, then the BSP
workers will again take to the
streets and force the administration to initiate criminal
proceedings against the BJP
leader. State BSP chief Ram
Achal Rajbhar and other leaders told the reporters that they
would not compromise till
Dayashankar was arrested
and punished for his provocative utterances.
Due to the massive the BSP
stir, security at the BJP State
headquarters had been tightened
since Wednesday night. Security
was also deployed at the residence of Dayashankar though
he was not traceable in Lucknow
since Wednesday night.
Reports
said
that
Dayashankar, who absconded
after an FIR was lodged against
him late Wednesday night, has
planned to surrender before a
Lucknow court.
The police raided the residences of Dayashankar at
Lucknow and Ballia on
Thursday morning but failed
to trace him. A senior official
told reporters in Lucknow
that Dayashankar would be
arrested soon and his presence was located in
Gorakhpur.
After his remarks created
uproar, Singh tendered an
apology but it was rejected by
the BSP. The BJP chose to
remove Dayashankar from
the post of vice-president and
later suspended him. An FIR
was
lodged
against
Dayashankar
at
the
Hazratganj police station on
the basis of a two-page complaint submitted on behalf on
national BSP secretary Mewa
L al Gautam later on
Wednesday
night.
Subsequently, a case was registered under Sections 153
(A), 504 and 509 of IPC and
relevant Sections of the SC /
ST Act.
After lodging the FIR, the
Lucknow police sent it to the
concerned police station in
Mau for further investigation
where Dayashankar made the
statement during a chat with
media persons.
Lanka for poaching in Sri Lankan waters will be
released. He said the Government was keen to
work for the welfare of the northern fishermen
who have been affected by the continuous
poaching by the Indian fishermen.
"We have managed to get the ban lifted for
our fish exports to the European Union. The
benefits of this will be soon enjoyed by the northern fishermen," Amaraweera said.
Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena,
during his visit to India on May 13, had discussed the issue of problems faced by Indian
fishermen in his meeting with Prime Minister
Narendra Modi.
It was reported after the meeting that both
sides sought a permanent solution to the issue
of frequent arrests of Indian fishermen with
India reiterating the need to build a dedicated
mechanism for it.
:RQ¶WWROHUDWH
DWWDFNRQ
From Page 1
“Given the seriousness of
the incident, the case has been
handed over to the Crime
Investigation Department (CID)
and they have been given a deadline of 60 days to file the
chargesheet. We feel justice should
be delivered in six months which
is why we did not hand over the
matter to Central Bureau of
Investigation, which usually takes
about two years to wind up a
case,” Singh said. He told the
House that seven persons have
been arrested in this case, and four
policemen have been suspended.
The Minister added that
the SC/ST Act has been
amended to give it more tooth
and cover several other crimes
against Dalits. This includes
disrobing, parading a person
with face blackened, branding
among others. He, however,
conceded that the conviction
rate of crimes against Dalits is
abysmally low to about 29 per
cent, possibly because sometimes either the FIR is not in
correct form or the law is
being misused to settle scores.
Singh, who faced flak for
not doing enough to prevent
atrocities against Dalits, particularly by the new vigilant groups
like the Gau Raksha Samiti, or
those targeting couples for “Love
Jehad”, said such incidents are
happening all over the country;
and not only the BJP-ruled
States are to be blamed. He,
however, condemned violence
against any one in any State.
“Our Government will not
tolerate any violence against
Dalits,” the Minister said. “And
this includes verbal violence,”
he added, while saying he was
ashamed of the act by his partyman who used derogatory
language against BSP chief
Mayawati. “We have to condemn those elements,” he said
while asking members to rise
above partylines to fight against
such injustice.
He added that there is a crisis of credibility in the country
and fall in people’s faith in politics and politicians. Singh
urged political workers to be
also socio-political workers to
bring the change in society
toward the mindset that discriminates. “Such atrocities
should not be repeated and no
one can justify such acts. It is
a blot on humanity,” he said.
Singh also went on to count the
schemes by the NDA
Government to improve the life
of Dalits and the poor.
Earlier Minister of Social
Justice and Empowerment
Thawarchand Gehlot said that
despite provision in the law and
constant efforts by the
Government, violence on Dalits
is not stopping. “It is the mindset of the people that is causing
problem. We give speeches but
we do not act according to the
words we speak,” Gehlot said
defending the Government.
Like Singh, he too went on to
count cases of Dalit atrocities in
Congress governed Karnataka
and Samajwadi Party ruled
Uttar Pradesh.
4_^µd]UTT\U_bUh`_bddUbb_b9^TYQ
From Page 1
Earlier in the debate when
many members expressed concern over the injuries caused by
pellet guns, he said an expert
committee will be set up to recommend alternatives to pellet
guns and it will submit its
report in two months.
Describing the youth of
Kashmir as “patriots”, he said
“there is an attempt to misguide
some” of them and a “mindset
that stokes baseless anger
against India”.
On the concerns expressed
by members over the use of pellet guns, the Home Minister
said one person had died due
to injuries caused by these
weapons, while 53 suffered
injuries in eyes.
“We will form a committee
of experts. It will see to it what
non-lethal alternatives we can
bring in place of pellet guns. It
will give report in two months,”
he said.
He said these guns, categorised as non-lethal, had not
been used in Kashmir for the
first time as they had been used
earlier in 2010 when six people
had been killed by these and 98
had sustained eye injuries, with
five suffering complete blindness.
Meanwhile, a day after
Pakistan observed Black Day to
express ‘solidarity’ with
Kashmir, India accused it of
providing support to terrorist
outfits in fomenting the recent
trouble in the state and said
observance of “Kashmir’s
Accession to Pakistan Day”
(July 19) and ‘Black Day’ (July
20) in Pakistan and POK only
exposes Pakistan’s longing for
Jammu and Kashmir.
In a strong-worded statement on Thursday, Ministry of
External Affairs spokesperson
Vikas Swarup condemned
encouragement and support
provided by Pakistan to United
Nations-designated terrorists
and their activities and asked
Pakistan to vacate illegal occupation of Pakistan Occupied
Kashmir (POK).
“We have seen reports
about rallies, events and statements related to Jammu &
Kashmir in Pakistan and POK
over the last two days. We have
also noted that the events were
led by UN-designated terrorists, who had in the past
protested the elimination of
dreaded terrorists including
Osama bin Laden and Taliban
leader Akhtar Mansour in
Pakistan. India strongly condemns the encouragement and
support which such terrorists
and their activities receive from
Pakistan’s State,” said Swarup.
Charging Pakistan for
inciting violence in JammuKashmir, India also accused
Islamabad of misleading international community.
“We once again ask
Pakistan to stop inciting and
supporting violence and terrorism in any part of our countr y and refrain from its
deplorable meddling in our
internal affairs in any manner… India demands that
Pakistan must fulfill the obligation to vacate its illegal occupation of POK. It must also
stop misleading the international community and
Kashmiris through meaningless exercises such as the socalled elections today in POK
which Pakistan ironically calls
‘Azad’ (free),” Swarup said.
In view of the threats of
marches, protests at the High
Commission of India in
Islamabad, India has asked the
Government of Pakistan to
ensure full safety and security
of the High Commission, all its
officials and their families in
Pakistan.
Pakistan Prime Minister
Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday
said India cannot suppress the
voice of Kashmiris through
force as they will eventually get
freedom, and India should
accept defeat before Kashmiris’
struggle.
“The United Nations has
declared Kashmir a disputed
territory and India should hold
plebiscite to respect the rights
of Kashmiris. Terming
Kashmir issue internal matter
of India is not justifiable,” he
said in Islamabad.
On Thursday, Sartaz Aziz,
Advisor to Pakistan PM said
Pakistan will approach the
Human Rights Council of the
UN on its own behalf and on
behalf of OIC Contact Group
on Kashmir “to send a fact
finding mission to Indian
Occupied Kashmir to investigate the slaughter of innocent
civilians and impose a ban on
the use of pellet guns for dispersing people exercising their
right to protest.”
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?=BQ =4F34;78
he Opposition parties on
Thursday used the attack
on Dalits in Gujarat to rap the
Union Government for its failure to keep a check.
During a marathon sixhour discussion on the incidents of atrocities on Dalits, in
which 34 MPs spoke, the
Opposition parties attacked
the Government for not checking the rise of the groups like
cow-vigilant, love-jihad etc.
“New avenues of persecution and repression are brought
about with Ministers comparing
Dalits to dogs. A mindset is
being created and now attack on
academia is also taking place,”
said CPI(M) leader Sitaram
Yechuri as he counted that out
of 25 students who commited
suicide during last one year, 23
were from Dalit community.
Terming the mindset of the
ruling party as “worrisome”
and that of bolstering “obscurantism”, Yechury said: “I keep
wondering that when it came
to Dalits, there is diarrhoea of
words and constipation of
action. There are voluminous
speeches but no action…We
need to encourage scientific
temperament.”
Initiating the discussion,
senior JD (U) leader Sharad
Yadav sought a ban on ‘Gau
Rakshaks’ (cow vigilantes)
operating in some parts of the
country, saying their activities
has made transportation of
the animal difficult even for
medical reasons. “Who created these ‘Gau Rakshaks’? Why
doesn’t the Government ban
them? We talk about Taliban
but our own caste system has
a Taliban-like attitude,” Yadav
said. “In Gujarat, these Gau
Rakshaks say 33 crore gods and
goddesses live in the cow. Such
superstitions are being spread
in this country,” Yadav said.
Increasing the intensity of
attack on the BJP after the
party’s Uttar Pradesh leader
Dayashankar Singh abused her,
BSP chief Mayawati said the
BJP should have filed an FIR
against him. She alleged that
atrocities on dalits are on the
rise in BJP-ruled States in the
name of cow protection and the
centre should call an all-party
meeting to find solution to this
issue. “It is happening in BJPruled states on a large scale.
Earlier it was against Muslims
and that has stopped. Now, they
are targeting dalits” Mayawati
said as she accused Gujarat
government of being a mute
spectator and trying to “suppress” the issue and sought a
separate team to conduct the
inquiry in fast track mode.
Congress members said
the recent incident in Una
(Gujarat) has exposed the
“Gujarat model” propagated
by Prime Minister Narendra
Modi. Terming situation in
Gujarat explosive, Congress
leader Ahmed Patel said Dalits
were attempting suicide.
Congress MP from Gujarat
Madhusudan Mistry said the
anguish among people in Una
at present cannot be politically injected but a natural outburst. Anand Sharma said there
has been a sudden spurt in violence on Dalits and asked
union Home Minister Rajnath
Singh what actions has the government taken against such
perpetrators of crime. He
feared that if not controlled
soon, a situation similar to ISIS
growth may come in India .
“Let us all venerate the cow,
but then why mock the cowworker. Superficial symbolism
is BJP’s style. I think that PM
Modi is trying to translate
Ambedkar’s work, but sometimes the meaning is lost in the
translation,” said TMC’s Derek
O’Brien. He questioned how
can anyone oppress a cow
worker when everyone wears
leather shoes and 2.5 lakh people are employed in tanneries.
O’Brien said he came from of
a community of 75,000 people
and “I can eat whatever I want
and drink whatever I feel...This
is the power of democracy.”
D Raja (CPI) alleged that
there are organised right wing
forces in the country and there
are people in political sphere
close to them who are influencing bunch of thoughts by
cow protecting groups.
Union Minister Ramdas
Athawale, in his intervention,
said the issue should not be
made a subject to politics and
all parties should work together to abolish caste system. He
suggested promoting inter-caste
marriages to end casteism.
?=BQ =4F34;78
ashing out at former Home
Minister P Chidambaram
L
over his proposal on the
Kashmir issue, the BJP on
Thursday asserted that the
Modi Government will secure
the unity and integrity of the
country without any compromise and hit out at those “sympathising” with terrorists.
“This is nothing but cheap
politics. This compromises
national security of India,” said
Information & Broadcasting
Minister M Venkaiah Naidu at
Press conference here and
termed Chidambaram’s comments objectionable. He said it
was least expected from a former Home Minister.
On Wednesday, Chidambaram suggested restoring the
“grand bargain” under which
Kashmir had acceded to India
by granting a large degree of
autonomy, warning that otherwise the country will have to
pay a “heavy price”. The former
Home Minister under the
Congress-led UPA also suggested relaxing the AFSPA
(Armed Forces Special Powers
Act) applicable in Jammu &
Kashmir.
“After losing power, he is
giving sermons. Our party and
Government are committed to
the unity and security of the
country. Its unity and integrity is paramount and not the life
of a terrorist. We will secure it
without any compromise whatsoever,” Naidu said.
Attacking Chidambaram
over his reported comments
that there is a sense of fear in
Kashmir over the PDP’s
alliance with BJP, he said
Congress aligned with National
Conference and PDP all these
years and was not able to digest
the “historical turn” the State
had taken with the PDP-BJP
alliance in power.
“He speaks about broken
promises. He should say which
promises. Now he remembers
them. Congress ruled the coun-
8=C747>DB4
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?=BQ =4F34;78
embers in the Lok Sabha
on Thursday questioned
M
the quality of rural roads being
constructed under a Central
scheme, saying despite orders
from the Centre they were not
being consulted in selection of
new projects.
Members said besides
quality, the roads sanctioned
for a particular length were
reduced in size and money
unspent is not accounted for.
Several members expressed
their indignation over “ the failure” of district administrations in
taking them along while deciding on new projects under the
the Pradhan Mantri Gramin
Sadak Yojna (PMGSY).
Members from the BJP, its
ally Akali Dal, Congress, Left
parties and AAP were seen
raising the issue from their
respective seats. They included Harish Meena (BJP), P S
Chandumajra (SAD), Adhir
Ranjan Chowdhury (Cong),
Dharamvir Gandhi (AAP) and
Badaruddoza Khan (CPI-M).
This prompted Speaker
Sumitra Mahajan to say that
there was a need to check the
“gaps”. She said while orders
from the Centre are clear, often
the meetings of vigilance
committees headed by MPs are
?=BQ =4F34;78
not held.
She said such meetings
should ideally take place every
three months and MPs should
use it as a “weapon” to get
things done and ensure
promptness and quality.
Responding to questions
on the role of MPs and the
quality of construction, Rural
Development
Minister
Narendra Singh Tomar assured
that the Centre will ensure
that the orders are followed.
Mahajan said as a member
of the House she understands
the problems being faced by
MPs and suggested a discussion
on the subject.
ongress leader Anand
Sharma on Thursday
C
accused the Government of
blocking the appointment of
judges as it was “very angry”
after the Supreme Court’s decision in the National Judicial
Appointments Commission
(NJAC). The Centre strongly
refuted the charge.
Elaborating on the vacancies of judges in several high
courts across the country,
Sharma said “for the last one
year, the collegium, the CJI,
they have made recommendations to the Government, but
after the NJAC judgment, the
Government seems to be very
angry and on path of con-
?<VaTTcb>__RWPcbfXcWBWPaPS?PfPa
?=BQ =4F34;78
rime Minister Narendra
Modi on Thursday had a
P
brief chat with NCP chief Sharad
Pawar in the Rajya Sabha even
as he also exchanged pleasantries
with some other Opposition
members. Immediately after the
Question Hour when the House
was dispersing for lunch break,
the Prime Minister rose from his
seat and walked towards the
Opposition benches.
He shook hands with
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?=BQ =4F34;78
he Supreme Court on
Thursday set out to examine
T
whether a severe abnormality in
foetus, that is life-threatening,
can be a ground for the mother to terminate pregnancy. At
present, the law in the country
allows abortion of a foetus that
is below 20 weeks of age or in a
scenario where pregnancy will
result in mother’s death.
The bench of Justices JS
Khehar, Kurian Joseph and
Arun Mishra found that the
law did not consider abortion
from the angle of possible risk
to survival of foetus after it was
confronted with a petition filed
by a 23-year old alleged rape
victim from Maharashtra. The
petitioner submitted that the
foetus in her womb suffered
multiple disorders such as
anencephaly where skull bones
fail to develop and omphalocoel where the intestine
remains outside the abdomen.
Doctors, who examined the
petitioner, reported grave risk
to the survival of foetus but
found helpless before law as the
foetus had crossed 20 weeks.
this Government is to block
appointments and force a situation where the memorandum
of procedure of appointments
(MoP) as proposed by collegium of Supreme Court is
diluted so that people owing allegiance to particular ideology,
people having certain leanings,
will get accommodated”, the
Congress leader alleged during
Zero Hour in Rajya Sabha.
The situation, he claimed,
2^]VaTbb\T\QTa0]P]SBWPa\P
b_TPZbX]cWTAPYhPBPQWPX]=Tf3T[WX was so serious that the Chief
^]CdTbSPh
?C8 Justice of India TS Thakur broke
down in front of Prime Minister
Narendra Modi and “months
frontation with the collegium have passed but the Prime
Minister is unmoved”. “PM has
of the Supreme Court.”
The Supreme Court had in not taken any action, nor his
October last year declared as Government. His Government
unconstitutional the law has to address this issue and
brought by the Government to explain why it is blocking names,
replace the over two-decade- which have been recommendold collegium system of judges ed by High Court and Supreme
appointing judges in the high- Court collegiums, and when will
er judiciary and quashed the these vacancies be filled so that
National Judicial Appointments poor people can get justice,”
Sharma said.
Commission (NJAC) Act.
Refuting the charges, for“Therefore, the attempt of
mer Law Minister Sadananda
Gowda said “The matter raised
by Anand Sharma is far away
from the truth. After NJAC
Congress deputy leader Anand verdict, the Government itself
Sharma as he went up and went to the CJI. I myself went
reached Pawar with whom he to the CJI. I said that the new
MoP will take some time for
was seen having a chat.
Some other MPs including finalisation. So we said that
DMK’s Kanimozhi and nomi- there is a huge pendency across
nated member Anu Aga also the country... We said the
walked up to the Prime Minister appointments can be proceeded as per the earlier MoP.”
and exchanged pleasantries.
Gowda, who has now been
After having a word with the
NCP chief, Modi left the House. shifted to the Ministry of
Modi spent an hour in the Statistics and Programme
House and almost about 50 mi- Implementation, said he had
nutes during the question hour. himself written a letter to CJI,
and on that basis, the appointments started.
Issuing notice to Centre
through Attorney General and
Maharashtra Government, the
bench decided to examine the
request of the petitioner’s counsel senior advocate Colin
Gonsalves, who challenged the
validity of the Act.
Gonsalves pointed out that
technological advancement
allows termination of pregnancy till upto 24th week without posing a risk to the mother. The petitioner came to
know of the abnormality of foetus in June this year. Such
abnormality in the brain can
only be detected after 20 weeks
of pregnancy, Gonsalves said,
suggesting that the law fails to
contemplate such a situation.
