ˇ ˇ) · 2019-07-26 · janata dal, telugu desam party, communist party of india and cpi(m) urged...

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Seeking his political future inrealms of numerology,

Karnataka BJP president BSYeddyurappa changed his lastname to Yediyurappa a fewweeks ago. The stars did smileon him and on Friday he tookoath as Chief Minister ofKarnataka for the fourth timeon Friday.

Governor Vajubhai Valaadministered the oath of officeand secrecy to the 76-year-oldYediyurappa at a ceremony atthe Raj Bhavan. OnlyYediyurappa was sworn in.

BSY, as he is popularlycalled, carried the last name ofYediyurappa till 2007 when hebecame the Chief Minister forthe first time in 2007. Then hechanged his name to“Yeddyurappa” on the advice ofnumerologists.

The name change thenwasn’t of much help as thecoalition with the JD(S)Government survived for onlya week.

Sources said acting on theadvice of a numerologist, BSYhas reverted to older spelling.Sources said BSY had got hisname changed in StateAssembly records a few weeksago.

Yediyurappa-led BJPMinistry is assuming officethree days after the collapse ofthe Congress-JD(S)Government with the defeat ofthe motion of confidencemoved by HD Kumaraswamyin by 99-105 votes.

Yediyurappa met the

Governor to stake the claim forGovernment formation andrequested him to administerthe oath of office and secrecyon Friday itself. Before theswearing in, Yediyurappa saidhe would decide on membersto be inducted into the ministryafter consulting party president

Amit Shah.This is the fourth times

Yediyurappa will occupy thechair of the Chief Minister —the last one was after the May2018 Assembly polls, when hebarely lasted three days afterbeing sworn in.

In Delhi, BJP working pres-

ident JP Nadda said theCongress-JD(S) coalitionGovernment fell due to inter-nal reasons and asserted thathis party would provide a sta-ble Government in the State.

“They (Congress-JD-S) fellunder their own weight due tointernal reasons...The BJP is

synonymous with stability.Wherever we go, we bring sta-bility,” Nadda told reporters athis maiden Press conferencewhere he also shared theNarendra Modi Government’sachievements in its first 50days.

Nadda played downqueries about the fact thatYediyurappa is over 75-year agebar the party has stipulated forits leaders holding anyGovernment position.

Yediyurappa was the leaderof the BJP legislature party inthe State and it was natural forhim to be the party’s choice forthe Chief Minister’s post, hesaid.

“It depends,” he said whenquizzed about the party’s age-bar and then added, “you see,first of all he is a leader, he isan elected leader of the legis-lature party. Accordingly, he istaking oath. It is a continuousprocess and the party takesnote of ongoing developmentsfrom time to time.”

As the leader of Oppositionhe is alright and the day hetakes oath the question is askedabout his age, he said, addingthat it does not work like that.

The BJP under PrimeMinister Narendra Modi andits president Amit Shah hasintroduced the 75 years limitfor Ministers in the party-runGovernments as well as for itscandidates in the recent LokSabha election to ease outmany veterans, including LKAdvani, Murli Manohar Joshiand Sumitra Mahajan amongothers.

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Opposition parties on Fridaystrongly protested to Rajya

Sabha Chairman M VenkaiahNaidu over the hurried passageof Bills in Parliament withoutrequisite scrutiny and in breachof convention.

Leaders of 17 parties,including Congress, SamajwadiParty, Trinamool Congress,Bahujan Samaj Party, RashtriyaJanata Dal, Telugu DesamParty, Communist Party ofIndia and CPI(M) urged Naiduto ensure that the voice of theOpposition is not “smothered”.

“We, the undersigned par-ties, wish to register ouranguish and serious concernover the manner in which theGovernment is hurriedly pass-ing legislations without anyscrutiny by ParliamentaryStanding or Select Committees.This is a fundamental depar-ture from the established prac-tice and healthy traditions ofenacting legislations,” the lettersaid.

It said that in the 14th LokSabha, 60 per cent of Billswere sent for scrutiny toParliamentary Committeeswhile in the 15th Lok Sabha, 71per cent of Bills were sent for

scrutiny. However, the lettersaid, in the 16th Lok Sabha,only 26 per cent of Bills weresent for scrutiny.

“Now, in the 17th LokSabha, 14 Bills have alreadybeen passed in the first session.None of these Bills has beenreferred to a StandingCommittee or SelectCommittee for legislativescrutiny. Public consultation isa long established practicewhere parliamentary commit-tees scrutinise Bills, deliberate,engage and work towardsimproving the content andquality of the legislation,” theletter stated.

The parties also askedNaidu, the Vice President, tointervene in the matter. The let-ter further said the ongoingLok Sabha Session has the“dubious” record of passing 14Bills, none of which has beenscrutinised by anyParliamentary Committee.

Further, 11 more Bills havebeen listed for introduction,consideration and passing, itsaid. The parties said that thefirst sessions of the 13th, 14th,15th and 16th Lok Sabha hadabout 10 sittings each and dur-ing that time only a handful ofBills that had undergone par-liamentary scrutiny werepassed.

The Opposition partiesalso demanded that short dura-tion appeals should be allowedin the House. “We urge you toensure that the voice of theOpposition is not smothered inthe Rajya Sabha. While weunderstand our responsibilityand the need to enact legisla-tion, any attempt by theGovernment to undermine theprivileges of members, therules and established conven-tions will diminish the role ofthe Council of States as envis-aged by our founding fathers,”the letter stated.

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The Lok Sabha on Friday sawa massive uproar over

Samajwadi Party MP AzamKhan’s “sexiest” commentagainst BJP woman MP RamaDevi with members of theHouse authorising Speaker OmBirla to seek an apology fromthe lawmaker.

MPs cutting across partylines condemned Azam’sremark in strong terms withsome saying that if such sexi-est behavior prevailed in theaugust house against womenthan what is to be expectedelsewhere.

After hearing out theHouse for one hour, theSpeaker said he would decideon the issue after consulting allleaders. According to sources,the Speaker may ask the SP totender an unconditional apol-

ogy to resolve the issue.Azam’s remarks to Rama

Devi when she was in theChair during a discussion onthe triple talaq Bill on Thursdaywere slammed as malicious,utterly condemnable and a bloton all legislators by theMinisters and MPs who spokeafter BJP’s Sanghmitra Mauryaraised the issue during theZero Hour.

Several women MPs,including Central Ministers,TMC, NCP, DMK and BJP,vociferously demandedstrongest possible actionagainst the SP MP as theSpeaker opened the floor andallowed all to speak during theZero Hour.

Parliamentary AffairsMinister Pralhad Joshi saidthe Speaker was the custodianhe could take strong actionagainst the MP. He said all MPshave to maintain decorum inthe House and asked theSpeaker to take “most exem-plary punishment” in the case.

Other Central Ministers,including Ravishankar Prasad,Nirmala Sitharaman, SmritiIrani and Anurag Thakur,vociferously condemned the

Azam’s remark.Congress leader Adhir

Ranjan Chowdhury said hisparty does not approve of suchbehaviour and Privilege orEthics Committee should lookinto the issue. He, however, alsosaid that at times a Congressleader was also referred as“daughter of Italy, Italy ki kath-putli”. This evoked protestsfrom the Treasury Bencheswhich demanded the Congressto come clean on its stand onthe current issue. Chowdhurylater agreed with the prevailingview that the Speaker shouldtake a call on punishing Azam.

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Day after the Supreme Courtdirected setting up of a

centrally-funded designatedcourt in each district havingmore than 100 FIRs under theProtection of Children fromSexual Offences (POCSO) Actto deal exclusively with cases ofsexual offences against chil-dren, the Delhi Cabinetapproved the proposal of theLaw Department to set up 18permanent fast-track courtsand 22 new commercial courts.

According to the CrPC,cases of rape and incidents ofsexual assault against minorsunder the POCSO Act shouldbe decided in two months afterthe filing of the chargesheet.Such trials necessitate the exis-tence of fast-track courts.

The Cabinet chaired byChief Minister Arvind Kejriwalalso approved a proposal ofcreation of 22 posts of DelhiHigher Judicial Services(DHJS) in super time scale for

Commercial Court judgesalong with ancillary staff.

A total 212 posts, request-ed by the Delhi High Court inJanuary, have been approved.The Government decision willhave the annual financialimplication of �13,55,90,280.

When it comes to fast-track courts, Delhi already has20 of them, all set up in 2005,but they operate entirely withad-hoc staff.

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After a setback in the StateAssembly, the Opposition

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) isin damage control mode and isgiving special care to thoseMLAs who have backgroundof Congress.

Besides, the fuming partyhigh command had first sum-moned state unit head RakeshSingh while on Friday, thecentral leadership NarottamMishra too have been asked tocome down to New Delhi andfurnish a reply.

The party high commandis upset with the fact thatwhen the state was facing apolitical tug of war, then whythe Chief whip Narottam Mishra had not issued a whipfor the party members for thewhole session.

The BJP was caught on thewrong foot when the KamalNath government suddenlyforced a vote division on themon penal code bill.

Taking advantage of no

whip issued by the party, twoof its MLAs --Narayan Tripathiand Sharad Kol, voted infavour of the Kamal Nath gov-ernment and the BJP due tounavailability of the whipcould not disqualify the rebel lawmakers.

After a meeting with localRSS functionaries, it was decid-ed that party state head RakeshSIngh and former ChiefMinister Shivraj SinghChouhan would speak to theMLAs who could follow thefootsteps of Kol and Tripathi.

The two leaders wouldalso be speaking to the rebels--Narayan Tripathi and SharadKol.

The saffron party is yet totake an official call on the fateof two rebels who sided withKamal Nath government inassembly, but sources claimthat the party given the criti-cal number game in assembly is planning to letthem off the hook for the timebeing.

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As India commemorated 20years of Kargil war, Army

chief General Bipin Rawat onFriday warned Pakistan againstattempting another Kargil-like“misadventure”.

General Rawat was askedby a reporter at a Press con-ference to share his message forPakistan on the 20th anniver-sary of India’s victory in theKargil war.

Earlier on Thursday, whileinteracting with the media-persons in Drass, the Armychief had said, “The enemywould never be allowed tosucceed. No matter whatheights they capture, we willalways get back to them and

this was evident during theKargil war in 1999. They willnot dare to repeat it.”

“Don’t do it. This was amisadventure. Misadventuresare normally not repeated. You

will get a bloodier nose nexttime,” the Army chief reactedfirmly standing tall in thebackdrop of a war memoriallocated at the foothills of the

Tololing feature.Meanwhile, speaking in

the Lok Sabha on the occasionas Parliament paid tributes toIndian soldiers who drove outenemy forces and reclaimed

Kargil heights, DefenceMinister Rajnath Singh said thebravery and sacrifice of soldierscannot be forgotten.

To commemorate the 20years of the Kargil War, PrimeMinister Narendra Modishared pictures of his visit tothe area during the conflict andhis interaction with the sol-diers. “During the Kargil Warin 1999, I had the opportunityto go to Kargil and show soli-darity with our brave soldiers,”he said on Twitter.

The Prime Minister saidthat in 1999, he was workingfor the BJP in Jammu &Kashmir and HimachalPradesh. “The visit to Kargiland interactions with soldiersare unforgettable,” Modi said.

In the photographs, he isseen interacting with Armymen and meeting woundedsoldiers.

Meanwhile, bad weatherprevented President Ram Nath

Kovind from visiting the Drasswar memorial to attend the‘Kargil Diwas’. He landed inSrinagar and participated in theVijay Diwas function at Badami

Bagh Cantonment.In Drass, Navy chief

Admiral Karambir Singh, AirForce chief BS Dhanoa bothaccompanied by Army chief

General Bipin Rawat paid trib-utes wearing their respectiveforces’ combat fatigues.

GoC-in-C, NorthernCommand, Lt-Gen Ranbir

Singh, Lt Gen YK Joshi, GOCFire and Fury Corps, formerArmy Chief (Retd) Gen VPMalik too were present on theoccasion.

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In an apt celebration of KargilVijay Diwas, Punjab Chief

Minister Capt AmarinderSingh came as a saviour for aKargil War hero on Fridayordering double promotionfor Vir Chakra awardee SatpalSingh after learning that he wasmanaging traffic after being re-employed as a senior policeconstable — a rank below hisstature — in Sangrur district ofthe State.

The CM, himself a former

Army man, accused the pre-vious SAD-BJP Government ofignoring the credentials ofSatpal at the time of his recruit-ment in 2010.

“Satpal, who joined thePunjab Police after his dis-charge from the Army, hasbeen awarded a double pro-motion to the rank of AssistantSub-Inspector following directorders from the Chief Ministerin recognition of his valiantcontribution during the KargilWar,” a Punjab Governmentspokesperson said.

As a special case, he will berecruited as an Assistant Sub-Inspector, in relaxation of Rule12.3 of the Punjab Police Rulesby the DGP, who has been soauthorised by the ChiefMinister, he said.

Satpal was posted in DrassSector during Operation Vijayand was part of the team thathelped the Indian Army cap-ture Tiger Hill. He killedPakistani Captain Karnal SherKhan of the Northern LightInfantry and three others.

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With the shortage of watergetting worse, farmers

in the Gwalior ChambalDivision, especially in theDabra and Bhitarwar areas arefacing a tough time savingtheir crops.

According to sources, themulti-purpose MadikhedaDam, situated in the Shivpuridistrict has sufficient waterbut due to the negligence onthe part of the officials of theWater Resources Department,the water is not being releasedto the farmers of Dabra andBhitarwar.

The sources also said thatif water is released through theHarsi High Level Canal thatconnects Madikheda Dam toDabra and Bhitarwar, the cropscan still be saved and addedthat any further delay in releas-

ing water will destroy all thecrops in the area.

In this connection it is tobe noted that as the monsoonintensifies the gates ofMadikheda Dam will beopened for the water to flowinto the Sindh River.

A delegation under theleadership of Jaswant Singh, theRural President of the KissanMorcha met the representativeof the District Collector onFriday and presented a mem-orandum addressed to the gov-

ernor of Madhya Pradesh. Theyhave demanded the supply ofadequate water for their cropsand a few other demands andwarned that they will go on anagitation if their just demandsare not met.

The farmers are furtherannoyed because the adminis-tration is yet to release thebonus on last year’s sale ofwheat. They also pointed outthe poor condition of the miniHighway in Mohana and theroad that connects Aron toGolari.

Speaking to the media per-sons, District Collector AnuragChaudhary said that currentlythere is a shortage of water inthe dams due to the delayedmonsoon. He added that bet-ter rains are expected in thecoming days and assured thatadequate water will be releasedthrough the canals.

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At All India Institute ofMedical Sciences, Bhopal,

stenting was done for thebiggest blood vessel in thebody on Thursday, by theCardiology Department.

A 34 year old man, a resi-dent of Rewa, had severe block-age in his blood vessel sincebirth. This disease which isCoarctation of Aorta was treat-ed successfully in AIIMSBhopal by angioplasty.

According to AIIMSBhopal Cardiologist Dr GauravKhandewal, the patient hadhigh Blood pressure since longtime, along with headache andpain in legs while walking.The echocardiography and CTscan investigations revealedthat the aorta had 99% block-age, just after giving upperlimb and head branches.

The patient consulted too

many corporate hospitals inmetro cities, which quotedlakhs for the major surgery.The patient showed to AIIMSBhopal, where the treatmentwas done by percutaneousmethod, without giving inci-sions and patient being in con-scious state. The cost of thetreatment to patient was one-fourth as compared to private

hospitals. This is possibly thefirst case in Bhopal and one ofthe few in Madhya Pradesh, inwhich this rare disease wastreated by stenting method.

Prof Sarman Singh,Director, AIIMS, Bhopal saidthat our doctors are being reg-ularly trained by adopting newtechnology in AIIMS Bhopal toprovide economical & qualitytreatment/ care. This is one ofits example.

As per Dr GauravKhandelwal, Aorta is the largestblood vessel in the body whichsupplies blood to the wholebody through various branch-es. Normally the aorta mea-sures about 20 mm, but in thiscase it was only 1 mm at theblockage site. It was brought tothe normal size by carefullydeploying the stent. After stent-ing, the blood pressure of thepatient became normal, andblood flow to his legs returned.

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Bhopal: Protecting children isnot the only responsibility ofparents, it is the responsibil-ity of the entire society. Policeshould help children by keep-ing soft heart towards chil-dren said DGP VK at theworkshop organised by theMadhya Pradesh RailwayPolice of officers from acrossthe State.

On this occasion, he alsolaid special emphasis ondeveloping better and full-proof system for the safety ofthe railway station and thepassengers. The workshopwas important as it was orga-nized to address statutoryprovisions and ef fectiveimplementation of protectionof minors

In the workshop expertsfrom the related field sharedtheir experience which helpedin training of the RailwayPolice personnel for the safe-ty of the children.

DGP Singh instructedthat with the coordination of

Government Railway Police,Railway Management andRPF, develop such a full-proof system, so that nounwanted elements can nei-ther enter nor exit the railwaystation.

He said that technology isimportant in catching crimi-nals so that the officers of therailway police also keepupdating themselves with thetechnology.

ADG Aruna Mohan Raosaid that the destitute childrenliving at the railway stationare trapped by criminals andto handle this children shouldbe sought help from childline. Efforts were made totrace missing children fromthe railway station area. IGBhopal Rai lway JaideepPrasad said that the railwaystations will be made freefrom child beggars and direct-ed the railway police to startspecial campaign to rehabil-itate the children involved inbegging. SR

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A26-year-old marriedwoman was sexually

assaulted by a youth at JahidPipalia village underSukhisewania police stationarea on July 20; a case of rapewas registered by police on vic-tim's complaint on Thursday.

According to the police, thevictim lodged a complaint onThursday regarding sexualassault by her minor neighbor.

In her complaint victim hasstated that the accused SunilMalviya came to her house ataround 11.30 pm and sexuallyassaulted her.

The accused threatenedher to keep mum feared victiminformed the husband onlyafter five days when she braved

to report the atrocity.The victim’s husband used

to work in night shift andaccused was aware of the fact.

The police have registereda case under section 376 and506 of the IPC and have start-ed further investigation into thematter.

Police said that the searchfor the accused has been start-ed.

Meanwhile, a 24-year-old

married woman was sexuallyassaulted by her a 24-year-oldyouth at Sai Baba Nagar underHabibganj police station area;a complaint was lodged byvictim on Thursday.

According to the police,accused Sonu Choudhary sex-ually exploited the victim whocame to Bhopal after havingfight with her husband.

The accused offered her tomarry and sexually exploitedher and later refused to marryher.

The police have registereda case under section 376 and506 of the IPC and startedsearch for the accused whowent absconding after thecrime.

The accused has beenbooked earlier and details havebeen searched.

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Bhopal: Kamla Nagar policehave nabbed miscreants whorobbed a woman of her purseon July 19; a damaged mobilephone, purse and scooter usedin the robbery were recoveredon Thursday.

On July 19 the victimShakuntala Singh was on herway to Kamla Nagar at hernephew’s house when she wasattacked by two bike borne mis-creants and snatched the pursethey were carrying. During theinvestigation the CCTVfootages were checked and itwas found that the accused areresidents of Shahjehanabad andhave been booked several times.

After the two were identi-fied they were nabbed and inthe investigation the two wereidentified as Laxman alias Teji(19) and Shanu alias DeepakBichale(19). Police said thatwhen the two were quizzed they

confessed three robberies inTalaiya, Koh-e-Fiza and KamalaNagar police station area. FromShanu polic have recovered amobile and Rs 900 while amobile phone, damaged ladiespurse, Rs 1100 from Laxman.Scooter bearing registrationnumber MP04UD6223 usedin the crime was also recovered.

The two used to destroymobile phone and documentsto escape tracking and wouldkeep cash and other valuablesin the robbery.

Earlier on July 19 the vic-tim came to meet her nephewSamar Singh who lives inKamla Nagar area and on herto his home she was attacked bytwo miscreants who escapedwith purse carrying cash, doc-uments and mobile phone.

The police registered a caseunder section 392 of the IPCand in the further investigationnabbed the accused. SR

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Joint efforts have led to thecompletion of session in sys-

tematic and peaceful manner

and the record work was con-ducted in the State assemblyduring the Monsoon session,said Speaker of MadhyaPradesh Assembly NP

Prajapati at a programmeorganised at MansarovarAuditorium of Vidhan Sabhaon Friday.

After the completion of

Monsoon session, officials,employees and police teamwere congratulated by theSpeaker as team efforts bythem has helped in conductionof coordinated and orderlysessions during the Monsoonsession.

At the programme, DeputySpeaker of the State AssemblyHina Kanware, ParliamentaryAffairs Minister Govind Singh,Principal Secretary to theLegislative Assembly AP Singhwere present.

Govind Singh in hisaddress appreciated the workand the efficiency of theemployees and officials of theState Assembly Secretariat.

Principal Secretary APSingh told that more than 76hours of sessions were held inthis Monsoon session in whichvarious government and non-governmental works were con-ducted. Several committees

were formed in session andimportant directions were alsogiven by the Speaker.

The officers and employeesof Legislative AssemblySecretariat welcomed theguests at the programme. Thepatron of Secretariat employ-ees association, RamnarayanAcharya welcomed the rulingof the Speaker on promotionsand said that it would benefitthe employees.

The Additional Secretary,Legislative Assembly VirendraKumar gave vote of thanks andexpressed gratitude for prop-er conducting of sessions. Onthis occasion District CollectorTarun Pithode, DIG IrshadWali and

Officer of the LegislativeAssembly includingSuperintendent of PoliceSampat Upadhyay and officialsand other officials from thePolice Department were present.

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When it comes to tobacco,the Government, health

experts, NGOs and other vol-untary organisations immedi-ately start talking about use ofcigarette and bidi and its ill-effects whereas tobacco doesnot only mean cigarette andbidi, it is also smokeless tobac-co.

In Madhya Pradesh, 19.0%men, 0.8% women and 10.2%all adults currently smoketobacco. Similarly, 38.7% ofmen, 16.8% of women and28.1% of all adults currently usesmokeless tobacco.

India’s problem is smoke-less or chewing tobacco, whichcauses 90% of oral cancers. Asper the Global Adult TobaccoSurvey (GATS 2017), 21.4%

(15+ adults) use smokelesstobacco whereas 10.7% smoke.

Patron of the Voice ofTobacco Victims (VOTV) DrLalit Shrivastav of Bhopal saidthat International Federation ofHead & Neck OncologicSocieties (IFHNOS), a globalorganization, declared July 27as World Head & Neck CancerDay on the occasion of its fifthWorld Congress in New Yorkon July 27, 2014. This day

brings together patients, physi-cians and policymakers to raiseawareness about the diseaseand recent treatment advances.

As per WHO (WorldHealth Organization), alcoholuse, in unsafe quantities is alsoa risk factor for many cancersincluding oral cancers. Therisk increases much more,when alcohol and tobacco aretaken together.

Even though India’s prob-lem is chewing tobacco, but thefocus seems to be more onsmoking than on smokeless.Looking at the Global AdultTobacco Survey (GATS) 2017report, it states that healthcareproviders have advised 48.8%smokers to quit whereas only31.7% smokeless tobacco userswere advised to quit, whichshows a big gap.

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State is witnessing conduciveweather conditions for rains

and in the next 24 hours warn-ing of heavy to very heavy rain-fall has been issued for 27 dis-tricts.

Several regions in the statehave witnessed good spell ofrainfall in the past 5-6 days. Inthe past 24 hours highest rain-fall has been witnessed inShivpuri and Guna at 15 cm,Ashok Nagar and Mungawali at13 cm and Kolaras at 9 cm.

Most of the places inJabalpur, Hoshangabad,Gwalior and Chambal divisionshave received rainfall. Rewa,Shahdol, Sagar,Bhopal andIndore divisions recorded rain-fall at several places.

Ujjain, Neemuch, Shajapur,Betul, Rajgarh, Sehore, Satna,

Sidhi, Datia, Shivpuri, Harda,Agar, Hoshangabad, Raisen,Mandsaur, Guna, Ashok Nagar,Sheopurkalan, Dhar, Alirajpur,Jhabua, Khandwa, Sagar,Damoh, Chhattarpur, Rewa,and Chhattarpur districts arelikely to experience heavy tovery heavy rain in the next 24hours.

