· 2019-06-06 · puri are special invitees of the ... puri to be developed by the mayfair hotels...

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D efense Minister Rajnath Singh is back on several reconstituted key Cabinet com- mittees after his exclusion from them raised eyebrows in the political circles. In a Thursday morning notification that gave a clear signal of Rajnath Singh’s dimin- ishing role in decision making, the Modi Government had restricted him to only two of the eight key Cabinet commit- tees. This was seen as a “humil- iation” to Rajnath, whose suc- cessor in the Home Ministry, Amit Shah, figured in all the committees and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in all but one of them. But late at night the same day, the Government added Rajnath to four more Cabinet committees, including all- important Political Affairs Committee as well as invest- ment and growth, employment and skill development, and head of Parliamentary Affairs Committee. Rajnath has been included in all committees in a designa- tion above Amit Shah. Rajnath is out two committees — appointments, which has tra- ditionally had only PM and Home Minister as members — and accommodation, a rela- tively low-profile panel. Incidentally, the number two minister in the Government — by conven- tion the person who is sworn in right after the Prime Minister — chairs the Cabinet and the Political Affairs Committee in the absence of the Prime Minister. In the absence of Rajnath, Shah would have presided over the meet- ings of these committees. Earlier, Rajnath was includ- ed in the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs and Cabinet Committee Security but was notably missing from the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs, which have Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Sitharaman, Narendra Tomar, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Harsh Vardhan, Piyush Goyal, Prahlad Joshi and allies Ram Vilas Paswan, Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Arvind Sawant as its members. All the committees bore the stamp of Shah which clear- ly indicates his growing influ- ence in governance. Shah con- tinues to hold the post of BJP president as the party scouts for his replacement. He has emerged the de facto number two after Modi. The induction of Shah, who is also the BJP president, in the Government had led many political observers to believe that he would be the second most powerful person in the new order and the Thursday morning notifica- tion on the restructured Cabinet committees had stoked the sepculation, only to be scotched by the night. Shah had chaired an infor- mal meeting of several Cabinet Ministers, including External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Commerce and Railways Minister Piyush Goyal and Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, besides Sitharaman, on June 4 over crude oil related issues. Shah will head the Cabinet Committee on Accommodation. Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari, Sitharaman and Railway and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal are its members. Minister of State in PMO Jitendra Singh and Housing and Urban Affairs and Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Puri are special invitees of the Accommodation Committee. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs will be headed by the PM and will have Rajnath, Shah, Gadkari, Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister DV Sadananda Gowda, Sitharaman, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, Communication Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister for Food Processing Harsimrat Kaur Badal as its members. Amid economic slowdown and rising unemployment, the PM on Wednesday constituted two new Cabinet committees under his chairmanship to spur economic growth, investment and employment. T he Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday slashed its benchmark lending rate by 25 basis points to a nearly nine- year low of 5.75 per cent pro- viding relief to industry as well as EMI payees in home, auto and other sectors, but the Central bank’s failure to assuage investors concerns regarding the NBFC sector triggered a massive sell-off in the stock market which suffered biggest one-day fall in 2019. The reverse repo rate under stands at 5.50 per cent. The third rate cut this year brought the interest rates to their lowest level in nine years even as the RBI changed its stance to “accommodative” from “neutral”, opening up the possibility of another cut in the coming months to infuse some life into the economy growing at the slowest pace since Modi came to power in 2014. The RBI said it has done away with charges on fund transfers through RTGS and NEFT routes to boost digital transactions and asked banks to pass on the benefits to cus- tomers. SBI charges between 1 and 5 for transactions through NEFT and between 5 and 50 for RTGS route. Significantly, all the six members of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted unanimously for a rate cut and switching of its stance to “accommodative” from neu- tral. RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said the shift in the stance meant that an increase in inter- est rates is “off the table.” He wanted banks to expe- dite the transmission of the current reduction in rates as well as similar ones that hap- pened in February and April. “Our decision is driven by growth concerns and inflation concerns in that order,” Das told reporters here. “The unan- imous vote reflects the resolve of the monetary policy com- mittee to act decisively and act in time (to address the growth concerns).” In three back-to-back bi- monthly monetary policies this year, the RBI has lowered inter- est rates by 75 basis points. With India’s GDP growth slip- ping to a five-year low of 5.8 per cent in the January-March quarter — the first instance of growth falling below China’s in last few quarters — the RBI lowered its growth forecast for the economy to 7 per cent from the April view of 7.2 per cent for the 2019-20 April-March. “Growth impulses have weakened significantly as reflected in a further widening of the output gap compared to the April 2019 policy,” the RBI said in the monetary policy statement. The reduction in interest rate will help boost credit growth, helping arrest the slow- down in the economy ahead of new Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presenting Modi- 2.0 Government’s first Budget next month that is widely expected to announce mea- sures to generate jobs and revive the economy. Some analysts have stated that given the large under- shoots in the actual revenue collections in FY2018-19 ver- sus even the revised numbers presented in February, the numbers targeted in the inter- im Budget are looking truly daunting. This is especially in context of the ongoing growth slowdown. Sitharaman has a tall task to present a credible Budget while sticking to the assumed deficit target. Das seemed to have a rea- sonably benign view on Government finances, under- playing the recent stress and instead focused on the consol- idation underway over the past few years. He was not unduly con- cerned about PSU borrowings saying that borrowings done by state-owned firms who have own revenue streams should not be looked upon as govern- ment borrowing. Given very large buffer stocks (3.4 times the norm), there seems to be less of a concern from an infla- tion perspective, in case mon- soons turn out to be weaker. While inflation remained below its medium-term target to give “scope” to the MPC “to accommodate growth concerns by supporting efforts to boost aggregate demand”, the RBI marginally revised upwards its retail inflation forecast for the first of FY2019-20 to 3-3.1 per cent (2.9-3 per cent earlier), but is a shade lower for the second half at 3.4-3.7 per cent (3.5-3.8 per cent earlier). H aving suffered reverses in the recently concluded general elections at the hands of a fast growing BJP in the State, the Trinamool Congress is planning to rope in political strategist Prashant Kishore to help it win the 2021 Assembly elections. TMC sources said the Chief Minister on Thursday invited Kishore at her State Secretariat office at Nabanna. The duo held a closed-door meeting for about two hours. Mamata Banerjee’s nephew and MP Abhishek Banerjee was also present in the meeting, sources said. Mamata reportedly asked Kishore to help her party win the State elections in 2021. Kishore’s likely entry in Bengal’s electoral scene comes in the wake of a meteoric rise on the part of the BJP which clinched 18 out of 42 seats. The TMC won 22 and the Congress got 2 seats. In the Lok Sabha polls, the TMC and BJP got 44 and 40 per cent votes respectively pushing the Left down to about 8 per cent. T he Congress in Telangana was reduced to a non-enti- ty in the Legislative Assembly after 12 of its 18 MLAs met the Speaker on Thursday and sought merger of Congress Legislature Party (CLP) into ruling TRS Legislature Party (TRSLP). Speaker P Srinivas Reddy acceded to the request of the 12 MLAs considering the fact they constituted two-thirds of the Congress Legislature Party, a requirement for merger under the anti-defection law. A bulletin from the Assembly on Thursday night said seats had been allotted to the 12 MLAs along with the members of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi Legislature Party in the House. Unless the merger is reversed, the Congress is set to lose its Opposition Party status in the Assembly as its strength has come down to six The development came as a deadly blow to the Congress, which is facing trouble in Rajasthan, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh, where the Congress Governments are on the verge of collapse, following the drubbing at the hands of BJP in the Lok Sabha polls. I n another major step for exploring the State’s tourism potential and brining socio-economic benefit to the community, the Odisha Government has allotted lands to seven projects in diverse sectors according to an official release on Thursday. The lands for the projects were sanctioned in a land allot- ment committee meeting held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi wherein Tourism Secretary Vishal Kumar Dev presented the investment proposals. While giving nod to the proposals, Padhi directed to fix commencement and commis- sioning timeline against each project. The allottees were asked to commission the projects within three years from the date of taking over possession of the land. Dev said, “The lands have been allotted for seven projects in different parts of the State after due diligence and techni- cal assessment for land require- ment. These projects will bring in an investment of 354.34 crore. The projects will be developed over a total area of around 79.5 acres, out of which Government has decided to allot around 42.5 acres. Some project proponents have arranged balance land on their own privately. These projects, apart from creating direct employment opportunities, also have potential for large indirect employment.” The projects include a golf resort at Satpada, Puri to be developed by the Mayfair Hotels & Resorts Ltd with an investment of 125 crore; Gopalpur Palm Resort at Udayapur, Ganjam to be developed by the Swosti Vacations Club Pvt Ltd with an investment of 64.58 crore; a 4- star hotel at Trisulaia, Cuttack to be developed by the Lalchand Resort Pvt Ltd with an investment of 54.50 crore; a resort at Gopalpur to be developed by the Luxurio Assets Pvt Ltd with an invest- ment of 49.80 crore; a resort at Tampara, Ganjam to be developed by the Lifeline Multi Venture Pvt Ltd with an investment of 49.80 crore; a water park at Basantpur near Sambalpur to be developed by the Aquamagic Water Amusement Park with an investment of 7.50 crore; and a Theme Park & Resort near Rourkela to be developed by the Krishna Holdings with an investment of 3.16 crore. G overnor and Chancellor of Universities Professor Ganeshi Lal made a surprise visit to the Utkal University on Thursday while returning from a programme at Cuttack. Lal held a discussion with university Vice- Chancellor Soumendra Mohan Patnaik and other officials over the damages due to Cyclone Fani. The Governor informed that a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) has been formed to monitor spend- ing of funds under the Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) for development of qual- ity education and research at the university. He also informed that a Centre for Rural Studies would open in the university’s new cam- pus on Gandhi Jayanti this year. Prof Lal also dis- cussed issues such as steps to be taken for under- ground cabling, encroachment and security for stu- dents in the campus. Besides, he asked the uni- versity authorities to improve the academic envi- ronment in the campus. During his visit, the Governor advised the VC to take all steps to make the university one of the top ones in the country. F or implementation of the ban of plastic and polythene in the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) area, two enforcement squads were constituted by the BMC on Thursday comprising officials of the State Pollution Control Board, Commissionerate police, Forest Department and BMC. The enforcement would start from Friday. The enforcement squads would have responsibilities like seizure of banned plas- tic/polythene materials, imposition of penal- ty and fines, issuing show-cause notices and pre announcement on not to use plastic/poly- thene. The squads would be assisted by two policemen during the raids. The BMC in an official order asked the officials concerned to extend all support in coordination with the squad members for an effective enforcement on polythene/plastics. On Thursday, in many localities, pre announcements were done by the squads on the polythene ban.

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Page 1:  · 2019-06-06 · Puri are special invitees of the ... Puri to be developed by the Mayfair Hotels & Resorts Ltd with an ... a 4-star hotel at Trisulaia,

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Defense Minister RajnathSingh is back on several

reconstituted key Cabinet com-mittees after his exclusion fromthem raised eyebrows in thepolitical circles.

In a Thursday morningnotification that gave a clearsignal of Rajnath Singh’s dimin-ishing role in decision making,the Modi Government hadrestricted him to only two ofthe eight key Cabinet commit-tees. This was seen as a “humil-iation” to Rajnath, whose suc-cessor in the Home Ministry,Amit Shah, figured in all thecommittees and FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharamanin all but one of them.

But late at night the sameday, the Government addedRajnath to four more Cabinetcommittees, including all-important Political AffairsCommittee as well as invest-ment and growth, employmentand skill development, andhead of Parliamentary AffairsCommittee.

Rajnath has been includedin all committees in a designa-tion above Amit Shah. Rajnath

is out two committees —appointments, which has tra-ditionally had only PM andHome Minister as members —and accommodation, a rela-tively low-profile panel.

Incidentally, the numbertwo minister in theGovernment — by conven-tion the person who is swornin right after the PrimeMinister — chairs the Cabinetand the Political AffairsCommittee in the absence ofthe Prime Minister. In theabsence of Rajnath, Shah wouldhave presided over the meet-ings of these committees.

Earlier, Rajnath was includ-ed in the Cabinet Committeeon Economic Affairs andCabinet Committee Securitybut was notably missing fromthe Cabinet Committee onPolitical Affairs, which haveAmit Shah, Nitin Gadkari,Sitharaman, Narendra Tomar,Ravi Shankar Prasad, HarshVardhan, Piyush Goyal,Prahlad Joshi and allies RamVilas Paswan, Harsimrat KaurBadal and Arvind Sawant as itsmembers.

All the committees borethe stamp of Shah which clear-

ly indicates his growing influ-ence in governance. Shah con-tinues to hold the post of BJPpresident as the party scouts forhis replacement. He hasemerged the de facto number

two after Modi.The induction of Shah,

who is also the BJP president,in the Government had ledmany political observers tobelieve that he would be the

second most powerful personin the new order and theThursday morning notifica-tion on the restructuredCabinet committees had stokedthe sepculation, only to be

scotched by the night. Shah had chaired an infor-

mal meeting of several CabinetMinisters, including ExternalAffairs Minister S Jaishankar,

Commerce and RailwaysMinister Piyush Goyal andPetroleum MinisterDharmendra Pradhan, besidesSitharaman, on June 4 over

crude oil related issues.Shah will head the Cabinet

Committee onAccommodation. RoadTransport and HighwaysMinister Nitin Gadkari,Sitharaman and Railway andCommerce Minister PiyushGoyal are its members.Minister of State in PMOJitendra Singh and Housingand Urban Affairs and CivilAviation Minister HardeepPuri are special invitees of theAccommodation Committee.

The Cabinet Committeeon Economic Affairs will beheaded by the PM and willhave Rajnath, Shah, Gadkari,Chemicals and FertilisersMinister DV SadanandaGowda, Sitharaman,Agriculture Minister NarendraSingh Tomar, CommunicationMinister Ravi Shankar Prasad,Minister for Food ProcessingHarsimrat Kaur Badal as itsmembers.

Amid economic slowdownand rising unemployment, thePM on Wednesday constitutedtwo new Cabinet committeesunder his chairmanship to spureconomic growth, investmentand employment.

����� �4���'

The Reserve Bank of India(RBI) on Thursday slashed

its benchmark lending rate by25 basis points to a nearly nine-year low of 5.75 per cent pro-viding relief to industry aswell as EMI payees in home,auto and other sectors, but theCentral bank’s failure to assuageinvestors concerns regardingthe NBFC sector triggered amassive sell-off in the stockmarket which suffered biggestone-day fall in 2019. Thereverse repo rate under standsat 5.50 per cent.

