)*˚ˇ - english news paper | breaking news | latest …...2019/02/13 · attorney general kk...

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The Supreme Court in arare judgment on Tuesday

rejected the apology of formerinterim CBI Director MNageswara Rao and agencytop law officer S Bhasuram andawarded them day-long court-room detention for “brazen”contempt of its orders andasked them to sit in a corner ofthe court till it rises for the day.The punishment is reminiscentof the classroom rebuke gen-erally handed out to studentsby teachers for indiscipline.

Strongly rebuking the twoofficials, the SC also imposeda fine of �1 lakh each fortransferring out an officer whowas probing the Bihar shelterhomes sexual assault casesdespite an embargo put by theapex court.

Sparing contemnors Raoand Bhasuram the jail term, theapex court held them guilty for“wilfully disobeying” its ordersby transferring CBI JointDirector AK Sharma, asAdditional Director General of

CRPF on January 18.“In our considered view, it

is a case where contempt hasbeen committed by both thethen acting CBI Director, MNRao, and the director prosecu-tion (of the agency)” said aBench headed by Chief Justiceof India Ranjan Gogoi.

Rao and Bhasuram who onMonday had already tenderedunconditional and unqualifiedapologies for their roles in thetransfer of Sharma were in fora rude shock as the benchexpressed its mind on their cul-pability for contempt at the out-set. Holding them guilty ofcontempt of court, the Bench,also comprising justices LNRao and Sanjiv Khanna, said,“We could not have done any-thing else”.

“We have heard Rao andBhasuram for commission ofcontempt of court and weimpose one lakh fine and sen-tence them till the rising of thecourt. Go to one corner of thecourt and sit down till the ris-ing of this court,” the Bench noted.

Both remained in a cornerof the CJI’s courtroom till 4 pm,the normal working hours ofthe judicial side of the apexcourt. They also remained seat-ed during the lunch session.

The Bench did not allowAttorney General KK Venu-gopal’s request that the two offi-cers be allowed to leave even at3.40 pm — 20 minutes aheadof time. The CJI respondedfuriously to Venugopal’s pleasaying, “What’s this? Do youwant us to sentence him till therising of the court tomorrow?Go and sit where you were.”

Before passing the order inthe pre-lunch session, theBench told Rao and Bhasuramthey have been held guilty ofcontempt of court and it wasnot accepting their uncondi-tional and unqualified apolo-gies. At the outset, the AttorneyGeneral, appearing for CBIand its officers, referred to thenoting on the file related to thetransfer of Sharma and saidthat it was a case of “error ofjudgement” on Rao’s part as hehad acted on the “incorrect

legal advice”. “It is not wilful.Facts are little muddled... Raohas put himself to the mercy of this court,” Venugopal said andsought leniency from the Bench.

“Let us see the sequence ofevents. From the note of theActing (CBI) Director, thismuch is obvious that he knewthat there was an order of theSupreme Court (against thetransfer of the CBI officer). Healso seeks the opinion of thelegal adviser,” the Bench said.

Later, Rao approved therelieving order of the CBI officer without “satisfying”himself whether the sanction ofthe court has been secured ornot and “if this is not the con-tempt then what is contempt,”the bench said, adding “the axefalls on the Supreme Courtorders”.

“He is the Acting Directorof the CBI...Would the heavenshave fallen if the relievingorders were passed after takingthe Supreme Court into confi-dence,” the furious CJIremarked.

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Karol Bagh, one of the mostfrequented business hubs

in the national Capital, wit-nessed a horrific incident inwhich 17 people died while 35people were injured after amassive fire broke out at a hotelon Tuesday. Some of the vic-tims were charred to death andothers were asphyxiated by thepoisonous fumes. A womanand a child jumped from thefourth floor to save themselvesfrom the blaze but they died onthe spot.

Guests at the Hotel ArpitPalace that is popular withbudget and business travellers,were unable to use corridors toescape because of wooden pan-elling. The hotel didn’t haveproper fire escapes and theemergency exit door waslocked at the time of the inci-dent. “The fire could havebeen started because of short-circuit,” said Atul Garg, ChiefFire Officer of Delhi FireServices (DFS).

One of the staff memberssaid that the hotel was builtaround 25 years ago and had 45rooms. At the time of the inci-dent about 41 rooms wereoccupied and there were near-ly 53 people inside the hotel. Agroup of eight tourists from

Myanmar were also staying atthe hotel. Three of themincluding two women werekilled and one was injured.

According to Garg, theblaze first erupted on the firstfloor of the Arpit Palace Hotelaround 3.30 am, trapping manyguests who were deep in sleep.Two persons including a childwho jumped from fourth floorof the building in a bid to savethemselves are yet to be iden-tified.

“A call was received at 4.35am, about an hour after the firestarted and 28 fire tenderswere rushed to the spot. If thefire department was informedearlier life could have beensaved,” said Garg.

“An eyewitness of the inci-dent told us that he saw fire atfirst floor which had causeddue to short-circuit. People inthe hotel to save themselvesmoved on the top floor of thehotel but due to wooden interior fire had spread rapid-ly giving no time to escape evenfor people trapped on fourthfloor,” he said.

Video grabs of the firetaken by an eyewitness showedflames billowing out from theterrace into the pre-dawn dark-ness. “A 43-year-old womansuffered 45 per cent burninjuries while one person is stillmissing.

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It was just a gap of 10 minutesthat proved to be fatal for the

tourists from Kerala as theywere almost ready to leave forHardwar. The power went offand before they could com-prehend, thick smoke startedbillowing on their faces.Somshekhar and his familywere caught unawares asplumes of thick smoke runningthrough their floor at ArpitPalace Hotel made them sus-picious. A foul smell createdfear. Soon, they realised theplanned visit to Hardwar wasin jeopardy. The family hadcome from Ernakulam districtin Kerala to attend a weddingin Ghaziabad.

Other than Somshekhar, 12members of his family werestaying at Arpit Palace Hotel inKarol Bagh where a massivefire killed 17 people, includinga child.

An inconsolableSomshekhar identified the bod-ies his mother Nalini Amma(84), elder brother Vidyasagar(60) and sister Jayashree (53) atRML Hospital mortuary. Theywere missing ever since the fire

broke out on the second floor,the floor on which they hadbooked rooms no 201,203, 204and 205, at around 3.30am.

“We had come fromErnakulam district in Kerala onFebruary 7 to attend a weddingof a relative in Ghaziabad.

We had moved to thishotel on February 10 and wewere planning to go toHaridwar today morning,” saidSomshekhar.

“We all were getting readyfor Hardwar when there was asudden power cut. The hotelstaff switched on the generatorand there was heavy smoke andsmell.

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Samajwadi Party (SP) chiefAkhilesh Yadav was on

Tuesday stopped by authoritiesat Lucknow airport from tak-ing flight to to Prayagraj in thename of law & order, trigger-ing protests by party workers inPrayagraj, Jaunpur, Jhansi,Kannauj, Balrampur, Jalaun,Azamgarh and Gorakhpur,where SP supporters smashedwindscreens of vehicles andclashed with the police.

Akhilesh hit back at UPChief Minister Yogi Adityanathover the latter’s comments thathis Prayagraj visit could havetriggered violence. He alleged,“I was stopped from boardinga flight to Prayagraj to attenda students’ union programme.I haven’t been given a reasonwhy but it occurred to the pow-

ers-that-be that I would createa law and order problem. They(BJP) are using this as a coverto hide their nervousness.”

“If there was a genuineproblem, the police therewould have objected or askedfor a change in my schedule,”said Akhilesh.

Defending the decision toprevent Akhilesh from pro-ceeding to Prayagraj, Yogi ques-tioned as to why the SP chiefwas so adamant on going to

Prayagraj when the districtadministration was apprehen-sive that his presence could cre-ate law and order problems.“Was he going to create vio-lence there?” Yogi questioned.

“The SP should refrainfrom its anarchist activities.The Allahabad Universityadministration had given inwriting that Akhilesh’s visitmight create law and orderproblem due to the disputebetween student outfits. Hence

the Government took this step,"he clarified.

Interestingly, the AllahabadUniversity had alreadyinformed the SP chief that nopoliticians were allowed in anyof their programmes. OnMonday, registrar of AllahabadUniversity had written toYadav’s personal secretary inthis regard.

Rajya Sabha proceedingswere disrupted on Tuesday fol-lowing protests by the SP andother Opposition parties overalleged stopping of Akhilesh atLucknow airport. In UP, bothHouses were adjourned forthe day after Opposition mem-bers in Assembly and Councilprotested against theGovernment on the issue.

Meanwhile, BSP chiefMayawati termed the incidentas extremely condemnable. Shesought to know whether theruling BJP was afraid of the SP-BSP alliance as a result ofwhich it was “resorting to anti-democratic methods”.

West Bengal Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee said it hap-pened because of “arrogantattitude of so-called BJP leaders”.

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Congress president RahulGandhi continued to attack

Prime Minister Narendra Modiover the controversial Rafalefighter jet deal, accusing him of“treason” and violating theOfficial Secrets Act by alleged-ly acting as industrialist AnilAmbani’s “middleman” in theRafale contract.

In his second Press con-ference in less than a week onthe controversy, Rahul cameout with a fresh allegation andshared an email to claim AnilAmbani was aware of the dealdays before India and Francefinalised it.

Ambani’s Reliance

Defence, however, said the“proposed MoU” mentioned ina purported email cited by theCongress president was a ref-erence to its cooperation withAirbus Helicopter and had “noconnection” with the Rafalefighter jet contract.

The BJP dismissed the allegations as height of shamelessness and irresponsi-bility on the part of theCongress president, and assert-ed that the e-mail he cited tocriticise the Prime Ministerreferred to some chopper dealand not the purchase of thefighter aircraft.

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In a rare instance, theSupreme Court on Friday

will hear a petition filed byManikandan Chettiar, an advo-cate from Chennai, against thelife ban imposed on him by theBar Council of India.

Chettiar is the first advo-cate in independent India to beserved such a harsh punish-ment and the third person inthe 395 years in Indian judicialhistory to face such ignominy.Mahatma Gandhi was servedwith life ban against practisingas advocate by the British in1922 and freedom fighterShyamaji Krishna Varma wasthe second person to be bannedfrom law practice in 1909.

The first two decisions oflife ban were imposed byLondon’s Inner Temple, thethen regulator of the Bar.

“Ironically, both theMahatma and Shyamaji werereinstated by the Inner Templeposthumously in 1988 and2015 respectively, 66 years and

106 years, after their beingbanned.

The appellant on the otherhand, is challenging the doublelife ban imposed upon himbecause Republic India’sConstitutional Law-Courts andits Bar Councils have both suomotu imposed the double life-ban on the petitioner sinceFebruary 2, 2018 and interimindefinite ban since September2015 without being able toframe a single charge, whatso-ever,” said ManikandanChettiar in his petition filed inthe SC challenging the decisionof the BCI.

He is represented by notedlawyer Colin Gonsalves. Thecase is listed before a Benchcomprising Justices DYChandrachud and HemantGupta.

In Chennai legal circles,Manikandan (45) is known asan activist lawyer, who pickedup fights with police and onsome judicial corruption relat-ed issues.

He filed several cases seek-

ing probes in cases of allegedcorruption in judiciary.

In the controversialSankararaman murder case in2011, he produced an audiotape as purported evidence ofmoney transfer to a trial courtjudge. In this case, as perManikandan’s petition in theapex court, the current MadrasHC Judge PN Prakash was thelead lawyer of the accused per-sons, including late KanchiShankaracharya.

While all accused wereacquitted in the case,Manikandan continued withhis demand for probe into theaudio tape scandal.

In 2013, advocate Prakashwas elevated as a judge in theMadras High Court.

Two years later, he tookover the case related to judicialbribing from trial court and directed the Tamil NaduBar Council to initiate stringent action against Manikandan, thoughhis junior was the actual peti-tioner.

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Andhra Pradesh ChiefMinister N Chandrababu

Naidu along with TDP MPsand MLAs met President RamNath Kovind at RashtrapatiBhavan on Tuesday and raiseddemand for Special Status forthe State.The delegationmarched from Andhra PradeshBhavan to Rashtrapati Bhavanand presented a memoran-dum to the President with 18demands, including theBifurcation Act promises andSpecial Status to the State.

“We met the President andapprised him of our demands.The Central Government hasignored the Andhra PradeshBifurcation Act promises. TheModi Government is passingthe time without releasinggrants to the State.

For the development ofHyderabad there has been astruggle for 60 years and todayit stands as a world-class city.

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Aday after his fast for thecause, Andhra Pradesh

Chief Minister N ChandrababuNaidu on Tuesday took hisfight for special status to theState to the Rashtrapati Bhawanas he along with TDP MPs andMLAs met President RamnathKovind and took up the issuewith him.

The delegation marchedfrom Andhra Pradesh Bhavanto Rashtrapati Bhavan and pre-sented a memorandum to thePresident with 18 demands,including the Bifurcation Actpromises and special status tothe State.

“We met the Presidentand apprised him of ourdemands. The CentralGovernment has ignored theAndhra Pradesh bifurcationact promises. Modi govern-ment is passing the time with-out releasing grants to thestate. For the development ofHyderabad there has been astruggle for 60 years and todayit stands as a world-class city.On seeing the injustice done to

Andhra Pradesh many peoplewent into depression andrecently a physically chal-lenged man Arjun Rao hascommitted suicide over thespecial status not being grant-ed to the State,” Naidu said ata press conference.

Naidu said that through a

memorandum he informed thePresident that the Central gov-ernment has failed to fill the rev-enue deficit gap. He also com-plained to President that it wasdecided in the parliament toaccord special category status toAP but the BJP Government hasfailed to fulfill the demand so

far. The delegation complainedto President over the neglect infulfilment of state bifurcationassurances.

Bringing his battle for spe-cial status for his state to thenational Capital, Naidu onMonday went on a daylong fastthat became a rallying point for

opposition unity for the secondtime in less than a month totake on the BJP ahead of theLok Sabha polls.

Naidu, who is trying tounite opposition parties, hasover the last three months helda number of meetings withopposition party leaders onforming an anti-BJP front. TheTDP pulled out of the NDAgovernment in March last yearover its refusal to grant specialstatus to Andhra Pradesh.

He said that a possibility ofpre poll alliance with oppositionparties cannot be ruled out.

“Nothing is decided yet butpossibility of a pre poll alliancewith opposition parties cannotbe ruled out,” Naidu said at Pressconference. Naidu further saidwhile entire nation extendedsolidarity for ‘dharma poratadeeksha’, the YSR Congressfailed to extend support.

Demanding that theCentre fulfil promises madeduring Andhra Pradesh’s bifur-cation in 2014, the TDP pres-ident has been alleging thatModi was not following ‘rajdharma’ by denying the statespecial status.

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Pressing with its demand forconstitution of a Joint

Parliamentary Committee toprobe Rafale fighter jet deal, theCongress Tuesday staged awalkout in the Lok Sabha whenGovernment refused torespond to it.

Alleging corruption,Congress leader MallikarjunKharge said that a JPC alonecould detail out all the facts ofthe controversial Rafale dealwith France.

He also demanded discus-sion on the issue to which theSpeaker said a debate had

already taken place in the House.Kharge said the CAG

report on defence was tabledbefore the Rajya Sabha and was“leaked”. He said the report wasnot tabled before Lok Sabha.

Mahajan said the reportswere tabled before the LokSabha, in an apparent referenceto P Radhakrishnan tablingthree CAG reports, includingone on defence services.

Intervening in the matter,Home Minister Rajnath Singhsaid the issue of Rafale has beendiscussed in the House andeven the Supreme Court hasgiven its judgement on it.

At this state an agitated

Kharge asked loudly, “What isthis? We want JPC”.

“I will allow you to speakwhen the time will come. Nowsit down. You have shouted alot. Give your throat somerest,” she said.

With this, Kharge sat downbut said, “If you don’t allow us tospeak, why should we be here”.

UPA Chairperson SoniaGandhi, who was sitting next toKharge, nodded in support.

Kharge soon nudged otherCongress MPs to restart theprotests and they immediatelytrooped into the well, carryingplacards and shouting slogansseeking JPC on the Rafale deal.

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Union Minister Arun JaitleyTuesday accused the

Congress of peddling “lies” onthe Rafale deal to save a “sink-ing dynasty” and manufactur-ing a new falsehood every day.

The latest lie from theCongress, the finance ministersaid is in relation to the presentComptroller and AuditorGeneral (CAG) and “his par-ticipation in the decision mak-ing process of Rafale.”

Jaitley, in a Facebook post,dismissed allegations of conflictof interest of CAG RajivMehrishi saying he never dealtwith any file or paper relatingto the fighter jet deal during histenure in the Finance Ministryin 2014-15.

“How many more lies willbe peddled to sustain a sinkingdynast? India, certainlydeserves better,” Jaitley said ina Facebook post titled ‘HowMany Lies Need to be Peddledto Sustain a Sinking Dynasty?’.

Congress President RahulGandhi has dismissed the CAGreport on the Rafale deal as“Chowkidar Auditor General”report

Stating that the contagioneffect of falsehood is fairlylarge, Jaitley said the lies spreadby the Congress have spread toother colleagues in the

“Mahajhootbandhan”.“In relation to the Rafale

deal where thousands of croresof public money has beensaved, a new falsehood is man-ufactured on a daily basis. Thelatest is in relation to the pre-sent CAG and his participationin the decision making processof Rafale,” Jaitley said.