In the last 24 hours,Shivpuri and Guna recorded15cm rainfall while AshokNagar and Mungawali record-ed 13cm rainfall. Kolarasrecorded 9 cm rainfall.

The state capital witnessedrainfall in the afternoon and inthe past 24 hours 3.7 cm ofrainfall has been recorded inthe state capital. Day temper-ature which soared to 36dipped to 28 degree Celsiuswhile the night temperaturewas recorded at 23.3 degreeCelsius.

Factors affecting the weath-er of Bhopal and MadhyaPradesh are low pressure areais in the south part of theGanges area of West Bengaland its adjoining part, systemover Bay of Bengal, a cyclonicair circulation over south UttarPradesh.

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Minister for Panchayat andRural Development

Kamleshwar Patel has informedthat 3,088 km roads and 86bridges have been constructedin the state during the last 6months under the PradhanMantri Gram Sadak Yojana.

This helped in connecting416 settlements with roads.He mentioned that work toconnect remote settlementswith 500 or excess populationof general areas and settle-ments with 250 or excess pop-ulation of tribal areas with allweather roads is being done inphase manner.

Minister Patel furtherinformed that in the first phase,18 thousand 188 roads of

72,100 km length have beenconstructed at a cost of Rs21,521 crore.

Total 17,231 contact-lesssettlements have been con-nected by these roads. Duringa period between April 2018and March 2019, 751 roads of4,521 km length have beenconstructed by incurring anexpenditure of Rs2,534 crore.This has facilitated smoothand convenient transport to672 settlements.

Minister Kamleshwar Patelinformed that a provision of Rs2,500 crore has been made bythe Panchayat and RuralDevelopment Department inthis fiscal year for PradhanMantri roads. Two thousand600 long km roads and 275bridges-culverts will be con-structed by this amount.

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The Bhopal music loversenjoyed a calm and refresh-

ing evening with the KabhirGayan. A classical event ‘KabirGayan’ was organised atRegional Science Center onFriday.

The Kabir Gayan wasbeautifully presented by arenowned Kabir singerKaluram Bamania. It is to benoted that Kaluram Bamania isone of the renowned devotionalsingers of the State. For pastmany years he has been pre-senting his talent on stage andhas performed across the coun-try. On Friday KaluramBamania gave a fantastic per-formance before the musiclovers of the city. It was organ-ised by Indian Council forCultural Relations (ICCR)Bhopal chapter.

Kaluram Bamania wasborn in Dewas. Kaluram JeeMalwa, famous for Kabir LokBhajan singer from MadhyaPradesh, often sings folk songsin Malvi style for Meera Baiand Gorakhnath. Kaluramreceived music education fromhis grandfather and father Dueto extreme poverty, he spent alot of his life in a different placeas a laborer.

Kaluram Bamania hasgiven many official and non-governmental appearances onKabir Bhajan, he has also givenhis programs in Pakistan andNepal. Kaluram Bamaniaformed his Kabir bhajan man-dali. Kaluram is also a B gradeartist of Doordarshan andAkashwani, his programmeshave also been broadcast fromboth places.

He also taught a lot of peo-ple Kabir bhajan. He began hisperformances with GuruVandana, then he performedManlaga Marayar Fakiri,Bhajan Been Bina and Hoi Ritera Mere Manva was the finalpresentation. He was accom-panied by Ram Prasad Parmaron Harmonium, DevidasBairagi on Dholak, Sajjan SinghParmar on Nadi and UttasasihBamania on Manjira.

Chief guests in the pro-gramme was Manoj Kumar,Regional Director of ICCRand Krishnandu Chaudhuri,Project Coordinator, ZonalScience Center, Bhopal.

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Aplay Bidesiya was staged atMadhya Pradesh State

Tribal Museum here on Friday.The play was performed underAbhinayan series.

Bidesiya is BhikhariThakur's most famous drama.Bidesiya is an Indian folk formof theatrical plays, which waspresented in Bhojpuri languageleaving the audiences mes-merized. The literal meaning ofBidesiya is ‘of the foreign’.Written by a renowned writerBhikari Thakur, the play show-cased the pain, suffering andendless wait of a newly wed vil-lage bride, whose husband goesoff to another land to earnmoney.

The play was directed byJainendra Dost, Chhapra.Notably, when Industrializationcame into being in India, manyvillagers moved from their

natives to towns to earn a bet-ter living. This story high-lights the vow of a bride andher husband when they sud-denly get departed and hus-band all of a sudden forgets hislife in village.

The husband goes off toCalcutta for work but, he nevercomes back to his family. Thewife just waits for him or anykind of news from him but, inreturn she receives sadness.Husband does a second mar-

riage in town unknown to firstwife. After many years, he real-izes his mistake and wants to goback home to his village. Hisdecision of going back homeformed rest of the story.

The play took the audi-ences through the journey ofpassing time with the moods oflonely wife in response to var-ious seasons. While elaboratingfurther about the play,Upadhyaya said, “This musicalplay is an independent form offolk art. Several works aroundthe same story reached thespectators as Bidesiya.”

The audiences enjoyed theshow whole-heartedly. Themusic, songs and presentationenthralled the audiences. Inthis presentation, the artistspresented their artistic actingskills to the audience by moti-vating them to do meaningfulwork and to be completelyconfident in human life.

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To celebrate the significanceof ecological food, farming

and living, Anant and GoRurban is organising AnantMandi on July 28 i.e. Sunday atGandhi Bhawan.

Its to be noted that it is aplace where people can buyorganically grown food direct-ly from the farmers and otherlocal produces.

They also get a chance tointeract with farmers thisenhance the relationshipbetween them.

The Mandi invites farmersfrom Bhopal and nearby dis-tricts like Dewas, Itarsi,Hoshangabad, Vidisha, Sehoreand more in which they willbring variety of food productsand other eco-friendly prod-ucts.

Apart from the regularMandi this time there are otheractivities too like a Swap saleand Photo exhibition.

Anant Mandi aims to pro-mote sustainable living andcommunity building throughdifferent modes and to spread

this message, we are conduct-ing different activities too.

To promote the idea ofsharing, Anant Mandi is alsobringing to you Bhopal's firstswap sale where people canexchange things like clothes,stationary, accessories etc. Thiswill inculcate the habit of "shar-ing" rather than "buying".

To celebrate the month ofSaawan, delicious snacks madeof organic food raw materialswill be served at the Mandi.

Interns of Ansh HappinessSociety has organised a weeklong event named Mahol, theaim was to bring awarenessabout the growing climatechange and to instigate theyoung minds to start thinkingabout the ways to save our envi-ronment.

For the closing day of theevent Mahol interns will put aphoto exhibition of the week-long activities organised underthe event Mahol.

Anant Mandi is organisedon the last Sunday of everymonth at Gandhi Bhawan from3 pm - 8 pm.

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Bhopal: Minister for PublicHealth and Family WelfareTulsiram Silawat said that strin-gent action would be takenagainst people involved in adul-teration in milk, milk productsand other food items.

He asserted that in order toinstill fear among the adulter-ators, officers of the police andadministration should take actionunder the NSA and to expel adul-terators from district.

Silawat further said that pro-tection will be given to those offi-cers/employees, who take strictaction against the adulterators.He said that a message should goto the entire country that thedrive against adulteration is effec-tive in Madhya Pradesh. MinisterSilawat was addressing the videoconference held under theChairmanship of the ChiefSecretary Sudhi Ranjan Mohantyat Mantralaya on Friday.

Mohanty said that the evil ofadulteration should be elimi-nated otherwise it will affect ourfuture generation. He directedthat continuous action should beensured against adulteration.Samples of food items should beexamined by obtaining themfrom district headquarters alongwith tehsil, blocks and everytown. Moreover, action shouldalso be taken against vehicleowners for transporting adulter-ated food items.

Mohanty issued instructions

to all the Collectors andSuperintendents of Police alongwith the officers of Urban Bodiesand Health Department tobecome active and work in mutu-al coordination against the adul-terators. He told them to devel-op an effective intelligence mech-anism, to obtain samples of milk,mawa, milk products and oil reg-ularly and to register case againstthe owners of the establishmentsinvolved in adulteration.

Mohanty said that adulter-ation is like a case of treason,therefore action should also bestrictest against this crime. Hegathered information on theaction taken against adulterationin Satna, Rajgarh, Badwani, Sagar,Katni and other districts.Moreover, information aboutother basic health facilities wasalso obtained from the Collectorsin the video conference. SR

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Minister for CooperativeGovind Singh said that 60

per cent posts in cooperativebanks will be filled by theemployees of cooperative soci-eties. Advantage of experiencewill be given in the recruit-ment.

Opportunities for promo-tion will be created. He furtherstated that now for the employ-ees of the cooperative societiesgraduation will not be essential,the qualification of higher sec-

ondary will be enough. Singhwas addressing the state con-vention of ‘MP Sahkarita SamitiKarmchari Sangh’ here onFriday.

Govind Singh urged thecooperative employees toempower the cooperativemovement in the state. Thestate government will protecttheir interests. He said thatcadres will be made in thecooperative societies at everylevel. The cooperative employ-ees, who have been removedfrom the cooperative societies,

will be taken back.The Cooperative Minister

urging the cooperative employ-ees to benefit more and moredeserving farmers under the JaiKisan Fasal Wrin Maafi Yojana,said that FIR cases againstcooperative employees will beprobed and only guilty will bepunished. The cases of inno-cent cooperative employeeswill be taken back. He said thatthe cooperative employees,who are performing well will beconsidered for direct recruit-ment in cooperative banks.

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Primary students of St.Xaviers Co-Ed school took

oath in the Annual InstallationCeremony held here on Friday.

Archbishop Leo Corneliowas present as the chief gueston the ocassion. He was wel-comed by presenting a sapling.

On this day students vowedto uphold the values of theSchool. The Swearing-in-Ceremony was graced by thePrincipal Father Verghese,teachers, students and parentsof the newly elected cabinet ofprimary school.

The programme startedwith lighting of the lamp fol-lowed by Prayer Dance whichsignified divinity. The students

performed a song Roshni HaiTeri Sabse Mahan. Then Grade5 student a d yhe head boy saidthe prayer 'All Are I am YouRemember Me'.

Later, the talented studentsgave performance onSwagatam Su Swagatam leavingthe audience mesmerised. Thiswas followed with oath takingceremony. Principal FatherVarghese headed the oath tak-ing ceremony. The chief guestgave batches to the newly elect-ed cabinet of primary school.Chief guest congratulated thestudents and delivered thespeech full with motivationand encouragement.

The head boy and head girlgave a speech on leadership.They motivated the students to

perform their best in life. Theyperformed motivational songYou are the. Later, a mementowas given to students whoscored 90 per cent and aboveattendance and gave brilliantperfomances in exams.

Archbishop said that lead-ership is a great respomsibili-ty, it is like a service. He saidthat a leader shoul always helpeveryone and should not dom-inate. The programme con-cluded with the NationalAnthem. School PrincipalFather Verghese, ManagerFather PP Joseph, Sisters,School Staff and PRO were pre-sent in this programme.

The ceremony was heldwith lots of enthusiasm andgusto.

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An ASHA Worker ofKalahandi district has lev-

elled allegations of sexualharassment by the ChiefDistrict Medical Officer.

Based on a complaintlodged by the ASHA Worker,the Kegaon police have regis-tered a case under Sections 354and 509 of the IPC against theaccused Amlan Keshari Nayak.

Sources said Nayakallegedly used to force thecomplainant to have physicalrelations with him. The CDMO

also touched her at inappro-priate places at his chamberwith an intention of outragingher modesty, the ASHAWorker alleged. She has furtheraccused the CDMO of request-ing her to withdraw the case.On the other hand, the accusedhas refuted the charges sayingthat she has levelled false alle-gations against him followinga dispute between the two.

Investigation into the mat-ter is on and necessary actionwould be taken after comple-tion of investigations, a policeofficial said.

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Baliapal police stationInspector-in-Charge (IIC)

Prabhu Kalyan Acharya wasthrashed by irate villagers whilehe had gone to investigate andcontrol a volatile situation aftera minor boy was found hang-ing at a dhaba near IDCOChhak in Baliapal in the districton Friday morning.

Sources said Bijay Dalei, aminor boy from Uluda village,

was found hanging under mys-terious circumstances at thedhaba in which he was work-ing. It is alleged that the boywas murdered and thenhanged, to give it shape of a sui-cide.

The dhaba owner andsome staffs had fled from thespot after the incident.

Following the incident,tension prevailed at the place aslocals ransacked the dhaba,set all its assets like refrigera-

tor and furniture ablaze andstaged a road blockade.

After receiving informationabout the incident, IIC Acharyawent to the spot to investigatethe matter with a few police-men.

However, alleging murderbehind the death of the 15-yearold boy, irate locals consistingmainly women and familymembers of the deceasedchased and continued to thrashhim for around half-a-kilo-

metre on the Baliapal-Bastaroad.

The locals alleged that theminor boy was murdered anddemanded immediate arrestof the accused. Despite beinginformed early in the morning,the police officials reached thespot after three hours, theyalleged.

They further alleged thathis (Acharya) behaviour togeneral public was not up to themark. In recent past severalcrimes including murderoccurred due to ineffectivepolicing. Although residentsalerted police about liquorbeing sold and other illegalactivities being carried out inthe dhaba, yet they fell in deaf

ears. This had triggered resent-ment for a long time for whichhe faced the music from themob today,” they said.

Later, Acharya with thehelp of some colleagues man-aged to escape from the spotand reach the Balipal police sta-tion. Senior police officialssaid they were trying to containthe volatile situation. Later,investigations would be carriedout into the incidents.

Getting information,Baleswar SP Jugal KishoreBhanoth rushed to the spot andtook stock of the situation.Three platoons of police forcewere deployed at the spot tomaintain law and order in thearea.

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The decision to assign anNGO to run a women facil-

itation and help centre, ‘Sakhi,’has courted a controversy here.

The Central Governmentfunded project under theMinistry of Women and ChildDevelopment is intended toprovide all kinds of help whichinclude police protection, shel-ter, medical and legal assis-tance, besides counselling towomen victims who are sub-jected to rape, sexual abuse,domestic violence, witch-hunt-

ing and acid attack etc.And the facilitation centre,

as per the Central guidelines,should be established in theDistrict Headquarters Hospital.If such facility is not availablein the DHH, it should at bestbe set up within 2 km radius ofthe DHH.

The centre should operatepreferably from a women cen-tric institution like a SwadharGruha or women destitute cen-tre etc. It has, however, come tolight that a Soro-based NGOhas managed to obtain per-mission to operate the centreand the NGO moots an idea tooperate it from a primaryschool campus ( which isclosed owing to not having ade-quate student strength) atChurch lane in the town under

Baleswar Municipality.An NGO activist and pres-

ident of district Nari Sangha,Gopamudra Mohapatra allegedgross irregularities in allottingthe centre to the NGO, violat-ing the guidelines.

“First of all, it is not pub-lished in media. As per guide-lines, an advertisement shouldbe made in the well circulatednewspapers. It should bepreferably given to a womenbased organisation and shouldpreferably operate from asecure place. A district levelcommittee headed by theCollector being chairman andother members, includingDSW, CWC, SP, CDMO andlegal experts, should recom-mend the name of the institu-tion to run the centre. In this

case, the guidelines were flout-ed,” said Mohapatra.

The District Nari Sanghawas earlier contacted by theDistrict Social WelfareDepartment (DSW) and askedto prepare at least five- roomworking women hostel toaccommodate the centre. Butsubsequently no contact wasmade and the centre was givento the NGO whose credibilityis under cloud.

“We have drawn the atten-tion of the district adminis-tration raising objection onthese grounds,” Mohapatraadded.

It may be noted the NGO’sname was recommended forthe operation of the centreduring the tenure of the previ-ous Collector.

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Call it administrative apathyor lack of facility to get

Aadhar, UDID, tribal childrenin the remote hinterlands ofNuapada district have to final-ly bear the brunt.

Manas Adbong (7) is adisabled child of Michhapalivillage of Komna block. Hisfather Laxman acquired a dis-ability certificate for Manas, afew months ago, and made anapplication in Komna blockoffice for disability pension, butit was yet to be approved evenafter a lapse of four months.

Ratna Majhi of Soseng vil-lage located in the Sunabedaplateau ran from pillar to postfor several months with the 70per cent disability certificate ofhis 7- year- old son Keshaba,requesting the officials forincluding his son in the dis-ability pension scheme. Hefinally met the districtCollector of Nuapada in ameeting held at Soseng twoyears ago and gave the original

certificate to the Collector withthe hope that the district headwould forward the certificate tothe concerned office. He is stillwaiting for that to happeneven after two years.

Kapurchan Paharia, son ofPhulsingh of Dhekunpani vil-lage of Sunabeda panchayat,has got a certificate with 65 percent disability. He will not getany pension because his namehas been wrongly mentioned asKumarchan in the certificate.

Manisha Majhi (6), daugh-ter of Tikman Majhi, is a nativeof Jamgaon village of Sunabedapanchayat. She was issued acertificate with 70 per cent dis-

ability in October 2013, but isyet to be included in the pen-sion scheme till now. “I sub-mitted the application in thepanchayat after getting the cer-tificate, and after five years,they say that the old certificateis not valid and I have to availa new certificate for my childat Nuapada. Why should I gothere again. They are cheats.How can a Government cer-tificate be invalid,” askedTikman. Further inquiryrevealed that the child has to beregistered for UDID (UniqueDisability ID) to get pensionbenefit.

“There might be several

such cases of exclusion in manyremote villages of Nuapadadistrict which should be iden-tified immediately,” said BidyutMohanty, head of SPREAD, anNGO working in Nuapada dis-trict on child nutrition. Theorganisation had held a campfor the disabled children atSunabeda a few weeks ago totrain the parents on physio-therapy, where eleven childrenattended. When five of thecases were diagnosed cerebralpalsy, three were diagnosedhemi parasis and the rest hadlocomotion disorder. One childhad cerebral palsy with visualimpairment. It was markedfrom the description of medicalhistory of the children by theirparents that most of the chil-dren took birth at home andthe mothers suffered fromfever in their advance stage ofpregnancy (eight of eleven)and none of them could availmedical treatment. The maincause of such problems isassumed by people to be lackof proper treatment of the

mother and child. “Now that adoctor has been posted inSunabeda PHC, the people arefeeling a little bit confident,”said Biju Jhankar of Sanbahelivillage. The children aredeprived of pension becausethere is lack of facility to get theAadhar and UDID done inSunabeda, said Jugraj Chhatria,who was running a kiosk ofUGB (Utkal Gramya Bank) atSunabeda, which is now non-functional. “I could have helpedthe people here for registrationin Aadhar, UDID and otheronline activities, includingopening of bank account, butthis system has crashed due toa lightning a year ago and theservice provider is not repair-ing it,” rued Jugraj. He haslodged complaint with theUGB several times but noaction has been taken.

The physiotherapy campheld by SPREAD at Sunabedahas helped parents of disabledchildren understand that theycan help their children live better.

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Two members of a Bawariyagang who were accused in

four chain snatching incidentsin the district were arrested byNehru Colony police onThursday.

Police have succeeded inrecovering four gold chainsand the motorbike which wasused to commit the crimes.One of the accused has acriminal record in Dehradun,Haridwar and Kankhal policestations, including two cases inNehru Colony police station.

The accused has beenidentified as Gulshan (25) andPhool Singh (28), both fromShamli in Uttar Pradesh.

Dalanwala Circle Officer(CO) Jaya Baloni said, “Twocases were reported in NehruColony, one in Patelnagarpolice station and one in

Doiwala.Based on CCTV footage

from the crime scene andhuman intelligence, we foundthat the Bawariya gang isactive here.

We verified the names ofaccused arrested in the past 10years and then arrested twoaccused from near Shamli-Saharanpur Highway and haverecovered all four chainswhich roughly amount to Rstwo lakh.” She further added,“They were planning to sellthe chains together aftersnatching two or three morechains.

Now that we have startedto question the jewellers towhom thieves sell stolen jew-ellery and make them one ofthe accused also, jewellershave become alert.

Now they ask about thedetails of purchase and thereason for selling. So, now the

thieves can only sell to gold-smiths found in narrowstreets.”

About the modus operan-di she said, “They used to starttheir journey in the morningfrom Shamli, then target oldwomen in streets or localitiesand then by the evening theyused to go back.

Gulshan used to keep themotorbike running, whilePhool Singh used to go andsnatch the chains. We willcontinue to interrogate them;we want to verify the proba-bility of them being involvedin some other cases.”

About how they identifiedthe accused, Nehru Colonypolice station in-charge DSNegi said, “We ascertainedfrom the statements of the vic-tims and the CCTV footagethat one of the accused waslimping and the motorbikewas also identified.”

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Achance encounter with anelephant left a villager

guarding the farm injured inthe Terai east forest division.The villagers made noise tocoax the elephant away fromthe farm.

Ram Avtar was guarding afarm in Najimabad Dhauradamvillage when late on Thursdaynight two elephants arrived atthe scene. One of the elephantsput his foot on the charpouy onwhich the watchman was sleep-ing.

This injured Avtar’s leg

and made him scream in pain.On hearing his calls for help,the villagers gathered and made

loud noises to shoo the pachy-derm away from the scene.

The farm owner got the

injured watchman to a com-munity health centre on a 108amubulance but as there wasno doctor there the injuredwatchman was taken to the dis-trict hospital in Rudrapur.

The Dauli forest range offi-cer Anil Joshi and departmentstaff reached the farm on beinginformed and coaxed the twoelephants back in to the jungle.

The local villagers Statethat for some days now, herdsof elephants are regularly vis-iting the area and raiding thefarms for food. The forestdepartment should take mea-sures to protect the farms from

elephants, they demanded.The range officer inspect-

ed the area and met the injuredwatchman, assuring that com-pensation will be provided asper the regulations on receiv-ing the application. He furthersaid that department personnelwould patrol the area through-out the night to ensure thesecurity of the villagers.

The ranger also asked thevillagers to observe precau-tions like keeping a light onoutside their home and to havecrackers handy to explode incase the elephants approach tooclose.

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Claiming that the Congress-JD(S) coalition in

Karnataka collapsed under its“own weight” and internal con-flicts, BJP’s working presidentJP Nadda on Friday dismissedthe argument of age bar of 75years applicable to BSYediyurappa saying he is mov-ing from being the leader ofOpposition to taking the man-tle of Chief Minister of the State.

Nadda said the BJP wassynonymous with “stability”and would provide a firmGovernment in Karnataka.

He dismissed the charges ofhorse trading in the State sayingthe Government fell on accountof its own contradictions.Quizzed on West Bengal ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee’s alle-gation that BJP was destabilisingStates, Nadda said, “Apne kara-no se unko dar laga hai” (she isscared for her own reasons.)

“They (Congress-JDS) fellunder their own weight due tointernal reasons...The BJP issynonymous with stability.Wherever we go, we bring sta-bility,” Nadda told reporters athis maiden Press conferencewhere he also shared theNarendra Modi Government’sachievements in its first 50 days.

Asked about the fact thatBJP leader Yediyurappa, who istaking oath as Chief Minister,

is over the 75-year age bar theparty has stipulated for its lead-ers holding any Governmentposition, he played it down.

Yediyurappa was the leaderof the BJP legislature party in theState and it was natural for himto be the party’s choice for theChief Minister’s post, he said.Yediyurappa is 76 years old.

“It depends,” he said whenquizzed about the party’s age-barand then added, “You see, firstof all he is a leader, he is an elect-ed leader of the legislature party.Accordingly, he is taking oath.It is a continuous process and theparty takes note of ongoingdevelopments from time totime.” As the leader of opposi-tion he is alright and the day hetakes oath the question is askedabout his age, he said, addingthat it does not work like that.

The BJP under Prime

Minister Narendra Modi and itspresident Amit Shah has intro-duced the 75 years limit forMinisters in the party-runGovernments as well as for itscandidates in the recent LokSabha election to ease out manyveterans, including L K Advani,Murli Manohar Joshi and

Sumitra Mahajan among others.Asked about reports that

some rebel Congress-JD(S)MLAs may be accommodatedby the BJP Government inKarnataka as Ministers, Nadda said it is for these MLAsto decide their future course ofaction.