The third rate cut this yearbrought the interest rates totheir lowest level in nine yearseven as the RBI changed itsstance to “accommodative”from “neutral”, opening up thepossibility of another cut in thecoming months to infuse somelife into the economy growingat the slowest pace since Modicame to power in 2014.

The RBI said it has doneaway with charges on fundtransfers through RTGS andNEFT routes to boost digitaltransactions and asked banks topass on the benefits to cus-tomers. SBI charges between �1and �5 for transactions throughNEFT and between �5 and �50for RTGS route.

Significantly, all the sixmembers of the MonetaryPolicy Committee (MPC)voted unanimously for a rate

cut and switching of its stanceto “accommodative” from neu-tral. RBI Governor ShaktikantaDas said the shift in the stancemeant that an increase in inter-est rates is “off the table.”

He wanted banks to expe-dite the transmission of thecurrent reduction in rates aswell as similar ones that hap-pened in February and April.“Our decision is driven bygrowth concerns and inflationconcerns in that order,” Dastold reporters here. “The unan-imous vote reflects the resolveof the monetary policy com-

mittee to act decisively and actin time (to address the growthconcerns).”

In three back-to-back bi-monthly monetary policies thisyear, the RBI has lowered inter-est rates by 75 basis points.With India’s GDP growth slip-ping to a five-year low of 5.8per cent in the January-Marchquarter — the first instance ofgrowth falling below China’s inlast few quarters — the RBIlowered its growth forecast forthe economy to 7 per cent fromthe April view of 7.2 per centfor the 2019-20 April-March.

“Growth impulses haveweakened significantly asreflected in a further wideningof the output gap compared tothe April 2019 policy,” the RBIsaid in the monetary policystatement.

The reduction in interestrate will help boost creditgrowth, helping arrest the slow-down in the economy ahead ofnew Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman presenting Modi-2.0 Government’s first Budgetnext month that is widelyexpected to announce mea-sures to generate jobs andrevive the economy.

Some analysts have statedthat given the large under-shoots in the actual revenuecollections in FY2018-19 ver-

sus even the revised numberspresented in February, thenumbers targeted in the inter-im Budget are looking trulydaunting. This is especially incontext of the ongoing growthslowdown. Sitharaman has atall task to present a credibleBudget while sticking to theassumed deficit target.

Das seemed to have a rea-sonably benign view onGovernment finances, under-playing the recent stress andinstead focused on the consol-idation underway over the pastfew years.

He was not unduly con-cerned about PSU borrowingssaying that borrowings done bystate-owned firms who haveown revenue streams shouldnot be looked upon as govern-ment borrowing. Given verylarge buffer stocks (3.4 timesthe norm), there seems to beless of a concern from an infla-tion perspective, in case mon-soons turn out to be weaker.

While inflation remainedbelow its medium-term targetto give “scope” to the MPC “toaccommodate growth concernsby supporting efforts to boostaggregate demand”, the RBImarginally revised upwards itsretail inflation forecast for thefirst of FY2019-20 to 3-3.1 percent (2.9-3 per cent earlier), butis a shade lower for the secondhalf at 3.4-3.7 per cent (3.5-3.8per cent earlier).

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Having suffered reverses inthe recently concluded

general elections at the handsof a fast growing BJP in theState, the Trinamool Congressis planning to rope in politicalstrategist Prashant Kishore tohelp it win the 2021 Assemblyelections.

TMC sources said theChief Minister on Thursdayinvited Kishore at her StateSecretariat office at Nabanna.The duo held a closed-doormeeting for about two hours.Mamata Banerjee’s nephew andMP Abhishek Banerjee wasalso present in the meeting,sources said.

Mamata reportedly askedKishore to help her party winthe State elections in 2021.Kishore’s likely entry in Bengal’s

electoral scene comes in thewake of a meteoric rise on thepart of the BJP which clinched18 out of 42 seats. The TMCwon 22 and the Congress got 2seats.

In the Lok Sabha polls, theTMC and BJP got 44 and 40per cent votes respectivelypushing the Left down to about8 per cent.

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The Congress in Telanganawas reduced to a non-enti-

ty in the Legislative Assemblyafter 12 of its 18 MLAs met theSpeaker on Thursday andsought merger of CongressLegislature Party (CLP) intoruling TRS Legislature Party(TRSLP).

Speaker P Srinivas Reddyacceded to the request of the 12MLAs considering the factthey constituted two-thirds ofthe Congress Legislature Party,a requirement for mergerunder the anti-defection law.

A bulletin from theAssembly on Thursday nightsaid seats had been allotted tothe 12 MLAs along with themembers of the TelanganaRashtra Samithi LegislatureParty in the House.

Unless the merger isreversed, the Congress is set tolose its Opposition Party statusin the Assembly as its strength

has come down to sixThe development came as

a deadly blow to the Congress,which is facing trouble inRajasthan, Karnataka andMadhya Pradesh, where theCongress Governments are onthe verge of collapse,following the drubbing at the

hands of BJP in the Lok Sabhapolls.

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In another major step forexploring the State’s tourism

potential and brining socio-economic benefit to thecommunity, the OdishaGovernment has allotted landsto seven projects in diverse sectors according to an officialrelease on Thursday.

The lands for the projectswere sanctioned in a land allot-ment committee meeting heldunder the chairmanship ofChief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi wherein TourismSecretary Vishal Kumar Dev presented the investmentproposals.

While giving nod to theproposals, Padhi directed to fixcommencement and commis-sioning timeline against eachproject. The allottees wereasked to commission the projects within three yearsfrom the date of taking overpossession of the land.

Dev said, “The lands havebeen allotted for seven projectsin different parts of the Stateafter due diligence and techni-cal assessment for land require-ment. These projects will bringin an investment of �354.34crore. The projects will be

developed over a total area ofaround 79.5 acres, out of whichGovernment has decided toallot around 42.5 acres. Someproject proponents havearranged balance land on theirown privately.

These projects, apart fromcreating direct employmentopportunities, also have potential for large indirectemployment.”

The projects include a golfresort at Satpada, Puri to bedeveloped by the MayfairHotels & Resorts Ltd with aninvestment of �125 crore;Gopalpur Palm Resort atUdayapur, Ganjam to be developed by the SwostiVacations Club Pvt Ltd with aninvestment of �64.58 crore; a 4-star hotel at Trisulaia, Cuttackto be developed by theLalchand Resort Pvt Ltd withan investment of �54.50 crore;a resort at Gopalpur to bedeveloped by the LuxurioAssets Pvt Ltd with an invest-ment of �49.80 crore; a resortat Tampara, Ganjam to bedeveloped by the Lifeline MultiVenture Pvt Ltd with an investment of �49.80 crore; awater park at Basantpur nearSambalpur to be developed bythe Aquamagic WaterAmusement Park with aninvestment of �7.50 crore; anda Theme Park & Resort nearRourkela to be developed bythe Krishna Holdings with aninvestment of �3.16 crore.

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Governor and Chancellor of UniversitiesProfessor Ganeshi Lal made a surprise visit to

the Utkal University on Thursday while returningfrom a programme at Cuttack.

Lal held a discussion with university Vice-Chancellor Soumendra Mohan Patnaik and otherofficials over the damages due to Cyclone Fani.

The Governor informed that a Special PurposeVehicle (SPV) has been formed to monitor spend-ing of funds under the Rashtriya UchchatarShiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) for development of qual-ity education and research at the university.

He also informed that a Centre for RuralStudies would open in the university’s new cam-pus on Gandhi Jayanti this year. Prof Lal also dis-cussed issues such as steps to be taken for under-ground cabling, encroachment and security for stu-dents in the campus. Besides, he asked the uni-versity authorities to improve the academic envi-ronment in the campus. During his visit, theGovernor advised the VC to take all steps to makethe university one of the top ones in the country.

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For implementation of the ban of plasticand polythene in the Bhubaneswar

Municipal Corporation (BMC) area, twoenforcement squads were constituted by theBMC on Thursday comprising officials of theState Pollution Control Board,Commissionerate police, Forest Departmentand BMC. The enforcement would start from Friday.

The enforcement squads would haveresponsibilities like seizure of banned plas-tic/polythene materials, imposition of penal-ty and fines, issuing show-cause notices andpre announcement on not to use plastic/poly-thene. The squads would be assisted by twopolicemen during the raids. The BMC in anofficial order asked the officials concernedto extend all support in coordination with thesquad members for an effective enforcementon polythene/plastics.

On Thursday, in many localities, preannouncements were done by the squads onthe polythene ban.

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The State Selection Board(SSB) has now become a

questionable entity with manyof students, who appeared testsfor 825 Junior Lecturer posts inMarch this year, complainingthat the examinations werenot conducted authentically.

While finalisation of Odiasubject results is awaiting aHigh Court order, the fates ofother subject examinees arehanging under shadow too forvarious reasons.

Questions on Physics,Chemistry and other Sciencesubjects came out of the courseand multiple choices provid-ed in answer-sheets were also

not free from error. “There was no transparen-

cy in examinations. We wereasked to give our answer in an OMR like system,” allegedBhagawan Mishra,a student who had appeared forthe test.

“Why we were not allowedto appear the test online formore clarity and transparency

and why we were forced to tickOMR sheets?” wanted to knowanother student.

All these students havedemanded cancellation of theSSB recruitment examinationsand early reschedule of the testson online mode.

“We smell massive irregu-larities in the SSB tests. Letthere be an online test so thathonest, poor and meritoriouscandidates can get appropriateresults,” urged other Sciencestudents Bijoy Mishra, SnigdhaSatapathy, B Nayak and SPatnaik.

They appealed to the ChiefMinister and the HigherEducation Minister to person-ally consider their demand.

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Walking out of the bedand taking a look at my

mom’s face, I don’t need aclock to guess the time I wokeup. Today morning by the timeI entered the dining hall rollingmy eyes hard, I foundmombusy inspecting and arrangingvarieties of seasonal fruits onlarge plate that made me imag-ine a colourful fruit stall fromany tropical country.

While she appeared to bequiet at my sight, I knew hermind was full of two things –the microscopic details of thechores to be performed exact-ly where and when over the dayand her frustration with mywaking up late for the past 26years.

Honestly, I don’t think ofany good reason has beenspared by me in all these yearsto say in my defence. ThoughI don’t hope any standard pieceof logic will work on her, andturn the table around me, I

simply pulled a chair for myself.While my first attempt atmunching on three-four fatgrapes was treated with kindsilence, I took the risk anoth-er time.

There Mom lost all hercontrol, ‘Have you seen thetime you woke up? Who do eatwithout washing their face?Have you any idea what’stoday?’

Well, there’s no point, I amnot getting a fruit salad bar forguessing the occasion right.

‘Don’t you know these aregoing for Savitri Puja? Whendid I raise you to be a girl likethis? Even if you don’t care orunderstand the sacred tradi-tions, at least show somerespect to a day like this. Eachmarried woman in everyhousehold is celebrating ittoday, I am keeping day-longfast for your Dad, have you lostfaith in what all the societybelieves in? Savitri went afterthe Death, and brought herhusband back to life. Now

that’s how you keep faith andhold courage.’ Mom ventedout her complete disappointment over a daugh-ter like me.

Dad appeared and lookedat me with a face that can beassociated with presidentialpardon, while stupid brotherblurted out in his inimitablestyle, ‘She doesn’t need allthese, her husband would like to be dead any daythan surviving her for a life-time.’

I can’t help wonder if thereexists one Satyaban who Iwould love to follow in the faceof Death. Maybe, he has beenalready captured by Death onhis way, because honestly, Ihaven’t met one so far. Exceptthe two three Bollywood dudeswho write their partner’s namein Mehandi on their palm,post it on Instagram, tweetabout their fasting plans fortheir wives in order to break theage old patriarchal celebrationcalled Karwachauth which is

equivalent to Savitri wherewomen are expected to fast fortheir husband’s longer life.

In ancient times, I am sureSavitri then didn’t know the funand thrill of being a woman in21st century, with or without ahusband. She didn’t have self-love or self-worth quote set aswallpaper to stay strong, inde-pendent, and believe in a life,say beautiful life even after thehusband is missing.

She didn’t have a millionfollowers on social media tokeep her world still over-pop-ulated. She didn’t haveInstagram to show the best ver-sion of herself to the worldagainst all the odds. She didn’thave access to Twitter to makeher voice heard by the world,and to feel wanted, desired, andrespected as a widow even.

She didn’t have old friendsconnected through Facebookto stand by her in needs. Shedidn’t have the aim andurgency to live life, to checkWhatsApp once in a while. She

didn’t have tinder to try a bet-ter match in this birth itself.

She didn’t have Myntraand Naykaa delivered happi-ness at door step. She didn’t getenough notifications of cheapEuropetour package for singlewomen to get over anybody inthe world. If Savitri lived intoday’s time, this day wouldhave been celebrated in a newway, different way, in a moreequal way.

In a moment I am growingconscious imagining what ifMom reads my mind and getsa hint about my faith – with atwist. Today’s Savitri 2.0 needsSatyaban 2.0,a real progressivegentleman;who doesn’t haveto fight against Death to claimher woman’s life back but toprotect her woman from hisown toxic masculinity; whokeeps a day-long fast for hispartner; longer and breaks thepatriarchal traditions and fixedgender roles;who seeks not hiswoman’s submission beforehim, happily bows before her

drive for world domination.

Or as I say, who just asksyou not to follow him any-where in this scorching heateven if he is taken by Death,and makes sure the air condi-tion is working and his twouser Netflix subscription isupdated, food is delivered at thedoorsteps; who like Gerry,before his death, leaves ‘DoThis Do That P. S. I Love You’letters for Holly to find hope,energy and positivity in lifewithout him also.

Or, who asks his Savitri notto follow him but her ownheart.

(Komal Sikha is a newbiein the writing world. She isborn in Kolkata, lives inBhubaneswar and holds aMaster’s degree in English and Comparative Literaturefrom Pondicherry CentralUniversity. She currently works with the Government of Odisha.([email protected])

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The State would be requiringover �28, 000 crore for an

overall recovery from the Fanidamages, points out theIndependent Report onDamages, Loss and NeedsAssessment (DLNA).

The representatives of theWorld Bank (WB), AsianDevelopment Bank (ADB) andUnited Nations Organisationsalong with the Odisha Government carriedout an independent assess-ment of the damage done dueto Fani.

Official sources said thatwhile damage is quantified at�16,754 crore, loss is �7,897crore, so Odisha took a total hitof �24, 651 crore due to thecyclone, that hit 14 districts ofthe State. Puri, Khordha,Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur andKendrapada districts were themost affected.

After Prime MinisterNarendra Modi visited theState on May 6, theDepartment of EconomicAffairs (DEA) in Ministry ofFinance led a Team of WB,ADB, UN to the State and theymade field visits.