In 2014-15, present CAGMehrishi was Economic AffairsSecretary in the FinanceMinistry, and being the seniormost bureaucrat was also des-ignated as the Finance Secretary.

“I say this without fear ofcontradiction that no file orpaper relating to the Rafaletransaction ever reached himnor was he in any way, direct-ly or indirectly, associated withthe decision making on defencepurchases. Expenditure to beincurred on purchases by var-ious departments of theGovernment needs theapproval of Secretary(Expenditure),” he said.

Asking as to why then a liein relation to the CAG havinga non-existent conflict of inter-est is being raised, Jaitley said“the dynast knows that his 500crore vs 1600 crore kinder-garten argument was a fictionalstory. No one would ever buyit because facts don’t support it.Even before the contents ofCAG report are known, a

‘Peshbandi’ attack on the insti-tution of the CAG is launched,”Jaitley said.

Without naming Rahul ,Jaitley said “the dynast” and hisfriends have in the past evenattacked the Supreme Courtwhen it rejected the writ peti-tion on Rafale.

He said the entire pricingargument of the Congress wasfactually wrong and the pro-cedure argument that therewas no Defence AcquisitionCouncil, no CCS, no ContractNegotiation Committee was ablatant lie.

“The �30,000 crore favourto a private company is non-exis-tent. The use of sliced documentby a newspaper is unprecedent-ed in the history. The use of anincomplete document is cer-tainly not in consonance with thespirit of free speech.

“The ‘no integrity pact’argument is belied by the factthat even in earlier purchasesthrough inter-governmentalagreement with Russia and theUnited States, such pacts werenot there. Now without a shredof evidence, a fictional conflictof interest of the CAG is invent-ed,” he said.

Jaitley said truth is bothprecious and sacrosanct and inmature democracies those whodeliberately rely on falsehoodare banished from public life.

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Robert Vadra, Congress president RahulGandhi’s brother-in-law, and his mother

Maureen appeared before the EnforcementDirectorate’s office in Jaipur for questioningin connection with the probe into the Bikanerland scam case.

Newly-appointed AICC general secretaryPriyanka Gandhi Vadra dropped them off atthe ED’s zonal office in Jaipur. Priyanka tooktime off from her four-day Uttar Pradesh tripin a show of solidarity with her husband.

Vadra took to the Facebook to accused theNarendra Modi Government of being vin-dictive in the run up to the Lok Sabha polls.

This was Vadra’s first appearance beforethe ED in Jaipur in connection with chargesof money laundering through land deals madeby a company linked to him.

Earlier, Vadra was asked by the RajasthanHigh Court to cooperate with the agency.

Vadra’s Jaipur appearance follows soonafter he faced ED questioning for three daysin Delhi on charges of money laundering ina separate case relating to assets in London.

Vadra is also facing charges of irregularland deals in Gurugram district of Haryana.

His mother, Maureen Vadra was allowed togo after some time. Vadra was permitted to leavearound 1.30 pm for an hour-long lunch break.

Before the grillingbegun, Vadra accusedthe government of harassing his elderly

mother by putting her through it.“As I always have adhered to rules and

overall being a disciplined person, I have theability to sustain any amount of hours of ques-tioning and having nothing to hide, I willanswer every question with respect and dig-nity. This too shall pass and will make mestronger,” Vadra said.

“So here we are—my 75-year-old moth-er and me in Jaipur— to depose in front of theED. Not understanding the lows of this vin-dictive government to be harassing a seniorcitizen, who the world knows has lost herdaughter in a car crash, her ailing son to dia-betes, and her husband as well,” he posted.

In the Bikaner case, the agency had sum-moned Vadra thrice but he failed to appearbefore it. The Rajasthan High Court asked himand his mother to cooperate with the ED afterthey approached the court seeking directionsthat no coercive action is taken against themby the AGENCY.

The ED had registered a case underPrevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA)in connection with the deal in 2015, takingcognisance of a clutch of FIRs andchargesheets filed by the Rajasthan police afterthe Bikaner tehsildar complained aboutalleged forgery in land allotment.

Sources said Vadra was quizzed over hislinks with the Skylight Hospitality PrivateLimited, the firm at the centre of the dubiousland deals.

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The Rajya Sabha on Tuesdaywas marred by disruptions

and adjournments followingprotests by the SP and otheropposition members overreported stopping of SP chiefAkhilesh Yadav at the Lucknowairport to prevent him from afunction at the AllahabadUniversity. The morning ses-sion of the Upper House wasfunctioning smoothly whenSP leader Ramgopal Yadavtried to raise the issue.Chairman M Venkaiah Naidudid not allow him leading toprotests forcing the Chair toadjourn the house. Similarscenes were witnessed in theafternoon before it wasadjourned for the day.

The trouble started in thefirst half after as many as 15members had made Zero Hourmention on matters of publicimportance. In fact, Leader ofOpposition Ghulam Nabi Azadsaid the government and theopposition had the constitu-

tional obligation of passingthe motion of thanks to thePresident’s address and thegeneral budget. He urged all toparticipate in the discussion asonly two days were left beforethe budget session ends onWednesday.

It set the tone with mem-

bers from various parties flag-ging issues of public impor-tance. However, after abouthalf an hour SP members triedto raise the issue of their chiefgetting stopped at the Lucknowairport and Naidu saying hecannot allow them to raise theissue as they have not given

notice. But the agitated SPmembers did not relent andNaidu then adjourned thehouse till two pm.

Akhilesh Yadav wasstopped at Chaudhary CharanSingh International Airport inLucknow by police in a bid toprevent him from visiting

Allahabad to attend an oath-taking ceremony of a studentleader at

Allahabad University, SPmembers said. Uttar PradeshChief Minister Yogi Adityanathhad told reporters in Lucknowthat the step was taken on therequest of the university asthere was apprehension thatYadav’s visit could trigger vio-lence on the campus.

When the Rajya Sabha re-assembled at two pm, membersof SP, BSP, TMC and RJD con-tinued their protests followingwhich the House was adjournedtill 2:35 PM. As soon as theHouse met again at 2:35 PM,members from various opposi-tion parties trooped into theWell protesting against the inci-dent involving Akhilesh Yadav.

Deputy ChairmanHarivansh tried to pacify themembers and urged them to goback to their seats.

However, opposition mem-bers did not oblige him andcontinued their protests, fol-lowing which he adjournedthe house till Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the governmentintroduced two bills - theInternational Financial ServicesCenter Authority Bill 2019 andCinematography (amendment)Bill 2019. International FinancialServices Center Authority Bill2019 was moved by Minister ofState for Finance Shiv PratapShukla. The Cinematography(amendment) bill 2019 wasmoved by Information andBroadcasting MinisterRajyavardhan Singh Rathore.

Earlier in the day whilewelcoming Azad’s plea forsmooth functioning of thehouse, Minister of State forParliamentary Affairs VijayGoel said the government wasagreeable to the suggestion ofdiscussion the Motion ofThanks and the budget. “Wecan extend the session if thereis an agreement in the House”to discuss the six bills that arelisted for taking up after theMotion of Thanks is passedand the Budget approved, hesaid. However, his suggestiondid not seem to have foundfavour with members.

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Even as political slugfest is onover media reports that the

Government waived off someclauses of anti-corruptionpenalties and sovereign guar-antee in the �58,000 croreRafale fighter jet deal withFrance, top IAF officers saidhere on Tuesday the S-400missile defence system dealworth over �45,000 crore withRussia does not have a “sover-eign guarantee” as the processof inter-Government agree-ments with countries likeRussia and the US are already“streamlined.”

This assertion came at atime when a political contro-versy erupted over a mediareport about Indian govern-ment having made conces-sions by allegedly droppingsome key clauses relating toanti-corruption penalties andsovereign guarantee in the con-troversy-hit Rafale deal. Whileopposition parties led by theCongress raised questionsabout such clauses having beendropped, the ruling BJP and thegovernment rejected corrup-tion allegations.

In a bid a clear the air onthe issue while replying to aquestion here during a pressinteraction on the IAF’s firepower demonstration VayuShakti 2019 at Pokhran rangeslater this week, Air Marshal VR Chaudhari, Deputy Chief ofthe Air Staff, said, “There is nosovereign guarantee in the S-400 deal with Russia.”

IAF’s Vice Chief AirMarshal Anil Khosla said, “Wehave had a lot of acquisitionsfrom Russians and Americansearlier. The process of the gov-ernment-to-government agree-

ment with Russia and America are generally

already streamlined, or shouldI say evolved. With othercountries, it may not haveevolved, as the government-to-government (agreement)...May have been the first or justinitiated,” he said.

The Hindu newspaper hadreported on Monday that themulti-billion dollar Rafale dealsaw critical provisions relatingto anti-corruption penalties,sovereign guarantees and mak-ing payments through anescrow account being droppeddays before the signing of theinter-governmental agreement(IGA) in 2016.

The newspaper also saidthis was significant because thegovernment also chose to doaway with a sovereign or bankguarantee from France andsettled for a letter of comfort,which is not legally binding,from the French PrimeMinister.

The S-400 deal was inkedby India with Russia in Octoberlast year to procure a batch ofthe missile systems. Indiawent ahead to seal the dealdespite sanction warnings fromthe US. Russia in January hadsaid there will be no delays indelivery of the S-400 airdefence systems to India and apayment mechanism for thedeal is being worked out

Russian Deputy ForeignMinister Sergei Ryabkov, duringhis India visit had said the mis-sile systems will significantlyenhance India’s air defencecapability. The governmenthad informed Lok Sabha earli-er this year that it will startreceiving the missile systemsfrom Russia from October 2020and the deliveries will be com-pleted by April 2023.

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The Defence Ministry on Tuesdayissues expression of interest for

short listing of potential Indian and for-eign original equipment manufactur-ers(OEM) for 111 naval utility heli-copters. This project is the first underthe Strategic Partnership to build stateof the art weapon platforms within thecountry. The Defence AcquisitionCouncil(DAC) had given the nod forthe project in August last year.

The proposed new twin-enginehelicopters will replace the ageingChetak single engine helicopters of theNavy. The new helicopters will be usedfor search and rescue missions and casu-alty evacuations, navy officials saidhere on Tuesday. Moreover, 95 heli-copters out of the 111 will be manu-factured in India by the selected Indianselected partners. The global tender wasfloated last year and four foreign com-panies were found fitting the bill. Theywill now respond to the expression ofinterest catering to specific requirementsof the Indian Navy, they said.

The request for expression ofinterest from Indian private compa-nies for participating in the project hasbeen hosted on the defence ministry

and Indian Navy websites. However,the equest for Expression of Interestfrom foreign OEMs has been for-warded to companies that participat-ed in the global tender deliberations.The OEMs have been mandated to setup dedicated manufacturing line,including design, integration andmanufacturing processes for heli-copters in India and make IndianManufacturing Line as a global exclu-sive facility for the naval utility heli-copter platform being offered.

Whilst Indian companies havebeen given two months to respond tothe expression of interest, the foreignOEMs have been given three months.Tata Advanced Systems Ltd, MahindraDefence, Adani Defence, L&T, BharatForge and Reliance Infrastructure are theprobable Indian companies that are like-ly to participate in the process. TheIndian companies would be shortlistedbased on their capability of system ofsystem integration, facility in the aero-space domain and financial capability.

The foreign OEMs likely to par-ticipate in the project are LockheedMartin, Airbus Helicopters, BellHelicopters and Russia. High level ofindigenisation of about 60% of thehelicopter is desired, they said.

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In a significant development, theSupreme Court Tuesday referred the

controversy over minority status forAligarh Muslim University to a 7-judgebench, which will also lay down parame-ters for granting the tag to an education-al institution.

A three-judge bench headed by ChiefJustice Ranjan Gogoi agreed with the sub-mission of the AMU that the correctnessof the 2006 judgement of the AllahabadHigh Court, by which the minority tag tothe university was taken away, needs to beexamined in detail.

Senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan,appearing for AMU, submitted that theissue involved in the matter was importantas the apex court in its 7-judge benchjudgement in the TMA Pai case in 2002did not deal with the aspect as to whatshould be the requirement for establish-ing a minority institution.

Since that question was not answeredin the TMA Pai case which dealt with var-ious issues concerning the minority insti-tution, there was a need to examine it, hesaid.

Taking note of the submission, thebench, also comprising Justices LNageswara Rao and Sanjiv Khanna, saidthe issue needs to be decided and referredthe matter to the seven-judge bench.

Besides AMU, the then UPA

Government also filed an appeal againstthe 2006 verdict of the Allahabad HighCourt holding that the varsity was not aminority institution.

The BJP government at the Centre hadin 2016 told the apex court that it will with-draw the appeal filed by the erstwhile UPAgovernment as “the previous stand (of theUPA government) was wrong”.

It said a five-judge Constitution benchin 1968 in the Aziz Basha case had heldthat AMU was a “Central university” andnot a minority institution. It maintainedthat AMU was not a minority institutionas it was set up the government and notby Muslims.

After the 1968 verdict, the AMU(Amendment) Act, 1972 and thereafter1981 came into force.

The Allahabad High Court had inJanuary 2006 struck down the provision ofthe 1981 amendment Act by which the uni-versity was accorded the minority status.

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chhattisgarh 03RAIPUR | WEDNESDAY | FEBRUARY 13, 2019

Raipur Municipal Corporation conducted demolition drive by razing the dilapidated structures and shops atJawahar Market, Malviya Road, in capital city Raipur on Tuesday.

STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

Preparations for Lok SabhaElections-2019 are going

on in the state in full swingand in this context, a two-daycertification course forCollectors and DistrictElection Officers (DEOs) ofall the districts of the statewas commenced on Tuesday.

Chief Electoral OfficerSubrat Sahoo, in his addressto the inaugural session, con-gratulated all the districtelection officers for success-fully executing the worksunder a two-phased stateassembly polls held inNovember.

Sahoo asked the officialsto perform even better nowto ensure peaceful and sys-tematic Lok Sabha Election-2019. He said that in thesetwo days, returning officialsof all 11 Lok Sabha con-stituencies and district elec-tion officers will be providednecessary information fororganizing peaceful, unbi-ased and independent elec-

tions.Meanwhile, District

Election Officer andReturning Officer are beingprovided necessary informa-tion about their roles andresponsibilities, voter-listsrevision, model code of con-duct and other importantsubjects.

On the opening day ofthe training programme

organized at the auditoriumof new circuit house inRaipur had seven sessions.Second day of the pro-gramme comprises six ses-sions from 9 am onwards onFebruary 13.

In these two days,experts and master trainerswill provide training on dif-ferent subjects. On the firstday, District Election

Officers and ReturningOfficers would be informedabout their roles and respon-sibilities, re-examination ofvoter IDs, withdrawal ofnomination letters and allot-ment of election symbols,model code of conduct, elec-tion expenditure monitoring,voting and other subjects.

On the second day, ses-sions on use of EVM andVVPAT, facilities for votingteam and disable voters, paidnews, media and mediamonitoring committee, votecounting and declaration ofresults, use of informationtechnology, and various appswill be held.

DEOs get invaluable tipsfor unbiased LS pollsTwo-day certification course begins in Raipur

STAFF REPORTER n RAIPUR

The opposition BJP has slammed theCongress government in Chhattisgarh for

renaming key schemes named after late JanSangh leader Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya.

These schemes of the urban administra-tion and development department have nowbeen named after former prime ministersIndira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi and archi-tect of the Indian Constitution Dr B RAmbedkar.

The opposition BJP, however, expressedunhappiness, saying the step indicated "polit-ical vindictiveness". The order to rename theschemes was issued on Monday night.

As per the order, Pt DeendayalUpadhyaya Swavlamban Yojna has beenrenamed as Rajiv Gandhi Swavlamban Yojnawhile Pt Deendayal Upadhyaya SarvasamajManglik Bhavan Yojna will now be known asDr B R Ambedkar Sarvasamaj ManglikBhavan Yojna, the official said.

Similarly, Pt Deendayal Upadhyaya LEDPath Prakash Yojna has been rechristened as

Indira Priyadarshini LED Path PrakashYojna, Pt Deendayal Upadhyaya AjivikaKendra (livelihood centre) Yojna is now RajivGandhi Ajivika Kendra Yojna while PtDeendayal Upadhyaya Shuddh Peyjal (cleandrinking water) Yojna has been named asIndira Priyadarshini Shudhh Peyjal Yojna, headded.

Former chief minister and senior BJPleader Raman Singh said they would protestagainst the government's move.

"The state government deliberatelyrechristened schemes named after PtDeendayal Upadhyayaji on his deathanniversary, which was observed on Monday(February 11). This reflects Congress' men-tality," Singh said in a statement.

He sought to know what the incumbentgovernment had done to make these schemesbetter.

"Without making any new provisions,they have just renamed the schemes whichclearly indicate that it's a new episode of'Badlapur' (vindictive politics)," he alleged.

BJP slams govt forrenaming key schemes


RK Singh, Minister of State(Independent Charge), Power

and New & Renewable Energy,Govt of India will inaugurate atwo-day "Indian Power Stations2019 (IPS)- International O&MConference" of NTPC Limitedhere at Pandit DeendayalUpadhyaya Auditorium at Raipuron Wednesday.

A K Bhalla, Secretary(Power), Govt of India, GurdeepSingh, Chairman & ManagingDirector, NTPC Limited, andsenior officials from Ministry ofPower and NTPC Limited willgrace the occasion.

IPS Conference is held everyyear on 13th February to com-memorate the synchronization ofthe first unit of MaharatnaNTPC's flagship power station atSingrauli on the same day in1982.