For no reason, the mother has
to suffer the pain and agony of
delivering a foetus that has no
chance to survive, he added.
The bench felt it necessary
to seek the response of Centre
after it was informed that the
Government had drafted an
amendment to the MTP Act by
which it proposed to extend the
ceiling on abortion of foetus
from 20 weeks to 24 weeks in
cases where the foetus has
severe abnormality.
The
judges
asked
Gonsalves, “Has any opinion
been given by a Medical Board
yet,” to which the answer was
no. “We will hear the petition
on Friday. We will ask the
Centre and Maharashtra governments for a report from the
Medical Board.”
0HJKDOD\D
PLQLQJSODQ
1*7SXOOVXS
*UHHQ0LQLVWU\
?=BQ =4F34;78
he National Green Tribunal
(NGT) on Thursday pulled
up the Ministry of Environment
and Forests asking why it was not
preparing the report on the
mining plan in Meghalaya and
instead seeking opinion of an
expert body.
The bench, led by Justice
Swatanter Kumar, derided the
representatives of the Ministry
saying, that though it is a regulatory authority by itself, it seeks
reports from experts. “We do not
understand why you do not do
this yourself and for every small
thing you need a consultant. Do
not use our orders for escaping
from responsibility, “said the
NGT chairperson.
The bench observed this
after the counsel appearing on
behalf of the Ministry said that
it has sought the opinion of an
expert body which carries out
research and development programme in environmental science and technology. It directed
the Ministries of Environment
and Coal, besides the Meghalaya
government, to hold a meeting
to finalise the mining plan and
submit a report before it soon.
T
`bU]UTYdQdUT*=Y^
New Delhi: External Affairs
Minister Sushma Swaraj on
Thursday said the recent
attacks on African nationals
were neither racial nor premeditated acts against a particular community but spontaneous criminal attacks by
anti-social elements.
Swaraj in a statement in the
Rajya Sabha said to ensure
safety of Africans and avoid
repetition of such instances, the
Government is trying to
accommodate in campus hostels for African students, who
are studying in India on scholarships, since such attacks have
taken place outside campuses.
“The recent attacks on
African nationals in Delhi and
outside were not any kind of
racial attacks,” she said, while
replying to questions about
the incidents, including the
killing of Congo national
Oliver in the national capital.
“These were not premeditated acts against a particular
community. These were spontaneous criminal attacks perpetrated by anti-social and
criminal elements,” she said.
She said the Government of
India is giving a number of
scholarships to African students for studying here and will
now work with campuses to
provide them accommodation
within campuses too.
To help prevent the recurrence of any such attacks,
Minister of State for External
Affairs V K Singh will hold
meetings with African community in major metropolitan
cities where they reside and he
will be accompanied by
Secretary (Ecnomic Relations)
and police commissioners of
these cities.
“A sensitisation campaign
is also being carried out and I
have written to seven States,
which have more presence of
African nationals, to do sensitisation on pattern of that done
in Delhi to avoid recurrence of
such incidents,” Swaraj said.
She said as a backlash of
the killing of a Congo national in Delhi in May this year,
there were few incidents of
attacks against Indians in
Kinshasa, the capital of
Democratic Republic of Congo
(DRC) in which some Indians
sustained minor injuries.
After this, the Indian
Embassy in Kinshasa raised the
issue with the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs of DRC and
sought police protection from
the local Government there for
securing their life and property. “An advisory was also issued
to all Indian nationals assuring
them of all assistance,” she
said, adding that there were no
serious injuries on Indians
there.
Swaraj said the African
0LQLVWULHV6WDWH*RYWVWROG
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he Centre has initiated the
process to streamline
T
applications by private persons
seeking sanction for prosecution against senior officers.
The Department of Personnel
and Training (DoPT) on
Thursday issued circulars to all
Union Ministries and Chief
Secretaries of States asking
them to seek public opinion
and conduct public hearings
by August 12 so that rules in
this regard can be formulated.
The Centre’s move comes
after the judgment in
Subramanian Swamy Vs
Manmohan Singh by Supreme
Court in January 2012. Swamy
approached
SC
after
Manmohan Singh did not act
on his petition for sanction to
prosecute then Telecom
Minister A Raja in the 2G scam
The apex court had
slammed then Prime Minister
and the system for delaying
sanction for prosecution petitions and fixed specific periods
to take decisions in the petitions. The maximum time
limit prescribed was three
months with a grace period of
extra one month. Following
the verdict, the DoPT is in
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receipt of requests from private
persons seeking sanction for
prosecution in respect of IAS
officers without any proper
proposal and supporting documents.
It is observed that such
requests from citizens are more
in the nature of complaints
sans any supporting details,
evidence, which can at best
merit enquiry of substantial
facts as are evidenced, the
DoPT said and outlined the
procedure to be followed.
“A proposal from a private
individual seeking sanction
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try for all these years. It formed
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making it a big issue.
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the
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& T\_WPbXbTScWPcTSdRPcX^]Xb
Broadcasting Minister.
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for prosecution of an IAS officer serving in the State
Government may be routed
through the concerned State
Government as such State
Government is best placed to
provide basic inputs as regards
the alleged misconduct of the
concerned public servant who
is or was working under its
administrative control.
“In case a proposal is
received directly by DoPT by
such private individuals will be
for warded to the State
Governments for the preliminary examination by such
State Government vis-a-vis
the relevant records,” it said. If
there is a prima facie case
against an IAS officer, the
State Government should prepare a detailed report and
consider obtaining version of
the concerned officer.
Such report, along with all
relevant records and evidence,
should be forwarded to DoPT
(which is the cadre controlling
authority for such officers)
with the approval of the competent authority there, the
proposed guidelines said.
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n a day when Chief
Minister Mehbooba Mufti
O
was discussing the prevailing
situation in Kashmir with several mainstream political leaders in an “all-party meeting”,
police and paramilitaries
enforced curfew strictly
throughout the Valley to offset
separatists’ call for withdrawal
of the shutdown till evening.
The authorities suspected the
leeway to public after 12 days
of clampdown would escalate
the situation.
The authorities’ discordant
approach to deal with the situation was evident with the
announcement of reopening
schools in four districts of
Ganderbal,
Bandipora,
Kupwara and Baramulla and
simultaneous imposition of
curfew in these districts.
Consequently, the schools did
not open in these areas.
The Chief Minister convened the all-party meeting at
Sher-e-Kashmir International
Convention Complex (SKICC)
to discuss the prevailing law
and order situation. The main
Opposition party National
Conference (NC) had
announced to boycott the
meeting describing it as “too little too late”. Barring the
Congress, there was no prominent political party that holds
a wider appeal in the Valley.
An official spokesman said
the meeting passed a threepoint resolution that included
taking note of “the empathy
and sense of solidarity with the
people of Jammu & Kashmir
reflected during the debate on
the prevailing situation in the
State in both Houses of the
Parliament.”
The meeting expressed
“grief and concern” over the loss
of life and injuries during the
recent situation and called for
converting the political consensus (in the Parliament) into
a national initiative for addressing the problems confronting
Jammu & Kashmir and its people. It called for inclusive
engagement of all the stakeholders in the Valley for carrying forward the peace and reconciliation process in the State.
³BcPcT\d[[X]V_^[XRh^]fT[UPaT^Uh^dcW´
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_PacXTbPcP]P[[_Pach\TTcX]VX]BaX]PVPa^]CWdabSPh
?C8
Sources said the Chief
Minister announced to distribute free ration among the
impoverished people who were
unable to earn during the past
two weeks of unrest. The sitting
and former legislators belonging to several parties came
down heavily on the unbridled
use of force against the civilian
protesters in the aftermath of
the killing of Hizbul
Mujahideen leader Burhan
Wani on July 8 in Kokernag
area of south Kashmir.
Independent legislator
from Langate Sheikh Rashid
after attending the meeting
lamented that it turned out to
be an exercise “to appease
powers in Delhi rather than a
serious effort to mitigate the
sufferings of the people of
Kashmir.”
Meanwhile, even as no
untoward incident was reported from the Valley, the authorities on Thursday imposed
curfew to thwart separatists’
call for withdrawing shutdown
for several hours after 2 pm.
Sources said that a complete
GZXZ]R_TVTRdVRXRZ_de4`_X¶dVi>Z_
EA90H0A09Q :>278
nitiation of a Vigilance case
has been recommended
Iagainst
K Babu, Congress’s
Excise Minister in Kerala’s former UDF Government and a
close confidant of then Chief
Minister Oommen Chandy, in
connection with the alleged
irregularities in the awarding of
bar licences and formulation of
policies in this regard.
The Kerala Vigilance and
Anti-Corruption Bureau may
soon register an FIR against
Babu at the Special Vigilance
Court in Muvattupuzha,
Ernakulam on the basis of the
findings mentioned in the
report of a quick verification
carried
out
by
the
Superintendent of Police
(Vigilance), Central Region.
The preliminary inquiry had
found that there was prima
facie evidence for corruption.
This is the second time
Babu is facing a Vigilance case
over the bar scam which had
forced a senior minister in the
former UDF Cabinet to resign.
Babu himself had tendered
resignation as Excise Minister
on January 23 last to then
Chief Minister Chandy over
the bar bribery scandal but he
withdrew it a week later.
The preliminary probe was
carried out as per orders issued
by Vigilance Director Jacob
collected C1,00,000 to C2,00,000
from each of its members for
giving as bribe to Babu, then
Excise Minister, for lowering
the bar licence fee. The complaint said that the money thus
collected had been handed
over to Babu.
It said that Babu had gone
out of his way to interfere in
the process of awarding bar
licences and that there were
:4A0;010AB20<
Thomas last month on the
basis of a complaint filed by the
office-bearers of Kerala Hotel
Industrialists Association
regarding the alleged corruption in the awarding of bar
licences and other irregularities
related to the Excise
Department during the 201116 UDF rule.
As per the complaint, the
Kerala Bar Hotels Association,
erstwhile umbrella outfit of all
the bar owners in the State, had
irregularities in the closure of
certain retail liquor outlets
functioning near bars. The
complaint also alleged that
some leaders of the Kerala Bar
Hotels Association had acted
as middlemen for Babu’s
deals.
According to Vigilance
sources, the normal criteria had
not been followed in the closure of retail liquor outlets of
the State-run Beverages
Corporation and the then min-
ister had illegally interfered in
the matter. Babu had earlier
faced the charge of taking C10
crore as bribe from bar owners
for lowering bar licence fees.
“What we have stated in
our complaint is that some of
the leaders of our erstwhile outfit, Kerala Bar Hotels’
Association, had involvement
in these deals. They had acted
as middlemen in such deals,”
said Radhakrishnan. Kerala
Bar Hotels Association’s working president Biju Ramesh was
the first person to level bribery
charge against the former
Excise minister.
Babu, a staunch loyalist of
Chandy in the protracted
group war in Kerala’s Congress
party, had tendered his resignation on January 23 after the
Special Vigilance Court in
Thrissur ordered registration of
an FIR against him in the case
pertaining to the allegation
that he had taken C10-crore
bribe from bar owners.
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n a major initiative to save
flying birds, the Karnataka
IGovernment
has imposed a
total ban on Chinese manja
(dor) a synthetic thread made
out of glass and other
harmful material which is used
to fly kites. The razor sharp
synthetic non-bio degradable
Chinese made
thread use to be a
death trap for birds
especially for vultures, crows and
other flying birds.
A
circular
issued by the
Government says no person,
including shopkeeper, vendor,
wholesaler, retailer, trader, hawker or salesperson shall procure,
stock, sell and use Chinese
manja. The order also empowers all forest officers, forest and
horticulture wing of Bengaluru
coporation, assistant environmental officer and senior environmental officer of the
Karnataka State Pollution
Control Board to enforce the
above directions. The officers
assigned with the implementation of the ban can take cognizance of offences and initiate
legal action for violation of this
direction under Karnataka Forest
Act, 1963, Wildlife (Protection)
Act, 1972 and Environment
(Protection) Act, 1986, wherever they are empowered.
According to
Government officials and activists
the Chinese manja
is made of nylon
and is coated with
finely crushed glass and pose
grave danger to birds like vultures, kites, owls and crows
which get entangled in them.
Trapped birds getting injured
while trying to free themselves
from a manja and ultimately
dying atop trees and buildings
are a common sight. The
thread is dangerous not just for
birds but for other animals too.
shutdown was observed in
Kargil region of Ladakh. A
police spokesman said the curfew and restrictions will remain
strictly in place throughout
the day till further orders.
Mobile phones and internet services remained suspended in the Valley. Train services also remained suspended
for the 13th consecutive day.
Sources said that the
Government announcement
to reopen schools in four north
Kashmir districts evoked less
response due to the curfew.
Srinagar: Chief Minister
Mehbooba Mufti called for taking all the stakeholders on board
as part of a politically-inclusive
agenda to address the problems
confronting Jammu & Kashmir.
She also called for reviving the
dialogue process with Pakistan.
“A new course for Jammu
& Kashmir can be chalked out
only by reaching out to all the
stakeholders, including the
youth, who have to pay a huge
price because of the uncertainties plaguing the State for
the past more than six
decades,” she said.
The CM said her
Government strongly believes
that nothing is valid and should
be happening for Jammu &
Kashmir except with the active
involvement of its people.
Reiterating her Government’s
resolve to work for the larger
welfare of the State’s youth, the
CM said the Government is
working on a policy to have
productive role for the State’s
youth which would be further
concretised through various
practical initiatives.
She added that a beginning in this regard can be
made by implementing the
recommendations of the five
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Working Groups constituted
by the then Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh in 2006 and
reiterated in the PDP-BJP’s
“Agenda of Alliance”.
Mufti said the recommendations of these Working
Groups comprehensively deal
with Centre-State relations,
strengthening relations across
LoC, confidence building measures across segments of society
in J&K, Economic Development
of Jammu & Kashmir and
ensuring good governance.
Mehbooba regretted the
non-participation of the
Opposition
National
Conference in the meeting. “I
had spoken to NC working
president Omar Abdullah last
evening and requested him to
attend the meeting,” she said,
adding that the presence of the
leaders of the largest
Opposition in the State would
have added value and substance to the meeting.
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‘Pakistani’ flag fluttering
over a single-storied house
in Biharsharif town shocked
many on Thursday and when
it was shown on the local
channels, police acted and
arrested landlady Shabana
Anwar and her teenaged
nephew Shakeb and filed an
FIR against three persons.
“Sedition case has been filed
against the accused,” said
Nalanda SP Kumar Ashish.
Police seized the flag hoisted on the rooftop of the house
near a mosque in Muslim dominated Kharadi mohalla in
Biharsharif. The SP said prima
facie it looked like a flag of
Pakistan. But 35-year old
Shabana told the police that she
had been hoisting this flag for
several years after Eid as a religious commitment.
Police also arrested her
nephew, who had “redesigned”
the flag this year to make it
attractive. But in that process he
made it a replica of Pakistani
flag. Shabana is illiterate and
said she has no idea that this
flag resembled that of
Pakistan’s. Biharsharif town
DSP Saifur Rahman said the
matter was under investigation.
The flag controversy
caught the imagination of the
people as well as the political
parties as it came up at a time
when the Kashmir is boiling
where hoisting of Pakistani
flag is a routine.
In Patna last Friday, police
filed a case against an organisation Popular Front of India
which had taken out a procession in favour of televangelist
Zakir Nayak. It was alleged that
the pro-Pakistan slogans had
been raised during the procession and later police arrested
the Front’s secretary who was
leading the procession and
slapped him with sedition
charge. The Front, however,
clarified that the activists had
raised slogan of Popular Front
zindabad and not Pakistan
zindabad.
ith the State elections
over and the need for the
Central funds to back her populist projects receding for the
time being, Bengal Chief
Minister Mamata Banerjee on
Thursday returned to her old
ways of Narendra Modi-bashing and attacked the Prime
Minister and his Government
for “poking nose” in the affairs
of the States and “using Central
investigating agencies to browbeat the regional parties.”
She also vowed to prop the
regional parties to form an
alternative Government in
Delhi while one of her strongest
lieutenants and State Minister
Firhad Hakim raised the ‘oust
Modi’ slogan in 2019.
Banerjee was speaking in a
5-lakh-strong Trinamool
Congress’ Martyrs’ Day rally
from where she also denied
nourishing Prime Ministerial
ambitions and rather said, “I
want to remain as small a fry
as I am now living in a hut. But
yes I will definitely work
towards strengthening the
regional parties that can take
hold of the Central
Government.”
Attacking the Modi
Government for letting lose
the central agencies on the
Opposition parties and a section
of businessmen the Chief
Minister said, “whenever there
is an Opposition you scare
them with your central agencies.
Not only you arm-twist your
political opponents but you
have unleashed CBI and ED
against many business houses.”
In what experts felt a way
to lure back to her State the
business men who have fled
India with ED in trail Banerjee
said. “I have heard that about
80,000 industrialists have left
the country after being hounded out by your agencies. This
can be checked from the immigration offices and embassies.
Sometimes I wonder whether
this has enabled the return of
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black money or ensured the
flight of white money from the
country.”
She alleged “the BJP
Government is blackmailing
me using the CBI like those
others who are opposed to
them. But I don’t care. Let them
do whatever they want.”
She also attacked the Modi
Government for putting pressure
on the States for implementing
various schemes but not fulfilling its own commitments.
“The works are being done
by us and the credit is being
taken by the Centre,” she said
and attacked Delhi for trying to
implement the Aadhar scheme
in a “wrongful manner.”
She said, “here the Centre
is linking all the Government
schemes with Aadhar. The
Prime Minister is advertising
the Jan Dhan scheme but in our
State where there is no bank in
800 village panchayats how
will the Centre credit the dues
of the common people,” adding
“at least one crore people in our
State still do not have Aadhar
Cards. So how the Government
schemes will reach them?”
She also attacked the
Centre for stopping a host of
pro-people projects. “They
have increased allocations in
some projects but stopped
about 20 pro-people schemes,”
she said and alleged the Centre
was
saffronising
the
Governance in the country.
Playing at the minority
gallery she said, “today the RSS
cadres are carrying out censure
of cows which is another way
of communalising the State
but that will not be tolerated.”
Raising the Dalit and
Kashmir issue Banerjee said
“the BJP is allowing torture of
Dalits in UP and Gujarat which
is deplorable” adding “the way
the Kashmir situation is being
handled is only increasing the
tension in the country.”
Speaking on the occasion
senior party leader Mukul Roy
said, “Mamata Banerjee will be
a deciding factor insofar as formation of Government in the
Centre is concerned,” while
Firhad Hakim a senior Minister
said, “2019 will be a year when
the country will give the slogan
of Bhag Modi Bhag.”