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Issues like exorbitant feescharged by private schools

and a demand to regulate them,illegal sand mining in variousparts of the country therebyposing threat to environmentand lack of facilities like hearseand ambulance to ferry thedead from the hospital saw themembers from nearly all polit-ical parties expressing concernin the Rajya Sabha on Friday.

Raising the fees issue,Shwait Malik(BJP) demandedthat such schools should beregulated to provide succor tohapless parents. He said edu-cation had now become likeshops with industrialists andtraders opening educationalinstitutions and exploit throughvarious charges like buildingfund and force the parents tobuy books and uniform fromthe school.

Associating himself withhis assertion, Surendra SinghNagar (SP) said schools haveseen 150 per cent rise in fee inthe last 10-15 years. In 2018,Uttar Pradesh made a law tocontrol private schools but it hasnot been implemented, he said.The Centre should frame a lawto end exploitation of parentsand students by private schools,he added and various othermembers cutting across linesagreed with his contention.

Highlighting the hazardscaused by illegal mining inmany parts of the country,Kumari Selja (Congress) saidnatural resources weredestroyed and cited instances in

Haryana. She alleged illegalmining was taking place withconnivance of political partiesand administration.

Echoing similar sentiments,Vikas Mahatame (BJP) saidafter China, India is the biggestconsumer of sand for con-struction. As the demand andsupply gap is growing, sandmafia was exploiting the situa-tion. He also said instances ofofficers and locals getting mur-dered and assaulted after object-ing to illegal mining also cameto notice. The entire Houseassociated with the issue.

Drawing the attention tothe plight of poor in ferryingthe bodies of their relative fromhospital, Javed Ali Khan (SP)said several instances came tolight where due to lack of trans-port, bodies were taken on

cycle carriers, motorcycles andin one case in Odisha a mancarried the body on his head.

Khan demanded that itshould be made mandatory forall private hospitals to havesome vehicles earmarked forferrying bodies and soughtsame systems in theGovernment hospitals. Almostthe entire house agreed withKhan who lauded the OdishaGovernment decision to pro-vide free facilities to take thebodies from hospitals to homes.

Among other matters, DPVats (BJP) demanded that aheroes’ gallery showing pic-tures of Defence personnelwho have sacrificed their livesfor the country be set up at theJawaharlal Nehru University(JNU). He said elite institutionsof armed forces like NationalDefence Academy (NDA) andArmy Cadet College are affil-iated with the JNU. He said stu-dents passing from those insti-tutes simultaneously becomealumni of JNU.

RK Sinha (BJP) saidBhojpuri language should beincluded in the Eight Scheduleof the Constitution. He said thelanguage is spoken in overtwo dozen countries besides by20 crore people in India. Vaiko(MDMK) opposed the drillingfor hydrocarbons permitted inTamil Nadu, saying the “mostdisastrous and dangerous”activity will destroy fertile landin the Cauvery delta. Dola Sen(TMC) opposed corporatisa-tion of Indian OrdinanceFactories saying it will eventu-ally lead to privatisation.

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Maharashtra and Karnatakawill go for cloud seeding

or artificial rain procedure totackle deficient rainfall. Thetarget areas for cloud seedingwill be identified based onfactors such as rainfall deficitand moisture deficiency, cloudformation and data generatedby the radars.

According to the IndiaMeteorological Department(IMD), cloud seeding will be car-ried out in Aurangabad, Solapurand Ahmednagar districts inMaharashtra and Mysuru andHubballi in Karnataka fromMonday. Maharashtra had con-ducted a similar cloud-seedingexperiment over Marathwada in2015 while Karnataka had pre-viously carried out cloud seed-ing in 2017.

The India MeteorologicalDepartment (IMD) predictsIndia is likely to get above-aver-age rainfall in the next two weeksafter receiving below averagerains in the past two weeks.

IMD said the Governmenthas decided to carry out cloud

seeding for artificial rain inthese regions. For that officialswill survey the skies for nextsome days. “If the cloud den-sity is sufficient then seedingwill be done for artificial rain.Three planes for bringing aboutartificial rain in southern dis-tricts of Maharashtra alongthe borders of Karnataka andTelangana have arrived at theSolapur airport,” the IMD said.

Cloud seeding is a type ofweather modification in whichchemicals like silver iodide,potassium iodide, dry ice (solidcarbon dioxide) or liquidpropane is dispersed in the air toact as cloud condensation to alterits microphysical processes.

In Karnataka, the progressof monsoon in Karnataka hasnot been satisfactory so far.While half of the State hasreceived normal rains, there isdeficit in the remaining areas.Cumulative rainfall acrossKarnataka this monsoon sea-son has witnessed a deficiencyof 19 per cent till date. TheMalnad region that consists ofWestern Ghats has the highestdeficit of 33 per cent, while the

shortfall in the drought-proneNorth Interior Karnataka is at21 per cent. The deficit inCoastal Region and SouthInterior Karnataka is estimat-ed at 16 per cent each.

On the other hand,Maharashtra’s water crisis hasbeen steadily worsening sincelast year, particularly indrought-hit Vidarbha andMarathwada. Nearly twomonths into the monsoon —that officially begins on June 1— Marathwada and Vidarbhaare facing rainfall deficits of 35per cent and 42 per cent respec-tively (as on July 26).

Solapur, Osmanabad andseveral districts fromMarathwada and Vidarbhahave received rainfall between50-75 per cent of their averageprecipitation whileMaharashtra is experiencing anoverall 9 per cent shortfall inrainfall. As on July 26, dams inthe State have just 24 per centwater stock, compared to 46.5per cent stock during the sametime last year. Shockingly, damsin Marathwada have just 0.82per cent of water.

According to IMD, themonsoon rains were 35 per centbelow average in the week end-

ing July 24, after receiving 20 percent less rainfall in the priorweek, raising concerns over theoutput of summer-sown crops.

Overall, the country hasreceived 17 per cent less rainthan average since the monsoonseason began on June 1, but insome states such as Gujarat, thebiggest producer of cotton andgroundnut, the rainfall deficit isas high as 42 per cent. Thecountry has received 325.5 mmas against the normal rainfall of394.5 mm so far.

According to theAgriculture Ministry datareleased on Friday, the totalkharif crops area covered so farremained 688.78 lakh hectares(lh), as compared to 736.18lakh hectare, a less than 47.39lakh hectare planted during thecorresponding period last year,The sowing of rice, pulses,oilseeds and coarse cereals areworst affected. Rice planting tillthis week is stood at 185.14lakh hectare as compared to215.71 lakh hectare sown in thesame week last year. Similarly,pulses cultivation recorded 9.24lakh hectares less this year.

�* � �(&�� 35�6347#

The deadly connectionbetween toxic lead and

fatty liver disease has beenknown for a while, but IITMandi researchers have recent-ly unraveled the process bywhich the harmful metal canpromote accumulation of fat inthe liver, causing non-alco-holic fatty liver disease(NAFLD). The NAFLD is relat-ed to conditions like diabetesand obesity. It’s also linked toan increased risk of cardiovas-cular disease (CVDs).

Lead toxicity is a seriousconcern in India given that useof paints containing lead, pes-ticides, packaging and evenbeer contributes towards highexposure of people to this toxicmetal and its salts.

Experts say, NAFLD is adangerous epidemic of thisgeneration and is a rapidlygrowing health problem inti-mately related to the metabol-ic group of diseases such asobesity and diabetes, amongothers. While obesity has beenknown to be the leading causefor NAFLD, recent observa-tions have shown that even thinpeople can be ‘metabolicallyobese’ and have NAFLD.

Researchers from Council ofScientific and IndustrialResearch (CSIR)-Indian Institute

of Toxicology Research,Lucknow and School ofChemical and Life Sciences —Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi hadjointly conducted the researchwork, which was recently pub-lished in a reputed peer-reviewedjournal “FEBS Letters”.

Dr Prosenjit Mondal,Assistant Professor, School ofBasic Sciences, IIT Mandi, whohas uncovered the pathway bywhich lead promotes NAFLD,said, “While the connectionbetween lead and fatty liver dis-ease has been known for a while,the actual mechanism by whichlead worsens this condition hashitherto remained unknown.”

NAFLD, and most meta-bolic group of diseases, are oftencaused by the poor regulation ofDe novo lipogenesis (DNL), acomplex process in which car-bohydrates circulating in theblood are converted into fat. Thepoor regulation of DNL leads toabnormal production of fat,

which settles in the liver andother internal organs as viscer-al fat. Lead salts absorbed by thehuman body is stored in soft tis-sues, and autopsy studies haveshown that the liver hoardsalmost 33 per cent of the totallead cruising in the body.

De novo lipogenesis or DNLis a complex process that involvesnumerous biomolecules, one ofwhich is CarbohydrateResponsive Element BindingProtein (ChREBP). ChREBPactivates the regulatory enzyme,fatty acid synthase, which isresponsible for fat production inliver cells. The activity ofChREBP in human liver cells iskept in control by another bio-molecule called sorcin. “Weobserved Pb2+ ions to suppresssorcin activity, and this over-acti-vates ChREBP, which in turntriggers fatty acid synthase. Thisincreases fat production in theliver, leading to NAFLD,”explained Dr Mondal.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday sought theCentre’s response on the allegation that it has notimplemented a slew of directions issued last year tocurb lynching and mob violence. A Bench compris-ing Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice DeepakGupta issued notices to the Ministry of Home Affairsand State Governments on a petition filed by an organ-isation, Anti-Corruption Council of India Trust.

Senior advocate Anukul Chandra Pradhan,appearing for the trust, said incidents of lynching wereincreasing and no step was being taken to implementthe directions of the apex court aimed at tackling themenace of mob lynching. The trust said a slew ofdirections passed on July 17, 2018, by the apex courtto the Government to provide “preventive, remedi-al and punitive measures” to deal with offences likemob violence have not been implemented.

The directions were passed on the PIL byCongress activist Tehsin Poonavall who hadbrought the issue of rising incidents of moblynching and cow vigilantism.

The apex court had asked Parliament to con-sider enacting a new law to sternly deal with moblynching and cow vigilantism, warning that suchincidents may rise like a “Typhon-like monster”across the country.

The top court had said that it was the duty ofthe States to strive and promote fraternity amongstall citizens, as such mob violence was being insti-gated by intolerance and misinformed by circula-tion of fake news and false stories.

The apex court had said there was a need toenact a special law as it would instill a sense of fearfor law amongst those who involve themselves inmob lynching.

It had said it was the duty of State Governmentsto ensure law and order in the society, besides ensur-ing that the rule of law prevailed. PTI

New Delhi: Karnataka political rivals, BJP’s BSYediyurappa and DK Shivakumar of Congress,were seen on the same side in the SupremeCourt on Friday — opposing an applicationseeking to revive an alleged corruption caserelating to denotification of land in Bengaluru.

The matter, which came up for hearingbefore a bench of Justices Arun Mishra andMR Shah, saw their advocates questioning themaintainability of the application filed by anintervenor for reviving the criminal case inwhich the complainant has already with-drawn his plea. The issue relates to denoti-fication of 4.20 acres of land allegedly in con-travention of the Karnataka Restriction ofTransfer of Land Act, 1991.

Senior advocates Mukul Rohatgi and AMSinghvi, who were appearing forYeddyurappa and Shivakumar respectively,told the bench that the complainant in thecase had withdrawn his appeal from the apexcourt last year and a third party, who hasnothing to do in the case, cannot be allowedto intervene at this stage.

Shivakumar was present in the court-room during the hearing.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearingfor intervenor NGO ‘Samaj ParivartanaSamudaya’, told the Bench that complainanthad withdrawn his plea from the apex courton mentioning the matter before a Bench butintervention plea can be heard. He soughtrecall of the February 21 order by which theplea filed by the complainant was “dismissedas withdrawn” by the top court. PTI

�� 35�6347#

Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman on Friday informed

the Lok Sabha that the Governmenthas de-registered 4 lakh shell com-panies and tightened the CorporateSocial Responsibility (CSR) norms.She was speaking during the debateon the amendments to theCompanies Bill.

Piloting the CompaniesAmendment Bill 2019, the Ministersaid companies not spending themandatory 2 per cent profit on CSRactivities for a total period of fouryears will be required to deposit theamount in a special account.

The amendments in theCompanies Act, she added, wereaimed at improving ease of doingbusiness and also reducing compli-ance burden on the companies, espe-cially the smaller ones. The Bill waslater passed unanimously afterCongress leader Adhir RanjanChowdhury withdrew statutory res-olution opposing it.

Responding to the concerns ofmembers on shell companies,Sitharaman said the word “shell com-panies” has not been defined in therule book, but it is loosely referred toinactive companies or those which donot maintain a registered office.“Four lakh companies have beenidentified and de-registered,” shesaid, adding non-maintenance ofregistered office will be a ground forde-registration of companies.

A key change in the Bill pertainsto CSR spending, wherein companieswould have to mandatorily keepunspent money into a specialaccount. Under the Act, companiesearning profit of over Rs 5 crore,turnover of Rs 100 crore or networthof more than Rs 500 crore are

required to shell out at least two percent of their three-year annual aver-age net profit towards CSR activities.India, Sitharaman said, has becomethe first country to make CSR spend-ing mandatory through a law.

The companies will have one yearto firm up the CSR proposal andanother three years to spend funds.In case money remains unspent forone plus three years, the money willhave to be moved to an escrowaccount, she said, adding it could evenbe the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund.

Opposing the ordinance broughtearlier, Chowdhury and Saugata Roy(TMC) said it was not required as thelaw has been amended on severaloccasions. Pinaki Misra (BJD)described the bill as “disastrous”, say-ing the legislation has been draftedby bureaucrats and the lawmakershave just rubberstamped it. A Raja(DMK) said the registrar of compa-nies has been given “excessive pow-ers” which is not good. PPChaudhury (BJP) said once the lawis amended, it will help in ease ofdoing business and give a boost tocommerce.

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The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attachedassets worth Rs 66.57 crore in the Manesar Land

Scam under Prevention of Money Laundering Act.The attached assets consisting of 14.56 acres of landat Gurgaon (valued at Rs 43.54 crore) belongs toMahamaya Exports Pvt. Ltd., and 4 acres of land andbank balances worth Rs 23.03 crore of other accusedpersons.

ED initiated investigation under the provisions ofPMLA, on the basis of an FIR registered initially byGurgaon police under IPC sections related to cheat-ing, criminal conspiracy and forgery besides provisionsof the Prevention of Corruption Act. Subsequently thecase was transferred to CBI for investigation againstunknown public servants of Government of Haryanaand unknown private persons.

The Government of Haryana had issued notifi-cation under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 onAugust 27 and had issued notification to the effecton August 25 for acquisition of land measuring about912 acres for setting up an Industrial ModelTownship in villages Manesar, Naurangpur andLakhnoula of Gurgaon district.

A large number of land owners, in haste, had tosell about 400 acres of their land at throwaway priceto private builders and thereby caused a wrongful lossof Rs 1,500 crore to the land owners of Manesar,Naurangpur and Lakhnoula villages and corre-sponding wrongful gains to the realtors.

“Investigations under PMLA revealed that the pri-vate builders, to whom the licences were granted, madewrongful gain by conspiring with the public servantsof Haryana Government and politicians, who wereinvolved in decision making for release of land,” the EDsaid in a statement. Most of the land was purchased byABWIL Group controlled by Atul Bansal. After obtain-ing the licences, ABWIL had fraudulently sold thelicenced/ unlicensed land and licences to the private per-sons/ developers, making huge profit, the agency said.

Proceeds of crime consists of 14.56 acres of landof Mahamaya Exports Pvt. Ltd in which Atul Bansaland Sona Bansal hold 74 per cent of shares and fouracres of land and balances in the bank account ofother accused persons were provisionally attachedunder PMLA. Earlier in this case, assets worth Rs42.19 crore were attached.

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�� 35�6347#

Speaking on the 50-day deci-sion making in the Modi-2

Government, Nadda said thesewere much more and concretethan taken during last 50 yearsof other parties and reflectspolitical will of the leadership.He said by 2024, 1,00,24,000houses with electricity, toiletsand gas connections would beready for delivery and make wayfor “ease of living”. He said by2024 every rural house will gettap drinking water which itselfwould be a “revolutionary step”.

PM Gram Sadak Yojanawill have 1.25 crore km roadsmade in rural areas, providingrural connectivity and creatingnetwork for business and mar-keting. He said Modi

Government has deleted 44labour laws and ensured theirminimum wages, improvedworking conditions, andupgraded their health, safetyconditions which would bene-fit 50 crore workers. He men-tioned pension for smalltraders which would help threecrore small traders.

Nadda said Governmenthas taken steps to supportwomen employment by helpingself-help groups in the countryby giving Rs 5,000 and Rs 1 lakhloan to them that would go along way to improve ruraleconomy.

Similarly, he said thescheme of scholarship to mar-tyred families in the army hasnow been extended to policeand para-military forces too.

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Pakistan Prime Minister ImranKhan has been walking thetightrope of the genealogical andevolutionary compulsions that areunique to his nation. His jazba

(passion) of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)had stormed the elections in 2018 andpromised a “Riyasat-e-Madina”, where all cit-izens are equal in the eyes of the law withguaranteed full fundamental rights — anidyll that is historically, Constitutionally andpractically undeliverable.

Acknowledging the enormity of hispromise and reset, he instinctively suggest-ed reconstructing the edifice of Pakistan andrechristened it as “Naya Pakistan.” The inher-itance of an economy in slide with risingdebts, falling currency, inflation and deplet-ed coffers had him scurrying to the Arab cap-itals, Beijing and even to the InternationalMonetary Fund (IMF). This to impress uponthem an economically-prudent, austere andreformist agenda that would no longer beprofligate or reckless with the sanctioned“aid.”

This entailed the toning down of hisanti-IMF tirade that he had invoked duringthe pre-election campaigning, as indeed, per-sonally chauffeuring the all-importantPrincelings from the rival camps of SaudiArabia and Qatar. While money has start-ed trickling in bits, it has extracted a severeprice from the common citizenry as they reelunder spiralling price rises and shortages.

The onerous task of re-setting to “NayaPakistan” essentially implies the reneging ofvarious Pakistani positions. The opening actof the tenure was lavish in promising suchchange, including the famous “If Indiatakes one step, Pakistan will take two.” Theoptics and soundbites emanating from theprime ministerial house were in conformi-ty with the naya way of things and soon theusual ostentatiousness was frowned uponand the all-powerful razzmatazz was suppos-edly cut.

The world at large waited with batedbreath to figure out if it was yet another exer-cise in political posturing or if Pakistan hadindeed evolved to the portents of “NayaPakistan.” But the cracks showed up almostimmediately as Imran Khan succumbed tothe nation’s ingrained bigotry and droppedthe economist, Atif Mian, from the econom-ic advisory, apparently on account of hisbelonging to the minority and the persecut-ed Ahmediya faith.

From the Indian perspective, ImranKhan continued making naïve statementsagainst terrorism while the Pakistani incor-rigibility continued in Afghanistan. Then thePulwama episode happened. The trustdeficit between Pakistan and all its irateneighbours (India, Afghanistan and Iran)widened. A certain disillusionment againstthe built-up hype of “Naya Pakistan” start-ed afresh.

The US was already breathing downPakistan’s neck for its duplicity and US

President Donald Trumpfamously tweeted that Pakistandoes not “do a damn thing” inreturn for the billions of dollarsin American “aid.” Imran Khanretaliated and tweeted back:“No Pakistani was involved in9/11 but it decided to participatein the US’ war on terror” andadded, “Pakistan suffered 75,000casualties in this war and over$123 billion was lost to theeconomy.” US aid “was a minus-cule $20 billion.” The free-for-allbetween Pakistan and the USensured that Islamabad swungeven more sharply towards thewilling arms of Beijing andalmost started behaving like abeholden and vassal state ofChina.

Providentially, for ImranKhan and Pakistan, the whim-sical Trump, who had rantedagainst the Pakistani establish-ment, had a re-think on hisAfghanistan strategy andrealised that he would need theservices of its bête noire ie,Pakistan, in extricating itselfout of the mess in Afghanistan.

In a move reminiscent ofdumping Afghanistan in thelurch after ensuring the Soviet-withdrawal from Kabul, the USis yet again working towards asimilar vacuum; with Pakistanrubbing its hands in glee.Suddenly, Islamabad is back infavour as all is seemingly forgot-ten and forgiven and ImranKhan is back to reverse-swing-ing his “Naya Pakistan” withrevised gusto — this time inWashington, DC.

Both Pakistan and the USare masters of selective amnesiaand their dalliances of the past,which included flying and fetingof the Afghan mujahideen to theWhite House and supportingthese warlords with weapons,have become a lost memory.Both Imran Khan and Trumpnow shake hands and the formerthanks the Presidents of theUnited States of America(POTUSA) with “his under-standing of Pakistan’s point ofview!”

The incredulity continueswith Imran Khan promising, “Iwant to assure President Trump,Pakistan will do everythingwithin its power to facilitate theAfghan peace process” — a rotestatement that has consistentlyand unfailingly been dishon-oured by Pakistan.

The hapless Afghan regimeof Ashraf Ghani looks on withshocked bewilderment and NewDelhi is left having to deal withTrump’s creative memory ofPrime Minister Modi apparent-ly asking him to mediate inKashmir!

The US President’s state-ments were rightfully, stronglyand unequivocally slammed byNew Delhi as outrightly incor-rect and the same got acknowl-edged by other functionaries atthe Capitol Hill. However, ImranKhan persisted with his façadeof “surprise” at the Indianresponse to “Trump’s offer ofmediation” as he feigned igno-rance at India’s unwavering andconsistent stand on a bilateral

framework on Kashmir. Today, Imran Khan is on a

charm offensive both domesti-cally (flying commercial) andinternationally, staying at hisAmbassador’s residence to avoid“unnecessary expenditure.”Trump has added one more tohis embarrassingly long list ofdocumented inexactitudes,which now “exceed 10,000.”

Both the US and Pakistanare again in a convenient andtactical huddle that suits theirindividual and topical urgen-cies, without bothering aboutthe past, present or future withsuch tenuous underpinnings.Beyond the reality of US-Pakistan sparring openly, just afew months back, this regionhas not forgotten the murkyhistory of American hand in thebloodshed of the 1980s duringthe height of the Cold War orindeed in India with the US’seventh fleet sailing menacing-ly towards the Bay of Bengal in1971. It would be premature foreither the US to trust thePakistanis or vice versa as his-tory suggests that both nationsultimately succumb to theirbasic instincts and while India,Afghanistan and Iran will licktheir wounds for now — the“deep state” within Pakistan willultimately rear its head andboth Trump and Khan willend up looking like their pre-decessors.

(The writer, a military veter-an, is a former Lt Governor ofAndaman & Nicobar Islandsand Puducherry))��*��+��

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Sir — This refers to the editor-ial, “India on the moon” (July23). Scientists at the IndianSpace Research Organisation(ISRO) have achieved a spectac-ular success with the launch ofChandrayaan 2. India hasbecome the fourth nation afterthe United States, Russia andChina to send a mission to themoon. One hopes that the lan-der, Vikram, and the moonrover, Pragyan, will function asplanned.

NR RamachandaranChennai

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Sir — This refers to the editor-ial, “BoJo joins the gang!” (July26). It is far easier to come upwith a cool acronym than man-aging the Brexit in favourableterms. By agreeing to leave theEuropean Union (EU), theBritish inflicted self-harm. Withsuch a massive divide betweenpeople across their society, noone knows what would happennext and what should be done.

Boris Johnson, the new

Prime Minister of the UK, hashis task cut out. The October 31deadline to leave the EU is notfar away. He should look for ameaningful and logical solu-tion to crack a deal with otherEuropean nations. The bestoption for the UK is to stay putin the EU. It will be a win-winsituation for both.

Bal GovindNoida

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“BoJo joins the gang!” (July 26).Over time, the mighty Britishempire has been reduced to a merekingdom even as the centres of itseconomy shifted elsewhere. Theglobal economic downturn of2008 aggravated problems as itstruggled to provide jobs to its

natives. Britain, like most liberaldemocracies, found a scapegoat inits immigration policies. Rightwingers everywhere lost little timein grasping the coat-tails of neo-nationalism and isolationism.