It is to be noted here thatIndia is among the fastest grow-ing global economies and powersector has to play a pivotal role inmaking the economy evenstronger by introducing globalbest practices.

Acting in this direction,

NTPC Limited has taken a lead inproviding a global platform byorganizing Indian Power Stations(IPS-2019) Conference to bringbest practices from across theglobe and business opportunitiesto India.

This is the eighth edition of

IPS with theme "Generating Safe,Reliable, Eco-friendly, FlexiblePower - With State-of-the-ArtTechnologies".

Over 500 industry represen-tatives including delegates fromthe US, Germany, Switzerland,China, Japan, major power gener-

ators such as SEBs, NHPC, DVC,THDC, Vedanta, Reliance Power,JSW Energy, TATA Power, powersector stakeholders like CERC,CEA, MNRE and CentralPollution Control Board, institu-tions like TERI and manufacturesand service providers likeSiemens, GE, Alstom, BHEL,Hitachi, Toshiba, Megger, etc willattend the event being held forthe first time outside Delhi.

While 11 internationalpapers and 71 domestic techni-cal papers are to be presentedduring the two-day conference,five papers from IITs and NITswill be presented during aninterface between industry andacademia.

Further, a Techno-Galaxyexhibition is being held to show-case the products and technolo-gies from 42 Indian andInternational manufacturers.

Power bigwigs to attend NTPC’s conf

A file photo of NTPC’s coal-fired unit at Korba in Chhattisgarh.


In a major relief to Delhi Universityprofessor Nandini Sundar,

Chhattisgarh police has cleared thecharges pressed against her in con-nection with a murder case registeredwith Tongpal police station of Sukmadistrict in the insurgency hit Bastarregion. According to police, charges -against six others including a JNUprofessor, who were all wanted in theconnection with the same case- havebeen withdrawn.

Reports said that the previousBJP government was critical ofSundar, mainly for her frequent visitsto violence-hit Bastar but the newCongress regime has now decided towoo right activists by dropping thecase against Sundar.

Notably, in 2016 armed Maoistshad killed Shamnath Baghel at hisresidence in Nama village underTongpal police station limits ofSukma district around 450 km southof state capital Raipur.

Later, on complaint of victim’swife an FIR was lodged againstSundar, JNU professor ArchanaPrasad, Vineet Tiwari, who is with

Delhi’s Joshi Adhikar Sansthan,Chhattisgarh CPI(M) secretarySanjay Parate, Manju Kawasi andMangla Ram Karma.

The police maintained that noclear evidence was found againstthem in connection with the case andhence the charges were withdrawn.

"After investigation we could notfind any direct evidence againstNandini Sundar and others inTongpal murder case. So, we havewithdrawn the charges pressedagainst them" Superintendent ofPolice Sukma Jitendra Shukla toldThe Pioneer over phone. The murdercase was registered against themwhile infamous IPS officer SRPKalluri was posted as InspectorGeneral of Police (IGP) in Bastar.

Nandini Sundar getsCong govt favour

In 2016 Maoists had killed aman at his residence in

Sukma district. On complaintof victim’s wife, an FIR was

lodged against NandiniSundar and six others


Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel onTuesday reiterated in the state assem-

bly that his government is committed fortotal prohibition of alcohol in the statebut his government will take everyone onboard before taking a final decision.

He was replying to the questionraised by BJP member AjayChandrakar and supplementary ques-tion of Marwahi MLA Ajit Jogi onsame issue. Baghel said, “Governmentis committed for total prohibition inthe state and I will go ahead with it.”Former Chief Minister Ajit Jogi raisedthe issue strongly in assembly andquestioned the delay in issuing orderdespite the Congress made the com-mitment in its poll manifesto.

Responding to Jogi’s query, Baghel

said, “Before implementation,Government wants to see as how thosestates having implemented has fared.Had it been successful or beginning ofdoor to door service?”

He further said, “Two separatecommittees have been constituted, onewill consider the political angle and

second one will look into liquor as asocial evil. A sudden decision takencan push many people to death.”

When interrupted by Jogi, ChiefMinister said, “The mandate has notbeen received for just 50 days but for afull five-year term. What has been saidis being done and it will be done.”

Will take everyone onboard, says Baghel

Alcohol prohibition issue


Chhattisgarh ChiefSecretary Sunil Kujur took

a review of the preparationrelated to ‘Raipur HalfMarathon-2019’ at the com-mittee chamber in state assem-bly premises.

The annual marathonevent is third in the series. Themarathon will be organized bySports and Youth WelfareDepartment on February 24.

Kujur directed the organ-izing department to ensuremaximum participation ofwomen participants as itwould benefit the local players.He also directed sports depart-

ment officials to hold regularsports activities so that playerscan get chance to enhance

their skills.Sports department secre-

tary Siddarth Komal Pardeshi

made a presentation to providedetails of Marathon event. Hesaid that last date for registra-tion is February 15, throughonline. Till date around 21,000sprinters have registered whilenational and internationalrunners are also participants.For 13 different categories, thetotal cash prize money is Rs32.66 lakh.

Different state sportsorganizations and governmentdepartments will coordinatefor hosting the event. Sportscelebrities of Chhattisgarhhaving won medal ininternational and nationallevel will be part of event.

CS reviews preparation of‘Raipur Half Marathon 2019’


Chhattisgarh government hasreceived a setback on Tuesday

after the Central government hasrefused to hand over the case filesof National Investigation Agency(NIA) related to Jheeram Valleymassacre.

Addressing the media in stateassembly premises, Chief MinisterBhupesh Baghel said, “We hadsought from Central Governmentto return the files related toJheeram Valley incident fromNIA. But with great disappoint-ment, it is to be informed thatthrough a letter today the centralgovernment has refused.”

He further stated, “Jheerammassacre was not a normal inci-dent. It was a ‘supari killing.”

“The door for the court isopen,” he said.

Congress after forming gov-

ernment with massive mandate instate through a cabinet decisionhad constituted a SpecialInvestigation Team (SIT) to probeinto the Jheeram Valley massacrein which 31 Congress leaders weremartyred in May 2013.

NIA refuses to shareJheeram case file

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At the time when 11-year-oldManmeet Singh has to be in

school at Bathinda takinglessons, he was on Chandigarh’sstreets, carrying the picture ofhis father, who had committedsuicide due to Rs five lakhdebt, with eyes full of tears, seek-ing “justice” from the Congress-led Punjab Government.

“Nothing has been done tomitigate our woes even now.Sannu jhothe laare laye si sarkarne (The government had madefalse promises with us),” saidManmeet, before breakingdown. He, along with hun-dreds others, laid siege to theroad that led to Punjab VidhanSabha on the first day of thebudget session staging a massiveprotest on Tuesday with the sup-port of the SAD-BJP.

No less than 300 farmer sui-cide victim families, led bySAD patriarch Parkash SinghBadal and party presidentSukhbir Badal along with theYouth Akali Dal (YAD) volun-teers marched towards theVidhan Sabha complex holdingframed pictures of their fathersor sons or husbands to buildpressure on the CongressGovernment to fulfil its promiseof providing a government job,besides Rs 10 lakh compensa-tion to every family affected byfarmers’ suicide.

They also accused the StateGovernment of not honouringits promise to waive off the

entire farm loans of Rs 90,000crore.

The protestors werestopped by the Chandigarhpolice on the road leadingtowards the Capitol Complex,where all the significant build-ings including Civil Secretariat,Vidhan Sabha, Punjab andHaryana High Court, are situ-ated with heavy barricades andriot police armed with waterguns.

Undeterred, the protesterssat on dharna on the road, andnarrated their plight. The SAD-BJP legislators, after staging aprotest walk-out in the House,later also joined the protestors.

Many family members nar-rate the harrowing tales of howthey lost their men, burdenedwith heavy debt, and the woesthereafter. Many told how thesuicide notes blamed theCongress Government for themounting debt.

“My father had written inhis suicide note that CaptAmarinder and the CongressGovernment are responsiblefor his death,” said SuvinderpalSingh of Ajnala.

Jaspal Kaur from FatehgarhSahib, her eyes moist with tears,did not mince a word to blamedthe Congress Government for“doing nothing for me...I havelost my husband, and even myboth sons...they all have com-mitted suicide because of debt”.

Badal, addressing the gath-ering, assured the victim fami-lies that SAD would fight their

battle and ensure justice wasmeted out to them. He alsoasked Chief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh to honour hiscommitment on complete loanwaiver for farmers or quit. “CMhas not only backstabbed thepoor, beleaguered and evenbereaved farmer families, butalso gone back on the oath hetook on the holy Gutka Sahib,”he said.

Referring to CaptAmarinder’s query on whatSAD-BJP government had donefor farmers, Badal said that thetotal amount of loan whichCapt Amarinder has promisedto waive is less than just the

amount waived off by SAD-BJPmerely in the shape of freepower to farmers worth Rs6,000 crore every year for 15years.

“We also took unprece-dented decisions like hikingthe crop loss compensationfrom Rs 2000 to Rs 8000 peracre. In fact, if we add all therelief measures taken by theSAD-BJP, it would total up to Rs1.5 lakh crore during ourtenures. What does the Captaingovernment have to show incomparison?” he asked.

SAD president Sukhbir saidthat the party would first takethe plight of farmers to the StateGovernor and then if need, theparty will launch a state-wideagitation to ensure the promis-es made to them were hon-oured.

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Chandigarh: Punjab ChiefMinister Capt AmarinderSingh on Tuesday dubbedthe Akali protest along with ahandful of farmers near theVidhan Sabha as a “pettypolitical stunt” undertakenwith an eye on the ensuingLok Sabha polls.

Even as he lashed out atthe Akalis and Lok InsaafParty MLAs for walking outduring the Governor’s addressin the House on the first dayof the Budget Session, the

Chief Minister said that theAkalis had failed to do any-thing for the farmers for 10years and were now resortingto all kinds of cheap tactics ina desperate bid to misleadthem on the issue of farm debtwaiver.

“Our government hasalready helped 5.83 lakhfarmers with its debt reliefscheme and would soon coverall 10.25 lakh small and mar-ginal farmers in the state,” saidCapt Amarinder Singh

adding that the Akalis’attempts to undermine theseefforts would backfire onthem.

The Opposition walkoutwas a clear case of ‘bad-tameezi’ (rudeness) againstthe head of the state, said theChief Minister adding that theproblem with the Oppositionwas that it had no issues toraise in the House and werethus trying to divert publicattention by making noiseon non-issues, he added.

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Targeting the Oppositionparties, Prime Minster

Narendra Modi on Tuesdaysaid that his Government willspeed up the campaign againstcorruption and to rid the coun-try of the corrupt.

“This ‘chowkidar’ will nei-ther be threatened nor bowdown with their (Opposition)threats and abuses,” said thePrime Minister NarendraModi while addressing“Swachh Shakti 2019” pro-gram in Haryana’sKurukshetra, the land famous-ly known as the battlefield ofMahabharata.

At the event organised torecognise the leadership roleplayed by rural women in theSwachh Bharat Mission, thePrime Minister asserted, “Our‘safai’ campaign to rid thiscountry of the corrupt and thedirt is going to be furtheraccelerated.”

“For this campaign, yourblessings should continue,”

Modi asked the gatheringwhich included swachagrahisfrom across the nation.

Continuing his tiradeagainst the Opposition, thePrime Minister claimed thatonly corrupt people have aproblem with him while thehonest trusted this ‘chowkidar’.

Mocking the ‘mahagath-bandhan’ as ‘maha-milawat’(highly adulterated), he saidthat all the faces in this groupare only indulging in compe-tition in threatening and abus-ing him and are afraid ofinvestigation.

“Even in Haryana, you arewitnessing how some peopleare worried because of probeby investigating agencies,” hesaid without naming anyone.

Notably, there are investi-gations ongoing against formerHaryana Chief MinisterBhupinder Singh Hooda andCongress president RahulGandhi's brother-in-lawRobert Vadra for alleged irreg-ularities in land deals in the State.

Taking a jibe at the

Congress and Gandhi family,the Prime Minister said, “Somepeople thought that the histo-ry of the country commencedfrom year 1947 and that it wasstarted from one family. Thisfamily had cut the countryfrom the roots of history. ”

“The present BJPGovernment has made thewelfare of women as base of allits major schemes and pro-grams and it has become pos-sible only as the people of thecountry had given full mandateto the BJP in 2014. In 2014,you gave your votes for an hon-est and transparent govern-ment” he said,

On assuming the reign ofthe administration, middle-man and those having corruptideology were eliminated fromthe system, Modi added.

On the ‘Swachh Bharat’campaign, the Prime Ministersaid, “People from other par-ties made fun of me when Ispoke of toilets from the ram-parts of the Red Fort. I couldunderstand the plight of thewomen who had to go out for

defecation.”“The taunts of those born

with gold spoon do not prickme. I will continue with my

efforts to make life better forwomen,” Modi added.

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Punjab Government onTuesday provided a major

relief to the beneficiaries of‘Shehri Awaas Yojna’ by provid-ing relaxation to those not hav-ing permanent residence proof.

The state LocalGovernment Minister NavjotSingh Sidhu said that now, copyof tax assessment, electricity,water or sewerage bill can besubmitted as the proof of resi-dence.

The relief granted wouldbenefit 30,000 beneficiariesdirectly who were to be bereft ofderiving the benefits entailedunder the ‘Housing For All’scheme in the absence of per-manent residence proof.

“It has been decided to givethis relief in order to providemaximum possible benefit to theurban poor as well as sorting outthe problems being faced by thebeneficiaries under the ‘ShehriAwaas Yojna’,” said Sidhu.

He said that those benefi-ciaries who live in the ‘kuchchahouses’ and under the Lal Dora

(red line) area and who don’thave any proof of permanentresidence, can now produce orsubmit the copy of tax assess-ment. “In case that is not avail-able, any document out of theelectricity bill or sewerage bill orwater bill, after verification bythe councillor, can be submittedfor availing the benefits entailedunder the scheme,” he said.

Sidhu said that the JointCommissioners or EOs con-cerned have been empowered inthis regard to provide the ben-efits to the beneficiaries. Earlier,it was mandatory to furnishproof of permanent residence.

“For those who have notyet applied under the scheme,the State Government hasdecided to go in for conduct-ing a new survey starting fromFebruary 15 to ensure that thebenefit accrues to maximumnumber of poor families.Those otherwise eligible underthe scheme but couldn’t applyowing to the absence of per-manent residence proof, cannow apply after this relief,” hesaid.

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Ahead of ensuing Lok Sabhapolls 2019, Prime Minister

Narendra Modi on Tuesdayunveiled major developmentprojects costing crores ofrupees in Haryana.

He inaugurated NationalCancer Institute at Jhajjar andthe ESIC Medical College andHospital, Faridabad and alsolaid the foundation stone ofNational Institute of Ayurveda,Panchkula, Pandit Deen DayalUpadhyaya University ofHealth Sciences, Karnal, ShriKrishna AYUSH University,Kurukshetra and Battles ofPanipat Museum, Panipat.

The projects were unveiledduring Prime Minister’s visit toKurukshetra to attend “SwachhShakti-2019” program.

The Prime Minister, whilespeaking at the “SwachhShakti-2019” program alsolauded Haryana Chief MinisterManohar Lal for successfulimplementation of variousschemes and programmes forthe empowerment of women inthe state.

He said that it is the BJPgovernment in the state, whichhas taken steps towards thewelfare of women in a truesense.

Union Minister ofDrinking Water and SanitationUma Bharti, HaryanaGovernor Satyadeo NarainArya, Chief Minister Manohar

Lal, Haryana Urban LocalBodies Minister Kavita Jain,state BJP president SubhashBarala and large number ofSwatchtagrahi from across thecountry were present on thisoccasion.

Dedicating various pro-jects to the people of the state,the Prime Minister said that allthese projects would not onlymake the life of the peoplemore comfortable by givingthem better medical facilitiesbut would also provide employ-ment opportunities to youth ofthe state.

Describing the land ofKurukshetra as a land ofDharma and Karma, he saidthat it is the same land whereLord Krishna delivered thecelestial message of Karma.Today 3rd edition of SwachhtaShakti 2019 has been launchedfrom Kurukshetra, he said.

Referring to various stepstaken for the welfare of peoplehe said that the UnionGovernment has laid a hugenetwork of big hospitals in thecountry to provide qualityhealthcare to the people.

Modi said, “There are 21All India Institute of MedicalSciences (AIIMS) in the coun-try of which work has beenstarted on 14 AIIMS after2014. In the recent UnionBudget, another AIIMS hasbeen sanctioned for Haryana,which would be set up in vil-lage Manethi in district

Rewari.” The villager has given land

for the setting of this instituteand the work on this would bestarted soon, he added.

Earlier, Prime Minister hadhonored 12 Swachhtagrahiwith Swachh Shakti Award2019 including Sarpanch of vil-lage Dharala in districtPanchkula. He also congratu-lated the winners of SwachhtaShakti Award for making out-standing contribution underSwatch Bharat Abhiyan.

Giving details of variousprojects dedicated to the peo-ple of Haryana by the PrimeMinister on Tuesday, an officialspokesman said that PM Modilaid the foundation stone ofShri Krishna Ayush University,Kurukshetra, which is first of itskind in the world.

The University would beconstructed on about 94.5 acres

at an estimated cost of about Rs475 crore. It would provide thefacility of education and treat-ment through Ayurveda, Yoga,Unani, Siddha andHomeopathic medical systems.