Now the team has comeout with a preliminary reporton DNLA, which projects thedamage, loss and needs forrecovery. While total damageand loss has been quantified at�24,651 crore, State needs�28,869 crore for total recovery,an official said.

While energy sector sus-

tained huge damage and lossand it has been quantified at�8,393 crore, which requires�9,748 crore for total recovery,admits the officer.

Similarly, housing sector,which sustained big damageand loss has been pegged at�3,075 crore and requirementfor this sector will be �8,996crore.

Over five lakh houses weredamaged and the StateGovernment requested PrimeMinister to provide �7,000crore.

But the report said around�9,000 crore will be needed forthe purpose.

The team has assessed thatfor rural areas �6,694 crore isneeded for new construction ofhouses and for repair of dam-aged houses �412 crore is need-ed in these areas.

Similarly, for urban areas atleast �1,457 crore is needed fornew construction and for repairof the damaged houses �254crore will be required.

Over 6,400 public build-ings were damaged and thesebuildings need �647 crore fortotal recovery.

Public buildings inKhordha district sustainedbiggest damage as 1,118 weredamaged due to Fani incurring damage and loss of�317 crore.

Agriculture, fisheries andanimal resources development(FARD) sector has sustaineddamage and loss worth �3,030crore.

Similarly, employment andlivelihood sector sustainedhuge damage and loss of �4,877crore. More than �3,000 croreis needed for total recovery ofthe sector, reveals the DNLAreport.

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In a bid to restore green cover inthe State capital post Cyclone

Fani, the authorities are planningto plant trees with strong windsresistance capacity in and aroundthe city. Instead of the floweringand ornamental trees like krush-nachuda (gulmohar) and rad-hachuda (golden flamboyant) withminimal resistance to wind, vari-eties of evergreen cyclone-resistantand tropical trees such as baula(spanish cherry), chatian (alstoniascholaris or devil tree), shirish(frywood), ashoka, neem, largepulpy fruited tree like jamun(black plum) and shishu (NorthIndian rosewood) trees will beplanted in Bhubaneswar.

In this regard a committeecomprising experts from OUAT has

been formed to choose the types ofplants for different locations.

The proposal will be execut-ed following the panel’s nod.

The plantation drive will beundertaken in association withNGOs, said Principal ChiefConservator of Forest (PCCF)Sandeep Tripathy.

In view of the massive devas-

tation and power infrastructuredamage due to cyclone Fani, theauthorities have decided not toplant large trees near the electricpoles.

“A discussion will be held withthe BMC and BDA on plantationof the large trees near roads andtheir regular maintenance,” headded. Official sources said that the

Government has decided to pur-chase 70,000 trees (with height of10-12 ft) from Andhra Pradesh torestore green cover inBhubaneswar, out of which 25,000will be planted near roads andaround 15,000-17,000 trees will begrown on vacant places at severaleducational institutions like IIT,NISER, AIIMS, Utkal University,schools, colleges and hospitals.

The Government estimatedthe cost to be around �10 crore forthis purpose. Besides, afforestationwill be carried out in urban areasat cost of Rs 3-4 crore from CSRfund for the massive plantation.

The medicinal herbs will beplanted on the premises of theRegional Plant Resource Centre(RPRC) and the NandankananZoological Park (NZP) with bud-get estimate of around �6 crore.

A total of 14 lakh trees and 8lakh saplings were damaged due tocyclone Fani that devastated coastalOdisha on May 3. The Forest andEnvironment Department is theworst-affected in the tropical stormas it sustained a �537 crore loss.

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The State Bank of India (SBI)has disbursed about �98

crore providing more than11,000 loans to customers forrehabilitation and resumingtheir livelihood activities in theCyclone Fani-affected districtstill now, informed SBIManaging Director PK Gupta ata Press meet here on Thursday.

After visiting the most-affected Puri district onWednesday, Gupta said all SBIbranches and ATMs whereelectricity is available in theaffected areas are functioningnormally and assured thatmore loans would be given incoming days for developmentof the areas.

He also informed that theSBI has provided more than1,300 loans to Self Help Groups(SHGs), over 8,000 agri loansplus PMEGP and MUDRAloans.

Moreover, the SBI hasrestructured 200 loans to smalland medium enterprises andhouse building loans.

He also said that the SBIwith its total 872 branches inOdisha has 506 branches in

rural and semi-urban areas. Ithas 2,840 ATMs and 4,227CSPs and more are being envis-aged in the coming years.

Among others, SBIBhubaneswar Circle CGMPraveena Kala was present.

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Road accidents at two placesin the State claimed lives of

at least three persons, includ-ing a Junior Engineer (JE), onThursday.

A car by whichKankadahad block JE S NaveenKumar (50) was travelling withhis wife S Prashanti hit a trucknear Guneibili under theTumusingha police limits inDhenkanal district, killing himon the spot and injuring the

woman critically. The injured was admitted

to the Dhenkanal DistrictHeadquarters Hospital fortreatment.

In the other incident, anelderly woman and her grand-son died after an SUV hit atruck on NH-16 at Sunakhalain Khordha district. Thedeceased were returning toBhubaneswar fromBissamcuttack in Rayagadadistrict by the SUV when thetragedy took place.

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The State Government has served notices to the82 schools that recorded nil results in the annu-

al Class-10 examinations conducted by the Boardof Secondary Education (BSE) this year.

School and Mass Education Minister SamirRanjan Dash informed this after a meeting with theBSE authorities on Thursday.

Dash said he would visit these schools and tryto find out the reasons behind the poor show inthe examinations. After that, steps would be takenaccordingly. Besides, a proposal was also put forthat the meeting for introduction of Spoken Englishcourse in the schools, the Minister informed.

Dash, who attended the meeting during his firstcourtesy visit to the BSE office here, further saidthat he would focus on strengthening the secondaryeducation in the State.

“Government schools are losing credibilitythese days, which has posed a challenge for us. Iwill take every required step to rekindle people’sfaith in these schools,” Dash said.

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Anguished over years ofGovernment apathy, a

retired employee of theVeterinary Department hasinvested all his savings in com-pleting a half-finished bridgeover river Salandi in Keonjhardistrict.

Gangadhar Rout of Kanpurvillage in Hatadihi block hasalready spent around �10 lakhon the bridge, which, onceready, would connect morethan two panchayats. He plansto spend an additional �2 lakhon its completion by the end ofJune or July.

The villagers have beendemanding a bridge across theSalandi for over two decades, inabsence of which several pan-chayats in Hatadihi blockremain cut off from each otherduring monsoon.

They say they also find itdifficult to reach their fields,which are on the other side ofthe river.

A decade ago, the Hatadihiblock administration had start-ed constructing the bridge butleft it midway due to shortageof funds. Now, the villagershave no option but to use a

rickety bamboo bridge duringthe monsoon.

With the district adminis-tration showing no interest incompleting the bridge despiterepeated requests, Rout decid-ed to complete it himself andinvested all his savings in re-launching the project in Marchlast year. The construction is

now in its last phase.“When I saw the problems

of the villagers, I decided tospend my entire providentfund to complete the bridge.My family backed my decision as two of my sonsare not dependent on me,”Rout said.

He, however, rued that noone from the village offeredhim any help in his endeavour.

Though a little late in theday, the Keonjhar administra-tion has also woken up to thevillagers’ plight. DistrictCollector Ashish Thakre said,“A team has already visited thesite.

The administration willcomplete the bridge with itsresources.”

Rout didn’t seem muchpleased with this delayed offerof help from the state. “The dis-trict administration should,instead, construct an approachroad to the bridge for move-ment of vehicles,” he said.

BALANGIR: A videoshowing PatnagarhMLA Saroj Meherpunishing aGovernment servantfor neglecting dutywent viral on socialmedia on Thursday.

In the video,Meher was seen ask-ing Public WorksDepartment (PWD)Junior Engineer Jaswant Sabarto do sit-ups in full public glare.

Sources said the MLA hadgone to Belapada area in thedistrict on Wednesday andheld a discussion with thelocals. During which, theycomplained of poor road con-struction work of the bypassroad being constructed fromMandal to Belapada.

Following this, the MLAasked the engineer to do 100sit-ups in front of the locals.

Although the engineerpleaded for mercy, the MLA

allegedly forced him to do soafter threatening him that if hedoes not obey his order, thepeople will thrash him.

Though the incident hap-pened in full public glare,everyone kept watching asmute spectators and did notintervene in the matter.

Balangir district CollectorArindam Dakua said, “TheSub-Collector would be askedto probe the incident and sub-mit a factual report. Thereafteraction would be taken in con-nection with this.” PNS

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Working president of theGanjam District

Congress Committee PitabasaPanda has alleged that theBrahmapur MunicipalCorporation (BeMC) has failedin all fronts in resolving thebasic problems of the resi-dents of the city.

He lamented that the verypurpose of upgrading themu-nicipality into a corporationhas been defeated with nochange on the ground.

Panda on behalf of theparty demanded that the ren-ovation and construction workof all drains of the city be com-pleted before the monsoonbegins.

The Congress also allegedthat most of the roads in thecity are in a deplorable state,owing to low quality work.Most part of the roads due tolaying pipe lines by the L&T forthe proposed Janibila megawater supply scheme lies dugup.

This has caused not onlytraffic problems but also madethe city full of dusts, causinginconvenience and health haz-ards for the denizens, specifi-cally for the senior citizens andelders, Panda alleged.

The digging portion of theroads is neither levelled by thecontractor nor repaired so far.Not a single drain in the city iscleaned as they are packedwith garbage, solid waste anddebris to which the BeMCpaid a deaf ear.

In a meeting of the DCCheld here on Tuesday, Pandaalleged that, the renovation

work of most of the drainswhich started since last sever-al months are yet to be com-pleted, for the reasons bestknown to the BeMC.

Even in normal rains, thedrain water spreads on road asthe drains are packed withgarbag and waste materials.Panda also alleged that, theJanibilla water project wasinaugurated in haste just beforeelection without completingproject to take advantage in theelection.

He demanded to publisha white paper giving specificdate on which the denizens ofall the 40 wards will be able toget drinking water throughtheir domestic connections aswell as through public posts/tappoints. In case, the BeMC con-tinues to neglect the basicneeds of the tax payers, hewarned that the Congress willstage a protest.

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On May 3, Cyclone Fanitotally ravaged the

Balukhand-Konark Wild LifeSanctuary, which is famousfor its black bucks. The sanc-tuary was established over a72.72-sqkm area on April 23,

1984. It is a sandy tract, coveredby thousands of sand dunes ofvarious sizes. The sand is brineand peculiar biodiversities areseen.

Before the artificial forestrywas taken up in the area, thesand erosion over the adjoin-ing human habitat and theagricultural lands was ram-pant. There were natural forestsseen over the entire tract. Thewhole tract is drained by riversKashabhadra and Nuanai.

The sanctuary is wellserved by Marina- Drive roadof Puri and Konark. Prior to thesanctuary was establishedthrough the artificial planta-tions of casuarinas and cashew,the area was covered withindigenous species like Luna-kia. It grows up to the height of20 to 30 feet in the bare sandand thrives well. Besides Luna-kia, other grasses with mono-cotyledon plants favour to growin the tract.

Mostly the Pandarumsspecies of luna kia grow well,which provide shelter and foodto the spotted deer and blackbucks.

Not only Konark –Balukhand Sanctuary, the

whole estuarine forests as wellas the coast is filled with wildcreatures. Besides the Lunakia, the indigenous species likeTentuli, Pulanga, KaranjaNeem, which are wing firmtrees and very much suitable tolocal factors of the coastalregions were growing natural-ly and the natural habitat ofwild creatures was built. Butwhen the natural forests wereremoved for commercial grainlike casuarinas and cashewroot, the natural ecosystemwas tampered.

The whole Konark-Balukhand sanctuary turnedinto artificial ecosystem ofjhaw and cashew-nut, otherthan Kia or screw-pine. Thetropical forests of crew-pinewere protecting the environ-ment, which is always prone tooceanic cyclone.

The Puri-Konark-Balukhand estuarine ecologicalsystem was always getting pro-tection from natural disastersdue to presence of screw-pineforests. Since, the screw –pineforests were removed and itsplace was taken up by thecasuarinas and cashew forests,the cyclonic disasters are

becoming strong.The abandoning of screw

pine forests for casuarinas andcashew forests in the Puri-Konark coast was ecologicallyvery wrong. It is certain that thecrew pine forest is not eco-nomically strong as comparedto jhaw and cashew forests. Thejhaw is a very strong species inthe field of brine sands of seacoast, which have long taproots and arrests spread ofsand to agricultural fields,thereby containing erosion.The large volume of fire woodsto the Lord Jagannath Templeand other temples for prepara-tion of Mahaprasad at Puri ismet from Jhaw forests of thePuri-Konark coast.

When the planters aregoing to raise plantations in agiven site or field, the local fac-tors should be studied andgiven prime importance. Thelocal factors always favour theecology.

The tropical screw pineforests of sea coast are eco-logically favoured species of

Konark-Puri seacoast. It is afact that, jhaw is not a naturalspecies of Odisha seacoast; itwas brought from Chitaganj ofpresent Bangaldesh during1925-37, when India was oneand undivided.

It was introduced inOdisha seacoast for two mainreasons. First is to control sanddune erosions and second, tobalance the air-temperature ofthe Puri town. Subsequently,the demand of firewood wasmet. The Odisha seacoast isprone to oceanic cyclone as thefactors do not suit the situationsof the seacoast. It has beenproved from the recent cycloneFani.

Similarly, cashew is not acrop of Indian origin. It is aspecies of Australia , which wasintroduced in our countrymostly for food value and forvalue of cash-earning. It helpsin soil-moisture conservation.

The cashew never regen-erates naturally neither in oursea-coast nor anywhere inIndia. So it cannot be said that,

it is ecologically favoured by thelocality.

Again in the crew-pineforests, the wildlives like spot-ted deers, black bucks, strippedhyena, jungle cat, etc were pro-fusely seen as the eco-systemwas favouring the situation.

During the Fani, thewildlife of Konark-Balukhandsanctuary was scattered andmost of them met death due topanic as there was no securedhabitat for them.

The species, which provideample shelter and ground cov-erage for physical protections,food and conservation of mois-ture are always favoured by thewild creatures. In Konark-Balukhand Sanctuary the nat-ural habitat of wild creatureshas been damaged by us longsince.

As per sources, veryrecently the State ForestDepartment has decided toform a committee to study thelocal conditions and recom-mend the suitable species forraising the same in cyclone rav-aged areas.

The wind-firm as well asdeep rooted and ever greentrees are to be planted along the

roads, which can serve thepurpose of landscape manage-ment and avenue –glory.