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:D<0A274;;0??0=Q 274==08
he entire Tamil Nadu is in a state
of frenzy, that’s what the 24x7
Tamil news channels and newspapers
claim. It has nothing to do with India
winning a world cup or an Indian
athlete walking away with a gold
medal in Olympic Games. It is all
because of Kabali, a Tamil potboiler movie in which the reigning
superstar Rajnikant plays the lead
role. The movie revolves around
Rajni, who plays the role of a Messiah
to Dalits/Tamils in Malaysia who are
ill-treated by vested interests.
The uniqueness of the movie is
that Rajnikant (66), who started his
career in 1975 and has nearly 150
movies to his credit is playing for the
first time the role of an aging don. His
last couple of movies, including the
much publicised Kochachadiyaan
(2014) ended as flops for which the
superstar is facing a series of litigations in various courts.
The Kabali fever, which began a
month ago, reached a feverish pitch
T
when Kalaipulli Thanu, the producer announcing on July 12 that the
movie would be released on July 22.
Tickets for the first week has been
sold out within seconds of the opening of reservation counters. And for
the first time in the history of Indian
cinema, a first-day-first-show is
planned in many theatres across
Chennai , hold your breath, at 1am!
“We are not interested in the
story or the location. The fact is that
Thalaivar (as Rajnikanth is addressed
by die hard fans) is acting in it. It is
his styles and mannerism which are
important,” said Velmurugan, a bank
employee who has never missed the
first-day-first-show of any of the
Rajnikant movies. For puritans of
movies, it may sound surprising, people like Velmurugan has not heard of
movie makers like Roman Polanski
or Akira Kurosawa. For them
Rajnikant is a demi god and what he
does is cinema.
“It is nothing but a typical
Rajnikan movie. There were many
violent scenes which were removed
as per the directives of the review
committee. It is time for Rajnikant to
understand that he is past his prime
and switch over to roles which are in
synch with his age,” said one of the
censor board members who also felt
that it was time for Rajnikant to
switch over to roles befitting his age..
The marketing strategy of the
producer has paid rich dividents,
according to film industry sources.
“There are tie-ups with a private airliner, a MNC chocolate brand and
the biggest blade company (as private
lending institutions which charge
exorbitant rate of interest are known).
It has earned the film more than C100
crore,” said a veteran director.
bUcdbYSdUT+69B\_TWUT
Udaipur: An FIR was on
Thursday registered against
Patidar reservation agitation
spearhead Hardik Patel for
allegedly threatening a toll
booth staff in Rajasthan’s
Rajsamand even as police
restricted his movement outside
his temporary residence here.
IG Anand Srivastava said
this, however, was not a house
arrest as one of the conditions
of the Gujarat High Court
while granting him bail was
that he has to stay at a temporary address outside Gujarat for
the next six months.
“When he has to stay at the
temporary address, he is not
supposed to move out and he
has been asked to stay at the
place only in compliance with
the court order,” he said.
“He was granted conditional bail and this is not a
house arrest. This arrangement is in compliance with the
court order,” he said.
Meanwhile, the case was
registered against Patel, former
Congress MLA Pushkar Dangi
and eight others for threatening
the toll booth staff from where
they passed without paying the
toll tax yesterday, Rajsamand SP
Vishnu Kant said.
“The accused were in four
cars and were returning from
Nathdwara temple in
Rajsamand to Udaipur. As per
the complaint of the toll booth
staff, they did not pay the tax
and threatened the staff following which the FIR was
lodged with Delwara police
station,” he said. The case was
registered under Sections 384
(punishment for extortion) and
143 (unlawful assembly) of
IPC, he added.
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ll
India
Congress
Committee (AICC) viceA
president Rahul Gandhi on
his visit to Mota Samadhiala
village announced an aid of C5
lakh for the Dalit youths who
became victim to atrocities for
allegedly skinning dead cows.
Gandhi landed in Diu airport in the morning and
reached Mota Samadhiala village situated on the banks of
River Rupen around 12 noon to
meet Balu Sarvaiya and his
family. He spent nearly 35
minutes at the victim's house
and assured them all help.
As Rahul's convoy entered
the village, hundreds of Dalits
gathered shouting slogans of
'Jay Bhim' and the Gandhi
scion too responded them by
raising hands. He talked to 20year-old Jitu Sarvaiya, the
only educated person (studying engineering) in the victims' family.
When the Congress VP
asked how they are still facing
discrimination in the society
being Dalits, Jitu said their
condition has not been
improving for decades and
due to their economic situation, they had to earn their living by removing carcasses of
dead animals. He, however,
said that after his uncles and
cousins were beaten brutally,
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the family had decided to quit
and instead earn bread from
working in farms.
Gandhi shared his personal mobile number with Jitu and
told him to call him whenever
his family wants assistance.
Later, he left for Rajkot
where he met four injured
Dalits at the civil hospital. The
AICC VP also addressed a
Press conference there.
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tate Congress president Raj
Babbar on Thursday
attacked Prime Minister
Narendra Modi over the
growing atrocities against
Dalits across the country.
"Modi had launched a
Swachchh Bharat Abhiyan to
clean the country. But it is
now that I understand that
the call was made to wipe out
the Dalits and downtrodden
sections of the society,"
asserted Babbar.
Reacting to the recent
remarks of sacked BJP leader
Dayashankar Singh against
BSP chief Mayawati, the
Congress leader said it was
"highly objectionable". "Such
derogatory words should not
be used against anyone in the
society. I demand stern action
against the culprit, especially
because it has been made against a woman," asserted Babbar.
He was addressing the
media before sitting on a twohour long 'maun dharna' in
front of the Gandhi statue at
GPO Park to protest against
S
the assault on Dalits in a
Gujarat village.
Beside Babbar, AICC secretaries Zuber Khan, Rana
Goswami, Nasib Singh and
Prakash Joshi and leaders like
Rajesh Mishra, Satyadeo
Tripathi, Amarnath Agarwal,
Siddharth Priya Srivastava,
Virendra Madan, JP Singh,
Maroof Khan, MLA Aradhna
Mishra and Rita Bahuguna
Joshi also joined the protest.
UP Congress spokesperson Sanjay Bajpai said that
similar protests were also held
in other district headquarters
of the state on Thursday.
Later in the day, Babbar
met four newly-appointed
UPCC vice-presidents - Imran
Masood, Raja Ram Pal,
Bhagwati Prasad Chowdhary
and Rajesh Mishra. Former
Minister RPN Singh, who was
also nominated as UPCC vicepresident, did not turn up for
the meeting. Sources said that
Babbar discussed about the
upcoming programmes
planned to orchestrate a
revival of the Congress ahead
of the 2017 polls.
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ith the crucial Assembly
elections in Uttar
W
Pradesh round the corner, the
Congress has apparently taken
a leaf out of the BJP's book. It
has planned a three-day bus
yatra, beginning Sunday. The
party announced that the yatra
will be flagged off by Congress
president Sonia Gandhi and
will initially cover a distance of
600 km from Delhi to Kanpur.
Coined as "27 saal UP
behaal", the Congress bus yatra
is being undertaken to woo
voters in the Hindi heartland
and also aims to unite various
factions in the party and present a united face of the UP
Congress. The yatra will cover
four districts on each day and
will take the route from Delhi
to Ghaziabad and will cover
Hapur,
Amroha
and
Moradabad, where it will halt
on the first day. It will then
travel to Shahjahanpur, covering Rampur and Bareilly and
on the third day it will cover
Hardoi, Kannauj and then end
at Kanpur.
Top Congress leaders who
will be part of the yatra and
will address it at different
places include party general
secretary and in-charge of
party's UP affairs Ghulam Nabi
Azad, UP Congress chief Raj
Babbar and its Chief
Ministerial candidate Sheila
Dikshit. Other important leaders will also address it, including CLP leader in the State
Pradeep
Mathur
and
Coordination Committee
chairman Pramod Tiwari.
Asked if Priyanka Gandhi
will also be part of the yatra,
UP Congress Campaign
Committee chief Sanjay Singh
said, "We have been demanding for so many years that she
plays an active role and we are
sure that she will accede to our
demand this time."
The yatra will propagate
the message to the people of
Uttar Pradesh on the failures
and misgovernance by successive
Governments
of
Samajwadi Party, Bahujan
Samaj Party and BJP in Uttar
Pradesh for the last 27 years. "It
will campaign in such a way
that we reach out to every voter
at least three or four times,"
said a AICC functionary. After
the first phase of Yatra it will
be followed by a meeting of the
UP Congress in Lucknow on
July 29 that will be attended by
Congress vice president Rahul
Gandhi.
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yderabad City Police on
Thursday arrested eight
H
minors in connection with the
horrifying incident of setting
three puppies ablaze.
The incident in which some
urchins burnt the puppies alive
in a hay stack on Wednesday,
police rounded up eight people
in the age group of 10 to 17 and
produced them in a juvenile
court on Thursday. The incident
came to light when the culprits
not only committed the blood
curdling act but shot it on a
mobile camera and shared the
video on social media.
On the basis of the video
clips, an activist of People’s For
Animals P Shreya had lodged
an FIR with the Musheerabad
Police station in the city.
Police inspector B Mohan
Kumar said that police had registered a case under Section 429
of IPS and also the Prevention
of Cruelty to Animal Act and
rounded up eight boys from
Pathan Basti in Musheerabad.
Juvenile justice board has
remanded all the eight boys to
a juvenile home.
In her complaint, Shreya
said that a group of minor boys
tied three puppies with a rope
and forcibly threw them in to
a fire lit with the jute bags and
sticks. The horrible video
shows that when the screaming
and hapless puppies tried to
come out of the fire, the urchins
pushed them back and held
them with force using stick till
they were burnt to death. The
crime was committed at a
deserted spot in a local graveyard. Police have identified the
culprits with the help of the
video and also recovered the
original video footage form a
local fish stall-owner.
Earlier, Shreya along with
other activists met Hyderabad
Police Commissioner Mahinder
Reddy and submitted a memorandum along with the video
clip and demanded stringent
action against the guilty. “They
have committed the cruelty just
for sadistic pleasure”, she said.
NG Jayasimham, manag-
ing director, Human Society
International demanded a psychiatric evaluation of the boys
involved in the incident.
“Violence towards animals
by children can be indicator
other abuse and potentially a
predictor of serious anti social
behavior in adulthood including criminal offenses and violence towards women a children”, Jayasimha said.
Even as the city was reeling
under shock over the burning
of the puppies another incident
of shooting a dog to death in
the city has also come to the
light. In the second video a
young man is scene shooting a
dog to death in Nampally areas
of Hyderabad.
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:D<0A274;;0??0=Q 274==08
he Tamil Nadu Budget for 2016-2017
presented on Thursday by Finance
T
Minister O Panneerselvam has no new taxes
even as it envisages a slew of measures to
address rural and urban issues in the State.
A massive housing programme for the poor
and series of rural and urban infrastructure
projects are some of the uniqueness of the
Budget which has a deficit of C40,533 .84
crore for the 2016-2017 financial year.
As per the promise made by
Jayalalithaa in the AIADMK manifesto in
the run up to the 2016 Assembly election,
5.35 lakh students in the State would be
given free laptops while the short-term,
mid-term and long-term loans availed by
small and marginal farmers from cooperative banks would be written off by the
State Government. The tentative principal
and interest outstanding has been assessed
at C5,780.92 crores. It will be compensated with interest by the Government to Cooperatives in a span of five years.
Leading financial analyst and corporate
lawyer KS Ravichandran, while complimenting the FM for not taxing the people,
pointed out that the Budget is definitely
dependent on Central Government assistance and external borrowings.
The Budget has given special focus to
make the “slum-free cities and hut-free villages” envisaged by Chief Minister
Jayalalithaa a reality. Under the State Mission
of Housing for the Poor, the Government will
construct ten lakh houses for the poor over
the next five years, said Minister
Panneerselvam while presenting the Budget.
As part of Clean Tamil Nadu
Programme, the Government will construct 7.66 lakh house lavatories and public toilets during 2016-2017. This is being
taken up under the Swach Bharat Mission.
All old temples in villages and towns
would be revamped and the
ANNADAANAM (free meal scheme)
would be extended to 30 more temples.
This is expected to alleviate poverty by
offering free meals to the poor and needy.
Dry land farming, increasing the productivity and production of millets, pulses and oilseeds will be taken up on a major
scale, said the Finance Minister. Tamil Nadu
became the first State in the country to have
a separate infrastructure fund named Tamil
Nadu Infrastructure Development Fund for
financing major infrastructure development
projects like State highways, ports and
round-the-clock water supply.
A sum of C2,000 crore has been earmarked for the project in this year’s budget. It has been decided to launch a Pulse
Production Programme to make Tamil
Nadu self-sufficient in pulses and cereals.
The Government would see to it that
all households in the State are issued smartcards to streamline the public distribution
system. Though the Minister did not elaborate on the phased total prohibition programme announced by CM Jayalalithaa,
he has restricted the revenue from liquor
sales at C6636.38 crore which is much less
than C23,000 crore (approximately) earned
by the Government through TASMAC
outlets last year.
Meanwhile, angry over the
assault of their community
members near Una on July 11 by
self-styled cow protestors, large
number of Dalits took to the
streets demanding stern action
against the guilty. Their protest
entered Day 3 on Thursday.
In some places, protests
became violent and incidents of
setting three ST buses ablaze
were reported from north
Gujarat town Kadi. A mob of
Dalit community also blocked
Mehsana-Kadi Highway.
Incidents of stone-pelting have
also been reported from various places. The stirs took toll
on the traffic situation near
Limbdi as agitators created a
ruckus on the highway connecting Saurashtra to central
and South Gujarat. As a result,
ST bus authorities had to suspend services between Rajkot
and Ahmedabad.
Saurashtra
region
remained the epicentre of
protest as protests hit Talala
town in Gir Somnath district,
Kutiyana in Porbandar and
Amreli district of Saurashtra
region. Police even resorted to
shell teargas in Keshod town of
Junagadh district to quell the
protesting mob.
Surendranagar Collector
announced imposition of
Section 144 prohibiting a gathering of more than four people
in the area to maintain law and
order situation.
Dholka
town
of
Ahmedabad district saw mob
getting involved in stone-pelting followed by police resorting to teargas to disperse the
crowd. The situation worsened
as police allegedly entered
houses of the protestors, beat
them and detained them. As
many as 50 men were detained
at a police station which was
later gheraoed by women.
Women used kitchen utensils to seek immediate release
of the detained protestors. In
Surat, a group of protestors
flooded the railway track at
Udhna junction disrupting
train ser vices till police
intervened.
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mphasising on a special
E
approach to solve the problems of Adivasi people, Assam
Chief Minister Sarbananda
Sonowal on Thursday said the
State Government will adopt a
special mechanism for the all
round development of the
Adivasi people of the State.
“Adivasi people of Assam
needs a fillip for socio-cultural and educational development and the Government
will design a special mechanism for integrating them into
the Government’s agenda of
priorities,” Sonowal assured
the delegation of Adivasi
National
Convention
Committee, who met him at
the Assam Legislative
Assembly on Thursday.
The Committee is a conglomeration of 14 different
Adivasi organisations, who
came under an umbrella organ-
isation to press for their various demands.
Sonowal also assured to
communicate the Committee’s
demand for granting ST status
to the Central Government for
faster consideration. “Let me
assure you, we have the fullest
sensibility and all efforts will be
made to sincerely settle all your
social, economic, cultural and
educational issues including
ST status,” Sonowal added.
The Chief Minister also
stressed on skill development of
the Adivasi people and pitched
in for setting up of a multi-purpose institution for vocational
development of the Adivasi
youths. Acknowledging the
inherent skills of the Adivasi
people, Sonowal said given the
opportunity the Adivasi youths
can scale ‘heights’ on sports and
informed that the Government
is seriously considering ways
and means for optimum utilisation of their skills.
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will be with you, whatever.”
These words, in a personal
memo from Britain Prime
Minister Tony Blair to US
President George W Bush
on July 28 2002, are said to condemn Blair. Just six words out of
Sir John Chilcot’s 2.6 million
frame the indictment. They show,
say Blair’s critics, that he was irrevocably committed to war. Some
even claim the words prove that
Blair was “lying” in all his subsequent public statements about
Iraq before the coalition invaded
it on March 18 the following year.
These accusations misunderstand, sometimes wilfully, how
Government and diplomacy
work. The leaders of allied powers rightly seek friendly relations
with one another. In the case of
America, by far our most important ally, the British take particular trouble to do so. This matters
the more if — as was true of Bush
and Blair — the leaders in question come from different parts of
the political spectrum: The need
to build trust is greater.
After 9/11, Blair saw quicker
than any other world leader how
what he called “the kaleidoscope”
had shifted. He got closer to the
President than did any other ally. He
wanted to help shape the response
to Islamist terrorism. He joined
Britain with the US-led expedition
against the Taliban in Afghanistan.
He won the Americans’ trust. He
came to agree with Bush’s assessment of the threat posed by Saddam
Hussein. In consequence, he was listened to by the Americans.
The two men considered
themselves friends. Friends say
things to encourage one another —
“I’m right behind you”, “I will be
with you, whatever”. When the
leaders of democracies are friends,
they don’t forget politics. Both sides
know that these intimate
exchanges will always be qualified
by law, governmental process, parliamentary or party disagreements
back home, by-elections, opinion
polls and the ever-present possibility that the national interests of
each will be forced by events to
diverge. Both understand that
their assurances are not secret,
legally binding oaths about future
action. They are strong and sincere
expressions of friendly intent.
So when Margaret Thatcher
wrote to her great friend Ronald
Reagan during the Iran-Contra
scandal in 1986 and said: “…anything which weakens you, weakens
America, and anything that weakens America weakens the whole
world”, she was not saying Reagan
was right to have done his secret
I
8
deal with Iran, or that Britain
would support every policy of the
US. She was saying: “Our alliance
matters most” or — though she didn’t do demotic — “I will be with you,
whatever.”
Blair was not telling Bush —
and Bush did not think he was
telling him — “I’m going to invade
Iraq with you, come what may.” His
very next sentence in the memo
“bluntly” raised “the difficulties”. He
was telling him that he shared his
aim, and intended to support him.
It is usually a mark of good leadership to forge a close bond with a
great ally for a big purpose: It is certainly not a lie or a crime.
Sir John Chilcot and his team
have worked for many years to set
out calmly, with full evidence, what
most people half-knew already
about the war in Iraq. We learn that
the Blair Government did not follow proper Cabinet and
Government process; that the secret
services did not include enough
caveats about their intelligence
(and that the Government did not
interrogate it properly); that the military were over-optimistic about
what they could do, and inadequately equipped; that the aftermath
of the (successful) invasion was not
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planned for, with shocking results.