Brexit was floated as a politicalteaser, a trial balloon. None hadexpected it to turn menacingly realand burst on a disillusioned popu-lace. Soon enough, the UK not onlytied itself into knots over Brexit but

thrust many nations into the chaos.The anointment of Boris

Johnson as the nation’s PrimeMinister is ominous. Boris, muchlike US President Donald Trump,comes with a colourful personalhistory, having solutions up hissleeve for everything and sport-ing a loose tongue. Both revel inriding an opportunistic vehicle ofhollow nationalism. While Trumphas managed to traverse this far,armed with the might of his dol-lar and an ardent fan club, Borismay well succeed in draggingdown both the pound andBritain’s stature in global politics,trade and finance.

R Narayanan Navi Mumbai

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Sir — With the auto industry fac-ing its worst slump, the situationcalls for immediate attention of theGovernment in order to save thisindustry from a huge fall and theconsequent serious impact onemployment and the economy.

ShubhamVia email

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The nationalisation of the 14 largest com-mercial banks on July 19, 1969, by the thenIndira Gandhi Government, was the most

significant decision, which has had wide impli-cations across the economy even 50 years later.These 14 banks accounted for 85 per cent of thebank deposits in the country. Nationalisation wasdone to free up the banks from the hands of afew industrial houses, who tried to use thedepositors’ money under their control toincrease credit flow and thereafter address therank neglect of rural and agricultural sectors,which were starved of funds.

Circumstances leading to nationalisationRecognising the need to improve the flow

of credit in rural areas as also the agriculturalsector, the then Government took the move tonationalise 14 large banks by passing theBanking Companies (Acquisition and Transferof Undertaking) Bill in 1969. India’s agricultur-al growth had just started recovering after thesuccessive drought years of 1966 and 1967 withhelp from green revolution technologies, whichresulted in more intensive farming than tradi-tional methods. Industrial recovery, too, had justbegun after the 1965 Indo-Pakistan war and by1968, the country recorded an industrial growthof 6.2 per cent. All of these created huge demandfor credit across sectors, especially from farm-ers and small-scale industrialists. Petty business-men, farmers and consumers suffered a cashcrunch all those years as business houses main-tained their dominant position and the banksfocussed on giving credit to them with an aimto earn profits. This total neglect of agricultureand the rural sector by private banks prompt-ed the Government to nationalise the banks andtake direct control of credit delivery. The movealso made banking in unbanked areas a realitywhile also giving a powerful tool to a vast major-ity of weaker sections, including the rural andagricultural farmers and labourers. This was themost prudent decision taken by the IndiraGandhi Government at that time.

Shift from class to mass bankingImmediately after the nationalisation of

banks, a plethora of measures was taken by suc-cessive Governments to enhance the flow ofcredit so as to make it accessible to diverse sec-tions of society. The focus of banks shifted from‘class banking’ to ‘mass banking’. The commit-ment to spread the reach of banks began withthe introduction of the Lead Bank Scheme (LIS)in 1969, the constitution of the State LevelBankers’ Committee (SLBC), district creditplans, priority sector lending (PSL) norms in1974, branch expansion policy and the forma-tion of Regional Rural Banks in 1975.

Spread of banking networkWith nationalisation, unreachable and

unbanked areas were easier to reach. The num-ber of bank branches increased from 8,187 in1969 to 59,752 in 1990, to 1,41,756 as of March,2019. The share of rural and semi-urbanbranches increased from 58.4 per cent to 77.2per cent, to 62.89 per cent during the same peri-od. The total network of rural and semi-urbanbranches increased from 4,781 in 1969 to46,128 by 1990 and further increased to 89,144in March 2019. In addition, 1.26 lakh bankmitras (business correspondents) provide

branchless banking in villages. Now, one ATMis available for every three villages and for every375 people, one Point of Sale is available in India.Effectively, 80 per cent of adults aged 18 andabove have a bank account as of today. Of the36 crore new savings bank deposit accountsopened under the Pradhan Mantri Jan DhanYojana till May 2019, Public Sector Banks (PSBs)accounted for 96.6 per cent, reflecting their suc-cess in achieving socially responsible banking.

Banks as an extended arm of theGovernment

The nationalised banks, now popularlyknown as PSBs, played a major role in the imple-mentation of a plethora of credit-linked inter-est subsidy schemes. Programmes such as theIntegrated Rural Development Programme(IRDP), Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana(SGSY), Indira Awas Yojana (IAY), Self HelpGroup-Bank Linkage Programme (SBLP),MUDRA loans and the most recent one, JanDhan Aadhaar Mobile initiative, all depend onthe banks to distribute subsidies so as toachieve the target of integrated rural develop-ment, higher interest subvention, facilitatedebt-waiver schemes and, thus, fulfill themandatory lending norms for agriculture andsmall-scale industries. Further, a wide networkof PSBs has helped in the implementation of var-ious Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) schemes likesubsidy on LPG gas, MGNREGA wages, assis-tance under PM-KISAN, Rythu Bandhu schemeand various other pension schemes ensuringtransparency and zero leakages.

Flipside of nationalisationAlthough nationalisation of banks worked

well until the 1980s, the Government overstayedits welcome and delayed the process of privati-sation, which was badly needed under changedcircumstances. The administered interest ratesand the burden of direct lending to priority sec-

tor constrained the autonomy of PSBs to oper-ate on commercial lines. The mandatory expan-sion of branches in unbanked centres with lowbusiness potential impacted their working.Regulatory entry barriers for private sector tomake a foray into the banking sector acted ashindrance for the development of a healthy com-petition between the two. Too much involvementof the Government in the banks’ operations andfailure to invest in new technology perpetuat-ed the inefficiency of the banking sector for aprolonged period.

Entry of private sector banksSince 1993, the entry of new private sector

banks brought new technology and institution-al innovations. Their entry infused the much-needed competition in the banking sector. Postthis, the PSBs had to compete with the privatebanks in spite of their social responsibility ofmeeting various Government scheme targets. Ontop of it, PSBs had to also meet the capital ade-quacy standards in line with the Basel frame-work from time to time. Recent data from theReserve Bank of India (RBI) show that privatesector banks are taking away market share fromPSBs and will extend that pie from the current30 per cent to 40 per cent in near future.

High NPAs and lossesAs per data, aggregate gross advances of

PSBs increased from over �18.19 lakh crore ason March 31, 2008 to more than �52.15 lakhcrore as on March 31, 2014. This is due to thecumulative effect of the pressure to achieve socialbanking targets to cater to the low profitable sec-tors in un-bankable areas, frequent loan waivers,slower adoption of technology and inept mon-itoring and control systems.

Because of huge NPAs and losses, some PSBswere put under the Prompt Corrective Action(PCA) and were not able to cater to the grow-ing credit demand. To strengthen the PSBs, the

Government PSBs were recapitalised to theextent of �3.12 lakh crore, with an infusion of�2.46 lakh crore by the Government and mobil-isation of over �0.66 lakh crore by PSBs them-selves. As per RBI data on global operations(provisional data for the financial year endingMarch 2019), gross NPAs of PSBs have declinedby �89,189 crore from the peak of �8,95,601crore in March 2018 to �8,06,412 crore in March2019 (provisional data).

It is questionable as to how long theGovernment can infuse capital into the PSBsthrough recapitalisation by spending hugesums of tax payer’s money.

Way forwardThe current situation demands a totally dif-

ferent approach compared to the one taken in1969. There is a need for “denationalisation” and“privatisation” barring three to four large strate-gic banks. This will hasten the spread of banknetworks and establish a healthy competitionamong them as well as provide a wide choice tothe consumers.

Banks should be freed from all Governmentcontrols in exercising commercial activities,including stake sale, privatisation and mergers,to maximise their profitability and competitive-ness. However, the need is also for enforcementof stringent regulations, improved governanceand internal monitoring and control system toreduce NPAs so as to enhance trust in the bank-ing system. All large ticket NPAs need to bedeclared as willful defaulters and subjected tojustice to maintain good health of the bankingsector. Instead of brick and mortar bankingbranches, the focus should shift to simplified vir-tual banking systems with proper cyber secu-rity measures. This alone can take the outreachto remote people and areas.

(The writer is Principal Scientist, AgriculturalEconomics, ICAR)

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Politicians in Tamil Nadu, espe-cially those who are mouldedin the Dravidian gharana, have

a penchant for publicity and fame.They want to be the cynosure of alleyes wherever they go. Starting fromthe ward committee member to thepresident of a party, none is free fromthis “passion” for recognition. Theywill not move out of their housesunless they are accompanied by acavalcade of SUVs or cars, depend-ing on their hierarchy in the party.Ward-level leaders are accompa-nied by an army of followers in auto-rickshaws and two-wheelers shout-ing: “Thalaivar Vaazhka”, meaning“Long Live the Leader.”

If they are invited for marriages orany social get-togethers, the organis-ers must ensure that the larger-than-life size posters of these leaders are dis-

played along the route they travel.Vayapuri Gopalasami, popularlyknown as Vaiko, the Telugu speakingTamil leader of the MarumalarchiDravida Munnetra Kazhagam(MDMK), is no exception. Though heheads a letterhead organisation, hismission is to establish a separateTamil Eelam in Sri Lanka. He was aDravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)member of the Rajya Sabha for threeterms (1978-96). When he turned outto be a threat for the coronation of MKStalin as party chief, M Karunanidhi,threw Vaiko out of the party.

Vaiko had no option but to launchhis own political outfit, the MDMK.But he saw the writing on the wall wellin advance and sided with JJayalalithaa’s All India Anna DravidaMunnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK).He was elected to the Lok Sabha in1998 with active support fromJayalalithaa and the BJP. When the lat-ter pulled down the then NDAGovernment led by Atal BihariVajpayee, Vaiko turned emotionaland jumped to the DMK. He waselected in the 1999 mid-term electionwith support from the DMK and theBJP. The MDMK managed to win foursears, including that of Vaiko.

By 2004, Vaiko turned secular,dumped the BJP and joined the UPA,led by the DMK and the Congress.Though his party won all contestedseats, Vaiko stayed away from electoralpolitics as he had been arrested underthe Prevention of Terrorism Act 2002and was detained for 18 months fordelivering pro-LTTE speeches.Jayalalithaa was adamant in her stanceagainst the LTTE and Vaiko failed todilute her hatred for the Tamil Tigers.

But his association with the DMKdid not last long. Some of his closeaides began to cross over to the DMKas they understood that Vaiko’s LTTEhopes would always remain apipedream. Tamil Nadu has a motleycrowd of LTTE supporters, whichincludes Maoists, Islamic extremists,Tamil nationalists, fringe politicalparties, some of the major factions ofthe Church and professional humanright organisations. They are allfinanced by the LTTE and these ben-eficiaries return gratitude through pro-Eelam speeches and literature.

What is common among thesegroups is their opposition to any kindof progressive measure taken by theCentral or State Government. Forexample, they demanded the abroga-

tion of the Supreme Court order thatbanned the taming of bulls. These werethe organisations, who stood againstthe Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant.It is the same crowd, which is againstthe Sterlite Plat at Thoothukudi andthe greenfield eight-lane Chennai —Salem state-of-the-art highway. Theyare also against the hydrocarbonexploration projects undertaken by theCentral Government-owned Oil andNatural Gas Commission. Whatmakes these agitations and groupsunique is the presence of Vaiko, whois always in the forefront. His double-standards with respect to the Sterliteagitation became a butt of jokes.

Vaiko is also among those who aredemanding the release of those con-victed for the assassination of formerPrime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. TheCongress is against any kind ofamnesty to these assassins as they wereall saved from the gallows by the topcourt and their sentence was convert-ed to life-term as part of amnesty. Itis strange that Vaiko has been brayingfor the blood of Sri Lanka, an islandnation strategically important to India.Our ties with Colombo should neverbe sacrificed to satisfy the ego and vest-ed interests of self-serving people.

KS Radhakrishnan, former asso-ciate of Vaiko, who switched over tothe DMK, mentioned in his blog, MyLove Affair with Don Quixote, the heroof a Spanish novel by the same nameauthored by Miguel de Cervantes.Alonso Quixano, a knight-errant,wanders all over the land in search ofadventures to prove his chivalricvirtues. Most of the characteristics dis-played by Vaiko have similarities withAlonso Quixano, who addresses him-self as Don Quixote!

Vaiko’s recent outbursts againstHindi is a point of interest. His “find-ing” is that the debates in Hindi havebrought down the standard of discus-sions in Parliament. His allegation thatHindi, Hindu and Hindu Rashtra areall the same should be viewed as astatement made with ulterior motive.In a country where nearly two-thirdsof the population speak Hindi, it is asin to portray that language as belong-ing to a particular religion. If whatVaiko said is right, he should put anembargo on the Tamil actors’ penchantto act in Bollywood. Vaiko should alsotell the Tamil film makers not to pla-giarise Hindi songs.

Hundreds of thousands of chil-dren in Tamil Nadu are denied the

opportunity to learn in JawaharNavodaya Vidyalayas because chau-vinists like Vaiko will not allow theopening of such public schools, citingthe two-language policy. It is a crim-inal offence to deny the poor and ruralchildren an opportunity to learn in apublic school, which charges nothingfor quality education. The Congressremained a mute spectator even asVaiko rubbished the very concept ofJawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya,launched by its own leader as part ofthe New Education Policy 1985. TheCongress is afraid to tell this DonQuixote to stay away from preventingthe opening of the schools in the State.Tamil Nadu is the only State whichdoes not have a single NavodayaSchool thanks to the hardliners.

It may be a strange coincidencethat while children of poor parentsstruggle to get admission in privateschools, sons and daughters of lead-ers like Vaiko get admitted to the bestschools and universities all across thecountry. Most of them end up as highpaid managers in multi-national cor-porations or as monopoly dealers oftobacco products manufactured byMNCs. Vaiko’s love for Tamils in SriLanka itself is dubious. It was during

the Manmohan Singh tenure that theSri Lankan Army tamed the last chal-lenge put up by the LTTE terrorists.A person no less than GotabayaRajapakshe, former defence secretaryand the brain behind the obliterationof the Tamil Tiger terrorists, had toldThe Pioneer that the IndianGovernment as well as the then TamilNadu Government led by MKarunanidhi were kept in the loopabout the Sri Lankan Army’s actions.

If Vaiko has any decency left andif he still loves Sri Lankan Tamils, heshould maintain safe distance fromboth the Congress and the DMKinstead of criticising Hindi debates inParliament. Vaiko can never survivewithout publicity and media coverage.It is because of this reason that heattacked Hindi language. Now, whenhe makes an appearance in the RajyaSabha, thanks to an act of charity byDMK president MK Stalin, he wouldbe the “cynosure.” But Stalin sitting inthe DMK headquarters may be chuck-ling. It was the same Vaiko who hadchallenged Stalin’s elevation in theDMK and left the party to formMDMK. Strange are the ways of fate!

(The writer is SpecialCorrespondent, The Pioneer)

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Mumbai: Three days after agroup of eminent citizens wroteto Prime Minister NarendraModi on the lynching ofminorities and hate crimes, 61high-profile personalities fromvarious fields on Fridayresponded with a counter state-ment against “selective outrageand false narratives”.

The July 23 letter by 49“self-styled guardians and con-science keepers” expressedselective concerns and demon-strated a “clear political biasand motive”, said the statementsigned by actor KanganaRanaut, lyricist Prasoon Joshi,dancer Sonal Mansingh andfilmmakers MadhurBhandarkar and VivekAgnihotri and others.

"It (the July 23 letter) isaimed at tarnishing India'sinternational standing and tonegatively portray the primeminister's untiring efforts toeffectuate Governance on thefoundations of positive nation-alism and humanism which isthe core of Indianess," thestatement read.

The document of selectiveoutrage, it said, comes across asan "attempt to foist a falsenarrative with the intention ofdenigrating the democraticethos and norms of our col-lective functioning as a nationand people".

On July 23, 49 personali-ties, including filmmakersMani Ratnam, AnuragKashyap, Shyam Benegal and

Aparna Sen as well as vocalistShubha Mudgal and historianRamchandra Guha, expressedconcern at the number of "reli-gious identity-based hatecrimes" and noted that Jai ShriRam' has become a provocativewar cry with many lynchingstaking place in its name.

In their statement onFriday, 61 signatories ques-tioned the silence of the letterwriters on their silence "whentribals and the marginalisedhave become victims of Naxalterror".

"They have kept silentwhen separatists have issueddictates to burn schools inKashmir, they have kept silentwhen the demand for dis-membering India, for makingpieces of her -Tukde Tukde –were made, they kept silentwhen slogans chanted by ter-rorists and terror groups wereechoed in some leading uni-versity campuses in the coun-try," the statement said.

The civil society leadershad noted in the open letter tothe prime minister that criti-cising the lynchings inParliament is not enough.

"What action has actuallybeen taken against the perpe-trators? We strongly feel thatsuch offences should bedeclared non-bailable, and thatexemplary punishment shouldbe meted out swiftly and sure-ly," they said.

The response, also signedby actor Pallavi Joshi, singerMalini Awasthi, film producerSaikat Mukherjee and formervice chancellor Netaji SubhasOpen University, RadharamanChakraborty, emphasised thatthe PM has spoken out repeat-edly against lynching.

"Prime Minister has spo-ken out against it repeatedlyand respective state govern-ments are empowered to takeaction. We would urge every-one to give up being selectiveand condemn lynching, dis-

crimination and desecration ofreligious places with equalvehemence when they occur.

"Instead of indulging ingrand-standing, personalitieswith a social and public profileought to generate greaterawareness on the need to tack-le and eliminate the mind-setthat leads to lynching," thestatement added.

Terming the open letter tothe PM agenda driven, thesignatories said the selectiveoutrage "makes us believe thatthey are working to a certainagenda and are only playinginto the hands of those forcesthat out Balkanise India".

Targeting those that sup-ported the July 23 letter, thestatement said they had beenquiet on issues like killing ofpeople for chanting 'Jai ShriRam', the exodus of KashmiriPandits from Kashmir Valleyand Hindus from Kairana inUttar Pradesh and not stand-ing beside women who arefighting the practise of tripletalaq.

Those who have signedFriday's statement also includeacademics such as DebashishBhattacharya from VisvaBharati in Santiniketan, AvadhUniversity Vice ChancellorManoj Dikshit, AnirbanGanguly of the Dr SyamaPrasad Mookerjee ResearchFoundation as well as MP andjournalist Swapan Dasguptaand yesteryear actor BiswajitChatterjee. PTI

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Lucknow: BSP supremoMayawati on Friday attackedSamajwadi Party leader AzamKhan for his sexist remarkagainst MP Rama Devi in theLok Sabha, saying he shouldnot only apologise inParliament but to all women.

"The indecent languageused by Azam Khan, an SP MPfrom Uttar Pradesh, against awoman presiding officer inLok Sabha yesterday hurt thedignity and honour of women,and is very condemnable. Forthis he should not only apolo-gise in Parliament but to allwomen," Mayawati said in atweet.

Khan on Thursday court-ed a fresh controversy when hemade a sexist remark againstDevi, who was in the Chair inthe Lok Sabha, sparking anuproar and demands for hisapology. PTI

-6� ��$��7� �� Kannur: A sessions court here

on Friday sentenced fiveCPI(M) workers to life impris-onment for hacking to death aBJP activist in 2008.

Thalassery AdditionalDistrict Sessions court judge PN Vinod also slapped a fine ofRs 1 lakh each on the convictsfor murdering K V Surendran(62).

The court sentencedThiruvangod residents

Akhilesh (35), M Kalesh (36),M Lijesh (32), Vineesh (25) andP K Shaijosh (28) in the case.

It also directed that the fine

amount be paid to the family ofSurendran.

The court, however, acquit-ted two persons in the case.

The prosecution case wasthat the convicts hacked todeath Surendran at his houseon March 8, 2008 to settle polit-ical scores.

The court relied on the tes-timonies of witnesses, includ-ing the prime witness Soumya,wife of the deceased. PTI

Kolkata: The West BengalGovernment on Fridayannounced a hike in the gradepay of primary teachers in theState on the fourteenth day oftheir hunger strike.

The enhancement of gradepay for trained and untrainedprimary teachers was notifiedby the school educationdepartment of theGovernment.

"The grade pay of trainedprimary teachers in enhancedfrom �2,600 in pay band 2 to�3,600 in Pay Band 3 and thegrade pay of untrained prima-ry teachers is enhanced from�2,300 to �2,900 in Pay Band2 with effect from August 1,2019," the notification said.

Members of Usti PrimaryTeachers Association (UPTA)have been on indefinite hunger

strike in front of Bikas Bhawanin Salt Lake, which houses thestate directorate of school edu-cation for the past fortnight.

"We have not seen theorder yet. But we have heardabout it. If this announce-ment is true we are not at allhappy. We are waiting for theGovernment's decision on therevocation of transfer orders of14 primary teachers," SandeepGhosh, one of the agitatingteachers, said.

State Education MinisterPartha Chatterjee had said onThursday that the Governmentwas ready to effect a hike in thegrade pay of the primaryteachers.

Chatterjee had reasonedthat the teachers were trans-ferred to schools having short-age of teachers. PTI

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Senior juristJ a g d e e p

Dhankar whowill replaceKeshri NathTripathi as theBengal Governor is likely to besworn in on July 30, sourcessaid.

The Chief Justice ofCalcutta High Court willadminister the oath to the newGovernor. Bengal ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee whohad earlier welcomed Dhankara former MP to his new assign-ment is scheduled to remainpresent at the swearing-in pro-gramme along with other dig-nitaries, sources said.

Dhankar will swear in asthe 20th Governor of the Statereplacing Tripathi who com-pleted his term on July 23.

Gandhinagar: The Justice DKTrivedi Commission whichprobed the death of two chil-dren who studied at a residen-tial school run by controversialgodman Asaram inAhmedabad in July 2008 hasgiven a clean chit to him and hisson Narayan Sai.

The commission's report,submitted to the Gujarat gov-ernment way back in 2013, wastabled in the Assembly onFriday, almost six years later.

The commission, however,held that school authoritieshad been negligent.

On July 5, 2008, decom-posed bodies of cousins DipeshVaghela (10) and AbhishekVaghela (11), studying atAsaram's 'Gurukul' (residentialschool) in Motera area ofAhmedabad, were found on thebank of the Sabarmati river.

The children had gonemissing from the school's hos-tel two days earlier. Asaram's`ashram', which housed theschool and hostel, is situatedalong the riverbank.

"There is no evidence tosuggest that in the ashram,Asaram-ji and his son NarayanSai performed Tantrik Vidhi(black magic rituals)," thereport said. "The managementof the gurukul as well as ashramauthorities are custodians andguardians of the children whoare staying in gurukul hosteland it is their duty to look afterthe children," it said.

"From the perusal of theevidence, the commission is ofthe view that the same is lack-ing by the management of thegurukul," the report added.

Parents had alleged thatAsaram and his son performed

black magic rituals on the twochildren, causing their death.

"Missing of Dipesh andAbhishek, from the ashramcampus from 3-7-2008 in thelate evening is due to the neg-ligence of the management andaccording to the commissionsuch negligence is not at all tol-erable," the report said.

The medical evidence wasconclusive and the possibility ofdeath due to drowning cannotbe ruled out, the commissionsaid. It also noted that noorgans were missing from thetwo bodies. It was speculatedearlier that some organs hadbeen removed. Following a vio-lent agitation demanding actionagainst Asaram over the deaths,the state government set up aprobe panel headed by JusticeTrivedi, a retired high courtjudge, in July 2008. PTI

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Morigaon (Assam): The car-casses of two rhinos have beenfound from Assam's flood-hitPobitora Wildlife Sanctuarywhich had recorded no animaldeaths because of inundationeven four days ago, an officialsaid.

Forest Protection Force inPobitora recovered the carcassof a rhino calf from the floodwaters near Amaramul Campinside the sanctuary on Friday,its ranger said.

The forest guards had alsofound the carcass of anotherrhino calf on Wednesday fromthe sanctuary which was flood-ed by the Brahmaputa, he

added. The cause of the deathof both the animals was drown-ing in the flood inside the sanc-tuary, said the forest official.