Now saplings worth croresof rupees are to be planted toprotect the environment and tosave the present civilization. So,most considered expertiseviews are to be taken prior totaking up such programme.

The local species shouldalways be encouraged andwhere there are degradedforests, they should be rigidlyprotected from fire, grazing andtheft and also from encroach-ments.

The rigid protection mea-sure of degraded eco-systemcan yield better result than anyartificial plantation. Every for-est block should be treated asa unit of management and as anindividual eco-system. Evenevery planted forest should betreated as a modified eco-sys-tem, but it should be based onlocal factors.

June 5 is observed as WorldEnvironment Day. Similarly,June 8 is observed as WorldOcean Day. The land andocean cannot be separated.The climate of the regionalways is based on both ocean

and land. The meteorology of a

region always depends on theinfluence of ocean graphs andso also the marine-biology.The marine biology cannot beprotected to a desired extent ifthe estuarine eco-system isdamaged by man for any rea-son. If the esturine eco-systemsare damaged for industrilisa-tions as it happens inBalukhand-Konark sanctuary,we definitely welcome themeteorological downfall likeFani.

The ocean is responsiblefor the distribution of “tem-perature” not only of oceanicbody, but also in landmassalso.

Similarly, the salinity, den-sity of water and specific valueof the same are maintained dueto presence of vast water body.The oxygen distribution in theocean is most important forsustainable ecology. So mis-management of ocean by manthroughout the globe warrantsa dangerous situation for thefuture.

(The writer is a former for-est officer and an environ-mentalist. M-9937460649)

����� �+*%5-�0

Ayouth allegedly hacked twobrothers to death after an

argument between them atKatia village under theBamebari police station in thedistrict on Thursday.

The deceased were identi-fied as Sambhar Nayak and hisbrother Karmu. The identity ofthe accused is yet to be ascer-tained.

The accused youth, whowas in an inebriated conditionentered into an argument withSambhar over some matter.Hearing the commotion, hisyounger brother Karmu cameoutside the house to intervenein the matter.

But the situation took anugly turn as the youth attackedthe duo with a sharp weapon,killing them on the spot.

On being informed aboutthe incident, police rushed tothe spot and arrested theaccused. Police were interro-gating the youth to ascertainthe motive behind his crime.

����� �+%�0�����9��40'

An elderly man died due to lightning strikeat Garajanga village under Marshaghai

block in Kendrapada district on Thursday.The deceased was identified as Sarat

Mohanty (64). He was a retired employee ofthe Postal Department.

Mohanty was plucking flowers from a treenear his house early in the morning at around5 am when the lightning struck him, killing himon the spot.

In a similar incident, eight cattle were killedin lightning at Gurubai village underKrushnaprasad block of Puri district onWednesday night when the animals were stand-ing under a tree.

����� ��7��% '0'

Tension prevailed at a CommunityHealth Centre (CHC) at the Khairput

block headquarters in the district onThursday, after a one-and-a-half-month-old baby died late on Wednesday night allegedly due to medicalnegligence.

Sources said the baby girl was admit-ted to the hospital on Monday night aftershe fell ill. But the on-duty doctor insteadof attending the patient allegedly misbe-haved with the family members and scold-ed them for bringing the baby late in thenight.

Later, the doctor got busy with hisphone. But after repeated requests by the

attendants, the doctor treated the child andsent her blood sample for a test, which isyet to be received. But on Wednesday, thebaby’s condition deteriorated and she diedat night.

The family alleged that she died due tomedical negligence on the part of the doc-tor. No police complaint was lodged in theconnection till last reports came in.

����� 0*40�+7�

In reply to the ‘EVM hacking’allegation made by

Sundargarh Congress MP can-didate George Tirkey, BJPRourkela MLA nominee NiharRay described it as frustrationof Tirkey.

It may be noted here thaton Wednesday briefing to thePress Tirkey had alleged thatJual Oram had won the seat in2014 because there was a Modiwave and promises of estab-lishing a super speciality hos-pital and a second Brahmanibridge over the Brahmani rivermade by Modi.

Despite this Oram had gotonly 3.40 lakh votes then.While none of the two promis-es was met, Oram lost trust oftribals and there was no Modiwave this time, yet Oram unbe-lievably got 5.56 lakh votes thistime. It was only possible dueto EVM tampering, Tirkey had

alleged.Ray in reply to this said in

comparison to 2014 this timeModi wave was wider for whichBJP seats increased to 303 innational level and it went to 8from 1 in Odisha.

Especially there was strongModi wave in western Odisha.Similarly, the Indian votershave already rejected Congressparty. So out of frustration,Trkey had made the fake alle-gation. Instead of doing this he

has to introspect to find out thereason behind the votersresentment against his party,told Ray.

Similarly, Ray said theworks for both the project(IGH super specialty hospitaland 2nd Brahmani Bridge) aregoing on and in December2019 the notification forrecruitment of 392 doctorsand para medical staffs will bemade.

Regarding Dilip Ray, hesaid after winning election in2014 Dilip has betrayed thepeople of Rourkela and theparty too. Being in party he wasopposing the party activities ashe was in a secret pact withBJD. Rather it was blessing forparty in Sundargarh district asDilip Ray was not in party andthis is proved from electionresult, Ray told.

Ray also attributed hisdefeat in Rourkela to faultyvoter list.

������5�5�40

Miscreants decamped wit h�3.5 lakh kept in the stor-age box of a motorcycle parked in front of a police

station in Jajpur on Thursday.The cash belonged to a teacher Radhanaryan Rath.

The incident occurred when Rath visited the police sta-tion to inquire about a matter. Rath had withdrawn themoney for his daughter’s marriage. After withdrawing themoney from the Jajpur SBI branch, he kept the money inthe storage box of his motorcycle. Sources said the teacherhad asked his school peon, who was accompanying him,to guard the motorcycle, but later found the storage boxbroken and cash missing.

“When asked, the peon claimed that he had gone toattend nature’s call when the incident occurred,” Rath said,adding that he has lodged a police complaint.

The peon was detained while further investigation wasunderway, police said.

����� #�7)-+0

The World Environment Day wasobserved at the NTPC Talcher Super

Thermal Power Station, Kaniha onWednesday. Environmental pledge wasadministered by NTPC CGM RameshBabu V, GM (O and M) NS Rao and GM(Fuel Mgmt) KK Das. Babu conveyingthe message of Director (Operations)said to adopt all possible steps to con-serve natural resource for the future gen-eration and urged to take all possible

steps to keep the mother earth clean,beautiful and pollution free.

Later an ‘Environmental AwarenessWalk’ was organised to create andspread awareness about conservation ofnature followed by mass tree plantationin which 250 fruit sapling were plantedin Stage II township of the power station.

Further a medicinal plant gardenwas inaugurated in which as many as 80medicinal plants have been planted aspart of day celebration and differentcompetitions were also organised.

����� ��7+�6�0

The Forest Department on Thursday began inves-

tigation into the death of an ele-phant, whose carcass was foundin the Tenda area under theKuldiha Forest Range in the district, with tusks miss-ing.

The incident came to thefore after locals who had visited the forest came across the carcass lying near Kuldiha Forest RestHouse.

Later, the department offi-cials accompanied with veterinary doctors had rushedto the spot and sconducted a preliminaryinvestigation.

They also carried outautopsy of the body to ascertainwhether it was poached ornot.

����� �0�-���40

Abusinessman sustained critical injuriesafter being shot at by two unidentified per-

sons at Laxminarayanpur village under the KNuagaon police station in Ganjam district onThursday.

The victim was identified as a local busi-nessman Subash Chandra Panda (42).

Sources said four persons called Panda’sfrom his house and took him with them neara pond on the outskirts of the village. Soonafter that villagers heard some shots being firedand rushed to the spot.

Panda was rescued and rushed to theChikiti Community Health Centre (CHC). Hereceived bullet injuries on his head and chestin the attack.

Later, Panda was shifted to the DistrictHeadquarters Hospital. Police also reached thespot and launched a probe into the incident.It was suspected that the incident was falloutof business rivalry.

The actual cause behind the attackwould be ascertained after the arrest ofaccused, police said.

����� ��7+�6�0

The scribes of Baleswarunder the banner of Utkal

Journalists’ Association (UJA)submitted a memorandum tothe Superintendent of Police BJugal Kishore urging him toarrest the accused persons whowere involved in brutal attackof one of their colleaguesrecently.

Pratap Patra, a workingjournalist, Madhupura,Baliapal block, was brutallyassaulted on May 30 nightallegedly by a group of sandmafias due to previous grudge over his reportingagainst them.

The incident occurred nearGalapolo in the road between

Baliapal and Kamarda when hewas returning in a bike.Although he was wearing hel-met yet with sharp knife attack, he sustained headinjuries.

Regarding the issue whilean FIR was lodged with theBaliapal police naming sevenaccused persons, includingkingpin SoumyadipChakraborty , the police arrest-ed three of them.

The prime accused andthree others are still at large.UJA president BramhanandaSwain besides demandingarrest of all accused persons inthe case also threatened toundertake a dharna in front ofBaliapal police station if thedemand was not met.

����� �-*0�-�

The Forests andEnvironment Department

observed district-level WorldEnvironment Day here onWednesday under the chair-manship of Khordha DFOSudip Nayak.

Khordha AdditionalDistrict Judge (2) Dillip KumarBiswal and Utkal UniversityEnvironmental ScienceDepartment Professor DrRabindra Kumar Swain attend-ed as guests and spoke on thisyear’s theme “Tackling AirPollution”.

On the occasion, differentpeople were felicitated for theirexemplary work in plantingtrees and saving the environ-ment. Among others, KhordhaACFO Dillip Kumar Rout andKhordha Range Officer UttamGadanayak were present.

Similarly, the SabujaSahitya Sansad observed theday here under the chairman-

ship of its presidentJagabandhu Mahapatra. Themembers held a plantationdrive at the Mangala Templepremises here.

Fakir Mohan UniversityEnvironmental ScienceDepartment Associate

Professor Dr Sunand ChandraPradhan, District AgricultureOfficer Narayan Sethi, formerTehsildar Sudhakar Samantrayand Paramananda College,Bolagarh Reader RabindranathPanigrahi attended as guestsand spoke on the occasion.

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Sanjukta Singh, a tribal stu-dent of the Kalinga Institute

of Social Sciences (KISS) here,has been selected to study inthe Weiss High School inPflugerville, Texas for the nextacademic session.

She was offered a seat afterqualifying for the KennedyLugar Youth Exchange andStudy Programme hosted bythe AFS InterculturalPrograms.

She was selected for high-er study in Weiss High Schoolafter passing rigorous qualify-ing process consisting of writ-ten tests and interviews.

Sanjukta cleared the HSCexaminations this year securing80% of marks. She belongs toa poor Bhumija tribal family inNuapadhi village of Remunablock of Baleswar district. Shelost her father; and her moth-er manages the family workingas a daily labour.

Sanjukta will get highereducation with full scholarshipfrom the US Government.

Expressing his satisfaction

over the success of Sanjukta,KIIT & KISS founder DrAchyuta Samanta said the KISSstrives to empower talented butpoor tribal kids to achievetheir full potentials.

The institute has helpedmany of its students, most of

them orphaned tribal kids, totravel to the US and pursuetheir education there. Sanjukta’ssuccess proves that with prop-er support even poor andunderprivileged students cantravel across the world and pur-sue their dreams, he said.

��� � �-4��%+�6�0

While people of Kandaleivillage under Chhatabar

gram anchayat on the city out-skirts are spending days with-out electricity and basic ameni-ties even a month after theCyclones Fani struck them,the ASSRA, a New Delhi-basedNGO, has come forward to

extend help in the area. The NGO has distributed

napkins, candles, lighters, mos-quito repellants, emergencylights and dresses among thevillagers.

ASSRA Director SushantKumar Sahu, vice-presidentsSubhajit Sahoo and PrasantKumar Ghadai, social activistsPriyabrata Panda, Tilochan

Beura, Gopimohan Pattnaikand Pradip Ranjan Rout, schoolHeadmaster Pabitra MohanNayak took part in the distri-bution of materials.

Chhatabar SarapanchTapasweeni Mishra Deng and-vformer SarpanchBishnuprasad Deng expressedtheir gratitude to the ASSRAfor the relief.

����� �-4��%+�6�0

We can’t stop breathingpolluted air, but we can

definitely do something aboutthe quality of air we breathe,stated East Coast Railway(ECoR) Additional GeneralManager Sudhir Kumar in aseminar organised o-n theme

'Environment issues in trains.'He appealed to all the

employees to work for a betterenvironment and help to con-trol pollution in their own lit-tle way.

Secretary, OdishaEnvironmental Society DrJayakrushna Panigrahi, par-ticipating in the seminar,

expressed some valuable sug-gestions to make environment,pollution free.

In the morning, staff andofficers of ECoR, led by AGMKumar along with all heads ofdepartments participated in amassive tree plantation pro-gramme. The plantation ofsaplings in railway premises in

Chandrasekharpur area wasorganised as a part of theWorld Environment Day.

Plantation programmeswere also organised in KhurdaRoad, Waltair and SambalpurDivisions. A rally and a paint-ing competition were held tosensitise the general public onenvironmental issues.

��� � �% 47

The Jindal Steel and PowerLtd (JSPL), Angul observed

the World Environment Dayhosting various activities like agreen marathon along with amassive plantation drive atJindal Nagar Township andperiphery villages onWednesday.

JSPL ED (Maintenance)Suresh Kumar flagged off themarathon in presence of SteelMaking Zone president andhead Damodar Mittal, EVP-CGP AN Tiwari, OSPCB,Angul Deputy EnvironmentEngineer Rakesh KumarMohanty and yoga guru SwamiSatyabindu Saraswati.

On the occasion, the par-ticipants pledged to 'beat airpollution' and spread awarenessabout environment

protection and sustainabledevelopment.

A series of drawing, essayand quiz competitions on thetheme of environment protec-tion and mitigation of air pol-

lution were also organised.

JSPL chairman NaveenJindal also reached out to the

mass through different socialnetworking sites and asked

everyone to plant at least onetree on the day.

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The World EnvironmentDay was observed by the

NTPC at its regional office hereon Wednesday with planting oftree saplings.

Saplings were also plantedby NTPC Regional ExecutiveDirector (ER2) SanjeevKishore at his guesthousepremises here. He also admin-istered an environment pledgeto employees.

NTPC Director(Operations) Prakash Tiwari said that as a responsi-ble corporate citizen, theNTPC has been in the fore-front in mitigating the adverseimpacts on environment by not only installing and upgrading the equipment,planting trees and avoidingusage of plastic, but also byincreasing its portfolio ofrenewable energy.

Tiwari called upon all tojoin hands and take a pledge tocontribute within our ambit to

secure a safe and healthy envi-ronment not only for our-

selves but also for the futuregenerations.