Similarly, the PrimeMinister laid the foundationstone of Pandit Deen DayalUpadhayaya University ofHealth Sciences, Karnal andNational Institute of Ayurveda,Panchkula, he said.

He also inaugurated theNational Cancer Institute con-structed in Badhsa village at thecost of about Rs 2,035 crore.The institute has 710 beds andwould provide treatment ofall stages of cancer.

Besides this, the PrimeMinister laid the foundationstone of Center of Excellencewhich is being set up asUniversity in Kutail of Karnaldistrict. This university would

be developed on over 144 acresat an estimated cost of about Rs750 crore.

In order to provideunprecedented medical facilitiesin the field of Ayurveda, he alsolaid the foundation stone ofNational Institute of Ayurvedato be set up in Panchkula.

Apart from these projects,the Prime Minister inaugurat-ed the newly constructed ESICMedical College and Hospital,Faridabad. In this hospital,labourers of Haryana and near-by states could get medicaltreatment.

At the same time, he alsolaid the foundation stone of amuseum on Battle of Panipat,which would have heroic sto-ries of heroes of the battle ofPanipat.

Reaching out to the womenvoters and people of Haryana,Modi said, “When the BJP

had declared him as the PrimeMinisterial candidate in theyear 2014, he had came toHaryana to take the blessingsof ex-servicemen. Now, todayhe has again come toKurukshetra to take the bless-ings of women of the country.”

He also highlighted theimplementation of One Rank-One Pension Scheme, BetiBacho-Beti Padao andAyushman Bharat HealthProtection Scheme by his gov-ernment.

Modi also spoke howUjjwala Yojana, NationalNutrition Mission, PrimeMinister's Safe MaternityCampaign extending mater-nity leave from 12 to 26 weeksand the ownership of housesfirst to the women underPradhan Mantri Awas Yojanahave played a key role inempowering the women.

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Haryana Chief MinisterManohar Lal on Tuesday

said that the strength ofwomen in the state policeforce has increased from 6 percent earlier to 10 per cent andit would be further increasedto 20 per cent. Manohar Lalwas addressing the gatheringat Swachh Shakti-2019 pro-gram in Kurukshetra.

He said that with theblessings of people of thestate, the BJP would form thegovernment in the state forsecond consecutive term andafter forming the government,the strength of women in thestate police force would be fur-ther increased to 20 per cent.

Highlighting the achieve-ments of his government inHaryana, Manohar Lal said,“To provide safe and secureatmosphere to the women,several steps have been takenincluding setting up of allwomen police stations.”Earlier, there were only twowomen police stations whichhave now increased to 30, hesaid.

The Chief Minister saidthat Haryana is first state inthe country which has beendeclared Kerosene free.

Under the UjjwalaScheme, 99.3 percent house-holds in the state have beenprovided LPG connection andremaining 0.7 percent house-holds would be covered in thenext one month, he said.

He added that a reward ofRs 100 each has beenannounced for those givinginformation about any eligi-ble household who is stilldeprived of LPG gas connec-tion. Earlier, welcoming thePrime Minister NarendraModi in Haryana, ManoharLal assured that the StateGovernment would leave nostone unturned in achievingthe targets given by CentralGovernment.

He said that the State

Government has taken sever-al steps for successful imple-mentation of SwachhtaAbhiyan. Both rural andurban areas have beendeclared ODF and now we areheading towards ODF plus.

In the urban areas twocities namely Rohtak andKarnal have been included infirst 100 cities of the countryin achieving Swachta. Thishas become possible only withthe active contribution ofwomen of the state, he added.

While referring to varioussteps taken for the welfare ofthe women in the state, he saidthat with a view to promotehigher education in the state,44 new colleges have beenopened during the last four-and-a-half years tenure of thepresent State Governmentwhich included 29 girls col-leges.

“We have a target to set upone women college at a dis-tance of every 20 kilometer toensure that our daughtersneed not travel a distance ofmore than 10 kilometers toreach their colleges. Apartfrom this, MukhyamantriChhatra Parivahan Yojna hasbeen started to provide freetravel facility to the girl stu-dents,” the Chief Ministeradded.

Speaking on the occasion,Union Minister of DrinkingWater and Sanitation, UmaBharti said that at present 5.5lakh villages, 28 states and 600districts have been declaredODF. She said that the CentralGovernment has resolved tomake the country ODF free byOctober, 2019.

Uma Bharti said that theSwachh Bharat Abhiyan hasprovided employment oppor-tunities to the women also astill now 50000 women havebecome ‘Rani Mistri’. Shealso urged the people tomake keep their ponds, vil-lage streets clean and con-tribute in making clean andnew India.

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Embattled British PrimeMinister Theresa May on

Tuesday asked MPs to give her“some time” to complete nego-tiations with the EuropeanUnion (EU) in order to bringback a deal for a Parliamentvote and deliver Brexit in timefor the March 29 deadline.

In an important update tothe House of Commons, Maycalled for patience as the talkswith the EU were at a “crucialstage” and promised MPs a“meaningful vote” over areworked withdrawal agree-ment.

“Having secured an agree-ment with the European Unionfor further talks, we now needsome time to complete thatprocess. When we achieve the

progress we need, we will bringforward another meaningfulvote,” she said in her statement.

“The talks are at a crucialstage. We now all need to holdour nerve to get the changes

this House requires and deliv-er Brexit on time,” she said.

May said that by getting thechanges required to the con-troversial Irish backstop – theinsurance policy against a hardborder between the UK and EUmember-country Ireland – shewas confident that she couldbring back a deal more accept-able to MPs, who had voteddown her withdrawal agree-ment in a historic defeat lastmonth.

“We can deliver for thepeople and the communitiesthat voted for change two andhalf years ago – and whosevoices for too long have notbeen heard. We can honour theresult of the referendum,” shesaid, in reference to the June2016 referendum in favour ofBritain’s exit from the EU.

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China and Russia havedeveloped robust and

capable space services and thetwo countries pose a challengeand threat to the space capa-bilities of the US, the Pentagonhas said.

Chinese and Russian mil-itary doctrines indicate theyview space as important tomodern warfare and counter-space capabilities as a means toreduce US and allied militaryeffectiveness, the Pentagon saidin a report released by theDefense Intelligence Agency.

The report “Challenges toSecurity in Space” examines thespace and counterspace pro-grammes that could challengethe US or partner interests inthe space domain.

Noting that both coun-tries have developed robustand capable space services,including space-based intelli-gence, surveillance and recon-naissance, the report saidChina and Russia were makingimprovements to existing sys-tems including space launchvehicles and satellite navigationconstellations.

“These capabilities pro-vide their militaries with theability to command and controltheir forces worldwide withenhanced situational aware-ness, enabling them to moni-tor, track and target US andallied forces,” it said.

Running into more than 40pages, the report mentionsIndia a few times and describesChina and Russia as a majorchallenger to the US, Iran and

North Korea as other spacechallenges. The Pentagon listsIndia as one of the nine coun-tries and one internationalorganisation which can inde-pendently launch spacecraft:China, India, Iran, Israel, Japan,Russia, North Korea, SouthKorea, the United States, andthe European Space Agency(from French Guiana).

While the European Union,Russia and the US’ satellitenavigation constellations offerglobal coverage, Japan andIndia operate regional systems,it said. China operates both aregional and worldwide satellitenavigation system. In its report,the Pentagon said Chinese andRussian space surveillance net-works were capable of search-ing, tracking and characterisingsatellites in all orbits.

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Democrats and Republicanshave reached an agree-

ment in principle to fund theUS Government and avertanother partial Governmentshutdown at the end of theweek while denying PresidentDonald Trump much of themoney he has sought to buildwalls along the US-Mexicoborder.

The announcement by law-makers on Monday night camedays ahead of a possible gov-ernment shutdown in theabsence of such an agreement.

Senate and House negotia-tors from both parties, whoheld a closed-door meeting inWashington, did not commenton the details of the deal, say-ing the staff is still working onlast-minute logistics.

Sharp differences betweenDemocrats and PresidentTrump over border security andbuilding a wall along the US-Mexico border resulted in arecord partial government shut-down for more than 30 days.

“We’ve had a good evening.We’ve reached an agreement inprinciple between us on theHomeland Security and the

other six bills,” Senator RichardShelby told reporters at the USCapitol Hill Monday night.

As a result, the House andthe Senate are likely to pass anew resolution before theFebruary 15 deadline.

According to reports, thebill would provide $1.375 bil-lion for wall construction, farless than $5.7 billion congres-sional funding Trump hasdemanded to build the wall.

But, if accepted, the dealwould end a standoff in whichTrump has threatened to cutbudgets from swaths ofGovernment this Friday.

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President Donald Trumpcharged ahead with his

pledge to build a wall at the US-Mexico border, skimming overthe details of lawmakers’ ten-tative deal that would give himfar less than he’s been demand-ing and declaring he’s “settingthe stage” to deliver on his sig-nature campaign promise.

In the first dueling rallies ofthe 2020 campaign season,Trump’s “Finish the Wall” rallyin El Paso went head-to-headMonday night against coun-terprogramming by BetoO’Rourke, a formerDemocratic congressman andpotential Trump rival in 2020, who argued that wallscause more problems than theysolve.

The rallies across the street

from each other served as apreview of the heated yearslongfight over the direction of thecountry. And they made clearthat Trump’s long-promisedborder wall is sure to play anoutsized role in the presiden-tial race, as both sides use it totry to rally their supporters andhighlight their contrastingapproaches.

Standing in a packed sta-dium under a giant Americanflag and banners saying “FIN-ISH THE WALL,” Trumpinsisted that large portions ofthe project are already underconstruction and vowed to ful-fill his 2016 campaign promiseregardless of what happens inCongress.

“Walls work,” said Trump,whose rally was repeatedlyinterrupted by protesters.“Walls save lives.”

Bratislava(Slovakia): USSecretary of State Mike Pompeoon Tuesday invoked the 30thanniversary of the demise ofcommunism to implore coun-tries in Central and EasternEurope to resist Chinese andRussian influence.

Speaking in the Slovak cap-ital of Bratislava, Pompeo saidChina and Russia pose twinthreats to the democratic andfree-market gains made sincethe fall of the Berlin Wall in1989. He said the post-com-munist countries are particu-larly vulnerable to Chinese andRussian predatory investmentand political meddling. AP

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There are eerie similarities in thegenesis, proceedings and theultimate fate of the US involve-ment in both Vietnam andAfghanistan. First, both — the

Vietnamese and the Afghans — pridethemselves on their fierce history of resis-tance to foreign invaders for centuries. Inthe case of the Vietnamese, it was thevaliant repulsion of the Chinese, Mongols,French and the Japanese forces; whereas,the unforgiving battlefields of the Afghanswathes have been bloodied with forces ofAlexander, Arab caliphates, Genghis Khan,Timur, Persians, Mughals, Sikhs, Britishempire and to the communist forces of theerstwhile USSR. Both races have a height-ened sense of history and destiny that mil-itates instinctively against any notion of aforeign “invader.” Both these lands havebeen at the forefront of the US’ efforts tocounter the topical “ism” that threatenedAmerican interests. In the case of Vietnam,in the 50s and 60s, it was the Cold War fearof “communism” that drove US interest;whereas in the case of Afghanistan (post2001), “religious extremism” replaced“communism” as the greatest securitythreat.

In both these conflicts, the US hadplayed a covert, tactical and surreptitiousrole in inflaming the combustible groundsituation. Insidious military and financialsupport was extended to the French forcesin the 50s to re-colonise Vietnam, whichlater morphed into a full-fledged US mil-itary intervention by the 60s. Similarly, theless-than-covert military operations ofthe Central Intelligence Agency-IslamicState (IS), along with the Afghanmujahideen in the 80s, had lit the flamesof religious extremism that ultimatelymorphed into the phenomenon of theTaliban. The pattern of sudden US disin-terest is also common to both places asVietnam would face in the mid-70s whenthe forces of Ho Chi Minh overran Saigon,as also in the essential US disinterest in the90s as Pakistan-supported Taliban enteredand butchered their way into Kabul. Thegenesis of both conflicts had unmistakablefingerprints of the US handiwork prior tothe full escalation of the crisis. In bothcases, the US had erred in its initialjudgement as it had twice spurned appealsby the nationalist, Ho Chi Minh, before heturned a staunch communist; whereas, theAmerican desperation to dislodge thecommunist Najibullah regime in Kabul hadled them to honour and fete the Afghanmujahideen in the White House, who laterturned on their original benefactors.

Signs of American “shock-and-awe”military tactics to bludgeon enemy lineswere visible in the killing fields of Vietnam,where the Americans dropped more thanthree times the tonnage of bombs that theentire allied forces dropped in World WarII. Today, Afghanistan has replaced

Vietnam as its longest war anda record high number ofbombs dropped in a year wereregistered in 2018. The defin-itive imagery of 388,000 tonnesof napalm bombs dropped inVietnam was mirrored with theunabashed dropping of theGBU-43/B (also known as“Mother of all Bombs”) inAfghanistan — the most pow-erful non-nuclear weapon inAmerican arsenal. However,despite the colossal commit-ment of weaponry and militarymight, the Afghan extremistgroups today control more ter-ritory than at any point eversince the removal of theirregime 17 years ago. TheVietnam War had led to over58,000 American military casu-alties and the technology-enhanced Afghan war to yetanother 2,400 American mili-tary casualties. The “cost ofwar” to the locals (civilians, sol-diers and insurgents) was anunprecedented three million inthe Vietnam War and over111,000 in Afghanistan. Fromthe official start date of theVietnam War (November 1,1955) to the signing of thepeace treaty in January 1973 forfacilitating the withdrawal ofAmerican troops, the realisa-tion of an unsustainable “no-win” stalemate took 18 years.Today, nearly 18 years into theAfghan War (started in 2001,following 9/11), the Americansare walking the talk of anoth-

er American withdrawal, thistime from Afghanistan, follow-ing yet another stalemate.

Unfortunately, the loomingfears of the imminent future arealso similarly aligned as theAmericans are negotiating withthe Afghan Taliban (under thenudge and aegis of the equal-ly unreliable ally, Pakistan) tofacilitate the American troops’withdrawal. In 1973, a similarface-saving treaty was signedby the representatives of theUS, South Vietnam, NorthVietnam and Viet Cong to‘reunite’ Vietnam peacefully –even though the signatorynorth Vietnamese were know-ingly violating the terms ofceasefire and agreement and by1975, the entire South Vietnamterritory had fallen to a full-scale invasion by the North. Itis this doomsday scenario thathas fuelled concerns in theAshraf Ghani-led AfghanGovernment in Kabul as theyfear the impact of an embold-ened Taliban. From 1,50,000foreign troops defending thebeleaguered AfghanGovernment till 2016, to justabout 7,000 (after the currentUS withdrawal plans), alongwith the well-known aspirationof “strategic depth” inAfghanistan for the Pakistanistate – the military ability of thecurrent Afghan Government inKabul to withstand the IS-Taliban combined onslaught isextremely suspicious. The sud-

den vacuum following the USwithdrawal in Vietnam in 1973had led to the ultimate fall ofthe South Vietnam defences;the US “withdrawal” fromAfghanistan in 1991 had led tothe creation of the Taliban; andnow the insecurity in Kabul is one of history repeatingitself.

While history is yet torecord its final verdict and vic-tor in Afghanistan, in Vietnam,the Americans can technicallyclaim to have “withdrawn.”However, objectively, the anti-US side overran the US protec-torate and they rule till date.Thousands of insurgents werekilled in US military operationsand multiple more of the samewere borne out of the sense ofrevenge, hatred and retributionagainst the US. In both cases thehuman, economic, military andthe political “cost of war”became unsustainable and thecommon feature of “stalemate”wore out the largest military inthe world. The intrigues, com-plexities and accompanyingcivilian atrocities in both con-flicts have also led to seriousquestions on the morality, trustand confidence on the US’words and actions. Afghanistanis still an unfolding saga, yetportents of a possible repeat ofa Vietnam stare in the face.

(The writer, a military vet-eran, is a former Lt Governor ofAndaman & Nicobar Islandsand Puducherry.)�

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Sir — The recent interview of theBoard of Control for Cricket inIndia (BCCI) selection commit-tee chairman MSK Prasad, regard-ing the World Cup preparations,was refreshing and clear on intent.As there is not much time left forthe big event, the Chairmanstruck the right chord by lettingthe world know that the selectionprocess is almost complete.

This was, perhaps, aided by theperformance of the young bloodduring the Australia-New Zealandseries, the recently concludedRanji tournament and the pool oftalented players available in thedomestic cricket circuit. It is alsowelcome to note that for mattersrelated to picking the Number 4batsman and other issues that mayarise in the selection of the WorldCup team, the decision will restwith the team management, withzero interference from the selec-tion committee.

Varun SDBengaluru

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Sir — It was both upsetting andmoving to read about a nine-

month-old girl, who was alleged-ly thrown into a well by her moth-er in Ranchi, Jharkhand.Thankfully, she was rescued andairlifted to a hospital in Delhi andis now battling for her life.According to the Delhi trafficpolice, a “green corridor” was cre-ated from the Indira GandhiInternational Airport’s Terminal1-D to the hospital, allowingemergency services to cover a dis-tance of 12 km in 13 minutes.During peak hour traffic, this

stretch could take much longer tocover. All officers, who con-tributed towards facilitating thegreen corridor must be thanked.This episode shows that humankindness is not yet in short sup-ply. One just hopes that theinfant recovers soon.

