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India on Monday did someplain-speaking with China

over its blocking of the Indianbid to get Jaish-e-Mohammad(JeM) chief Masood Azharbanned by the UN and warnedthe global community of “seri-ous consequences” if it contin-ues to adopt “double standards”in dealing with terrorism.

During a bilateral meetingwith her Chinese counterpartWang Yi, External AffairsMinister Sushma Swaraj alsoasked for a “review” of theChinese action at the UN.

“I told him (Wang) that ifwe were to fulfil our intentionof fighting terrorism together,then China should review thestand it had taken at the UN1267 Committee,” Swaraj tolda joint Press conference withWang and Russian ForeignMinister Sergey Lavrov.

The three Ministers hadearlier jointly chaired a Russia-India-China (RIC) ForeignMinisters meet here.

During a meeting with herRussian counterpart SergeyLavrov, Sushma raised theissues of killing of an Indian andthe death of two Indian girl stu-dents in a fire in Russia, besidesdiscussing key bilateral matters.

“External Affairs Ministerraised the cases of Indiannationals Yasir Jawed (whowas killed in Kazan) and PujaKallur and Karishma UdaiBhosle (who died during a fireat the Smolensk State MedicalAcademy). FM Lavrov briefedon the progress of the investi-gations,” External AffairsMinistry Spokesperson VikasSwarup said.

Later, in her meeting withWang, Swaraj emphasised theneed for bilateral cooperationto combat the challenge of ter-rorism. If India and Chinawere to combat terrorism unit-edly, then Beijing shouldchange its position of opposingIndia’s bid against Pathankot

terror attack mastermindAzhar at the UN SanctionsCommittee, Swaraj told Wang.

It was agreed during theSwaraj-Wang meeting that thetwo sides would remain intouch on the matter, ExternalAffairs Ministry spokespersonVikas Swarup said.

Last month, China hadvetoed India’s bid to get Azhardesignated as terrorist by theUN Sanctions Committee,maintaining that the case “didnot meet the requirements” ofthe Security Council. TheChinese action evoked a strongreaction in India which saidthat it was “incomprehensible”that while JeM was banned bythe UN, its chief was not.

This is not the first timeChina has blocked India’s bidto get Pakistan-based militantgroups and leaders proscribedby the UN. The UN hadbanned the JeM in 2001 butIndia’s efforts for slapping ofsanctions on Azhar after the

2008 Mumbai terror attackalso did not fructify as China,that has veto powers, did notallow it apparently at the behestof Pakistan.

Earlier addressing RICmeet, Swaraj warned the inter-national community of “seriousconsequences” if it continues toadopt “double standards” indealing with terrorism.

“India believes that theforemost challenge to interna-tional security continues to beposed by international terror-ism. The RIC countries mustlead the way in getting theinternational communitytogether to counter terrorismthrough joint action, includingat the UN,” Swaraj said.

Continued on Page 4

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Though there were somereports of traffic congestion

on a few key roads during thepeak hours, the second phaseof the odd-even scheme by andlarge cleared Monday’s realtest as it considerably reducedthe number of private carswhen Delhi got back to workafter a long weekend.

While Delhi Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal said that peo-ple were voluntarily followingthe second phase of odd-evenscheme and there was no con-gestion on the roads in theCapital, Transport MinisterGopal Rai said, “The reports sofar are very encouraging…Barring some exceptions, theoutcome of the scheme hasbeen quite positive.”

Rai also said that the DelhiGovernment will seek publicopinion on when to start thethird-round of odd-evenscheme once the second phaseof the 16-day-long road-rationing plan gets over.

A total of 710 challanswere issued for violation of odd-even scheme on Monday, out ofwhich, 256 violations werebooked by the traffic police and454 by the enforcement wing ofthe Transport Department.

Commuters faced longqueues at metro stations dur-ing the peak hours. However,according to Delhi Metro RailCorporation (DMRC), therewasn’t any significant rise in theridership as 22.73 lakh com-muters travelled on the metronetwork till 8 pm compared to 22.53 lakh commuters onlast Monday.

However, heavy traffic wasreported from some parts ofthe city during the peak hours.While the traffic moved at asnail’s pace on Vikas Margtowards ITO intersection dur-ing the morning peak hours, itwas the same situation on TilakMark towards ITO intersectionduring the evening peak hours.Slow-moving traffic was alsoreported on the Ring Road

from South-Extension tillBhikaji Cama Place in the evening.

“Apart from that, reports ofheavy traffic were also receivedfrom Rao Tula Ram Marg,Mehrauli-Badarpur Road (nearKhanpur), Mayapuri Flyover,Geeta Colony, DelhiCantonment towards DhaulaKuan and NH8 towardsGurgaon. During the evening,

there was heavy traffic atTransport Nagar-SamaypurBadli and Azadpur DTC termi-nal as well,” said a traffic official.

Meanwhile, on the ques-tion of inconvenience faced byparents in dropping and pick-ing up their children fromschool, Gopal Rai said that car-pooling and strengtheningpublic transport system will

Continued on Page 4

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Kohinoor is back in the news.On a petition filed in the

Supreme Court to direct theGovernment to bring back thecelebrated diamond fromBritain, the Centre raised itshands in despair on Mondayand told the court that the gemcannot be retrieved as it was gift-ed to the British and not stolenor forcibly taken away by them.

This was admitted bySolicitor General of IndiaRanjit Kumar before a Bench ofChief Justice TS Thakur andJustice UU Lalit, during thehearing of a PIL seeking imme-diate steps on part of the IndianGovernment to bring back theKohinoor from the British.

Reading out from a notesupplied to him by the Union

Ministry of Culture, Kumarrecounted the history behindthe priceless diamond and saidthat in India the gem was lastchronicled to be in possessionof Maharaja Duleep Singh, theson of Maharaja Ranjeet Singh,who founded the Sikh Empire.

“Somewhere around 1813,the Kohinoor was given byMaharaja Duleep Singh to the

British East India Company ascompensation for the help hehad received from them in theSikh war,” Kumar said, addingthat in 1850 the East IndiaCompany formally presented itto Queen Victoria. Since then,the Kohinoor has remained inthe possession of the British.

Responding to the PIL filedby NGO All India Human

Rights and Social Justice Front,Kumar informed the court thatretrieving the lost diamondhas been debated in both theLok Sabha and the Rajya Sabhain the past but no solutioncould be arrived at. “Kohinoorcannot be categorised as anobject stolen or taken away asit was gifted to the British ascompensation,” he added.

Kumar informed the courtthat he is yet to receive theinput from the Ministry ofExternal Affairs, which canstill pursue the case onKohinoor on the diplomaticfront. The Bench remindedthe Centre that any adverseorder from the apex courtcould be a hindrance for anyfuture attempt by India toretrieve the treasure or stake itsclaim over Kohinoor.

Continued on Page 4

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ASpecial Prevention of Money Laundering Act(PMLA) court issued a

Non-Bailable Warrant(NBW) against Vijay Mallyaon Monday, in a develop-ment that paved the way forthe Enforcement Directorate(ED) approaching theInterpol to issue a RedCorner notice against him inthe over �900-crore IDBI loan fraud case.

Special Judge PR Bhavke not only issued theNBW against Mallya, but also rejected a plea by thenow-defunct Kingfisher Airlines (KFA) contestingthe ED’s claim that the latter had “siphoned off ”�430 crore from the loan taken by his company topurchase properties abroad.

The NWB against Mallya, which came barelythree days after the Union Government suspend-ed his diplomatic passport, is the consequence ofhis failure to present himself before the ED despitethree summons having been issued against him onMarch 10, March 18 and April 2.

Continued on Page 4

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Born with flat feet, Agartala girlDipa Karmakar on Monday cre-

ated history by becoming the firstIndian woman gymnast to qualify forOlympics as she booked a berth forthe Rio Games after a strong perfor-mance at the final qualifying and testevent here.

The 22-year-old garnered a totalscore of 52.698 points in the Olympicsqualifying event to book a berth forartistic gymnastics in Rio Games tobe held here in August.

The Agartala girl has been listedas the 79th gymnast among individ-ual qualifiers in the list of women’sartistic gymnasts who have qualified

for the quadrennial Games.Apart from being the first Indian

woman, she will also be an Indiangymnast qualifying for the quadren-nial extravaganza after 52 long years.

Since Independence, 11 Indianmale gymnasts have taken part in theOlympics (two in 1952, three in 1956and six in 1964) but this will be the firstfor an Indian woman at the Olympics.

Continued on Page 4

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Delhi residents had to face ‘sky-high rates’ as app-based taxi

service providers — Ola and Uber— on Monday increased chargesthree to five times against their usualrates, drawing a strong warningfrom the Delhi Government.

While commuters took to social media to vent frustration,Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal extended his concern and tweet-ed, “Strict action, incl permit cancellation n impounding vehi-cle, to be taken against taxis which charge more than Govt pre-scribed rates.” Soon after Kejriwal’s call of strict action, Uberannounced temporary suspension of surge pricing in theCapital.

Even, the Delhi High Court issued a notice to the cityGovernment after a writ petition was filed against app-basedtaxi service operators for allegedly over-charging and arbitrarilyapplying surge rates during odd-even scheme.

Detailed report on P3

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Beijing: Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Monday firm-ly coneyed to China that agreeing on a mutually acceptable Lineof Actual Control (LAC) was the only solution to the problemof border transgressions. Parrikar, who met his Chinese coun-terpart Chang Wanquan, a General with the People's LiberationArmy, explained India's stand on LAC, saying the process of"actually marking" the LAC is essential for proper border man-agement. "Without that everything goes by perceptions,which has caused problems sometimes," he said.

He stressed on the need for proper border management,and ruled out a time limit for an agreement on the LAC.“Timeline is difficult in such matters. We have said that we area old civilisation. Good relations with us would be good forthe region as a whole.” Continued on Page 4

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Amajor shake-up effectedby the Lt Governor Najeeb

Jung on Monday saw the exitof Deepak Mishra from theDelhi Police.

Mishra of the 1984 batchIPS (AGMUT cadre) held thehighly sensitive post of SpecialCP Law and Order for nearlyfour years. Currently he washolding the post of Special CPAdministration. He has beentransferred to Central ReservePolice Force as AdditionalDirector General.

He wil l be the second AGMUT cadre IPSofficer to join CRPF in thismonth after SN Srivastava ofthe 1985 batch.

Apart from the high pro-file transfer of Deepak Mishais the omission of Mukesh

Kumar Meena from the listwho was promoted as SpecialCP recently. Meena is stillholding the charge of NewDelhi Range and Anti-Corruption Branch. Sourcestold The Pioneer that the L-Gwants to retain Meena as thehead of the ACB despite thefact that he has been trans-ferred to Andaman andNicobar Islands.

Meena has been lobbyinghard to retain his place in Delhiand is believed to have peti-tioned to get his transfer stayedon the grounds that his son isstudying in 10th standard.

It is also rumoured thatJoint Cadre Authority thatwas to decide the transfer ofMeena and other senior IPSofficers have been postponedowing to the tussle of certainsenior IPS who are reluctant toleave the green pastures ofDelhi to the grind of NorthEasteen States. SNithiyanandam, DGPArunchal and Ajay KshyapDGP Mizoram are keen toreturn to the Delhi Police butpulls and pressures exerted by

senior IPS officers in DelhiPolice have put paid to their efforts.

Meanwhile the expectedreshuffle of Joint CP Rangeswas ordered by the L-G onMonday after Delhi PoliceCommissioner Alok KumarVerma submitted his recom-mendation to the L-G. RPUpadhyaya the 1991 batchIPS who was recently trans-ferred from Chandigarh hasbeen posted as Joint CP SouthEastern Range. Upadhyaytakes over from 1989 batch RS

Krishnia who has been post-ed as Special CP Armed Police.

VS Chahal is the new JointCP of Central Range. Hereplaces SK Gautam who hasbeen sent to Security unit asSpecial CP. Satich Golchhacurrently holding the charge ofEconomic Offences Wing hasbeen posted as Joint CPEastern Range in place ofSanjay Baniwal who goes toOperations Unit as SpecialCP. Sandeep Goel has beenposted as Special CP Traffic.Goel replaces Muktesh

Chander who has gone toGoa as the DGP. Most impor-tantly Airport Unit has beentaken away from theOperations and given toSundari Nanda who will alsohold the charge of SpecialUnit for Women. NuzhatHassan the Joint CPEstablishment who was tippedto take over the Central Rangehas been left untouched.

It would be interesting tosee who gets highly sensitiveNew Delhi Range once the fateof Meena is decided.

TN Mohan who hasreported back to the DelhiPolice after serving as DGPGoa is still waiting for posting.Notably, the post of DG DelhiPrisons is lying vacant afterAlok Kumar Verma took overas Delhi Police Commissioner.

Sudhir Yadav Special CPProvisioning and Logistics wasthe hot favourite to take over asDG Tihar but his inclusion asmember of PoliceEstablishment Board hasqueered the pitch. Sources saidVasudeva Rao of 1986 batchmay take over as DG Prisons.

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Taking a cue from Gujaratand Maharashtra, the AAP

Government is all set to launchChief Minister UrbanFellowship for the young grad-uates in the national Capital.

Under the fellowship, theGovernment will reportedlybe appointing 30 graduates toassist Principal Secretaries,Secretaries and Head ofDepartments at policy level andalso for providing ground levelinformation and feed back tothe Government.

The proposal for the ChiefMinister Fellowship was dis-cussed at a recent high-levelmeeting chaired by deputyChief Minister Manish Sisodia.The proposal, considered as thedream project of Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal, has been sentto Home, Finance andPlanning Departments for theirrespective comments. After the

comments from variousDepartments, the proposalwould be brought before theCabinet approval.

As per the concept note,the Government will be pro-viding �1.25 lakh per monthto each of the 30 graduates fora period of one year. The fel-lowship can be extended toanother year depending onone's performance andrequirement of the govern-ment. A highly placed sourcesaid the minimum qualificationrequired for the fellowship isgraduation. But candidate'shaving specialised degreeswould be given preference forthe fellowship.

While both Gujarat andMaharashtra Governmentshave been paying �20,000every month under theirrespective fellowships, theAAP Government plans topay six-fold more so that itcan attract talented peoplefor the proposed fellowship.A senior officer said once fel-lowship is awarded to anyperson, he or she would berequired to work as eyes andears of the Government at thegrass-roots level.

The majority of the AAPGovernment's schemes and pro-grammes, either launched or inthe pipeline, are people-centric.So the Government's mainthrust is to ensure that it gets aregular feed-back from thebeneficiaries of such plans andschemes. If the need be, the one'sdoing the fellowship will also bebound to suggest ways andmeans for effective handling ofeach of the Government's poli-cies and schemes.

A highly placed source saidsince bureaucrats generallyget feedback from officers, whothemselves are responsible forimplementing such schemesand policies, there was anurgent need to have a systemin place where an independentperson could hold regular inter-actions with beneficiaries ofthe Government's schemes.

"The fellowship will helpthe Government to create atwo-way channel — one withthe officers and the otherwith the general public. Thus,if any changes are to be effect-ed in any policy or scheme,there will be objective andground-based research readilyavailable with the Government."

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In a unique strategy ahead ofthe May 15 by-elections for

13 municipal wards, DelhiCongress President AjayMaken on Monday releasedward specific manifestos high-lighting the special problems ofeach ward. The manifestos,prepared by the Delhi Congressafter an extensive door-to-doorsurvey, seek to address thelocal problems of each wardwhich need to be addressed ona priority basis, DPCC chiefAjay Maken said.

''The Congress party did adoor-to-door survey beforefinalising the party manifestoand incorporated the local prob-lems which need to be addressedon a priority basis. The mani-festo has been divided into twoparts: One which was devoted tothe local problems of Delhiitesand second part talked aboutward specific problems. Theparty has prepared ward specif-ic manifestos highlighting thespecial problems of each ward,''

Maken said.Pointing out that the by-

elections to the 13 MCD wardswere being held owing to theefforts of the Congress as theparty filed a Public Interest lit-igation in the Delhi High Courtwhich directed the DelhiGovernment to hold the by-elections to the MCD wards,Maken said the party has comeup with eleven special pointson the basis of which the partywould seek votes from thepeople of Delhi.

''First and foremost, fiscal

condition of corporations isreally bad. If voted, the partywould chart out a roadmapfor revival in four months.There are no proper arrange-ments in place for sanitationwork, and due to filth allaround, people are falling ill.The sanitation problem willbe addressed on a high pri-ority basis,'' Maken said.

The Congress manifestopromises that the party wouldcancel the ration cards of thepoor people having two KV ormore power load.

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Art of Living (AOL) foun-dation on Monday hand-

ed over World Cultural Festivalvenue site to land owningagency DDA and also con-firmed that there will be noconstruction done by them.The WCF venue site is nowbarricaded and a board hasbeen put up that stated that thisland is under the DelhiDevelopment Authority.

While responding to crit-icism made by environmen-talists relating to the gather-ing of more than lakh peopleon Yamuna flood plain area,the AOL legal expert SarswatiNath said the NGT commit-tee or the environmentalistswho had petitioned againstAOL organisers have no sci-entific evidence on the dam-age of wetland area. "On thebasis of visual assessment,nobody can claim wetlanddamage. No soil or watersample had been taken by the

committee. On what basisgreen tribunal or environ-mentalists have filed the case,"Nath asked.

Giving more clarificationon the present condition ofwetland area, environmental-ist Rakesh Ranjan said thewetland area is gaining back itsmarshland nature as there isnatural growth of wild reed

grass. "As an environment sci-entist, I can say that there is nodamage to wetland area.Surprisingly, DND flyover andBatla house colonies have beenconstructed on the core ofYamuna wetland in the nameof public convince or govern-ment policies. Why are otherenvironments not reacting tothat?" asked Ranjan.

New Delhi: Despite a thun-derstorm forcast, the heat wavecontinued to prevail in thenational Capital on Monday.With dry and hot day, themaximum temperaturereached 40.2 degree Celsius,three notches above the nor-mal. The minimum tempera-ture was recorded at 28.5degrees Celsius, seven notchesabove the season's average

At Safdurjung Observatory,the maximum temperature set-tled at 40.0 degree Celsius andthe minimum temperature wasrecorded 29.0 degree Celsius.However, the weathermen pre-dicted partly cloudy sky withthe haze.

Meanwhile, at the Palamobservatory, the maximumtemperature was recorded at42.2 degrees Celsius whileLodhi Road, Ridge; Ayanagarrecorded 40.4, 41.9 and 40.6degrees Celsius respectively.

The humidity level in airremained on the lower side andoscillated between 48 and 21 percent. The Met office predictedpartly cloudy skies for today.

"The skies will be partlycloudy with dusty haze in themorning and evening. Themaximum and minimum tem-peratures are expected to hoverat 40 and 26 degrees Celsius,"the Indian MetrologicalDepartment official said. SR

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In a significant move, Delhiunit of Bharatiya Janata Party

(BJP) has decided to replaceleaders at all the coveted postsin three MunicipalCorporations of Delhi —Mayors, Deputy Mayors,Chairman StandingCommittee and Leader of theHouse. The new team willhave only 10 months to per-form as MCDs will go to elec-tions in May 2017.

Sanjeev Nayyar, a doctorby profession and councillor ofBJP from in Paschim Vihar,has filed his nomination forthe post of Mayor and TaraChand Bansal of BJP fromRohini East filed his nomina-tion for the post of DeputyMayor of North DelhiMunicipal Corporation.Senior BJP councillors PraveshWahi and Vijay Praksh Pandeyfiled nominations for the postof Leader of the House andChairman Standing

Committee respexctively. Ascandidature of these council-lors were not challenged byany of the Congress candidate,these leaders will be electedunopposed.

Vijay Prakash Pandey, BJPcouncillor, Neelam Buddhiraja,another BJP councillor andPrithvi Singh Rathore,Congress, also filed their nom-inations for the posts of mem-bers of the StandingCommittee to be nominatedfrom the Corporation. Therewere three vacancies of mem-bers of Standing Committee.

As Monday was the last day for f i l ing nominations in South MCDtoo, Shyam Sharma of BJPand Praveen Rana ofCongress filed their nomina-tions for Mayor post. SittingMayor Shubhash Arya filednomination for member Standing Committeealong with Shailendra Singhand Leader of OppositionFardah Suri.

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New Delhi: The JuvenileJustice Board on Mondayreserved its order against thejuvenile who allegedly moweddown the 32-year-old busi-ness executive SiddharthaSharma with his speedingMercedes car on April 4 innorth Delhi's Civil Lines area.

The JJ board will onTuesday pass its verdict on thejuvenile's bail or detention.The juvenile had surrenderedto the police a week before, fol-lowing which he was sent to ajuvenile justice home.

According to sources, dur-ing the court hearing onMonday, juvenile's father ManojAggarwal and his wife accom-panied their son and pleadedthe Metropolitan Magistrate forgranting mercy to their son.

Meanwhile, their lawyertried to shift the onus of theuntoward incident on thedeceased by presenting theirpart of CCTV footage andstating that it was Siddhartha'sfault while crossing the road.

If the juvenile is foundguilty, he will be punished asper the amended juvenile jus-tice act and can be sent to TiharJail for ten years. SR

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IAS officer of UP cadre RajivKumar has been sent to

judicial custody in Dasna jailby a CBI court after he sur-rendered before the court forabuse of power in a Noidaplot allotment scam.

The former deputy chiefexecutive officer (DCEO) andpresently in waiting list fornew posting, surrendered

before the CBI court onMonday after losing his casein Allahabad High Court.

His accomplice and thethen chief executive officer(CEO) of Noida, Neera Yadav, has already sur-rendered before the samecourt. She is presently servinga three-year jail term award-ed in 2012.

Neera Yadav, who wasthe chief secretary of Uttar

Pradesh and the chief execu-tive officer (CEO) of Noida,along with Rajiv Kumar, thethen DCEO of Noida, were convicted by the localCBI court to three-year jail terms. They were alsoslapped a f inancial penalty of �1,00,000 each intwo cases pertaining to the illegal allotment ofplots during their tenure inNoida in 1994.

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The Delhi Police within 15hours solved a case of rob-

bery of Rs 75.50 lakhs andarrested a duo. Police alsorecovered the amount alongwith a motorcycle used in thecrime, in southwest Delhi'sDelhi Cantonment area.

On April 16 at around 7:30pm, the complainant, Anuj Jaininformed police that while hewas going to deliver payment of

�75,50,000 to a client as perorder of his employer, four menin a car intercepted his motor-cycle and took away the bag ofcash at gun point, said thepolice official.