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The East Coast Railway(ECoR) carried out inten-

sive public awareness cam-paign to educate road usersduring the observance of theInternational Level CrossingAwareness Day.

The campaign includeddistribution of posters, leaflets,various short durationfilms/advertisements etc.,including street play.

East Coast Railway ChiefSafety Officer Sudhansu SekharMishra inaugurated the pro-gramme o-n Thursday at themanned level crossing gatenear Gopalpur Balikuda nearCuttack.

As per the directionsof Railway Minister, allthe unmanned levelcrossing gates have beeneliminated from EastCoast Railway jurisdic-tion by providing substi-tute path like provision ofROBs and RUBs, Mishratold.

In the last financialyear, i.e. in 2018-19, theEast Coast Railway hasprovided eight Road OverBridges (ROBs), 46 RoadUnder Bridges (RUBs) atdifferent locations in itsjurisdiction and has elim-inated 117 unmannedlevel crossings by provid-ing substitute path forcrossing of rail line, heinformed.

A street play wasorganized by the CivilDefence volunteers ofKhurda Road Division atGopalpur Balikuda nearCuttack.

��� � �-4��%+�6�0

Four students fromBhubaneswar have made

the city and their parents proudby securing international rankin the SOF Olympiad 2018-19in which over 50,000 schoolsfrom 1,400 cities across 30countries participated.

In the Olympiad, around59 thousand students partici-pated from Bhubaneswar inwhich Bhavesh Patra of Class-V of the Mother’s Public School got international rank-1 and got gold medal and Rs25,000 cash price inInternational MathematicsOlympiad.

In International EnglishOlympiad, international rank-1 was grabbed by SreyanshRishabh of Class-VIII of the SaiInternational School and gotthe gold medal and Rs 25,000cash price.

In national ScienceOlympiad, international rank-

2 was bagged by AnveshSubham Pradhan of Class-VIIof the Lumbini Public Schooland in National CyberOlympiad international rank 2was bagged by Om Aditya ofClass-IX of the Mathope PublicSchool and both got silvermedal and Rs 25,000 cash price

each.Former Chief Justice of

India Dipak Misra attended aschief guest in a programme inNew Delhi and awarded the topthree international rank hold-ers from classes one to twelvefor the six Olympiad examina-tions.

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The Sparsh Hospitals andCritical Care celebrated the

32nd National CancerSurvivors Day on June 2.Soroda MLA Purna ChandraSwain, Joi Odisha,Bhubaneswar chairman andformer Director, CuttackRegional Cancer Research Centre RudraNarayan Samantaray wereguests.

Eminent oncologist andexecutive director of SparshHospitals Dr GhanashyamBiswas said Odisha is nowwell-equipped with facility forproper diagnosis and treat-ment of cancer.

The situation has changeddramatically in last five years orso. It is often the lack of diag-nosis or late diagnosis thatleads to unmanageable situa-tions leading to death in can-cer, he told.

Sparsh Hospitals CMD DrPriyabrata Dhir said that tilldate, the hospital has treated almost 20,000 cancerpatients.

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India on Thursday said nobilateral meeting has been

planned between PrimeMinister Narendra Modi andhis Pakistani counterpartImran Khan on the sidelines ofthe SCO summit in Kyrgyzcapital of Bishkek next week.

There was speculationabout possibility of a meetingbetween Modi and Khan in thewake of a private visit here byPakistan Foreign SecretarySohail Mahmood days aftertelephonic conversationbetween the Prime Ministers.

“To best of my knowledge,there is no bilateral meetingbeing planned between theprime minister and PM ofPakistan on the sidelines of theSCO summit,” External AffairsMinistry Spokesperson saidduring a media briefing.

Asked specifically whether

he was completely ruling out anypossibility of Modi-Khan meet-ing in Bishkek, Kumar onlysaid he was not aware of anybilateral meeting being organ-ised between the two leaders.

Both Modi and Khan arescheduled to attend the annu-al SCO summit on June 13-14.

On Pakistan ForeignSecretary’s ongoing visit here,Kumar said it is his personaltrip and no meeting has beenplanned with Indian officials.

Mahmood, who was Pakistan’sHigh Commissioner to Indiabefore he assumed charge ofthe top post in mid-April,arrived here on Tuesday nighton a three-day private visit.

Tensions between the twocountries worsened after thePulwama terror attack andboth the countries were almoston the brink of a war afterIndia’s military planes struck aterrorist training camp inPakistan’s Balakot on February

26 and Pakistan carried out acounter-offensive the next day.

Breaking the ice in bilater-al ties, Khan on May 26 spoketo Modi on phone and expressedhis desire to work together forpeace and prosperity in theregion. Modi on his part calledfor creating trust and an envi-ronment free of violence and ter-rorism for fostering peace andprosperity in the region.

Kumar also said there wasno meeting last month inBishkek between the thenExternal Affairs MinisterSushma Swaraj and herPakistani counterpart ShahMehmood Qureshi. Both hadattended a meeting of SCOForeign Ministers in the Kyrgyzcapital last month. He said aphotograph showing the twoMinisters were taken whenthey were sitting at a holdingroom of the SCO ForeignMinisters conference.

����� %+6��+7-'

Widening its probe againstRobert Vadra, brother-in-

law of Congress presidentRahul Gandhi, the ED hasrequested its UK counterpartsto share details of ownershipand related financial transac-tions of over half-a-dozen assetsthere that the agency claimedwere acquired using launderedmoney and belonged to him.

The EnforcementDirectorate (ED) has alsosought assistance from finan-cial intelligence units of somecountries to unravel the flow offunds used to purchase theseassets, officials said.

The agency is planning toprovisionally attach theseimmovable assets in Londonand nearby areas under the Prevention of MoneyLaundering Act (PMLA), they said.

The 50-year-old business-man, who is the husband ofCongress leader PriyankaVadra, has been grilled 13times by the ED with regard toa London-based property locat-ed at 12, Bryanston Squareworth 1.9 million GBP (Britishpounds), which is allegedlyowned by him.

The agency has evidencethat some more assets in theUnited Kingdom are “linked”to Vadra. These include twohouses — one worth 5 millionGBP and the other valued at 4million GBP, besides six otherresidential flats, sources said.

The ED has detected some

alleged undisclosed transac-tions being made from Cyprusand Dubai for the purchase ofthese assets by people linked toVadra, the sources said.

Questioning of Vadra on hislinks to these assets has not gotthe agency much leads. It nowwants to put Vadra through sus-tained interrogation and hasmoved court to cancel his antic-ipatory bail, they said.

In his defence, Vadra hadclaimed that he was beingsubjected to “sensation andunnecessary drama” by therepeated exercise of sum-moning him by the ED.

The ED has asked its UKcounterparts to help them getfull details of the chain ofownership of these assets apartfrom documents that legallyestablish their sale and pur-chase over a period of time.

A main suspect for theEnforcement Directorate inthese dealings is NRI busi-nessman C C Thampi who hasbeen charged by the agency inan alleged illegal hawala deal-ings and land purchase case inthe country in 2017.

It had issued a show-causenotice to Thampi for alleged

violation of foreign exchangelaws to the tune of over Rs1,000 crore in the purchase ofvast tracts of land in Kerala.

Thampi has now beensummoned by the agency forquestioning about his linkswith Vadra and abscondingarms dealer Sanjay Bhandari.But Thampi has sought moretime to appear before the ED ashe claims he is unwell, thesources said. Some other peo-ple linked to Vadra andBhandari have also been sum-moned by the agency.

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In his first meeting with thetop brass here on Thursday

after assuming charge as theDefence Minister last week,Rajnath Singh was briefedabout issues, including Defenceacquisitions and procurements,Defence diplomacy and plan-ning activities of recently set upthree integrated units, includ-ing Cyber Agency, ArmedForces Special Forces Divisionand Space Agency.

The high-level review ofthese issues was attended byDefence Secretary Sanjay Mitraand other officials of the min-istry besides representationfrom the three Services.

Since the focus is on to sus-tain the momentum of mod-ernisation to have operationalpreparedness to meet the chal-lenge of a two-front war withPakistan and China, the Ministerwas apprised of Defence pro-curement procedures, budgetutilisation, present status of pro-curements and payments alongwith implications of major dealswith countries.

Singh directed officials toseek indigenous solutions formeeting the forces require-ments to the extent possible. Healso noted the progress underthe Strategic Partnership pro-gramme, the Defence Ministryofficials said later.

The Strategic Partnershipprogramme initiated by theNDA-one Government aims atmanufacturing warships, sub-marines, fighter jets and tanksin India with foreign collabo-

ration. Two projects, includingmanufacturing nearly 100 heli-copters and six submarines,were given the go-ahead somemonths back under the strate-gic partnership programme.

He was also briefed regard-ing Defence co-operation activ-ities with Friendly ForeignCountries (FFCs), policy mat-ters pertaining to Defence diplo-macy, including bilateral andmulti-lateral exercises, capacitybuilding, training and materialassistance to FFCs, they said.

With fast changing natureof warfare with extensive use of

information technology andspace, the Government recent-ly three tri-services unitsincluding Special Forces, Cyberand Space Agencies.

Headed by Major Generalrank officer, these agencies havedrawn personnel and resourcesfrom three Services for fightingany challenge in an integratedmanner. It will enable the mil-itary to achieve the military andpolitical objective in the short-est possible time. Against thisbackdrop, Singh reviewed plan-ning activities of these agencies,officials said.

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Against the backdrop ofCongress’ miserable show

in the Lok Sabha electionsacross the country, includingUttar Pradesh, Congress gen-eral secretary Priyanka Gandhihas decided to continue work-ing ‘tirelessly’ for the revival ofthe party in the State thatsends 80 Lok Sabha MPs.

AICC sources said a mas-sive overhaul could be expect-ed to streamline the cadre inthe State which has alwaysbeen significant for formationof a government at the Centre.

Priyanka, who was draftedinto active politics by her broth-er and Congress presidentRahul Gandhi just before theGeneral Elections, will head toPrayagraj (Allahabad) on Fridayto hold a separate review meet-ing with all the 40 Congresscontestants of eastern UP andconduct a marathon meetingwith party’s office bearers at alllevels, from block to State.

The party, which is facinginternal rumblings in wake ofparty chief Rahul Gandhi’s res-ignation post-poll debacle, is allset to make structural changes inorganisation across countrywhile Priyanka will figure out astrategy to rebuild the party inthe main Hindi heartland where

Congress lost its grip sincealmost the last four decades.

“Priyanka will now fre-quently visit the State and con-tinue with her interactionswith party workers,” a seniorAICC leader said.

On her first visit to UttarPradesh after the poll debaclewherein even her brother Rahullost the family turf of Amethi,she will station herself in SwarajBhawan in Allahabad and con-duct the series of meetings.She is tasked to strengthen theState unit to stage a comebackboth in UP and national level.

Congress ruled UP for avery long time since first ChiefMinister Govind Vallabh Pantin 1950 with last being NDTiwari. But there hasn’t been asingle Congress CM who hasruled UP following rise ofregional players like SamajwadiParty, BSP and emergence ofBJP as a force to reckon with.

In the last two Lok Sabhapolls, it did not touch even thedouble digit from the State. Thehighest Lok Sabha MPs inCongress from UP was 21 inthe 2009 Lok Sabha elections inrecent times when the partyreturned to power to lead UPA-II at Centre.

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Union Home Minister Amit Shah is likelyto be allotted late Prime Minister Atal

Bihari Vajpayee’s Krishna Menon Marg resi-dence in Central Delhi, Government sourcessaid on Thursday.

Vajpayee had moved to the KrishnaMenon Marg bunglow in 2004 after hisGovernment was voted out, and stayed therewith his family for nearly 14 years. His fami-ly vacated the house in last November after hisdeath in August.

“The official bungalow of former PrimeMinister on Krishna Menon Marg has beenallotted to Union Home Minister Amit Shah,”a Government source told PTI.

According to sources, Shah, who is also theBJP president, recently visited the house andsuggested some changes following which ren-ovation work has started.

“The renovation work should be completedin a month ortwo,” anothersource said.

Shah, whotook charge as aUnion Ministerfor the firsttime earlier thisweek followinga landslide vic-tory of the BJP-led NDA, iscurrently stay-ing at 11 Akbar Road residence.

When Vajpayee had moved to the KrishnaMenon Marg house, he had got the municipal number of the bungalowchanged from 8 to 6-A.

After the Modi Government came topower in 2014, it was decided that noGovernment bungalow previously occupied bya leader in Delhi would be converted into anymemorial after their death.

The Government has already built memo-rial for Vajpayee ‘Sadaiv Atal’, near theRashtriya Smriti Sthal, a place designated forlast rites of Presidents, Vice-Presidents andPrime Ministers.

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The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Thursdaydemanded immediate handing over of pre-

cious treasure of Sikhs allegedly seized by theArmy during the 1984 Operation Blue Star aswell as regular pension to those who left theforces after the armed intervention to flush outterrorists from the Golden Temple.

The SAD delegation led by Sukhbir SinghBadal met Home Minister Amit Shah to raise aseries of demands in connection with OperationBlue Star related incidents.

“The Sikh community is eagerly waiting forthe precious treasure which the attacking armyseized and was taken away during the attack,” SAD Chief Badal told reporters after themeeting.

“It includes important holy scriptures, arte-facts, thousands of historical books and collec-tion part of the Sikh Reference Library and relicsbelonging to Sri Guru Sahib and other Sikh personalities. These should be located andreturned to the community with due honour,”he said.

Badal said 309 serving Sikh personnel hadleft the Army after the security forces attackedtheir most revered religious place under theOperation Bluestar, and all of them were dis-missed from the service.

“Around 100 of them are still alive. Wehumbly request for their rehabilitation and pen-sion benefits. This will give a positive messageto the aggrieved Sikh community,” the SAD chiefadded.

The Akali Dal leader also said the centralgovernment is going to celebrate the 550th yearbirth anniversary of Sri Guru Nanak Dev afterfour months. He said one of the programmesscheduled is ‘Nagar Kirtan’ from India toNankana Sahib, the birth place of the founderof Sikh religion, in Pakistan.

“We have requested that this event beorganised by the Shiromani GurdwaraPrabandhak Committee (SGPC) and DelhiSikh Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee(DSGMC). We have requested that theGovernment of India may liaison with thePakistan Government for successful organisationof this ‘Nagar Kirtan’,” he added.

New Delhi: External AffairsMinister S Jaishankar willembark on a two-day visit toBhutan from Friday, his firstoverseas trip after assumingcharge of the Msinistry.

MEA SpokespersonRaveesh Kumar said during thevisit, Jaishankar would call onBhutanese Prime MinisterLotay Tshering and is expect-ed to receive an audience withKing of Bhutan Jigme KhesarNamgyel Wangchuck.