Mohd UsmaniMumbai

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Sir — It was a historical decision

taken by the Government of AbuDhabi, UAE, to allow the use ofHindi as the third language besidesArabic and English in its judicialsystem. This move will certainlyhelp Indian expatriates in the caseof any litigation proceedings. Abilingual judicial system assuresclarity and transparency. Hindi-speaking expatriates can lodgeclaims and submit grievances intheir mother tongue now.

Ramesh G JethwnaiBengaluru

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Sir —This refers to the editorial,“An infernal tax” (February 11).The singular fixation with fiscaldeficit vis-à-vis inflation is seento be subsiding as growth hasreturned to the spotlight. Evenwith a diverse mix of debt, infla-tion and growth vis-à-visdebt/GDP ratios, the crux wouldlie more in the denominator thanthe numerator.

The rate of inflation, nominalinterest rate and the level of thestock market are all now fairlyhealthy and markets would lookfor more Government debt tillinterest and inflation rates shootup or stocks plunge.

A phase of hesitant jobaddition needs sourcing of freshfunds for growth and notrevenue expenditure. Marketscould be more enthused to seegreater transparency in thecomputation of data — be it onGDP, job creation, ease of doingbusiness or such other guideindices.

R NarayananNavi Mumbai

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The conferment of Bharat Ratna toNanaji Deshmukh is a great gift toacademicians, professionals and stu-

dents of social work discipline in Indiawho have been celebrating his birthanniversary on October 11 as Indian SocialWork Day or Bharatiya Samaj KaryaDiwas and are dedicated to decolonisingsocial work education in Indian universi-ties.

Since time immemorial, Indian acad-emicians have been working for the inte-grated and holistic development of soci-ety. Although termed in different typolo-gy, the ancient Indian academicians havedeveloped various methodologies andmodels to engage with and address theconcerns of society, from individual tofamily, community to nation and the

whole world. They were the first to pre-sent the philosophy of international peaceby presenting the concept of a global fam-ily or Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam. The con-tribution of ancient Indian academicianshas been recognised by their moderncounterparts across nationalities, partic-ularly in contemporary inter-disciplinaryresearches where social work needs to bor-row ideas from Indian philosophy throughcross-pollination for negotiating function-al deadlocks related to human behaviour.

In our school days, we were taught alot about the great Indians who had donegreat social service and also spearheadedreform movements from time to time.However, at the university level we weremade to learn that social work as a prac-tice was alien to the Indian sub-continentbefore establishment of the Tata Instituteof Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai by anAmerican citizen during British colonialrule in 1936. This is because in the socialwork curriculum, there is hardly any men-tion of the social service and reforms ofthe great Indian philosophers, academi-cians and legendary personalities whoflourished from the century before Christ.Students of social work are also compelled

to swallow that it is because of TISS thatsocial work was gradually included in uni-versity curriculum and that we received itas part of our colonial heritage. Till date,the curriculum related to social work inalmost all universities follows a pattern setin the British colonial period — import atemplate from Euro-American countriesand implement them in Indian universi-ties. Except some institutions with Indianacademicians did design their curriculumon the basis of the Gandhian philosophy.This strategy of “import and execute” hasbeen best explained by Kalyan ShankarMandal in his research paper, ‘AmericanInfluence on Social Work Education inIndia and its Impact’, published in theEconomic and Political Weekly onDecember 9, 1989.

We are not against idea exchange butthis intellectual import in the discipline ofsocial work has been unidirectional. Theidea to dismantle this intellectual cageimposed on us by the colonial governmentof British India was always on the mindof our free-thinking academicians. A rayof hope came when the Mahatma GandhiAntarrashtriya Hindu Vishwavidyalaya,Wardha, invited social work academicians

from across the country to design a newcurriculum for the discipline in a two-daynational workshop titled “Bharatiyakaranof Social Work Curriculum” last June.

Over 40 social work academicians andpractitioners from over two dozen Centraland provincial universities participated.The academicians also adopted a 10-pointaction plan to decolonise the curriculumthrough an intellectual movement.

During the workshop, they unani-mously recognised the academic andprofessional contributions of NanajiDeshmukh to social work and adopted aproposal to celebrate his birth anniversaryas Indian Social Work Day.

Bharat Ratna Nanaji Deshmukh was amulti-faceted personality, a social work-er par excellence, educationist and devel-opment economist. He was also active inpolitics but perhaps the only politicianwho voluntarily proclaimed his retirementat the age of 60 and became a full-timesocial worker. He not only developed hisown model of integrated and holisticdevelopment of the villages but alsoimplemented them in practice. He single-handedly turned the fate of over 500 vil-lages in the drought-affected areas ofChitrakoot in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthanand Maharashtra. He also established theMahatma Gandhi Chitrakoot GramodayaVishwavidyalaya on February 12, 1991.

This is the first university in India dedi-cated to rural development and is a greatcentre of learning his social work modelsbased on the philosophy of MahatmaGandhi and the integral humanistic phi-losophy of Pandit Deen DayalUpadhayaya.

Social service models, practices, reformmovements, rural reconstruction experi-ments and socio-developmental philoso-phies of Nanak Dev, Jyotiba Phule, B. R.Ambedkar, Mahatma Gandhi, SwamiVivekananda, Narayana Guru and allthose who evolved from the Indic perspec-tive should be given due space in the cur-riculum of social work at various levels.There is need for high quality research andexperimentation in this direction forwhich the government agencies shouldprovide required resources.

The conferment of Bharat Ratna is awelcome step and indeed a landmark forsocial work discipline in India but thereis a long way to go.

(Dr Bishnu Modhan Dash is a Facultyin Social Work Department of DelhiUniversity’s B.R. Ambedkar College.Siddheshwar Shukla has been Fellow inMakhanlal Chaturvedi University, Bhopal.)

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The corporate landscape has long beendominated and characterised by menand is still skewed in their favour. In2013, the archaic Companies Act,1956, underwent the much-needed

amendments. This infused critical measures ofgender equality into today’s corporate scenario.Subsequently, in a knee-jerk reaction to the reg-ulation, women representation on corporateboards jumped substantially. According to areport by Prime Database, from a mere five percent female representation in 2012, the board’scomposition is significantly more inclusive nowwith women constituting around 13 per cent(622) of the total directors (4,690) in the NIFTY500. Without accounting for multiple director-ships, there were a total of 477 unique womendirectors in these companies. Although India isimproving gender diversity on boards, it still lagsbehind on the world stage.

Worldwide, gender diversity in boardroomscontinued on an upward trajectory; although atdifferent paces. Norway is the first country tointroduce at least 40 per cent women directorson boards in 2003 and had the highest percent-age at 46.7 per cent in 2017. This was followedclosely by France, Sweden and the UnitedKingdom at 34 per cent, 33.6 per cent and 20.3per cent respectively, according to the CreditSuisse analysis. The biggest improvement inboard diversity was seen in western Europe,which saw an increase from eight per centwomen directors in 2004 to 26 per cent in 2016.Gender diversity in boards is relatively stuntedin the United States at 17 per cent when com-pared to the European nations. Canada, on theother hand, has shown notable diversity progresswith its Prime Minister appointing 15 womenand 15 men in his Cabinet in 2015. Asian coun-tries, however, lag behind with China at eight percent, followed by Singapore (7.9 per cent) andIndonesia (six per cent). The situation is acutewith some of the biggest Asian businesses likeSamsung, Softbank, Baidu and Hynix having all-male boards.

There were some initial concerns that a size-able portion of new women directors belongedto the promoter’s family and members were beingappointed in a non-executive capacity just tocomply with the norms. But latest data invali-dates this assumption. According to PrimeDatabase, there were only 98 women promoterdirectors (16 per cent) in the NIFTY 500. Of thisset, 50 per cent were executives and were drivingthe company in a leadership capacity. Thisimplies that a bulk of the women gettingappointed had professional experience andexpertise. This suggests that companies are notpaying mere lip-service to the regulations by pro-moting family members but have also inter-nalised the legislative intent of the mandatedthresholds.

The contribution of women directors to cor-porate value-creation has been widely studied.Most of these studies make the “business case”for more women on corporate boards, arguingthat if a segment of society’s talent is systemat-ically excluded from boards, not because of tal-ent but gender, then such boards are sub-opti-mal. Despite these arguments, in most corporateboards, there is only one woman or a smallminority of women. As such, they are often con-

sidered tokens because of their under-representation. The relevant questionto ponder upon is whether an increasednumber of women directors leads to thebuild-up of critical mass that substan-tially contributes to firm innovation?

Arguments for a higher number ofwomen in corporate boards are numer-ous but in many countries, women, whoserve as board members, are stilltokens. But who are tokens? It is aresearched fact that the majority exertsmore influence in a group of peoplethan minorities do, by virtue of theirgreater numbers. Minorities are easilymarginalised when their presence in alarger group is modest. Due to theirunder-representation in the group,they are viewed as a symbol or token.The members of the majority are‘dominants’ while the remaining minor-ity members are seen as ‘tokens’. Andfor these tokens, stereotyping couldresult in the perception of barriers toexerting influence on decisions in thegroup.

Moreover, tokens are perceivednegatively, sometimes with downrightderision and are often doubted and nottrusted. As a result, being labelled as atoken often creates discomfort, isolationand self-doubt. Being perceived as atoken can even interfere with perfor-mance. In fact, because of their high vis-ibility, tokens face additional perfor-mance pressures and are singled outbecause they are different and notbecause of their own particular accom-plishments. These reactions to tokensseem to occur whether the token is awoman or a minority in a larger group.

However, when the size of theminority group increases to the pointthat it is no longer a token, the perspec-tive of board members and the natureof relations between the minority andmajority change qualitatively. Therefore,the influence of a minority in a groupdepends upon the strength, immedia-cy and number of its members. Criticalmass theory, in particular, suggests that

the nature of group interactionsdepends upon size. When the size of thesub-group reaches a certain threshold,or critical mass, the sub-group’s degreeof influence increases. In other words,this theory suggests that when theminority group reaches critical mass, aqualitative change will take place in thenature of group interactions.

Being a token has three behaviour-al consequences, namely visibility,polarisation and assimilation. Visibilityimplies that tokens find themselvesbeing watched all of the time, resultingin perceptions of performance pressure.In this situation, there are perceptionsthat even small mistakes can be fataland tokens feel that they have to workharder to receive recognition for anyindividual achievements. At the sametime, tokens may perceive a pressurenot to out-perform dominants andsome will choose to become sociallyinvisible and maintain a low profile.Polarisation implies that the dominantgroup feels threatened or uncomfort-able around tokens and, therefore,they heighten their boundaries byexaggerating their commonality andtheir differences vis-a-vis tokens. Themajority may, thus, exclude tokens frominformal networks where importantsocialisation takes place and as a result,the tokens may experience social iso-lation. Finally, assimilation impliesthat tokens are forced into stereotypi-cal categories defined by dominants.Tokens are then not seen as they real-ly are and the majority group forcesthem into limited and caricaturedroles. Expectations as to what is “suit-able behaviour” for a woman are anexample of this. Importantly, these threemechanisms are predictions of how thedominants behave towards tokens, aswell as the subjective reactions of thetokens in terms of their own status.

Therefore, the question is: Howmany women should be a part of theboard to elevate their position frommere tokens to critical mass? Women,

as minorities in a male-dominatedenvironment, have little chance toexert influence on the organisation untilthey become a consistent or significantminority. Above that point, they couldbegin to effect organisational changes.Recent studies of women on corporateboards suggest that the critical mass ofwomen directors is reached whenboards of directors have “at least threewomen” who can influence the dynam-ics and thought processes amongmembers.

Additionally, having “at least threewomen directors” makes the boardsmore heterogeneous and allows major-ity-minority interactions and process-es to take place, thereby enabling theoverall board to take high-quality deci-sions. This view is also supported byother studies suggesting that heteroge-neous groups produce higher qualitydecisions than homogeneous groups oncomplex tasks and generate more inno-vative solutions. It is also well recognisedthat pressures for uniformity are animpediment to good problem-solvingand homogeneous groups may hamperinnovation because high levels of cohe-sion produce pressures towards confor-mity. Therefore, heterogeneity, assum-ing that persons differing in categorywill provide diverse approaches toproblems and, therefore, overall perfor-mance will improve, is considered valu-able.

The size of the minority group ofwomen directors requires particularattention: Appointing only one womandirector would seem to be inexpedientsince as suggested by tokenism theories,they will be categorised, stereotyped andignored by the majority group (of maledirectors). Thus, policy-makers shouldmove from “at least one woman direc-tor” to more and ensure that women reach a critical mass in theboards to be able to have higher influ-ence and say.

(The writer is Assistant Professor,Amity University.)

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Bengal Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee on

Tuesday lashed out at the BJPleadership for stopping for-mer UP Chief MinisterAkhilesh Yadav at the PrayagrajAirport saying the saffron partyhad lost its senses before itsdestruction.

Banerjee who left for Delhifor joining the dharna beingstaged in the national Capitalby her Andhra Pradesh coun-terpart Chandrababu Naidu,said “the recent incidents showhow intolerant the BJP hasbecome. They have lost theirsenses.”

Calling the UP incident asan attack on the democracy,Banerjee said it was not only the

destruction of democracy, but“vinash kaley buddhi nash (adestruction of the BJP’s sensesbefore its own destruction).”

The people were watchingthe developments and they

were prudent enough to give abefitting reply when the timecomes, she said. “The peopleare watching and the BJP willget a befitting reply from them,”she said.

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Jaipur: The Gujjar communityagitation for five per cent reser-vation in jobs and educationentered its fifth day on Tuesday,with protesters blocking Chaksutown, about 40 km from here onNational Highway 52, policesaid.

The blockades on the Agra-Jaipur-Bikaner NationalHighway-11 in Dausa district,state highway in Nainwa ofBundi district, Malarna road inSawai Madhopur and theKarauli-Hindaun road at Budlavillage in Karauli district con-tinued from the previous day.

"Apart from the routes thatwere blocked till yesterday, agi-tators have laid a blockade inChaksu town of Jaipur district.No untoward incident has beenreported so far. Law and ordersituation is under control,"Director General of Police (Lawand Order) M L Lathar said.

The North Western Railwayinformed through a bulletin that

three trains were cancelled andtwo diverted on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Gujjar leadershave refused to back-off fromthe tracks and roads.

"We have not received anycommunication from the StateGovernment so far. Dharnawill continue," Vijay Bainsla, sonof Gujjar leader Kirori SinghBainsla, said.

Gujjar agitation leaderKirori Bainsla and his support-ers began their indefinite sit-inon railway tracks in MalarnaDungar of Sawai Madhopur

on Friday evening.Bainsla has stuck to the

demand of five per sent reser-vation for the Gujjar, Raika-Rebari, Gadia Luhar, Banjaraand the Gadaria communities,and has to refused to move fromthe tracks until the same is metthrough an official announce-ment. A State Government del-egation, including TourismMinister Vishvendra Singh andIAS officer Neeraj K Pawan, hadheld talks with the protestors onSaturday but failed to come toan agreement. PTI

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Kolkata: Former TrinamoolCongress (TMC) MP KunalGhosh, who was jointly ques-tioned with Kolkata PoliceCommissioner Rajeev Kumarby the CBI in connection withthe Saradha chit fund scam,wrote to the probe agency onTuesday, accusing the toppolice officer of tamperingwith the new evidence that hasemerged in the case in Shillong.

Ghosh, whose two-dayquestioning ended on Monday,demanded that he should joint-ly be interrogated withBharatiya Janata Party (BJP)leader Mukul Roy as it mightbe helpful for the CentralBureau of Investigation (CBI).

"I have written a letter tothe CBI, where I have categor-ically accused Kolkata PoliceCommissioner Rajeev Kumarof tampering with the evi-dence that has emerged in the

chit fund case during the jointquestioning with me inShillong.

"Kumar is leaking whatev-er I had said during the jointinterrogation with him (atShillong) and is instructinghis subordinate officers to tam-per with that evidence. I havereceived information regardingit. I request the CBI to takeimmediate action so that thetampering of evidence isstopped," Ghosh told PTI.

When contacted, KolkataPolice officials said they wereyet to receive any query fromthe central probe agency. "If weget any (query from CBI), wewill answer it," a senior KolkataPolice official said.

Ghosh claimed that sever-al key persons were still out ofthe purview of the CBI inves-tigation into the multi-crore-rupee scam. PTI

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With increasing number oflower and middle rung

Trinamool Congress leadersbeing attacked by unknownassailants, the Bengal police hasdecided to review the securityof all the State TMC leaders,sources said.

At least five TMC organis-ers, including an MLA fromNadia district, have beenbumped off in the last onemonth. While the TMC lead-ership have pointed its fingersat the killers backed by the BJPand RSS. The latter haveaccused the vicious interestgrouping within the Bengalruling outfit.

“We have lost at least five

small and middle rung leadersin the past 4-5 weeks,” a TMCMLA from North 24 Parganasaid adding he too was facingthreat to his life from the sus-pected undercover saffronoperatives.

He has written to theSuperintendent of Police forreviewing his security, the pan-icked leader said adding “Ihave one security personnel. Ihave asked for one more as they(the assailants) are emergingfrom nowhere and coming ingroups.”

At the senior level policesources said they had decidedto review the security of MLAs,MPs and even the Ministers,particularly from NorthBengal. In South Bengal too the

leaders’ security were likely tobe reviewed particularly inHooghly, East and WestMidnapore, two 24 Parganasand Nadia, sources said.