"During the investigation,we traced Anuj's Call DetailRecords. However, we foundthat his cell phone location wasshowing to be in Dhaula Kuan.When we confronted him, hekept changing his statements,"said a senior police official.

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Noida: Two days after a BMWcar hit four people leaving onedead in Noida sector 24, Noidapolice on Monday issued anon-bailable warrant againstVinod Kumar, a resident ofMayoor Vihar phase-I, whowas allegedly behind the wheel.

Meanwhile, Vinod's counselalso moved a bail plea, but thecourt rejected it. The accusedhas filed an application in thecourt stating that he will cometo the court with his lawyers tosurrender on Tuesday.

Deputy Superintendent ofpolice, Noida, Anoop Singhsaid the police teams wereformed to arrest the accusedand they conducted raids at dif-ferent locations in Delhi andNCR region. Meanwhile, thepolice have released four peo-ple who were detained by themfor questioning in the case.

Police have confirmed thatthe BMW car was being drivenby the driver and owner of thecar Vinod Kumar when the carknocked down four persons onSaturday morning.

One of the victim Gulfam(20), who worked as mechan-ic in Noida succumbed toinjuries on Saturday night. SR

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The number of prosecutionsfor violation of odd-even

scheme seems to be constant-ly on a decline as only 710 chal-lans were issued on Mondaydespite the traffic volumeincreasing significantly as theschools and offices openedafter a long weekend.

The traffic police and theenforcement wing of theTransport Department hadjointly issued 1,311 challans onthe first day of the scheme and1,002 challans on the second day.

Even stark is the decline inthe prosecutions by the Delhitraffic police which had issued

884 and 678 challans respec-tively on Friday and Saturday.

On Monday, however, itissued only 256 challans.Officials said while the com-pliance level has also increased,but due to rise in traffic volumeon Monday, the main focus ofthe traffic police was on regu-lating the traffic, especiallyduring the peak hours. Themaximum number of challanswere issued by the traffic policein south and east districts (34each) followed by New Delhidistrict (33). Out of the total710 challans issued on Monday,454 challans were issued by theTransport Department.

Meanwhile, despite being a

working day, the Delhi Metrodid not see any significantincrease in ridership during theworking hours despite the factthat long queues were wit-nessed in some stations in the

morning. Till 8 pm, around22.73 lakh passengers had trav-elled in the Delhi Metro against22.53 lakh commuters lastMonday, said metro officials.

When it comes to the road

transport, around 4,500 buseswere deployed by the DelhiTransport Corporation (DTC)on the roads on Monday,including 468 contract carriagebuses under Paryavaran BusSewa, to cater to the risingdemand as many people leftbehind their cars as the odd-even scheme entered its thirdday (excluding Sunday).

On Friday, the first day ofodd-even phase II, 4,485 buseswere deployed which conduct-ed 42,791 trips in total to ferry36,84,918 commuters. Thenumber of buses were, howev-er, reduced to 4384 which car-ried out 40,768 trips to ferry38,94,655 passengers.

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The implementation of sec-ond phase of odd-even

scheme started from April 15seems to have irked parentswho pick and drop their chil-dren from schools.

Under the scheme, theGovernment has exemptedparents going to drop their chil-dren in uniform to school.However, the parents are wor-ried of getting issued a challanwhile returning back afterdropping their children as theGovernment has stated thatthere is no solution to thisproblem and challan will beissued in such a situation.

While speaking to ThePioneer, several parents statedthat these 15 days are going tobe troublesome for them par-ticularly those parents with

young children who cannotleave their children alone.

"I pick and drop my youngdaughter who studies in secondgrade. She cannot travel by her-self plus it is very hot outside.Now that I will not be able touse my car on alternate days, itwill be quite a task for me hir-ing an auto rickshaw or boardmetro train. Adding to ourwoes, the Government has alsonot given any relaxation to themale parents who will bereturning back after droppingtheir children to school as thetraffic police will issue a chal-lan," stated a journalist work-ing with the All India Radio.

"I cannot drive and myhusband remains caught upwith work most of the time andI have to attend my office too.We are wondering how we aregoing to drop our two kids toschool early in the morning.

The Delhi Metro is also farfrom our place," said SnehaArora, a homemaker.

"I drop my son to schoolevery morning. How weird it isthat I am allowed to drop himbut I am supposed to pay finewhen I am returning? Insane itis. Now, every day, either I willtake a bus which of course moretime consuming or I will shellout more money in hiring a cabdaily twice a day," said RishikeshGoyal, a software engineer.

Many of them are consid-ering for car pooling to droptheir children and others willbe boarding school buses.However, those with youngkids are skeptical to leave theirkids in the custody of others.

There are some other par-ents who are thinking of buy-ing new vehicles to drop theirchildren to school. "Now thatthe odd-even scheme hascome back, we are planning tobuy a second hand car as ithas become a necessity," saida lawyer practicing at TisHazari Court.

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App-based taxi serviceproviders, including Ola

and Uber, temporari lystopped surge pricing onMonday after the Delhi Government took cog-nisance of some complaintsthat it received from com-muters that the cab serviceproviders were over chargingpassengers during the odd-even scheme.

However, Uber and Olatermed the surge pricing as'standard' and both the com-panies said they have tem-porarily stopped the peakpricing so as not to affect theDelhi Government's odd-eveninitiative.

Uber in its statement said,"Prices rise with demand butgiven the threat of the Delhi

Government to take stricteractions, we are temporarilysuspending surge with imme-diate effect."

Delhi Chief MinisterAr vind Kejr iwal a lsoexpressed his disapproval ofthe peak pricing and tweeted,"Strict action, incl permitcancellation n impoundingvehicle, to be taken againsttaxis which charge rates morethan govt prescribed rates."

The Delhi Commissioner(Transport) on Monday reit-erated the fares in Delhi whilenotifying the prescribed ratesby them. While Rs. 12.50 kmis notified for Economy RadioTaxis, Rs 14 per km and Rs 16per km were prescribed fornon-AC and AC Black andYellow Top Taxi respectively.

"The notified fare ofRadio Taxi cabs (distin-

guished by an LCD board onroof top displaying "RadioTaxi") is Rs 23.00 per km...Additional night charges (25per cent of the fare) areapplicable during 11 pm to 5pm. If any taxi is found to beovercharging, the DelhiGovernment will take strictaction in such cases includingcancellation of permit andimpounding of the vehicle,"said officer of the DelhiTransport Department.

On the same day, cityHigh Court Justice JR Midhaasked the Government to filea status report as to how it istaking action against the taxioperators who flout the rulesas it posted the matter for fur-ther hearing on April 25.

"When people are madeto suffer, the Governmentcannot wash off its handsand fail to take action," thecourt said, also noting that ifOla or Uber are advertisinglow fares and then charginghigh fares, then theGovernment must take actionagainst them.

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Even as Delhi TransportMinister Gopal Rai visited

BJP MP Vijay Goel' residenceon Monday requesting him torefrain from breaking odd-even rules by offering roses,Goel went on to violate thescheme. Moreover, he was noteven carrying his drivinglicense and insurance docu-ments of his vehicle.

"On my way to Parliamentin an odd numbered car toexpose #oddevencorruption ofAAP. Successful protest against

#oddevencorruption, a schemewid Maximum publicity &minimum effect (sic)," Goeltweeted earlier.

He was issued a challan ofRs 3,500 near Raisina Road bythe Delhi Traffic Police; Rs2,000 for violating the odd-even scheme and Rs 1,500 fordriving without carryinglicense and other documents.

"I have been imposed thefine of Rs 2,000 for violating theodd-even rules. Besides, I havebeen slapped fine of Rs 1,500for driving without license andvehicle insurance," Goel said.

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On one hand the AAPGovernment is at logger-

heads with a large number ofbureaucrats, on the other handit is all set to celebrate CivilServices Day on April 19(Tuesday) in the national Capital.

The occasion will seeaddresses by none other thanChief Minister Arvind Kejriwaland his deputy Manish Sisodia.

A circular to this effectissued by Deputy Secretary(GAD) Amitabh Kundoo said,"Civil Services Day is celebrat-ed on April 21 on each year. Aspart of the celebration, a func-tion is being held on April 19,where in the Chief Minister and

Deputy Chief Minister havegraciously agreed to share theirinsights with the civil servantsof Government of NationalCapital Territory of Delhi".

Asked why the AAPGovernment was celebratingCivil Services Day on April 19,a senior bureaucrat said officerswill be attending a programmeorganised by the BJP-ledGovernment at the Centre onCivil Services Day on April 21.This will be a second occasionwhen the city Governmentwill be celebrating the CivilServices Day.

The Civil Services Day isbeing celebrated on April 21every year since 2006 as it wason this particular day that thecountry's first Union HomeMinister Sardar Vallabh BhaiPatel addressed the first batchof civil servants in Independent

India at Metcalf House wherehe referred to civil servants asthe 'steel frame of India' .

In Delhi, a section of thebureaucrats have been at log-gerheads with the AAPGovernment over a host ofissues concerning policymaking and the day-to-daygovernance.

Also, Delhi earned the dis-tinction of becoming the firstUnion Territory where civil ser-vants went on a half day leave onDecember 31, in protest againstthe AAP Government's order tosuspend two special secretariesof the Home Department fornot toeing their line. A formerChief Secretary said, "The strikeby civil servants is a very seriousissue. It is also a rare occasionthat they have en-mass gone onstrike in any State or at theCentre in the past 68 years."

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Reoccurring mutilation ofthe national flag installed at

Pahari Mandir seems to havegone out of hand for the PahariMandir Vikas Samiti, the enti-ty responsible to maintain thecountry’s tallest tricolour.

The flag got damaged onceagain a few days ago was some-how brought down on Sunday.However, the managementinvited a different kind of trou-ble, when the flag got stuckmidway leaving it half-mastafter it tried to replace the tornflag with a new one.

It was flying half mast tillwriting of the report. Notably,the national flag is half-mastedif the Government declares toobserve State mourning on thedeath of a dignitary.

Ironically, the office-bear-ers of Samiti, who had gotDefence Minister ManoharParrikar and Chief MinisterRaghubar Das to hoist thetallest tricolor with much fan-fare, are either looking theother way or shooting the mes-

senger for the mess. When asked why any solu-

tion to the problem could notbe found out since the installa-tion of the 493 meter highnational flag unfurled onJanuary 23 last, Sub DivisionalOffice Aditya Kumar Anand,who happens to be the ex-offi-cio secretary of the Samiti,retorted, “We are looking at theperfect material for the flag.Can you (the media) help us infinding that?”

Anand snubbed the gener-al perception that the Samitihas been continuously showingdisrespect to the national flagand the episode has caused

embarrassment for the resi-dents. “There is no controver-sy whatsoever. This is a tech-nical issue. Earlier, the flag wasgetting torn due to high windspeed and this time the gear ofthe motor taking it up has stuckin the middle. These things arenot in our hands and we can-not guarantee that these issueswould not happen in future,”explained the SDO.

He also discarded the viewblaming the management forbeing wrong side of the FlagCode of India that prohibitsanyone from displaying the tri-color in mutilated State. Theflag was ripped at least fourtimes in the past, replaced afterdays of fluttering in the samecondition and now trappedhalf-mast after the gear trouble.

“Flag code says againstintentional disrespect to thetricolor which has not beendone here. It is getting torn dueto wind. We wait for the righttime as it may get damagedfurther if brought down in ahurry. Moreover, fixing thegear problem tops our priori-ty and we are in touch with thePune-based company that hadinstalled motor as well as ofsome local mechanics. Theproblem would be rectified byTuesday,” said the SDO.

The Samiti was also of theview that there is no fault indesign of the pole for the flag getting ripped apart againand again.

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From Page 1“We must not fail in this

regard. If we continue to adoptdouble standards in dealingwith terrorism it will have seri-ous consequences not just forour own countries, but theinternational community as awhole,” she said.

While talking about theroadmap for the RIC to tacklethe issue of terrorism, Swarajsaid there cannot be any dif-ference between good terroristsand bad terrorists.

“It is important that we giveup the distinction between‘good’ and ‘bad’ terrorists. Wewill also need to give up thetendency to differentiatebetween ‘my terrorists’ and‘your terrorists’. A terrorist is aterrorist, one who commitscrimes against humanity andnot against any nation,” shesaid. Swaraj said India, Chinaand Russia have been bearingthe brunt of terror networksand that time has come for thethree countries to play a lead-ership role in combating terrorglobally.

On the Swaraj-Wang meet-ing, Swarup said they assessedthe implementation of deci-sions taken during PrimeMinister Narendra Modi’s visitto China last May.

“The Ministers appreciat-ed the expanding trade andinvestment ties between Indiaand China. They underscoredthe importance of strengthen-

ing people to people ties. In thiscontext, Foreign Minister WangYi apprised External AffairsMinister of China’s decision toincrease the number of Indianpilgrims for the KailashMansarovar Yatra via NathuLa,” Swarup said.

Swaraj also met Lavrov onthe sidelines of the RIC meethere and raised issues of killingof an Indian and the death oftwo Indian girl students in afire tragedy in this countrybesides discussing key bilater-al matters.

Swaraj also expressedregret over an acid attack on aRussian girl in India recentlyand said India has ensuredtreatment for the girl in Indiaas well as in Russia.

A 23-year-old Russiannational was injured in the acidattack last November alleged-ly by her boyfriend following aquarrel between them.

Swaraj told AntoninaProkina, the mother of thevictim, that trial in the case hasbegun and that she was intouch with Chief Minister ofUttar Pradesh Akhilesh Yadavin connection with the case sothat the man behind the attackdoes not escape strong pun-ishment.

Lavrov thanked Swaraj fordealing with the case effectively.Lavrov, on his part, said bothcountries should continue towork closely to further expandbilateral ties. PTI

From Page 1Hours after creating histo-

ry by becoming the first Indiangymnast to qualify for theOlympics, Dipa Karmakarclinched the gold in vaultsfinals at the test event of the RioGames on Monday.

22-year-old Dipa scored14.833 as her best effort to fin-ish first in the women’s vaultsfinals and win the gold in a raresuch feat by an Indian gymnastin a global event.

Dipa, who is an AsianChampionship bronze medal-list, was originally placed onIndia’s reserve list for the testevent before being told lastmonth that she had been pro-moted to India’s main squad.

Accolades poured in forDipa with iconic cricketerSachin Tendulkar and SportsMinister Sarbananda Sonowalleading the sports fraternity inpraising her for the historic feat.

“ C o n g r a t u l a t i o n s#DipaKarmakar on creatinghistory with your qualification.You inspire young Indians withyour achievement. Best wishes,”Tendulkar tweeted.

“Many congratulations fortaking Indian gymnastics to anew high. Dipa Karmakar, weare so proud of you,” Sonowalwrote on his official twitterhandle.

Within hours of her qual-ification Dipa’s entitlementunder the Target OlympicPodium (TOP) Scheme, theGovernment’s initiative to fundOlympic medal prospects intheir preparations for thegames, was enhanced fromearlier Rs 20 lakh to Rs 30lakh.Dipa has been among thefirst lot of athletes who havebeen named under the TOPScheme last year.

Cricketing stalwartsVirender Sehwag and VVSLaxman and five-time chessworld champion ViswanathanAnand also saluted Dipa.

The daughter of aweightlifting coach at the SAIcentre in Agartala, Dipa start-ed gymnastics from the earlyage of six and has been coachedby Bisbeshwar Nandi.

However, Dipa did notenter the sport by choice, butwas initiated into it by herfather. In fact, Dipa’s fear offalling coupled with her flat feetmade her initial days in thesport quite tough.

Dipa’s flat feet used to affectthe spring in her jump andNandi had to work hard to bringthe arch in her feet. With time,she also managed to overcomeher fear of falling and started toimprove quite rapidly.

In 2010, she was part of theIndian gymnastic team in theCommonwealth Games heldin Delhi, where she saw AshishKumar create history by win-ning India’s first ever gymnas-tic medal. Dipa later said Kumarwas an inspiration for her.

Four years later in the 2014Commonwealth Games, Dipa

grabbed the bronze medal inthe women’s vault final. Shereceived an overall score of14.366. The medal made herthe first Indian woman to winin a Commonwealth Gamesgymnastic event.

Dipa attempted theProdunova vault, a move thatconsists of a front handspringand two front somersaults,which is one of the most diffi-cult and dangerous moves ingymnastics. However, Dipa’sattempt did not come off cleanas her bottom touched the matbefore she bounced back ontoher feet, which earned her apenalty of 0.1 point.

But Dipa earned the dis-tinction of being the highestscorer in the world to haveaccomplished the move.Among the contemporarygymnasts, only Yamilet Pena ofDominican Republic andFadwa Mahmoud of Egypthave attempted the Produnovavault and neither managed toscore as much as Dipa.

From Page 1help in smooth implemen-

tation of the scheme and sort-ing out the problem of ferryingschoolchildren.

Earlier in the day, Kejriwaland his Cabinet colleaguesSatyendra Jain carpooled withTransport Minister Gopal Rai inhis car to reach Delhi Secretariatwhich houses offices of allCabinet Ministers. SocialWelfare Minister SandeepKumar reached his office by buswhile Water Minister KapilMishra came by Metro. DeputyChief Minister Manish Sisodiareached his office in an evennumbered car with a UP regis-tration number, which was pro-vided by an event organiser ofNoida.

As many as 4,497 buses,

including 468 contract carriagebuses under Paryavaran BusSewa, were deployed by theDelhi Transport Corporation(DTC) to ferry passengers.While the ridership figures forMonday were not available,DTC buses had ferried around37 lakh passengers on the firstday of the odd-even phase II onFriday and around 39 lakh onSaturday. The figure is expect-ed be significantly higher forMonday being a working day.

Rai said that theGovernment is trying tostrengthen the public transportsystem. “We are constructing 12more bus depots and are buy-ing 1,000 new buses which willstart arriving from the firstweek of May… We will alsoconsider demands of the schoolsfor more buses after the newones arrive so that more school-children use them,” Rai said.

He also made an appeal topeople to help each other in

dropping and picking theirneighbors’ children in themeantime. “The reports so farindicate that 90 per cent of theparents smoothly picked anddropped their school-going chil-dren. But some people may havefaced problems. I urge parents,especially women, to help oneanother and drop other childrento their homes,” he said.

When asked about the BJP’saccusation that the Governmentis spending large amount ofmoney on advertisements forodd-even scheme, Rai said thatthe Government will spend asmuch money on the scheme asit is the demand of the hoursince it’s a matter of people’s life.“We are not doing it for our-selves. We are doing it for thepeople of Delhi. We will adver-tise it even more and spend allthe money required for odd-even scheme because it is a mat-ter of the life of the residents ofDelhi,” he said.

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From Page 1“You can file an affidavit.

You must either say that youhave a claim and you will pur-sue it or our order of dismissalof this petition may come in theway of your future claim,” theBench said.

Kumar agreed to considerthe matter from all aspects andstate the final stand of theGovernment on an affidavit tobe filed in six weeks.

New Delhi: Days after remov-ing its lawyer, DelhiGovernment on Monday toldthe Supreme Court that it didnot subscribe to the views pre-sented by him in the sensitiveSatluj-Yamuna Link (SYL)canal case and wanted to file itssubmission afresh.

The AAP Government tolda five-judge ConstitutionBench, headed by Justice ARDave, that it wanted to with-draw written submission filedby the lawyer Suresh Tripathy.

Seeking permission to filefresh submissions, the newly-appointed counsel appearingfor Delhi Government told thebench that documents werefiled without taking instruc-tions from the authorities and the government does notagree with the contents of thedocuments.

The apex court then askedthe Delhi Government to filean affidavit stating the reasonsfor filing fresh submissions.

“You must file an affidavit.We will consider the writtensubmission and pass appropriate directions,” theBench said.

In his submission beforethe apex court, Tripathy hadsaid that Delhi government isin favour of Haryana in the SYLcanal case, even as Delhi JalBoard (DJB) said he did nothave any permission from theconcerned authority.

PTI

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NEW DELHI: India hassought Chinese help to unrav-el the conspiracy of ISIS tospread its tentacles in thesub-continent and asked fordetails of the ‘chat conversa-tion’ an alleged Islamic Staterecruit from Maharashtra hadwith his handlers in Syriaand Iraq.

The NIA has sent LettersRogatory to China requestingfor the chat details of AreebMajeed, arrested by the anti-terror agency in December2014, with his handlers, offi-cial sources said on Monday.

Once the authorities inBeijing send in the detailsincluding location of his han-dlers in Syria and Iraq, theNIA will file a supplementarychargesheet in the ‘open case’it has registered against theterror group which controlsvast swathes of land and pop-ulation in the two countriesand declared a Caliphate, thesources said.

Majeed used ‘WeChat’messaging service for alleged-ly chatting with his handlersand the server was located in China.

The 24-year-old manfrom Kalyan landed inMumbai on November 28,2014 after spending nearlysix months in Iraq, followingwhich he was detained by thesecurity agencies and laterarrested. PTI

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ADelhi-based CentralGovernment employee’s 20-

year-long search for his youngersibling finally ended on a happynote last week with help fromsocial networking site Facebook.

The story, akin to aBollywood drama, had its twistsand turns before Vijay Nitnawarefinally met his brother Hansraj.

Vijay Nitnaware, 48, whoworks in the library of PressInformation Bureau here, lastsaw his younger brother HansrajNitnaware in May 1996, when heleft the family without inform-ing anyone as he was under stressafter failing his matriculationexamination.

“Hansraj was a good studentin his childhood, but he felt dis-turbed after death of my moth-er in 1995. He left the house atthe age of 15, days after he failedin the matric exam,” VijayNitnaware told IANS.

Vijay Nitnaware said hisfather died when Hansraj, theyoungest among the three broth-ers and a sister, was only ninemonths old.

The family, with Vijay as theeldest among siblings, hails fromWardha district of Maharashtraand was staying there whenHansraj left them.

Vijay said he registered acomplaint with the police aboutHansraj having gone missing. To

his surprise, Vijay got a letterfrom his missing brother after 15days. “Please don’t search for me.I am fine and will return onlyafter doing something big,” theletter said.

Vijay said he was happy toknow that his brother was alivebut his hope to trace himdimmed a bit as the last two dig-its of the pin code of the place oforigin of letter were not clearlyvisible.

“Through the first four dig-its, I got confirmation that theletter was sent from Gujarat. Ithen went to Gujarat, contactedsome of my local friends andgave advertisements about hishaving gone missing in the localnewspapers and some televisionchannels. But all my efforts wentin vain,” Vijay said.

Though saddened, Vijay didnot lose his patience and went onsearching for his brother. Thefamily’s search for Hansraj con-tinued even after Vijay and hisother siblings got married.