And, of course that — as he
almost always does — Blair exaggerated and skated on thin ice to get
what he wanted. The report contains lesson after lesson, not just
about the man in-charge, but about
how a Government, Cabinet, law
officers, spies, generals etc should
work. Perhaps it was worth the wait.
But the wrong lessons will
have been learnt if we now come to
believe any of the following: That
Britain should never fight an expeditionary war; that Britain should
not be the ally of the US; that British
soldiers’ lives must never be lost (or
even that each loss has to be individually justified); that the views of
dead soldiers’ families must be the
guide to policy; that the run-up to
any war must be disclosed in full to
Parliament at the time; that private
communications with allies can be
made public without damage to
alliances; that lawyers should not
just advise, but decide; and that
political leaders, if things go wrong,
should be treated like murderers.
The argument for Blair is not
that he got it right, but that he made
the decisions which a Prime
Minister is entitled to make. Indeed,
his case is a bit stronger — that he
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understood, better than most leaders nowadays, what the important
decisions were. In judging him, one
should remember how narrow, in
war, can be the margin between victory and defeat. Thatcher, for example, is remembered for an astonishing victory in the Falklands war. If
she had lost just one aircraft carrier, the result might have been
defeat. Would it have been right, if
that had happened, to have pilloried
her for the rest of her life?
Blair understood that a decision
has consequences either way. It is
what he calls “binary”, and it has a
“counterfactual”. He thought that the
two key decisions were “Is the world
better off without Saddam
Hussein?” and “Were we with
America, or not with America?” It
would a bold person — there are
lots of startlingly bold people
around just now — who could confidently say that there was no case
for the Blair answer to either question. That is why he says, with a
restraint for which he gets too little credit, that his critics would do
better to disagree with him than
brand him “deluded”. He confronted the real difficulties of such decisions: They never have.
Compare Blair to a previously successful heart surgeon who
risked a big operation to save a life,
but failed. What sort of a culture
is it that tries to rip apart such a
person? Does such behaviour
encourage better heart surgery in
future, or a retreat into timidity?
Distressed parents of dead servicemen, exploited by the media, are
led to think that their sons’ deaths
should be laid at the door of a
Prime Minister. We do not hear
from the many stoical parents
who know that a man (or woman),
by joining the Army, accepts the
possibility of death, and who take
comfort in the professionalism of
the one they have loved and lost.
There is a counterfactual not
just about Blair’s — and Bush’s —
decisions then, but about our attitudes towards those decisions.
Those attitudes will affect our
role in the world, and the state of
that world. Indeed, they already
have. The blood-drenched anarchy
of Syria, years long, is what happens when Western powers give
up. So is the consequent flood of
refugees which is changing politics
across Europe.
Blair sought a global strategy
for Britain, but mismanaged too
much of it. Now we can either try
to build a better one, or have none
at all. It’s a binary choice — one on
which our new woman Prime
Minister needs to pronounce.
(Courtesy: The Daily Telegraph)
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1Sd_b
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;4CC4ABC>C74438C>A
>_dceb`bYcY^W
Sir — This refers to the article, “The
road ahead for Sidhu and the BJP”
(July 21) by Amitabh Shukla.
Politicians leaving one party to join
another has become a routine affair
and, therefore, Navjot Singh Sidhu’s
exit from the BJP is not surprising.
However, what is shocking is
the way he betrayed not only his
political ‘guru’ Union Finance
Minister Arun Jaitely but also
Prime Minister Narendra Modi. If
he was so disenchanted with the
BJP, he should have left the party
when he was given a Rajya Sabha
nomination three months back.
I agree with the views of the
author that the grass may look green
to Sidhu, but he will have to face a
bigger challenge if he joins the Aam
Aadmi Party. As for the BJP, Sidhu’s
exit may prove to be a blessing in
disguise for the party in Punjab.
Bal Govind
Noida
9^dUbUcdY^Wdeb^Qb_e^T
Sir — This refers to the article,
“The road ahead for Sidhu and
the BJP” (July 21) by Amitabh
Shukla. Navjot Singh Sidhu’s
problems with the BJP began during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections
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when he was denied a re-nomination from Amritsar and the seat
was offered to Union Finance
Minister Arun Jaitley. As Jaitley
lost the election, the enitre blame
for the defeat was put on Sidhu
for he had refused to campaign.
With Sidhu giving up the
Rajya Sabha seat, it now emerges
that the effort to placate him has
not worked. He was possibly
expecting a ministerial post in the
Modi Government after nomination. Sidhu, a cricketer-turnedpolitician, would like to go back
in time and change some of the
statements he made against the
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
However, in case he joins the
AAP, it will be interesting to see
what he has to say about Prime
Minister Narendra Modi and the
BJP, won’t it?
J Akshobhya
Mysore
CUddY^WUhQ]`\U
Sir — This refers to the news report,
“Dalit assaults rock Parliament”
(July 21). The BJP’s strict action
against Uttar Pradesh vice president
Dayashankar Singh, over his
derogatory remarks against Bahujan
Samaj Party chief Mayawati is
belated, yet a welcome move as it
has come at a time when the
Parliament is in session.
Union Home Minister Rajnath
Singh is busy doing some damage
limitation exercise vis-a-vis attack
on Dalits in Gujarat. Divesting the
errant party leader, of all the posts
that he was hitherto enjoying, will
serve as a deterrent for other leaders who get away with highly
deplorable remarks.
Azhar A Khan
Rampur
F_\e^dQbiS_^dbYRedY_^
Sir — This refers to the article,
“India’s monumental discrimination” (July 20) by Navneet Anand.
There is a third option too ie to not
charge anything for entry to monuments, but to make donations voluntary. Many museums in the UK
are ‘free’ but a gentle notice draws
your attention towards making a
contribution (ticket).
Starting on the principal that
these are our heritage sites and maximum numbers should be able to
visit them, I would argue that
making a voluntary contribution
will remove all arguments (may
even reduce corruption).
Mike
Via web
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ronyism has found one
more victim. The Indian
cricket board’s cumulative
sins, like chickens, have home
come to roost. After haunting and
stalking the Board of Control for
Cricket in India (BCCI) for sometime now, the Supreme Court has
finally fixed the private cosy club.
For the first time, the BCCI,
which considered itself above
reproach, was told categorically,
that it cannot remain ‘unhindered
by any regulation or other control.’
For years now, the board had
taken the plea that it was an
autonomous body, registered
under the Tamil Nadu Societies
Registration Act as a charitable
institution and, hence, did not
come under the purview of any
institution. The death rattle could
be heard for long as the
Independent Republic of BCCI or
the Board that was a law unto
itself finally had to genufluct. The
apex court mandated that the
Justice Lodha Panel would oversee implementability of the new
charter over a period of six
months and that this did not
require any more discussion.
What was the BCCI? An
amorphous, unholy coalition of
politicians representing different
ideologies but united in the dyed
colours of the Indian cricket
administration. Ruling for
decades, either directly or
through proxies, as the men
behind the mask, jagirdaris of
patronage bequeathed to family
members — cases in point being
Rajasthan and Haryana.
The BCCI and several of its
staging associations, flush with the
cash that the game generated,
were quaking in their boots for the
end of the zamindari raj as we
know it within India’s most
opaque private cosy club of cronyism has been written. With a great
sense of foreboding, the BCCI had
tried to use every loophole and
escape clause to stall.
The Supreme Court had
warned at the very outset — “If
the BCCI is finding it difficult to
implement them, then it is easy for
us to make it happen. We will
accept all the recommendations
and direct the same committee
(Justice Lodha panel) to imple-
C
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ment it for the BCCI.”
Which is exactly what it has
gone ahead and done now to
counter the devious dithering
and machinations of the cricket
board. This means the end of the
BCCI as we know it. Its troubles
began with the spinning off an
impenetrable secret society called
the Indian Paisa League (sorry
the Indian Premier League(IPL))
as a counter to Subhash
Chandra’s Indian Cricket League,
moving away from its original
charter of development of the
game as BCCI to making crass
commercial gains from the IPL.
This avarice of the board is
where the story gets twisted.
Once the BCCI morphed into a
commercial enterprise making
truckloads of cash from what was
originally envisaged as a charitable society, it lost the moral high
ground once and for all. Even
then, it could have limped its way
out of the combat zone by taking
a few injuries. But once again,
greed came in the way and under
the power-drunk despot N
Srinivasan, it opened up itself to
all sorts of misdemeanours leading to investigations.
The secret society became a
hydra-headed monster which
outgrew the cosy club — the
BCCI — to bring shame to the
game in the land. Police investigations, spot fixing, betting, nepotism, bribery, sleaze and outrightly open cronyism and corruption became its bugbear. What
accentuated the board’s problems
was that its president remained in
denial, completely oblivious to the
charges and blasé about his own
son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan’s
underhand dealings.
The Chennai Super King, N
Srinivasan, who was in contravention of all that is principled
and stood for the high standards
of ethicality, morality, transparency and governance norms,
continued to live in an ivory tower,
unchallenged and unperturbed.
All it got was righteous indignation. How did it all end?
The Supreme Court, after
following due process and listening to all the petitioners, wants a
Comptroller and Auditor-General
@\QiY^WdXURQXeRUdY
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he Congress is playing a bahubeti game in poll-bound Uttar
Pradesh. The electorate is tired
of dynasty politics and looking for
new faces. So, the question is: Will
this click? Only time will tell but one
thing is certain that while this combination may not harm the party, it
will likely bring some dividends.
The bahu here is former Delhi
Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and the
beti is Congress scion Priyanka
Vadra. For the first time, the Congress
has announced a chief ministerial
candidate. To add flavour, Vadra may
also step out of the family pocket boroughs, Amethi and Rae Bareli,
and campaign across the State
of Uttar Pradesh.
Sixty four year-old actorturned politician Raj Babbar is
the new president of the Uttar
Pradesh Congress Committee.
Senior Congress leader
Ghulam Nabi Azad is the
general secretary in-charge of
Uttar Pradesh. The new team
also includes former ministers,
Sanjay Singh as the Congress’s
election campaign committee
chief and RPN Singh, senior
vice president, besides four
vice presidents. After days of
dilly-dallying, the party is now
turing to the old guard which
is evident from putting these
old warhorses as part of the new
team.
Prashant Kishor, who has been
hired by the Congress, to chalk out
the campaign strategy for pollbound States — Punjab and Uttar
Pradesh — has come up with a new
gamble. He became a successful
strategist for Prime Minister
Narendra Modi and Bihar Chief
Minister Nitish Kumar, but Uttar
Pradesh is not Bihar.
Even the Congress does not
believe that it can form a
Government in Uttar Pradesh where
it has been out of power for close to
three decades. But no one can find
T
faults with the Congress for wanting to improve its position. After all,
the grand old party cannot be
wished away. It has nothing to lose
and if it revives, it will be a bonus.
The strategy now appears that by
projecting Dikshit as the party’s
face, the party can woo the 12 per
cent Brahmin vote in the State. The
party is also hopeful of a ripple effect
even if Dikshit can get back six per
cent to seven per cent of the Brahmin
votes. These two sections were the
core voters for the Congress earlier.
However, Dikshit has many
pluses and minuses. She was seen as
the next best bet after Vadra. Dikshit
also has good relations with the family. Remember, she was one of the
few Congress leaders invited for
Vadra’s wedding.
She is the most suitable cover as
the family does not expect her to perform any miracles. Her job is to take
the blame if the effort fails and give
credit to the Gandhi clan if it succeeds. One big plus point is her track
record as the Chief Minister of Delhi
for 15 years. Although she is old, she
is fit. She is respected because of her
stature. She is well connected to different castes and communities.
As for the minuses, Dikshit is an
of India (CAG) nominee on the
nine-member apex governing
council which will run the board
instead of the all-powerful working committee, an antediluvian
concept borrowed from the grand
old party Congress; perhaps.
The CAG nominee will have
an all access card on financial
matters — accounts, contracts,
deals and such. In fact, the federal auditor will set up an oversight mechanism to maintain
financial transparency in the
board and in its dealings with
state affiliates. According to the
Supreme Court, this will help
bring transparency and objectivity necessary to inspire public
confidence in the fairness and
management of the affairs of the
BCCI and State associations.
The morally corroded
Srinivasan bought peace with
everyone by shutting their mouths
with cash from rivals in staging
associations to ex-players with
authoritative voices (barring
Mohinder Amarnath), till his bete
noire Lalit Modi using the instrumentality of Aditya Verma hunted
him down like a cornered quarry.
As they say in Hindi, inka paap
ka ghada bhar gaya tha (the pot of
sins is full to the brim). It must be
said that Srinivasan was the teflon
man for he managed to wriggle out
each time. It was amazing that
Srinivasan remained first among
equals for so long. The malfeasance
meanwhile had spread like a contagion and finally it was the last
man standing — the Supreme
Court — which ended his journey
in the world of cricket.
Like it had done before with
gargantuan corruption scandals
like the 2G spectrum scam and discretionary and preferential coal
block allotments, Lalit Modi’s indirect petitions brought Srinivasan
down with a thud. His ego the size
of a cricket field keeling over.
Sadly, the crucible for the
BCCI is a spot fixed game involving Chennai Super Kings and
Rajasthan Royals, which featured
several top Indian players including the one day captain. The team
principals — Gurunath and Raj
Kundra — were subsequently
found guilty of betting and their
teams suspended for two years.
That one of the principals was the
son-in-law of the board president
Srinivasan made the gravity of the
crime even more serious. What
Lalit Modi birthed as a counter to
Indian Cricket League has
become the device or a wrecking
crew to take down the board’s
unchallenged edifice.
As a private club-cum-consortium, its problems started the
day it commercialised the game
and began to earn profit
through its wholly-owned subsidiary IPL. From a private
charitable institution, with the
conception of the IPL, it
changed its character and hue
completely, since profit motive
overtook the original leitmotif
of development of the game.
When greed gets greedier, it
attracts envy and that is precisely what happened to the IPL.
It is said that the mother of all
evil is speculation and once that
entered the equation, like a
creeping virus, it broke through
all firewalls, turning the secret
society called IPL into something deeply malignant.
0RYLQJRQZLWKWKH
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outsider and local Congress leaders
like Pramod Tiwari are upset.
Second, today’s electorate may not be
impressed by the septogenarian
leader who some see as a spent force.
Third, the Uttar Pradesh unit is in
shambles and elections to the
Pradesh Congress Committee have
not been held for years. The morale
of the party workers is low.
Dikshit has very little time as
polls will be held early next year.
There are corruption charges against
her, including her alleged role in the
Commonwealth Games scam.
Vadra’s campaign may or may not
click, as even in the family
pocket borough, in the earlier elections, she was not
able get to all the seats.
Above all, it may be too little too late.
The party’s second
important decision was to
appoint Babbar. For him it is
light, camera and action. He
was with the VP Singh’s
Janata Dal and the
Samajwadi Party before he
joined the Congress in 2008.
In the 2009 by-poll, he
defeated Samajwadi Party
chief Mulayam Singh’s
daughter-in-law Dimple
Yadav. Babbar is a fifth term
MP and has a socialist image.
He belongs to the Sunar caste (OBC)
which is also a factor. The Congress
hopes to woo Brahmins, Muslims
and other backward classes.
Both Dikshit and Babbar do not
belong to any factions of the Uttar
Pradesh Congress. A light weight
politician in a caste-ridden society,
Babbar is expected to draw crowds.
The new team began in an impressive manner when the party organised a big reception from the airport
to PCC office on Sunday. Will this
enthusiasm continue and will the
party fight together? This is a million dollar question, and only time
will answer it.
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he media flags shrieking
headlines: Death, accident, terror, rape, murder, fraud and of course, verbal slanging matches. It does
not need a comment.
The world, however, in
most of its evolved zones,
moves forward. There is
jostling for space amongst
nations, and in many parts
of the world, old order is
crumbling and new ones
are emerging. China is out
in the front.
It is obvious that as it is the
case, Indians will choose what
captures their imagination.
However, there is a need to
take a look around. Few things
speak as clearly as a chronological narrative. The other
wheel of action, which can give
insights into this chronological narrative, is finance.
If you look at the last two
years, you will notice fundamental changes that have
overtaken the global
economic order.
In July 2014, the New
Development Bank (NDB),
also referred to as Brics
Bank, was born in Brazil, it
took years to reach this
agreement. In less than three
months, China signed a
Memorandum
of
Understanding with 24
counties in October 2014,
for the formation of the
Asian
Infrastructure
Investment Bank.
Interestingly, it was five
months after the unveiling of
the New Silk Road, and as
noted above, three months
after the agreement of NDB.
Soon, the One Belt One
Road project was on the roll. In
fact, amazingly, a phrase which
got into the lexicon was
Maritime Silk Road. In reality,
T
the play on the word apart, it
was a serious economic break
through and had significant
new security/strategic thought.
The strategic Maritime
dimension of One Belt One
Road included developing a
string of logistic bases in the
India Ocean region. Clearly,
the option of developing them
into Naval bases was open.
It is here that the ports
become important. At the
intersection
of
the
‘Maritime’ Silk Road and the
New Silk Road, were the
new strategic centers. The
origin was the Chinese landmass. The hub of not only
the new market, but the
new strategy was the ports.
The maritime component
of the string of pearls in the
India Ocean extends westwards to Europe through the
Red Sea and eastwards to the
South China Sea.
The economic development part assumes a huge
over capacity in Chinese manufacturing and construction
industries; almost ignoring the
returns to domestic investment. Clearly, low cost of funds
allowed low profits and high
economic risk investment in
foreign infrastructure.
Eye was on raw material
supplies, globally, and equally,
global was the search for the
market of Chinese goods.
Foreign exchange reserves were
intelligently used for small
capital outflows. Large foreign
exchange assets were used to
support exchange costs.
There was a unique symphony of Chinese finance,
with Chinese material and, of
course, Chinese labour.
While in India, people were
delivering talks on ‘disruptive
innovation’ to win awards,
E8=0HB78;60DC0<
China, as usual, was working
on the real world.
Instances have come to
attention where Chinese
prisoners were sent to live out
their rigorous imprisonment
spell, by working on constructions sites in Africa.
The One Belt One Road
was not just dealing with
vehicular traffic and movement of people and goods.
Parallel to it was rail road
traffic, oil pipelines and fiber
optic cables. The focus was
again on ports, airports and
production estates.
The territories through
which these passed required
the Governments of those
nations, in many cases, to
transfer those lands to
Chinese control. The script
was from Mozambique to
Zaire. Here was a new concept in economics of
resource highways which is
yet to surface into text
books. The world had
moved on and being daring
was the requirement.