He will also hold talkswith his Bhutanese counterpartTandi Dorji. “It will beJaishankar’s first visit abroad as

the External Affairs Ministerand reflects the importance thatIndia attaches to its relationshipwith Bhutan, a close friend and

neighbour,” Kumar said.Bhutan has been a close ally

of India and bilateral tiesbetween the two countries areon an upswing in the last fewyears. “India and Bhutan sharea unique and time tested bilat-eral relationship, characterisedby utmost trust, goodwill and mutual understanding,”said Kumar.

“During the visit, the twosides will discuss entire gamutof bilateral relations, includingthe upcoming high-levelexchanges, economic develop-ment and hydro-power coop-eration,” he added. PTI

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Aday after a study claimedthat at least one lakh kids

are dying due to toxic airacross the country every year,the Government said onThursday that the situation “isnot as bad” as being portrayedin the media.

Speaking at an event tomark World Environment Day,which was on June 5, UnionEnvironment Minister PrakashJavadekar said in fact, air qual-ity in Delhi-NCR has improvedand the number of days with“bad” air quality has comedown by 33 per cent. The sit-uation “is not as bad” as beingportrayed in the media.

“Media reports are alwayscreating a picture that lakhs ofpeople are dying of air pollu-tion but it is not as bad. Yes pol-lution is there but efforts areon,” Javadekar said. OnWednesday, Center for Science

and Environment had releaseda report stating that bad air wasbadly affecting the people par-ticularly kids.

“Number of poor air qual-ity days in Delhi in 2016 usedto be 246, and in 2014 theyused to be around 300, in 2017it came down to 213 and nowit has come down to 206. I amconfident that when 2019 fig-

ures will come, the number ofpoor air quality days will fur-ther come down. This is atremendous success. The daysof poor quality air havereduced. It is a significantimprovement,” he said.

He also said that the num-ber of days with ‘moderate’ to‘good’ air quality has increasedfrom 108 in 2016 to 159 in

2018.“Moderate to good days

have increased. 108 days ofmoderate air quality in 2016have increased to 152 in 2017and now they have gone up to159 days. This progress ingood air days are the result ofconcerted efforts of last fouryears for the capital and NCR,”he said, adding that air quali-

ty monitoring systems whichrecord the air quality index(AQI) show improvement inair quality.

An AQI between 0 and 50is considered ‘good’, 51 and 100‘satisfactory’, 101 and 200 ‘mod-erate’, 201 and 300 ‘poor’, 301and 400 ‘very poor’, and 401and 500 ‘severe’.

Minister of State forEnvironment Babul Supriyourged people to use car pool atleast once in a week to con-tribute to the cause of envi-ronment and “not be afraid ofthe alarming figures in thewar against pollution”.

The Ministry also releasedseveral publications, includ-ing Orchids of India byBotanical Survey of Indiawhich identified over 700species of orchids in the coun-try while another book —Plant Discoveries —had addi-tion of 438 plant species to theIndian flora in 2018.

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Former Civil AviationMinister and NCP leader

Praful Patel did not appearbefore the EnforcementDirectorate on Thursday andrequested the agency for anoth-er date to depose in connectionwith a money-laundering

probe related to the losses suf-fered by national carrier Air India as part of an alleged multi-crore-rupee avi-ation scam.

Patel’s request for anotherdate for questioning camehours before his appearancescheduled before the agency.The agency had summonedhim earlier this month andasked him to appear before theInvestigating Officer of thecase on Thursday.

Patel has also been namedin a recent chargesheet filed bythe ED before a court as a per-son known to aviation lobby-ist Deepak Talwar.

Patel who is a NCP leader,was in charge of the Civil Aviation Ministrybetween 2004 and 2011 duringthe United Progressive Allianceregime, has not been men-tioned as an accused in the case till now.

“Due to my prior commit-ments, I have requested ED foranother date,” Patel said inMumbai.

The statement of Patel, aRajya Sabha MP, will be record-ed under the Prevention ofMoney Laundering Act (PMLA).

After summoning by theagency, Patel had reacted say-ing he would be happy tocooperate with the ED fortheir understanding of thecomplexities of the aviationindustry.

The scam relates to allocation of favourable airline routes to foreign oper-ators to the detriment of the national carrier Air India.

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The CBI has arrested threepersons in connection with

the leak of question paper ofStaff Selection Commission’sCommon Graduate Levelexamination.

The arrests came afterrecent searches at four locations— one in the national capitaland three in Ghaziabad, offi-cials said.

Akshay Kumar Malik, thealleged masterminded of theleak of examination paper,besides two other accused per-sons — Sandeep Mathur andDharmendra were arrested afterthe searches at the four locationshere and Ghaziabad, they said.

The CBI had registered anFIR against 17 persons, includ-ing ten employees of SifyTechnologies Pvt Ltd, in con-nection with the question paperleak.

The paper of the secondtier of the Combined GraduateLevel (CGL) examination,2017, which took place onFebruary 21, 2018, and itsanswer key were allegedlyleaked and became viral onsocial media before the exam-ination began, according tothe FIR.

The examination paperswere set in such a way that anexaminee got the questions ina certain sequence, officialsadded.

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As the massive search andrescue operation entered

the fourth day on Thursday forthe missing AN-32 aircraftwith 13 IAF personnel onboard, Defence MinisterRajnath Singh met familymembers of some of them hereand assured of all possiblehelp. He had prayed for thesafety of all the crew memberson Monday when the planewent missing.

Even as weather is ham-pering the search operations,the IAF on Thursday widenedthe area of operation withground forces of the Army andIndo-Tibetan Border Police(ITBP) patrolling the thicklyforested area to locate themissing plane feared to havecrashed.

Besides two SU-30s and C-130J planes flying throughoutthe night for the past threedays to locate the plane, theNavy has also deployed its P-8 I long range reconnais-sance aircraft.

Two M-17 helicopters andtwo advanced light utility heli-copters are also carrying outsorties and the Army on

Thursday also stationed anunmanned aerial vehicle(UAV), officials said here onThursday.

The ill-fated AN-32 trans-port aircraft had taken offfrom Jorhat in Assam at 12.25pm for Mechuka advancedlanding ground in ArunachalPradesh.

The plane lost radio con-tact at one pm and when it didnot land at Mechuka at sched-uled time of 1.25 pm, the IAFlaunched the search and rescueoperation. The flying timebetween Jorhat and Mechukais about 50 minutes and thedistance is about 206 kms asthe crow flies.

Mechuka advanced land-ing ground is the lifeline fortroops deployed on the Line ofActual Control (LAC) facingChina and the planes and heli-copters ferry personnel, foodand ammunition.

The advanced landingground at a height of 6,000 feetis about 30 kms as the crowflies from the LAC and there-fore is strategically very impor-tant. Incidentally, an AN-32had crashed near Mechuka inJune 2009 killing all 13 pas-sengers.

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$�� ���>�))�!:�:!;>)�+!�-���>?��>�:+�.�@;!>�:�A+�B;���!C+New Delhi: BS-VI emission norms will be implemented from next year which will drasticallyreduce vehicular Pollution, said Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar. “The Government haddecided to switch to BS (Bharat Stage) IV vehicles in 2022 but looking at the poor air situation,it was advanced by four years. From 2020 onwards BS-VI compliant vehicles will be available”,he said, adding that over Rs 60,000 crore have been invested in this direction.

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Page 6:  · 2019-06-06 · Puri are special invitees of the ... Puri to be developed by the Mayfair Hotels & Resorts Ltd with an ... a 4-star hotel at Trisulaia,

National president of Swaraj India,Yogendra Yadav, would like theCongress to die for the sake ofthe country’s political welfare sothat space is created for a new

Opposition organisation to come up to helpremove the Modi regime. Evidently, Yadav isafflicted with anger; or else he would not havemade such an irrational statement. TheCongress enjoys enormous brand equity,which is essential for a party to get nationalacceptability. India is not only huge but adiverse country in terms of languages andethos. Within a language group, too, there aredifferences — perhaps inherited from the castesystem. Then there are variations in develop-ment — some are still at the cultural level ofthe 19th Century while others are on theapron of the 21st Century.

To get identified with such a wide vari-ety of people is very difficult. For a newparty to grow into a national formation,opposing the BJP and removing its leader-ship, would not only be a Herculean taskbut also might take decades to be success-ful. One may note that for all its success-es, the BJP has not yet been able to effec-tively reach out to the people of Tamil Nadu,Kerala and Andhra Pradesh. Its prototype,the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, was founded in1951, ie, 68 years ago. I doubt if a third alter-native has come up, although some friendshave told this writer that a Delhi-basedparty is hopeful of going national. One won-ders if Yadav, when he was a member of aparty, had provided the inspiration?

The Congress has a unique record. Itbegan with informing the British rulers howthe Indian intelligentsia felt about their poli-cies and actions. Gradually, it started agitat-ing for freedom or discretion to Indians. Insuch a cause, virtually anyone was welcometo join — whether Indian or foreigner — theparty’s founder was an Englishman, AllanOctavian Hume. Until the advent ofMahatma Gandhi, the Congress was a gen-tlemen’s set-up, rather like a club. It was in1921, with the non-cooperation move-ment, that it began to take the character ofa mass party. Soon, the Mahatma becameits leader, who led the party until JawaharlalNehru took over. After Nehru’s death, hisdaughter, Indira Gandhi, took over.

In October 1984, after being shot by herbodyguards, Indira Gandhi had been declareddead by doctors at AIIMS hospital and thetragic news was broadcast by the BBC radioby 11 am. But Akashvani and Doordarshankept this development under wraps until 6 pmby when President Zail Singh had returnedto India and was ready to swear in RajivGandhi as Prime Minister. This subterfugeshowed how important leadership was to theCongress. By then, the party had hardly anyassets, except its brand equity. Until 1969, theCongress had virtually everything that a polit-ical party might want. But with its split in 1969,the assets, including the organisational net-work, remained with the Congress (organi-

sation). Indira Gandhi’s Congress(ruling) had nothing except themembers, who were personallyloyal to her. As it happened, shechose to not have assets. SeveralPradesh Congress Committeesoperated from their president’sresidence. For instance, AjitKumar Panja of West Bengalused the drawing room of his res-idence at 250, ChittranjanAvenue, Kolkata. Many a mem-ber, wedded to the tradition,would swear “I will go to anymasjid or any mandir but refuseto visit an imam or mahant at hishouse”. Indira Gandhi must havereceived such complaints but shedid not care. Presumably, herview might have been “what I donot have, no one can take away”.Evidently, she did not trust many.By 1980, half the districtCongress committees did notexist. She depended on hercharisma and her mass following;party members were powerlesshelpers in promoting her cause.

Many Congressmen by thenhad also come to believe that theNehru-Gandhi family had aunique charisma among themasses. Their evidence was thatthe Mahatma transformed theCongress into a mass party andit flourished on his charisma untilNehru took the baton from him.After Nehru, Indira Gandhieffectively played this role andenabled the Congress to domi-nate the Indian political scene.Thereafter, Rajiv Gandhi playeda yeoman’s role in keeping theparty flying high. For the first andthe only time, he led over 400

Congressmen in the Lok Sabha.If he lost the 1989 elections, it wasbecause of Bofors more than any-thing else. In the 1990s, many ofthe partymen missed a Gandhiat the helm. They found it diffi-cult to swallow the leadership ofPV Narasimha Rao. This writerhas personally heard four HinduCongressmen saying that Raowore khaki knickers as his under-wear. Three Muslim memberswere heard whispering undertheir breath that it was he whodestroyed the Babri Masjid. Thisis to illustrate the frustrationamong party members.

When Sitaram Kesaribecame party president, severalrumour-mongers were sellingthe belief that at this rate, theirhistoric party would break up.Little wonder that the onlyGandhi available, namely, SoniaGandhi, was elevated to theivory throne of the Congress. Thepartymen had no inhibition as ithad been founded by anEnglishman. It was later presidedover by an Irish woman AnnieBesant and subsequently, byNellie Sengupta. ForCongressmen, the priority was acharismatic Gandhi, no matterwhether brown or white.

There is a fundamentalreason for charismatic leader-ship to keep the Congresstogether. That reason is that theparty is primarily a platform ofpoliticians to meet for the pur-suit of power. Especially afterIndependence, it had no partic-ular cause, nor an ideology tohold it together. Little wonder

that the Mahatma recommend-ed its dissolution post-Independence. In the greatman’s own time, the Congresshad opposed Partition andwithout much hesitation, hadaccepted the division afterJinnah’s Direct Action, inaugu-rated by the Great CalcuttaKilling of August 1946.

To quote a more recentexample, the Congress had wonthe 1991 general election on asocialistic manifesto. Within aweek, however, it gave a go-by toall socialism and liberalised theeconomy on the basis of an IMFprescription. This freedom fromideology has enabled theCongress to induct membersfrom all walks of political life,whether an Akali like Zail Singhor a communist like RangarajanKumaramangalam or a ShivSainik like Chhagan Bhujbal, etal. The flip side of this conve-nience is the indispensability ofcharismatic leaders as binders orunifiers.

The political acumen thatYadav yearns for is not an essen-tial component of charisma.Rajiv Gandhi did not have it. Bethat as it may, what is necessaryfor the party is to find such aleader rather than wanting theCongress to die. In any case, theCongress is not a roadblock tothe rise of a third national party.The pathways for the rise of sucha party are innumerable in ourlarge country.

(The writer is a well-knowncolumnist and an author. Viewsexpressed are personal)

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Sir — Just as most of us, politi-cal leaders included, had pre-dicted during the course of thepoll campaign not too long ago,the Opposition’s meltdown hasbegun. The mahagathbandhanand the bonhomie that existedbetween various parties, whowere determined to stop theNarendra Modi juggernaut, nowseem to be collapsing.

Analysts had also observedthat alliances were bound tofail, particularly keeping in mindcaste humiliations the Dalitshad to suffer at the hands of castegroups like the Yadavs. For theDalits, voting for a SamajwadiParty (SP) candidate was noeasy task. Therefore, we wit-nessed the lack of transfers ofBahujan Samaj Party (BSP) votesto SP candidates in several loca-tions, where Dalits, in fact, pre-ferred to vote for the BJP.

Another strong theory aboutthe gathbandhan has been thatthe entire coalition came aboutwith hopes of pitching Mayawatias a prime ministerial candidateand the SP would back her inthis move. But both parties’hopes were dashed as Mayawati

could not make her mark. It isclear that both parties, despitetheir decades of political expe-rience, failed to correctly esti-mate the Modi.