While unknown assailantson Saturday evening shot deadSatyajit Biswas a vocal andactive TMC MLA and organ-iser from Ranaghat-Hanskhaliregion of Nadia a formerblock president Ajit Panditwas dealt near fatal injury atKeshpur in West Midnaporeon Monday. His brotherNanda Pandit was literallylynched while.

Miles away on the sameday in Hooghly the policerecovered the body of RiteshRoy a popular TMC leaderfrom Kanthi. Roy’s body was

found by a State highway,sources said. Roy, 45, was acooperative society chairmanfrom East Midnapore’sMarishda village. He was founddead near Hooghly's Dadpurvillage. He had been missingsince February 7.

A few weeks ago onJanuary 21 two TMC leaderswere murdered at Dalkhola inNorth Dinajpur district ofNorth Bengal. On the same daya TMC youth leader was shotdead at Alipurduar while onthe next day another TMCleader was killed at NorthDinajpur.

Reacting to the recentkillings senior leader andBirbhum district TMC presi-dent Anubrata Mondal said

how the BJP was targeting hisparty men but added theTrinamool Congress wouldretaliate in equally measures.

“We are a peace-lovingpeople and hate violence. Butthe leftovers of the CPI(M)’sharmad brigade are now join-ing the BJP and attacking us.But they should rememberthat the people will retaliate inequal measures. Each suchkilling will be taken account of,”he said.

Meanwhile, BJP leaderMukul Roy on Tuesdayapproached the Calcutta HighCourt for anticipatory bail inthe Nadia Trinamool MLAmurder case. Roy’s name fig-ured in the FIR of KrishnaganjMLA Satyajit Biswas’ murder.

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Patna: Former Bihar Congresspresident Ram Jatan Sinha onTuesday joined the rulingJanata Dal (United) and lavished praise on ChiefMinister Nitish Kumar, whoheads the party.

After joining the JD(U) atan auditorium in presence oftop leaders like national vicepresident Prashant Kishor andstate unit chief VashishthNarayan Singh, Sinha was felic-itated at the party office byKumar.

Sinha is not an ordinary

leader and his joining our party will have immense consequences,Kumar told reporters on theoccasion.

Today, we see doors ofpolitical parties are closed ontalented young people, which is regrettable. Our party, however, is different as it is not controlled by a family.And, therefore, there is hardly any social segmentwhich is not duly representedin the JD(U), the ChiefMinister said. PTI

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Pune: A 32-year-old RTI activist,who went missing last month,was found dead in Pune districtof Maharashtra, a police officialsaid on Tuesday.

Police suspect that thedeceased, Vinayak Shirsath, waskilled by someone, a senior offi-cial Bharti Vidyapeeth policestation here said.

The decomposed body was

found near Mutha village onLavasa road on Monday evening,he said.

Shirsath, a resident of Punecity, went missing on January 30following which his family mem-bers had registered a police com-plaint on January 31.

"We later registered a kid-napping case on February 5 afterhis family raised suspicion that he

might have been abducted as hehad raised voice under the Rightto Information (RTI) Act againstillegal constructions in someparts of the city," the official said.

Shirsath's family pointed fin-gers at several people linked tothe real estate sector, but duringthe probe, all of them were foundto be close friends of thedeceased, he said. PTI

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Ahmedabad: Claiming thatPrime Minister NarendraModi has rock-solid supportof people, BJP president AmitShah on Tuesday said thecoming Lok Sabha poll willbe an important step forIndia to become a globalsuperpower.

Attacking the oppositionparties which were trying toforge an alliance ahead of theLok Sabha election to take onModi, Shah said the "maha-gathbandhan" (grandalliance) was made up ofonly state-level leaders andthat it will not affect BJP's pollprospects.

He sought to know fromthe opposition parties whowas their prime ministerialface and the leader of theirproposed grand alliance.

Addressing BJP leadersand workers from Gujaratafter launching the 'MeraParivar-Bhajapa Parivar' voteroutreach campaign, he said afull majority Governmentwas required to enable PMModi to continue servingthe needy.

"The 2019 Lok Sabhaelection is an important stepfor India to become a super-power in the world. I havetravelled across the country,and I can see that people arestanding like a rock withPrime Minister NarendraModi. I have seen love forModi in people's eyes," Shahclaimed.

He said many partyworkers ask him about the'mahagathbandhan'. "I wantto tell them that it will not

have any impact," he assert-ed.

"What will happen if (for-mer prime minister and JD-S supremo) Deve Gowdagives a speech in Gujarat or(West Bengal Chief Minister)Mamata Banerjee inMaharashtra or (former UPchief minister) AkhileshYadav in Kerala? It will nothave any impact whatsoeverbecause they are only state-level leaders," the BJP presi-dent said. PTI

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Srinagar: Separatists onTuesday called for a two-dayshutdown to protest the legalchallenge to Article 370 andArticle 35-A of theConstitution, which grantspecial status to Jammu &Kashmir and special rightsand privileges to its "perma-nent residents", respectively.

Petitions have been filedin the Supreme Court, chal-lenging the constitutionalvalidity of Article 370 andArticle 35-A.

"People of Jammu &Kashmir will forcefully resistevery challenge by NewDelhi to change the demog-raphy of the State by rollingback hereditary state subjectlaws of 1927 (protected byArticle 35-A of theConstitution), being con-tested in the Supreme Courtof India through theiragents," separatists' JointResistance Leadership (JRL)said here.

The apex court is sched-uled to hear the petitions

challenging Article 35-Aduring the week.

To protest the "viciousmove", the separatists calledfor a complete strike onWednesday and Thursday.

"The late announcementand ambiguity over the datesof hearing of (PILs against)Article 35A and Article 370by Supreme Court on 13 or14 of February is worri-some, and indicates mis-chief," the JRL, comprisingSyed Ali Geelani, MirwaizUmar Farooq and YasinMalik said.

"(We) understand thatfrequent shutdowns add tothe hardship already expe-rienced by people as a resultof occupation, but it isimperative to register ourstrong protest in the wake ofsuch threatening measures,"it said.

The separatist amalgamsaid it is an "extremely crit-ical issue" about the veryexistence of people and about"our disputed status". PTI

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Chennai: The Madras HighCourt on Tuesday dismissed aPIL seeking action against theTamil Nadu chief secretary fornot playing the national anthemat a recent function in which thePrime Minister participated,noting that even the petitionerhad not said it was mandatory.

When the plea came upbefore a division bench com-prising justices S Manikumarand Subramonium Prasad, thepetitioner said neither Tamil (aninvocation song to motherTamil) nor the national anthemwas played when NarendraModi took part in the event tolay the foundation stone for theAIIMS at Madurai on January27. Citing a Union HomeMinistry circular that outlinesstate events where the nationalanthem should be played, thepetitioner said and submittedthat neither the Tamil nor thenational anthem was playeddespite the presence ofConstitutional authorities likeGovernor Banwarilal Purohit inthe function. PTI

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Srinagar: In a major success,security forces shot dead HizbulMujahideen terrorist HilalAhmed Rather, who had helpeddreaded LeT terrorist NavedJhatt escape, during anencounter in South Kashmir onTuesday in which an Armyjawan was also killed, officialssaid.

Rather, 21, was killed in theencounter in Ratnipora area ofPulwama, a district highlyinfested by terrorists, after a tip-off was received by the Jammu& Kashmir Police about hispresence during the interveningnight.

A cordon and search oper-ation was launched by thepolice along with the Army andthe CRPF. As it was going on,the terrorists fired upon thesecurity forces, who retaliatedeffectively, a police spokesmansaid.

In the ensuing encounter,one terrorist was killed and hisbody was retrieved from the siteof encounter.

"Rather was the mainaccused in the escape ofLashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militantNaved Jhatt from a Srinagarhospital," Inspector General ofPolice (Kashmir Range)Swayam Prakash Pani said.

His body was handed over

to family members after com-pletion of all legal formalities.

The name of Rather, a class12 passout, first surfaced whena Special Investigation Team,formed to crack Jhatt's escape,found that he was the mainconspirator. He had hatched aconspiracy with other terroriststo secure the release of Jhattwhen he was taken to SMHShospital for a routine check-upin February last year.

Jhatt was killed in anencounter with the police onNovember 28 last year inBudgam district of CentralKashmir.

The spokesman said Ratherwas affiliated with the bannedHizbul Mujahideen (HM) and

had a long history of terrorcrimes, including attack onsecurity establishments andcivilian atrocities, thespokesman said.

He said incriminatingmaterials, including arms andammunition, were recoveredfrom the site of encounter.

"All these materials havebeen taken in the case recordsfor the purpose of investiga-tion," he said. He said twosecurity personnel also sus-tained gunshot injuries in theencounter and were rushed toa hospital. One of them, JawanBaljeet Singh, succumbed toinjuries, the spokesman said,adding the other soldier isbeing treated. PTI

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Ahmedabad: The GujaratGovernment has confirmedthe presence of a tiger in theState, days after a man claimedhe saw the big cat crossing aroad in Mahisagar district.

State Forest MinisterGanpatsinh Vasava said onTuesday that the carnivore wascaught on cameras set up by theforest department in that area.

"It has now been con-firmed. A tiger in the age-groupof 7 to 8 years has been seen inMahisagar district," Vasava toldreporters in Gandhinagar.

The striped animal waslast seen in Gujarat in 1989.Subsequent surveys carried outevery four years by the centralGovernment showed no pres-ence of tiger in the state, hesaid.

A local Government schoolteacher had last week claimed

that he saw a tiger crossing aroad near Boriya village inMahisagar, around 120 kmfrom here, on February 6.

The teacher clicked theanimal's picture on his mobilephone and shared it withfriends on social media plat-forms.

The photo soon went viraland based on the teacher's

claim, the forest departmentdepartment set up several cam-era traps in that area.

Vasava said the tiger mighthave come to Gujarat from anyof the neighbouring states ofRajasthan, Madhya Pradesh orMaharashtra, where the stripedanimals are found.

"The Madhya Pradesh gov-ernment has said that a tiger

has gone missing from Ujjain.It is possible that the tiger seenhere can be from any of theseneighbouring states which havetigers," the minister stated.

He said the state govern-ment will now contact theNational Tiger ConservationAuthority (NTCA), which hasthe data of tigers across thecountry, to ascertain wherethe feline came from.

The Wildlife Institute ofIndia (WII) will also beinvolved to carry out a surveyin the area to find out if thisregion is conducive for tigers,he said.

"We now agree that there isa tiger in Gujarat. WII willstudy if the area could bedeveloped for tigers. We arealso seeking NTCA's guid-ance," he said.

Vasava said it was yet to be

ascertained how long andwhere the lone tiger had beenroaming in Gujarat.

"We are yet to ascertain ifthat area was the tiger's per-manent residence or whether itmigrated from neighbouringstates. It is certain that Gujaratis also a part of tiger's naturalcorridor," he said.

Principal ChiefConservator of Forests(Wildlife) Akshay Saxena saidevidences like pug marks andscats, as well as hair and scratchmarks on a tree had to someextent confirmed the tiger'spresence in the region.

"Later, camera traps wereset up and we have now gotvisual evidence of a tiger in thearea. It is not necessary that wewill find the tiger in the samearea, so we will continue tokeep a watch," he said. PTI

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Sabarimala: The Lord Ayyappatemple here re-opened onTuesday for five-day monthlypujas under a heavy securityblanket as hundreds of policepersonnel were deployed inand around the hill shrine inview of possible protest fromright-wing activists, opposingentry of young women.

Despite security arrange-ments, a large number of devo-tees, including those fromneighbouring states, turned upto offer prayers when the shrinewas opened at 5 pm.

Chief priest VasudevanNampoothiri opened the sanc-tum sanctorum in the presenceof 'tantri' (head priest)Kandararu Rajeevaru.

There would be no specif-ic pujas on Tuesday and theshrine would be closed at 10pm with the rendition of 'hari-varasanam', the customary lul-laby for Lord Ayyappa, temple

authorities said.The temple would remain

open for five days till February17 for the monthly pujas dur-ing the Malayalam month ofKumbam, temple authoritiessaid.

Several special ritualsincluding 'kalabhabhishekam','sahasrakalasam' and 'lak-sharchana' would be performedduring the five days, they said.

There has been a sense ofanxiety in and aroundSabarimala in view of thereopening as the shrine hadwitnessed frenzied protestsduring the recently concludedannual pilgrimage season overthe entry of women of men-struating age.

Though no prohibitoryorders have been clampeddown in and around the shrine,the entire area from the basecamp to 'Sannidhanam'(templecomplex) is under tight police

security.The BJP and right-wing

outfits had spearheaded theagitations against implemen-tation of the September 28Supreme Court verdict per-mitting women of all agegroups into the shrine.

The areas in and aroundthe temple had witnessed wide-spread violence after theCPI(M)-led LDF governmentdecided to implement the apexcourt order.

Marking the culminationof the over two-month-longstormy annual pilgrimage sea-son, the shrine was closed onJanuary 20.

Traditionally, women ofmenstruating age or in the age group of 10 to 50 years werenot allowed to enter the temple as the deity, LordAyyappa, is believed to be"naishtika brahmachari" orperennial celibate. PTI

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Chennai: The Madras HighCourt on Tuesday ordered theconcerned authorities to imme-diately close all illegal barsacross Tamil Nadu and file areport by February 20.

Expressing surprise over asubmission made on behalf ofthe State Government, whichstated that 3,326 FIRs hadbeen against illegal bars, thecourt directed the home, pro-hibition and excise depart-ment secretary to shut them allforthwith.

The division bench com-prising Justice S Manikumarand Justice SubramoniumPrasad passed the order after apetition from a Coimbatoreresident, D Prabakaran, soughta direction against fraudulentacts in Tamil Nadu StateMarketing Corporation (TAS-

MAC) with regard to issuingand collection of license feesfrom bars.

It was submitted beforethe bench that during April-December 2018 surprise checkswere conducted by senior divi-sional manager and districtmanagers of TASMAC andthey found that 2,505 illegalbars were being run.

The head office squad detected 20 illegal barsand the deputy collectors andthe flying squad detected 801bars.

The petitioner allegedfraud in issuing purchase bills,rendering periodical accountsto the Government, collectionof license fees from the TAS-MAC bars, charging of excessrate, all of which cause loss tothe exchequer. PTI

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Panaji: The Goa bench ofBombay High Court onTuesday issued notice to ChiefMinister Manohar Parrikar'sson Abhijat in connection witha PIL accusing him of destroy-ing forest area for his eco-tourism project.

A division bench of JusticesMahesh Sonak and PrithvirajChavan issued notices to Abhijatand several others, includingsenior government officials,asking them to file replies byMarch 11.

The PIL, filed by local res-idents Abhijit Satyavan Desaiand Prakash Bhagat, allegesrampant destruction of forest,specially in the notified eco-sen-sitive zone adjoining NetravaliWildlife Sanctuary in Netravali

village in Sanguem taluka, byHideaway Hospitality, a com-pany owned by Abhijat.

Notices have also beenissued to Secretary, UnionMinistry of Environment, Forestand Climate Change, ChiefSecretary of Goa, PrincipalChief Conservator of Forest,Goa, the state Eco-sensitiveZone Management Committee,Neturlim village Panchayat andthe Goa Investment Promotionand Facilitation Board, amongothers. "The petition will set outhow the entire machinery of thestate government was misusedby the route of InvestmentPromotion Board to grant in-principle approval and grantingpermissions illegally to the pro-ject," the PIL read. PTI

Mumbai: The Bombay HighCourt on Tuesday pulled up theNational Investigating Agency(NIA) for employing "delay tac-tics" on a bunch of appeals filedby the accused in the 2008Malegaon blast case.

A bench of justices AS Okaand AS Gadkari cautioned theagency that if it didn't change itsconduct, the high court will beforced to stay the trial in the casebefore the special court.

"You realise that a stay onthe trial will end up benefitingthe accused. However, if youcontinue your delay tactics, thiscourt will be left with no choice,"the bench said.

The observations came afterNIA repeatedly justified the useof photocopies of some state-ments of witnesses and confes-

sions of accused persons in thecase. On the previous hearing,the bench had observed that thespecial court should not haveallowed the use of photocopiessince there was no evidence toprove that the photocopied doc-uments were authentic copies ofthe original, certified statements.

It had told NIA counselSandesh Patil that the agencyshould have pointed out theproblem to the special courtthen and there and taken thecorrect legal stand by not rely-ing on photocopies.

However, Patil said Tuesdaythat since the special court hadapproved the use of the photo-copies, the high court must dis-miss the appeal challenging thespecial court order.

The bench was hearing an

appeal filed by Sameer Kulkarni,a co-accused in the case, chal-lenging a 2017 order of the spe-cial court that permitted the useof photocopies of statements ofwitnesses and confessions ofaccused as secondary evidencein the case.

It is likely to continue thehearing next Monday.

Kulkarni and his co-accusedin the case, Prasad ShrikantPurohit, have filed severalappeals in high court challeng-ing various interim orders of thespecial court.

Six people were killed andover 100 injured when an explo-sive strapped to a motorcyclewent off on September 29, 2008near a mosque in Malegaon,about 200 kilometres fromMumbai. PTI

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Shortage of pilots continuedto hamper budget carrier

IndiGos operations with theairline cancelling as many as 30flights on Tuesday from acrossstations and passengers alleged-ly being forced to buy lastminute high fares for its flights,a source said.

On Monday also, theGurugram-headquartered air-line had pulled out 32 flightsfrom its network.

On the other hand, therewas no indication of any probeby the aviation regulator intothe cancellation of such large

number of flights by the airlinesince last Saturday.