The entire PobitoraWildlife Sanctuary, the densesthabitat of one horned rhinos inthe world covering an area of46 sq km, was completely sub-merged by the flood watersforcing its wild animals toleave for the nearby highland,the ranger said.

Over 100 rhinos living inthe sanctuary have been facingserious problems as there is nogreen grass or sufficient food forthese endangered species, forestdepartment sources added. PTI

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Kolkata: The Border SecurityForce (BSF) on Friday appre-hended six Bangladeshi andone Indian national while theywere trying to cross the inter-national boundary illegally inWest Bengal.

"We had apprehended six Bangladeshi national and one Indian national duringthe night when they were trying to crossover to India and vice verse. They werearrested from various sectors ofMalda, Baharampore and Nadia," a senior BSF offi-cial of south Bengal frontiersaid. PTI

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Bengaluru: BJP Karnatakachief BS Yeddyurappa hasreverted to the earlier Englishspelling of his name BSYediyurappa, apparently influ-enced by numerology.

The change became pub-lic on Friday in his letter toGovernor Vajubhai Vala, stak-ing claim to form the gov-ernment, and later, in theofficial invitation for theswearing-in ceremony of theBJP leader as Karnataka chiefminister.

There are reports that theBJP strongman, who will

become chief minister for thefourth time this evening, hasgone in for the change basedon numerology.

He had changed thespelling of his name fromYediyurappa to Yeddyurappaafter he had to resign as chiefminister in 2007.

He had to quit barely aweek after becoming the CMas the then coalition partnerJDS reneged on its promise toshare power for 20 monthseach.

However, it seems to havefailed to bring him any luck as

the two subsequent terms aschief minister did not lastlong.

Meanwhile, BJP workersheld celebrations across thestate after the party stakedclaim to form the governmentthree days after the fall of theHD Kumaraswamy-led coali-tion front of the Congress andthe JD(S).

Party workers danced todrumbeats in various parts ofthe state, burst crackers andraised slogans hailing the BJPand Prime Minister NarendraModi. PTI

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Mumbai: The Bombay HighCourt on Friday reserved itsverdict on a plea filed by rightsactivist Gautam Navlakha,seeking that the FIR filedagainst him by Pune Police inthe Elgar Parishad-BhimaKoregaon case be quashed.

A bench of Justices RanjitMore and Bharati Dangre,which heard the plea, saidwhile some documents placedon record by police suggestedthat activist Navlakha wasinnocent, the rest of the mate-rial on record needed furtherinvestigation.

The case, in whichNavlakha is an accused, relat-ed to an event, Elgar Parishad,and subsequent violence atBhima Koregaon village nearPune between December 31,2017 and January 1, 2018.

He is among the five rightsactivists booked in the case.

Navlakha has been bookedon a slew of charges, includingsections under the UnlawfulActivities (Prevention) Act(UAPA), an anti-terrorism law.

On the last hearing earli-

er this week, Pune Police'scounsel Aruna Pai alleged thatthe police had adequate evi-dence to show that Navlakhawas complicit in the BhimaKoregaon incident.

Pai had also alleged thatNavlakha had links with Naxal

groups and banned terror out-fit Hizbul Mujahideen.

She had said the police hadrecovered some documentsfrom the laptops of RonaWilson and SurendraHandling, Navlakha's co-accused in the case, to provethe same.

However, on Friday,Navlakha's counsel, YugChaudhary, denied thecharges.

He argued that a mereclaim by the police of havingfound some documents withhis client's name did not provethat he was a "terrorist".

The bench, however, saidthat Section 13 of the UnlawfulActivities (Prevention) Actalso provided for punishmentfor "advocating, abetting, andadvising on unlawful activities.

"Can you say that onlysomeone who drops a bomb isa terrorist, there are abetterstoo," the bench said.

"Some of the documentsgiven by police show inno-cence, others need an investi-gation. We will apply our mindand pass an order," the courtsaid while reserving its verdict.

The interim protectionagainst arrest granted toNavlakha by the high courtearlier this month will contin-ue till the verdict, it said.

The police had arrested thefive activists in August last yearin connection with an FIRlodged following a conclave —'Elgar Parishad' — held inPune on December 31, 2017,that had allegedly triggeredviolence the next day at BhimaKoregaon. PTI

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Mumbai: Former Lok SabhaMP Eknath Gaikwad was appointed the workingpresident of the MumbaiCongress.

The announcement wasmade by AICC general secretary (organisation) KCVenugopal through a statement on Friday, with party sources claiming thatone more person will beappointed to the post of work-ing president.

Milind Deora, who had

announced his resignation asMumbai unit chief owing to theparty's poor Lok Sabha show-ing, has been asked to contin-ue, sources close to the formerMumbai South Lok Sabha MPsaid.

Later in the day, in a state-ment, Deora asked the party'sleadership to take a decision onhis resignation.

"I trust that the party willtake a decision on the post ofMumbai Congress president atthe earliest," Deora said. PTI

Kohima: A political solution tothe Naga issue has to beachieved within a year becauseNagaland needs permanentpeace for development andprogress, outgoing Governor PB Acharya has said.

"And for this, we havePrime Minister NarendraModi, who has the will andguts to resolve the issue,"Acharya said while addressinga farewell programme, organ-ised by the State Government,on Thursday.

Noting that Nagaland isrich but Nagas are economi-cally weak, he said, "We alsoneed to march along withother states towards develop-ment and progress."

Acharya was sworn in asthe 19th Governor of Nagalandon July 19, 2014. His successor,

R N Ravi, is scheduled to takecharge on August 1.

He expressed hope that thenew governor will delivergoods to the people and workfor the solution of the Nagapolitical issue.

Ravi had been the Centre'sinterlocuter for the Naga peacetalks.

Acharya also offered toextend his support to the state,whenever required.

"I am leaving as the gov-ernor of the state but not theNagas, and I will always be atyour disposal," he said.

Mentioning that the Nagapeople were fortunate to havesuch an eminent personality astheir governor, Chief MinisterNeiphiu Rio said, the peoplehave been enriched throughhis guidance and leadership.

"Your support to the gov-ernments efforts towards real-ising permanent peace andsolution to the Naga politicalissue is well appreciated," Riosaid.

As constitutional head ofthe State, Acharya had a metic-ulous and exemplary tenure,the chief minister said.

"The state experienced afew political crises during thepast few years but the governorconducted himself in animpeccable manner and upheldthe Constitution of India inexemplary fashion, for whichhe deserves to be compliment-ed," the chief minister said.

Leader of Opposition T RZeliang expressed hope thatAcharya will continue to sup-port the Naga people for anamicable solution to the Naga

political problem.He also recalled the frame-

work agreement signedbetween the NSCN-IM gener-al secretary ThuingalengMuivah and the governmentsinterlocutor R N Ravi, in thepresence of PM Modi, onAugust 3, 2015.

As the governor, Acharyahad played his role in thisevent, which makes him anintegral part of Naga history,Zeliang said.

The agreement had comeafter over 80 rounds of nego-tiations spanning 18 years,with the first breakthroughmade in 1997 when the cease-fire agreement was sealed afterdecades of insurgency inNagaland, which started soonafter the country's indepen-dence in 1947 . PTI

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Srinagar: National Conferenceleader Omar Abdullah onFriday warned the people ofKashmir against boycottingthe forthcoming Assemblyelections in the State, saying itwould benefit the BJP.

He said the election boy-cott had benefited the BJP inthe 2019 Lok Sabha polls in theTral segment of Anantnag LokSabha constituency.

"If the trend of parliamen-tary polls continues in theassembly elections, then therewill be a BJP MLA from Tral,"Abdullah said addressing partyworkers here.

The NC vice-president was

referring to the BJP's lead in theTral assembly segment of southKashmir's AnantnagParliamentary constituency dueto poll boycott.

Abdullah asked the peopleto imagine a scenario wherethere could be a BJP MLA fromTral — a town where slainHizbul Mujahiddeen com-mander Burhan Wani and

Ansar Gazwatul-ul-Hind com-mander Zakir Mussa belongedto — pointing out a contradic-tion because of the boycott ofthe polls.

"Imagine, there will be aBJP MLA from the same Tralwhere from Burhan Wani andZakir Mussa were if there is aboycott," he said.

Later, referring to the con-troversy over his remarks withsome news channels accusinghim of praising the slain mili-tant commanders, the formerchief minister said he was onlypointing out the strange con-tradiction of the boycott anddid not praise anyone. PTI

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Akola: A gang of eight people,two of them from adjoiningMadhya Pradesh, was arrestedfor allegedly practicing blackmagic while looking for a "hid-den treasure" here inMaharashtra, police said onFriday. Acting on a tip-off, apolice team went to Dahikhedvillage near here on Thursdayand nabbed these people, allpart of a gang, when they wereconducting rituals at an agri-culture field as part of blackmagic, Akot rural police stationin-charge Inspector DnyanobaPhad said. PTI

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The Human ResourceDevelopment (HRD)

Ministry on Friday issued anadvisory informing that a fakeboard, which has cheated morethan 10,000 students fromacross the country, has beenoperating in the name of “Boardof Higher Secondary Education,Delhi’, and it has not given anyrecognition to the same.

"It has come to the notice ofthat one entity operating in thename of 'Board of HigherSecondary Education, Delhi' isclaiming to be a recognisedboard of education by us. Onscrutiny of the relevant recordsof this, it has been found that nosuch letters, as being circulated,have ever been issued by us infavour of the so-called board,"

the HRD Ministry said in theadvisory.

"Both the letters are, there-fore, completely forged and fab-ricated. It is abundantly clarifiedthat no letters have ever beenissued by the ministry recog-nising the said entity," it added.

The advisory stated that ifany other documents are pro-duced in relation to the board'srecognition, then the same maybe deemed to be fake and theveracity of the documents mayfirst be confirmed from the con-cerned organisation.

Delhi Police had inDecember last year busted agang operating the fake board."The gang has cheated morethan 10,000 students from UttarPradesh, Bihar, Gujarat,Chhattisgarh, and several otherstates. The fake board syndicate

also provided documents ofhigher education fromrenowned institutes of differentstates in the country," police hadsaid.

The ministry has advised allstudents, parents and otherstakeholders to not engage withthe fake board in any manner.

In a separate communica-tion HRD Ministry said thatstudents pursuing teacher train-ing courses, including BEd andMEd, will now be able to getdegree verification certificateonline with the NationalCouncil of Teacher Education

(NCTE) launching a portal forthe purpose. So far the processused to be manual. Union HRDMinister Ramesh Pokhriyal'Nishank' launched the portal atthe inauguration of the newbuilding of NCTE on Friday.

"The platform has beendesigned by NCTE to facilitateregistration of teacher-pupiland essential documentationwhile seeking employment asschool teachers," Nishank saidat the launch. According toofficials statistics, there are19,000 BEd colleges in thecountry and 90 lakh teachers.

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Following reports that thou-sands of crores have gone

into campaigning during theLok Sabha polls, Bengal ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee haswritten to Prime MinisterNarendra Modi seeking thor-ough “electoral reforms” andState funding of elections.

In her letter she has calledupon the Prime Minister toexplore possibilities of publicfunding of elections and buildup a consensus through an all-party meeting.

Public funding of electionswill lead the Government to bearthe expense of contesting theelections on behalf of the polit-ical parties.

She has referred to news-paper reports which alleged�60,000 crore had been spent inthis year’s parliamentary elec-tions saying such reports will notdo any good to India’s reputa-tions as a democratic country.Fearing that this amount may

surpass �1 lakh crore in the nextgeneral elections, Banerjee saidthe issue should be addressedimmediately.

“I urge you to call an all-party meeting with the singleagenda of public funding of elec-tions in India, with the objectiveof rooting out what has beencalled the mother of all corrup-tion,” the Chief Minister haswritten in her letter, sources said.

Referring to the lettersources said how the ChiefMinister has expressed her deepconcern about the degeneratingelectoral scenario. “She hasdrawn the Prime Minister’snotice for an urgent electoralreforms,” so that elections can beconducted in a “free, fair andtransparent manner,” a seniorofficial said.

State funding of polls mayimply the political parties con-tributing on their behalf the elec-toral expenses to theGovernment which will thenspend the money on their behalfso that transparency will be

maintained, sources said.Alternatively the governmentmay also bear the expenses onbehalf of the parties for fightingthe elections.

This will also ensure somesorts of level-playing field for allthe parties and the competingideologies, experts maintained.

The Chief Minister hasreferred to how State fundedelections take place in advancedcountries like Japan, Italy, UK,Germany, Canada, Australiaand France where the “politicalparties receive direct funding forfighting the elections.”

She said, “the poll expenditure of Parliamentaryelection in 2019 had crossed alllimits, reaching a minimum of�60,000 crore (�8.65 billion)and maximum expenditureremains unknown and could bemuch higher,” adding “may Ipoint out that combined expen-diture in the United States ofAmerica for Presidential andCongressional elections in 2016was $ 6.5 billion.”

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Pilibhit (UP): An FIR waslodged against 43 persons onFriday after a video showingsome villagers beating an adulttigress to death went viral onsocial media.

According to PrincipalConservator of Forests, SunilPandey the tigress had onWednesday attacked and injurednine villagers while they wereworking in an agriculture fieldin Deurea range of the Pilibhittiger reserve.

The forest staff rushed to thespot but was manhandled by thevillagers, Pandey alleged.

The staff later found thetigress dead, Pandey said, addingthat a three-member panelwhich conducted the postmortem examination of the ani-mal found broken ribs, injuriesand excessive bleeding as thecause of the death.

Later, a video showing thelocals beating the adult tigresswith sticks surfaced, he said.

A case was registered against31 named an 12 unnamed per-sons at the Puranpur Kotwaliand a probe is underway, apolice officer said. PTI

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Election from Vellore LokSabha Constituency which

was rescinded following theseizure of a large cache ofmoney from the residence andoffice premises of the DMKcandidate would be held onAugust 5. Tamil Nadu is in thegrip of another poll feverdespite the fact that the resultwould not make any impact onnational politics.

People are watching withinterest whether the DMKwould walk away with the seatas the party-led alliance won 37of the 38 seats where electionwas held in the month of April2019. The DMK-front’s onlyloss was at Theni where formerunion minister EVKSElangovan was defeated byAIADMK’s Raveendra Kumarby a narrow margin.

Vellore which has a con-siderable Muslim population isa DMK stronghold. The partyhas fielded D M Kathir Anand,son of local DMK chieftainDurai Murugan . Murugan ,

deputy leader of the DMK inthe assembly is a former PWDminister. The AIADMK hasallocated the seat to the NewJustice Party , one of thefringe groups in the region. AC Shanmugan founder of theNJP is contesting in the TwoLeaves symbol of theAIADMK.

Next week will see ChiefMinister EdappadyPalamiswamy and Leader ofthe Opposition M K Stalintouring the constituency solic-iting votes for the respectivecandidates. Most of the politi-cal observers are of the viewthat the DMK is likely to winin Vellore because there hasbeen no major political changesin the State over the last twomonths which could make anyimpact in the political for-tunes of the main contenders.

But K A Johny, politicalcommentator and a keen DMKwatcher chose to differ slight-ly from other analysts . “It istrue that there is nothingagainst the DMK as of now. ButShanmugan , who owns a uni-versity and medical colleges is

a rich man and in Tamil Nadupolitics money matters a lot.You should take note of whathappened in the case of T RParivendhar, who contestedfrom Perambalur under theDMK symbol. He won with amargin of more than 4 lakhvotes though he is a non-enti-ty in the State,” said Johny.Parivendhar owns the SRMUniversity in Chennai andheads a party by name IndiaJananayaka Katchi. He wasimprisoned in a cheating casefor weeks by the Tamil NaduPolice but still managed to winthe election, pointed out Johny.

The Vellore election is aprecursor to the two Assemblyby-elections to be held fromTamil Nadu. Nanguneri assem-bly constituency fell vacantfollowing the resignation ofVasanth Kumar (Congress)who was elected to the LokSabha while K Radhamani, theDMK legislator representingthe Vikravandi constituencydied last month. Moreover,Tamil Nadu is getting ready forthe local body elections whichare long overdue.

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Jalpaiguri (West Bengal): Tenpeople were electrocuted afterthey came in contact with ahigh tension wire in WestBengal's Jalpaiguri district onFriday, police said.

Their condition is stable,the police said.

The incident occurred atMainaguri block's Uller Dabriarea on Friday afternoon whenthey were boarding a Siliguri-bound private bus and a 11,000volt overhead wire snappedand fell on them, Mainaguripolice said.

Deaths were averted as thepower connection in the wiregot disconnected as soon as itsnapped, he said.

Five of the injured havebeen shifted to Siliguri super-specialty hospital, the policesaid. PTI

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Guwahati: Assam IndustryMinister Chandra MohanPatowary on Friday said a geo-graphical indication (GI) tagwould have helped "save" thestate's ailing tea industry.

Opposition Congress MLARupjyoti Kurmi raised the issueof the tea industry in theassembly, stating that GST andhigh fuel prices were some ofthe deterrents to its economicprogress. "Despite noticingthese shortcomings, there is nosincerity of the state govern-ment to revive the tea industry,"Kurmi alleged.

In reply, Patowary said

there are two lakh small teagrowers in Assam, but they arenot getting the just price fortheir produce.

"Our tea has not been ableto compete with the new vari-eties of tea... The big tea leafsellers blend our tea with otherteas and then brand them tosell as theirs, because we do nothave GI (tag) for Assam Tea,"Patowary said. "If we had GI, itwould have saved the state's teaindustry. Our government hastaken it up so that Assam Teacannot be used and brandedwithout our permission," theminister added. PTI

Lucknow: The Uttar Pradeshgovernment on Friday said ithas accepted recommendationsof a committee formed after theYamuna Expressway accidentfor breath analyser test of dri-vers travelling on longer routes.

Twenty-nine people werekilled and 18 others injuredwhen their bus veered off theYamuna Expressway andplunged into a deep drain onJuly 8.

"We have accepted the rec-ommendation of the commit-tee formed after the Yamunaexpressway incident that breathanalyser test of long routes beconducted," ParliamentaryAffairs Minister Suresh KumarKhanna said.

He was replying to a ques-tion in state legislative assem-bly.

When asked about the rea-sons which led to the accident,Khanna said nothing concretecould be said about the state inwhich the driver was at thattime.

"The bus before falling intogorge ran 50 metres. The steer-ing of vehicle should have beenturned, which was not. Nothing

could exactly be said about thestate of the driver as the post-mortem report says he died dueto drowning," the minister said.

He said the duty of the busdriver on that fateful day wasscheduled as per norms.

"He had joined after threedays of leave and took the busat 11 pm on the route on whichhe had gone earlier as well. Asper the norm, a long route dri-ver is put on eight-hour dutyand half-an-hour rest after five-hour travel. In a week, driversworking hours are fixed at 54hours," Khanna said.

According to the UP StateRoad Transport Corporation(UPSRTC) officials, it has beenrecommended to use breathanalyser on each driver beforeand after completion of everytrip.

The corporation officialsare in the process to equip 286government-run bus stations inthe state with breath analysers.

Any bus driver founddrunk during checking will besuspended immediately whilecontractual drivers will beremoved from the service onthe spot, the officials said. PTI

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Mumbai: Sounding an orangealert for Raigad, Ratnagiri andSindhudurg districts ofMaharashtra, the IndiaMeteorological Department(IMD) on Friday also predict-ed heavy to very heavy rainfallin Mumbai, Thane and NaviMumbai in the next 24 hours.

An orange alert signifiesthat the authorities should getready for necessary action.

"We have issued an orangealert for Raigad, Ratnagiri andSindhudurg districts. An orangealert is merely a warning forauthorities to get prepared,while a red alert directs them totake action as the situationmight turn severe," an IMDofficial said.

"Heavy to very heavy rain-fall is likely in Mumbai, Thane,

and Raigad districts, whileextremely heavy rainfall is like-ly at isolated places in Palghardistrict," the official added.

Meanwhile, K S Hosalikar,Deputy Director General(DDG) of the IMD tweeted,"Rainfall in last 24 hrs at morn-ing 6.30 am today in Mumbaiand around: few stations report-ed heavy rainfall in Mumbai andNavi Mumbai. Rest it was mod-erate as expected. Today watchfor more rains please." PTI

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After deciding to privatisesix major airports in

February this year, the Centralgovernment is planning to pri-vatise 20-25 more in the nextphase with an expectation thatthere will be a significant par-ticipation by foreign airports,said AAI ChairmanGuruprasad Mohapatra onFriday.

Adani Group had won thebids to operate, manage anddevelop the six airports —Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Jaipur,M a n g a l u r u ,Thiruvananthapuram, andGuwahati — which theAirports Authority of Indiahad put up for privatisation inthe first round.

“We have privatised sixairports... We are now planningto privatise 20-25 airports innext phase,” said Mohapatra ata press briefing here.

He said the AAI will decidethe names of these airports —with annual passenger trafficover 1.5 million — soon andrecommend them to theMinistry of Civil Aviation.

“They will take a final call,”he said.

In the latest bureaucraticshuffle, Mohapatra was trans-ferred to the Department forPromotion of Industry andInternal Trade, which comesunder the Ministry of

Commerce.On Friday, Mohapatra said

he would take charge as DPIITsecretary on August 1.

Explaining about the plan-ning related to the secondround of privatisation, he said,“What we have done is we haveappointed a consultant tounderstand relative attractive-ness of various airports for pri-vate sector investments.”

“It is open for everyone tobid. There are tremendouspossibilities. With this (successin first round), I am sure thatin the next round of privatisa-tion we do, I am hoping to seea lot of foreign airports partic-ipating in it.”

He said airports such asDublin and Munich showedtremendous interest but they“probably required more con-fidence” and waited to see thesuccess of the first round of pri-vatisation.

“They have seen that nowthat it is successfully happen-

ing. So, in the second round, weexpect signification participa-tion coming from airports likethem,” he said.

In November last year, thegovernment had decided toprivatise airports in Lucknow,Ahmedabad, Jaipur,M a n g a l u r u ,Thiruvananthapuram, andGuwahati for operation, man-agement and developmentthrough public-private part-nership (PPP) model.

In February, the AdaniGroup bagged contract for allsix airports by winning the bidswith huge margins.

The AAI had chosen thewinner on the basis of the “per-passenger fee” offered by thebidders.

On July 3, the UnionCabinet had approved the leas-ing out of Ahmedabad,Lucknow and Mangaluru air-ports to Adani Group. The cab-inet is yet to approve the leas-ing out of the other three.

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The American economy hitthe brakes in the second

quarter, as activity declined inan increasingly skittish indus-trial sector and exports fell, butthe US continues to outper-form other advancedeconomies, according to gov-ernment data released Friday.

Officials also slashedgrowth for last year using newlyavailable data — cutting a cru-cial 2018 GDP measure to 2.5per cent, undercutting PresidentDonald Trump’s frequent boastsabout beating 3.0 per cent.

The new data covering thepast five years now show theworld’s largest economy actu-ally slowed in the year afterTrump pushed through asweeping tax overhaul.

The updated data alsohighlight how momentumdeteriorated in the final monthsof 2018, when the FederalReserve raised interest rates indefiance of intense pressurefrom Trump.

The central bank next weekis widely expected to cut itsbenchmark lending rate,reversing December’s increase.

The CommerceDepartment reported that GDPin the April-June quarterslowed to 2.1 per cent from thefirst three months of the year,slowing sharply from 3.1 percent growth in the first quarter,but that was better than expect-

ed, helped by strong consumerspending.

Taken together the newdata portrayed an economythat enjoys robust strength insome quarters but has begun tosputter worryingly in others,even while the US is outshin-ing sluggish economies inEurope, Japan and elsewhere.

Analysts had expected sec-ond quarter growth of just 1.8per cent, but the economy gota boost from strong consumerspending on autos, food andclothing.

Federal spending also tookits biggest leap in a decade —with non-defense spending ris-ing at the fastest pace in 21 years— a one-time jolt when thegovernment resumed payingemployees following the five-week partial government shut-down at the start of the year.