Vijay also took to the inter-net and the social media plat-forms Facebook and Twitter tosearch for his brother. In 2016,he contacted Facebook to seek itshelp in locating his brother.

Vijay said Facebook foundone Hansraj in Pune,Maharashtra, and contacted himwith his messages but the personrefused to recognise him (Vijay)as his brother.

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The Rajya Sabha has recon-stituted a three-member

panel investigating sexualharassment charges against SKGangele, a sitting judge of theMadhya Pradesh High Court.The panel was reconstituted forthe third time since it was setup by Rajya Sabha ChairmanHamid Ansari after admittingan impeachment motionagainst the judge. The motionwas supported by 58 MPs.

Supreme Court judgeJustice R Banumathi will nowhead the panel, the latest RajyaSabha bulletin said. Earlier, onMarch 17, Justice Rohinton FNariman was appointed thepresiding officer. On February10, Justice Ranjan Gogoi wasmade the head of the panelafter Justice Vikramjit Senretired as judge of the SupremeCourt on December 31 last.The successive bulletins havegiven no reasons for the recon-stitution of the committee.

The other members of thereconstituted panel, set up onApril 15 last, are JusticeManjula Chellur, Chief Justiceof the Calcutta High Court, andeminent jurist KK Venugopal.Justice Sen was the first pre-siding officer of the panel.

The 58 MPs, who movedthe impeachment motion,included Digvijaya Singh(Congress), Sitaram Yechury(CPI-M), Derek O’ Brien(TMC), Ram Gopal Yadav andJaya Bachchan (SP). The

motion called for initiating theimpeachment process againstJustice Gangele for alleged sex-ual harassment of a womanjudge in Gwalior.

The committee is investi-gating the charges and groundsfor removal of the judge andwill submit its report to theRajya Sabha Chairman. Thereport will then be tabled inboth Houses of Parliamentalong

with evidence. As per pro-visions of the Judges InquiryAct of 1968, if the motion isadmitted, the Speaker of LokSabha or the Chairman con-stitutes an investigation com-mittee consisting of threemembers.

The present motion liststhree "grounds of misconduct"for impeachment. They are"Sexual harassment" of thewoman judge, "victimisation"of the judge "for not submittingto his illegal and immoraldemands," including, but notlimited to, transferring herfrom Gwalior to Sidhi and"misusing" his position as theadministrative judge of theMP High Court to use the sub-ordinate judiciary to victimisethe judge.

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Giving a ray of hope tolakhs of people with

hemophilia, Chemicals andFert i l isers andPharmaceuticals MinisterAnanth Kumar on Mondaypitched in for affordabledrugs and better treatment forthe patients.

At an event organised bythe Hemophilia Federationof India here, Kumar pro-posed a meeting of all thestakeholders including thePharma Department,National PharmaceuticalPricing Authority (NPPA)and Health Ministry to dis-cuss the issues confrontingthe sector and move forward.

He also proposed takingup research related to thehemophilia in one of theNational Inst itute ofPharmaceutical Educationand Research (NIPER) underhis Ministry being planned inmore States in the country.

The Cabinet Minister alsosuggested taking up the issueof the factor concentrate (givento prevent bleeding) in theGovernment’s national plan.

At the event, earlierMeenakshi Lekhi, Lok Sabha

MP said, “We are trying to getHemophilia patients for get-ting sanctioned for bench-mark disability or under aspecial category of disability.”She also proposed launchinga project investigating bleed-ing orders in women.

Dr Kanjaksha Ghosh,President, Hemophil iaFederation of India, added,“We need to address the issueat a national level and thus,we would requestGovernment intervention at amacro level by means of fund-ing, expanding infrastructur-al support, making free fac-tors available and buildingtrained workforce to controlblood related disorders

including Hemophilia”.Hemophilia is a genetic

and life-threatening bleedingdisorder. Even with a minorinjury or cut, in hemophiliapatients’ blood does not clotnormally due to the absenceof clotting proteins calledAnti Hemophilia Factors(AHF).

If not taken care, recur-rent and prolonged bleedinginto joints and muscles canlead to permanent disabilityand bleeding from the sensi-tive organs can lead even todeath. The only possible treat-ment is infusion of life savingdrugs called AHF, which iscostly and not readily avail-able in the country.

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Two Central Ministers anda party spokesperson

Monday launched an attack onBihar Chief Minister NitishKumar over his call for ‘RSS-free’ India, saying the JD(U)leader never spoke againstorganisations like SIMI, ISISand LeT, who spread terrorand want to break the country.They also maintained that theCongress and otherOpposition parties were a col-lection of “failed and frustrat-ed politicians”.

The BJP asked as what roleCongress vice-presidentRahul Gandhi would play in“the National alliance underNitish Kumar” as “suggestedby Congress leaders DigvijaySingh and Shakeel Ahmed.

Parliamentary AffairsMinister Venkaiah Naidu saidKumar had no qualms in join-ing hands with a party thatruined the country andwarned public against such“casteist, communal and cor-rupt’ forces who are out to stopthe country’s growth.”

Naidu said while BJP’spolitical adversaries want tohave an ‘RSS-free’ India, PrimeMinister Narendra Modiwants the country to be freefrom poverty, corruption andunemployment.

“Beware countrymen, thecastiest, communal, corruptare coming together. They

want to stop growth of thecountry by forming an anti-BJP front,” he said.

IT Minister Ravi ShankarPrasad said, “Nitishji, RSS is agreat organisation committedto India. Why do you neverspeak against SIMI, ISIS andLeT, who spread terror andwant to break India.”

Taking a swipe at anti-BJP parties wanting to gettogether, Naidu said, “Theyhave no qualms in joining withthe party that ruled and ruinedthe country. They formed aunited front and became adivided front. Country hasseen many fronts; they formedfronts, erected tents and left

from the back.”In a tweet, he said, “Modi

ji wants Garibi Mukt Bharat,Brashtachar Mukt Bharat,Berojgari Mukt Bharat. Ouropponents want to have SanghMukt Bharat (Modi wantsIndia free from poverty, freefrom corruption, free fromunemployment. OurOpponents want to have RSS-free India).”

He added, “They wantRSS-free-India. They are notworried about ISI, ISIS.”Congress on Sunday backedthe JD(U) chief ’s call for a‘RSS-mukt’ India, saying thesaffron fountainhead was“posing a threat to the coun-

try’s unity and democracy”,while BJP had come outstrongly in defence of its men-tor, the RSS.

Kumar had mounted acounteroffensive against Modifor his ‘Congress-mukt Bharat’slogan, saying, “Sangh-muktBharat banane ke liye sabhigair BJP parties ko ek honahoga (to usher in a Sangh-free

India all non-BJP parties willhave to come together).”

BJP national secretarySrikant Sharma, however,asked as what role Congressvice-president is to play in thealliance headed by Kumar assuggested by Congress leadersDigvijay Singh and SakeelAhmed. Sharma sought clari-fication from Congress presi-

dent Sonia on the issue.Sharma said his party was

unfazed by Kumar’s efforts toform a united front to counterit and that such attempts tostop the Modi Government“from working for the devel-opment of the country and forthe poor will not succeed.” Theare failed and frustrated politi-cians,” said the BJP leader.

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The Ministry of Railway hasdecided to begin the civil

construction work on theMumbai—Ahmedabad BulletTrain project by next year sothat it becomes operational by2023. The special purpose vehi-cle (SPV) formed to implementthe project met for the secondtime in a week on Monday. Itwill meet again on Tuesday tofinalise the technical detailsincluding standardisationprocess for construction oftunneling, pillars, fencing andother requirement of the megaproject.

“Our aim is to start thework at the earliest. It wouldtake about seven years after theawarding of the contract for theproject to be completed as a lotof new technologies would beused to construct the high-speed corridor,” said a seniorRailway Ministry officialinvolved with the bullet trainproject. The meeting saw thepresence of top Railway Boardofficials and other stakeholdersincluding the authorities fromJapan which has offered tofund the project.

The SPV has been namedNational High Speed RailCorporation Limited compris-ing senior railway officials.The national transporter is inthe process of appointing aCEO for the job.

For timely completion ofthe project, a joint committeehas been formed under thevice-chairman of NITI Aayogwith the secretaries of theDepartment of IndustrialPolicy and Promotion (DIPP),Departments of Economic

Affairs and Foreign Ministry asits members along with theRailway Board Chairman.

“It was decided thatground works should begin in2017 and the operations shouldbegin in 2023,” said a railwayministry official. Japan hasoffered a concessional loan of�97,636 crore to fund about 80per cent of the project costwith a repayment period of 50years beginning from the 16thyear of operation at an interestrate of 0.1 per cent. Japan hasoffered a 15-year moratoriumon loan, so revenue concernsfor the Indian Railways willarise from the 16th year.

Sources said that the mem-bers were also informed that aIIM Ahemdabad report sug-gested that the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Bullet Train willhave to ferry 88,000-118,000passengers per day, or under-take 100 trips daily, for theRailways to keep it financiallyviable. The total distance cov-ered by the train will be 534kilometres.

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Alaw in place for the last 23 years thatdenied Delhi and other Union

Territories the right to set up their ownhuman rights commission is on its way out.

The Centre on Monday told theSupreme Court that it intends to amend TheProtection of Human Rights Act, 1993, bywhich other than States, even union terri-tories will be allowed to set up independenthuman rights panel to deal with complaintsof human rights violation.

The statement was made by SolicitorGeneral Ranjit Kumar while responding toa contempt petition in Supreme Court onMonday. The Court had directed Centre onJuly 24, 2015 to set up human rights com-mission (HRC) in Delhi, Himachal Pradesh,Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya,Tripura and Nagaland within six months.

With regard to States, the Centre had nodifficulty but the bone of contention wasDelhi. Kumar told the Court that Delhi is aUnion Territory and due to this reason,Delhi cannot have its own HRC. While theDelhi Government forwarded request forsetting up Delhi HRC, the proposal wasblocked by Centre citing the legal hurdle.The bench of Chief Justice TS Thakur andJustice UU Lalit told Kumar that Delhi wasa state for all other purpose than law andorder and land. Kumar showed a 1997 rul-ing by a Constitution Bench of Supreme

Court laying down that Delhi was a UT andnot State.

The bench said, “Till date you have notfiled a review against our order (of July2015). We are not on the legislativepower of UTs. All we want to knowis that should not UTs have a HRC…Are UTs so utopian that there are nohuman rights violations?”

Kumar informed Court that underthe prevailing practice complaints ofhuman rights in UTs were dealt with byNHRC. The bench replied, “You considerpeople of Daman and Diu, Andaman andNicobar and Puducherry to travel all the wayto Delhi to file human rights complaints. Wecan understand that some States cannotafford to have a HRC and you provide onethat is common to two States but you can-not create islands with regard to humanrights violation.” The Court directed Centreto file its response on the matter by April 29,the next date of hearing.

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Taking a serious note of thespate of tiger deaths in

Madhya Pradesh, the NationalTiger Conservation Authority(NTCA) has set up a panel thathas launched a probe into theincidents. A total of 18 big catshave died in the State sinceMay 2015.

The two-member commit-tee has already started its inves-tigation and visited the PenchTiger Reserve (PTR) wheredeaths of seven big cats out of 18were reported during last twelvemonths. The panel comprises DSwain, Inspector General ofForest, NTCA, Nagpur and ARChoudhary, Assistant Director ofWildlife Crime Control.

The latest death reportedwas that of an eight-month-oldorphaned cub which died of sep-ticemia or blood infection atKanha Tiger Reserve (KTR)earlier this month. The cub wasbrought to Kanha, a home fororphaned cubs, from PTR fol-lowing the death of mothertigress. It had some injurieswhen it was brought from Penchwhich led to septicemia.

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The Delhi High Court onMonday reserved its order

on pleas filed by Congress lead-ers against the trial court’s direc-tion to summon documentsfrom six Government depart-ments and balance sheets of theopposition party in the NationalHerald case. Justice PS Tejireserved the orders after hearingthe rebuttals argued by Congresslawyers led by Abhishek ManuSinghvi against BJP leaderSubramanian Swamy’s argu-ments to dismiss the petitions.

Singhvi, appearing forCongress general secretaryOscar Fernandes, told the courtthat there were “no reasons orobjects” in the application filedby Swamy in which he hadsought summoning of thesedocuments. He argued thatthere was “no application ofmind” by the trial judge whileallowing the plea and the highcourt was entitled to reverse theorder. “This court is entitled toreverse the order. This order isfit for reversal,” he said.

Earlier, Swamy had arguedthat the accused have no right

to say what are all the evidencesthe trial court judge want to seeto take decisions. TheMetropolitan Magistrate inJanuary directed sixGovernment departmentsincluding Income Tax andEnforcement Directorate tosummon the documents inrelated to the case. He alsosummoned the balance sheetsof 2010-11, the period whichscam took place of Congressand newspaper publishingcompany Associated JournalsLimited (AJL).

All the Government depart-ments and balance sheets aresubmitted to trail court and keptsealed cover. The accusedCongress leaders includingSonia Gandhi and RahulGandhi had argued in the trialcourt to keep the documents insealed cover till the matter isresolved in High Court. Thenext hearing of the case in trialcourt is scheduled on May 5.

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The Supreme Court on Mondaytook strong exception to

Maharashtra Government’s failure tocomply with its order to restartdance bars and set the final deadlinefor April 25.

Directing the DeputyCommissioner of Police, the officerconcerned with granting licenses todance bars, to remain present in

Court on that day, the benchof Justices Dipak Misra

and Shiva Kirti Singheven directed the Stateto file a complianceaffidavit giving detailsof the applications

processed.The court had direct-

ed the State on March 2 thisyear to allow reopening of dance barson fulfillment of certain pre-condi-tions framed by police. But thedance bar association complained tothe Court that the State had refusedto process their applications on onepretext or other. This was the sixthtime the state government had failedto honour Court ruling, the associ-ation's lawyer Jayant Bhushan point-ed out.

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In a blistering attack againstthe top Congress leadership

on the Ishrat Jahan controver-sy, the BJP on Monday soughtaccountability of Congresspresident Sonia Gandhi fortwo affidavits which “bore sig-natures” of the then UnionHome Minister PChidambaram expressing dif-ferent view on the encounter ofthe terror outfit LeT’s allegedwoman operative.

Lashing out at the topCongress leadership, the SeniorBJP leader and Union MinisterNirmala Sitharaman said “youhave mislead the country andthe court by filing two affidavitsunder oath in the court givingtwo different theories. bothcan’t be true.” Referring toreports at a Press conferencehere she said media has con-firmed that the first affidavithad signature of HomeMinister.

Asked whether the BJPGovernment at the centrewould go on prosecuting

Chidambaram for filing falseaffidavit, she said the matterwas pending in the court andshe was now speaking for theparty. “Let us see what is theresponse of the Government”,added the BJP leader.

Sitharaman said the matternow does not rest at the doorof Chidambaram and the issuedemands an explanation andaccountability of Congresspresident and vice-presidentRahul Gandhi. She alleged thatHaving failed to take on thethen Gujarat Chief MinisterNarednra Modi politically, theCongress employed conspira-torial action of filing a secondfalse affidavit to attack him.They tried to create a picture asif there was not terror threatagainst Modi.

“The entire Congress isparty to it and Congress pres-ident and vice-president shouldresponsibility for it. ...It is notChidambaram anymore butSonia undermined the securi-ty,” said the BJP leader.

She said by their false actsthe UPA Government had

compromised security of theGovernment by putting oneGovernment agency againstthe other (IB versus CBI) anddiluted the assets and the insti-tutions built over the years.

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Congress vice-presidentRahul Gandhi on Monday

said Prime Minister NarendraModi and Bengal ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjeewere two persons who werelavish in making promises butmiserable in keeping them.

Speaking in an electionrally at Raghunathganj inMurshidabad district Gandhisaid “the people brought Modito power after he promised twocrore jobs but got nothing inreturn.” Similarly he saidBanerjee had promised jobs to70 lakh people but not a singlejob was created.

“Today the situation is thatthe people of Bengal have tomigrate to other States foremployment.”

Banerjee was acting likeModi who “promised to bringblack money to India but didnothing against the likes ofVijay Mallya and Lalit Modi,”Gandhi said, adding the ChiefMinister also did nothingagainst the corrupt save mak-ing tall promises.

On Banerjee’s latest state-ment that she would takeaction on those found guilty inacts of corruption like Saradhaand Narada, Gandhi said timehad elapsed when she couldtake action. “Now it is for thepeople to act. You could have

taken action in the last fiveyears. But you refused to do so.It is too late now,” he saidadding “now it will be our turnwhen the Alliance Governmentwill act.”

The Congress had broughtthe Trinamool to power he saidadding “without the Congress’help the Trinamool could nothave won the 2011 elections. But

after the Parivartan the ChiefMinister herself changed. Herways changed, her conductchanged her style of function-ing changed. She forgot all herpromises made to the Congressand to the people of the State.There was no development, noindustry, no job in the past fiveyears.”

Gandhi said, “after coming

to power the AllianceGovernment will not only takeaccount of the corrupt peoplebut also it will give special focuson law and order situation andensure safety and security forwomen.”

Gandhi said though theChief Minister called herselfthe leader of the poor shewould do nothing to imple-ment the Food Securities Actwhich was implemented bythe UPA Government.

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Election-related violencecontinued in various parts

of Bengal with the rival polit-ical parties clashing againsteach other with bombs andbullets. In the process oneperson was killed and manypeople were injured inHooghly district.

Birbhum continued to boilthroughout the Sunday nightwhen Trinamool, Left and BJPcadres clashed against eachother with bombs and bullets.

Two persons sustainedbullet injuries in the skirmish.Sources said the Birbhum SPhad immediately suspendedthe officer in-charge of thelocal police station.

A company of CRPF hadbeen stationed at Parui, districtadministration said. Electionfor 11 seats had been con-ducted in Birbhum on Sunday.

Reacting to the violenceTrinamool strongman and dis-trict president of the partyAnubrata Mandal said “theCPI(M) attacked and so wereacted. We are not to takeattacks lying down. We willalso retaliate if attacked.”

The Commission wasplanning to issue fresh intern-ship (nazarband) orders forMandal who would bedebarred from venturing out ofBolpur his home town in thethird phase of the polls, sourcessaid.

At Jangipara in Hooghlythe BJP and Trinamool clashedagainst each other over themurder of a person even asboth the parties claimed thevictim to be their supporter.The person was hacked todeath on Sunday night.

Houses of rival politicalsupporters were torched inJalpaiguri, Malda and SouthDinajpur, police said.

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Days after Prime MinisterNarendra Modi attacked

Mamata Banerjee for makingthe Chief Secretary to send thereply of her electoral miscon-duct to the ElectionCommission, the Bengal ChiefMinister warned “those inDelhi who are trying to bringus to disrepute will have to paydearly.”

She told an election rallyat Memari in Burdwan thatthe Prime Minister was“influencing constitutionalbodies to suppress, tortureand insult States like Bengal.He is insulting us from Delhiby using his position. But wewill not forget it.”

The Chief Minister whohad been on the defensive onso many issues including vio-lence and corruption said “noone has the right to insult mejust because I am contestingelections. We are not your ser-vants. We are not scared of you.And remember if you shout Iwill blast.”

She said, “the way I ambeing insulted everyday … I

will take account of it all inchby inch,” adding, “Modiattacked me without takingfull information on what theElection Commission haddemanded from me. He isbringing the reference of IndiraGandhi who was suspended forsix months. But he made suchstatements without knowingthe real issue. How can some-one think of running the coun-try without so little informa-tion?”

The Commission had ear-lier asked Banerjee to explainher electoral misconductwhereby she had promisedthat Asansol would be made adistrict. She also threatened herOpposition saying she wouldsettle scores after May 19 whenthe election results were out.

Banerjee subsequentlymade the State Chief Secretaryto give the reply.

Incidentally, theCommission on Mondayrefused to accept the replysaying the notice had in factbeen sent to the leader of apolitical party and not a ChiefMinister though the addressmarked on the letter wasNabanna, the State secretariat.

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Gujarat bandh call given bythe agitating Patidar lead-

ers of Patidar AnamatAndolan Samiti (PAAS) andSardar Patel Group (SPG) —the two organisationsdemanding reservation fortheir Patel community underOBC category had lukewarmresponse as apart from fewPatidar dominated areas,almost life was normal in theState on Monday.

Most of the shops andother commercial establish-ments remained open acrossthe State — including sensitivecities like Ahmedabad, Surat,Rajkot and Mehsana apartfrom some Patidar dominat-ed areas there. However theState Government has decid-ed to continue ban on inter-net and mobile services inAhmedabad, Surat, Rajkotand Mehsana till Tuesday.

As precautionary mea-sure, the State Government-run ST buses were withdrawnin sensitive areas. Overallpeace was maintained in theState and curfew was lifted inthe North Gujarat townMehsana where violence cre-ated problem on Sunday.Section 144 (power to issueorder in urgent cases of nui-sance of apprehended danger)of the Code of CriminalProcedure which wasimposed in the town onSunday has also been lifted.

“Five companies of RapidAction Force (RAF) havebeen deployed in three cities— Mehsana, Surat andAhmedabad. In addition, 20companies of the StateReserve Police (SRP) havealso been posted across theState,” said sources in Statepolice control, adding that thepolice has lodged FIR againstSPG convener Lalji Patel and36 others for loot, rioting,arson, defying orders of policeand damaging public proper-ty. However there has been noarrest till Monday late eveningin this connection.

Countering the SPG con-vener Lalji Patel’s claim that hewas injured because police hithim, Mehsana police has clar-ified that SPG chief wasinjured not because of policebut as per the medical reporthe sustained injury due tostone pelting. If police wouldhave hit him, injury mighthave been on front side, buthe is injured from back side,said a senior police official.

It is worth mentioningthat following the ‘Jail BharoAndolan’ of agitating Patidarswho were demanding imme-diate release of their jailedleader Hardik Patel turnedviolent in parts of the State.The administration had toimposed curfew in Mehsanaon Sunday to control the sit-uation as some of the agitatorsmarched to police station inMehsana and a district jail inSurat. Police took nearly 1,000people into preventive cus-tody to maintain law andorder situation in the State.

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Apart from bringing relief tothe people, the thunder-

storm and heavy rain inHyderabad and other parts ofTelangana State also wreakedhavoc. The gale winds andrains, which continued till latein to the night uprooted treesand hoardings and disruptedpower supply at many places.