The sea-change of economic theory rolled out on
the land and the sea shows
the deep reflection which
preceded this action. In times
to come, concepts of economic viability, sunken costs,
not to overlook the nature of
capital and investment,
would need re-definition.
The world will never be the
same again. Americanism,
unless it reinvents itself, may
well be on the road to be where
Britain finds itself today.
That India has finally
woken up is a good omen.
However, to operate, we will
have to recalibrate our focus
and relook at the priority areas
of national themes of
discussion and action.
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Indian companies
S500even
figure in the latest Fortune
list, released on Thursday,
of the world's biggest companies in terms of revenue.
Among Indian companies,
state-run Indian Oil Corp
(IOC) is ranked highest at
161st with revenues of $54.7
billion, although the other
public sector firm Oil and
Natural Gas Corp has moved
out of the rankings for 2016.
ONGC has been been
replaced by gems and jewellery firm Rajesh Exports,
which makes its Fortune 500
debut this year at 423rd position. Of the state-run firms,
IOC is followed by State Bank
of India (SBI), Bharat
Petroleum and Hindustan
Petroleum.
Mukesh Ambani-led
Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is
the highest ranked, though it
has slipped down to 215th
position, from 158 last year.
Tata Motors follows at number
226, up from 254th last year,
with new entrant Rajesh
Exports bringing up the rear.
Bharat Petroleum fell from
280th to 358th this year, while
Hindustan Petroleum is at
367th, compared to its 327th
place last year.
SBI has improved its position to 232, from being at 260
last year. The overall list was
topped by retail giant Walmart
with revenue of $482,130 million. The world's 500 largest
companies generated $27.6 trillion in revenues and $1.5 trillion
in profits in 2015, Fortune said.
Others in the global top 10
companies are State Grid (second, $329,601 million), China
National Petroleum (third,
$299,271 million), Sinopec
Group (4th, $294,344 million),
Royal Dutch Shell (5th,
$272,156 million), Exxon Mobil
(6th, $246,204 million),
Volkswagen (7th, $236,600
million), Toyota Motor (8th,
$236,592 million), Apple (9th,
$233,715 million) and BP
(10th, $225,982 million).
econd largest private sector
lender HDFC Bank on
SThursday
reported a 20.2 per
cent growth in net profit to
C3,239 crore for the three
months to June on the back of
a healthy rise in core net-interest income, even as the asset
quality marginally worsened.
The Aditya Puri-led bank,
known for retail lending focus
that has been helping it grow
much higher than the industry
and maintain industry-best
asset quality for long, has also
begun to face challenges its
peers have been suffering.
While gross non-performing loans rose to 1.04 per cent
from 0.95 per cent, its net NPA
remained flat at 0.3 per cent.
Accordingly, provisions rose
to C866.7 crore from C 728 crore
a year ago. But, deputy managing director Paresh Sukthankar
was quick to dismiss any concern on the asset quality front
saying the bank is ‘comfortable’
with the rise in bad loans.
“We are still very comfortable,” Sukthankar told reporters
adding “no serious large
chunky” corporate account had
contributed to the rise in the
bad loans. “Primary growth driver is the rise in net interest
income, which is 71 per cent of
our net revenue and grew 21.8
per cent. So, that clearly sets the
tone for the topline,”
Sukthankar said.
He said loan growth, which
grew nearly three times the
industry average at 23.2 per
cent, was driven by small-andmedium corporate borrowers
and individuals. Growth in
NIIs was driven by average
assets growth of 20.2 per cent
and a expansion in net interest
margins at 4.4 per cent from
4.3per cent. Net revenue rose 20
per cent to C10,588 crore.
Net interest margin for the
quarter stood at 4.4 per cent,
and Sukthankar guided for the
margins to remain in the 4-4.4
per cent range. Fees and commissions rose to C1,977.9 crore
from C1,713 crore, but foreign
exchange and derivatives revenue dipped to C314.5 crore
from C348 crore.
Total income rose to
C19,322.63 crore during the
quarter under review, up 17.08
as against C16,502.97 crore in
the same period last year. Net
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ndia has underlined the need
Imonetary
for a judicious mix of fiscal,
and structural policies by major economies to deal
with the heightened uncertainty on account of Brexit.
“Governments, Central
Banks and regulators have to mitigate the pressure of such vulnerabilities through judicious
mix of fiscal, monetary and
structural policies,” Finance
Minister Arun Jaitley said in his
speech at the meeting of the
Board of Governors of the New
Development Bank (NDB).
In his speech, read out by
Joint Secretary in the Finance
Ministry Raj Kumar, Jaitley said
that Britain's decision to exit from
the European Union, commonly termed as Brexit has further
heightened uncertainty, market
volatility and risk-averse behaviour. Kumar represented India at
the first annual general body and
board of governors meetings of
the NDB which took place in
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interest income grew 21.8 per
cent to C7,781.4 crore from
C6,388.8 crore last year, while
other income (non- interest
revenue) grew 14 per cent to
C2,806.6 crore. Other income
accounted for 26.5 per cent of
net revenue.
On asset quality deterioration, Sukthankar said: “There is
really isn't any one chunky
segment or a business which is
contributing to these 8-9 basis
points increase. And that the
higher provisions are largely to
ensure that we have a very
healthy coverage on our NPLs.”
It did not sell any bad
loans to asset reconstruction
companies in the quarter. Total
balance sheet size stood at
C755,100 crore compared to
C629,322 crore a year ago.
While total deposits rose
18.5 per cent to C573,755
crore, advances grew 23.2 per
cent to C470,622 crore.
Sukthankar said growth on the
retail side came from usual
products like personal loan,
credit card and home loan.
The bank saw its commercial
vehicle segment and auto loans
growth at at 18.8 per cent and
18.9 per cent, respectively.
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SHANGHAI: India has asked
New Development Bank (NDB)
to focus on making a strong
pipeline of projects in the infrastructure sector which can play
a catalytic role in promoting
inclusive growth.
“As a top-class financial
institution, it (NDB) must
develop a strong pipeline of
projects and respond in a fast
and flexible manner to further
the aspirations and interests of
its members,” Finance
Minister Arun Jaitley said at
the first Board of Governors
meeting of NDB here.
The speech was read by Joint
Secretary in the Finance Ministry
Raj Kumar, as Jaitley could not
attend the meeting because of the
ongoing Parliament session.
The board also decided that
the second annual meeting of
NDB will be held in India in
2017. “True to its nomenclature,
the 'New' Development Bank
has to focus on financing
demonstrable projects with
innovative approaches and
instruments for speedy creation of infrastructure,” he said.
He stressed that NDB
should focus on energy generation projects, both renewable and non renewable, which
utilise cost effective and clean
technologies, transport projects and urban sector infrastructure projects.
PTI
Shanghai on Wednesday, as
Jaitley could not attend it because
of the ongoing Parliament session
back home. Outlining the challenges, he said the current global economic context is far from
.RWDN0DKLQGUD%DQNUHFRUGV
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MUMBAI: Kotak Mahindra
Bank on Thursday reported
almost four-fold jump in standalone net profit to C 741.97 crore
in the first quarter ended on
June 30, 2016.
Net profit of
the bank was C189.78 crore in
the corresponding period last
fiscal. Total income increased to
C5,120.03 crore for the reporting period from C4,583.86 crore
in the year-ago period.
The bank had merged ING
Vysya Bank with itself in April
2015, but it started reporting
results including ING Vysya
only in subsequent quarters.
Advances grew by 17 per cent
to C120,765 crore whereas
deposits also rose by 20 per
cent to C140,028 crore during
the reporting period.
“The bank had to pay a
one-time cost of C300 crore and
C60 odd crore on other such
costs last year,” Kotak
Mahindra Bank president and
group chief financial officer
Jaimin Bhatt told reporters.
Giving a future outlook for
the bank, Bhatt said, “We want
to see growth in advances by 20
per cent, whereas the deposits
are likely to increase in the same
range of 20 per cent in the current fiscal.” The bank registered
CASA growth of 34 per cent in
the reporting period.
PTI
being robust and is marked by a
modest pickup in some advanced
economies from their low levels
of growth. He also said that
decline in growth in emerging
markets and developing
economies, increased financial
sector volatility, and, in general,
a downward revision of global
growth projections by the
International Monetary Fund
(IMF) also pose challenges.
IMF earlier this week has
cut global growth forecast for
2017 by 0.1 percentage point to
3.4 per cent citing ‘substantial’
increase in economic, political,
institutional uncertainty on
account of Brexit. Jaitley said the
structural problems of emerging markets and developing
economies (EMDE) continue to
affect their growth.
“The sluggish global trade
and low commodity prices
have also adversely affected
commodity-exporting
EMDEs, by aggravating their
corporate and other economic vulnerabilities,” he added.
DV_dViUZad^`deZ_R
^eYRdVRc_Z_XdhVZXY
MUMBAI: Market posted its worst
single-day fall in nearly one month
as the benchmark BSE Sensex
plunged by 205 points to 27,710.52
after earnings of HDFC Bank and
Kotak Mahindra Bank raised concerns over bad loans, while global cues remained largely muted.
Investors also turned cautious over passage of the longpending GST bill in Rajya Sabha
. Meanwhile, profit-booking by
retail investors dragged down
mid-cap and small-cap indices by
0.19 per cent and 0.14 per cent,
respectively. Shares of the second
largest private sector lender
HDFC Bank fell 0.30 per cent to
C1,228.45 despite reporting a
20.15 per cent increasein profit
to C3,238.91 crore.
PTI
UVR]d,e`dVV\UVeRZ]d
?C8Q =4F34;78
he Income Tax department
has identified 90 lakh high
T
value transactions without quoting PAN, the Finance Ministry
said on Thursday asking tax
evaders to own up and come
clean on such transactions. As
part of the scrutiny, I-T department will initially issue 7 lakh letters to those who have indulged
in such transactions seeking
their details.
The high-value transaction
trails were detected following the
department’s drive to bring to
book maximum amount of black
money during the one-time
compliance window closing on
September 30.
“The department has details
of about 90 lakh such transactions for the period 2009-10 to
2016-17,” a Finance Ministry
statement said. It said the tax
department, with the help of inhouse computer techniques,
grouped such non-PAN transactions and identified 7 lakh
high-risk clusters having around
14 lakh non-PAN transactions
and these are being ‘scrutinised’
by the tax department closely.
“The department will be
issuing letters to the parties of
these transactions requesting
them to provide their PAN number against these transactions,”
the Ministry said. The tax department has scrutinised the Annual
Information Returns (AIR) for
high value transactions which
have divulged cash deposits of
over C10 lakh in a savings bank
account, sale/purchase of
immovable property valued at
C30 lakh or more, and many of
these transactions do not have
PAN linked to it.
Further for convenience of
people to whom letters have been
issued, the department has developed a new functionality on e-
,QGLDQHHGVYHU\
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NEW DELHI: India needs a better tax regime by bringing in ‘very
drastic reforms’ as the share of
income tax is much less compared
to its Gross Domestic Product
(GDP), Supreme Court Judge
Justice A K Sikri
has said. Speaking
at the unveiling of
a book on tax
issues, Justice Sikri
noted that various
aspects need to
be considered including suggestions to abolish income tax altogether as in other tax havens.
“In the entire income generated in GDP and taxation forms,
how much is the share from
income tax and in comparison
with direct tax, it is much much
less,” he said at the release of the
book ‘Tax Dispute Resolution,
Challenges and opportunities for
India’, which has been penned by
advocate Mukesh Butani. PTI
filing portal wherein the such
entities can own up transactions
and provide structured response
electronically. The parties can
log-in to their e-filing website and
by quoting a Unique Transaction
Sequence Number provided in
the letter sent to them, can link
their transaction with their PAN
easily, the ministry said.
Revenue
Secretary
Hasmukh Adhia has been monitoring the progress of the ongoing four-month long Income
Declaration Scheme (IDS)
which opened on June 1. 25 per
cent of tax and penalty on
income declared is to be paid by
November, another 25 per cent
by March 2017, and the remaining by September 2017.
C3:^RjTfeZed\VjcReVdfae`&!SadeYZdWZdTR]
<037DBD30=B07>>Q =4F34;78
ith the hope of good monsoon
W
and rise in productivity in
almost all sectors across India, Reserve
Bank of India (RBI) will get some
room to cut key policy rates upto by
50 basis points (bps) this fiscal.
As the disinflationary pressures
would keep the central bank on an
easing path, inflation is expected to
remain below 5 per cent level by the
quarter ended March 31. Besides,
India Inc is still hopeful of further
rate reduction from the central
bank to boost investment in the
country, according to global financial services majors.
“Inflation in India is expected to
fall to 4.5 per cent by the quarter
ended March 31, and this in turn
would give RBI space to cut key policy rates by 50 basis points this fiscal,”
said a Morgan Stanley survey.
In line with the Morgan Stanley
report, another global brokerage
firm Bank of America Merrill Lynch
(BofA-ML) pointed out that the RBI
is expected to cut key interest rates
by 25 basis points in its policy
review meet on August 9, if good
rains damp pulse price inflation.
However, keeping the current status of the country's economy, economists believe the central bank may go
slow it its rate cut move. The new RBI
Governor, who would be appointed by
the Government any time soon, is
expected to face a series of challenges.
As he or she will be under tremendous
pressure from the Government, industry and bankers to go soft on interest
rates, he cannot be a hawkish on interest rates in the Indian economy.
As far as the inflation situation of
the country is concerned, BofA-ML
said in its research note, “With good
rains, pulses' sowing for the Kharif season has jumped 39 per cent above last
year's sowing. This should pull down
pulses prices by 20 per cent and cool
CPI inflation to 5.1 per cent by March.”
In the June policy review meet, RBI
Governor Raghuram Rajan kept interest rates intact, citing rising inflationary pressure, but hinted at a reduction
later this year if good monsoon helps
ease inflation. The report further noted
that inflation is expected to fall to 4.5
per cent by quarter ended March 2017.
Fall in inflation would be largely
because key drivers like commodity
prices, wage costs, fiscal consolidation,
and property prices remain at benign
levels and this in turn would give the
RBI space to cut policy rates by another up to 50 bps by quarter ended March
2017 and taking cumulative rate cuts
since January 2015 to 200 bps.
According to the BofA-ML report,
the RBI could slash policy rates for
three reasons - a good monsoon would
douse afflation, June core-CPI inflation
has softened and finally, high lending
rates continue to constrain May indus-
trial growth. "If good rains damp pulses prices inflation, as we expect, CPI
inflation should be well on track to the
RBI's 5 per cent March 2017 target," the
report added.
Meanwhile, the wholesale inflation
accelerated for the third straight month
in June hitting 1.62 per cent on costlier food and manufactured items. The
hardening of the WPI index follows an
uptick in retail inflation which hit a 22month high of 5.77 per cent in June.
While Morgan Stanley survey
further said, "We expect macro-stability conditions to be maintained as
the recovery is expected to be driven
by rise in productivity, with a low
risk of the economy overheating."
Meanwhile, the wholesale inflation accelerated for the third
straight month in June hitting 1.62
per cent on costlier food and manufactured items. The hardening of
the WPI index follows an uptick in
retail inflation, which hit a 22month high of 5.77 per cent in June,
dampening chances of a rate cut by
RBI at its next policy meet.
29/UDLVHVEQYLDGROODU
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?C8Q =4F34;78
NGC Videsh Ltd has raised
$1 billion through a US dolO
lar bonds issue to finance its
acquisition of 15 per cent stake
in Russia’s second biggest oil field
Vankor. OVL, the overseas arm
of state-owned Oil and Natural
Gas Corp (ONGC), raised $600
million through a 10-year bond
at a coupon rate of 3.75 per cent
and another $400 million
through a 5.5-year maturity
bond at an interest rate of 2.875
per cent, company's Director
(Finance) SP Garg said.
The proceeds of the issue
would go to refinance a $1.2
billion bridge loan the company had taken from a group
of foreign banks to make payments for the $1.268 billion
acquisition. “We will draw
down the bonds sometime
next week,” he said. The bridge
loan was taken in May this
year at a highly competitive
rate of about 1.3 per cent. The
interest rate is lower than
4.625 per cent OVL had paid
on a $2.23 billion 10-year
bond issue in July 2014 to
finance its Mozambique gas
field acquisition.
OVL had in September
last year struck a deal to buy
15 per cent in the Russia's
second biggest oil field of
Vankor from Rosneft for
$1.268 billion. OVL had
signed the agreement to buy
15 p er cent st ake in
Vankorneft, the developer of
the Vankor oil and gas condensate field in Turukhansky
dist r ic t of Krasnoya k
Territory in Russia. In March
this year, it signed an initial
agreement to buy an additional 11 per cent. That deal
is yet to close, he said.
Vankor, the largest field to
have been discovered and
brought into production in
Russia in the last 25 years, is
located in the northern part
of Eastern Siberia.
As of January 1, 2015, the
initial recoverable reserves in
the Vankor field are estimated at 476 million tonnes
of oil and condensate, and
173 billion cubic meters of
gas. The area of the Vankor
field is 447 square kilometers. Oil and gas condensate
production in 2015 was 22
million tonnes. The 15 per
cent stake will give OVL 3.3
million tonnes per annum
of oil production.
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o check black money menace, the Special Investigation
Team (SIT) has asked the
Enforcement Directorate (ED)
and Directorate of Revenue
Intelligence (DRI) to act
against companies claiming
duty drawback without repatriate export proceeds.
SIT has directed ED to
take action under FEMA with
respect to 216 companies with
respect to the period before
March 1, 2016 and 572 companies for the period after
March 1, 2016, for which each
such company had export proceeds pending for realisation for
more than C100 crore.
“SIT also directed
Directorate of Revenue
Intelligence (DRI) to check
from its database on how many
companies have claimed duty
drawback but have failed to
bring export proceeds, take
necessary action against them as
per law,” the Finance Ministry
said in a statement. The SIT,
which was set up by the
Government to look into issues
T
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relating to black money, also
asked RBI to immediately develop an institutional mechanism
and IT system to immediately
red flag those cases where
exports have been outstanding
in violation of FEMA guidelines.
Besides, RBI has also been
asked to share complete data
with Enforcement Directorate
and DRI on a monthly basis.
As per RBI regulations, all
exporters have to bring foreign
exchange into the country as
export proceeds within one year
of the date of exports.
The data on whether a particular exporter has brought
export proceeds into the country is maintained by RBI. Not
bringing export proceeds is a
violation of Foreign Exchange
Management Act (FEMA) as it
amounts to illicitly parking
funds abroad. Finance Ministry
further said exporters can claim
duty drawback on exports
made with respect to taxes
paid on inputs to exports.
“Any exporter can claim
duty drawback only if the
exporter has brought export
proceeds into the country,” it
added. The Ministry further
said it is important for DRI to
have this data so that they can
cross-check the data and see if
any exporter who has not
brought in export proceeds has
claimed duty drawback or not.