But that was not enough tomake up for tumbling invest-ment in factories and com-mercial buildings, which sankmore than 10 percent for thequarter, and falling incomefrom software royalties andother intellectual property.

Amid a global economicslowdown, weakening foreigndemand for US exports meantAmerican factories sold fewerautos, parts and factory equip-ment. The ailing Americanmanufacturing sector also pro-duced fewer non-durablegoods while retail and whole-sale trade softened.

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The Government on Fridayadmitted in Rajya Sabha

that doubling of farm incomeby 2022 was not possible withthe current rate of growth inthe agriculture sector, and saidit was trying to promote alliedsectors to achieve the target.

During the Question Hour,SP member Ram Gopal Yadavsaid going by the presentgrowth rate of 4 per cent in theagriculture sector, it was notpossible to double the farmersincome by 2022. Replying tosupplementaries, Minister ofState for AgriculturePurshottam Rupala said, “Weagree with Ram Gopal ji’s querythat it was not possible to dou-ble farm incomes with the cur-rent growth rate in agri sector.”

He said the raising of farmincome was not possible withgrowth in only one sector, but thegovernment was making effortsto promote allied sectors of agri-culture and that will aid in help-ing double the farm income.

Rupala also informed thehouse that the governmentwas making efforts to increasethe clusters under organicfarming and was giving themvarious incentives.

“We are running 20 centresfor promotion of organic farm-ing.... We have set a target ofsetting up 1 lakh clusters oforganic farming in this Plan,”he said.

�� 35�6347#

IT industry body Nasscomand property consultant

CBRE on Friday said they willmentor and support three star-tups that offer tech-based solu-tions for the real estate market.

The startups —Touchwizard Technologies,XLSYS Technologies andWEGoT Utility Solutions —were declared winners postthree stages of evaluation byindustry leaders from acrosssectors, CBRE said in a state-ment.

The National Associationof Software and ServicesCompanies (Nasscom) andCBRE South Asia had startedthis competition in May thisyear.

Srikanth Srinivasan, HeadMembership, Nasscom said,“We see this initiative as a stepforward towards building asustainable ecosystem forPropTech start-ups in the

country.”“We wanted to create a

platform in India that advo-cates PropTech and slowly butsteadily walk towards creatinga truly global experience forconsumers in the Realty sec-tor,” said AnshumanMagazine, Chairman andCEO, India and South EastAsia, CBRE.

C h e n n a i - b a s e dTouchwizard Technologies,which came first in the chal-lenge, deals in manufacturingand trading of video projectors,interactive boards, projectorscreens, interactive floor sys-tems, virtual field trip serviceand virtual reality kit trip ser-vices.

Bengaluru-based XLSYSTechnologies offers jobsitemanagement and analyticsservices for the real estateindustry. WEGoT UtilitySolution specialises in utilitymanagement and water man-agement solutions.

�� 35�6347#

Senior bureaucrat and formerfinance secretary Subhash

Chandra Garg on Friday tookover as the new PowerSecretary.

The senior most officer inthe Ministry of Finance, Gargwas shifted to the PowerMinistry on Wednesday.Thereafter he announced thathe had applied for voluntaryretirement from service onThursday.

“Handed over charge ofEconomic Affairs today(Thursday). Learnt so much inthe Finance Ministry andEconomic Affairs Dept. Willtake charge in Power Ministrytomorrow (Friday). Have alsoapplied for VoluntaryRetirement from the IAS witheffect from 31st October”, Garghad tweeted on Thursday.

An interaction of Gargwith media is scheduled lateron Friday.

�� 35�6347#

Markets watchdog Sebi onFriday eased the condi-

tions for exchanges to provideincentives under liquidityenhancement schemes (LES) inthe first five years of operation.

Under the scheme, brokersand other market intermedi-aries are given incentives for aspecified period of time tobring in liquidity and generateinvestor interest in securities,which have limited tradingactivity.

The move comes after theregulator noted that “anexchange in early years of itsformation or commencementof business may not be able togenerate profits or have freereserves from business opera-tions”.

Laying down the condi-tions for such exchanges, Sebiin a circular said the yearlyincentive that an exchange canearmark for LES will notexceed 25 per cent of its audit-ed net-worth as on the last dayof the previous financial year.

New Delhi: Reckitt Benckiser on Friday launched Vanish, an ’All-New’ detergent booster. Studies conducted by leading market-ing agencies Nielsen and Third Eye revealed that more than 60per cent consumers are inherently dissatisfied with their laun-dry results despite using premium detergents. Vanish aims to fillthe void in the market by providing home makers with the per-fect laundry solution. The Post use consumer research showedthat 9 out of 10 consumers after trying the product were moti-vated to buy the product. PNS

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North Korea’s test of a newmissile is meant as a

“solemn warning” over rivalSouth Korea’s weapons devel-opment and plans to hold mil-itary drills with the UnitedStates, Pyongyang said Fridayas it continued its pressurecampaign ahead of potentialnuclear talks.

South Korea’s military latersaid that the flight data of theweapon launched Thursdayshowed similarities to theRussian-made Iskander, a short-range, nuclear-capable missile.A North Korean version couldlikely reach all of South Korea— and the 28,500 US forces sta-tioned there — and would beextremely hard to intercept.

The North Korean state-ment was carried in state mediaand directed at “South Korean

military warmongers.” It appearsto be part of broader efforts dur-ing recent weeks to make surePyongyang gets what it wants asUS and North Korean officialsstruggle to set up working-leveltalks after a recent meeting onthe Korean border betweenNorth Korean leader Kim JongUn, who supervised Thursday’stest launch, and PresidentDonald Trump seemed to pro-vide a step forward in stallednuclear negotiations.

Although the North hadharsh words for South Korea,the statement stayed away fromthe kind of belligerent attacks onthe United States that havemarked past announcements, apossible signal that it’s interest-ed in keeping diplomacy alive.

It made clear, however,that North Korea is infuriatedover Seoul’s purchase of U.S.-made high-tech fighter jets

and US-South Korean plans tohold military drills this sum-mer that the North says arerehearsals for an invasion andproof of the allies’ hostility toPyongyang. US Secretary ofState Mike Pompeo playeddown Thursday’s launches andsaid in an interview withBloomberg TV that working-level talks with North Koreacould start “in a couple weeks.”

“Everybody tries to getready for negotiations and cre-ate leverage and create risk forthe other side,” Pompeo said ofthe launches.

The North Korean state-ment was gloating at times, say-ing the weapons test “musthave given uneasiness andagony to some targeted forcesenough as it intended.” It alsoaccused South Korea of intro-ducing “ultramodern offensiveweapons.”

That’s likely a reference toSouth Korea’s purchase andongoing deployment of U.S.-made F-35 fighter jets. Earlierthis month, North Korea saidit would develop and test “spe-cial weapons” to destroy theaircraft. In its biggest weaponspurchase, South Korea is to buy40 F-35 fighter jets fromLockheed Martin by 2021. Thefirst two arrived in March and

two others are to be deliveredin coming weeks.

After watching the launch-es, Kim said the new weaponsare hard to intercept because oftheir “low-altitude gliding andleaping flight orbit,” the North’sKorean Central News Agencyreported Friday. He was quot-ed as saying the possession of“such a state-of-the-art weapon-ry system” is of “huge eventfulsignificance” in bolstering hiscountry’s armed forces andguaranteeing national security.

A joint South Korean-US analysis of the launchesshowed the North Koreanweapons are of a new type ofshort-range ballistic missilethat have a “similar flight fea-ture” as the Iskander, which hasbeen in the Russian arsenal formore than a decade, a SouthKorean defense official said,requesting anonymity because

of department rules.That missile is designed to

fly at a flattened-out altitude ofaround 40 kilometers (25miles) and make in-flight guid-ance adjustments. Both capa-bilities exploit weaknesses inthe US and South Korean mis-sile defenses that are now in

place, primarily Patriot missilebatteries and the THAAD anti-missile defense system. TheIskander is also quicker tolaunch and harder to destroyon the ground, because of itssolid fuel engine. Its advancedguidance system also makes itmore accurate.

Cairo: Libya’s coast guardrecovered dozens of bodies ofEurope-bound migrants whoperished at sea as search oper-ations continued on Friday, aday after up to 150 people,including women and chil-dren, went missing and werefeared drowned after theirboats capsized in theMediterranean Sea.

A top UN official describedThursday’s shipwreck as “theworst Mediterranean tragedy” sofar this year. Also Friday, Libyanauthorities transferred dozens ofmigrants rescued from the dis-aster to a detention center nearTripoli that was hit by an airstrikeearlier this month despite UN

objections to such a move, theUN refugee agency said.

The Anti-IllegalImmigration Agency in thecapital, Tripoli, said that up to350 migrants were on board theboats that capsized onThursday off the coast of theLibyan town of Khoms, around120 kilometers east of Tripoli.

The migrants includenationals from Eretria, Egypt,Sudan and Libya, the agencysaid. Libyan officials said morethan 130 migrants have beenrescued since Thursday. Atleast a dozen were taken to ahospital in Khoms while therest were transferred to differ-ent detention centres. AP

�� 78�&�(8�&

Hundreds of Hong Kongers,including flight attendants,

held a rally in the airport’sarrival hall on Friday to “edu-cate” visitors about the demon-strations currently grippingthe international finance hub asit braces for another weekendof protests.

The cavernous hall is usu-ally filled with excited friendsand relatives waiting to greetloved ones as they make theirway out of one of the world’sbusiest airports.

But on Friday visitors were greeted by a sea of black-clad protesters chantinganti-government slogans, hold-ing banners and handing out flyers.

The rally is the latest bid tokeep pressure on Hong Kong’spro-Beijing leaders after sevenweeks of largely peaceful massdemonstrations followed byviolent clashes, an unprece-dented challenge to Beijing’s

authority since the city’s 1997handover.

The protests were trig-gered by a controversial billwhich would have allowedextraditions to mainlandChina, but they have evolvedinto a call for wider democra-tic reforms and a halt to slid-ing freedoms.

Organisers billed the air-port rally as an opportunity tobrief arrivals on the politicalunrest, particularly visitorsfrom mainland China wherethe state-controlled news hasportrayed the protests as aviolent, foreign-funded plot todestabilise the motherland.

The demonstration waspeaceful and good-humoured,and there were no reports ofany disruption to flights.

One particularly creativegroup were using a television todisplay a satirical version of anairline safety announcementvideo that details the move-ment’s demands and warns ofprotests in the city.

�� *'2%%34%

The European Union onThursday flatly rejected an

aggressive push by Britain’snew prime minister BorisJohnson to rewrite the Brexitagreement. Chief Brexit nego-tiator Michel Barnier warnedEU member states that Johnsonwas trying to divide them byamping up the threat of adamaging “no-deal” divorce.

And the president of theEuropean Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, told Johnson ina phone call that EU leadershave given Brussels no mandateto renegotiate.

Earlier, in a pugnaciousparliamentary debut as leader,Johnson had urged theEuropean Union to “rethink”its opposition to re-opening thecurrent deal.

“If they do not, we will ofcourse have to leave the EUwithout an agreement,” hedeclared, vowing to “turbo-charge” preparations ahead ofthe latest deadline of October31. The former London mayor

warned that the terms of theagreement struck in Novemberby his predecessor TheresaMay were “unacceptable” andwould “sign away our eco-nomic independence”.

The former foreign secre-tary also threatened to with-hold the $39 billion ($49 bil-lion) divorce bill that Britainhas previously said it owes theEuropean Union and spend itinstead on preparing for a no-deal outcome.

Just hours later, Barnierwarned that Johnson’s demandswere “unacceptable”, in anemail to member state ambas-sadors seen by AFP thatdescribed the speech as “rathercombative”. “PM Johnson hasstated that if an agreement is tobe reached it goes by way ofeliminating the backstop,”Barnier wrote, referring to aclause of the current deal thatwould keep the Irish borderopen under all scenarios.

“This is of course unac-ceptable and not within themandate of the EuropeanCouncil,” he wrote.

Paris: Boris Johnson will trav-el to France to meet FrenchPresident Emmanuel Macronin the next few weeks, Frenchofficials said on Friday, whilewarning the new British pre-mier against “posturing” and“provocations.” The Frenchleader, who has said he ishappy to be considered the“bad guy” in the Brexit nego-tiations, is set to be a key fig-ure during the tricky andpotentially bad-tempered talksin the months ahead.

Macron extended the invi-tation to Johnson in a call lateon Thursday from his officialsummer vacation residence inthe south of France. But in asign of wariness in Franceabout Johnson’s anti-EUrhetoric, France’s EuropeMinister Amelie de Montchalinurged Britain’s new leader towork on creating a workingrelationship with his partnerson the continent. AFP Houston: The Indian-American

foster father of 3-year-old SherinMathews, sentenced to life inconnection with the death of thetoddler whose body was foundin a culvert in 2017, has start-ed serving the jail term in a stateprison, days after he filed anappeal for a fresh trial.

Wesley Mathews, 39, wastransferred from Dallas CountyJail to a state prison around12:58 am on Thursday to servehis life sentence, Dallas CountySheriff officials said.

In a case that attractedmuch international attention,Mathews pleaded guilty on June24 to a lesser charge of injury to

a child in Sherin’s tragic death.He was originally charged

with capital murder by author-ities in the US state of Texas afterthey discovered Sherin’s highlydecomposed body after a mas-sive search that lasted 15 days.A Dallas County jury heard thecase in June and Mathews wassentenced to life in prison onJune 26 in Sherin’s death. He willbe eligible for parole after 30years’ imprisonment, US mediareported in June. Last week,Mathews’ attorney confirmed heis appealing the sentence and hisattorney also filed a motion fora new trial. PTI

�� &3�3:)

The UN human rights chiefon Friday condemned

“international indifference” inthe face of mounting deaths inSyria, warning that thoseresponsible for air strikes tar-geting civilians could becharged with war crimes.

Since late April, the Syrianregime and Russia have steppedup deadly raids on the Idlibregion of three million people,a jihadist-held bastion in thecountry’s northwest.

United Nations HighCommissioner for HumanRights Michelle Bachelet saidshe was alarmed at “the appar-ent international indifference tothe rising civilian death tollcaused by a succession ofairstrikes in Idlib.”

Bachelet stressed that med-ical facilities, schools, marketsand other clear civilian targetshave been hit.

Dublin: Boris Johnson has delib-erately set Britain on a “collisioncourse” with the EU over Brexitnegotiations, Ireland’s ForeignMinister said. “He seems tohave made a deliberate decisionto set Britain on a collisioncourse with the European Unionand with Ireland in relation to theBrexit negotiations,” SimonCoveney was quoted by Irishstate broadcaster RTE as sayingin Belfast. “I think only he cananswer the question as to whyhe’s doing that.” In his maidenparliamentary speech as PMJohnson promised to reopenthe deal agreed with the EU —despite firm pushback fromother EU leaders. AFP

London: With Britain’s depar-ture from the European Uniondue in less than 100 days, newPrime Minister Boris Johnsonis a man in a hurry. But he’s notrushing off to Brussels.

The UK leader has nomeetings scheduled with EUofficials. Instead, he is in cen-tral England on Friday, talkingabout his promise to recruit20,000 more police officers. Inthe coming days, he’ll speak onother aspects of a packeddomestic agenda that lookssuspiciously like an electionplatform.

Britain’s next scheduledelection is three years away, butsigns suggest Johnson may bepreparing for a snap poll tobreak the Brexit impasse thatdefeated his predecessor,Theresa May.

Observers say there may beno other way Johnson can ful-fill his pledge leave the EU byOctober 31. AP

London: US President Donald Trump relationship with new UKPrime Minister Boris Johnson is going to be “sensational” as thetwo have a lot in common in their leadership style and desireto “get things done”, US ambassador to the UK Woody Johnsonsaid on Friday. “I think they do have a lot (in common). Boththese leaders have their own style, but they have similarities andI think they have clear vision of what they want to accomplish,”the ambassador told the BBC. Trump had welcomed BorisJohnson’s rise to power earlier this week, saying he would do a“great job” and even described him as “Britain Trump”. “We havea really good man who’s going to be the Prime Minister of theUK now,” the US President had said. IANS

��7��&��7�� %��) �� +��)�*��*�� &��Washington: The United States said it wanted to continue talkingwith North Korea but called for a halt to “provocations” after a freshmissile test by Pyongyang. Earlier in the day, North Korea fired twoshort-range missiles into the sea, its first test since an impromptumeeting between US President Donald Trump and North Koreanleader Kim Jong Un last month that produced an agreement toresume a working-level denuclearisation dialogue. “We want to havediplomatic engagement with North Korea and we continue to urgethem to resolve all the things that the president and Chairman Kimhave talked about through diplomacy,” US State Department spokes-woman Morgan Ortagus told reporters in Washington. AFP

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�� 48�68�

England bowled Ireland out forjust 38 to win their one-off Testat Lord’s by 143 runs on Friday,

emphatically crushing the visitors’hopes of a stunning upset.

Ireland, playing only their thirdTest, were chasing just 182 runs tocomplete what would have been oneof the biggest upsets in cricket his-tory.

But they did not get close, last-ing just 94 balls as Chris Woakestook a career-best six wickets for 17runs and Stuart Broad returned fig-ures of 4-19 .

Their second innings score wasthe seventh-lowest total of all time.

“I knew that was a lot of runs (tomake) on that surface,” said Root,whose side mustered just 85 runsthemselves in their first innings.

“It’s very pleasing, the way wemanaged certain pressure situa-tions,” he added. “It wasn’t by anystretch the perfect game for us butsometimes that can be a reallyimportant part of your learning.We’ll take a lot from this game.”

Ireland, playing England for thefirst time in a Test, have now lost allthree of their Tests following lossesto Pakistan and Afghanistan, buttheir day started brilliantly.

The home side resuming ontheir overnight 303 for nine, sawtheir second innings end with thefirst ball of the third day’s play whendebutant Olly Stone was bowled fora duck by Stuart Thompson.

Rain delayed the scheduled startby a few minutes but any hopesEngland had of adding to theirovernight total evaporated whenThompson’s inswinger knocked overStone’s leg stump.

Ireland had yet to give off themark in their second innings whenrain stopped play just seven ballsinto their chase and kept the play-ers off the field for more than anhour.

But when the match resumedthe overcast conditions — the flood-lights were switched on — madeconditions ideal for seamers Woakesand Broad.

�� The cascade of wickets in an

innings where only opener JamesMcCollum made it into double fig-ures began when Woakes had Irelandcaptain William Porterfield caughtbehind by wicketkeeper JonnyBairstow for two.

Andy Balbirnie, who top-scored

with 55 in Ireland’s first innings totalof 207, fell next when he edged Broadto Root at first slip.

Kevin O’Brien, who hit thequickest World Cup century whenIreland beat England at Bangalore in2011 and made a hundred in theirinaugural Test at home to Pakistanlast year, fell for just four, lbw to Broad

— one of three wickets that fell forno runs to leave the visitors 24-6.

An extraordinary match endedwhen Woakes cleaned up tailenderTim Murtagh for his best return inTest cricket.

One-day world championsEngland, missing injured pacemanJames Anderson, were indebted tonightwatchman Jack Leach’s sec-ond-innings 92 — his career-bestscore — with the Somerset left-armspinner named man-of-the-matchfor his batting heroics.

Yet there was no disguising thatEngland’s top-order batsmen strug-gled badly in the match, just a weekbefore the start of a five-matchAshes series against Australia atEdgbaston.

Ireland captain WilliamPorterfield said his side were partic-ularly disappointed because theyhad put themselves in a position towin the game.

“We knew it was going to betough with the lights on and drizzlein the air,” he said.

“But we had to dig deep and getthrough that. Fair play to the two ladsto how they bowled — they made itdifficult.”

�� $848�*8�

Kusal Perera scored a quick-firecentury to power Sri Lanka to

314-8 in the first of a three-matchOne-day International series againstBangladesh in Colombo on Friday.

Perera struck 111 off 99 ballswith 17 fours and a six, his fifthODI century, as Sri Lanka punishedBangladesh's wayward bowlingafter skipper Dimuth Karunaratnewon the toss and elected to bat first.

Perera put on 97 runs withKarunaratne for the second wick-et before adding 100 with KusalMendis for the third to set up theplatform for a strong total.

Shafiul Islam, who finishedwith 3-62 in his first match in threeyears, drew first blood forBangladesh when he had openerAvishka Fernando caught bySoumya Sarkar at slip for seven.

Perera was reprieved on 49runs when the third umpire over-turned a caught behind decision offShafiul.

Part-time seamer Soumyaended the valiant knock of Pereraas he was caught at short fine leg byMustafizur Rahman.

Mendis who was dropped on28 by Mahmudullah Riyad offSoumya fell to Rubel Hossain thenext over after making 43 off 49

balls. Mendis walked after a mutedappeal for caught behind fromwicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahimand bowler Rubel.

Angelo Mathews took SriLanka's total past the 300-runmark with 48 off 52 balls.

Mustafizur dismissed Mathewsbefore finishing with 2-75.

Tamim Iqbal is leadingBangladesh, becoming the coun-try's 14th ODI captain.

The game at R. PremadasaStadium is also special for SriLanka's Lasith Malinga, who willretire after the match.

Malinga was unbeaten on six inhis final ODI innings.

�� %��,87�+%�

Veteran opener Chris Gayle was on Friday namedin the West Indies squad for the three-match

ODI series against India, beginning August 8.Left-handed opener John Campbell, fellow bats-

man Roston Chase and all-rounder Keemo Paul haveall been recalled to the 14-member squad for theseries which will be contested on August 8 at theGuyana National Stadium, and on August 11 and14 at the Queen’s Park Oval in Trinidad.

Ahead of the England series in March, Gayle hadsaid that he planned to retire following the ODIWorld Cup but he changed his mind during the tour-nament and has made himself available for this series.

The southpaw will miss the preceding T20 seriesas he will be busy with GT20 Canada.

The self-proclaimed “Universe Boss” also has theextra motivation to chase two records during theODI series.

Gayle currently has 10,338 runs and needs just11 more to pass batting legend Brian Lara (10,348)for the highest aggregate in ODIs for West Indies.

He has also amassed 10,393 runs and needs 13to again overtake Lara (10,405) for the most runsby a West Indian in the history of ODIs.

“Chris is a very valuable player and he brings alot of experience, a lot of knowledge, he lends a lotto any dressing room and it is great to have him inthe squad,” said interim West Indies head coachFloyd Reifer.

Reifer said Campbell, Chase and Paul have beenbrought back to add more balance to the squad,whilst Sunil Ambris, Darren Bravo, ShannonGabriel and Ashley Nurse have all missed out onselection for the matches against Virat Kohli’s side.

The rest of the World Cup squad remains inplace.

�� 48�68��

Opening batsman CameronBancroft was on Friday

included in Australia’s 17-mansquad for a five-Test Ashes seriesagainst England alongside SteveSmith and David Warner.

All three batsmen servedlengthy bans for their roles in aball-tampering scandal in SouthAfrica last year.

Former captain Smith and histhen deputy Warner were bothgiven 12-month suspensions byCricket Australia, with Bancroft— who actually applied sandpa-per to the ball while in the fieldduring a Test in Cape Town —banned for nine months.

Both Smith and Warner wereexpected to be in the Ashes squadafter doing well in the recentWorld Cup, when the defendingchampions reached the semi-finals.

Bancroft, who has been cap-taining English county sideDurham, appears to have forcedhis way in after making anunbeaten 93 in the tourists’ intra-squad match at Southamptonthis week.

“David Warner, Steve Smithand Cameron Bancroft haveforced their way back into the Testsquad through the excellence oftheir recent performances,” saidAustralia national selector Trevor

Hohns in a statement.“David and Steve also have

the advantage of being provenplayers at Test level whileCameron has produced impres-sive numbers for county sideDurham this season.

“His innings in the intra-squad match in Southampton ona tough pitch was outstanding andshowed his quality.”

Holders Australia are lookingto win their first Ashes series inEngland since 2001.Australia’s 17-man squad for afive-Test Ashes series againstEngland announced on Friday:Tim Paine (capt/wkt), CameronBancroft, Patrick Cummins,Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood,Travis Head, Usman Khawaja,Marnus Labuschagne, NathanLyon, Mitchell Marsh, MichaelNeser, James Pattinson, PeterSiddle, Steve Smith, MitchellStarc, Matthew Wade, DavidWarner.