At least four people werekilled at different places due tothe lightning. The deaths werereported from Ranga Reddy,Mehbubnagar and Adilabaddistrict in Telangana andKurnool district in AndhraPradesh. Thunderstorm alsostruck parts of Kurnool districtwhere an under construction 54feet tall idol of Lord Hanumancollapsed in Panyam Mandal.

India MeteorologicalCentre at Hyderabad said thatthe thunder showers wereresult of Cumulonimbus cloudcover over the region. Weatherscientist Narasimha Rao saidthat more rains are likely inTelangana over the next cou-ple of days as winds wereblowing from Bay of Bengaltowards coastal Andhra andTelangana region.

However, the situation inmost parts of neighbouringAndhra Pradesh remainunchanged as heatwave con-ditions continued inRayalaseem and parts ofcoastal Andhra Pradesh onMonday.

Weather office warned thatthe heatwave will continue atmany places in AP over thenext 48 hours as the tempera-ture was hovering between 42

to 44 degrees Celsius at sever-al places in the State.

While there was a signifi-cant fall in the day temperaturein Hyderabad bringing a hugerelief to the people, other dis-tricts were still unbearably hot,officials said. In Hyderabad,minimum temperature fell to28 degrees Celsius while themaximum day temperature onSunday was 42 degrees.

Meanwhile, the AndhraPradesh Government hasassured the State High Courtthat it was taking all the nec-essary measures to ease the suf-ferings of the people in the faceof the heatwave. In its report tothe court the Government saidthat it opened 6,971 drinkingwater supply kiosks, 3,084shelters, 1,0945 health camps

and distributed 611,209 pack-ets of Oral Rehydration Salts.The Government also assuredthe court that it will pay com-pensation to the families of thevictims of the heatwave.

According to an estimate60 people have died in AndhraPradesh during the last fewdays of heatwave.

The AP Cabinet, whichmet in Vijaywada on Mondaydecided to supply butter-milkfree of cost at all the drinkingwater supply centres. Cooldrinking water will also be dis-tributed at all the public places— including bus stations, rail-way stations and markets, theGovernment said. For thispurpose the Government wasreleasing �3 crore to each ofthe ten districts in the State.

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Ahead of the day-long visit ofPrime Minister Narendra

Modi to Jammu & Kashmir onTuesday, Kamlesh Devi, widowof Chamel Singh, an Indianfarmer brutally murderedinside Pakistan’s Kot Lakhpatjail in January 2013, has madeanother passionate appeal tohim to listen to their ‘mann kibaat’ and acknowledge the sac-rifice of her deceased husband.

“It’s over three years nowwhen my husband was merci-lessly murdered inside the KotLakhpat jail in Pakistan onJanuary 15, 2013 but i am stillwaiting for the compensationfrom the State/Centre,”Kamlesh Devi told The Pioneer.

She said her pleas so far havefallen on deaf ears. “My husbandwas an Indian national when hewas captured alive and later con-victed by a Pak court undercharges of espionage.”

“After he was murderedinside the Pak jail I have devel-oped a suspicion in my mindwhy his sacrifice has beenignored and why he is notbeen treated as an Indiannational whose family neededGovernment support in hisabsence,” she added.

“Barring lip-service bynational and State leaders noone has come forward to helpme lead peaceful and dignifiedlife. I have been deprived ofadequate compensation by the

successive State/CentreGovernments”, she lamented.

In her appeal to the PrimeMinister who is arriving here toinaugurate Super SpecialityHospital constructed by theShri Mata Vaishno Devi ShrineBoard and attend fifth convo-cation of the Shri Mata VaishnoDevi University (SMVDU)Kamlesh Devi said, “My hus-band staked his life for themother nation but there is noone who can support my chil-dren and deliver justice to us.”

Referring to the story ofSarabjit Singh, who too wastargeted and killed by jailinmates inside the same jail inApril 2013, her younger sonDeepak Singh said, “Story ofSarabjit Singh is going to hit thescreens and already hogging allthe limelight but script of ourstory remains the same”.

He said, “Dalbir Kaur, eldersister of Sarabjit Singh high-lighted his plight inside the Pak

jail and fought against the sys-tem to earn justice for herbrother’s family. the PunjabGovernment gave �1 crore andthe Congress-led UPA Govtannounced �25 lakh compen-sation for him from the PM’srelief fund besides accordinghim status of a ‘martyr’. On theother hand, We are still strug-gling to make both ends meet”,Singh told The Pioneer.

“We were small kids whenour father went missing fromhis fields in 2008. There was noone at home to plead our caseat the highest level. We kept suf-fering in isolation. We could noteven study in the absence ofearning member of the family.Now we are spending our youthin earning justice for our moth-er and running the kitchen fire”.

He said despite submittingour grievance in the PrimeMinister’s Office and high-lighting out plight throughlocal BJP leaders we have failed

to earn justice.“I am still earning �120 per

day as labourer in my native vil-lage of Pargwal. No one fromthe State Government or theCentre came forward to help us”.

Deepak said, “I have recent-ly submitted a fresh applicationin January 2016 through theregistered post in offices of thePrime Minister and UnionHome Minister but so far I havenot received any response fromtheir offices as well”.

His mother Kamlesh Devisaid, during elections BJPleaders raised the issue ofinjustice meted out to myhusband in Pak jail and alsopromised all possible help. “Itis very unfortunate after win-ning the elections in both theCentre and State the sameBJP leaders who gave shoulderto the coffin of my husbanddumped him.”

Deepak Singh said, at pre-sent family of another Indianprisoner Kirpal Singh fromGurdaspur is waiting for themortal remains and the Govt ofIndia is caught in a Catch 22situation after he died undermysterious circumstancesinside the same jail.

He regretted Dalbir Kouraccompanied family of KirpalSingh and met Union HomeMinister seeking interventionof the Union Home Ministry atthe highest level but in case ofChamel Singh no one came for-ward to help the family.

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Activists and members of KarnatakaRajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS) and

Hasiru Sene on Monday took out a protestrally in Mandya — the heartland ofCauvery valley — demanding sugarcanedues to the farmers.

According to farmers, the sugar millsin the district, including the StateGovernment-owned Mysore SugarCompany Ltd (Mysugar) and thePandavapura Sahakari Sakkare Kharkhane(PSSK) in the cooperative sector, owe at

least �200 crore to farmers who suppliedcane. According to farmers the mills in thedistrict have to clear dues for the cane pro-cured from suppliers for the crushing sea-sons 2014-15 and 2015-16.

Farmers’ leader and MLA KSPuttannaiah demanded the dues be paidto the farmers immediately or otherwisethey would continue agitation across theState. Hundreds of farmers took out therally from Silver Jubilee Park on theBengaluru-Mysuru highway to the DeputyCommissioner’s office, where they stageda dharna. The traffic between Mysuru and

Bengaluru was affected due to the farm-ers’ protest.

The farmers demanded that the StateGovernment should initiate stringentaction against the mills that have failed topay the statutory fair and remunerativeprice (FRP), mandated by the Governmentto sugarcane suppliers.

Puttannaiah, urged the StateGovernment to revive the sick MysoreSugar Company Ltd (Mysugar mill),appoint a senior IAS officer to the mill asa managing director and initiate droughtrelief measures in the district.

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Srinagar: Jammu & KashmirGovernment on Mondayordered probe by AdditionalDistrict Magistrate into thefiring incident of April 12 inHandwara in which three civil-ians were killed.

"District Magistrate,Kupwara has appointedAdditional District Magistrate(ADM) Handwara, PeerMuzaffar Ahmad, as inquiryofficer to probe the firing inci-dent in Handwara which tookplace on April 12, 2016," anofficial spokesman said.

The spokesman said anyperson acquainted with thefacts of the incident anddesirous to depose can getstatement recorded before theinqruiy officer at Handwarafrom April 20 to April 30.

Three persons including awoman were killed in firing bysecurity forces on protestors onTuesday last during violent

protests against allegedmolestation of a girl inHandwara town of Kupwaradistrict in north Kashmir. PTI

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After National Institute ofTechnology (NIT) Srinagar

witnessed unrest between localand outstation students fromdifferent parts of the countryfresh clashes broke out betweentwo student groups inside BabaGhulam Shah BadshahUniversity (BGSBU) in Rajouridistrict of Jammu region onMonday.

The situation was volatilein the campus as studentgroups armed with sticksroamed freely wearing masksand targeted each other for sev-eral hours. At least half a dozenvehicles were torched/dam-aged by the student groupsbefore police teams wererushed to the campus to restoreorder.

The campus was witness-ing unrest for past several daysfollowing heated argumentsbetween the two group of stu-dents over bunking of classes.

The university authoritiesclaimed to have brokered apeace deal between the studentgroups late Sunday evening.Hostel warden, Proctor and

other faculty members facili-tated the negotiations betweenthe two groups fearing flare up.As was expected, the situationtook an ugly turn after some

hostellers were attacked by thelocal students on Mondaymorning.

Speaking to The PioneerRegistrar of the University

Ataat Hussain said, “the twostudent groups clashed witheach other after a group oflocal students targeted someKashmir based hostellersMonday morning”. In retalia-tion the students from kash-mir torched/damaged some ofthe vehicles parked in thecampus. He said it was aminor issue but the studentgroups were not ready to bendand reconcile.

He said some of the localand kashmiri students havereceived minor injuries but noone was seriously injured.

He said after the arrival of

police teams the student groupswere segregated and kashmirbased students were sent insidetheir hostel rooms while localstudents were counselled by thepolice officials who rushed tothe spot to prevent violentclashes in the evening.

Senior University authori-ties including Vice ChancellorProf Javed Musarrat interactedwith the student groups sepa-rately in the evening and madeefforts to pacify them.Thepolice teams led by SSP Rajouriwere stationed in the campus toinstil sense of security amongthe student groups.

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Two broad daylight crimeincidents in Bihar on

Monday in which one Sub-Inspector (SI) of Police wasshot dead and one bombexploded in Chhapra courtleaving three women injured.

SI Suresh Thakur was shotdead by two unknown bike-borne assailants at Gaurakshniarea of Barh in Patna districtwhen he was returning toMaranchi police station wherehe was posted. Thakur, policesaid, was returning afterobtaining a notice for proper-ty attachment in a case fromBarh court, said Maranchipolice station incharge DineshBahadur Singh. Thakur’s ser-vice revolver was also foundmissing, police said. The policeassociation has given an ulti-matum to the Government toarrest the culprits in 24 hours.

Thakur who belonged toBegusarai district died on thespot. Barh and its adjoiningareas are crime infested andgang war and killing is a com-mon feature. Though the policedid not say about the possiblereasons behind the murder ofthe SI, it is suspected that healso became victim of gangrivalry or killed by the partyagainst whom the cop hadobtained property attachmentorder from the court.

Meanwhile, a bomb wasexploded in the premises ofChhapra court on Mondaymorning allegedly triggeredby a woman KhushbooKumari, who was also wound-ed in the blast. Kumari isinvolved in one criminal caseand the case was scheduled forhearing on Tuesday. At leastthree other women were alsoinjured. One woman, who waseye witness to the incidentsaid a woman was sitting closeto her and she saw her pullingout something from her bagafter which there was a bigexplosion.

ADG headquarters Sunil

Kumar said six cops have beensuspended for dereliction induty and after the inquiryreport nobody found involvedin the incident would bespared.

The Patna High Court alsotook serious notice of the bombblast in Chhapra court premis-es and summoned DGP ofpolice PK Thakur. The courtexpressed its unhappiness overbomb explosions in courtpremises one after another andasked what the Governmentwas doing to check it. In recenttimes in three court premisesin Hajipur, Ara and Sasarambombs were exploded.

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As Jayalalithaa, theAIADMK general secre-

tary as well as the generalissi-mo of her party and cadrewound up her fifth campaignrally for the May 16 Assemblyelection, what stands out is hertotal disregard for theVijayakant-led People’sWelfare Front, the BJP-ledfront and the PMK frontwhich constitute the line-upfor the battle royale. Hermodus operandi is to list thedetails of the good works herGovernment had deliveredduring the last five years andto go for an all out attack onher bête noir MuthuvelKarunanidhi and the DMKwhom she allege are spreadingcanards and lies about herGovernment.

Though the PWF, PMKand the BJP led fronts haveunleashed vicious attacks onthe AIADMK and the DMKGovernments which werealternatively ruling TamilNadu for the last five decades,Jayalalithaa has surprisinglychosen to ignore these “minorcharacters” and focus her fir-ing on Karunanidhi and theDMK. During the last five ral-lies, including the one which

concluded in Kancheepuramon Monday, she did not men-tion anybody’s name otherthan that of nonagenarianKarunanidhi.

In her f irst rally atChennai she blastedKarunanidhi for lifting theprohibition in 1971 in spite ofrequests by freedom fighter CRajagopalari not to do so.“Karunanidhi is responsiblefor a generation in Tamil Nadu

becoming addicted to liquor,”alleged Jayalalithaa. As theDMK leader took three days tocome out with a response,Jayalalithaa had heli-hopped toDharmapuri to unleash yetanother broadside againstKarunanidhi for cedingKatchatheevu islet to Sri Lankain 1974 which is the rootcause of the sufferings of fish-ermen from Tamil Nadu. TheDMK leadership is yet torecover from this charge asKarunanidhi and Stalin spokein different languages aboutthe ceding of Katchchatheev.While Karunanidhi said hehad opposed the transfer ofthe islet, the CongressGovernment at the Centre didnot heed to his requests.

Stalin said the transfertook place during the emer-gency (1975). But Karunanidhihimself said that the islet was

handed over to the islandnation in 1974. While theDMK leadership is strugglingto find suitable explanations toJayalalithaa’s charges, she is inan aggressive mood and com-ing out with more and morecharges even as she takes off toaddress the next rally.

“This is an attempt by theAIADMK and the DMK tokeep the other fronts off theCentre stage. Both the partiesare trying to keep the focus oneach other to deny space toother political formations,”said R Rangaraj, politicalobserver. He pointed out thatwhile Jayaalithaa attacks onlyKarunanidhi, the latter targetsonly the Amma and ignoresthe others. “Both theAIADMK and the DMK areunited in keeping others awayfrom the race for Fort SaintGeorge,” he said.

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Apre-poll survey byIppothu.com, a Chennai

based digital news start-up,has found that the rulingAIADMK led by J Jayalalithaais all set to score a landslidevictory in the May 16 electionto the Tamil Nadu Assembly.A sample survey held acrossthe State in the second week ofApril says that the AIADMK-led alliance would win 210 to218 seats in the Assemblyelection.

The survey, led by PeerMohammed (39), a widelyrespected scribe in TamilNadu, has some shockingnews for the Karunanidhi-ledDMK. “The DMK-led alliancecould end up behind theVijayakanth-led alliance,though both will get only fewseats,” said the survey results.

According to PeerMohammed, who personallyled the team of investigatorsand drafted the questionnaire,the survey covered a sample ofa little over 4,500 voters. “Thevoters were chosen from thevoters’ list using the followingcriteria: One out of every twovoters is a woman; One out ofevery three voters is in the agegroup 18-30 years; One out of

every three voters is in the agegroup 30-55 years; One out ofevery three voters is in the agegroup above 55 years old,” saidMohammed.

Mohammed said he com-missioned the best brains inthe industry to decipher thefindings and reach the figureswhich may not be welcomedboth by the DMK front as wellas the PWF. Though hedeclined to reveal the name ofthe agency which analysedthe findings, he said the iden-tity of the experts have beenkept secret only for the timebeing.

Mohammed said the sur-vey found that 90 per cent ofthe rural population and morethan 50 per cent of the urban

population have embraced theAIADMK because of the seriesof welfare measures launchedby Jayalalithaa during the lastfive years. The survey has alsofound that the BJP and thePMK are likely to draw ablank in Tamil Nadu. He alsosaid that if the present trendcontinues in Tamil Nadu forthe next 28 days, Jayalalithaais on the verge of creating his-tory in Tamil Nadu by becom-ing the first chief minister afterM G Ramachandran to wintwo successive assembly elec-tions. The last time TamilNadu saw a reigning chiefminister winning an assemblyelection to comeback to powerwas in 1984 when MGR, Jaya’smentor returned to power.

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Commenting on the reac-tions in political circles

over his Saturday remark thatall parties should close ranksagainst the BJP to eliminate theideologies of the Sangh, ChiefMinister Nitish Kumar onMonday said the way the BJPleaders were reacting onlyshowed that they were scaredof even an idea of unity amongnon-BJP parties particularlyafter the experience in BiharAssembly polls.

“They (BJP) fully under-stand what would be the resultif the non-BJP parties have sortof understanding and alliancein other States and on thenational level. The desperatestatements of some leadersshowed my statement hit themhard and they are scared of theopposition unity. Everybodyknows what happened in Biharwhen only three parties madean alliance,” Nitish said while

talking to media people on thesidelines of his janata darbar onMonday.

Nitish, who is also nation-al president of JD(U), saidunity among parties — includ-ing Congress and Left — doesnot mean merger but maxi-mum possible unity, under-standing and alliance. “This ismy personal opinion and weare countering Sangh ideolog-ically and politically. We areagainst the ideologies of theSangh including RSS and BJP.They preach divisive ideologiesand want to divide the societyand the country and misleadpeople with their slogans andrumours. For the unity of thecountry mutual understandingand harmony and tolerance ismust,” he added.

Asked why his party con-tinued alliance with the BJP fora longer time, Nitish explainedthat his party joined the NDAon certain condition, one ofthem was that BJP would not

rake up controversial issues likeArticle 370, Ayodhya, commoncivil code etc. He said the BJPleadership adhered to coalitiondharma and did not touchthese issues until the change ofguard in the party. “When wefelt that BJP was deviatingfrom its mutually agreed prin-ciples we decided to p[-artways and ours decision wasright. We refused to subscribeto their ideologies,” said theJD(U) president.

On the issue of party’sRajya Sabha member AnilSahni, whose prosecution hasbeen sanctioned by the chair-man of the Upper House in acorruption case of travelallowance, Nitish said heshould have resigned from theparliament after the CBI’schargesheet and prosecutionsanction by the Vice President.“The stand of our party isvery clear. This is a question ofethics and if the parliamentarypanel strip him of his mem-

bership it will be very logical.If he refuses to resign, theparty will act,” said Nitish.

The CM was unhappy overthe attitude of some neigh-bouring State Government inresponse to his total prohibitionin Bihar and said there were

reports that the Governmentswere issuing new licenses foropening liquor shops on bor-der areas. He said, “I took abrave initiative and they shouldhelp us. The people in thoseStates have started demandingtotal prohibition on the lines of

Bihar and the Governmentswould not be in a position tosuppress such demands.” Healso said that on the invitationof some organizations he wouldgo to UP, Jharkhand andOdisha to extend moral sup-port to their demand.

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Within days after she creat-ed a major stir in the State

political circles opposing dis-continuation of water supply tothe liquor and other manufac-turing units in drought-hitMarathwada Maharashtra’s ruraldevelopment Minister PankajaMunde on Monday landed in afresh controversy for clickingselfies while touring drought-affected areas.

A day after she took the self-ies in the backdrop of Manjarariver where de-silting work wasgoing on Sunday, the Shiv Senaand Opposition leaders hit outat her for her “insensitive” act oftaking selfies in a drought-affected region.

After taking the selfie onher, she shared the photographon the social media with atweet: “Selfie with trench of said

barrage (in) Manjara (river)..relief to Latur,”

After she was trolled onsocial media for taking “selfies”in the drought-affected, Panjkajaexplained as to why she took theselfie from mobile phone.“During my visit to Latur onSunday, I held several meetingsto review drinking water prob-lem. During my visit to Latur, Ialso inspected the de-siltingwork being carried out there.When I visited Sai bandharabuilding Manjara river, I felt sat-isfied seeing water there becauseof the de-silting work donethere. Seeing water in such aparched area brought me hap-piness. That’s why I took pho-tographs and recorded the eventon a video using my mobile”

“The photograph that I tookin 45 degree heat was in appre-ciation of the excellent de-siltingwork done at the Sai bhandara.

There was absolutely excite-ment there. What I did wasborne out of satisfaction that Iderived from what I saw,”Pankaja said, reacting to criti-cism from various quarters.

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Though, I was born aHindu, I solemnly assureyou that I will not die asa Hindu.” So said BRAmbedkar, independent

India’s first Law Minister, who iscredited with reviving Buddhismcenturies after its decimation byiconoclasts. As Ambedkarrenounced his Hindu roots indespair over repeated indignitiesheaped upon him, and led his fol-lowers into the Buddhist fold, heinadvertently cemented an erro-neous belief that Buddhism was aseparate faith that arose out of arevolt from Hindu dharma. ThisWest-sponsored view has sincefound many adherents.

So entrenched is this belief thateven the recognition of Buddha asan avatar of Vishnu is often dis-missed as a fraudulent manoeuvreto soften criticism of the Hinducreed. The truth is that it wasBuddha who proclaimed this lin-eage. In the Dasaratha Jataka, henarrates the story of Rama and says:“At that time the king Suddhodana(Buddha’s father) was the KingDasaratha, Mahamayi (Buddha’smother) was the mother, Rahula’s(Buddha’s son) mother was Sita,Ananda was Bharat, and I myselfwas Rama-pandita”.

This was well-known toBuddhists. A third century CEPrakrit inscription of the 14th reg-nal year of king Virapurushardattaof the Ikshvaku house of Vijayapuriin Nagarjunakonda valley, hailsBuddha as “born in the family thatproduced hundreds of great royalsages such as Ikshvaku” (Iksvaku-raja-pravararsi-sata-prabhava-vamsa-sambhava).

Moreover, Shakya Muni wasclearly a Vedic Hindu; Buddhisttradition asserts that following hisenlightenment, he preached hiswisdom to mankind only at theurging of the Vedic gods, Indraand Brahma. It is pertinent thatIndra’s weapon, the vajra (thun-derbolt), is the principal symbolof Tibetan Buddhism.

Nor did Buddha reject thecaste system per se; as an enlight-ened being, a person of prestige,he called himself a “Brahmin”.Most of his followers were uppercaste and all later Buddhistthinkers were Brahmins. Thefuture Buddha, Maitreya, is pre-dicted to be a Brahmin, accord-ing to Buddhist tradition.

Scholars recognise thatBuddhist ideas are consistent withthe philosophy of the Upanishads.Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, schol-ar, President of India, and fatherof Nehruvian academic, S Gopal,said Buddha was not untouched

by the intellectual ferment of histime regarding the struggles andexperiences of the soul, whichwere part of “that supreme workof the Indian genius, theUpanishads”. Buddha divergedfrom the prevalent conventionalritualistic religion, but did notabandon the living spirit behind it.He himself admitted that thedharma which he had discoveredthrough strenuous efforts is theancient way, the Aryan path, theeternal dharma, which he adapt-ed to meet the needs of the age.