IndiGo has cancelled 30flights for Tuesday due to theon-going pilots issue. Most ofthe flights have been cancelledfrom Kolkata, Hyderabad andChennai, the source said.

While eight flights are notbeing operated from Kolkata,another five flights are can-celled from Hyderabad andfour each from Bangalore andChennai, among others, headded.

The source also allegedthat IndiGo was forcing pas-sengers to either buy lastminute fares or offering them

alternate flights with one-stopconnectivity with a long tran-sit time.

Response to the queriessent to IndiGo and DirectorateGeneral of Civil Aviation onthis issue was awaited.

In a statement on Sunday,the airline had blamed onweather for disruption in oper-ations across its network.

“As part of recovering ourschedule, positioning of thecrew and aircraft had to bereadjusted. As a result, a num-ber of flights were cancelled, ithad said without giving anyspecific number of flights werecancelled.

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Retail inflation fell to a 19-month low of 2.05 per cent

in January due to fall in pricesof food articles, mainly fruitand vegetables, coupled witheasing of fuel cost,Government data showed onTuesday.

The Consumer Price Index(CPI)-based retail inflationwas revised downwards forthe preceding monthDecember to 2.11 per centfrom the earlier estimate of2.19 per cent, showed datafrom the Central StatisticsOffice (CSO).

In the year-ago month,January 2018, the retail infla-tion was at 5.07 per cent.

Fruits, vegetables and eggscontinued to witness defla-tionary trend during Januarythis year, with their pricesdeclining 4.18 per cent, 13.32per cent and 2.44 per cent,respectively, according to theCSO data released by theMinistry of Statistics andProgramme Implementation(MoSPI).

The rate of price rise in the‘fuel and light’ category was2.20 per cent in January 2019,compared with 4.54 per cent inDecember 2018.

The overall food inflationduring the latest monthremained in the negative zone

at (-)2.17 per cent. It was (-)2.51 per cent in December2018.

“At 2.05 per cent, CPI forJanuary is at 19-month low.Extended winter remains sup-portive of decelerating foodprices. The fuel component,too, has surprised on thedownside,” said Shubhada Rao,chief economist, Yes Bank.

The previous low than thelatest print of 2.05 per cent wasback in June 2017, when retailinflation was at 1.46 per cent.This, along with core inflationat 5.36 per cent, presents a sce-nario of CPI year-on-yeargrowth between 2 per cent and3 per cent in the next 5months. This raises the prob-ability of rate cuts in April andbeyond, she said.

ICICI Bank Head ofGlobal Markets Group BPasanna said: “India’s indus-trial production data forDecember was in line withexpectations and confirms ourbelief that the November printwas more an aberration.”

The recovery in growth inconsumer goods, especiallynon-durables, is encouraging.

“Our expectations for thenext few months are alsobenign on headline CPI and,hence, we believe that there isa room for further accommo-dation in the next policy meet-ing,” he said.

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The Government has invit-ed applications to open

more ‘Jan Aushadhi Kendras’across the country and has alsowaived application fee,Parliament was informed onTuesday.

The Government endeav-ours to cover all states, unionterritories and districts of thecountry by opening more andmore Pradhan Mantri BhartiyaJan Aushadhi Pariyojana(PMBJP) Kendras in order tomake quality generic medicinesavailable at affordable prices toall.

“To achieve this objective,applications are invited fromindividuals, NGOs, charitableinstitutions/hospitals, privatehospitals, trusts, societies, selfhelp groups and Governmentagencies for opening PMBJPKendras through online as wellas offline mode. Application feefor opening PMBJP Kendrashas been waived off so thatmore and more people canapply under the scheme,”Minister of State for Chemicalsand Fertilizers Mansukh LMandaviya said in a writtenreply in the Lok Sabha.

A total of 5,001 PMBJPKendras were functional in651 districts of the country, ason February 5.

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The net profit of Small IndustriesDevelopment Bank of India

(SIDBI), the all India financial insti-tution engaged in creating an inte-grated credit and development sup-port ecosystem for micro & smallenterprises, rose by 39.9 per cent infirst nine months of this financial yearin comparison to that in the lastfinancial year.

The increase in profit is mainly dueto higher income from increased

portfolio.“In a scenario when the banking

sector is reeling under pressure, we haveachieved encouraging growth in ourfinancial performance. Credit demandto the MSEs sector continues to bestrong. We expect to maintain thegrowth momentum as we continue tomove forward with our SIDBI Vision2.0 which aims to promote inclusivegrowth driven by deeper engagementwith MSEs,” said Mohammad Mustafa,Chairman & Managing Director,SIDBI.

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Power Finance Corporation’sProfit After Tax (PAT) is up

by 53% from �1,355 crore inthe second quarter to �2076crore during the third quarter(October-December) of thecurrent Financial year of 2018-19.

The Net Interest Incomerose by 12% to reach a figure of`2,435crore as against `2,180crore recorded during the sec-ond quarter of the currentFinancial year. The company’sNet Interest Margin has beenimproving over the quartersand is 3.42% for third quarter.

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Bureau of Indian Standards(BIS) Tuesday announced

the launch of an online consumercommunity and an online indus-try community for standardsconsultation. These online com-munities have been initiated inassociation with local circles.

This will enable consumeracross India to get connectedwith BIS and participate in theconsultation process on stan-dards. This community will alsoallow consumers to share theirexperiences with various products.

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The Government on Tuesday informedParliament that loans worth �7,277.31 crore

of public sector banks under Pradhan MantriMudra Yojana (PMMY) have turned bad at theend of March 2018.

Loans extended under PMMY from incep-tion of the scheme up to March 2018 by all mem-ber lending institutions (MLIs) were �5.71 lakhcrore, Minister of State for Finance Shiv PratapShukla said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

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Commerce and IndustryMinister Suresh Prabhu

will hold bilateral discussionson trade issues with USCommerce Secretary WilburRoss on February 14 here.

The Indo-US CEO Forumwill also held its meeting on thesame day, the commerce min-istry said in a statement.

“Representatives of the USand Indian Governments willshare outcomes of the 2018commercial dialogue workplan, including the three workstreams: standards, businessclimate and investment andtravel and tourism,” it said.

Discussions will be held onthe 2019 commercial dialoguepriorities, identification of newareas of cooperation based onthe new CEO Forum recom-mendations, it added.

The co-chairs for the US-India CEO Forum areNatarajan Chandrasekaran,Chairman of Tata Sons, andJames Taiclet, Chairman,President and CEO ofAmerican Tower Corporation.

It said that during the CEOforum, working groups will givepresentations and recommen-dations related to their sector.

This forum was reconsti-tuted by the Trump and ModiAdministrations. It is an effec-tive platform to highlight keymarket access issues thatimpact the ease of doing busi-ness and to identify areas forcloser collaboration, it said.

Annual bilateral trade ingoods and services between the

countries doubled over the lastdecade, from USD 58 billion in2007 to USD 126 in 2017.

“Both countries areresolved to remain engaged andtake measures for furtherenhancement of bilateral trade.Bilateral trade in 2018 contin-ued in spite of uncertain glob-al economic conditions.Bilateral investment flows havealso grown appreciably overrecent years,” it added.

The talks assumes signifi-cance as officials of both thesides are negotiating a tradepackage to boost bilateral com-merce.

India is pressing forexemption from high dutyimposed by the US on certainsteel and aluminium products,resumption of export benefitsto some domestic goods undertheir Generalised System ofPreferences (GSP) as well asgreater market access for itsproducts from sectors like agri-culture, automobile, auto com-ponents and engineering.

On the other hand, the USis demanding greater marketaccess through cut in importduties for its agriculture goods,dairy products, medicaldevices, IT and communicationitems, the official added.

However, the commerceministry is not in favour of cut-ting or eliminating customsduties on seven categories ofICT products, including high-end mobile phones and smartwatches, as demanded by theUS, citing revenue loss andadverse impact on Make inIndia initiative.

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She made a successful come-back after an injury lay-off,but India's top weightlifter

Mirabai Chanu realises that sheneeds to improve her perfor-mance by a few notches if shewants to claim Gold at the TokyoOlympics.

Mirabai, a 2017 WorldChampionships Gold medallist (in48kg) was laid low due to a lowerback injury that kept her out foreight months, claimed Gold at theEGAT Cup in Thailand last weekin her new 49 kg category. She fin-ished on top with an effort of 192kg.

But Mirabai knows only toowell that she will have to go waybeyond the 200kg mark soonerthan later so that she can competewith the best in the world in hernew weight category.

"With the increase of 1kgfrom 48 to 49, all the weightlifterswill now try to increase their totallift. Moreover, some lifters, whowere competing in 53kg earlierwill now come down to 49kg. So,the competition will be toughernow," Mirabai said.

"I am doing 199-200kg duringtraining and I am confident ofgoing past 200kg in the actualcompetitions in the next fewmonths. My aim is to touch 210kgbefore the Tokyo Olympics, whichwill be the world record. It will not

be easy but my target is to do thatand I will have to work harderthan before," she added.

It will not be easy for the 24-year-old Manipuri to improve10kg in one and a half years. Herpersonal best in 48kg is 196kg,which she lifted while winningGold at the Gold CoastCommonwealth Games last year.She had won the 2017 WorldChampionships Gold (in 48kg)with a total lift of 194kg.

Last year, the InternationalWeightlifting Federation (IWF)rejigged the weight categories forboth men and women in theOlympics and other global events.The least Olympic weight in thewomen's category has beenchanged to 49kg from earlier48kg.

The 2018 WorldChampionships in Turkmenistanwas held under the new weightsystem and the Gold, Silver andBronze winners there lifted 209kg,208kg and 206kg respectively.Even the fourth-place finisherlifted 201kg.

"I have to do better than the209kg if I have to keep myself inthe frame for a Tokyo OlympicsGold. I hope to do that before theOlympics. The AsianChampionships (in April inChina) and 2019 WorldChampionships (in September inThailand) will give me a chance todo that as the best in the world will

be there."I can do that but I have to

work harder than before. I want tobreak the world record of 209kg,"she said. The 2020 TokyoOlympics will have seven women'sweight categories — 49kg, 55kg,

59kg, 64kg, 76kg, 87kg and +87kg.The qualification process has

also been changed with the earli-er system of clinching an Olympicberth based on a single perfor-mance has been done away with.The qualification period has been

split into three — from November1, 2018 to April 30, 2019; May 1,2019 to October 31, 2019;November 1, 2019 to April 30,2020.

A weightlifter has to partici-pate in a minimum of six IWF-designated events (Gold andSilver level only) and a minimumof one eligible event per period.

At the end of the qualificationperiod, the IWF will issue a list ofweightlifters on the basis ofAbsolute Ranking Points subjectto participation in two events inthe same Olympic category andcalculated from four results —best one from each of the threeperiods and one next best resultin the whole of qualification peri-od.

Mirabai said she has no prob-lem with the new qualificationsystem as it will keep a weightlifterconsistent in his or her perfor-mance.

"Earlier, a weightlifter mayqualify for Olympics early in thequalification period and his or herperformance may dip beforegoing into the Olympics. Underthe new system, I have to keep myperformance consistent because Icannot miss taking part in all thethree periods," she said.

Mirabai is one of the fourIndian weightlifters, who are inthe International RegisteredTesting Pool of the IWF. The otherthree are Jeremy Lalrinnunga,Satish Kumar Sivalingam andMonalisha Sonowal.

#��World num-ber one Naomi Osakahas split from hercoach Sascha Bajinjust weeks after win-ning the AustralianOpen to completeback-to-back grandslam victories, the Japanese player said onMonday. "Hey everyone, I will no longer be work-ing together with Sascha. I thank him for his workand wish him all the best in the future," the 21-year-old tweeted in a shock announcement.

Bajin, a former hitting partner to SerenaWilliams, responded: "Thank you Naomi. I wishyou nothing but the best as well. What a ride thatwas. Thank you for letting me be part of this."

Osaka, who became the first Asian to hold thetop ranking after beating Czech Petra Kvitova inthe Melbourne final, had worked with theGerman for just over a year. No reason was givenfor the decision to part ways.

Based in the United States, Osaka linked upwith Bajin in late 2017 and enjoyed a breakthroughyear, climbing from 72 in the world to the top ofthe women's rankings. AFP

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Acrammed BWF calendar affecting hisfitness last season, Indian shuttler B Sai

Praneeth says he will pick his tournamentscarefully in the Olympic qualification yearand is eyeing a national title to prepare forthe All England Championship next month.

With defending champion HS Prannoyand finalist Kidambi Srikanth withdrawingdue to fitness issues, former championPraneeth will be one of the favourites to liftthe trophy at the 83rd Senior Nationals,which got underway with the qualifiers onTuesday.

"Last season, I struggled with my fitnessand confidence because there were too manytournaments. So I couldn't maintain fitness.From June to December, I played continu-ously, so it was all about fitness. I am finenow and fortunately no injuries," Praneethsaid.

"I am looking forward to All Englandnext month and Nationals will be good

match practice to prepare. It will help myconfidence ahead of the internationalevents. You have to beat all the top Indianplayers to win it and it is not easy because

everyone is playing well," said Praneeth, whowill also play the Swiss Open this year.

The Olympic qualification period willbe between April 29, 2019 to April 26, 2020,and the BWF rankings published on April30, 2020 will decide who makes the cut forthe Tokyo Games.

Praneeth, who is currently ranked26th, said he will need a bit of luck and seriesa consistent performances to earn him aticket to the Olympics.

"It is an Olympic qualification year, soscheduling of the tournaments will beimportant. I can afford not to play a fewevents. We will need a bit of luck and goodperformance. I have to play quarters andsemis consistently, but that won't be easy, soyou also need a favourable draw sometimes.

Praneeth won six of the eight matcheshe played for the eventual champion,Bengaluru Raptors, in the fourth edition ofPremier Badminton League (PBL) and hesays it boosted his confidence ahead of theinternational season.

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South African captain Faf duPlessis will be seeking to

find Sri Lanka's "breakingpoint" as early as possiblewhen the first of two Testsstarts at Kingsmead onWednesday.

With Sri Lankan coachChandika Hathurusinghaadmitting that recentupheavals in Sri Lankan crick-et had affected the players, DuPlessis vowed to apply pressureon the tourists.

"They have had a toughtime in Australia and therehave been a lot of things hap-pening away from their team,"Du Plessis said on Tuesday.

"It's not ideal for them butI will always respect the oppo-sition we play against. Ourpreparation doesn't change."

Referring to a losing seriesin Sri Lanka last year, DuPlessis said: "They beat us 2-0in their own conditions whichhurt us quite a bit.

"It's important for us tokeep them under pressure tomake sure they don't start theseries well. If we can do that,possibly their breaking pointwill be a little bit sooner than

it would (normally) be becauseof all the stuff that's happeningaway from the game."

With Sri Lanka having aninexperienced bowling line-up,Du Plessis hinted that SouthAfrica might go into the matchwith six batsmen, includingwicketkeeper Quinton deKock, and five bowlers.

Du Plessis said left-arm

spinner Keshav Maharaj waslikely to play on a groundwhere spin bowling has beena factor — but he liked theoption of continuing with abattery of four fast bowlers fol-lowing a successful recentseries against Pakistan, eventhough he did not expect thepitch to offer much help topace bowlers.

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Bangladesh coach SteveRhodes said his

charges were relishingbeing underdogs as theychase a maiden victoryover the Black Caps onNew Zealand soil onWednesday.

The tourists havenever beaten the hosts inany format during fourprevious tours to NewZealand but Rhodes saidthey should not be writtenoff ahead of the first one-day international in Napieron Thursday.

"We know it's going tobe very difficult, we've gotto be realistic," theEnglishman told reporters.

"But we quite likebeing underdogs. We cansurprise a few peoplebeing an underdog and I

think New Zealand knowthey've still got to playsome very good cricket tobeat us."

Rhodes saidBangladesh's task hadbeen made tougher by theinjury-enforced absencesof all-rounder Shakib AlHasan and pacemanTaskin Ahmed.

He said the gruellingBangladesh Premier

League Twenty20 tourna-ment had been a mixedblessing for his players asthey prepare for a NewZealand tour that includesthree one-day internation-als and three Tests.

"It's been a hard grindbut a great competition aswell (with) lots of positivesin terms of experiencingtough cricket," he said.

"But it's taken its toll

and the preparation is notideal. I only hope that onthe day we show that wecan play some cricket."While his players werebattle hardened, Rhodessaid they must be wary ofa New Zealand side stillsmarting from a 4-1 ODIseries loss to India.

"I think they'll usethose bruises to bounceback and we've got to beready for a tough NewZealand turning up," hesaid.

Bangladesh are stillbuoyed by their own 2-1ODI series win over theWest Indies in Decemberand Rhodes said his sidewas far more experiencedthan those that previous-ly toured New Zealand.

"It's a really big taskbut it doesn't mean wecan't win," he said.

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With the absence of injured play-maker Marco Reus, Borussia

Dortmund will face Tottenham in theChampions League without their bestplayer, Germany legend LotharMatthaeus said on Tuesday.

Reus has scored 17 goals and cre-ated 11 more for the Bundesliga lead-ers this season, but a thigh strain willkeep him out of the last 16, first legagainst Spurs at Wembley.

"Now he's also going to be miss-ing for the important game againstTottenham - that won't make it anyeasier," said former Germany captainMatthaeus, now a Sky pundit.

"The third-best team in thePremier League against the best inthe Bundesliga. I see the chances as50/50.