J AkshayBengaluru

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Sir — Just a year ago, Kerala hadcontained Nipah virus outbreakthat claimed 17 lives. TheGovernment has once againsounded alarm bells as a fresh

case of virus was confirmed.More than 300 people, whowere in touch with the suspect,too, have been placed underhome quarantine to check thespread of the virus. GivenKerala’s past experience, looks

like the State will get a grip onthe situation and the outbreakwill be controlled soon.

Lack of precautionary mea-sure by the Government has ledto the spread of the virus thisyear too. The Governmentshould issue advisory to thepeople to check the spread of thedisease. The actual source of thevirus is yet to be known. Thisonly surmounts the trouble asso-ciated with this disease. Keralamust now remain on alert to thepossibility of frequent outbreaks.

Sravana RamachandranChennai

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Sir — It is unfortunate that theCongress is going through roughtimes. In fact, cracks as seen inCongress-ruled States likeRajasthan, Karnataka andMadhya Pradesh must not beallowed to widen. Party leadersmust be frank with each other.The party needs to be in tunewith people’s aspirations.

Shubham Via email

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Microfinance now seems to be in a buoy-ant mood. Having fully emerged fromthe shadows of demonetisation, it

showed rapid, regionally-balanced and resilientgrowth during 2018-19 with the industry’sGross Loan Portfolio (GLP) standing at�1,87,386 crore at the end of March — up 38per cent year-on-year. This was reported byMicrofinance Institutions Network (MFIN), aReserve Bank of India (RBI)-recognised self-regulatory organisation and industry associa-tion of the microfinance industry.

Compared with the financial year 2017-18,there has been a year-on-year increase of 28 percent in the number of loans disbursed and 44per cent in loan amount disbursed. The totalnumber of microfinance accounts was 9.33 croreat the end of March 2019, showing a growth of21.9 per cent. The growth of the staff of non-banking financial companies (NBFC)-micro-finance institutions was also heartening at 34 percent, now totalling to 1,04,973 people.

Microfinance is basically the distribution ofsmall loans to the impoverished, who otherwisedo not have access to loans, to enable them toraise their income levels, cope with financialshocks and attain a meaningful livelihood.These small-denomination loans are often usedfor a variety of purposes. It could be for smallbusiness or for coping with unpredictableincomes by making funds available to meet basicneeds and manage shocks, such as death or ill-ness. Utilised fruitfully, these loans have oftenenabled borrowers to build sustainable liveli-hoods. Despite huge growth, microfinancereaches only a tiny fraction of the people, whoselives would be better with access to these basicservices. To use a common phrase: “It justscratches the surface.”

However, there are several concerns relat-ed to microfinance. Recent studies show that thenotion that microfinance has the potential tospark sustained economic growth is misplaced.In several cases, microfinance activities can dam-age the prospects of poor people. Microloans docreate opportunities for people to utilise “lumps”of money to augment incomes and mitigate vul-nerability. But that doesn’t necessarily meaninvesting in businesses can lead to sustainedincome growth. Not all microloans produce ben-eficial results, especially for those engaged inlow-return activities in saturated markets thatare poorly developed and which are prone to reg-ular environmental and economic shocks.

A growing body of research suggests thatmicrofinance doesn’t work for all communities.It may have worked well in Bangladesh in the1970s, but failed to keep pace with changingneeds and behaviours of the client at the lowersocio-economic pyramid. The poor take loanswith crippling interest rates or sell their tools andpossessions and, hence, lose their basic meansof sustenance. Borrowers have been saddled withmultiple loans at exorbitant interest rates, oftenhaving to borrow from loan sharks to make theirmicrocredit payments. It cannot allow them tovault themselves out of poverty; at least not ona scale large enough to be visible.

The biggest problem is that people, who getthese small loans, usually start or expand a sim-

ple business. The most common busi-ness for microfinance is retail-sellinggroceries, where there exists fiercecompetition and people don’t reallyearn enough money to get out ofpoverty. Not only are borrowers ofteninnumerate, illiterate and unfamiliarwith interest rate calculations, butusually, they have little or no awarenessof local demand for goods and services.Consequently, they fail to establish suc-cessful income-generating ventures.

High rate of repayment successtrumpeted by the microfinance indus-try don’t necessarily mean customersare doing better, nor does it reflect thestruggles faced by clients repayingdebts through rigid installments.Inflexible contracts and unrealisticand stiff repayment terms fail to meetthe investment needs of poor borrow-ers, whose income is irregular andhighly volatile. It fluctuates over theyear, susceptible as it is to economicand environmental factors — themicrofinance institution does not pro-vide grace period and demands fixedweekly repayments starting immediate-ly after the loan disbursement. Thismeans one cannot use all the moneyand will have to retain some portionto make sure he/she can meet therepayments before generating income.This adds to the borrowing costs. Allthese discourage risky investment.

In the world of microfinance,women borrowers are viewed asautonomous individuals, who makeindependent choices in the market-place. But this is not the reality. Ruralwomen live in extended family struc-tures. These women’s identities are rela-tional, shaped by factors such as mar-

ital kinship, ethnic and tribal alle-giances. They negotiate complex kin-ship and social obligations. Husbands,sons and fathers-in-laws often take con-trol of women’s loans. Depending onthe family’s dynamic, it would be hardto know how much a husband may beinfluencing or forcing a wife to sign offon something she doesn’t agree with.

One concern is that as micro-finance becomes more commercialisedand increasingly concerned with thelarge-scale impact, profits take prece-dence over the social mission.Anything not strictly financial is cut inthe name of “efficiency.” Profit-mind-ed shareholders see training of entre-preneurs, financial literacy and coun-selling, skill training, or even the extrafive minutes a caring loan officermight spend with a client as a costrather than as an investment. Sincemost microfinance clients have little orno security or collateral to pledge,providers instead turn to what is called“social collateral,” which is builtthrough groups of borrowers, whoguarantee each other’s loans.

Debt may not be the appropriatetool to alleviate financial woes of low-income communities. It is one thingthat has both the greatest promise and,perhaps, the gravest peril. Debt or cred-it, the cash that we borrow from lend-ing institutions, exists for a reason.Before you apply for it, you should askyourself if you have a valid reason forit, or are you taking it just because peo-ple are lining up the way pollstersqueue up for freebies?

The second question one shouldask is whether it is part of his/her finan-cial plan. If it is, are you sure you are

going to get a return higher than whatyou will pay? This financial returnshould also cover your own effort thatwill go into generating that return.With their dominant presence in ruraland semi-urban areas, micro-financeinstitutions are well placed to bridgethis gap. At the same time, the socialconnect established through financialliteracy campaigns helps in developingand enlarging client base. Financial lit-eracy also inculcates the habit of sav-ings and healthy credit culture, there-by ensuring timely repayment of loan.

The role of microfinance in finan-cial inclusion, poverty alleviation andwoman empowerment has been provedall over the world. But the industryneeds to moderate its appetite for highprofits and aim to find the balancebetween commercial goals and socialgood. The industry and theGovernment will have to walk the extramile. Right policy measures from theGovernment and regulators and strate-gic tie-ups with banks will hold the keyfor micro-finance institutions to servethe people.

The microfinance sector mustconvince impact investors that micro-finance institutions are professionallygoverned, efficiently managed andstaffed with high talents. They havereliable access to capital markets,diversified product range and uniquepenetration in the BOP sector. Thatthey have a unique understanding ofthe complex and sophisticated finan-cial lives of the poor people.

(The writer is Member, NITIAayog’s National Committee onFinancial Literacy and Inclusion forWomen)

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According to the OxfordEnglish Dictionary, pop-ulism is “a political approach

that strives to appeal to ordinarypeople who feel that their concernsare disregarded by established elitegroups.” Recently, this idea hascome under intense academicscrutiny because of the suddenrise of populist political parties andleaders in various countries.

Historically, populism has beenmore dominant in countries with alarge urban working class and poorrural populations. But in the lastdecade or so, populist politics has alsodramatically risen in developedEuropean countries and in the USand/or in robust democracies and

economies.Prior to this, many Western

political scientists, and most famous-ly, Samuel Phillips Huntington, in his1996 book, The Clash of Civilisationsand the Remaking of World Order,maintained that populist politicalepisodes only emerged in rigid andinflexible political systems.

Huntington stated that the moreflexible democratic and economicsystems of Europe and the US areable to pragmatically accommodateand then neutralise those segmentsof the society, the most prone are theyto be attracted by populist ideas dur-ing a political or an economic crisis.

A decade later, however, thesame political scientists have been leftfeeling boggled by the rise, in devel-oped countries, of the kind of volatilepopulist politics which they oncebelieved only occurred in developingcountries with weak and authoritar-ian political and economic systems.

The US and Europe have expe-rienced bouts of populism before. Butas political scientists such asHuntington point out, these wereaddressed and neutralised by the

democratic and economic systems ofthe West. However, the currentstrain of populism in these regionsraises concern and bewilderment.

A researcher, Sam Wilkins, triedto mould a unified explanation byfusing together the findings of vari-ous recent studies on the emergenceof populist politics in Europe and theUS. In his book, History Repeating,Wilkins presents the historical cur-rents of populism in countries suchas Thailand, Russia, Iran andArgentina.

Using these as case studies,Wilkins theorises that the emergenceof prominent populist parties andleaders is almost always triggered bygrowing economic and political ten-sions between the ruling/economicelites, the middle-classes and the‘underclasses.’ According to Wilkins,as the elite and a growing urban mid-dle-class jostle for economic andpolitical dominance, friction is cre-ated which negatively affects theeconomy.

Those affected the most by thiscrisis — especially the working class-es and the rural poor — become nat-

ural constituencies of upwardlymobile populist leaders who, ironi-cally, often come from well-to-dobackgrounds.

The Dutch political scientistCas Mudde wrote in his book,Populism in the 21st Century, thatpopulists squarely concentrate onanti-elite and anti-system rhetoric tostir the emotions and the anger of thehave-nots. When in power, they tryto retain this constituency withequally populist economic policiesthat initially benefit the poor buteventually end up creating gallopinginflation and economic deficits.

According to Wilkins, the urbanmiddle-classes react to this and areoften at the forefront of movementsagainst populist Governments. Buteven when these movements succeedin removing the Government, theremoval is often replaced by thereturn of the ruling elite which wassidelined by the hated populists.Ironically, the middle-classes, too, areagainst the elite but eventually agreeto accept it as a “lesser evil”.

Wilkins suggests that all main-stream political parties, whether on

the left or on the right, eventuallyconverge at the Centre. This Centristposition makes them complacent andstagnant. In such situations, populistsmay emerge from outside or fromwithin these parties with rhetoricagainst the system.

They are roundly denounced asbeing pro-rich and anti-poor.Wilkins concludes that this fre-quently happens in developing coun-tries but has now returned to hauntEurope and the US as well.

It would have been interestinghad Wilkins also studied the histo-ry of populism in India and Pakistanbecause I believe a whole new modelof populism is developing here whichis different to the model construct-ed by Wilkins. Indeed, in the 1970s,populism in India and Pakistan wasalso derived by appealing to the sen-timents of the have-nots and bydemonising the economic and polit-ical elite. The ZA Bhutto regime didin Pakistan what the Indira GandhiGovernment did in India.

Also, both were, by and large,opposed by the urban middle-class-es through movements which oust-

ed them. The Indian middle-classthen had to sit through a rather dis-appointing experiment with the anti-Indira Janata Party, while thePakistani middle class had to compro-mise by accepting the return of theelite in the shape of an anti-populistand conservative dictatorship (Zia).

However, the two massive elec-toral victories of India’s Hindunationalist party, the BJP, in the coun-try’s last two elections, and the com-ing to power of Imran Khan’s pop-ulist Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf inPakistan, did not happen on thebehest of the have-nots as such. Yes,both Modi and Khan’s rhetoricdemonised the established politicalparties — the Congress, the PML-Nand the PPP. Yet, both hardly everused the other portion of the populistrhetoric which directly appeals to thepoor. Instead, the demonisation ofopponents and their ‘corruption’was coupled by imagery of a coun-try which mostly attracts the desiresand imagination of India andPakistan’s urban middle-classes.

In most European countries andin the US, renegade members of the

old elite are cleverly exploiting anexhausted political system to stir theemotions of the have-nots. But thesepopulists are not quite as appealingto the middle classes. So the Wilkinsmodel is relatable there.

But not so in today’s Pakistanand India, where the urban middle-classes have agreed to a secret hand-shake with state institutions, highsociety and the economic elite to con-struct its own form of populism —but one which does not includeimages of the ‘masses’ throngingaround empathetic messiahs.

Indeed, both Modi and Imran,too, have been branded as messiahs,but by and for a class which, till thelate 1990s, abhorred populismbecause it soiled its idea of decent pol-itics, offended its morality and eventhreatened its economic position.

The establishment and segmentsof the economic elite, weary of pop-ulists stirring working-class senti-ments, eventually came togetherwith the frustrated urban middle-classes to mould a new kind of pop-ulist — the middle-class demagogue.

(The Dawn)

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The BSE Sensex plunged554 points on Thursday,

pressured by losses in bank-ing, energy and capital goodsstocks, after the RBI delivereda rate cut on expected linesbut failed to assuage investorconcerns regarding the NBFCsector.

The 30-share Sensexcracked 553.82 points, or 1.38per cent, to settle at 39,529.72,while the broader NSE Niftyplunged 177.90 points, or1.48 per cent, to end at11,843.75.

Slashing benchmarklending rate for the thirdtime this year, the centralbank cut the repo rate by 0.25per cent to 5.75 per cent —the lowest in nine years —and changed its monetarypolicy stance from ’neutral’ to’accommodative’.

However, the RBI loweredthe economic growth forecastfor the current fiscal to 7 percent due to slowdown indomestic activities and esca-lation in global trade war.

RBI GovernorShaktikanta Das also said thecentral bank is closely moni-toring the developments inthe NBFC sector and willensure that financial stabilityis maintained.

However, traders said themarket was awaiting specificsteps to shore up liquidity andaddress the crisis of confi-dence in the country’s trou-bled shadow banking sector.

Top losers in the Sensexpack included IndusInd Bank,Yes Bank, SBI, L&T, Tata Steel,

M&M, Bajaj Finance, Vedanta,Tata Motors and RIL, tumblingup to 6.97 per cent.

Bucking the negativemarket trend, Coal India,PowerGrid, NTPC, HUL,Hero MotoCorp, Asian Paintsand Infosys gained up to 1.92per cent.

All sectoral indices endedin the red, with BSE oil andgas, bankex, capital goods,finance, industrials, utilitiesand energy indices crackingup to 3.04 per cent.

In the broader markets,the BSE midcap and smallcapindices ended up to 1.77 percent lower.