Rhys Davids too, asserts that:“Gautama was born and broughtup and lived and died a Hindu”.There is not much in Buddhistmetaphysics, morality and teach-ings which cannot be found in oneor other of the orthodox systems.Buddha’s originality lay in themanner in which he adopted,enlarged, and carried out to theirlogical conclusion principles ofequity and justice admitted byimportant Hindu thinkers.

The Upanishads shareBuddha’s contempt for ritualism.Buddhism shares the fundamen-tal Hindu belief in the law of kar-maand the soul’s quest for nirvana.

Buddha did not feel any disconnectwith Hindu society and classedBrahmins along with Buddhistmendicants, bhiku being a term ofhonour. Buddhism became anindependent faith when it travelledoutside its Hindu milieu in India;within India it was nourished byKings, merchants and lay devoteeswithin the fold of orthodox belief.

Like the Upanishads, Buddharepudiated the authority of theVedas, in that both resisted themechanical theory of sacrifices,insisting that there is no releasefrom re-birth by the performanceof sacrifice or practice of penance.Rather, liberation comes from theperception of truth, the knowledgeof reality at the basis of all exis-tence. Both admit that the absolutereality — described as neithervoid, nor not void, nor both, norneither — is incomprehensible byintellect. Buddha accepted theidealism of the Upanishads andmade it available to mankind.

Though Buddha was critical ofthe jati system he neither dis-owned it completely nor demonisedit, but at times seemed to endorseit. S Radhakrishnan observed thatBuddha did not oppose caste, but

adopted the Upanishadic view thatthe Brahmin or leader of society isnot so much a Brahmin by birth asby character: “Not by birth is onea Brahmin, not by birth is one anoutcast; by deeds is one a Brahmin,by deeds is one an outcast”.

Buddha admitted all castesinto the sangha (monastic order) onthe premise that all men couldattain perfect knowledge throughmeditation and self-control. Hedented caste exclusiveness, but didnot abolish it, as only the eruditecould fathom his complex philos-ophy, which is why most of his earlydisciples were Brahmins. Not oncein his lifetime did Buddha claim tobe founding a new religion.

Yet this canard of Buddhism atdaggers drawn with Hindu dhar-ma is being invoked to instigatecaste tensions. Recently, RadhikaVemula and Raja Chaitanya, moth-er and brother of University ofHyderabad student Rohith Vemula,travelled to Nagpur to embraceBuddhism on Ambedkar Jayanti.Vemula had committed suicidesome months ago, possibly disillu-sioned with the sterile campus pol-itics he had been lured into. Now,his family has succumbed to polit-ical mentors with an agenda and isrepudiating its multi-caste identi-ty, viz, OBC father (Vaddera) andScheduled Caste (Mala) mother.

While children are entitled toclaim quota benefits via the parenteligible under reservation norms,sterile politics could compromiseRaja’s academic prospects. He hasa prestigious project fellowship atthe National Geophysical ResearchInstitute, Hyderabad. His well-wishers should not instigate him tobe political cannon fodder likeJawaharlal Nehru UniversityStudent’s Union president,Kanhaiya Kumar, who may be stag-nating academically and hasgrabbed the political lifeline thrownby his communist mentors.

India needs a new discourseon caste, given its growing divisive-ness. Amidst the Bihar election lastNovember, Jamui MP, ChiragPaswan, expressed a desire to notbe defined by ‘jati’ identity and lim-ited to being a ‘Dalit’ leader.Recently, he urged well-off SC fam-ilies to renounce quotas for thebenefit of the truly needy. Onlysuch original thinking and initia-tives can end the corrosiveness ofidentity politics. Others should takea leaf from this book and refrainfrom accusing Buddha, one ofIndia’s greatest sons, of rupturingits civilisation. Reducing Buddha’suniversal teaching to a casteist ide-ological weapon must also befirmly repudiated.'

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Sir — This refers to the article,“Third Front. Now on, now off...”(April 18) by KG Suresh. Thewriter has rightly talked about thefeasibility of the much-hyped ‘thirdalternative’ at the Centre, with boththe Bharatiya Janata Party and theCongress facing disillusionment,with their failure to live up to thepeople’s expectations.

The author is spot on to sug-gest that there is spacious room forthe Third Front in our democracybut only if it is made sure that thisthird alternative does not appear outof the blue, but evolves leisurelyinstead, keeping the opportunist ele-ments at bay and adhering tonational interests as a top priority.Hence, a common minimum pro-gramme must be reached andacted upon by all the alliances atboth the State level as well as at thenational level.

Azhar A KhanRampur

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Mallya in real trouble” (April 18).Industrialist Vijay Mallya, instead ofpaying his debts, is negotiating withhis lenders. Hopefully, the suspen-

sion of his passport will be the finalnail in the coffin. The extraditionprocess will be lengthy, but it lookslike Mallya has run out of optionand he should now face the law ofthis land. He cannot keep avoidingthe Enforcement Directorate’s sum-mons forever. General perceptionhas gone completely against himdue to his escapist attitude.

Bal GovindNoida

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Sir — President PranabMukherjee’s concept on judicialactivism is apparently ambiguousand incomprehensible.Undoubtedly, in the past manydecades, the country has wit-nessed a number of judicial inter-ventions, particularly by theSupreme Court, to protect thegenuine interests of the nation asguaranteed by the Constitution,and, therefore, terming suchinterventions as judicial activismis comprehensively misleadingand also irrational.

In our secular democracy,despite the Constitution’s unassail-able sovereignty, judicial activismwill continue to be inevitable, solong as there are deep flaws.

TKM Kumbalamchuvattil Muvattupuzha

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Sir — This refers to the article,“Selective amnesia of students’leader sullies university’s image”(April 16) by Anish Gupta.Jawaharlal Nehru UniversityStudents Union president KanhaiyaKumar is studying at the universi-ty at the cost of the tax-payers’money. His first responsibility is tocomplete his education, but whywill he do so? He is good at play-ing campus politics.

Bharati Via web

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Sir — This refers to the article,“Selective amnesia of students’leader sullies university’s image”(April 16) by Anish Gupta. Themedia is unnecessarily givingimportance to the students unionleader Kanhaiya Kumar. He isnothing but a good orator who canarouse the passion of the audience.However, he will become a non-entity after some time. He cannotbeat around the bush for ever.

Venkataraman Jagadesan Via web

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Three schemes that havebeen in the news recent-ly — the National

Agriculture Market, theGramoday se Bharat UdayAbhiyan, and the Sagarmalaprogramme — will broaden theIndian economy, and shift theurban, industry-based systemto a rural, farmer-based, coast-driven economy. The aim is towiden the scope of economicactivity and cover a largernumber of people than what‘Manmohanomics’ could.

Prime Minister NarendraModi has to ensure timelyimplementation these schemes,as many initiatives in the pastlost steam after being formal-ly launched. Undoubtedly,there has been a change in thestyle of governance after theModi Government came topower, and this will help Indiasustain the growth momentum.

A related development thatwent unnoticed, however, was

an order from the UnionMinistry of Road Transportand Highways to all StateGovernments to remove allspeed breakers from nationalhighways so as to ensuresmooth travel and save lives.Speed bumps have led to a lossof about 4,726 lives with enor-mous man-hours wasted, mis-ery for many families anddelayed journeys. This movewill speed up road movement,minimise losses, and add tofaster economic growth.

The launch of the e-NAMplatform and the Gramoday seBharat Uday campaign areboth major policy initiatives.The former will ensure mar-ketability of farm produce bytaking down State borders andthe latter will empower allfarmers by strengthening thevillages. The Government hasfinally paid heed to the pleas offarmers who had been ignoredby the industries.

For farmers, e-NAMpromises more options for saleof products. It increases accessto markets through warehouse-based sales and obviates theneed to transport produce tothe mandis. For local traders,e-NAM provides an opportu-nity to access a larger nation-al market for secondary trad-ing. Bulk buyers and exportersare likely to benefit as they willbe able to directly participate intrading at the local mandisthrough this platform. Thisscheme will also reduce theirintermediation costs.

However, this will happenonly when e-NAM becomesfully operational. Initially, farm-ers will be able to sell their pro-duce through the mandis with-in the State. But gradually, thisscheme will be extended acrossthe country by 2017. Once thishappens, the farmers will haveaccess to wholesale marketsacross the country.

The eventual goal of a‘one-nation-one-market’ foragricultural and horticultur-al produce may soon becomea reality. However, some hur-dles, like the dismantling ofthe Agriculture ProduceMarketing Committee Act,remains. This Act regulatesthe farm market in manyStates. Though some Stateshave agreed to amend or doaway with the APMC Act, alot more needs to be done.

As for the Gramoday seBharat Uday scheme, it willenergise the rural economy. Itwill not only supplement thefarm sector but also ensure thatoverall economic activities aregeared up to meet nationaldevelopment imperatives.

The RashtriyaSwayamsevak Sangh hasalready embarked on a mis-sion to develop model villageclusters for integrated devel-opment in many States. The

Government is likely to followthe RRS’s model to make vil-lages self-sustaining economic units.

This programme is theresult of the realisation that 50cities and 50 individuals doinggood business cannot turn thefortunes of India. Modi wantsto combine the Mahatma’sgram swaraj concept and BRAmbedkar’s social harmonyideals. Start-up India, StandUp India, Skill India and sim-ilar programmes aim to createyoung entrepreneurs in ruralIndia. The Gramoday seBharat Uday scheme aims toensure substantial develop-ment to strengthen the foun-dation of villages.

This brings us to theSagarmala project which aimsto double port capacity by2025. One of the targets of theproject is to link the ports andinland waterways. This willcreate new water-highways

for the development of thehinterland. It will also facili-tate faster movement of farmproduce and rural goods aswell as integrate special eco-nomic zones, smart cities,industrial and logistics parkswith the national economy.Ultimately, it will also ensuresustainable development.

Conceived by formerPrime Minister Atal BihariVajpayee, the project has beenrevived by Modi. TheSagarmala project can save upto �35,000 crore through opti-mal use of multi-modal trans-port as port capacity increasesto 3,000 million tonnes by2025 from 1,555 million tonnesnow. It is expected to boostexports to $10 billion.

Modi has made a goodbeginning and has raised therural economy’s aspirations.But he has to ensure that thechanges are implemented.Political sustainability is key.

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The level of discourse acrossthe world has fallen toincredible lows, and in theprocess, forget missing thewoods for the trees, we are

not even hitting the ball. Global tem-peratures are rising at incredible lev-els — 2016 has already seen thehottest January, February and Marchon record. And by all indications,April will follow the same trend. Lastyear, famously roads melted acrossIndia due to the extreme heat; thisyear’s heatwave could easily meltwhole communities.

Parts of India, parched of mon-soon rains for two years, are in themidst of an incredible drought. Anddespite the forecasts for a normalmonsoon, it is safe to say that weath-er forecasting remains an inexactscience even as some extremely com-plex mathematical models run onsome of the fastest computers knownto man. The Government has to startplanning for long-term weather phe-nomena that we can predict — suchas rising temperatures and the waterstress that this inevitably leads to.

Much of the planning seems to bedone post-facto. In every UnionBudget, thousands of crores of rupeesare spent on irrigation projects, yetmuch of this money falls through thegaps in the system. Political expedi-ency has led to unsustainable crop cul-tivation and agricultural practices,such as sugarcane being grown inwater-stressed areas such asMarathwada and free electricity beingprovided to farmers to operate everdeeper borewells to suck out whatev-er little groundwater remains.

Meanwhile, the debates arounddroughts shift to cricket — andwhether games should be be played insuch circumstances. While the debatearound cricket matches was a neces-sary one, it ignored some of the rootcauses of the drought as well as theGovernment’s lacklustre response toit. At least the latter issue is beinghighlighted now, but Governments atevery level have to study the impactof the water-stress that has beenbrought around by two successiveweak monsoons and implore farmersto adjust their crops accordingly. Yet,electoral politics is like a narcoticdrug, the high of getting elected or thedesire to achieve that high compelspeople to make some poor decisionswhich hurt in the long-term.

But changing weather patterns issomething that all politicians need tobe worried about. While electoral pol-itics make politicians make poordecisions, that is also because theythink that they can control outcomes.Politicians and their policies, howev-er, cannot control the weather. Theheatwave that India is expected toundergo until the monsoon satiatesthe parched earth might be one for therecord books this year.

Climate change is a very real chal-lenge that India’s politicians need toface; and this is a challenge that wehave to face together. As pointed outbefore, the level of political discoursehas fallen to incredible lows whereindiscussions on the External AffairsMinister’s attire during an official visitto Iran became a matter of controver-sy on social media. The instant grat-ification nature of politics and the tele-

vision news media have prevented dis-cussions on strategic thought fromtaking place at the public level. Somuch so, that Indians on the whole,while aware of the risks of pollution,are woefully under-informed aboutthe risks of climate change, eventhough we endure some of the worsteffects of climate change annually —not just through droughts but alsothrough incredible floods.

India faces an unique situation, asituation that even China did not haveto face. Prime Minister NarendraModi won the mandate he did in 2014because he vowed to improve the eco-nomic prospects for hundreds of mil-lions of young Indians. That promisecan only be fulfilled if the Indianeconomy goes into a high-growthmode. To achieve that high-growththere needs to be power, and while theModi Government has done a stellarjob promoting wind and solar power,the fact remains that with the world’sthird-largest reserves of coal, India’sthirst for power will be fuelled by adeeply polluting source.

Coal is just one challenge; theother is mobility. While theGovernment has spoken about a sig-nificant thrust on electric cars andModi’s most significant meeting dur-ing his tour of the Silicon Valley ear-lier this year was with Elon Musk, thefounder of electric carmaker TeslaMotors, much more needs to be doneon that front. Many public transporta-tion projects are stuck in quagmiresand delayed; electric vehicles are stillfar too few and far between in Indiawith no infrastructure in place for easyrecharging of such vehicles, despite

the fact that in Chetan Maini’s Reva,now part of the Mahindra Group,India also has an electric vehicles evangelist.

But a few electric cars really willnot make a marked difference inIndia, although that is no reason to notpromote their usage. Investments inelectric vehicles and promotion of elec-tric vehicles, including e-rickshaws, willdefinitely help India reduce the fuel bill.This, and not ethanol derived fromsugarcane that is blended with petrol,whose water costs are astounding, isthe answer going forward.

But more importantly, India needsto find a holistic solution to combatthe impacts of climate change — elec-tric cars and solar power are just twosmall aspects of this. We will need tofind solutions to the massive displace-ment of people caused by rising sealevels and the creation of arid land-scapes, as one is witnessing inMarathwada. The rich in India quiteobviously believe that their money willinsure them from the worst effects ofclimate change and this has not madethe national news. The poor are bliss-fully unaware of how climate changethreatens their lives. This lackadaisi-cal attitude needs to change, as sum-mers will only get hotter and much ofIndia will become a furnace.

Our politicians, caught up in thepolitics of competitive prohibition anddoling out freebies with the aim ofsocial justice, have to keep in mindthat there will not be much justice todeliver once India starts facing theworst of climate change. The time foraction and planning is now, becausetomorrow will be too late.

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The country’s leading ITservices, consulting and

business solutions firm TCSon Monday beat the streetexpectation and announced72.7 per cent growth in its netprofit at �6,413 crore for thefourth quarter of last fiscalended March 31.

The company had report-ed net profit of �3,713 crore inthe same period of last fiscalas per IGAAP accountingnorms.

The Tata Group company,which chips in with more

than 60 per cent of the group’soverall profit, reported a rev-enue growth of 17.5 per centat �28,449 crore for the lastquarter of 2015-16, up from�24,220 crore a year ago.

“Our core portfolio per-formed strongly in a season-ally weak fourth quarter dri-ven by strong volumes led bygrowth in BFSI, retail andmanufacturing sectors. Thisgives us good momentumgoing into the new financialyear,” TCS CEO and MD N.Chandrasekaran said.

Investments in buildinghigh impact digital platforms

is paying off, resulting in over$2.3 billion in digital rev-enues, he added.

Digital space accountedfor 15.5 per cent of the quar-ter’s revenues.

For the entire 2015-16,TCS saw net profit growing22.4 per cent to �24,292 crore,while revenue was up 14.8 percent to �1,08,646 crore.

During the Januar y-

March quarter, TCS added22,576 employees (gross),while on a net basis the addi-tion was 9,152, taking theoverall employee strength toclose to 3,53,843.

“TCS completed its high-est ever hiring of over 90,000new employees globally dur-ing the year. We are alsodelighted that our employeeretention continues toincrease,” TCS Executive vicepresident and Global HeadHR Ajoy Mukherjee said.

Attrition rate was at 15.5per cent LTM basis.

“We are building the right

talent pool by training morethan 120,000 TCSers in FY16in over 400 new digital tech-nologies to help our cus-tomers drive adoption of dig-ital in their enterprise,” hesaid.

Chandrasekaran addedthat the company will contin-ue to invest in developing‘digital’ talent and launch newproducts in emerging areasleveraging the Internet ofThings, automation andmachine learning. TCS CFORajesh Gopinathan said thecompany has investedover$250 million to support

organic growth in its digitalbusinesses and in new mar-kets, while maintaining prof-itability within the desiredrange and generated strongoperating cash flows as well.

The fourth quarter sawbroad-based growth with thecore portfolio performingstrongly led by BFSI (3.2 percent sequential growth), man-ufacturing (3.9 per cent quar-ter-on- quarter) and retail(2.1 per cent q-o-q) in con-stant currency.

For 2015-16, growth wasled by BFS (14.8 per cent year-on- year), Life Sciences (20.6

pc), Travel & Hospitality (17pc) and manufacturing (15pc) in constant currency.

In terms of key markets,growth in the fourth quarterwas led by Europe (3.6 percent q-o-q) and NorthAmerica (2.4 pc) in constantcurrency.

For the entire last fiscal,North America grew by 10.8per cent, Europe (12.9 pc), UK(8.3 pc) in constant currency.

Its annual revenue fromIndia crossed $1 billion mile-stone, while overall revenuesfrom new Growth Marketsstood at $3.3 billion in FY16.

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The ‘Smart Hybrid Vehicleby Suzuki’ (SHVS) label

that all diesel variants ofMaruti’s popular Ciaz sedanand Ertiga multi-utility vehiclewear, is no sticker to impressthose stuck behind the car in atraffic jam. According to CVRaman, Executive Director,Engineering, Maruti Suzukithe SHVS system is making adifference to customers livesand they have spoken resound-ingly with demand perking upfor both cars.

Raman explains that theSHVS system works by com-bining a new Integrated StarterGenerator (ISG) motor coupledwith a higher-capacity batterywhich helps conserve fuel byenabling ‘start-stop’ at trafficsignals as well as using energyfrom braking to recharge thebatteries. Usually braking ener-gy was wasted as heat andnoise. Raman also explainsthat the SHVS system alsouses the battery to ‘fill in thegaps’ when the car is acceler-ating or there is a “need forpower”.

“The SHVS system has

proven popular with customersbecause it has allowed us todeliver more fuel economybecause of start-stop and brak-ing regenration”, Ramanexplains. “We waste a lot of fuelwhile parked at traffic lights.The start-stop system recog-nises this and switches theengine off at the light whilekeeping most electrical systemsrunning. While the AC doesnot run off the battery, the fandoes run. However, if the cabintemperature climbs above acertain threshold, the enginerestarts and the AC comesback on.”

The Ciaz and Ertiga SHVSsystems are not full-hybridsthough and are classified as‘Mild Hybrids’ as they cannotpower the wheels through bat-tery power alone. Toyota has afull-hybrid version of theCamry and their pathbreakingPrius hybrid, but such sys-tems are very expensive and arecurrently imported asCompletely Built-Up unitswhich attract high rates ofimport duty. Mild hybrids arefar cheaper but cannot deliverthe fuel efficiency gains of fullhybrids which can double therange of a car.

Yet, despite this Ramansays that fuel-efficiency testsconducted by the AutomotiveResearch Association of India(ARAI) show that the SHVSequipped Ertiga delivers 17per cent higher fuel economy.“This is what encouraged us tointroduce the SHVS across theErtiga range.” In fact, hebelieves that the success thatMaruti has had with these twovehicles coupled with the factthat such vehicles are exemptfrom the Delhi Government’s‘Odd Even’ scheme will encour-age other carmakers to followsuit. “The costs of such tech-nologies are also going to comedown, and as public adoptionincreases I am sure carmakerssuch as ourselves will also seri-ously consider full-hybrids.”

One reason carmakers aremoving to hybrids is not justfor customer gains but alsobecause Central Governmentmandated ‘Corporate AverageFuel Economy’ (CAFE) normswill kick in shortly. Theincreased fuel efficiency even ofmild hybrids will help car-makers achieve these strict tar-gets set by Governments acrossthe world.

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�� Sectoral regulatorTrai on Monday reiteratedthat the entire spectrumavailable in 700 Mhz bandshould be auctioned in theupcoming sale as non-utili-sation would result into irre-versible loss to theGovernment.

Trai also reiterated itsstand on the methodologyused for the pricing of 700MHz band, for which it hadproposed a base price that isfour times of 1800 MHzband.

Trai had recommended arecord high base price of�11,485 crore per megahertzfor the 700 Mhz band, whichwill be auctioned for the firsttime.

Spectrum in the band isconsidered more economicalfor providing telephony ser-vices compared with other

bands like, 900 Mhz or 1800Mhz.

The Department ofTelecom (DoT) had askedTrai if auction be split in twophases as there may not beenough demand due to high-er quantity of airwaves andalso telcos rolling out net-works using spectrum boughtin 2014 and 2015.

Leading operators havealso requested the regulatorand the government to defersale of 700 MHz spectrum,saying that the ecosystem forproviding services in thisband was not developed andsale would lead to underutil-isation of the spectrum forseveral years and block indus-try’s crucial funds.

However, TelecomRegulatory Authority of India(Trai) said DoT’s presump-tion that the demand for the

spectrum may be less in theforthcoming auction may notbe entirely correct as sub-scriber base has widened andtraffic has increased manifoldparticularly data traffic.

Trai said it is of the viewthat “holding back some ofthe spectrum in 700 MHzfrom this auction and sellingit after a gap of certain peri-od of time from now, wouldlead to non- utilisation of thisscarce natural resource forthat period and it would turninto irreversible loss to theGovernment.”

It further said even if it isassumed that greater revenuecan be generated by auction-ing a part of spectrum in 700MHz band in future, “defer-ring the revenue receipts nowmay not be of economic pru-dence keeping in view theimpact of telecom services on

the other sectors and overallGDP growth.”