"In Marco Reus, Dortmund ismissing their best player."

However, it is not just Reus whowill be missing against Spurs.

Right-back Lukasz Piszczek isout with a heel injury, stand-in cen-

tre-back Julian Weigl has flu andstriker Paco Alcacer is sidelined bya shoulder injury.

Dortmund head coach LucienFavre is struggling with the effects offlu and England winger JadonSancho forgot his passport, forcinga red-faced dash home to retreive thedocument before making the flightto London.

"Yes, we have a few dropped out,but we won't be going there just towave," said Dortmund's director ofsport Michael Zorc.

Reus injured his thigh lastTuesday while drilling home a directfree-kick against Werder Bremen, butDortmund lost on penalties as theGerman Cup tie finished 3-3 afterextra time.

Spurs are also without big namesof their own as England forwardsHarry Kane and Dele Alli are injured.

Matthaeus says Dortmund's 3-3draw at home to Hoffenheim onSaturday showed how much theymiss Reus' influence and organisa-tion.

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Badminton great LeeChong Wei aims to

make his comeback inApril at the MalaysiaOpen after a cancer bat-tle, a month later than heoriginally hoped, an offi-cial confirmed onTuesday.

The three-timeOlympic Silver medallistand former world num-ber has been on the side-lines since July last yearwhen he was diagnosedwith early-stage nosecancer.

The Malaysian starunderwent a gruellingprogramme of specialisttreatment in Taiwan butpledged not to retire andresumed training last

month.The 36-year-old had

previously said he want-ed to make a return tocompetitive play at theAll England Open in

March.But on Monday Lee

told local media he wastargeting a return toaction on home soil atthe Malaysia Open,

which he has won 12times, from April 2 to 7.

"I have got anotherappointment with mydoctor in Taiwan nextmonth. Once I get thegreen light from him,then I will make a fullcomeback, hopefully atthe Malaysia Open," hetold the New StraitsTimes newspaper.

"It isn't time to makea full comeback yet, Ihave to do it slowly instages after consultingmy doctor." BadmintonAssociation of Malaysiageneral managerMichelle Chai confirmedthat Lee planned to comeback in April.

Lee still hopes tocompete in the Tokyo2020 Olympics but may

face a tough fight toqualify against risingMalaysian stars.

Since he stoppedplaying, he has slippedto 30 in the worldrankings, behind twoMalaysian players, LeeZii Jia and LiewDaren. A country cansend a maximum oftwo players to com-plete in the Games,provided they are bothranked in the world'stop 16.

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Ranji Trophy champions Vidarbha managedto restrict Rest of India to a manageable 330

after orchestrating a middle-order collapsedespite dogged hundred from Hanuma Vihariand a 95 by opener Mayank Agarwal on theopening day of the Irani Cup.

The two India internationals added 125 runsfor the second wicket but once Agarwal's free-flowing knock came to an end, the Rest inningslacked momentum as they could never recov-er from a middle-order collapse.

Skipper Ajinkya Rahane's (13) problemsagainst slow bowling continue as left-arm spin-ner Aditya Sarwate (3/99) had another prizedscalp in his possession after getting CheteshwarPujara twice in the Ranji Trophy final.

Sarwate got able support from the ambidex-trous spinner Akshay Karnewar (1-45) and vet-eran off-spinner Akshay Wakhare (3-67).

Vihari, who had scored a hundred in the lastIrani Cup, once again held the innings togeth-er scoring 114 off 211 balls with 11 fours andtwo sixes. It was in complete contrast toAgarwal's innings which was laced with 10 foursand three sixes.

The 27-year-old Agarwal, who made his Testdebut against Australia on Boxing Day last year,missed out on a deserving hundred after beingdismissed by seamer Yash Thakur.

Agarwal paced his innings well as herepeatedly peppered the off-side field and wasin a mood to punish anything on his pads.

Vihari, who took time to settle, was later inhis usual element. The Andhra batsman, how-ever, survived a scare on 24, when he edged tofirst slip off Sarwate, but the ball touched theground even as Vidarbha skipper Faiz Fazalclaimed a catch. The third umpire, who wasapproached but it was ruled not out.

However, once Rahane was gone, edgingone to the gully fielder after the deliveryturned as well as kicked up, the Rest innings lost

its fizz. From 231 for 3, suddenly, they slumpedto 258 for 7 as Vihari reached his 16th first-classhundred.

Shreyas Iyer (19) and Ishan Kishan (2) failedto contribute, which brought about Rest'sdownfall.

Vihari, despite the fall of partners at theother end, continued to flourish as he took teampast 300-run mark before Sarwate bowled anoth-er classical left-armer's delivery that turned awayfrom the right hander to take the edge.

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Having found his mojo back,opener KL Rahul will like to

continue his good form with an eyeon the reserve opener's slot for theWorld Cup as he leads India Aagainst England Lions in the second'Unoff icial ' Test, starting onWednesday.

Rahul, who was sent by theteam management to the India Aset-up, to find some form, scored 89in the opening 'Test' against a goodLions attack and one good knockwill keep him in good stead beforethe squad selection for the Australiaseries on February 15.

India A did earn the braggingrights in the first Test with Gujaratopener Priyank Panchal hitting adouble hundred and 'keeper KonaBharat scoring a hundred atWayanad in the drawn encounter.

Rahul, Panchal and Bharatwould like to continue their goodrun with the bat while AbhimanyuEaswaran, who missed out on a bigscore in the Wayanad 'Test' andAnkeet Bawne will aim to findform.

The out of favour as well KarunNair will also be lookjing to keephimself relevant having done pre-cious little in the past few months.

The India A bowlers did well to

restrict the Lions to 340 despiteallowing them to get off to a solidstart. Speedster Navdeep Saini shonewith a five-wicket haul and the oth-ers including comeback man ShardulThakur along with young AveshKhan had a good workout.

The team think-tank may con-sider giving former Test bowlerVarun Aaron a go in this matchgiven that the India selectors arelooking at genuine quick bowlerswith an aim to broaden the pool.

The visiting batsmen defied theIndia 'A' bowlers on the final day ofthe first 'Test' to force a draw and will

be eyeing an improved performance.Ben Duckett and Ollie Pope,

who have played Tests for England,did well in Wayanad and will hopeto get going again while the captainSam Billings who didn't have a veryhappy outing will be expected to hitform again after his impressive dis-plays in the ODIs earlier.

The bowlers were put to swordby Panchal, Bharat and Rahul, andwill have to step up in Mysuru. Itremains to be see if left-arm spinnerDanny Briggs, who bore the bruntin the first game, gets a secondchance.

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The national selection com-mittee is unlikely to make

any experiment when theypick the squad for the five-match ODI series againstAustralia on February 15 inMumbai.

The five-match ODI serieswill start in Hyderabad onMarch 2 followed by matchesin Nagpur (March 5), Ranchi(March 8), Mohali (March10) and Delhi (March 13).

The team for the two T20International matches to beplayed in Visakhapatnam(February 24) and Bengaluru(February 27) will also beannounced on the same day.

It has been learnt that theteam management as well asthe selection committee are onthe same page and the squadthat will play against Australiais likely to be a mirror-imageof the one that will be travel-ling to UK for the WorldCup.

There is a possibility thatselectors may pick 16 mem-bers for the ODIs instead of 15in order to check all the play-ers in contention for theWorld Cup.

"There is a possibility thatRohit Sharma may be restedfor the two T20 Internationalsas Virat Kohli will be back.But when it comes to select-ing the ODI squad, therewon't be any experimentswith only five matches to go,"a senior BCCI official said onTuesday.

Asked about the muchtalked about workload man-agement programme, the offi-cial said: "Most of our ODIboys will be getting good twoand half weeks of rest. Well,the pacers can be rotated dur-ing the five matches but noone will be kept out of thesquad and rested. Workload

management will be requiredmore during the IPL.

"As of now, there are onlytwo spots that are up forgrabs. The battle is for secondwicket-keeper betweenDinesh Karthik and RishabhPant along with third opener'sslot. The team management atleast won't experiment duringthe first three games," heinformed.

There is a school ofthought that Shikhar Dhawanmay be rested for the final twoODIs and just check if KLRahul has found his formback in order to keep himready for the mega event.

"However, it won't be acase of any surprise selectionas of now. It will just be a caseof who plays on the day.Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar andShami are all fit and available.Along with Khaleel, thesefour will be rotated to checkthe combination, more thanthe workload management,"the official said.

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Indian batswomen JemimahRodrigues and Smriti

Mandhana on Tuesdayjumped four places to be sec-ond and sixth in the ICC T20rankings despite their team's0-3 loss in New Zealand.

Rodrigues's 132 runs inthe three-match series againstNew Zealand have lifted herto second position whileMandhana, who grabbed thetop spot in ODIs last week,has gained four spots after fin-ishing as the leading run-get-ter in the New Zealand serieswith an aggregate of 180.

The stylish left-handersmashed two half-centuriesincluding a fluent 86 in thelast match in Hamilton thatIndia lost by two runs.

Spinners Radha Yadav,up 18 places to 10th after tak-ing four wickets in the series,and Deepti Sharma, up fiveplaces to 14th, are the India

players to move up amongbowlers.

For New Zealand, SophieDevine has moved from 11thto eighth position among bat-ters after scoring 153 runs inthe series including a match-winning 72 in the last match,while captain AmySatterthwaite's 87 runs havelifted her from 23rd to 17thposition. Among bowlers, LeaTahuhu has moved up fiveslots to 11th position.

Windies' Deandra Dottinhas grabbed the top spotamong all-rounders.

Dottin has been thestandout performer in a 2-1series win in Pakistan. Dottinhas moved up two places tothird among batters afterscoring 158 runs in the serieswhile her three wickets havelifted her two slots to 29thamong bowlers.

Pakistan captain BismahMaroof has gained three slotsto tie with compatriot JaveriaKhan in 15th position amongbatters while Sana Mir, who istop ranked in the ODI format,has moved up six places totake 28th position amongT20 bowlers after taking threewickets in the series.

In the team rankings,New Zealand have overtakenEngland to take second place.Australia continue to leadthe table while the Windiesand India are fourth and fifthrespectively.

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The Delhi & Districts CricketAssociation (DDCA) is all set to

impose life ban on U-23 cricketerAnuj Dedha, who had physicallyassaulted former India pacer AmitBhandari for not selecting him in thestate U-23 side.

Senior selection committeechairman Bhandari was attacked byDedha and his hired goons at the StStephen's ground on Monday whenhe was watching a warm-up game ofthe senior Delhi team preparing forthe Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.

Dedha along with 15 othersattacked Bhandari with hockey sticks,cricket bats and rods and the formerpacer sustained injuries on his fore-head and other body parts.

He was taken to hospital andsubsequently discharged after treat-ment while Delhi Police arrestedDedha. He is currently under policecustody.

DDCA president Rajat Sharmasaid that there will be a meeting heldon Wednesday to decide the quan-tum of punishment. He said as ofnow, life ban on Dedha seemed amere formality.

"We have a meeting tomorrowbut as our former captain GautamGambhir has suggested, I thinkthere is no other option left apartfrom imposing a life ban on this man

Anuj Dedha. Whatever he has done,he only deserves exemplary punish-ment," Sharma said on Tuesday.

The DDCA president informedthat he has summoned all age groupselectors as well as some distin-guished former cricketers for a meet-ing.

"We need to discuss selectionissues but I want to assure all selec-tors that they should continue to fear-lessly select sides. I am with them. Ihave met the Lt Governor AnilBaijal and requested him to ask thepolice authorities to probe all angles.I would like to know if there is anydeep rooted conspiracy in thisattack," Sharma added.

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Vijay Shankar, who has made astrong case for himself to beincluded in India's World

Cup bound squad, feels that hisbiggest takeaway from the Australiaand New Zealand series is learningthe "art of chasing" from none otherthan Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Shankar had some decent perfor-mances with the bat during theNew Zealand leg, now wants to fin-ish games like Dhoni.

"I was happy to be around withthe seniors. Just watching them pre-pare for matches and learning.Moreover, I learnt a lot by watchingDhoni during run chases. I learnt alot about how to pace an innings,especially during chases. I learntabout his mindset," Shankar, whoreturned on Monday said.

For him, it was like living adream as he shared the dressingroom with Dhoni, Virat Kohli andRohit Sharma.

"It was a great experience toshare the dressing room with nameslike Virat Kohli, M S Dhoni, Rohit

Sharma. It is important to watch andlearn from the seniors in the team,"the soft-spoken Shankar said.

Shankar, who had confessedafter the final T20 Internationalthat he was surprised when promot-ed up the order to No 3, said that hewas specifically told by the teammanagement before the start of theseries.

"I was surprised but at the sametime was very happy to be asked tobat at number three. I was told beforethe series started that I would bat atone-drop. In T20s, there is notmuch time to settle down and theapproach needs to be positive."

Though he got a few 40's,Shankar lamented that he couldn'ttake the team home during the final

T20 International."I thought I should have got

more runs. Also, I felt disappointedthat I could not take the team homein the third T20. I had the chance.It is a learning experience for me. Ineed to adapt faster and also be con-sistent..." he added.

He got an important partnershipwith Ambati Rayudu in Wellington

ODI when India were 18 for 4 andhe cherished batting in challengingconditions.

"When I walked in at 18 for 4, itwas all about playing time andbuilding a partnership (withRayudu). It was a good challenge asthe New Zealand bowlers were bowl-ing well. We had a good partnership.I should have gone on and made abig score..." he added.

The Tamil Nadu all-rounder,who has been around the India 'A'set-up for a while before graduatingto the senior side, said his focus ison constant improvement whileadding that he saw every match as anopportunity to do well.

"I have done the hard work andgot the opportunity in the nationalteam. Now my focus is on constantimprovement. I have to step up anddo well in every match I get to play.I see each game as an opportunity todo well," he added.

Asked about chief selector MSKPrasad's recent remark that he wasin the reckoning for a spot in theWorld Cup squad, the all-rounderplayed it down.

"I don't want to think too farahead. I want to do well in everygame. Every day is important forme..." he said.

"I still need to fine-tune a fewthings," he added.

The 28-year-old Tamil Naducricketer, who made his ODI debutagainst Australia at the MelbourneCricket Ground before the NewZealand series, said it was a big thingand "a happy feeling" to get startedat an iconic venue.

"Yeah... To make my ODI debutat the MCG was a big thing and ahappy feeling. Having watched somany matches and dreamt of play-ing at such venues, I was delightedto play there," he added.

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Arsenal midfielder Aaron Ramsey hassigned a four-year deal to join Juventus on

a free transfer from next July, the Italian cham-pions said on Monday.

The 28-year-old Wales international willarrive in northern Italy on July 1 with his con-tract running until June 30, 2023.

As his contract will have ended, Arsenalwill not be entitled to a transfer fee.

"As a result of the registration of the play-er, Juventus will incur additional costs of 3.7million euros ($4.1 million), to be paid by July10," the Serie A champions said.

The move brings to an end Ramsey's 11-year spell with the Gunners having moved fromCardiff City in 2008.

Over the past decade he has played 256Premier League games, scoring 38 top-flightgoals, and winning three FA Cup and twoCommunity Shield.

He also had two loan spells at NottinghamForest in 2010, and back at former club, Cardiffin 2011.

"I wanted to issue a personal statement forall the Arsenal fans who have been extremelyloyal and supportive," Ramsey wrote onInstagram.

"You welcomed me as a teenager and havebeen there for me through all the highs andlows I have encountered during my time at theclub.

"It is with a heavy heart that I leave after11 incredible years in north London. Thankyou.

"I will continue to give the team 100 percent and hope to finish the season strongly,before heading on to my next chapter in Turin."Ramsey has 58 caps for Wales, scoring 14 goals,and was a part of the Welsh side that reachedthe Euro 2016 semi-finals.

He becomes the third Welshman to play forJuventus following club legend John Charles andformer European Golden Boot winner IanRush.

Ramsey had turned down the offer of a newdeal at Arsenal, with clubs including Barcelona,Real Madrid, Paris Saint Germain, Inter Milanand Bayern Munich linked with the player.

"Everyone at Arsenal Football Club wish-es Aaron Ramsey a happy and successfulfuture," the London club said in a statement.

"Aaron's made a fantastic contribution toour club since joining from Cardiff City in 2008.He has always been a consummate profession-al and will always have a special place in thehearts and memories of Arsenal fans aroundthe world."

Ramsey will reportedly become Juventus'second-highest earner behind CristianoRonaldo earning 7 million euros ($7.8 million)a season.

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Stan Wawrinka benefitted from aBenoit Paire collapse, with the Swiss

carving out a 7-6(7/4), 6-1 win onMonday at the Rotterdam Open.

After fighting through a 45-minutefirst set the 33-year-old Wawrinkaneeded just 26 more minutes to saltaway the first-round victory as themoody Paire had unleashed a trade-mark racquet smash after dropping theopening set.

The frustrated 58th-rankedFrenchman made little effort in the sec-ond set, phoning it in with apparent dis-interest as Wawrinka took completecharge.

The field is headed by Asia's topplayer, Kei Nishikori of Japan, whoopens in his tournament debut onTuesday against Montpellier finalistPierre-Hugues Herbert of France.

In other first-round results onMonday, Italian veteran Andreas Seppioutlasted Peter Gojowczyk of Germany7-6(7/3), 3-6, 6-2 while Kazakh MikhailKukushkin beat Dutchman RobinHaase, a quarter-finalist here in 2018who lost to Roger Federer, 6-2, 7-6(7/4).

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