�'��August 1-5: First Test, Edgbaston,Birmingham.August 14-18: Second Test,Lord’s, LondonAugust 22-26: Third Test,Headingley, LeedsSeptember 4-8: Fourth Test, OldTrafford, ManchesterSeptember 12-16: Fifth Test, TheOval, London.

�� (84()�)

India’s current bowling coach BharatArun is likely to retain his position

even if there are multiple candidateswhile R Sridhar will have his noseahead despite South African starJonty Rhodes throwing his hat in thering for the fielding coach’s position.

But batting coach Sanjay Bangarmight find it difficult to retain hisposition when the national selectorspick the support staff for the Indianteam.

As per norms, while the newCricket Advisory Committee —chaired by Kapil Dev — will decideon the head coach, the selectors have

been tasked to conduct interviews forthe rest of the support staff.

If those privy to the develop-ments are to be believed, Arun couldturn out to be a unanimous choiceconsidering the performance ofIndia’s pacers in all formats of thegame.

“In the last 18 to 20 months, thework put in by Arun has been phe-nomenal. The current Indian attackis considered to be the best in thelongest format. Mohammed Shamiback at his best and (Jasprit) Bumrah’sconsistency are a few things Arunmust get credit for. It’s up to the selec-tors but they might find it difficult toreplace him,” a senior BCCI official

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said on Friday.However, same can’t be said

about Bangar, who many believehasn’t been able to create a solidmiddle order despite four years inthe job.

“Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharmahave been performing much beforeBangar came into the fray. He hasno role in their success. However,his job was to create a few solidoptions in the middle order and wehave seen in the World Cup that hehas failed miserably in that,” theofficial added.

There have been reports that itwas on Bangar’s insistence that MSDhoni was asked to bat at No 7 in

the lost semifinal against the NewZealand, a decision that has beenroundly criticised.

While Arun is the favouriteamong three specialist coaches,Sridhar is also not far behind asIndia has made rapid strides in thefielding department.

But he will get a tough fightfrom Rhodes, who is set to get anopportunity to give a presentationto the selection committee.

“Rhodes is a big name and hiscandidature can’t be ignored.However, this also needs to betaken into account that how theteam’s fielding performance hasbeen,” the official said.

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Pakistan's tarnished left-arm pacer MohammadAmir retired from Test cricket on Friday but

affirmed his commitment to continue playing lim-ited-overs for his country.

Convicted in the 2010 spot-fixing scandal inEngland, the 27-year-old has been indicating forsome time now that he wanted to quit playing Testcricket and focus on ODIs and T20s.

In a statement issued by the Pakistan CricketBoard, Amir said: "It has been an honour to repre-sent Pakistan in the pinnacle and traditional formatof the game. I, however, have decided to move away

from the longer version so I can con-centrate on white ball cricket."

Amir, who played 36 Tests for his119 wickets, has also appeared in 59ODIs and 49 T20 internationals. Inthe recent World Cup in England, heended with 15 wickets.

In a recent interview, Amir hadsaid that he was a human being andnot a machine while referring to thenon-stop cricket he played sincereturning to the Pakistan team afterthe end of his five-year ban for spot-fixing in 2015.

Last year, he had informed headcoach Mickey Arthur about his inten-tions but was told to carry on till theWorld Cup.

"Playing for Pakistan remainsmy ultimate desire and objective, andI will try my best to be in the bestphysical shape to contribute in theteam's upcoming challenges, includ-ing next year's ICC T20 World Cup,"he said.

"It has not been an easy decisionto make and I have been thinkingabout this for some time. But with theICC World Test Championship com-mencing shortly, and Pakistan boast-

ing some very exciting young fast bowlers, it isappropriate that I call on my time in Test crick-et so that the selectors can plan accordingly," headded.

"I want to thank all my team-mates as well theopponents in red ball cricket. It has been a priv-ilege to play with and against them. I am sure ourpaths will continue to cross in limited-overs crick-et as all of us play and compete with the samevigour and determination."

PCB's Managing Director, Wasim Khan saidAmir has been one of the most exciting and tal-ented left-arm fast bowlers in Test cricket in recenttimes.

"He overcame adversity as a young cricketerand came back stronger not only as a cricketer butalso as a better human being. His skill, on the field,and his personality will be missed in the dress-ing room in the longer format," he said.

"However, we respect his decision and lookforward to him continuing to play an integral rolein white ball cricket for Pakistan," he added.

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Coming together is a begin-ning. Keeping together isprogress. Working together is

success”. We human beings areblessed with a very magnificent traitthat we can’t live an isolated life. Inevery walk of life we need partnerswith whom we can share our feel-ings and also need their help toaccomplish different tasks. In thisworld, no one could be the monarchof the solitary island. To lead ahealthy life, we always need the sup-portive hands of others.Accomplishing a task as a group hasa charm of its own. We can see theglowing faces of our cricket orfootball players after winning aparticular match. This is their teamspirit that makes them smile andshare the victory with each other.

Not only in human beings, butwe can also notice this in animalsand plants too. If we observe wildanimals, we can find that theyalways travel in a group. Thisensures security to their lives andalso they can face the enemies if theyare in a group. During the storm, thechances of survival of a bunch ofplants are higher than a plant stand-ing alone in a piece of land. Teamspirit is very important in every walkof life. There are many people whoafraid of mixing in a group becauseof lack of self confidence. Thus it isvery important to teach your childthe basic rule and importance ofworking in a team. It can be donein school as well as inside thehouse. School is a much betterplace to learn this skill as kids getthe chance to interact with lots oftheir peers in the school only. Whenwe act in a team, we get both men-tal and physical support to cope upwith the situation. There are differ-

ent tips that parents and teachers canfollow to inculcate the spirit of teamwork among the students.

Teamwork can be likened to twocompounds, almost essential tomodern life. It’s the glue which keepsa team together, a bond which pro-motes strength, unity, reliabilityand support.

Teamwork is also the oil thatmakes the team work. It can enablesmoother movement towards tar-gets, can prolong forward momen-tum, and can help teams to over-come obstacles.

Teamwork has the potential tounderpin so much of what is valu-able in work. In fact, the benefits tobe gained from teamwork synergiesare essential for the effective man-agement of resources. Teamworkdoes however, have the potential to

foster a fulfilling, meaningful way ofworking together.

It’s not necessarily an easyoption, nor a panacea for all organ-isational ills. However, workingwith a group of people, on a worth-while activity, with a common goal,can be one of the most rewardingand enjoyable aspects of work.

Team spirit is often perceived asnot being cool or trendy. Yet someof the greatest group achievementscould not have happened withoutteam spirit and visible support. Forexample, when an entire communi-ty works to support a team, includ-ing wearing t-shirts and attendinggames, the team has a greaterchance of winning a championship.

Teamwork is a concept wherepeople work together effectively toachieve a common target.Projects

often require that people shouldwork together to accomplish a com-mon goal, so teamwork is an impor-tant factor for the success.A teamunderstands the qualities and abil-ities of each of the team memberand each member is encouraged toparticipate and give his contributionin the team.There are some team-work skills necessary to work in ateam.First of all, team membersshould have listening skills so thatthey could listen to other member'sideas . Also it is important to sharein a team to create an environmentof teamwork.The members shouldbe respecting so that they treat ideasof other members with respect andsupport.There should be communi-cation in a team to work effective-ly. The members must use effectivecommunication channels like e-

mails discussions group meetings. Itwill enable a team to work proper-ly and to achieve it's goal.

Members of a team have rolesthat they are naturally suited forexample, some people are best atfocusing on the team’s objectives anddelegating work, while others aremost effective at checking finishedwork for errors. Team buildingallows each member of the team todevelop and focus on what they arebest at, and allow the team membersto find their niche within the teamso that everyone can best con-tribute as an individual while stillperforming together.

Strong team can lead to majorgains for every small business.These include the ability to maxi-mize profitability by allowing indi-viduals to better combine their

skills to achieve more; meetingcross functional challenges andbeing able to respond quicker torapid change; retaining the best peo-ple by giving everyone a greatersense of involvement and belonging;and empowering teams to becomemore mission focused and toachieve more.

Nobody is perfect in this worldeach & every person in the world aredependent on others & nothing ispossible without team work if some-one thinks that he is the only per-son who can do it the team will notstay longer, everybody has their dif-ferent opinion & their thinking bythe team work we can easily achieveour goals , targets & projects by get-ting different & innovative ideasfrom team team spirit if everybodyis participating and agreed to what-ever is the final decision of a teamwith the whole

Agreement of everybody thenthat is a team spirit. Team membersshould have listening skills so thatthey could listen to other member'sideas. Also it is important to sharein a team to create an environmentof teamwork. The members shouldbe respecting so that they treat ideasof other members with respect andsupport

It provides a chance for theteam to participate together in anexperience where everyone startswith an equal level of knowledgeabout the given task. The noveltyrequires people to draw on and cre-ate team process skills to completethe task successfully. The chal-lenge of a new experience alsorequires employees to collaborateand work together in close proxim-ity, which helps to develop relation-ships quickly.

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Sulakshana Monga’s show onthe fourth day of CoutureWeek gave a panaromic view

of the city of Banaras, creating ahypnosis beyond time and space.Much like the eternal light of thecity. The assortment of yellowmarigolds stretched across theentire length of the ramp in thecentre with the distinct incense offlowers were the first step into thecreation of the phantasm ofBanaras.

The collection, a milestone,which marked the debut ofMonga in the Couture Week, wasa continuous vision of her labelwhich is representative of Eastmeets West. It was a progressiveensemble of Indian andWestern, with an unswervingdedication to the use ofcolours. Dhruv Monga,designer and Sulakshna’sson, said that the theinspiration was drawnfrom Indian culture and theidea was to renovate it .Sulakshana gave a slightly moredetailed insight into the designs,“In one segment we used totallyIndian designs while the otherwas very global Varanasi, includ-ing in the colours. We have twolooks in our collection, one is thewarm Indian for weddings, whilethe other features evening gownsand cocktail dresses.”

At first glance, the eveninggowns and the cocktail dressesseem like a modern reminis-cence of The Great Gatsby. Thefeathers on the shoulders and onthe hem of the floor-length gownslooked like they belonged to thecloset of a socialite in the 1920s.While the western was takencare of, the Indian twist to thegarments came through with theplayful use of colours and sequinswhile the bows delicately held thehair of the models. If DaisyBuchanan was an Indian bride inBanaras, she would definitelyfashion the purple lehenga, withfeathers on the sleeves of the off-

shoulder blouse with ruffles onthe hem and an elaborate trailgliding behind.

The other segment was acareful demonstration of the cityof Banaras where the lehengas hadthe sceneries intricately designedon them and thin embroideredchunnis draped over the neck.Some lehengas had geometricprints in yellow, orange, blue,pink, neon green.

The colours used throughoutthe ensemble had extensive huesof yellow, green, orange, purple,pink and red. The synthesis ofsequins and embroidery with therichness of colour and a reso-nance with the elements ofBenaras ensured a festive spirit onthe ramp.

Malaika Arora, the show-stopper, wore a green lehenga.About its design, Monga said,“Malaika is wearing a lehengawhere the skirt has the scene of

a sunset at the Varanasi ghats,bells and jharokhas embroideredon it. It also has calligraphy on theskirt. We tried to express Banarasin a very different way.”

Arora was walking for thefirst time for the designer andwhen asked about her fashionstatement, Monga answered forher, “She can look beautiful in anygarment, she can justify anyclothing. Her fashion statement isthat whatever she carries, shelooks beautiful. She knows howto carry colours, how to balancethe fashion, how to justify thelook whether it is Indian, evening,cocktail, or a short western out-fit. In my eyes, she justifies every-thing.”

Malaika said that there’s astark difference between cou-ture and the fashion we usuallysee “Couture is couture. It is a dif-ferent market, a different way ofviewing garments and a different

collection altogether. I thinkeverybody does a regular collec-tion all the year round.”

She also shared that her pre-ferred garment at a function is asari, “It is undoubtedly the best gar-ment the world over. Lehenga isanother one that I would wearwhenever I have to go for a func-tion. There is so much you can dowith it as it’s a very versatile pieceof clothing. It can be really tradi-tional, it can be a bit western orcocktail.” Arora raves about the ver-satility of Monga’s creation as thedesigner has a clear and open-minded approach to Indian andWestern elements.

Sulakshana believes her collec-tion is timeless, and even after 20years it would still look fresh. Herassortmented collection could caterto the needs of different brides, orsomeone simply looking to mak-ing a style statement at a function.

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The modern bride, like the artistsof Renaissance, is both tradition-

al and classic. And designers Shyamaland Bhumika found their sense inthat period of creativity to put out aline inspired by Florence. “It is ourlove for history, exploration of palacesand textiles that we wanted to showin our couture line collection,” saidBhumika.

Though they believe in moder-nity through garments, the essence oftheir style is firmly rooted in heritage.The fabrics used for the assortmentswere handmade and matka silks.They used beautiful tools, drapes andpatterns. “Our signature threadembroidery has a lot of contrastmulti-colour with hints of sparkle andthe collection is richly embellished.These are the techniques we havebeen trying since a very long time,and it is all about taking India to theworld.”

The designers, progressive intheir approach, express that aShyamal Bhumika woman is “mod-ern, adventurous and contempo-rary.” She is well-travelled yet firmlyrooted. “That’s what the brand isabout, taking India to the worldthrough the use of fabric.”

The colours of the collection didnot deviate from conventional wed-ding colours. Shades of deep reds,greens were a common spectacleamong the lighter hues of beige andivory. Kriti Sanon, who has walkedthe ramp for the label during hermodelling days, closed the show forthe designer duo. She wore a beigeraw silk lehenga. Bhumika describedits details, “Raw silk is one of ourfavourite fabrics for bridal wear. Thelehenga draws inspiration from thebeautiful scenes in frescoes and thearchitectural details of theRenaissance period, so a lot of water-colour effect has been given to theembroidery. Shimmer, sparkles,sequins with glass pipes along withthe 30-40 colours of thread have beenused here in different shades ofpink, blue and ivory.”

It’s the duo’s third year at theIndian Couture Week and it’s certain-ly not the first time for Sanon as well.She was nostalgic while describingthe experience of the night. “WhileI was coming down the escalator, I

realised I had taken it many, manytimes when I was a model. I used tocome here and do my fittings andrehearsals. The excitement and thenervousness are still the same as isthe rush backstage.”

Bhumika said that Sanon istheir modern woman. “When wewere conceptualising the outfit, weknew it could not be something reg-ular. We conceived this look especial-ly for her.” The blouse that she worewas one of a kind, modern garment.It had one sleeve and had a puff onit.

About her outfit, Sanon said, “Iabsolutely love what I am wearing.I feel Bhumika and I have telepathyas whenever I have worn her outfits,it always felt like they suit me, mybody and my complexion. The sleeveof the blouse is so different, it has oneshoulder and it’s got a little puff as

well. This outfit is fun, its modernand perfectly designed for today’s girlwho wants to be comfortable whilelooking beautiful.”

Their inspiration may have beendrawn from Italian artistry butShyamal and Bhumika guaranteeabsolute support to the Skill Indiacampaign. “We are blessed withpeople who need employment, andthey are already skilled. Second, wewant the next generation of artisansto be interested in their work and notjust sit at a desk job and forget whattheir previous generations have beendoing. Artistry is the true treasure ofour country, if we lose that it’s a prob-lem.” The label has also maintainedthe foundation of sustainability. “Allour products are biodegradable.Most of our work is done by hand,which generates a lot of employ-ment.” ,��/�,��

Imagine the economic distress and chaosthat would erupt in Chandni Chowk if

designers like Manish Malhotra orSabyasachi were to sue the shopkeepers whomonetise their designs by selling replicas oftheir lehengas and saris with minor tweaks?

Senior Intellectual Property Rights(IPR) lawyer Safir Anand, said the unorgan-ised sector poses a unique problem in thecase of plagiarism. “Sometimes these shopowners also have local support from policeand politicians to indulge in their activities.And it becomes extremely difficult tocurate evidence. They are prospering at thecost of the entire fashion industry,” he toldus on the sidelines of the India CoutureWeek at a masterclass session.

Designers, too, are now in a rush to get-ting their work protected, sometimes downto a particular motif, curl and style, evenbefore a collection is launched. For once thereplica is out in the public domain, even ifyou have sold one piece, you cannotreclaim your creative legacy. Therefore,Anand stressed on the need for designersto protect their work. “Last year, at CoutureWeek, Rohit Bahl had done a session withthe media and apprised them that he’dsought protection. Anju Modi took the samestep, she even watermarked her designs onthe website to indicate that unlike the past,her collection was protected that time.”

Though the issue of copying has notbeen tackled 100 per cent but its extent hasdiminished drastically. So, when a design-er creates something original, he/she shouldimmediately file for its protection before itis released to the public. While the dura-tion of protection originally is for 10 years,it can be extended for another five years. Sothat means 15 years of absolute monopoly.This is what design protection entails.

Sabyasachi, who had design registration,sued another creator for infringement andhe was restrained. The defendant hadcopied one of Sabyasachi’s lehengas. Thoughthe colour was different, the pattern was anexact copy. If a designer has the registration,he can seek legal redress.

Copyright, on the other hand, does notrequire any prior registration. It comes intoeffect the moment the design is created. Thedesigner can have copyright over all theirintellectual properties. The position of thestage, the way the models walk, the dura-tion of the music are all intellectual prop-

erties. “During Rahul Mishra’s show theother day, he did a certain arrangement inwhich even the way people sat is protect-ed. If somebody copies that concept, aslong as Rahul Mishra is able to demon-strate that it did not exist earlier, he willbe able to assert his right under copyrighteven without design protection,” Anandsaid.

Tarun Tahiliani also had his designscopied. In his claim, he not only said thatthere was a violation of his copyright onhis drawings but also that his drawings hadbeen subjected to derivative work. And he

had the entire evidence. This is a clearexample of when a designer does not haveprotection. Claims can be made on viola-tion of drawings, patterns and embroidery.

Designer Ritu Kumar could not suc-ceed against Biba because she did not havedesign protection and the retail chain hadsold more than 50 copies. “We have goneto the Supreme Court to have the rule of50 copies dropped and that design andcopyright should merge. It becomes verydifficult for the designer fraternity to pro-tect their designs. In case the sales cross50, they are hit by a certain provision of

law, which actually favours the person onthe wrong side.” The petition is still pend-ing in court.

Designers have come forth with theirown trademarks which further the sacred-ness of their label. Burberry created thecheck design that had trademark protec-tion, which meant that nobody was enti-tled to use it. They sued the Target storebecause it sold scarves which resembledthe check design. They entered into an out-of-court settlement, and of course,Burberry’s rights were honoured.

“If an accessory is to become a trade-

mark, one should be able to look at it andbe able to recognise its proprietor,” Anandsays, further sharing notes about trade-mark protection. That’s why Louis Vuittonis trying to make its design pattern muchmore conspicuous and create trademarkrights around it. Because they don’t havethe label name on them, the design itselfis the brand. Similarly, sometimes colourcan become a trademark. In real terms, onecannot have absolute monopoly over acolour but in the case of Christian Dior,the red coloured console is its trademark.

Copying is a dire issue plaguing thefashion industry. If Louis Vuitton were notto stop anyone in the market from copy-ing its designs, which would becomeavailable in the market for a mere �500,customers would ignore it because itwould appear cheap. But what then if itwere to become more sophisticated, whichis possible with advanced technology,and the quality of the copied item impro-vises? “Then the customer would move onto another brand since they cannot distin-guish if the item is real or fake since theitem has been copied to perfection. Thefact that a copied luxury item is common-ly available in the market, makes the orig-inal lose its value”, Anand justified.

He said there has to be awarenessabout intellectual properties, “And if theproblem is not cracked down, there shouldat least be a regulatory body like the FDCIto register designs. It need not be a statu-tory recognition but just enough to main-tain registries. It can work as an interme-diary measure which doesn’t have a costimplication because it would not beunder the government but for the inter-ests of the designers, it would be more likea watchdog.”

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�What did you know about Bob Fosse andGwen Verdon before you started working onthis series?

MICHELLE WILLIAMS: I hadn’t beenfamiliar with Gwen’s work. I only knew aboutBob’s, but that too not in-depth. They had anartistic connection, which I always thought waslike a chord between them. It’s a really deepbond, almost like the male/female versions ofthe same soul.

SAM ROCKWELL: She was an amazingdancer. She really helped him with his careerand life. It was a meeting of two great minds.They really needed each other, almost like twins.I am glad we are going to tell that story.

�What preparations went behind taking theseroles and stepping into Bob and Gwen’s shoes?

WILLIAMS: We were not able to learn allthe dances and songs before shooting. So, wewere learning them simultaneously during theshoots. It almost felt like taking acting, singingand dancing lessons at school.

ROCKWELL: You think you can dance butthen you have to do it with some professionaldancers who have been dancing since they weresix. Learning ballet training, modern dance, andfosse style of dancing along with the vocabu-lary which is a whole style on its own was chal-lenging.

�A lot of prosthetic make up was used to tellthe story. What do you think about this?

ROCKWELL: A lot has gone into themakeup, hair and the way they talk. Peoplejoked about how they often saw me andMichelle with our earphones in. We listenedto interviews of Gwen Verdon and Bob Fosse,trying to mimic their voices to some degree.We were also bridging the gap between pre-

sent and future. There was an interestingepisode where we had to use a fake beardbecause we had shaved for the young Fosse andGwen.

WILLIAMS: I always kept my nails short.But after noticing her well kept long nails insome pictures, I had to put on fake nails. Thatchanged the way I moved my hands. It wastime-consuming because we had to jump intothe future for about 30 years.

�What do you hope to convey to the audi-ence through Bob and Gwen’s story?

ROCKWELL: There are people who arealready very excited for the musical theatre. But,I hope to move those people by their story whodo not know anything about them.

WILLIAMS: I am really excited for peo-ple to get to experience who Gwen was and seehow much love she gave while looking backat her legacy. They should discover what a com-passionate, unparalleled dancer and hardworker she was.

(The series will premiere on July 29 on StarWorld.)

Broken slabs of stone, black-ened walls and cracked doorsare clear indications that the

Loharu Fort, which provided thecanvas for tales of valour andheroism, has turned into a ruin.

Yet it was once rich, the seat oferudition with poet Mirza Ghalibplacing up and down its library.Nestled at the edge of Rajasthanborder, the golden soil of thistownship hides a regal history thatneeds to be told. If only to inspirelocals out of their wasteland.Director Aditya Sangwan, whomade an award-winning short doc-umentary, titled Loharu Fort: TheGreat Story Never Told, says thatpeople always forget about archae-ological sites. The fort was built inthe year 1570 CE by Thakur ArjunSingh. Rao Shekha had originallydivided Shekhawati into 33thikanas, of which Loharu Fort was33rd. The fort spreads over 6.5acres and combines Rajput, Mughaland Victorian influences in itsarchitectural style.”

Two major battles fought overthe fort. The first was in 1671 ADbetween Thakur Madan Singh andthe Mughal governor of Hisar,over land revenue. The other wasfought between the Thakur KiratSingh and Raja Bhopal Singh ofKhetri, who claimed Loharu as apart of Khetri. But that is not itsonly claim to fame. Poets like

Mirza Ghalib and Dagh Dehlvispent hours in its grand library,pouring over Urdu tomes. UmraoBegum, who married Ghalib whenhe was 13, was the daughter of theNawab of Loharu, Ilahi BakhshKhan Maroof.

The fort was in the hands oflater Nawabs of Loharu until 1971when the Late Nawab AminuddinAhmed Khan sold it to theGovernment of Haryana. Since

these buildings were uninhabited,the entire north-wing collapsed asdid a part of the east-wing. Onlythe south-wing of the fort, contain-ing the Farukh Manzil, survives,and that too in a very dilapidatedstate.