“The authority reiteratesits earlier recommendationthat entire available spec-trum (2x35MHz) in the 700MHz band should be put toauction in the upcoming auc-tion,” Trai said.

The regulator had sub-mitted recommendations forbase price for spectrum inseven bands, including 700Mhz band and DoT is look-ing to commence the salearound mid-July, which mayfetch the government awhopping �5.36 lakh crore.Of the �5.36 lakh crore wind-fall, 700 Mhz spectrum couldalone contribute over �4 lakhcrore if all frequencies aresold at pan-India base price.

Regarding the methodol-ogy used by it to arrive at thebase price for 700 Mhz band,

Trai said as the band is auc-tioned for the first time andthere is no historical data, ithas priced it four times thatof 1800 MHz band as bothare primarily used for LTEservices.

The DoT has found outthat in UP (East), UP(West)and Bihar, price of 700 Mhzis less than 900 MHz bandwhereas in MP, the price islower than 800 Mhz.

“As it has not bench-marked reserve price of 700MHz band with reference toeither 800 or 900 MHz, there-fore the contention of DoTthat in some licence serviceareas the recommendedreserve price is lower than thereserve price of either 800 or900 MHz band is not rele-vant,” Trai said.

The cost of deliveringmobile services in 700 Mhz

band is approximately 70 percent lower than 2100 Mhzband, which is widely usedfor 3G services.

Trai also said harmonisa-tion exercise should be expe-dited and additional spec-trum that comes out of itshould be put to auction.

On the issue of spectrumusage charge (SUC) also, Traisaid it has no further com-ments to offer as DoT hasalready conveyed its deci-sion on the subject.

DoT has said SUC of 3per cent would be charged forspectrum acquired in upcom-ing sale whereas weightedaverage will apply in case ofcombination of spectrumalready held by the operators.

Trai also reiterated its pro-posals related to block size,roll-out obligations and liber-alisation of spectrum. ��

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Exports declined for 16thstraight month in March,

and contracted by 5.47 percent to $22.71 billion in themonth as shipments of petro-leum and engineering productsshrunk sharply due to tepidglobal demand.

For whole 2015-16 finan-cial year ended March 31,exports declined by 15.8 percent to five-year low of $261.13billion due to fragile globaldemand and low commodityprices.

Imports dipped by 15.28per cent to $379.6 billion in2015-16, leaving a trade deficitof $118.45 billion. The trade gap

was $137.69 billion in 2014-15.The levels of exports and

imports are the lowest since2010-11. Exports and importswere at $245.86 billion and$350.69 billion, respectively, in2010-11.

Also, trade deficit, the gapbetween imports and exports,in the last month of 2015-16 fis-cal fell to five-year low of $5.07billion as imports dropped21.56 per cent to $27.7 billionin the month.

Trade deficit was at $2.63billion in December 2010.

The Commerce Ministry,however, said the trend offalling exports is in tandemwith other major worldeconomies.

But industry expertstermed trade figures as “alarm-ing” and demanded immediatesteps to boost exports.

“The figures are alarming.Immediate steps like creating ofa fund to enhance marketingactivities need to beannounced,” Rafeeq Ahmed,former FIEO President andChairman of Council forLeather Exports, said.

In March, overseas ship-ments of petroleum productsshrank 21.43 per cent to $2.07billion, while that of engineer-ing goods declined by 11.29 percent to $5.34 billion.

Oil imports in last monthwere valued at $4.79 billion -35.3 per cent lower than the

same month last year. Non-oilimports too dipped by 17.92 percent to $22.98 billion.

Finance Minister ArunJaitley had said, “There areconcerns about export growthwhich is declining consecutivelyfor more than a year due toslowdown in global demand”.Non-petroleum exports inMarch were valued at $206.39billion against $213.86 billion inMarch 2015, a reduction of 3.49per cent.

These exports during 2015-16 dipped by 8.52 per cent to$231.95 billion.

“The growth in exportshave fallen for USA (10.81 percent), European Union (7.40per cent), China (11.37 per

cent) and Japan (12.85 percent) for January 2016 over thecorresponding period previ-ous year as per WTO statistics,”the commerce ministry said.

Oil imports during 2015-16were valued at $82.66 billionwhich was 40.24 per cent lowerthan the imports of $138.32 bil-lion in the corresponding peri-od last year.

Non-oil imports during thelast fiscal dipped by 4.12 percent to $296.93 billion.

The ministry said that tak-ing merchandise and servicestogether, overall trade deficit for2015-16 declined by 21.44 percent to $53.85 billion as com-pared to $68.55 billion in thesame period last year.

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"�"��Small and paymentsbanks have not yet devised abusiness model which can betermed viable, SBI ChairpersonArundhati Bhattacharya saidon Monday.

“Neither the paymentsbanks nor small finance banksseem to have as yet devised abusiness model that can be saidas viable,” said Bhattacharya,whose bank has tied up withReliance Industries for a pay-ments bank venture.

Addressing a banking sem-inar organised by industrylobby IMC here, she added,“...A mobile banking customer,who is also a customer for pay-ment services, will be less freeto migrate to a competition formobile services. Hence, it ishard to see payment banks tak-ing away customers or incomefrom commercial banks in a bigway. Similar arguments holdfor small finance banks.”

Admitting that the entry ofother non-banking companies,through their investments insmall finance and paymentsbanks, has changed the dynam-ics of competition in the sector,she said, “There are some legit-imate concerns whether banks,particularly public sectorbanks, will survive thisonslaught.”

This is the third time the

SBI chief has cast doubts overthe payments banks model. Atone public event, she went tothe extent of saying that withdeep-pocket corporates enter-ing payments banking, it wouldbe a “dog eat dog” scenario inthe sector.

Bhattacharya’s commentscome within a fortnight ofRBI saying it will allow differ-entiated lenders like custodianand wholesale banks.

The RBI has already issuedin-principle licences to 10 pay-ments banks and 11 smallfinance banks.

Soon after RelianceIndustries secured a licence tooperate a payments bank, SBItied up with the company andpicked up 30 per cent stakeworth �30 crore in the venture,which is yet to begin opera-tions.

Noting that technology willplay a bigger role in banking,she said the potential of tech-nology, mainly mobile phones,to deliver banking services wasrecognised way back in 2010.

She said mobiles offer thecheapest mode of banking.

“A mobile banking trans-action costs about 2 per cent ofthe bank branching cost, 10 percent of ATM-based transactionand 50 per cent of the Internetbanking cost,” she said. ��

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Staying in the negative zone for17th month, WPI inflation

was at (-)0.85 per cent in Marchbut may inch up gradually in thecoming months on growingpressure on food and vegetableprices.

The Wholesale Price Index-based inflation rate in March wasmarginally higher at (-)0.91 percent in February. In March lastyear, it was (-)2.33 per cent.

This is the 17th straightmonth since November 2014when deflationary pressure per-sisted.

Food inflation stood at 3.73per cent in March compared with3.35 per cent in February, showedofficial data released today.

Inflation rate for vegetablescame in at (-)2.26 per cent inMarch, while for cereals and puls-es it was at 2.47 per cent and 34.45per cent respectively.

India Ratings said thatalthough prices of oil and man-ufactured items are expected toremain benign and keep thepressure on WPI inflation low,the same cannot be said aboutfood inflation over the next fewmonths despite the prediction ofan above than normal monsoon.

“Prices of cereals have shown

some escalation in March andwith summer season setting inthere will be pressure on veg-etable/fruit prices to rise. As aresult, WPI inflation is expectedto move into positive territorynext month but will remain inlow single digit in the foreseeablefuture,” said Sunil Kumar Sinha,Principal Economist, IndiaRatings.

The inflation print in the fueland power segment was (-)8.30per cent, and for manufacturedproducts, it read (-)0.13 per centin March.

Onion and fruits saw easingof prices, with these sub-indicesfalling by 17.65 per cent and 2.13per cent, respectively.

Industry body Assochamsaid that although predictions ofweather department are in favourof the ongoing Rabi season, pol-icymakers should contain theupward price pressure if it sur-faces in the coming months.“Since the government hasshown its commitment to sup-port industry and consideringthat recent RBI policy stance tokick-start investment and cred-it cycle can have positive impacton India’s economy in the com-ing months, WPI is likely tomove upwards,” AssochamPresident Sunil Kanoria said.

�� To provide relief to corporates having income abroad,the tax department on Monday proposed simplified ‘Foreign TaxCredit’ rules allowing companies to claim credit for taxes paid over-seas.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) in its draft FTC rulessaid tax credit will be available to entities paying taxes in any coun-try, including those with which India has Double TaxationAvoidance Agreement (DTAA).

“The credit for foreign tax shall be available against the amountof tax, surcharge and cess payable under the Act but not in respectof any sum payable by way of interest, fee or penalty,” said the draftrules on which the CBDT has invited comments from stakehold-ers by May 2.

It further said no credit shall be available in respect of any amountof foreign tax which is disputed in any manner by the assessee.

The tax credit, CBDT said, will be the “aggregate of the amountsof credit computed separately for each source of income arising froma particular country or specified territory”.

The tax credit shall also be available against minimum alter-nate tax (MAT) liability. “This will nip in the bud an issue that couldhave led to litigation,” said Rakesh Nangia, Managing Partner, Nangia& Co.

The foreign tax credit, the draft rule said, shall be determinedby conversion of the currency of payment of foreign tax at the tele-graphic transfer buying rate on the date on which such tax has beenpaid or deducted. ��

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The Delhi High Court onMonday sought

Government’s response on aplea challenging �20,495 croretax demand slapped on CairnIndia by the Income TaxDepartment for allegedly failingto pay taxes on gains made byits former parent firm in a sharetransfer transaction eight yearsago.

A bench of Justices BadarDurrez Ahmed and SanjeevSachdeva also issued notice tothe concerned ministry seekingits reply by August 4 on CairnIndia Ltd’s (CIL) plea againstthe IT department’s demand.

CIL has challenged thedemand on the ground thatthere has been “unreasonableand atrocious” delay on part ofthe authorities who exercisedtheir power “unreasonably”while making the demand.

During a brief hearing,Cairn, represented by senioradvocate Harish Salve, told thecourt they were consulting theGovernment on �20,495 croretax demand to resolve the issue.

“The Central Governmenthas announced about settle-ment of retrospective tax casesduring 2016 Budget,” Salvesaid.

“We are considering theGovernment’s settlement pro-

posal,” he said, adding “as ofnow there is no outcome”.

The Government in thisyear’s budget had offered one-time settlement of cases ema-nating from retrospectiveamendment of tax laws, byasking companies to pay thebasic tax demand and get awaiver for interest and penalty.

Cairn has sought quashingof the IT department’s demandorder saying the proceedingswere initiated after a lapse ofover six years from the end ofthe 2006-07 financial year.

It said the courts have heldthat such proceedings should beinitiated within a reasonableperiod of four years.

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With India’s unmatchedpotential on sea and river

front, the Government is deter-mined to give a big push to ‘bluerevolution’ which has potential tocreate over 20 million jobs, UnionMinister Nitin Gadkari onMonday said.

“India is on the brink of a ‘bluerevolution’. Its unmatched sea and riverfront remained untapped ever sinceIndependence.Now, the time is ripeto exploit it and with the NarendraModi Government committed todevelop it, we are going to dothings that will be beyond imag-ination,” Gadkari told the newsagency in an interview.

Enthused with the success ofthe maiden Maritime Summitwith commitments worth $12billion on the spot and another $60billion in the pipeline, the Ministersaid apart from the potential of 10million jobs under Sagarmala,more than 10 million could be eas-ily created in shipping, highwaysand other sectors.

“Creating jobs is our focus and

immense employment opportu-nities are there in ports, roads andsectors like shipping. What Ibelieve is that apart from 10 mil-lion potential jobs underSagarmala, shipping, port, manu-facturing are going to create anoth-er over 10 million jobs,” said theShipping, Road Transport andHighways Minister.

He said his Government’sfaith to usher in revolutionarychanges in the sector multipliedmanifold after signing of businessagreements worth over $12 billionin only two days during theMaritime Summit here on April 14

and 15. “As many as 240 projectsworth $60 billion are in thepipeline to be formalised soon,” theMinister said adding, all great civil-isations of the world prosperedaround rivers and sea and at pre-sent also waterways play a crucialrole in all the leading economies.

“India has unmatched over7,500 km coastline and over14,000 km of inland waterways.We are working towards leverag-ing the huge potential offered byour sea and river fronts,” he said.Waterways will not only becomea dominant way of transport butis bound to bring down the high

logistics costs, he said and addedthat plans were on the anvil to notonly internally harness the poten-tial but pacts are being signed withneighbouring nations likeBangladesh to tap this mode.

“We are going to set up eightnew major ports in the countryand are going to spend �50,000crore on three new ports only thatinclude a greenfield port atVadhavan, Maharashtra and phaseone of it would be constructed ata cost of about �9,167 crore,” hesaid. The other two are Colachelin Tamil Nadu and Sagar in WestBengal, he said.

“Investors are welcome tocome and join hands with us andwe in turn would provide themlevel playing fields and sops,”Gadkari said.

“Maritime logistics is animportant component of theIndian economy accounting for 90per cent of EXIM trade by volumeand 72 per cent by value. Thecargo volume of 1 billion tonnehandled by our ports is likely tomore than double to 2.5 billion inthe next ten years,” Gadkari said.

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The UK Government onMonday launched its official

economic research to warn theBritish public that Britain will be‘permanently poorer’, with the costto households estimated at 4,300pounds, if they voted to leave theEuropean Union in the referen-dum on June 23.

UK Chancellor GeorgeOsborne said the 200-page analy-sis by his Treasury office foundthat the UK economy would be 6per cent smaller than what theEurope's second-largest economywould otherwise be by 2030 in theevent of Brexit. The short-termeffect would be a ‘profound eco-nomic shock and real instability’and it was ‘complete fantasy’ toexpect that the UK could negoti-ate an advantageous trade dealwith the EU if it withdrew, he said.

The smaller size of the econ-omy projected in the report wasthe equivalent of 4,300 pounds perhousehold, he said. “Under anyalternative, we'd trade less, do lessbusiness and receive less invest-ment, and the price would be paidby British families. Wages wouldbe lower and prices would be

higher. “The most likely result isthat Britain would be poorer by4,300 pounds per household.That is 4,300 pounds worse offevery year, a bill paid year afteryear by the working people ofBritain,” he said.

“The conclusion is clear: forBritain's economy and for fami-lies, leaving the EU would be themost extraordinary self- inflictedwound,” he added. “The long termeconomic impact of EU mem-bership and alternatives' docu-ment assesses UK's relationshipwith the EU against the three

existing alternative models: mem-bership of the EuropeanEconomic Area (EEA), likeNorway; a negotiated bilateralagreement, such as that betweenthe EU and Switzerland, Turkeyor Canada; and World TradeOrganisation (WTO) member-ship without any form of specif-ic agreement with the EU, likeRussia or Brazil.”

“The Treasury's analysisshows that the UK would be per-manently poorer if it left the EUand adopted any of these models.Productivity and GDP per per-son would be lower in all thesealternative scenarios, as the costswould substantially outweigh anypotential benefit of leaving theEU,” said the report, that marks thefirst major move by the DavidCameron- led government toconvince voters to opt to ‘Remain’in the EU in the June referendum.

The analysis finds that theannual loss of GDP per house-hold under the three alternativesafter 15 years would be: 2,600pounds in the case of EEAmembership; 4,300 pounds in thecase of a negotiated bilateralagreement; 5,200 pounds in thecase of WTO membership.

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Domestic carrier GoAir hasmade a partial payment of

�15 crore to Airports Authorityof India (AAI) after the opera-tor asked the airline to keep itsdues below the bank guaranteethreshold. The Mumbai-basedairline's bank guarantee amountwith the AAI, which was dou-bled last year, currently stands atslightly above �30 crore.

“GoAir has made part pay-ment of Rs 15 crore against itstotal dues of a little over Rs 45crore,” an official said. AAI hadlast week served a notice toGoAir, asking it to pay at least �15crore by today as its dues hadgone up by more than its bankguarantee limit.

“As on date, we are withinthe limit of security deposit,” aGoAir spokesperson told PTI ina text message. The Mumbai-based no-frills carrier has accu-mulated these dues to AAI onaccount charges relating toroute navigation, landing andparking at its airports. TheWadia Group-promoted pri-vate carrier currently flies to dif-ferent parts of the country.

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Increasing incidents of cyberattacks and data protection

efforts globally are expected tocreate $35 billion revenueopportunity and employmentopportunities for about a mil-lion professionals by 2025 forIndia, IT industry bodyNasscom said on Monday.

“We estimate that cyberse-curity is about $2.5-3 billion orabout 2 per cent of the close to$150 billion Indian IT sector. Withthe sector on track to reach $350billion by 2025, we estimate 10 percent of this to be cybersecurity,”Nasscom Chair Cyber SecurityTask Force Rajendra Pawar saidhere. He added that this will cre-ate an employment opportunityfor about a million people as well.

“Another important aspectwill be start ups. We expect to seeabout 1,000 start ups coming upin this area. This is because thesesmaller companies are light foot-

ed and yet have the best of tech-nologies. Also, there has been a lotof investor interest in this area,” hesaid.

Last year, Nasscom had set upthe task force, aimed at position-ing India as a global hub for pro-viding cyber security solutions,developing cyber security R&Dplan and developing a skilledworkforce of cyber securityexperts. It had estimated the ITsecurity market to be about $77billion in 2015 and growing at over8 per cent annually.

It had estimated demand forsecurity workforce to rise global-ly to six million by 2019, up from4 million in 2015, with projectedshortfall of 1.5 million. Nasscom,along with Data Security Councilof India and security software firmSymantec, on Monday launchedthe ‘National OccupationalStandards’ for 10 cyber securi-ty job roles, aimed at creating apool of certified cyber securityprofessionals in the country.

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JK Tyre & Industries has completed the �2,195-crore buyout of BK Birla flagship firm Kesoram

Industries’ tyre manufacturing plant at Haridwar,thus adding 100 lakh tyres per annum capacityand enabling the firm to enter the high-growthtwo- and three-wheeler tyre segment. JK Tyreand JK Asia Pacific (S) Pte Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of JK Tyre, have com-pleted acquisition of Cavendish IndustriesLtd (CIL), a unit of Kesoram Industries.

“With the acquisition of CavendishIndustries, we have further strengthenedour position in the truck and bus radial segment.It has also given us entry into two- and three-wheeler vertical,” JK Tyre & Industries Chairmanand MD Raghupati Singhania told reporters here.The acquisition is in line with strategic vision ofJK Tyre to become one of the leading tyre com-panies of the world with a well-rounded port-folio, he added. According to Singhania, the

acquisition has been funded by a combinationof internal accruals and debt. “Of the total enter-prise value of �2,195 crore, �700 crore is the equi-ty and the rest �1,495 crore is debt," he added.Riding on the acquisition, the company eyes aturnover of �10,000 crore from the domesticoperations in the current fiscal.

“Numbers for the last fiscal are not out yet,but what I can say is we expect around�7,800 crore from domestic operationsand going ahead, we are looking to closethe current fiscal at �10,000 crore,”Singhania predicted. On the Haridwar

plant, Singhania said production willbegin at the facility in the next 15 days.

He, however added that the companywould have to take a ‘deep look’ at the man-power at the plant, which currently standsat close to 5,000. “We will have to take adeeper look at it. We are trying for optimalmanforce for productivity,” Singhania said,without giving further details.

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NEW DELHI: State-run CILwill next week hold the firstphase of special e-auction forthe ongoing fiscal to providecoal to power producers as partof the Government’s efforts toensure round-the-clock elec-tricity to all.

The special forward e-auc-tion for 2016-17 for powerproducers including captivepower plants (CPP)-Phase Iwould be held on April 27-28,Coal India (CIL) said in anotice. The reserve price forpower sector consumers will

remain at 10 per cent over thenotified price of coal for powersector and for CPPs it willremain at 10 per cent over thenotified price for non-powersector, CIL said in anothernotice.

“This, however, is applica-ble to G6 and below grades ofcoal,” it said. “The subsidiarycoal companies shall notifythe source and grade wisereserve price of coal on theirrespective websites and conveythe same to the respective ser-vice providers...,” it said. PNS

:�.�� NEW DELHI: TVS Motor

Company on Monday launched anall-new version of its executive seg-ment bike TVS Victor, with pricestarting at �49,490 (ex-showroom,Delhi). “The success of TVS Victorfirst launched in 2002 laid thefoundation for TVS Motor inIndia. We are constantly evolvingour products to offer technologi-cally superior and stylish productsto our customers,” TVS MotorCompany Vice President – Sales& Service, JS Srinivasan said.The bike complements the com-pany's existing portfolio and hasa strong potential in its respectivesegment, he added. PNS

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China has for the first timelanded a military plane on

one of its artificial islands in thedisputed South China Sea,upping the ante amidst a ragingterritorial row with countries likeVietnam and the Philippines.

State media said an airforce landed on the Fiery CrossReef on Sunday and evacuatedthree injured workers. Chinaturned Fiery Cross Reef into anartificial island through a mas-sive dredging operation, andconstructed buildings and an airstrip in the strategically vital sea.

It is said to be the first timeChina’s military has publiclyadmitted to landing a plane onthe artificial island in theresource-rich South China Sea.

China and several of itsneighbours are locked in a ter-ritorial dispute over the SouthChina Sea, which Beijingclaims almost in its entirety.

The military plane landed

on Sunday morning to pick upthree construction workerswho were hurt, and flew themto Hainan island for treat-ment, State media said.

China has previously land-ed civilians planes on FieryCross Reef, sparking criticismfrom Vietnam, who also claimsthe territory, and the US.Beijing says it is building arti-ficial islands and structureson reefs for civilian purposes,but other countries haveexpressed concern over thepossibility of the facilities beingused for military purposes.

The US has said China’sisland-building activities aggra-vates regional tensions andprevents vessels from navigat-ing freely though the area.

China, Taiwan, Vietnam,the Philippines, Malaysia andBrunei all claim areas withinthe South China Sea.

The news of the Chinesemilitary plane’s landing comesjust days after US DefenceSecretary Ashton Carter visiteda warship ‘USS John C Stennis’close to flashpoint waters, afterannouncing joint naval patrolswith the Philippines.

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Brazil on Monday woke todeep political crisis after

lawmakers authorised impeach-ment proceedings againstPresident Dilma Rousseff,sparking claims that democra-cy was under threat in LatinAmerica’s biggest country.