“The country thus loses on
two counts first by not getting
jca^l
proceeds of exports for exports
made and secondly wrongful
claim of duty drawback,” it said.
It said the SIT had asked RBI
to give details of exports made
where exports proceeds were
yet to be utilised even after a period of more than one year. In
response, RBI provided data on
export outstanding for shipping
bills prior to March 1, 2014
pending for more than one year
as well as data on export outstanding for shipping bills on or
after March 1, 2014 pending for
more than one year.
According to the Finance
Ministry statement, the data
was reviewed at the SIT meeting
held on July 12-13, 2016. "From
the data provided by RBI, it
emerged that huge amount of
export proceeds have not been
realized,” it noted. SIT directed
that RBI may immediately develop an institutional mechanism
and IT system to not only immediately red flag those cases where
exports have been outstanding in
violation of FEMA guidelines but
share the complete data with
Enforcement Directorate and
DRI on a monthly basis.
MUMBAI:Digitisation in industrial
sector is set to grow to 65 per cent
in the next 5 years as it is a priority
for most CEOs in the industry, as
per the PwC report. “Industrial leaders are digitising essential functions
within their internal vertical operation processes and are driving both
revenue growth and operational efficiencies,” the report said.
PTI
4?5>c^R^]bXSTa
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NEW DELHI: Retirement fund
body EPFO is likely to consider a
proposal to increase proportion of
its investments in exchange traded
funds (ETFs) in its trustees’ meet
on July 26. “The proposal to
increase quantum of investments
in exchange traded funds is likely
to come up in the the meeting of
the Central Board of Trustees
(CBT) of the EPFO on July 26,” a
senior official said.
It , at present, is investing 5 per
cent of investible deposits in ETFs
despite opposition by labour unions.
“Labour Minister Bandaru
Dattatreya has already indicated earlier that EPFO will enhance the proportion of its investments in ETFs
which will eventually be increased
to 12 per cent of investible deposits
every year,” the official said. PNS
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NEW DELHI: FMCG major
ITC on Thursday reported an
over 10 per cent rise in its
standalone net profit at
C2,384.67 crore for the AprilJune quarter in spite of a challenging operating environment
amid continued pressure on
legal cigarette industry.
The company had posted a
net profit of C2,166 crore in the
corresponding quarter of
FY2015-16. The Kolkata-based
company also reported an
increase of 8.28 per cent in net
sales to C13,156.68 crore for the
quarter under review as against
C12,150.48 crore a year earlier,
ITC said in a BSE filing.
“The company delivered
steady performance during the
quarter despite a challenging
operating environment marked
by continuing pressure on legal
cigarette industry volumes and
persistently sluggish demand
conditions prevailing in the
FMCG industry,” it said.
However, operating conditions in hotels and paperboards, paper and packaging
segment remained subdued,
the FMCG giant said. ITC’s
overall expenses during the
quarter moved up 8.11 per cent
to C9,988 crore as against
C9,238 crore in the corresponding period of 2015-16.
Revenue from the total
FMCG business including cigarettes increased 7.11 per cent
to C10,615.75 crore from
C9,910.93 crore in the corresponding quarter a year ago.
During the quarter, revenue
from cigarettes increased 6.42
per cent to C8,230.60 crore
from C7,733.43 crore in the
year-ago period.
“Despite the challenging
operating environment, the
company continues to consol-
idate its market leadership
through relentless focus on
delivering world-class products, continuous innovation
and value addition and best-inclass execution,” ITC said.
Revenue from FMCGOthers segment was up 9.53
per cent to C2,385.15 crore during the April-June quarter as
against C2,177.50 crore in the
year-ago period as most categories witnessed margin expansion driven by enhanced scale
of operations and product mix
enrichment.
“Segment results recorded
improvement in comparison to
the corresponding period in the
previous year despite higher
investment in brand building,
consumer and trade promotion
activities and gestation costs
relating to new categories, viz
juices, dairy, gums and health and
hygiene segment,” it said. PTI
,QGLDXQOLNHO\WRVHHPDQ\QHZFLWLHVVD\V'HEUR\
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ountry is unlikely to see
many greenfield or priC
vately developed cities in the
future as most of the efforts
would be on revamping existing urban areas, said NITI
Aayog Member Bibek Debroy.
“I think rare will be the case
where India will have completely private funded cities.
That is unlikely to happen, nor
there is going to be a case
where we will have completely
greenfield cities,” Debroy said
addressing the inaugural session
of a conference here. “There
may be a few, but by and large
we are talking about brownfield
9BF4]TaVhThTbC$Ra
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MUMBAI: JSW Energ y,
which on Thursday reported
18.7 per cent increase in consolidated net income at
C366.53 crore for the June
quarter, is planning to acquire
around C5,000 crore worth of
stressed assets.
“We have been evaluating
interesting opportunities for
inorganic growth. With significant assets in the sector
being stressed, a meaningful
engagement with the lenders
will be essential to evaluate
and conclude deals.
“We are planning to
acquire nearly C4,000-5,000
crore worth of assets in the
future,”
JSW
Energ y
Chairman Sajjan Jindal told
reporters on the sidelines of
9D3A!^Ude`! d_C"#(%Sb
the company’s AGM. The
company has acquired assets
worth C12,000-13,000 crore in
the last 2-3 years and it is currently evaluating 8-9 projects,
he added.
JSW Energy, which has
bought two hydel power projects of the debt-ridden
Jaiprakash Power Ventures in
Himachal Pradesh, including
the 300-mw Baspa-II and
1,091-mw Karcham Wangtoo,
for C9,700 crore, is looking at
expanding its hydel portfolio
through acquisitions.
“Currently, our focus will
be on growing our hydel portfolio. We will also consider
opportunities in the wind and
solar sector, but that will be at
a later stage,” he said. PTI
cities,” he added. Debroy was of
the view that almost half of the
increase in urbanisation
between 2001 and 2011, is in
census towns, which raises governance problems of
their own.
“Urbanisation in
India was somewhat
chaotic. It has not been
planned very well. Most
of the times when we
complain about the
nature of urbanisation,
about the inefficient use of
resources, those are fundamentally complaints about the
bad management of the urbanisation,” he said. Talking about
public private partnership, he
said: “I hate the expression PPP.
Therefore it has to pinned down
phrase. Too many people do too
many things when they use
PPP.” Elaborating he said: “For
the most part, we are
not really talking
about completely privately developed
cities.
I am highlighting
this because I have
noticed that Paul
Romer who is soon
to become Chief Economist of
the World Bank and much of
the Romer’s work is on propagating not just as an academic,
but also commercially the idea
of completely privately devel-
oped cities with as far as I know
with dubious success and not
academic but commercial.”
Meanwhile, NITI Aayog
is organising a two-day workshop on improving urban
infrastructure through best
practices in public financing on
July 21-22. The workshop will
focus on areas such as PPP
process -- key success factors
from government perspective,
PPP models and payment
mechanisms, planning and
preparation for PPP projects.
The workshop will be attended by municipal commissioners of TN, Andhra Pradesh,
Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi,
Uttar Pradesh and Assam.
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ealing a setback to unity
efforts, Senator Ted Cruz
shocked the Republican convention on Wednesday night by
refusing to endorse party nominee Donald Trump and
instead calling for a “conscience vote” on November 8,
when America will elect its
45th President.
The Texas Senator at once
earned the wrath of a capacity
crowd at the convention centre
in Cleveland that booed him
off the stage as he ended his
speech, disregarding continuous chants to endorse Trump.
Cruz’s own supporters, much
smaller in number, kept cheering him though.
“Wow, Ted Cruz got booed
off the stage, didn’t honor the
pledge,” Trump tweeted a little
later, adding: “I saw his speech
D
two hours early but let him
speak anyway. No big deal!” A
Cruz aide maintained that the
Senator had told Trump two
days ago that he won’t be
endorsing.
Trump had personally
invited Cruz to speak at the convention on the mistaken belief
that he would forget all the nasty
exchanges that the two had
traded during an exceptionally
bitter primary battle.
In defence of his failure to
endorse Trump, Cruz asserted
at a news conference on
Thursday morning that he has
taken a principled position on
the subject, adding he would be
listening to how Trump and his
campaign conduct themselves
in the run-up to the election
before taking his best decision
about his own vote.
At the convention, Cruz
began by congratulating on
winning the nomination,
before going on to say: “Like
each of you, I want to see the
principles that our party
believes prevail in November.”
All through the primary
battle, Cruz, a hardcore conservative enjoying the backing
of the Tea Party fringe, had
repeatedly questioned Trump’s
conservative credentials.
Towards the end of his
otherwise well-constructed
speech, Cruz said, “Don’t stay
home in November.” That
raised expectations of an
endorsement, but Cruz instead
merely said: “Stand and speak
and vote your conscience, vote
for candidates up and down the
ticket who you trust to defend
our freedom and to be faithful
to the Constitution.”
That prompted sections of
the audience to break into fullthroated chants of “Endorse
Trump!” — only to be ignored
by Cruz, who concluded his
address and walked away amid
chaotic scenes on the convention floor.
Former House Speaker
Newt Gingrich who spoke next
commented that Cruz’s call to
vote according to one’s conscience need not be viewed as
anti-Trump since it is the
Trump-Pence ticket alone, and
not Hillary Clinton, who will be
governing according to the
Constitution.
The headline speaker of the
evening was to be Vice
Presidential nominee Mike
Pence, who did deliver an
inspiring speech, making a
spirited push for Trump’s candidacy. But his address clearly
got upstaged by that of Cruz.
Pence sought to dismiss the
Democrats as the party of status quo, while a Republican
administration under Trump
will bring real change to
Washington.
In line with his party’s
assertion that a Hillary Clinton
administration will really represent a third term of Barack
Obama, Pence said: “Americans
can elect someone who literally personifies the failed establishment in Washington, DC or
we can choose a leader who will
fight every day to make
America great again. It’s change
versus status quo.”
“People in both parties are
restless for change, ready to
break free of old patterns in
Washington,” Pence said,
remarking, “My fellow
Republicans, when Donald
Trump becomes president of
the United States of America,
the change will be huge.”
Attacking Clinton’s record
as Secretary of State, Pence
charged, “It was Hillary Clinton
who helped undo all the gains
of the troop surge, a staggering
failure of judgement that set
ISIS on the loose. It was Hillary
Clinton who instigated the
President’s disastrous agreement with the radical mullahs
in Iran. And it was Hillary
Clinton who left Americans in
harm’s way in Benghazi.”
In a lighter vein, contrasting himself with Trump, Pence,
as someone known for his
calm and sober disposition,
remarked: “He’s a man known
for his large personality, his
colourful style, and his charisma — and, well, I guess he was
looking for someone to balance
the ticket.”
Beirut: At least 51 civilians,
including 15 children, were
killed in bombardment of several rebel-held areas across
Syria on Thursday, the Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights
monitor said. The group said at
least 13 people, including three
children, were killed in
Government airstrikes and
shelling on the Eastern Ghouta
area outside the capital
Damascus.
Among the areas targeted
was Douma, where the central
market was hit, an AFP photographer said. Government
bombardment also hit two
neighbourhoods of the rebelheld east of Aleppo city, where
15 people were killed, among
them six children, the
Observatory said.
Opposition-held neighbourhoods of Aleppo have
been effectively under siege for
the past two weeks, after
Government forces advanced
to within firing range of the
only remaining supply route
into the east of the city. AFP
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urkish President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan has declared
a three-month state of emergency, vowing to hunt down the
“terrorist” group behind last
week’s bloody coup attempt. He
has accused followers of his
arch-enemy, US-based cleric
Fethullah Gulen, of being behind
the coup, which has led to a wave
of some 50,000 arrests and sackings of suspected conspirators.
The state of emergency
was needed “in order to
remove swiftly all the elements
of the terrorist organisation
involved in the coup attempt,”
Erdogan said at the presidential palace in Ankara.
Although the special measure vastly increases state security powers, Erdogan vowed
there would be “no compromise
on democracy”. The announcement followed long meetings of
Turkey’s national security council and cabinet chaired by
Erdogan at the presidential
palace. A state of emergency
gives the Government extra
powers to restrict freedom of
movement, said an official,
adding that it would not restrict
financial or commercial activities as “international law sets
limits of restrictions”.
Turkey in 2002 lifted its last
state of emergency, which had
been imposed in provinces in
the southeast for the fight against
Kurdish militants in 1987.
Article 120 of the constitution
allows a state of emergency to be
imposed “at a time of serious
deterioration of public order
because of acts of violence.”
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Istanbul: Turkey on Thursday
said it would suspend the
European Convention on
Human Rights during a state of
emergency it declared to pursue the plotters of last week’s
failed coup.
“Turkey will suspend the
European Convention on
Human Rights insofar as it does
not conflict with its international
obligations,” Deputy Prime
Minister Numan Kurtulmus
was quoted as saying by the
State-run Anadolu news agency.
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eeping a close watch on
reported deployment of
K
battle tanks in Ladakh by the
Indian Army, China on
Thursday said the two countries should abide by pacts to
maintain peace in border
areas even as its media warned
that the move may affect
flow of Chinese investments
into India.
“There have been a series
of significant agreements and
consensus reached between
China and India on upholding
stability of the border area,”
Chinese Foreign Ministry
Spokesman Lu Kang said,
reacting to reports of deployment of T-72 tanks in the
Ladakh sector.
“The two countries should
abide by relevant agreements
and consensus, work in concert
to maintain peace and tranquillity of the border area and
create a favourable environment for improving bilateral
mutual trust and bolstering
the proper settlement of the
boundary question,” he told
PTI in a written response to a
question on the reported
deployment.
“The China-India border
area has long been peaceful and
stable. The two countries are
committed to resolving
territorial disputes peacefully
through
negotiation,
and agree to jointly manage
disputes and maintain peace
and tranquillity of the border
area pending the final settlement of the boundary question,” he said.
A=2AR\ec``ad
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Beijing: Chinese and
Pakistan border troops have
for the first time launched
joint patrolling of the border
connecting PoK with
Xinjiang province amid
reports that over 100 Uighurs
have fled the restive region to
join ISIS.
The state media reported
about the joint patrol even as
Chinese President Xi Jinping
asked the Chinese Muslims to
practice their religion ‘as
part of Chinese society and
direction’.
%;>3^Z]ZeR_ed 6LNKELNHUVULGH
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Dhaka: Four Islamist militants
of the banned homegrown
JMB group, including its top
regional head, were arrested
on Thursday, who authorities
said were responsible for
Bangladesh’s worst terror attack
on a cafe in which 22 people,
mostly foreigners, were killed.
The Rapid Action Battalion
(RAB) raided a hideout of militant outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen
Bangladesh (JMB) in Gazipur’s
Tongi this morning and arrested the four militants.
Mahmudul Hassan Tanvir,
the ‘Amir’ of the group’s southern region was among the
arrested persons, the RAB
spokesperson said. The other
three have been identified as
Ashiqul Akbar Abesh, Najmus
Shakib and Rahmatullah Shuvo.
RAB’s media wing Director
Mufti Mahmud Khan said a
huge quantity of weapons,
ammunition and bomb-making
material have been recovered
from the house. Khan said the
RAB swung into action after
receiving a tip-off that the four
were present in a building.
FDQFHUFKDULW\
Toronto: A group of big-hearted Sikh bikers in Canada have
ridden a total of 12,000 kilometres for a noble cause, raising over 60,000 dollars for a
Cancer charity.
Twenty-four members of
the Sikh Motorcycle Club
rolled into Surrey, Canada,
two weeks after departing for
their journey to raise awareness
about the devastating diseases.
On 13 bikes, the members
rode a total of 12,000 kilometres — about 1,200 per day —
through British Columbia,
Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario
and Quebec, before turning
around in Montreal. They completed their tour on Sunday.
More than 70 individuals
and groups made donations to
support their initiative, raising
a total of 61,194 dollars for the
cancer society.
The money will go toward
the organisation’s efforts to
fund research, prevention initiatives and assist those fighting cancer.
PTI
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xpected. A Manish Malhotra show
will be starry, opulent, sheer,
blingy, swishy and grand with the
hype and hoopla of topline Bollywood
presence. Expected. A dishy Fawad
Khan will have women hooting for him
with full gusto, overlooking his wearables and taken in by his bearded
sobriety and gait (The guy loved
all the attention and lapped it
up with an elegant smile, if a
smile could be called that).
Expected. Deepika Padukone
beating all the tiredness of her
overseas shoots and becoming
the showstopper in a red velvet
lehenga, completely enmeshed
in badla work across a
never-ending trail and
a cropped choli
blouse, a cocktail
bride look that has
been around for a
long time but looking scorching simply because it is on
a different diva this
time.
That’s the
thing
about
designer Manish
Malhotra, who
commemorated
11 years in the
industry with a
50-piece rollout
of his line at the
opening night of
the FDCI India
Couture Week.
It’s expected he
won’t cross the
predictable and
familiar, no matter
what a couture show
implies. It is perhaps okay for a
couturist of his
standing to retain
a few signature
accents but does
that mean one
should overdo a template so that couture after
couture season, the designs
look assembly line? The
Persian Story may have
been a sales pitch but the
warm colour palette, the
royal gush, embellished
excesses, architectural
motifs, the indulgent
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:DB70= <8CA0
ercedes-Benz has completely
overhauled their Sports Utility
M
Vehicle line in the past two years; so
from having just the ML and GL class
cars just a couple of years ago, which
played in larger segments, Mercedes
now has the GLA, GLC, GLE and GLS
class SUVs. This is in addition to their
G-Class off-roader, which in India is
available as the utterly bonkers G63
AMG. The other cars in the lineup
reveal they are based on their third letter which are the A-Class, C-Class, EClass and S-Class respectively. And
that is a good way of estimating their
sizes.
The GLC is the latest entrant to
this line-up and was launched by
Mercedes a little over two months ago.
The GLC is the direct competitor to
the successful Audi Q5 and BMW X3
from their German rivals as well as the
Discovery Sport from Land Rover.
Mercedes did not have a player in this
segment, the old ML class was always
a bit bigger and more expensive. That
is because Mercedes-Benz did not have
a right-hand drive version of the
older GLK class car which the new
GLC replaces.
Well, now Mercedes-Benz has the
GLC and equipped it with right-hand
drive. So how is the car?
The first thing is seeing the car,
and remember what we said a couple
of paragraphs ago, that you can reveal
the parentage of each Mercedes SUV
platform from the third letter of their
name. Well, the GLC looks like the
buffed-up teenage child of the C-Class.
While the C-Class is a relatively
new platform as well, it exudes a certain class, while the GLC whose lines
are very subtle does not quite do.