But the 23-year-old Sangwanhas finally taken the initiative ofprotecting the monument by pro-jecting it in his documentary. Beinga local, he says, “I saw this fort

every day on way to my school. ButI couldn’t do much about its con-servation and restoration then.But now, it’s time.” The documen-tary comprises interviews withrepresentatives of Rampur RazaLibrary, which now holds some3,000 books donated from thelibrary of the fort, director ofGhalib Institute, which has artifactsand memorabilia from the poet’sassociation with the Nawab of theplace, former ministers from UP,Rajasthan and Haryana, includingformer chief minister of Haryana,Bhupinder Singh Hooda anddescendants of the last Nawab ofLoharu, Aminuddin Ahmed Khan,who sold the humongous proper-ty to the state government in 1971.

He says, “It’s important tostress on the need of restoration ofour legacy. It doesn’t matter whichera it is, be it 21st cent or 10th. Oneshould never forget their roots. Aslong as you are grounded, you willreach new heights. A nation’s cul-ture resides in the hearts and soulof its people. As a youngster, I feelthe responsibility of protecting myheritage. As they say one needs toprotect the past in order to securethe future.”

It seems that he has a very pos-itive approach when he says,“When you have made up yourmind about anything, just like I did,you easily cross all the hurdles that

come your way.”The director tells us that his

main focus while making the doc-umentary was to generate employ-ment for the locals. As he says,“Loharu is in the Bhiwani districtof Haryana. It is a very backwardarea and I wanted to benefit the res-idents. The fort could easily beturned into a tourist spot just likemany other archaeological sites. Orat least it could be developed intoa library.” The mere thought aboutthe development of the place indi-cates that Sangwan knows andaccepts his responsibility as ayoungster of the country.

“The fort is a real unexploredgem and there are many that are yetto be discovered,” says he. Ask himwhat next he has in store, he tellsus in a quite enthusiastic voice as ifhe would just pop-out of the phone“My next target is Kangra Fort, 20kilometres from the town ofDharamsala on the outskirts of thetown of Kangra. The fort was builtby the royal Rajput family of KangraState (the Katoch dynasty), whichtraces its origins to the ancientTrigarta Kingdom, mentioned inthe Mahabharata epic. It is thelargest fort in the Himalayas andprobably the oldest dated fort inIndia. I want to make a documen-tary on that. The perspective againis to restore the monument and gen-erate employment for the locals.”

As the musical teaser of Umrao JaanAda — Dil Cheez Kya Hai was pro-

jected on the screen, I noticed how musiccomposers Salim-Sulaiman Merchantwere not looking at the screen but rathereyeing the audience intently trying toread the expressions and fathom theirexcitement. Their smiles broadenedwith each waah from the audienceindicating how special this teaser was forthem.

Umrao Jaan Ada, adapted from theeponymous Urdu classic novel, writtenby renowned urdu novelist Mirza HadiRuswa will be brought alive on stage.Directed by Rajeev Goswami and writ-ten by Aashayein (Iqbal) fame screen-writer Irfan Siddiqui, will retell the time-less tale that follows the journey of thefamous Lucknow courtesan UmraoJaan. The story of love and struggle isimmersed in culture and opulence withtraditional ghazals, thumris and qawalis.

As I was awaiting my turn for theinterview of the music composers, ahilarious sight was unfolding before myeyes as the music directors were explain-ing the nuances of Urdu to the otherinterviewers “Humein clear instructionsmile hain, ‘phool’ hota hai, ‘fool’ nahi.” Bythen I already knew it was going to bean interesting conversation.

Sulaiman says, “We have done amusical before this, Beyond Bollywoodwhich ran into 600 shows with the samedirector. This time we wanted to dosomething truly authentic with charis-matic performances and larger-than-lifesets. We wanted a script that had meatand could actually take live music anddrama to the next level, which is whereUmrao Jaan came in.”

Two films have already been madeon the novel, one in 1981, where Rekhaplayed the lead and another in 2006. Theplay has revived the story by bringing thecharacters alive in a very nuanced man-ner. This has created a deeper curiosityamong the audience. The duo said, “Wewanted to bring out the true story ofUmrao Jaan Ada. There are lots of facetsto it which were not dealt with by the twofilms. We wanted to bring the charactersalive to the core.” The characters are alldolled up in such a manner that the audi-ence can make out the differencebetween Khanum Jaan, Nawab Sultanand Gauhar Mirza at the very firstglance.

The story of Umrao Jaan is not onlypopular among the older generation butwith the newer ones as well. It still hasa charm and people hum its songs evennow. Sulaiman excitedly said, “That is thereason why we wanted to recreate theepic drama as everyone will relate to itespecially because of the music of theoriginal. It’s always great to be able tobring back stuff like this, especially for

the younger generation, because theymight have heard the music but have notseen the story. They wouldn’t know whata story with a bitter ending is like. Thetheatre intends to make the younger gen-eration aware about the complexity ofrelationships.”

This love story, a timeless classic of19th century, still has the same charmas it had years ago. The duo told us thatthey are a big fan of it themselves. Andthat they can still recall listening to itssong, Dil Cheez Kya Hai and even afterso many years the music feels fresh.

They have tried to recreate themusic by capturing its authenticity andweaving it into a beautiful story. The duosays, “Music is a big USP of such shows.Performing Khayyam sahab’s music livealong with three of our original songs is

a big thing today. He has done so manyfilms but the feeling of music that he cre-ated in this particular album can neverbe measured.”

In recreating the work of such a stal-wart, the responsibility of keeping it nat-ural by infusing a personal touch into itis higher. The dialogues and poetry haveto be reflect the time. “The dialogues arevery beautiful coupled with a lot of poet-ry. The theatre lovers will undoubtedlyenjoy the whole experience. The wholeLucknawi ada of the poetry and the wayit is delivered is exceptional. The char-acters have completely delved into thestyle of Lucknow,” says Salim and goeson to add, “This musical theatre willmake you feel like you have stepped intoa different world altogether. The idea wasto recreate the whole experience and not

create it halfway.” Going to a musical should be a very

immersive experience as you become apart of the story as it unfolds. Salim says,“When you go to watch any musical atBroadway or The Lion King, you get soimmersed in it that you feel every emo-tion — love, sadness and pain. The samehas been recreated here. The story willtake you away from the madness of traf-fic, heat, noise and all the chaos that youare in.”

A musical like this will compel youto leave everything behind and just fallin love with Umrao Jaan Ada, again.

Talking about their journeys, theduo shares, “It’s very close to our heartsbecause we studied Indian and Westernclassical music, which enhanced ourimmense love for theatre productionsand musicals. So, we wanted the audi-ence to experience something which isakin to our own.” The excitement withwhich they were describing their love forIndian culture clearly showed that bring-ing Indian tradition to the forefrontmeant a lot to them.

During the rehearsals of the musi-cal, a memorable incident touched theduo to such an extent that it would stayin their heart forever. “In the originalmusic, the one that Khayyam sahab did,Ustaad Sultan Khan played the sarangi,which plays a crucial role in the thum-ris and mujra culture. This time aroundwhen we were recording the songs, hisnephew and son recorded the samepieces for us, (he pauses with a contem-plative smile). It’s very nostalgic for usto know that Khayyam sahab recordedwith the father and we are recording withhis younger generation,” Sulaimanshares.

Performing it all live and syncing themusic with the whole set up of actors andmusicians is not an easy task. For theactors, it might have been challenging asthey had to sing and dance along withthe act. The duo completely agreed andtold us, “The cast primarily consists ofsingers, but getting them to act was noteasy. We had to make them understandthe nitty-gritty of each character so thatthey do justice to the stature of what theyare portraying. We did many workshopsfor the whole cast to enable them to fitinto the mould that we wanted. They hadto bring that authenticity and purity ofthe Lucknowi Urdu. Getting the wholething to work seamlessly, with a lot ofrehearsals, live music, varied back-ground score was a huge challenge.” Hequestioned me, “But then, who wants todo easy stuff?” and then answered it him-self, “We all want to create a benchmarkin our lives and I think this was a per-fect one for all us, to create somethingwhich is so high up there that it’simpossible to break.”

The dynamic duo, Sajid Nadiadwala andAkshay Kumar are back again with an

exciting announcement featuring AkshayKumar as Bachchan Pandey.

Sharing the announcement, NadiadwalaGrandson Entertainment shared the firstlook, which showcases the actor in a don-ning and enraged look, he is seen in a lungiand a belt in his hand with a rowdy SouthIndian persona.

Titled Bachchan Pandey, the film marksthe 10th collaboration between filmmakerSajid Nadiadwala and Akshay Kumar. Theduo was earlier seen working together infilms like Heyy Babyy, Jaan E Mann, WaqtHumara hai. Houseful franchise is one of themost celebrated collaborations of the duo.

Bachchan Pandey is directed by FarhadSamji and is slated to release in Christmas2020.

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Wimbledon champion andworld number one

Novak Djokovic has with-drawn from next month’s USOpen hardcourt tuneup eventin Montreal, saying he needsmore rest after capturing his16th Grand Slam singlescrown.

The 32-year-old Serbian,who outlasted Roger Federerin an epic All-England Clubfinal earlier this month, wasjoined by Argentina’s 12th-ranked Juan Martin Del Potroin pulling out of the ATPMasters Canada tournament.

“I’m sorry to announcethat I decided to pull out ofRogers Cup,” Djokovic said ina statement released by TennisCanada.

“With the support of myteam, I have decided to givemy body longer rest andrecovery time before comingback again to play.

“I love Canada and I havemany friends there thatalways make me feel likeI’m at home and I’mlooking forward to com-ing back again to play infront of all of you inMontreal.”

Djokovic’s withdrawalmeans Spanish star RafaelNadal, an 18-time GrandSlam singles champi-on, will be the topseed in Montrealwhen main drawbegins August 5.

Nadal hascaptured theCanadian crownfour times, mostrecently last yearby defeatingStefanos Tsitsipasin the final.

D j o k o v i chas won theC a n a d i a nevent thata l t e r n a t e sb e t w e e nToronto andM o n t r e a lfour times,twice ineach city —Toronto in 2012 and2016 and Montreal in2007 and 2011.

He was ousted last year inToronto by Greek starTsitsipas in the third round.

“We would have loved forDjokovic to have the chance tobe crowned champion for athird time in Montreal, but weunderstand his decision andwe wish him a quick returnfor the rest of the season,”Montreal tournament directorEugene Lapierre said.

Del Potro was injured lastmonth at Queen's and under-went r ight knee patel lasurgery and is undergoingrehabilitation for the setback.

“In del Potro’s case, wewish him a speedy recovery,he who has experienced hisshare of injuries in the pastfew years,” Lapierre said.

“We look forward to see-ing him back on court in thenear future.”

World number threeFederer said after hisWimbledon final loss that hetoo intended to skip Montreal.

Frenchman RichardGasquet and Mikhail

Kukushkin of Kazakhstanwill take the two avail-able spots in theMontreal main drawas a result of the with-drawals by Djokovicand Del Potro.

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Olympic Silver-medallist PV Sindhu crashed out ofthe Japan Open bad-

minton tournament after a sec-ond successive defeat to localfavourite Akane Yamaguchiwhile B Sai Praneeth continuedhis good form to advance to thesemifinals here on Friday.

Sindhu lost to Yamaguchi18-21, 15-21 in a 50-minutewomen’s singles quarterfinalmatch. This was Sindhu’s sec-ond defeat at the hands ofYamaguchi, who had beaten theIndian in the final of theIndonesian Open last week.

However, in men’s singles,Sai Praneeth recorded an easywin over Indonesia’s TommySugiarto to reach the semifinals.

His 21-12, 21-15 win overSugiarto fetched him a clashagainst top seeded JapaneseKento Momota in the semifi-

nals.Meanwhile, India’s men’s

doubles pair of SatwiksairajRankireddy and Chirag Shettylost to second seeded Japaneseduo of Takeshi Kamura andKeigo Sonoda 19-21, 18-21 in a41-minute clash in the quarter-finals.

Sindhu was leading 12-7 inthe first game but she squan-dered the advantage as herreigning Asian champion oppo-nent clawed her way back tolevel the scores at 14-14.

From there on, Sindhu lostmomentum allowingYamaguchi to surge ahead to18-15 and then to 20-16.

Sindhu won two consecu-tive points to narrow the gap to18-20 but could not stop heropponent from bagging thenext point and the first game.

In the second game, bothwere locked 6-6 initially butfrom there on, it was Yamaguchiall the way as she raced to 13-7and then to 16-10. Sindhurecovered a bit by winning twoconsecutive points but in notime, the Japanese had five

match points and she wrappedup the tie without much hassle.

Sai Praneeth, in contrast,hardly broke a sweat as he justtook 36 minutes to clinch up thematch.

The unseeded Indian ledalmost all through the firstgame leaving the former worldchampionships bronze-medal-

list Indonesian to play the catch-up game.

The second game was a bitcloser but Sai Praneeth kept thelead from the start. Not morethan four points separated thetwo for most part but the Indianreeled off three consecutivepoints from 18-15 to win thematch.

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India’s leading table tennis playerManika Batra on Friday said she

doesn’t want to burden herself aheadof the next year’s Tokyo Games and isinstead targeting a singles medal at the2024 Olympics.

The 24-year-old paddler madehistory last year by winning as manyas four medals at the CommonwealthGames including a singles Gold.

At the Asian Games, Batra and vet-eran Sharath Kamal almost did theunthinkable by clinching a mixeddoubles Bronze, ending India’s 60-year-long wait for a medal in the sport.

“All the paddlers are working hardfor the Olympics and if we play our bestand are lucky, we will win a medal. ButI don’t want to put pressure on myselffor 2020, I am aiming for a singlesmedal in 2024 Games,” Manika said onthe sidelines of Ultimate Table Tennis(UTT).

Manika, who recently parted wayswith her childhood coach SandeepGupta to train with Sanmay Paranjape,said she is happy with the progress inher game after moving her base toPune.

“I changed the coach because Ineeded something new in my game. Ihave improved a lot. My forehand hasimproved. I have beaten Chinese andKorean players, so I am quite happywith my training in Pune.”

The Commonwealth Games Goldmedallist, who feels opponents are nowable to read her game, said she has beenworking on introducing variations inher style of play.

“I am working on changing mygame because internationally playersare taking note, they are studying mygame.

“Everyone used to play on my fore-hand because they knew that wasn’t

strong so I have worked on that. I haveworked on it a lot now. I turn andswitch and finish from the forehand. Ihave also been working on my rallies,”she explained.

With the Olympics less than a yearto go, India’s best shot at winning amedal in table tennis comes from theAsian games Bronze medallist mixeddoubles pair of Manika and Sharath.

Talking about the preparation,Manika said the duo is keen to win anOlympic medal as both the players havethe potential to succeed.

“We are keen to get an Olympicmedal in this event and we have alsogot a Bronze in Asian Games. So I

think if we practice more we will be incontention for a medal. Sharath and Ihave a good understanding which isvery important in mixed doubles.

“Practice is important, so we havedecided we will train for mixed dou-bles before the Asian Championshipand also before Grand Finals. We maygo to Europe and train together,” sheadded.

On Tuesday, new national coachDejan Papic accepted the one-year con-tract offered by the Sports Authority ofIndia (SAI) to coach the Indian tabletennis team.

Since the Asian Games last year,the Indian paddlers have been without

the services of a coach but the worldnumber 56 feels the appointment ofPapic will help in doubles and teamevents but it will be a difficult roadahead.

“Individually it’s easy like Sharath,Sathiyan, everyone go outside to train.But for mixed doubles we need thecoach and are already scheduled tohave a camp.

“Massimo (Constantini) knew thegame of all the Indian players. Nowwhen the new coach comes, it will bevery difficult for him and for us. It willtake time for him to settle down. Weneed the coach for team matches,”Manika said.

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Star wrestler Bajrang Punianeeded less than four minutes

to book a berth in India's WorldChampionship squad while RaviKumar Dahiya earned hischance by winning the mostcompetitive category during thetrials, here on Friday.

Presence of proven per-former Bajrang in the 65kg tri-als meant that most of thewrestlers in this category pre-ferred to stay away.

Only Harphul Singh, thereigning national champion,took on the world number onebut he could not compete withBajrang for two full rounds.Harphul suffered a knee injurywhen the Asian Games gold-medallist got hold of his right legin the second three-minute peri-od.

Bajrang was leading 7-0when the bout had to bestopped.

"If the bout had lasted forfull six minutes, it would havebeen good for me as well as thefans who came to watch us wres-tle. It feels bad when the bout hasto end like that. When a wrestlersuffers an injury,it really pegshim back. All of us work hard,I feel bad for him," said Bajrang.

The 57kg category featuredseven wresters, including thevery talented Sandeep Tomarand Utkarsh Kale. However, itwas Ravi, the last year's U-23World Championship silver-medallist, booked a flight toKazakhstan.

Ravi, who trains atChhatrasal stadium under his

coach Virender, outplayed Rahul12-2 in the final bout.

The final was expected to bea stiff battle but Rahul, whoknocked out 2016 AsianChampion Sandeep Tomar, andKale, were no match to a wilyRavi.

"There will be stiff compe-tition at the Worlds. Asia is apowerhouse of wrestling. Youhave tough wrestlers from Japan,Iran, Mongolia and Kazakhstan.I am training hard and hopeful-ly I will have good result," saidthe 22-year old from Haryana.

The 86kg category also fea-tured just two grapplers withDeepak Punia winning 5-0against Pawan. The 20-year-oldDeepak has considerable inter-national exposure but it will behis first senior WorldChampionship. He also trains atChattrasal with Virender.

A few exciting bouts werewitnessed in the 97kg categoryin which Mausam Khatriemerged winner by beatingSatyawart Kadiyan 8-1 in thefinal.

Satyawart, husband of Rio

Olympics bronze-medallistSakshi Malik, opted for anattacking approach but Khatrinot only defended well but alsooutsmarted his rival with hiscounter-attacks.

Also booking a berth in theWorld Championship, slated tobe held in Kazakshtan fromSeptmber 14-22, was SumitMalik in the 125kg category. Hebeat Satender 3-0 in the final.

The trials for the 74kg cat-egory, in which two-timeOlympic medallist Sushil Kumarcompetes, have been pushed tonext month since both JitenderKumar and Praveen Kumar areinjured.

They sought more time torecover and the WFI obliged.

Meanwhile, it has come tolight that a few wrestlers werenot allowed to compete at thetrails but WFI explained itsdecision.

A wrestler Shravan Kumarhad alleged that the Federationdid not allow him to compete in65kg and instead asked him tofight in either 57kg or 61kgweight division.

"This wrestler was injuredand was no anywhere to be seenin the last 18 months. Suddenlyif he comes and wants to com-pete for such prestigious event,we can't allow," WFI AssistantSecretary Vinod Tomar said.

"He is not a part of thenational camp, how can weallow him. This is not Nationalshappening, it's WorldChampionship trials. You mustprove your fitness at nationallevel then be a part of the camp,only then we can allow.

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Former junior world champion Nikhat Zareen (51kg) was thelone woman boxer to make the finals, while Asian silver-win-

ner Deepak Singh (49kg) led a four-strong Indian men's chargeinto the summit clashes of the Thailand International Tournamentin Bangkok on Friday.

Ashish Kumar (75kg), Commonwealth Games bronze-medal-list Mohammed Husammuddin (56kg) and Brijesh Yadav (81kg)were the other three men to make the gold medal bouts.

However, former Asian youth silver-medallist Ashish (69kg)lost his semifinal bout to sign off with a bronze medal. Ashish lostto Thailand's Wuttichai Masuk in a split decision after an exhaust-ing clash.

Among the women, Manju Rani (48kg) and Bhagyabati Kachari(81kg) ended with third-place finishes. Manju went down toChuthamat Raksat of Thailand, while Bhagyabati lost to China'sLi Qian.

Earlier, Deepak hardly broke a sweat against Bhutan's TashiWangdi. The Indian's dominance was such that Wangdi faced twostanding eight counts and was left with a gash above his right eye.The judges eventually ruled unanimously in the Indian's favour.

Nikhat was up against Thailand's Jutamas Jitpong. TheHyderabadi impressed with the ferocity of her punches as she edgedpast the local favourite 4-1 and let out a scream to express her ela-tion when her hand was raised by the referee.

"I dedicate my today's Semi-Final victory at the Thailand Opento our brave soldiers of Kargil war who sacrificed their lives forour country," Nikhat said after the bout.

Also advancing was Husammuddin (56kg). In a messy slugfestwith Thailand's Ammarit Yaodam, the Indian came out as the moreaggressive and clean puncher to emerge triumphant in a 3-2 deci-sion.

In the 75kg category, Ashish defeated Uzbekistan's FanatKakhramnov to make the finals.

Brijesh was up against local favourite in Saranon Klompian inthe last bout of the day and produced a ferocious performance. Aleft hook just a minute into the second round sent his opponentcrashing and the Thai could not regain his composure after that.

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The legendary M C MaryKom and Asian Games

gold-medallist Amit Panghalare among the stars who willtake the ring in the inauguralIndian Boxing League whichwill be held from October 20 toNovember 9.

The rights holder andorganisers of the league,SportzLive, will also auctionthe live digital streaming rightsfor the initial three seasons of theleague through a separate ten-der process.

"There will be a total of 90bouts of three rounds each,spread over 18 days across threevenues. With 5 bouts across dif-ferent weight categories betweentwo teams, each day...," theBoxing Federation of India saidin a press release.

"...(with) leading boxers likeMary Kom, Amit Pangal,Gaurav Bidhuri, and SoniaLather and over 50 leadinginternational boxers participat-

ing, the League is set to estab-lish Boxing as one of the mostpopular sports in India," itadded.

The auction will cover bothIndia and global rights. Theleague has set a base price of �four crore for India rights and �4.5 crore for the global rights perseason.

"...Big Bout will be anotherfeather in the cap of Indian box-ing as the first amateur boxingleague in the world. It definite-ly has the potential to take thesport to the next level and thisOTT bid, a first of its kind forany Olympic Sports in India willset an example for others to fol-low," BFI President Ajay Singhsaid.

Echoing his view, AtulPande, MD of Sportzlive added,"We believe that OTT & Mobilewill be a key consumption des-tination for this sport."

SportzLive, is also the long-term rights holder of thePremier Badminton League(PBL).

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American star Caeleb Dressel,swimming's chiselled, tat-

tooed pin-up boy, destroyedMichael Phelps's 100 metres but-terfly world record Friday ascountrywoman Simone Manuelretained her 100m freestyle worldtitle.

Reigning champ Dresselclenched a fist in the direction offlag-waving American fans afterclocking an astonishing 49.50seconds in Gwangju to eclipse theAmerican legend's old bodysuitmark by 0.32 and rob him of asecond world record in 48 hours.

Dressel's fireworks werematched in the next event whenAmerican teenager Smith crushedthe women's 200m backstrokeworld record, before RussianAnton Chupkov emulated themas he stormed to gold in the 200mbreaststroke.

But Dressel, who has alreadywon three gold medals this week,remains the hottest ticket inSouth Korea.

"It can be a scary thought,"said Dressel, who looks on courseto match or even surpass theseven golds he scooped at the2017 world championships inBudapest.

"I woke up today and I want-ed to do it," added the 22-year-old,who logged a 21.18 in the 50mfreestyle semis after a quick turn-around.

"I didn't really have thenerves, I just wanted to do it.Records are meant to be broken,I hope Michael was happy watch-ing me do that."

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Indian’s challenge came to anend at the Badminton Asia

Junior Championships afterboth the boys and girls dou-bles teams crashed out afterlosing in the quarterfinals inSuzhou, China on Friday.

The boys’ doubles pair ofIshaan Bhatnagar and VishnuVardhan Goud Panjala lost 14-21, 19-21 to the unseededSingapore combination of JiaHao Howin Wong and ChuanShen Aaron Yong.

It was the same story for

India in the girls doubles as theduo of Tanisha Crasto andAditi Bhatt went down to sec-ond seeds Li Yi Jing and LuoXu Min 7-21, 16-21.

The Indian contingentthis time has returned emptyhanded from the event, a yearafter Lakshya Sen won theboys’ singles title.

“Despite facing toughopponents, the Indians did notfeel intimidated which was ahuge positive to take from thistournament,” said India’sjunior national coach SanjayMishra.

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ˇ ˇ) · 2019-07-26 · janata dal, telugu desam party, communist party of india and cpi(m) urged...

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