Opposition deputies in thelower house of Congress need-ed 342 of the 513 votes, or a twothirds majority, to sendRousseff to the Senate, whichwill now decide whether toopen a trial. They got therenear on Sunday night after fivehours of voting.

Wild cheering and a burstof confetti erupted from oppo-sition ranks at the 342nd vote,countered by furious jeeringfrom Rousseff allies in a snap-shot of the bitter mood con-suming Brazil just four monthsbefore Rio de Janeiro hosts theOlympics.

Presidential chief of staffJacques Wagner accuseddeputies of voting for impeach-ment without proving that theleftist president, who is accusedof illegally manipulating bud-get figures, had committed aserious crime.

“In this way, the Chamber

of Deputies is threatening tointerrupt 30 years of democra-cy in the country,” he said,referring to the end of a mili-tary dictatorship in 1985.

“It was a coup againstdemocracy,” Rousseff ’s attorneygeneral, Jose Eduardo Cardozo,said.

Cardozo said that Rousseff— who was imprisoned andtortured under military rule inthe 1970s — would give herfirst public reaction. There wasexpected to be a euphoric reac-tion from the financial marketswhich have been betting heav-ily on a Rousseff exit and theadvent of a more business-friendly government to kick-start Brazil’s flailing economy.

Outside Congress, wheretens of thousands of peoplewere watching giant TVscreens, the split was echoed ona mass scale —with Oppositionsupporters partying andRousseff loyalists in despair.

“I am happy, happy, happy.I spent a year demonstrating inhope that Dilma would bebrought down,” said retireeMaristela de Melo, 63. ButRousseff supporter MarianaSantos, 23, burst into tears, say-ing the vote was “a disgrace forour country.”

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Buoyed by a host of polls,Republican front-runner

Donald Trump looks for alandslide victory on his hometurf of New York on Tuesdayand steal a big march overSenator Ted Cruz in the racefor delegates, thereby sendinga ringing message to the partyestablishment.

Trump has a whopping 35per cent lead over Cruz in aReal Clear Politics average ofseven polls, six of which givethe billionaire more than 50 percent. Incidentally, Trump’smain rival in the New Yorkprimary is not Cruz, but OhioGovernor John Kasich, whoalso trails him by 30 per cent.

On the Democratic side,too, front-runner HillaryClinton is predicted to wincomfortably with the RCP aver-age giving her a 13 per cent leadover Senator Bernie Sanders,who has otherwise mounted aspirited challenge in her adopt-ed home which she has repre-sented twice in the Senate.

Realising that he has to winNew York massive if he has towalk away with all or most ofits 95 delegates, Trump has

been barnstorming as neverbefore in recent days.

For a clean sweep of NewYork’s delegates, Trump will notonly have to poll more than 50per cent State-wide, but also ineach of its 27 Congressionaldistricts. By polling more than50 per cent State-wide, Trumpwill get all the 14-at-large del-egates, but if he falls below thehalf-way mark, there will bea proportional distribution.Same procedure will apply to

the 27 Congressional dis-tricts, each of which awardsthree delegates.

“We have to win by bignumbers,” Trump told a bigrally of supporters inPoughkeepsie on Sunday — aday when he was blanked outby Cruz in Wyoming by win-ning all 14 delegates at a partyconvention as opposed to a reg-ular primary or caucus.

Needing 1,237 delegatesto clinch the Republican nom-ination, Trump right now has744 against Cruz’s 559 andKasich’s 144. Senator MarcoRubio, who bowed out of therace after his defeat in Floridalast month, has 171 delegates.

Trump has been waging afull-scale war against theRepublican establishment for“stacking the rules” againsthim in what he sees as a gameplan to deny him the nomina-tion in case he falls short of themagic figure of 1,237.

On the Democratic side,Clinton appeared to be increas-ingly confident of holding backSanders in New York, despitethe large crowds of energeticsupporters that the septuage-narian Senator has been attract-ing there.

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Amman: Jordan on Mondaysummoned its ambassador inIran for consultations overwhat Amman said was theIslamic republic’s “meddlingin Arab affairs,” a Governmentspokesman said.

Mohamed Momani, who isalso the kingdom’s InformationMinister, said Jordan’s envoywould return to Amman for“discussions”.

Iran in January finalised adeal with world powers over itsdisputed nuclear programme,which saw economic sanctions lifted.

Since the accord, Momanisaid Iran committed “a series ofactions and declarations thatconstitute unacceptable inter-ference in the internal affairs ofArab countries and especiallyGulf states”.

Relations between Iran andArab nations have deteriorat-ed since a row broke out overthe execution of influentialcleric and activist Nimr al-Nimr by Saudi Arabia in January. AFP

Seoul: Park Geun-Hye willbecome the first South KoreanPresident to visit Iran nextmonth, her office announced onMonday, as Seoul seeks newmarkets to turn around a lengthydecline in export revenues. TheMay 1-3 visit comes after a his-toric deal that cleared a path tolift sanctions against Iran.

Despite Iran’s suspectedties with North Korea’s nuclearprogramme, South Korea iskeen to strengthen trade withthe second-largest economy inthe Middle East, and Park isexpected to push for corporatedeals including chemical andpower plants. AFP

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Rescuers in Ecuador clawedthrough collapsed build-

ings on Monday as they scram-bled to find survivors of apowerful earthquake that killed350, people, injured thousands,and caused widespread coastaldestruction.

President Rafael Correasaid the death toll will “cer-tainly” rise in the 7.8-magni-tude quake that struck thesmall, oil-producing SouthAmerican nation late Saturday.

The quake, the most pow-erful to strike Ecuador indecades, shattered hotels and

homes along its Pacific coastpopular with tourists andreduced several towns to rubble.

More than 2,000 peoplewere injured as structures tum-bled during the quake or itsdozens of aftershocks.

The capital Quito, fartherinland, escaped with crackedwalls and power outages, andthe country’s strategic oil facil-ities appeared unscathed, offi-cials said. Ecuador’s ForeignMinister Guillaume Long saidvia Twitter that experiencedrescuers were arriving fromSwitzerland, Spain, and otherLatin American countriesincluding Mexico and Peru.

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Rome: Over 400 migrants were believed to havedrowned in the Mediterranean on Monday afterfour boats capsized and another began to sink,according to reports.

BBC Arabic cited Egyptian reports as say-ing over 400 mainly Somali migrants haddrowned when four boats capsized after leav-ing Egypt.

The migrants had set sail from Egypt onThursday and were heading for Italy, accordingto reports circulating on social media.

Italian President Sergio Mattarella saidthere had been a "migrant tragedy".

Speaking at a prize giving ceremony inRome, Mattarella said Europe needed to reflectin the face of "yet another tragedy in theMediterranean in which, it seems, several hun-dred people have died".

He did not give any further details.Survivors were taken to a Greek island,

according to the unconfirmed reports.The Italian Coast Guard said they knew

nothing about the reported disaster.However, they were involved in the rescue of

108 migrants from a semi-submerged rubberdinghy off the coast of Libya on Monday. IANS

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In a bid to revive its onlinepresence on social media

platforms like Twitter andFacebook, supporters of theIslamic State (ISIS) terror grouphave created a new channel onthe messaging app Telegram.

According to Vocativ web-site, “Online Dawah Operation”

channel has gained popularityamong the IS supporters viatrolling since its launch someweeks ago. This is how thebrand new ISIS channel works.

The channel urges sup-porters of the Islamic State topost propaganda, and like andcomment on posts, whenthey’re instructed to do so.

“I will share a Facebook

post here at 5 pm Mosul timetoday,” said Telegram channelin one of the posts.

“On this post that I’ll sharehere, we need everyone to goon and comment supportingthe ISIS. Also, whatever com-ments you see supporting theIslamic State, like them,” thereport added, quoting thechannel post.

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Baghdad: US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter on Mondayarrived in Baghdad to assess with the Iraqi authorities the fightagainst terrorism. Carter will meet political leaders and Iraqi mil-itary to give his support to the country’s armed forces in theirwar against the Islamic State, Efe news reported.

In late March, Carter and the chairman of the US Joint Chiefsof Staff General Joseph Dunford said more US military shouldbe sent to train and assist Iraqi soldiers and police.

The US has 3,870 troops in Iraq, a contingent that has trained17,500 Iraqi soldiers and 2,000 policemen, according to the lat-est official figures.

The US secretary of defense will discuss with Iraqi officialsthe current offensive against IS in the northern province ofNineveh, which aims to recover the city of Mosul, the strong-hold of the jehadis in Iraq. IANS

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At least 96 militants werekilled and 93 others injured

in clashes and airstrikes acrossAfghanistan within a day, theDefence Ministry said onMonday.

“The Afghan national secu-rity and defence forces launchedseveral operations in Nangarhar,

Ghazni, Khost, Kandahar, Zabul,Badghis, Nimroz, Jawzjan,Balkh, Faryab, Baghlan, Kunduz,and Helmand provinces withinthe last 24 hours, killing 96 mil-itants,” Xinhua cited the Ministryas saying.

The statement also con-firmed that five Army soldierswere killed during the operations.

��;��&� ��+�$��!�� Kathmandu: The political par-ties representing the Madhesisin Nepal on Mondayannounced an alliance withcertain organisations of theJanajatis for a combinedKathmandu-focused agitationover their demands.

The new alliance —Sanghiya SamabeshiGathabandan — has prepareda fresh list of 26 demands andwill announce the details of itsagitation on Tuesday.

Since numerous rounds oftalks with the Governmenthad produced no results, thealliance said, they were com-pelled to take to the streets.

Both the Madhesis and theJanajatis are unhappy over cer-tain provisions of the new con-stitution of Nepal, which was

enforced in September last year. Dozens of intellectual, aca-

demics and writers extendedsupport to the proposedKathmandu-centric stir onMonday. “This alliance is sure totake the identity movement tonew heights. Our fight will notstop until the Nepal Governmentagrees to rewrite the Constitutionin accordance with the agree-ments signed with the Madhesis,Janajatis, Dalits, Khas, Muslimsand other communities in thepast,” Sanghiya SamajwadiForum Nepal chairman UpendraYadav said here.

Various leaders said thecollaboration between thegroups would prove effective inmounting more pressure on theNepalese government regard-ing their demands. IANS

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The election commission ofThailand on Monday set

August 7 as the date for the ref-erendum on the draft consti-tution, which recently attract-ed criticism from politiciansand scholars.

Boonkiat Rakchart-charoen, the acting secretary-general of the commission saidthey have also prepared variousregulations for the referen-dum, including rules on votingand criteria for expression ofopinions, the Bangkok Postreported.

An additional and contro-versial question was proposedin the referendum by theNational Legislative Assembly,being whether senators hand-picked by the junta should beempowered to vote a new PMtogether with elected membersof the parliament.

The draft, especially thisquestion, is facing criticismfrom two major political par-ties, namely the Pheu ThaiParty the Democrat Party, andalso scholars of universities.

Watana Muangsook, coremember of Pheu Thai Party,posted a status on Facebook justbefore he departed on Mondayto report to the junta for “atti-tude adjustment”, saying thatthe current draft constitutionhas an undemocratic nature,and he will never accept it.

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You open your social media accountone fine morning and find a pho-tograph of your friend, beaming

with happiness, posed next to a bigmovie star. You might feel jealous andyou might even be tempted to commentthe same. But there is something thatyour friend will never tell you. Cashingout a few grands (in double figures, start-ing from a minimum of a lakh with noend to the range) to get roughly five sec-onds with the star will remain his (or her)little secret.

If you are willing to loosen yourpurse strings (read ‘a lot’), you can get apicture clicked with any celebrity youwant, give and take their availability.Times were simple earlier. Fans used toask for autographs and feel on top of theworld with it. Then with the coming ofthe camera, people felt the need to getthemselves clicked with the stars. Andwith smartphones, the entire thing hasblown right out of proportion. Now, itis not enough to get yourself clicked —you have got to get a selfie. “Selfies aremodern day autographs,” Arjun Kapoorhad said once in one of his interviews.A selfie is now solid proof of many thingscombined — where you have been, thepeople you are with and what’s happen-ing in your life.

Taking a selfie (or a picture, becausesome people are really classy) today, isno less than a statement, and a sectionof people do not hesitate to pay the pricefor it. We come to know that arrangingfor a photograph with a celebrity hasbecome a business — a business so secre-tive that no one is willing to talk aboutit. “Of course, people won’t talk about it.Right from the calls, to the arrangementsto the point where the photo is taken —everything is done under the table. Youcannot risk getting your name out to thepublic,” said Juhee Prasad, a public rela-tions professional.

We dug up on how the entire oper-ation is orchestrated. When a celebrityis in town for an endorsement or promo-tions, it is the celebrity manager or the

event manager is responsible for fixingup the schedule. “There are people whowant to get a selfie or a photographedclicked with the star. Now, they are eithercrazy fans or high-class people who arewilling to cash out an amount as big astwo lakhs (and more, depending on howbig the celebrity is) for just five seconds.The managers become the mediators andbrokers, who arrange the entire thing, incomplete secrecy. It is not a recent phe-nomenon, though,” said Joyline Sabbathi,

an event manager in Delhi.And paying your way to a photo-

graph comes with its own set of claus-es, too. You cannot expect to strike up aconversation. No. You will be asked toleave the moment your photograph isdone. “Bouncers stand next to the lineof people waiting for their turn. Once thephoto is taken, the stars say ‘next’ and theperson is asked to leave immediately,”said Hardik Mishra, who paid an incred-ible amount to get a picture clicked withhis favourite actress.

But it is not easy as it sounds. Itdepends entirely on the affordability andliking. And to some extent, popularity,too. A little birdie told us that SunnyLeone would be visiting a Delhi-basedrestaurant soon and that she hasdemanded a double figure sum in lakhsfor her appearance of about 10 minutes.“Now it will be up to the brokers toarrange line-ups for the entire day andgenerate more revenue and take that fig-ure up to about 70 lakhs,” said AyanTalwar, another event manager.

The money generated is later divid-ed amongst the mediators, the stars andoften the owner of the place where theevent is being held. A PR person evenaccepted the fact he made a quick 40grands within a minute. “It was duringthe promotions for Dilwale that Iarranged a photo opportunity for two ofmy clients. The mediators took two lakhseach and as commission, I received 40grands in all. This has almost tuned intoa business now,” said Anik.

Photographs are meant to capture amoment and are a means to remembersomething or someone by. Yes, it hasturned into a full-time career option butone could never have imagined thatcould be used to generate business. That,too, of this kind. We do not know howfar this will go and to what extent but wehave a feeling that wherever the roadleads to, is not a clear picture.

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Riding high on the success ofFAN, King Khan took over an

app to celebrate it with his fans. Thesuperstar interacted LIVE fromMannat with famestars Deepak Kalra,Shriya Pareek and Devangana. A livevideo social platform, #fame, gave hisfans an opportunity to send intheir queries. In a candidchat, Shah Rukh opened uplike never before.

Here are 10 of themany interesting, andunknown facts, that heshared in the conversa-tion. �Shah Rukh is very for-getful as a person andhas dif f iculty inremembering namesand dates. Duringschool days he used tostudy history by rotelearning�Even today he calls hisson Aryan, ‘Karan’ some-times and his daughter‘Farah’. Suhana corrects himon it�Unlike his character AryanKhanna in the film, Shah RukhKhan never stayed in hotel Delite.He had spent a couple of nightssleeping under the flyover atqueen’s necklace during his strug-gling days.�His son, AbRam loved fan andthe fact that he could see two twodaddys! Abram also got scaredwatching the climax sequence.�He loves chhole bhature fromDelhi and eats them only when hevisits the city. He does not like theway it’s made in Bombay.�Shah Rukh’s Saturday was spentreading the reviews of Fan and hewas glad that the critics unani-mously praised his performance. Hethen watched the Kolkata KnightRiders match at a friend’s placeand interacted with his fans.

�He does not see his films after thefirst trial. The only two films that hehas seen more than once are KuchKuch Hota Hai and Baazigar. He alsoshowed these movies to Aryan andSuhana when they grew up.�He revealed that the study room

(where he was beaming from)was his favourite placesince it had no distrac-tions and he sits therewhen he needs somepeace. He gets his phys-iotherapy and costumetrials done there. Hesits on his desk when hewants to feel officialwith his Padma Shribehind him.�He spoke about hisfans like Gaurav in reallife. He said he hadmet fans like these.They were girls whohad run away fromhome, wanting to meethim to become anactress. He used toimmediately inform

their parents and makethem understand. He also

said that parents shouldencourage their kids if theydesire to become an actor.�He mentioned that an idealfan should have their ownidentity. They should knowthat the stars appreciate themall the time

During the live session,Shah Rukh Khan alsoengaged in a fun Jabra dancesession with the famestars.He also sang Yeh ladka haindeewana from Kuch KuchHota Hain and Gerua fromhis last film, Dilwale andengaged in a round of dia-logue mash-up with famestarDevangana. He entertainedthe audiences throughout.

The issue of the Kashmiri Panditshave been plaguing the nation for

a long while now. It not only shamesus as a country, claiming tall ideolo-gies, but also weighs heavy on thoseteeming number Pandit families sur-viving in the Kashmir valley. A lot hasbeen documented on their plight andplenty said, too. But Inder K Chaku,along with his father Arjan NathChaku decided to go a step ahead andput the story of the Kashmiri Panditcommunity in the covers of a book.

But before the book could be fin-ished Arjan Nath passed away butInder, took over and made sure thatThe Story Of Kashmir Through Agesgets completed. At the launch of thebook at Niche Lounge and Bistro, hesaid, “I am sure my father must be veryhappy that finally I have managed tofulfill his dream of releasing his book.”

He shared that Pandits were theones who developed the culture inKashmir and threw light on their pre-sent-day situation where they are in aconstant state of being ignored byeveryone in the state and how nobodyspares them a thought. “There are veryless number of Kashmiri pandits leftin the state. They might have a house,money and everything but still there

is something missing — people do notaccept them as part of their own,” hesaid and added, “Our heart is inKashmir and Kashmir is in our heart.”

The Kashmir Story, written andpublished in two parts, is a veritableencyclopedia on the state. Part one ofthe book traces the history of Kashmir— beginning from the legends ofNilamatapurana to Kalhana’sRajatarangini followed by Jonaraja’s,Srivara’s and Sukha’s historicalaccounts which give us a vivid accountof Kings, their rule and misrule andan all-encompassing fabric of theexisting political, administrative, eco-nomic and social life.

The chapter on Kashmir underthe Mughals highlights the secularcharacter of Akbar, Jahangir’s love forKashmir and their contribution to thedevelopment of its beautiful lakes andgardens. The first book ends with thecultural highlights of the Medievalperiod with scholarly works ofAbhinava Gupta, Lall Ded and herfamous vaakhs and poetry ofsongstress Habba Khatoon.

Anupam Kher who was also pre-sent at the launch of book, said, “It isa sad thing that we are releasing thisbook in Delhi and not in Kashmir

because usually if we launch anybook which is written on any partic-ular state, then it is launched in thatstate only. But the tragedy with thisbook is that it can’t be launched inKashmir.”

Recently, Kher was in news for theactivism which he started few yearsago and according to him, “Peoplehave started saying that from the pastthree to four years, my love hasevolved for Kashmir but its not likethat. I have always loved Kashmir andI don’t need to explain it to everyone.”

Kher shared his childhood mem-ory, “I was not born in Kashmirbecause my father had migrated toShimla but during my vacations, I usedto go Kashmir for two months, everyyear till the time I was 25.”

Kher and Chaku agreed to apoint that the book is not only aboutthe history but also tells the story ofwhat people went through whilemigrating from their home town.

“The young leaders who took thecharge in Kashmir had always said intheir speech that Muslims andKashmiri Pandits are bhai-bhai but thetragedy is wo hume accept nahi karnachahte (they don’t want to accept us),”Kher concluded.

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Aadha Chand, recently present-ed by NSD Repertory, openlyinvites its viewers to enter

today’s esoteric arena of call centresand their loosely-built virtual world.One quickly recognises the call cen-tre as a centralised office-space: usedfor receiving or transmitting a largevolume of requests by telephone. Anin-bound call centre is operated tohandle information inquiries fromconsumers. Out-bound call centres,on the contrary, handle tele-market-ing of diverse kinds. Taken together,they are locations for centraliseddealing of individual communications:including letters, faxes, live support forsocial media, instant messages and e-mails. The ambience is of an openwork-space for call centre agents; witha computer for each agent, a telephonehead-set connected to a telecomswitch, and one or more stations forthe boss linked with additional cen-tres, they become a corporate comput-er network. Increasingly, the voice anddata pathways wade into the centresthrough the new technology of com-puter-telephony integration.

Aadha Chand, produced underthe baton of the thespian TripurarySharma, becomes a civilisationalwork-in-progress. Like its title of thehalf moon, it is a partially-realised vir-tual world. On the proscenium is, for

instance, a totally computer-based on-line community milieu: designed andshared by individuals who interact ina custom-built, simulated world. User-voices float through: ether interactingwith each other in the simulatedworld: or through text-based, two-dimensional or three-dimensionalgraphical models, endearingly namedas avatars. Avatars are very pic-turesque, as they are rendered usingcomputer graphics imaging (CGI).Individuals control their avatars usinginput devices like the keyboard,mouse and other specially designedcommand-and-simulation gadgets.The virtual world is seen to possess thequality of persistence and interactiv-ity, enabling users to explore theinherent benefits of socialisation.

It is at the socialisation end thatthe play builds up false inter-connec-tions and sham relationships. Becauseof the all-pervading influence of callcentres and their enduring impact,unwary individuals get alienated fromtheir home-grown domesticity andparental bondages. In the virtualworld of call centres, new contactsgrow, mature and eventually dissolve.Many ‘Angelas’ appear and disappear:in an atmosphere of virtual reality.Individual scenes are formed and re-formed in a break-neck tempo and donot seem to add up to anything more

than a cloak of effervescent reality ofan emerging culture that is onlydimly perceived as arrived.

Extracts from interaction with thedirector:

�Information technology stalwarts,like Alvin Toffler, provide an exalt-ed view of the technology progress,employment explosion and reach ofthe information society. In theplay, yours is a dim view…I’m fully aware and I entirely agreethat technology has achievedastounding progress. My point in theplay is that the social world has fall-en severely behind the glitteringtechnology world. That is, society isunable to keep up with the demandsmade by technology in terms ofmind-boggling changes and atti-tudes.