Indeed, despite the huge 18-inch
wheels and the AMG-inspired rearend, featuring dual exhausts, the GLC
does have the sense of looking bit like
a raised estate version. Which is really not fair on the C-Class estate,
which while not available in India (and
unlikely to ever be) is a lovely looking
car. That does not mean that the GLC
is a bad-looking car, but looking at
other vehicles in the segment, while
the current Audi Q5 is positively
dated, the BMW X3 and
Discovery Sport certainly have more of a
SUV “feel” to them.
But there is a positive
in sharing looks with the C-Class, that
is in the interiors. The C-Class definitely feels lovely inside and the GLC
220d that we were driving felt nice
inside. While Mercedes-Benz do need
to up the game when it comes to their
COMAND multimedia interface, the
Virtual Cockpit system on new Audis
are clearly miles ahead of any competition. The overall fit and finish of the
GLC’s interiors are superb. There is a
level of luxury and comfort you sense
in this car, maybe the wood finish
inspires that.
And then there is the outstanding
Burmeister sound system on these initial GLC units which have been
brought as fully-imported cars. This
system, which also features on several other Mercedes cars (and from the
other Stuttgart carmaker, Porsche)
make you forget the long journeys
because the playback is amazingly
good, you really need to drive with the
music on. Seriously, if you buy a
Mercedes, make sure it has this sound
system, and media is simply plug-andplay. Although it is a pity that
Mercedes has decided against licensing either Apple CarPlay or Android
Auto for India (America gets CarPlay).
And there is the one aspect that
the GLC does not share with the CClass, that is size. The GLC has a
wheelbase extended by 113mm, which
means that the rear seats are extremely comfortable. And this extended
wheelbase also bequeaths the GLC a
large luggage area. But therein lies the
rub, as the luggage compartment is
dominated by a space-saving spare
wheel. The GLC is not the only new
car to suffer this problem, other
Mercedes cars as well as the new Q7
have this issue as well. Driving without the spare wheel is an option,
because one really can’t place a very
heavy load on it but the question is
would you do something like that on
a long drive out of town?
How does the GLC drive? Well the
diesel version we drove, the 220d has
a 2143cc diesel engine which produces
170 metric horsepower. That is down
on both the 2-litre variants of the Audi
Q5 and BMW X3, but still more than
enough for this car to ram through the
air and get a decent amount of speed
if you push it. Indeed, much like the
C-Class, the GLC is designed around
the driver. While this is a spacious car,
the best place to be is behind the
wheel. The car is very responsive to
steering inputs and rides really well.
There is some roll at high speed, but
that is par for the course given the softer set-up due to Indian roads.
The really interesting thing about
the GLC is the 9-speed G-TRONIC
automatic gears that this car has.
Automatic gearboxes have been adding
gears over the past few years, the
Volkswagen Polo and Vento are available with a seven-speed gearbox. The
logic is that more gears leads to better fuel-economy because you always
have the right gear for the conditions
you find yourself. Given that we managed to send man to the moon with a
tenth of the computing power of
something like the GLC, you know
that that the computer’s circuits are
taking every input from each of the
myriads of sensors to calculate the
right gear. But there is a part of me that
still thinks that 9-gears is two gears too
many, given that I learned driving on
a simple manual four-gear Maruti 800.
There is however one issue with
the diesel 220d variant of the GLC, that
is that it has an engine that exceeds the
2000cc limit set by the Supreme
Court. You can get the car registered
outside the NCR but this is not a problem that either the Audi or BMW face,
both their engines being under the
limit. The GLC only has one fully
loaded trim, which, looking at
Mumbai prices, at a tad above Rs. 56.5
lakhs, costs more or less the same as
similarly equipped versions of the Q5
and X3. That said, do keep in mind
that Audi is expected to replace the Q5
within the next year.
Of course, the recent National
Green Tribunal ruling deregistering
diesel cars above ten years old in the
national capital will likely push sales
toward petrol engine options. The
Mercedes GLC has a petrol option
unlike its rivals; the GLC 300 has a
240-horsepower motor and if you
want such a car in Delhi, the only variant you can buy. Equipment levels and
features are the same, and while you
will pay a price in fuel costs, your car
won’t be useless after a decade. Unless
of course someone challenges the
NGT soon.
hand-woven gold embroidery adorning
sheer and velvet fabrics, the abundance of maroon and red are all what
we have seen before. One may
argue that in India couture
rarely steps out of the bridalfestive zone but if our
artistes are not going to
break the mould, who will?
We wish Manish, given
his standing, could risk stepping out of the comfort zone
a bit more. For there were
indeed some smart
innovations in his
bouquet, tucked
away between the
folds
of
his
largesse.
And
despite Fawad
Khan making godspeed with his
fluid palazzo pants
and black achkan, it
was the other men
who had the better
overlays. We particularly liked the
red and fawncoloured check
combos the boys
strutted out in,
sometimes in throws
and lapels. The double lapel, some of
them contrasting, on
short galabandhs was
another smart flourish. The
men’s solids were interesting
with just the right dash of
embellishment just as the
tonal ruffled gown was worn
by only one female model.
The wine brocade jacket, cigarette pants teamed with a
slanted Persian cap would
make for a stylish evening
statement by many contemporary women. We also wish
we had more interpretations of the sheer pastel
combos. This understated
Manish needed a little bit
more nudge and a push.
Richness, resplendance and
detailing are always the
designer’s forte. No
doubt about that. But
he must beat what we
expect
of
him.
Particularly on the
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e read tales of valour in Kargil in books
or archived news reports. But Gopal
W
Namjoshi has depicted them in the form of
a sculpture. A muralist, artist and a designer, his installations are thought-provoking yet
aesthetically beautiful and have been adaptive in including sustainable material. He has
mounted them in public spheres for creating awareness and engagement.
This time he has played with bullet shells,
especially cast for his work, Homage to Kargil
War Heroes, displayed at Central Atrium of
Select City Walk. “A bullet can kill the person but not the spirit of the soldier. Aatma
ko koi goli nahi maar sakta. It is written in
Mahabharata too. Keeping this in mind, I
constructed a soldier riddled with bullets but
taut in spirit,” said Namjoshi, explaining the
theme. With a team of six assistants, he completed the installation, weighing 670 kg, in
30 days. Around 80,000 bullets were used to
create a huge figure. “A soldier needs to have
a larger image in society,” added the artist.
“From the little exposure to the Army, I
know how war is not the only challenge soldiers face. Rather it’s the daily encounters
with terrorists that claim more lives. I think
that the Army is doing its mandated job.
People don’t realise its hardships. Yet the
Army is mostly embroiled in controversies
because of political failure. Successive governments have been putting the Army in a
situation which needs diplomatic negotiation.
Army is not doing the wrong thing but whatever is decided on the political front is
wrong,” Namjoshi exclaimed. “This art
installation signifies the spirit of those loyal
volunteers of India which is and will remain
larger and higher,” he concluded.
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ust next to Tabula Café but far pokier, Arriba enjoys its cozy little
place with a few seats outside and
the rest hidden in comfy confines
complimenting murals adorning the
white walls. It does manage to hold all
the necessities even with a substantial
lack of space and the décor doesn’t
scream attention. The menu does or
so it feels. With droll fancies of live
guacamole bar to raging fajitas, the
menu attempts to leave an impression
but not a lasting one.
We decided to check out the live guacamole bar for we did have inkling
about it. And we were right. It was
nothing more than a heckled chef
making way to our table all the way
from his scurry kitchen only to mix
up our avocado. Nice flighty spectacle but not impressive enough. Not
undermining his efforts but is an act
so basic worth all the theatrics? Take
your pick. And oh yes by the end of
the drill, guacamole turned out to be
very boggy, wonder where did all the
moisture come from especially when
we didn’t ask for lime.
Anyway next up were some good old
mushrooms roasted in tequila with
white wine on a bed of truffle scented cubes of potatoes which were a
good precursor to the fiery journey
ahead. But before the spices could
make us red, we had lovely panuchos
topped with zucchini and squash
mixed with some feta. For the drinks,
it was hands down the margaritas
which we went for. What else do you
expect at a place which has tequila
flowing through; it’s not called tequileria for nothing. We started with the
first tipple of the evening — chilli lime
mango margarita which was exactly
the opposite of what it implied and
why we went for it. We couldn’t get
any heat of the chillies. It was as if we
were served a watered down version
of a mango fizz. Nonetheless without
losing much hope we aimed for a
spicier drink and we did get it in yet
J
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Q On a single layer of nori sheet place enough sushi rice to cover
Q Flip the nori sheet so that the rice is facing down
Q Place a piece of cajun tuna and cucumber on top of the nori
sheet
cucumber
Q Once the roll has a nice square shape, place the spicy hamachi
on the top side of the roll
Q Garnish with tosaka mix and onion rings
Pour spicy ponzu aioli tableside
Q Spicy Ponzu Aioli is a mixture of 100g QP Mayo, 30g Ponzu,
5g
Rayu
and
3g
Togarashi,
Shichimi.
Q Tosaka Mix is a mix of finely chopped Tosaka, Red, Tosaka,
Green 3and Tosaka, White.
=468<0
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Q Chicken, Thigh (Bite size)
Q Scallion (Same size as the chicken)
Q Salt
Q Pepper, white (Ground)
Q Teriyaki
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another margarita, this time laden
with pineapple, ginger and jalapenos.
This one made us feel that we were
after all, in a Mexican set 2 up with
enough kicks to the palate that had us
going for sips of water.
Moving on we ordered some enchiladas stuffed with spinach, corn and
cheddar. This was too cheesy for us
but did the works. For the mains, we
went for chilei rellenos in walnut
sauce.
The chillies were stuffed with the
usual bell peppers and the crust like
any other batter fry. The rice had the
perfect edge and the right amount of
heat coming through. To calm down
the heat, we ordered delightful frozen
coconut margarita faring well on our
expectations.
To wrap it up all it was time we tasted some sweet goodness. How can you
not think of having tres leches at a
Mexican haunt? Predictable, fine but
we had to go for it anyway. And good
we did. Their tres lech came in as twee
little cupcakes and in three different
toppings. We loved the blueberry
ones, of course. For some more sweetness or should we say tartness, there
was some lime and tequila cheesecake
served with avocado cream. More
than being acerbic, this one turned out
to be creamier probably because of
avocado. Arriba won’t throw volleys
of surprises at you but its quaint
charm will sure manage to appeal.
into bite size portions
Q Skewer the chicken and the scallion
(Chicken – Scallion
– Q Chicken –
Scallion – Chicken)
Q Season with salt
and ground white
pepper
Q Place on a hot grill and cook until it turns from pink to white
Q (Approx. 6 to 8 minutes depending on the size and how hot
the grill is)
Q Before removing from the grill, baste the chicken and scallions with teriyaki sauce
Q For Teriyaki take 100g Stock, Chicken, 10 g Sauce, Soy, 8g Sugar,
5g Mirin and 5 g sake. Combine all ingredients into a sauce pot
and bring to a boil and simmer. Continue to simmer until the
sauce has reduce to about half.
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he second birthday party of
Hauz Khas Social, hosted by
T
Riyaaz Amlani, CEO; MD,
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Q Roll the nori sheet over to completely cover the cajun tuna and
ili-6 happens to be the ultimate hub for all food lovers.
D
The famed lane has inspired chefs
across the country to reinvent
some of the renowned street delicacies for as long as we know.
Level 2 at Radisson Blue, Paschim
Vihar, did the same with their
new street food festival Zaika Dili
6 ka. The ambience took us to the
lanes of old city. With colourful
kites and posters of some classic
movies on the walls, you get that
old world feeling. What we found
interesting was they also had a
cutting chai counter for that
authentic street vibe. The counter
had jars of in-house made rusks,
matthi and more along with other
live counters which have been
done nicely including pudina
chaas and kesari lassi.
We took to the streets with
the famous dili-6 golgappe which
were delightful. We were then
served kajju matar makhana
where the makhana were mixed
well with curd, coriander mint
and sweet chutney which was
quite soggy. We didn’t even make
an attempt to go for another
after having a bite. However, the
next dish, aloo tikki totally made
up for it. It was crispy, delicious
and tasted just like the ones you
get in Chandni Chowk. Another
interesting dish was the paneer
anda tiki. The fried paneer was
shaped like an egg with saffron in
the centre which made it look like
yolk. Even though the paneer was
a little over fried, it turned out
pleasant on the palate.
For the mains, we had tawa
ka gosht with parantha. The mutton was succulent and had a lot
of flavour to it. It was one of the
best dishes that were served to us
and this is one of the reasons why
F70CH>D=443
Q Nori, Yaki
Q Rice, Sushi
Q Tuna, Cajun
Q Cucumber
Q Onion rings
Q Spicy hamachi
Q Spicy ponzu aioli
Q Tosaka mix
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they should add more options in
their menu for the non vegetarians. We also tried some flavourful paneer parantha served with
achaar. The stuffing should have
been more.
To end our journey on a
sweet note, we had gulab jamun,
malpua and rabri. Rabri was light
as air which made us want to have
more of it. Malpua and rabri complemented each other. However,
the highlight of the dessert was
gulab jamun which was extremely soft and lip-smacking. It was
definitely the perfect way to end
our meal. The only downside was
the lack of options for the nonvegetarians. The chefs could have
had the carnivores in their minds
while deciding on the spread
which could have given the buffet a wider variety.
All in all it was a throwback
of all things good and a memory
down the lane which melted us
within. The festival is on till July
31.
Impresario Handmade Restaurants,
was attended by actor Parvin Dabas,
designer Nida Mahmood, model
Hasleen Kaur, comedian Papa CJ
and Manish Panika. The party saw
DJs Devang and Groit take the
energy to another level with their
music and set the tone for the night.
Their groovy and dance-floor
friendly music was electric and
energetic. The free flowing drinks
and Social’s signatures like Paos,
Baos, China Boxes and Awesamosas
made sure it was a night to remember. “Social has blurred the lines
between work and play to create the
second place that modern India
deserves. In each avatar across the
country, the brand has built and fostered a community of creative individuals, entrepreneurs and free
thinkers,” said Riyaaz Amlani, CEO
Managing Director, Impresario
Handmade Restaurants.
Thanking Social’s patrons, he
added, “The love that we’ve
received in the last two years is
unwatchable and truly gratifying.
Interestingly, we are now at a stage
where our relationship with the
community in Hauz Khas is mutually inspiring and that, for Social, is
immensely exciting.”
Cost for two people: C1,200
(approx.) with alcohol. A pint of
beer: (approx) C90
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ussia lost its appeal Thursday
against the Olympic ban on its
track and field athletes, a decision
which could add pressure on the IOC
to exclude the country entirely from
next month’s games in Rio de Janeiro.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport
rejected the appeal of 68 Russian athletes seeking to overturn the ban
imposed by the IAAF following allegations of state-sponsored doping and
cover-ups.
“Today’s judgment has created a
level playing field for athletes,” world
track and field’s governing body said
in a statement.
However, the arbitration court
ruling did not necessarily settle the
matter for good. The court stressed the
decision is not binding on the
International Olympic Committee,
which has the final say as the supreme
organizer of the games.
“The door is open for the IOC to
decide, to determine even on a caseby-case principle whether these athletes are eligible or not,” CAS general
secretary Mattieu Reeb told reporters
outside the court headquarters in
Lausanne, Switzerland.
The IOC said it would “study and
analyze the full decision” and make its
own final ruling on the participation of
Russian athletes “in the coming days.”
The Olympics open in Rio on Aug 5.
CAS upheld the “validity” of the
IAAF ban, saying a country whose
national federation is suspended is
ineligible from entering international
competitions, including the Olympics.
The three-person panel ruled that
the Russian Olympic Committee “is
not entitled to nominate Russian track
and field athletes to compete at the Rio
2016 Olympic Games considering
that they are not eligible to participate
under the IAAF competition rules.”
The Russians argued against a collective ban of its track athletes, saying
it punishes those who have not been
accused of wrongdoing.
IAAF President Sebastian Coe
said it was “not a day for triumphant
statements.”
R
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“I didn’t come into this sport to
stop athletes from competing,” he
said. “It is our federation’s instinctive
desire to include, not exclude.”
In Russia, two-time Olympic pole
vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva —
who attended Tuesday’s hearing at CAS
— said the decision to uphold the ban
on the track and field team represents
the “funeral” of her sport.
Russian Sports Minister Vitaly
Mutko also lashed out at the ruling.
“In my view, it’s a subjective decision, somewhat political and one with
no legal basis,” he was quoted as saying by Tass news agency.
CAS said it had no jurisdiction
over whether the IOC can accept or
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refuse the entry of Russian track and
field athletes, either those representing their country or competing as
“neutral athletes.”
Reeb said the Russians have the
right to appeal to the Swiss federal tribunal within 30 days. However, an
appeal can be only on “procedural
grounds,” not the merits of the decision, he said.
The IOC last month accepted the
IAAF decision to extend a November
ban on the Russian track team. And,
in a telephone interview with The
Associated Press and two other international news agencies last week, Bach
was asked whether the IOC would
accept the CAS ruling if it upheld the
IAAF ban. Bach replied: “Yes.”
The IOC executive board said
Tuesday it would “explore the legal
options” for a possible total ban on
Russia but would wait until after the
CAS ruling before making a final decision. The IOC has scheduled another
board meeting on Sunday to consider the issue.
The World Anti-Doping Agency
and other doping bodies have called on
the IOC to consider the unprecedented step of kicking out the entire
Russian contingent following new
allegations of a vast governmentorganized doping program.
Canadian lawyer Richard
McLaren, who was commissioned by
WADA, issued a report on Monday
that accused Russia’s sports ministry
of orchestrating a doping system that
affected 28 summer and winter
Olympic sports.
Reeb said the Russian Olympic
Committee has selected the 68 track
and field athletes as part of its Olympic
team for Rio.
“Now it is for the International
Olympic Committee to determine if
these athletes can be confirmed or not,”
he said. “In the opinion of CAS,
because the national federation is
suspended, normally these athletes
should not compete in Rio, but the
IOC was not a party in these conversations and our decision is not binding on the IOC.”
“According to the Olympic Charter,
they could have the last word who could
participate in the Olympic Games
because the IOC is the main organizer of the Olympic Games,” he added.
Reeb said the CAS panel
“expressed some concern” over the
IAAF rule adopted last month that
allowed for Russian athletes who have
been subjected to regular anti-doping
tests outside Russia to apply for
exemptions to compete as “neutral athletes” in Rio.
Two athletes — Yulia Stepanova,
an 800-meter runner and key whistleblower in exposing Russian doping,
and Florida-based long jumper Darya
Klishina — are the only ones who have
received IAAF eligibility.
?a^bTRdc^abc^P__TP[?Xbc^aXdb´bT]cT]RT
0?Q 20?4C>F=
outh African prosecutors announced their intenSsentence
tion to appeal against Oscar Pistorius’ six-year jail
for murder on Thursday, calling it “shockingly” lenient and a decision that could bring the
country’s justice system into “disrepute.”
The announcement prolongs the three-and-ahalf year legal saga of Pistorius, the once-acclaimed
double-amputee runner who fatally shot girlfriend
Reeva Steenkamp at his home in 2013.
The National Prosecuting Authority said it would
file its appeal papers on Thursday — the day of the
deadline to appeal.
Pistorius was sentenced to six years in prison by
a judge on July 6, a sentence that is much shorter than
the prescribed minimum of 15 years in jail for murder in South Africa. He could be released on parole
after three years.
“We respectfully submit that the sentence of six
years imprisonment, in all the circumstances, is disproportionate to the crime of murder committed,”
the prosecuting authority said in a statement
announcing it would appeal.
The sentence was “shockingly too lenient, and
has accordingly resulted in an injustice and has the
potential to bring the administration of justice into
disrepute,” the prosecuting authority said.
Steenkamp’s parents, Barry and June, said in a
statement on Thursday that they “have always fully
?C8Q =4F34;78
women’s hockey team
fought valiantly to register a 2I1 ndia
come-from-behind victory
supported (chief prosecutor) Gerrie Nel and his
team’s fight for justice for Reeva.” But Steenkamp’s
parents had “no input in the decision of the state to
appeal,” they said in the statement issued by their
lawyer.
The 29-year-old Pistorius is currently serving his
six-year sentence in a prison in the South African
capital, Pretoria. Under South African law, he could
be eligible for parole after serving half the sentence.
He also previously served one year in prison for
manslaughter for shooting the 29-year-old
Steenkamp, a model and reality TV star. That
manslaughter conviction was upgraded to the more
serious offense of murder after an earlier prosecution appeal, leading to a new sentencing.
6DLQDVHHGHGILIWKDW2O\PSLFV
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tar India shuttler Saina Nehwal
has been seeded fifth while her
Scompatriot
P V Sindhu is seeded
ninth in the women’s singles at the
upcoming Olympic Games at Rio
de Janeiro.
Kidambi Srikanth, meanwhile,
has received a ninth seeding in the
men’s draw.
Saina is world No 5 and
Sindhu is ranked 10th in women’s
singles, Srikanth’s ranking is 11th
in the world in men’s singles.
The seedings are based on
Thursday’s (July 21, 2016) World
:_UZR_VgVd
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Rankings for the final confirmed
Olympic qualifiers, and will be
used for the draw on July
26.
Each singles category has 13 seeds.
Malaysia’s
Lee
Chong Wei and
Spain’s Carolina
Marin are the top
seeds in men’s and
women’s singles,
respectively.
Lee, runner-up at the
last two Olympics and winner of
two BWF World Superseries titles
this season, is followed in the seed-
ings by two-time World champion Chen Long (2; China) and twotime Olympic champion Lin Dan
(3; China).
In women’s singles, twotime World champion
Marin heads a competitive
field ahead of two Chinese
— Wang Yihan (2) and
defending Olympic champion Li Xuerui (3).
Thailand’s in-form
Ratchanok Intanon (4), winner of three World Superseries
titles this year, is also seeded
ahead of the London Olympic
bronze medallist Saina.
over hosts USA in their second
game of the America tour in
Manheim, Pennsylvania on
Thursday.
Both Indian and US girls
played out a goal less first quarter with neither able to breach
the rival defense and create
openings.
But USA took the lead four
minutes into the second quarter
a Jill Witmer’s (19th minute)
penalty corner conversion.
The Indians went into half
time trailing 1-0.
But the Indian eves came out
stronger in the second half and
started creating inroads into the
US defence, constantly breaching
the circle via the flanks.
Their efforts bore fruit in the
final minute of the third quarter
when Preeti Dubey scored the
equaliser by converting a penalty corner.
With one quarter left to play,
the game was evenly-poised,
presenting both teams with an
opportunity to take home the
victory.
India constantly kept the
pressure up in the final quarter
and in the 55th minute Lilima
Minz scored from another set
piece to give them the lead,
which they held on to record
their first victory of the tour.
India had earlier lost 2-3 to
USA in the first game of the tour,
their final preparation before flying out to Rio de Janeiro for the
Olympics, starting August five.
India next play Canada on
Friday
2YWCQ]cUdd_RUS_]U5^WµcS_QSX
0?Q ;>=3>=
ngland is on the verge of hiring Sunderland manager Sam
Allardyce to take charge of the
national team as Roy Hodgson’s
successor.
A person with knowledge of
the situation told The Associated
Press on Wednesday that the
English Football Association is
close to finalizing Allardyce’s
appointment. The person spoke on
condition of anonymity because
the appointment has not been
E
made and the FA board, which is
due to meet on Thursday, has to
approve new coaches.
The FA has to secure
Allardyce’s
release
from
Sunderland, which urged for a swift
resolution last week after revealing
that the 61-year-old Englishman
had held talks with England.
The FA began searching for a
new coach three weeks ago when
Hodgson’s hopes of extending his
four-year stint were ended by an
embarrassing loss to Iceland in the
last 16 of European Championship.
;>?4C46D88BB?08=´B2>027
BP\0[[PaShRTX]PUX[T_W^c^
0?
<03A83)Spain’s football federation
says Julen Lopetegui is the new
coach of the national team.
Lopetegui replaces Vicente
Del Bosque, who resigned after
Spain’s elimination in the round of
16 of the European Championship
last month. The 49-year-old
Lopetegui had last coached FC
Porto in Portugal. He was without
a job since January.
A former goalkeeper,
Lopetegui coached Spain’s youth
squads from 2010-14.
AdbbXP]>[hQP]
bW^d[SbRPaTS^_Tab
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ussia’s track and field team being banned from the Olympics
sends a powerful message that should scare cheats, accordR
ing to Usain Bolt.
Stretching out his left arm to show the small adhesive bandage covering the mark left by his latest doping test on Thursday,
Bolt decried the “really bad” doping problem in his sport.
The six-time Olympic champion was speaking in London
shortly after the Court of
Arbitration for Sport rejected an
appeal by 68 Russian athletes seeking to overturn a ban imposed by
the IAAF, following allegations of
state-sponsored doping.
“It’s a good message to show
that if you cheat or you go against
the rules then we’re going to take
serious action,” Bolt said. “This will
scare a lot of people, or send a
strong message that the sport is
serious, we want a clean sport.”
Usually so confident on the
track, Bolt was initially wary about discussing the “sideshows”
of Olympic bans but the Jamaican sprinter found his stride at a
news conference in London. “If you have the proof and you catch
somebody I definitely feel you should take action,” the 29-yearold Bolt said. “And if you feel banning the whole team is the right
action then I am all for it. Rules are the rules and doping violations in track and field is getting really bad so if you feel like you
need to make a statement then thumbs up.”
b_^ac %
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Indies skip3WPfP]³b&#P]S:^W[X³b#%VdXST<T]X]1[dTc^ #(!^]3Ph ^UUXabcCTbcebFTbc8]SXTb Westper Jason
Holder
doesn’t expect his
?C8Q =>AC7B>D=30=C86D0
ndia made a cautious start,
overcoming a testing spell
from the West Indies fast
bowlers to reach 72 for one at
lunch on day one of the first Test
here on Thursday.
At the Sir Vivian Richards
Stadium, Shikhar Dhawan (46*, 74
balls, 4 fours) and Cheteshwar
Pujara (14* 63 balls) were at the
crease, after Shannon Gabriel (118) bowled an encouraging spell
for the hosts.
This was after skipper Virat
Kohli won the toss and elected to
bat. The Indian think-tank threw
up some surprise by way of their
team selection, leaving out leftarm spinner Ravindra Jadeja and
opting to go in with three pacers
instead. Umesh Yadav and
Mohammad Shami joined Ishant
Sharma in the pace department,
while R Ashwin and Amit Mishra
are the spin options.
The West Indies handed a
debut to Roston Chase, picking
seven full-time batsmen, and left
out fast bowler Miguel Cummins.
Murali Vijay (7) and Dhawan
started off with Gabriel and skipper Jason Holder (0-14) starting
the proceedings for the hosts. The
West Indies had come out with a
clear ploy and made good use of
the new ball on a fresh first
morning pitch.
Holder was the first one to test
Dhawan with a short ball, and
soon it became clear what plans
they had set for the left-handed
opener.
Soon after, Gabriel worked up
his pace and started bowling
some testing deliveries to Dhawan.
There were a couple lobs and
edges, but luckily enough they
didn’t go to any of the fielders. The
difference in pace between the two
bowlers allowed Dhawan to ease
off against Holder.
Meanwhile, Vijay looked
comfortable at the crease, leaving
as many deliveries as possible.
The hosts kept up with the
plan though, as Gabriel started hitting the deck hard and getting
sharp bounce on the odd delivery.
I
And it was surprisingly good
bounce that got Vijay, as he looked
to play at one outside the off
stump, only for the ball to kiss his
glove and loop up to second slip
where Kraigg Brathwaite caught it
at after a little fiddling.
Pujara then came out to bat at
number three, and never looked
in any discomfort. That was particularly because West Indies
decided to bring on debutant
Chase (0-30) to bowl in the 12th
over. His gentle off-breaks didn’t
pose much threat to the batsmen,
and Pujara in particular to attack
him. But he was given good cover
to block off the drives and didn’t
bleed too many runs.
The 50-mark came up for
India in the 24th over as Carlos
Brathwaite (0-6) came on to bowl,
and Dhawan-Pujara brought up
the 50-partnership for the second
wicket off 118 balls, just before the
lunch break.
At the time of going into
print, India were 149/2 with
captain Virat Kohli on 46 and
opener Shikhar Dhawan on 74.
B70A406>>3A0??>AC
F8C7C40<):D<1;4
In his first assignment as
India coach, Anil Kumble on
Thursday said he shared a good
rapport with skipper Virat Kohli
and the other team members and
he’s looking forward to a long Test
season ahead.
“I have been a part of the
Royal Challengers Bangalore (in
3Q^CQa\QY^QbbUcd B;caXTb]TfQ[^^Seb0db
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ngland are in a spin in
more ways than one as they
E
head into the second Test
against Pakistan at Old Trafford
on Friday looking to level the
four-match series at 1-1.
Alastair Cook’s men suffered
a 75-run defeat inside four days
in last week’s first Test at Lord’s,
with Pakistan leg-spinner Yasir
Shah taking 10 wickets.
Now England will hope to
play Shah better at Old
Trafford, where the pitch is
likely to offer more turn.
They also have to decide
whether to give a home debut
to leg-spinner Adil Rashid,
either in support of, or as a
replacement for, Moeen Ali.
Not only was off-spinner
Ali, who has spent the
bulk of his career as a
top-order batsman,
out-bowled by
Shah at Lord’s, he
also fell to him in
the
second
innings when
recklessly charging
down the pitch.
England have
now called in former
Pakistan off-spinner Saqlain
Mushtaq as a coaching consultant at Old Trafford.
England have been without
a specialist spin coach since former Pakistan leg-spinner
Mushtaq Ahmed, now in the
tourists’ camp, returned home
in 2014.
Having picked a 14-man
squad, England could field two
spinners especially as both alltime leading wicket-taker James
Anderson (shoulder) and allrounder Ben Stokes (knee) have
been passed fit after they each
missed the first Test.
Anderson is due to return
on his Lancashire home
ground amid suggestions that
Cook and coach Trevor Bayliss
were happy to accept his assurances that he was fit for Lord’s,
only for the pair to be overruled by the selectors.
Meanwhile Stokes was
looking forward to working
with Saqlain, who took four for
74 when Pakistan beat England
by 108 runs in the second Test
at Old Trafford in 2001.
Stokes hinted at a more
refined approach by saying:
“Old Trafford is known to
spin, and obviously that’s going
to favour (Shah).
As England, who also have
question marks over top order
batsman James Vince, ponder
their options, it looks as if
Pakistan will field the same
side, although openers
Mohammad Hafeez and
Shan Masood may be
looking over their
shoulders after poor
returns at Lord’s.
Having come
through all the hype
surrounding
Mohammad Amir’s
return to Test cricket
for the first time since his
2010 spot-fixing crime at
Lord’s, they gave fans at the
‘home of cricket’ much else to
talk about last week.
4=6;0=30G458==10;;
England captain Alastair
Cook announced on Thursday
that the hosts had reduced
their squad for the second Test
against Pakistan from 14 to 12
after dropping Steven Finn
and Jake Ball.
Revised England squad
Alastair Cook (capt), Alex
Hales, Joe Root, James Vince,
Gary Ballance, Jonny Bairstow
(wkt), Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali,
Chris Woakes, Adil Rashid,
Stuart Broad, James Anderson.
ri Lanka stacked its squad
on Thursday with uncapped
bowlers including pacers
Asitha Fernando and Roshane
Silva and spinner Lakshan
Sandakan for the home Test
series starting next week
against Australia.
With its stars sidelined
with injury, Sri Lanka will be
relying on its second-string
bowlers to help pull off an
unlikely series victory against
the world number one Test side.
Struggling batsman Lahiru
Thirimanne failed to make the
15-man squad announced on
Thursday and led by veteran
Angelo Mathews, following Sri
Lanka’s recent disastrous tour
of England.
Batsman
Milinda
Siriwardana and all-rounder
Niroshan Dikwella were also
dropped from the squad that
faced a drubbing in England in
June in both Tests and ODI’s.
Five bowlers suffered
injuries in England, striking
another blow to the young Sri
Lankan side which has struggled
since the retirement of legends
including Kumar Sangakkara
BaX;P]ZP]RP_cPX]0]VT[^<PcWTfb
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and Mahela Jayawardene.
Sri Lanka plays three Tests
against the visiting Australians,
with the first starting in
Pallekele on Tuesday.
Sri Lanka last won a Test
series against Australia in 1999
and they were soundly beaten
in their last encounter in
2012/2013.
Test squad
Angelo Mathews (capt), Dinesh
Chandimal
(vice-capt),
Dimuth Karunaratne, Kaushal
Silva, Kusal Perera, Kusal
Mendis, Dhananjaya Silva,
Roshane Silva, Nuwan Pradeep,
Vishwa Fernando, Asitha
Fernando, Rangana Herath,
Dilruwan Perera, Lakshan
Sandakan and Suranga Lakmal.
;^SWP_P]T[R^\TbS^f]WPaS^]bcPcTb
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?C8Q =4F34;78
he Supreme Court appointed Lodha Committee on
T
Thursday clarified to the state
associations that any officebearer who has cumulatively or
separately completed nine years
in office before or after July 18
will be disqualified from contesting elections.
Sources say that the committee on Thursday sent an email communication to BCCI
president Anurag Thakur and
secretary Ajay Shirke asking
them to intimate the state
associations with queries in
this regard.
The two questions asked by
a number of state associations
are: 1. Are individuals who
have cumulatively completed
nine years as Office Bearers of
a State Association disqualified
from again becoming office
bearers?
2. Is the 9-year disqualification period to be reckoned
only commencing from the
date of the judgment
(18.07.2016) or does it include
tenures as office bearers prior
to that date?
The committee in their
clarification pointed out:
Any individual who has
cumulatively completed a
period of 9 years as an Office
Bearer of a State Association
stands disqualified from
contesting elections or holding
a post in the Association.
This will apply to any
person as of the date of the
election, and will include
periods prior to the date of
the judgment (18.07.2016).
The committee also
requested BCCI to ensure that
state associations are intimated in this regard.
“This clarification may be
kindly intimated to the various
State and Member Associations,
so that individual missives to
either the BCCI or this committee on this count may be avoided. This is in addition to the
direction sent on Wednesday
that the BCCI and the State
Associations put on hold all
elections ,” it concluded.
IPL). We played together for three
years and then also I have known
him. He has matured a lot. He is
good on the field and really
aggressive, so that is something
that he brings to the table,” said
Kumble before the start of the first
Test here.
“And his batting, we all know
how good a player he is. The team
has been blending really well and
I felt really welcomed and that’s a
good thing,” he added.
The 45-year-old legendary
spinner said that his team is all
geared up for the 15 Tests in the
upcoming season.
“This team has really done
well. It is a young team. Some of
them are there in the Caribbean
for the first time. So it would be
a great experience. There are 4-5
seniors players as well who have
played here. Most of them have
played one-day cricket but not
Test cricket. Really looking forward to the long season of Test
cricket,” said Kumble.
young and inexperienced side to improve
by leaps and bounds
and said they are looking for a steady progression as they go
into the four-Test
series against India
with confidence.
“The ultimate aim
is to start performing
well in Test cricket. We
have got a young side,
and we are looking to
build something,” said
Holder ahead of the
opening Test starting
at the Sir Vivian
Richards Stadium here
on Thursday.
“In the last series
we played in Australia,
we didn’t start really
well. Moving on into
the Test series, we got
significantly better.
“All I stress and
address with the guys is
to keep improving. You
can’t expect leaps and
bounds, too much
from a very young side.
Once we get the steady
progression in terms of
improvement, I think
we’ll move forward,”
Holder
also
stressed on the importance of fitness during
Test series.
“In the recent past,
we’ve played two-three
Test matches in a series
and this is the first
time I am involved in
a four-match series.
It’s really important
that we manage our
bodies as well as possible,” he said.
The pitch here in St.
John’s has been the centre of attraction as there
is a little grass left on it.
It is a bit different from
the slow wickets laid out
for the two practice
games in St. Kitts.
Holder said: “The
wickets have died down
significantly. If you look
at the series in the
recent past, you see a lot
slow turning tracks. I
remember the last time
in Antigua, it was a
pretty good wicket and
it lasted all five days. If
this wicket’s anything
similar to that, we can
expect a really competitive game.
“Having said that,
it’s hard to predict what
you get at certain places
you go. I think it’s just
a matter of assessing
whatever you get and
make a decision there
in terms of your selections and combinations,” he added.
West Indies will
be relying on a mix of
experience in the form
of Samuels and Darren
Bravo, while some of
their younger players
have already tasted the
Indian bowling.
“Experience goes a
long way. In this side
we have only got
Samuels, who has
played a few Test
matches, Darren Bravo
is probably the next
highest capped West
Indies Test player. We
have to live as a family and help one another as best as we possibly can,” Holder said.
“That’s the only
way we can move down
the road from here. We
don’t have the luxury of
that much experience in
the squad. Everywhere
we go there are legends
of the game, in Antigua,
in Jamaica, whatever
information we can get
from outside that is
beneficial for the team.”
he signed off.