�Could you give an illustration?The play tries to bring forth some ofthe experiences from the contradic-tions arising from all-round connec-tivity: being here and also every-where. What is this here like? Andwhat is the construct of everywherethat we could be carrying in the callcentres? The home and the work-place are almost opposite. The pro-fessional makes unprecedenteddemand on the personal and almost

subjugates it . Identities arealtered,voices manufactured and anindividual at times is only a ‘product’or a mere wrapping.

�Your use of a pseudo-flamencodance is a brilliant idea. It remindsone of the dance sequences inBroadway’s hit-play: West SideStory...I have used tap dance synchronisedin groups, especially in the beginning.I thought this form of vigorous dancereflects the spirit of our times.

�Since connectivity, call centres andvirtual world are very current ideas,did you use any Western script foryour inspiration?No, I didn’t come across any. Butthere are quite a few documentariesand video reports that exist and theseI’ve consulted.

�Your idea of contrasting glitteringtechnology against modest homebackground with doting parentswas splendid and could bear elab-oration. But the American drawls,practiced in all call centres, seem tobe largely missing…Thanks for the suggestion. As regardsthe American drawl, we tried veryhard, but it was difficult to acquiresuch accents overnight!

could be our reality someday.Long showers, private swim-ming pool parties, wasted glass-es of water — these luxuriesmake me squirm now. Theghatam is an instrument thatresembles an empty vessel andit symbolises the scarcity ofwater.

�Tell us about the conceptof the musical evening?

Instead of having a full fledgedghatam evening which mightnot attract Delhi audiencesin coming to watch thecause, I thought it might beinteresting to have a ghatam

as a leitmotif in a curated per-formance based evening wherenational and internationalartistes spread awareness onwater conservation.

�What else do you think can bedone to save water and createawareness?

#FILLEMPTYVESSELS is thecall to action that we want peo-ple to use on social media tospread awareness on ways tosave water. People who wish todonate can donate directly toHIMCON our conservation part-ner in Uttarakhand who will

bring water to Khari villagewhich is suffering from a watercrisis.

�How did you approach theinternational artistes? Did theyrelate to the cause?The artistes from Iran, Franceand USA are friends of mine andthey have lived in India for a fewyears now. They see how mis-managed our water authoritiesare and therefore this cause res-onated well with them.

�It is just not music but hasdance, too. How did you bringtogether something as varied asKathak, Persian and Arabicdance forms?That’s what my expertise lies —in curating varied evenings ofvarious art forms and talks. Adiversity of dances will capturethe imagination of people in amore forceful way.

�Why did you name the eventEchoes of Empty Vessel?Because the ghatam symbolisesempty vessels. Empty vesselsmake more sound and I strong-ly believe that the sounds of war-cries will be due to a lack of waterfor our population.

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Art has always been apassion for Alka

Bhrushundi. It has neverbeen just the process ofpicking up a canvas or asheet of paper and puttingsome color onto it. It hasbeen a journey of exploringher inner most thoughtsand feelings. The entireprocess, from the conceptu-alization to the execution iscathartic for her and it takesthe artist beyond this worldof mundanity into a worldfilled with colours, patterns,shapes, and above all, hopesand dreams.

The Cosmos ofConsciousness, her solo artexhibition is a glass door tothe magnificent universewe belong to. The stillness

of dark night and the ster-ling crystals spread across,that spellbound scenicbeauty has always been hersource of inspiration. Shebelieves in the existence ofa Cosmic Energy in theUniverse and that we havegiven it a form and wor-shipped it since the begin-ning of time.

“This idea has alwaysbeen fascinating to me andrecently decided to takeone step towards the under-standing of this CosmicEnergy and the universe,”said the artist.

She started to giveshape to her creativitythrough fashion designingwhere she was introduced tothe wide interplay ofcolours, shapes, lines andforms. It was through thetraditional style of paintingsthat she took the first step inher journey into the magnif-

icent world of art. Hindumythology being her forteof expressions she has nowventured into exploring andexpressing the NirgunNirakar (the one that isformless and without attrib-utes) aspect, through herpaintings.

“I am fascinated aboutthe celestial phenomenonoccurring between theastronomical objects whichare billions of light yearsaway. I have attempted toimagine what happens inthe universe, something thatisn’t visible to the naked eyeand created artworksaround that,” she explained. $'�4'��"�(,

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They say that a man can live with-out food for a few days but not

a day without water. We know howimportant water is to us. We alsoknow that we are living in a timewhere water is being misused with-out a revival plan in place. It is saidthat in the years to come, warswould be fought over water.

Nehha Bhatnagar, founder ofSarvam Foundation, along withIndian and international artistesorganised a musical evening calledEchoes of Empty Vessel in a bid toraise awareness about water conser-vation and the need to use waterwisely.

�Where did the ideas of organis-ing Echoes of Empty Vessels comefrom?

In conversations with friends, Irealised that the one thing my SouthDelhi social circles are absolutelyimpervious to is the water crisis that

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The fight for the Spanish league titleis tighter than ever thanks to a sur-prise collapse by Barcelona atop the

standings.The once-unbeatable Barcelona fell to

Valencia 2-1 at the Camp Nou on Sunday,losing its third straight game to allowAtletico Madrid to draw level on pointswith five rounds to go.

Atletico erased Barcelona's lead bybeating Granada 3-0 earlier Sunday. RealMadrid is only one point behind after win-ning 5-1 at last-place Getafe on Saturday.

Atletico was trailing by nine pointsthree rounds ago, and Real Madrid was12 points back four games ago.

At the time, Barcelona was cruisingtoward a repeat of the Champions League,Spanish league and Copa del Rey treble.But Luis Enrique's squad has won onlyone of its last six games, being eliminat-ed by Atletico in the Champions Leaguequarterfinals and seeing its league lead col-lapse. Its 39-game unbeaten streak endedwith a home loss to Real Madrid earlierthis month.

"We have to remain strong," coach LuisEnrique said. "We need to win the last fivegames and I know we can do it."

Atletico has three of its last five gamesat home, while Barcelona will play awaythree times. Real Madrid also is away inthree of its last five matches. Barcelonaremains ahead in the standings ontiebreakers.

"It will be hard," Atletico coach DiegoSimeone said. "We only have one optionin our next games, which is to win, winand win."

Valencia opened the scoring afterBarcelona midfielder Ivan Rakitic deflect-ed a cross into his own net in the 26thminute. Midfielder Dani Parejo thenprovided a perfect pass for Santi Mina'sprecise shot into the far corner in first-halfinjury time.

Lionel Messi scored his 500th careergoal in the 63rd to end a five-game scor-ing slump that was his worst with

Barcelona in five years. He completed across by Jordi Alba to keep his team'shopes alive, but it was not able to capital-ize on its chances of equalizing.

Valencia had several opportunities toput the game away in counterattacks, butthe best scoring chance of the match wassquandered by Barcelona defender GerardPique in the 89th. He had only the goal-keeper to beat but missed from close range.

Valencia goalkeeper Diego Alves made

a few great saves to help secure the win,including a spectacular one after a Rakiticshot from inside the area in the 75th.

"Luck was on Valencia's side," Rakiticsaid. "We had our chances, but the ball justdidn't go in."

Barcelona had also squandered a lot ofchances in the 1-0 loss at Real Sociedad inthe previous round. Its last win was a 3-1victory against Arsenal in the round of 16of the Champions League on March 16.

It was the second win in a row forValencia after four straight losses, movingthe club further away from the relegationzone. It has 40 points from 33 games andis in 12th place. It was only the team's thirdgame under new coach Pako Ayestaran,who replaced the fired Gary Neville.

Atletico easily defeated Granada at theVicente Calderon Stadium with goals byJorge "Koke" Resurreccion in the 15th,Fernando Torres in the 59th and Angel

Correa in the 83rd.The team's seventh win in eight

league games put it alongside Barcelonaon 76 points.

Sunday's loss kept Granada with 30points from 33 games, only one point clearof the relegation zone.

Earlier Sunday, fifth-place AthleticBilbao earned a 1-0 win at eighth-placeMalaga to move within six points offourth-place Villarreal, which lost 2-1 atRayo Vallecano.

Seventh-place Sevilla conceded a lateequalizer in a 1-1 home draw againstDeportivo La Coruna.

��"��)��Luis Figo and Carlos Puyol findit inexplicable, while Raul thinks it's a tes-tament to the quality of Spanish footballbut all three La Liga legends are sure thatBarcelona's astonishing slump would notlast too long.

Speaking at what was described as the'Football Press Conference' at the LaureusWorld Sports Awards, the trio was inun-dated by questions on Barcelona's disas-trous run in the past one week.

"There are a lot of dynamics to foot-ball. Losing always hurts but they will comeback stronger and that will be interesting,"said former Barcelona captain Puyol.

"You can't really compare the threeteams in the top half right now. That's whyI say, La Liga is the best. Because of this(Barcelona's slump), the race to the titlehas become more interesting and I amenjoying it. They are all good teams," saidReal Madrid great and former Spain cap-tain Raul.

Figo, who played for both Barcelonaand Real Madrid during his career, moreor less echoed the view.

"It is not normal for Barcelona to loseso many matches. I agree the league ismore open now. As for Barcelona, I can'texplain what's happening with them. It iscertainly not a question of talent. But I amsure they are going to come back," he said.

"May be they need a captain likePuyol to bring them back," he added.

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Sardar Singh, Indian hockeyteam captain, is impressed

with the showings of theyoung trio of HarmanpreetSingh, Harjeet Singh andSurender in the Sultan AzlanShah tournament in Malaysia.

Fielding an experimentalteam, which featured a lot ofyoung and inexperiencedfaces, they scored 18 goals inthe tournament, the secondmost by any side.

India finished a creditablesecond, losing to Australia inthe Final. Despite the defeat,Sardar sees many positivesand he was particularlyimpressed with the trio, whohe believes have a bright future.

"This was a good experi-ence for youngsters, who wereplaying in the senior team forthe first time. In particular,Harmanpreet, Surender andHarjeet showed that they arecapable of playing at the high-er level and fit into the teamperfectly," Sardar said onMonday after the team

returned home.Coach Roelant Oltmans

added, "It was a good prepa-ration for Rio. We have iden-tified some of our weakness-es, which a tournament likethis highlights, and can nowwork on them extensively tomake sure we can have astrong showing at theOlympics."

This year's performancewas Indian team's best since2010, when they won the gold

at the tournament.India managed to beat

Japan, Canada, Pakistan andMalaysia but lost the finalmatch to Australia to end astournament runners-up. Indiaalso lost to New Zealand dur-ing the competition.

However, the team lost toboth the sides that will featurein the Olympics and won onlyagainst those that have notqualified for the quadrennialextravaganza.

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South Africa's former Olympic track starOscar Pistorius appeared briefly in a

Pretoria court where a judge scheduled fivedays in June to determine his sentence formurdering his girlfriend.

The sentencing hearing for Pistorius willbe held from June 13 to 17 at the NorthGauteng High Court in Pretoria.

The 29-year-old double amputee sprint-er, who was found guilty of murdering ReevaSteenkamp on Valentine's Day 2013, wasgreeted by a small group of vocal support-ers outside the court.

The sentencing hearing will be heard byJudge Thokozile Masipa, who presided overPistorius's trial and found him guilty ofmanslaughter, a verdict that was overturnedby a higher court that found him guilty ofthe more serious charge of murder.

Pistorius appealed his murder convic-tion, arguing that a lower court erred whenit overturned his manslaughter conviction.But at South Africa's Constitutional Courtdismissed his appeal.

The minimum sentence for murder inSouth Africa is 15 years, although it can bereduced in some circumstances.

Pistorius is expected to argue for a less-er sentence. He has already spent one yearin the hospital wing of Kgosi Mampuru IIprison in Pretoria. He is currently servingthe remainder of his five year manslaugh-

ter sentence under house arrest and he staysat his uncle's home in Pretoria.

Pistorius was cheered by his supporters,most of who were dressed in white, when heleft the court and navigated his way througha scrum of reporters.

A leader of the supporters, Don Hassett,appealed for a lenient sentence for Pistorius.

"He knows it was wrong and he hasadmitted that, but the media has generatedhatred against Oscar," Hasset told reporters.

Before the proceedings a group of sup-porters gathered inside the courtroom andprayed for the athlete.

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Captain David Warner led fromthe front with a scintillatingunbeaten 90 as Sunrisers

Hyderabad thrashed Mumbai Indiansby seven wickets to notch up their firstwin of the IPl-9 season here onMonday.

Chasing a target of 143, Warneranchored the Sunrisers innings with amasterclass effort after his openingpartner Shikhar Dhawan (2) was outin the first over itself as the home sideromped home with 15 balls to spare atthe Rajiv Gandhi InternationalStadium.

Warner hit seven fours and foursixes in his 59-ball unbeaten knock ashe carried his bat through the inningsto help the Sunrisers bounce back afterlosing their earlier two matches. Theswashbuckling Australian curbed hisaggressive intent initially before hittinga flurry of lusty blows towards the end.

Fittingly, Warner hit the winningruns as he sent a Mitchel lMcClenaghan delivery for a six as theSunrisers reached 145 for 3 in 17.3overs to the wild cheer of the homecrowd.

For Mumbai, it was their third lossin four matches.

The Sunrisers, who have been hithard by the injury of the likes of YuvrajSingh and Ashish Nehra, made a stut-tering start in their run chase asDhawan continued his horrible run ofform as he was out in the fifth ball ofthe innings, bowled by Tim Southee.

Warner then dropped anchor andcurbed his natural aggressive instincta bit and chose his shots to find theboundaries.

At the halfway mark, the Sunriserswere placed comfortably at 66 for 1 butimmediately they lost MoisesHenriques (20) who stitched 62 crucialruns for the second wicket with Warnerto lay the foundation for the win.

Henriques was out to a fine deliv-ery off Southee which swung andtook the outside edge of the batsman.

Englishman Eoin Morgan (11) didnot contribute much as he was out,courtesy an outstanding catch byHardik Pandya at deep midwicket offthe bowling of Southee.

The Sunrisers were 100 for 3 at thattime, needing another 43 runs off 34 ballsand Warner took his side home in style.

For Mumbai, Southee took threewickets for 24 runs from his four overswhile all his bowling colleagues wentwicketless.

Earlier, left-arm pacer BarinderSran grabbed three wickets to leadSunrisers' impressive bowling displayas they restricted defending champi-ons Mumbai to 142 for 6.

Put into bat, Mumbai found them-selves in a precarious position as they werereduced to 60 for 4 in the 11th over andthey made a brief recovery in middle oversonly to fizzle out at the death on the faceof some fine bowling by home side.

Sran (3/28) led the bowling charge

while Bhuvneshwar Kumar (1/17 in 4overs) and Mustafizur Rahman (1/32)gave able support to restrict Mumbaito a small total.

The Mumbai innings was builtaround Ambati Rayudu's 49-ball 54,which was studded with three fours andtwo sixes, and Krunal Pandya's 28-ballunbeaten 49 (3x4, 3x6).

The duo stitched 63 runs for the fifthwicket to take Mumbai to a respectabletotal and hit 26 runs in the 14th overbowled by Bipul Sharma. Krunal struckthree successive sixes while Rayudu gotone maximum hit in that over.

It seemed that Mumbai would turnaround after the tottering start and posta good total but the home side bowlershad a different idea as they bowled a tightspell in the death overs to restrict the vis-iting side to 142 for 6.

Earlier, Martin Guptill's IPL debutmatch lasted just four balls as he wasdismissed for 2 in first over bowled byBhuvneshwar who extracted swingfrom the pitch early on.

Parthiv Patel (10) was the next manout, cleanbowled by Sran in the fourthover after he smacked the bowler fortwo boundaries in that over, to leaveMumbai at 23 for 2.

Captain Rohit Sharma (5), whopushed down the order in this match,came out at number four but disasterstruck Mumbai as he was run out inthe first ball of the eighth overbowled by Bipul Sharma. Rohitfailed to regain his crease after hewas sent back by AmbatiRayudu as Sunriserswicketkeeper NamanOjha whipped off the thebails. Mumbai were 43for then in 7.1 overs.

Mumbai reached 58for 3 at the halfway markand under pressure tofind the boundaries, JosButler (11) unnecessarilychased a ball down the leg sideonly to find it kissed his glovesfor Ojha to take a good catch.

Brief ScoresSunrisers Hyderabad: 145 for 3(Warner 90*, Southee 3-24) beatMumbai Indians: 142 for 6(Rayudu 54, K Pandya 49*,Sran 3-28) by seven wickets.

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Having notched up theirfirst victory against Pune

Supergiants, an upbeat KingsXI Punjab face the all-roundmight of two-time championsKolkata Knight Riders in anIPL cricket tournamentencounter, here on Tuesday.

While KKR have fourpoints from three games withtwo wins under their belt,Kings XI opened their accountwith a six-wicket win againstPune on Sunday.

On paper, KKR are over-whelming favourites againstPunjab with a more balancedoutfit but reputations count forlittle in the shortest format asmost of the contests are won onthe day.

Expect an interesting bat-tle between KKR's much vaunt-ed batting line-up againstKXIP's bowling which haslooked disciplined during theirlast match against Pune on atwo-paced wicket.

So there could be someintriguing smaller battle withinthe battles. How Gambhir tack-les Mohit Sharma's slower deliv-eries or how Sandeep Sharmacan stop Andre Russell from hit-ting those towering sixes.

It will also be a challengefor KXIP spinners like AxarPatel as KKR is one side whichhas quality batsmen againstslow bowlers.

For Knight Riders, the bestpart about their journey sinceGambhir taking over in 2011 isthe amount of consistency thatthey have shown over the years.

Not only have they won thetitle twice in 2012 and 2014 but

more importantly have stuckwith their core group of play-ers in thick and thin duringthese years.

Skipper Gambhir, openerRobin Uthappa, ManishPandey, Suryakumar Yadav,Andre Russell and Sunil Narinehave all settled down in theirrespective roles in the past fewyears giving them a dangerouslook despite the absence of ahuge star in the ranks of aKohli, Dhoni or AB de Villiers.

The best part about KKR'scampaign so far has beenGambhir's form as he is on topof the run-getters' table with192 runs at a healthy strike-rateof 125.49. He has been playing

the role of sheet anchor to per-fection as has forged a goodopening partnership withRobin Uthappa.

However with a three-pronged spin attack of Narine,Piyush Chawla and Shakib AlHasan, KKR can put the KXIPbatting to test which has notbeen very consistent in theirthree matches so far.

In KXIP team, MananVohra, who has scored 38, 32and 51 in the three matches, theothers have not lived upto theexpectations. Glenn Maxwell's14-ball-32 did help in their winagainst Pune but Maxwell hashad a struggle on Indian pitch-es since the start of the WT20.

The big shots have notcome off as frequently as hewould have expected. The wor-rying factor for KXIP isMaxwell's 34 runs in 3 match-es and skipper David Miller's31 in 3 games.

The problem area for KXIPin their bowling has been spin-ners Axar Patel and PardeepSahu, both of whom have leakedruns in the three matches thatthey have played. KXIP will cer-tainly look at trying out some-one in place of Sahu — may bemystery spinner KC Cariappa orGurkeerat Singh Mann.

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The Supreme Court was onMonday told that the Justice

R M Lodha committee's recom-mendation for one- state, one-vote in BCCI would lead to"enormous politics" and pressurewithin the system of the apexcricket body.

The submission made byBaroda Cricket Association to thiseffect prompted a bench, com-prising Chief Justice T S Thakurand Justice F M I Kalifulla, to asksenior advocate Kapil Sibal formore elaboration as to how thisrecommendation would "gener-ate" more politics in the working

of the BCCI."Can you elaborate what the

politics will be," the bench askedSibal, who was appearing forBaroda Cricket Association andarguing against the implementa-tion of recommendation for one-state, one-vote in BCCI.

"You know everything," washow the senior advocate respond-ed when the bench, in a lightervein, said "That is the area inwhich you also flourish."

"Reality is there would beenormous pressure irrespective ofwho is standing in the elections,"Sibal said.

The implementation of one-state, one-vote policy has rele-

vance as Maharashtra and Gujaratwhich have four and three crick-et associations respectively aspermanent members would beleft with only one permanentmember each in the BCCI.

The new permanent mem-bers will come from smaller andsparingly cricket-playing stateslike Manipur and Mizoram.

Sibal contended that there isno rationale in co-relating crick-eting activities, geographicalboundaries and population. "Wewill be generating enormous pol-itics in the system which is pre-vailing," he submitted.

The bench said with the imple-mentation of Lodha Committee

recommendations,there will be anissue of seven votes in BCCI.

"You are right. Seven voteswill come to Northeast wherethere is no cricket, that we know.But we don't know the game ofseven votes. Can you elaboratewhat the politics will be," thecourt asked.

Besides Maharashtra CricketAssociation, other three cricketboards in the state with full mem-bership are — Cricket Club ofIndia, Mumbai Cricket Associationand Vidharbha CricketAssociation. In Gujarat, besidesGCA, other two are Baroda CricketAssociation (BCA) and SaurashtraCricket Association.

��"�� Pakistan Cricket Board hasappointed former captain Inzamam-ul-Haq as the head of the new selectioncommittee, which also includes formertest off-spinner Tauseef Ahmed.

"We are happy that Inzamam hasaccepted to be the chief selector and wewill give him full authority in select-ing the teams," chairman PCBShaharyar Khan said.

Former international fast bowlerWasim Haider and batsmanWajahatullah Wasti are the other mem-bers of the new selection committee.

"I want to thank ACB that theyallowed me to do national duty,"Inzamam said. "I worked for them forsix months, I am thankful to their play-ers and their cricket board officials forthe cooperation."

"I have picked one spinner, one fastbowler and a batsman in my team (ofselectors) to cover all the areas,"Inzamam said. "I don't have a magicwand to improve the performance ofthe team, it will take some time andyou have to be patient."

Inzamam said the coach and cap-tains of all the three formats of thegame — tests, one-day internationalsand Twenty20s — will be consultedbefore he finalizes Pakistan squads.

"When I was the captain, I used to

give my suggestion to the selectors.Similarly I will give importance to whatcaptains and coach will have to saybecause they are the ones who ulti-mately matter," he said.

"�� @�� Pakistan Cricket Board on Monday

appointed former Test leg-spinnerMushtaq Ahmed as the new headcoach of National Cricket Academy.

Mushtaq, who was until recentlythe bowling coach of the national team,has been tasked with the responsibil-ity of running the NCA affairs.

PCB Chairman Shaharyar Khantold reporters in Lahore that the Boardwanted to make the NCA a separateentity so that total focus would be oncricket and players. "We are also goingto reorganize the cricket committee inthe next week or so and we have decid-ed to only have former Test players onthe committee," Khan said. Agencies

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