“The rate cut could notinfuse positivity, and thedecline steepened as focusshifted from policy rates tonew emerging short-termtight liquidity situation due toissues like IL&FS, DHFL andits impending impact onother financial institutions,”said Narendra Solanki, HeadFundamental Research(Investment Services) — AVPEquity Research, Anand RathiShares & Stock Brokers.

Lowered GDP forecast forcurrent year and failure to getany cue from RBI on the liq-uidity front except generalassurance of addressing thesituation added to the sellingpressure later in the day, headded.

The NBFC pack wit-nessed heavy selling pressurefollowing the bond defaults bymortgage lender DHFL onJune 4, which led to a slew ofrating downgrades for thecompany. The stock lost morethan 15 per cent Thursday.

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Interest rate sensitive bank,auto and realty shares came

under selling pressureThursday falling up to 7 percent even as the RBI slashed thepolicy rate.

Among bank scrips,IndusInd Bank dropped 6.97per cent, Bank of Barodaplunged 6.33 per cent, YesBank 6.15 per cent, SBI 4.34 percent, Federal Bank 2.69 percent, ICICI Bank 1.75 per cent,Axis Bank 1.38 per cent, HDFCBank 1.18 per cent and KotakMahindra Bank 1.05 per centon the BSE.

Led by plunge in thesescrips, the BSE bank indexdeclined 2.34 per cent to closeat 34,653.44.

In a move that may lead tolower home, auto and otherloan EMIs, the RBI Thursdaycut interest rates for the thirdtime this year by 25 basispoints to their lowest level innine years.

“As the rate cut was in linewith expectations which hadalready been factored in, theindices did not cheer the ratecut and continued to trickledown,” said Umesh Mehta,head of Research, SamcoSecurities.

Realty shares also faced

selling pressure with GodrejProperties plunging 4.13 percent, Oberoi Realty 3.60 percent, DLF 2.53 per cent, ThePhoenix Mills 2.22 per cent,Omaxe 1.64 per cent, Sobha1.56 per cent and SunteckRealty 1.54 per cent.

The realty index fell 1.84per cent to 2,174.03 at close oftrade.

The RBI cut the repo rateto 5.75 per cent and reverserepo rate to 5.50 per cent andexpected banks to transmitthese to home, auto and otherloan borrowers faster.

“The Nifty had rallied inthe recent days, leading up tothe RBI policy. With a 25 basispoints repo cut widely antici-pated, indices corrected postthe announcement. A possiblereason of the fall could also bethat there was no mention inthe policy about addressing theliquidity stress in the NBFCspace.

“With recent news aroundDHFL and the possible conta-gion effect, several financialscorrected heavily today.However, I believe that marketwill soon take cognizance of thechange in policy stance toaccommodative,” AmarAmbani, president andresearch head, YES Securitiessaid.

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The rupee pared most of itsearly morning losses and

was trading marginally downby 5 paise at 69.31 against theAmerican currency, after theReserve Bank of India cut itsrepo rate by 0.25 per centThursday.

The rupee had opened ona weak note at 69.41 at theinterbank forex market andthen fell further to 69.45 vs theUSD. Following the RBI’sMonetary Policy Committee(MPC) decision, the local cur-rency recovered most of the lostground.

The domestic currency wastrading at 69.31 at 1248 hrs,down 5 paise over its last close.

The rupee had settled at69.26 against the US dollarTuesday.

Indian bonds and Forexmarkets were closedWednesday on account of Id-Ul-Fitr.

Forex traders said, foreignfund outflows and rising crudeoil prices also kept pressure onthe Indian rupee. Moreover,heavy selling in domestic equi-ties also weighed on the localunit.

Brent crude futures, theglobal oil benchmark, rose 0.28per cent to $60.80 per barrel.

Foreign institutionalinvestors (FIIs) remained netsellers in the capital markets,pulling out Rs 416.08 croreTuesday, as per provisional data.

Meanwhile, the 30-shareindex was trading 333.32points, or 0.83 per cent, lowerat 39,750.22, and the broaderNifty fell 114.35 points, or 0.95per cent, to 11,907.30.

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Banking and finance expertshailed the RBI’s decision to

cut the short-term lendingrate, terming it as a step inright direction that could helpstimulate consumer demand.

The Reserve Bank in itssecond bi-monthly policystatement for 2019-20announced to cut the keyrepo rate, at which it lends tobanks, for a third straighttime by 25 basis points to 5.75per cent.

“The policy was very pos-itive and was reinforced byunanimous voting and thechange in stance to accom-modative. The statement’sfocus on supporting growthand bolstering private invest-ment as long as inflationremains within the mandate,is also encouraging and leadsus to believe that more accom-modation is on the cards,” saidB Prasanna, Group Head–Global Markets– Sales,

Trading and Research, ICICIBank.

Vasu Ramaswami, COO,Muthoot Fincorp said the lat-est rate drop should help inimproving consumptiondemand, particularly for thecommon man, especially oncebanks decide to pass this ratechange to their customers.

On the NBFC crisis,Governor Shaktikanta Dassaid that the RBI is closelymonitoring the situation andthere is ample liquidity in themarket currently.

“The unanimous decisionby the Monetar y PolicyCommittee (MPC) to cut therepo rate by another 25 bps isa step in the right direction,”said Khushru Jijina, MD,Piramal Capital and HousingFinance.

The downward revision ofgrowth projection to 7 percent calls for implementationof additional rapid policyinterventions by RBI as well asthe Government.

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As a part of the ongoingefforts to promote ecolog-

ically sustainable growth togenerate carbon-free cleanenergy and to reduce theexpenditure on electricity, theOrdnance Factory Board(OFB) has been participating inthe National Solar Missionwith an intention to meet 45%of its total energy require-ments through the solar powerroute. This will be a significantcontribution in the mission ofgeneration of green energy.

The installation of gridconnected solar power projectsin various OFB units haveresulted in generation ofapproximate 14712072.14 unitsof electrical power tillNovember 2018, which wasapproximately 8.24% of thetotal power consumed during2018-19. The cost of powerconsumption has also gonedown significantly from 463.22lakh during 2015-16 to �163.78lakh during 2018-19.

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In his message for WorldEnvironment Day, B V Rama

Gopal, Director (Refineries)urged IOCians to pledge indi-vidual & collective commit-ment to minimise the impact ofour actions on the environ-ment. He has also shared thecommitment of the RefineriesDivision, which is consistent-ly working towards bringingdown its numbers on allimportant parameters of itsbusiness operations like airemissions, carbon & waterfootprints, while increasingrecycling of water and wastes.

Kaushik Bora, ExecutiveDirector (Health, Safety &Environment), RHQ, led seniorIOCians at RefineriesHeadquarters in pledging theircommitment towards preserv-ing the ecosystem and creatinga greener planet, He also sharedthat all IOCians at SCOPEComplex, New Delhi.

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Leading brokerage IIFLSecurities Ltd plans to cre-

ate 10 lac financial advisorsthrough its new tab based prod-uct Advisor Anytime Anywhere(AAA). IIFL offers aspiringfinancial advisors a uniquebusiness opportunity to be anIndependent Financial Advisor(’IFA’) with all hardware andsoftware to on-board, transactand service their clients for allfinancial products and operatefrom anywhere in India.Sounds too good to be true? Butthat is the promise of IIFL’s newproduct Advisor AnytimeAnywhere (AAA). It does noteven require you to be a finan-cial guru to start with.

The tablet will be a full-fledged office and a library forinformation and research. It willallow business partners to sellMutual Funds, HealthInsurance, Fixed Deposits,IPOs, NPS and market productslike AIF, PMS, Life Insurance.

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Real estate industryThursday said the RBI’s

decision to cut repo rate wouldhelp in revival of housing seg-ment, provided banks pass onthe benefit to home buyers.

The RBI lowered thebenchmark lending rate by 25basis points to a nearly nine-year low of 5.75 per cent.

Commenting on the poli-cy, CREDAI President SatishMagar said the rate cut augurswell for the Indian real estateindustry and would have asignificantly positive impacton industry’s revival as well.

He expected that the ben-efits of lower repo rate wouldbe duly passed on to the bor-rowers. CREDAI ChairmanJaxay Shah said: “Repo rate cutis just what the industry is look-ing forward to accelerateinvestments...The next step is toensure that the banks andfinancial institutions pass onthe benefits of lower rates ofinterest to borrowers”.

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Desperately needing an issuein the face of massive elec-

toral losses at the hands of theBJP the Trinamool Congresstended to get one even as theparty on Thursday eruptedagainst a Twitter remark ofMeghalaya Governor TathagatoRoy for his “demeaning anddenigrating reference to Bengaliyouth: the girls and the boys.”

The TMC leaders reactedwith MP Kakoli Ghoshdastidarand Minister Shashi Panja stag-ing a dharna at Hazra Road fromwhere they vowed to “expose thetrue face of the BJP anddemanded Governor’s recall.”

The immediate issue ofthe outrage was a controversialpost by Roy who in his bid tosupport making Hindi a com-pulsory language in the Statesattacked the Bengal intelli-gentsia for opposing theCentre’s move to do so.

Attacking the Bengal civilsociety who reportedly boastedof the State’s greatness flowingfrom Swami Vivekananda,Vidya Sagar, Tagore, RammohanRoy etal the Governor and theformer BJP leader asked, “Whatis the link between these greatmen and opposition to learningHindi?... who will explain tothem that the era of these stal-warts is long gone, and thegreatness of Bengal is gone too.Now from Haryana to Kerala,Bengali boys are sweeping thefloors in homes and Bengali girlsare bar dancers in Mumbaiwhich was unthinkable before.”

Roy was a BJP leader andpresident of Bengal State unitbefore he was sent to theTripura and subsequently toMeghalaya with his statelyassignment as a Governor.

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Students of Tamil Nadu haveexposed the hollowness

behind the demand ofDravidian politicians to exemptthe State from the NationalEligibil ity-cum-EntranceExamination, the qualifyingtest for admission to under

graduate and post graduatecourses in medical schools inthe country.

A total of 1,23,078 studentsfrom Tamil Nadu wrote theNEET 2019. Out of this, 59,785students qualified for coun-selling. This is almost 10 percent more than the studentswho qualified in last year’sexamination. While only 39.56per cent of the Tamil Nadu stu-dents who appeared in lastyear’s NEET qualified for counselling, this year it rose to48.57 per cent, a commendableperformance according to educationists.

The reason for this year’scommendable performance byTamil Nadu students is beingattributed to the free NEETcoaching centres opened by theGovernment of Tamil Naduacross the State. The syllabus ofthe Plus Two course in the Stateis not up to the national level andthis was being seen as the causefor the poor show by the stu-dents from Tamil Nadu earlier.

The demand for exemptingthe State from NEET reacheda feverish pitch last year whena girl by name Anita allegedlycommitted suicide for failingto qualify in the NEET. Anitahad scored 1176 out of 1200marks in the State BoardExamination while she man-aged 86 out of 720 in theNEET . Students appearing forPlus Two examinations in theState Board Examination inTamil Nadu manage to score 99percent marks but fail miser-ably when they try to crackentrance examination toNational Defence Academy,Indian Institute of Technologyor the Indian Institute of sci-ence Education and Researchbecause of the poor standardof the syllabus taught inGovernment owned schools.

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Not apparently happy withone just one portfolio and

that too relatively an insignif-icant one, the Shiv Sena — oneof the old constituents of theBJP-led NDA — has upped theante by demanding the DeputySpeaker’s post in Lok Sabha.

Though he has not com-mented publicly about his partynot getting its due in the UnionCabinet — despite having thelargest number of 18 MPs afterthe BJP’s 303 in new Lok Sabha,Shiv Sena President UddhavThackeray is said to be “unhap-py” with the “raw deal” metedout to his party in the alloca-tion of ministerial berths.

When the Narendra Modi-led the Government was sworninto the office for its secondterm, Shiv Sena’s MP ArvindSawant was administered oathas a Cabinet Minister and hewas allotted the heavy indus-tries and public enterprisesportfolio which is not at all asignificant portfolio.

While seeking play downthe speculation about his partynot getting its due in the UnionCabinet, Uddhav on Thursdayconfirmed that his party hadstaked a claim for the DeputySpeaker’s post in Lok Sabha.

Talking to mediapersonsafter offering prayers at theMahalaxmi temple at Kolhapurin western Maharashtra, Uddhavsaid, “We have aligned with theBJP on the Hindutva plank andnot for power. We would like tohave the post of Deputy Speakerin Lok Sabha. We are demand-ing the post as our right”.

Queried if he was unhap-py that his party had got onlyone ministerial berth in Union

Cabinet in view of the specu-lation that the Sena wanted atleast three ministerial berths,Uddhav said, “We are not upsetwith the BJP. Everything isgoing on smoothly between usand the BJP. When we wereupset with the BJP, we hadmade it known to the people”.

Sena leadership is morethan confident that PrimeMinister Narendra Modi willagree to its demand — in lightof the fact that the BJP — in itsprevious regime — had earlierdeviated the tradition of givingthe Deputy Speaker’s post to theOpposition. The BJP had giventhe post to the leader of its con-stituent AIADMK MunisamyThambidurai. “We have a strongreason to believe that we will getthe Deputy Speaker’s post,” asenior Sena leader said.

Reiterating the stand takenby his stand taken by the ShivSena president over the party’sclaim for deputy speaker’s post,Shiv Sena spokesperson SanjayRaut told a regional televisionchannel: “This (deputy speak-er post) is not our demand, itis our natural claim and it is aright claim...the word natural isimportant... this post must begiven to us...Why should wedemand it since it is our right?”.

The Shiv Sena’s claim fordeputy speaker’s post comesamid speculation that NaveenPatnaik-led Biju Janata Dal(BJD) could be given the posi-tion of the Deputy Speaker.

The Sena’s claim for deputyspeaker’s post should be seen inthe context of the fact seniorShiv Sena leader Manohar Joshiwas Speaker of Lok Sabha2002-2004, when the ABVajpayee Government was inpower at the Centre.

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Avideo of Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT ) terror-

ists,equipped with illegalweapons, shouting Pro-Pakistan slogans and motivat-ing youth to support themand join their ranks, inside amosque in South Kashmir’sKulgam district is creating rip-ples here in the corridors ofpower after it went viral on var-ious social media platforms.

Some of the religious placesin the area have been abused bythe local cadre of different ter-

ror outfits to mobilise crowdsto disrupt anti-terrorist opera-tions in the past but presenceof terrorists inside a religiousplace, on the occasion of festi-val of Eid, has caused majorembarrassment to the local

police authorities. Soon after receiving the

information about the move-ment of three LeT terrorists inthe area the local police author-ities swung in to action to trackdown their foot prints. Sensing

trouble, these terrorists toodid not wasted much time andfled the scene after seeking sup-port from the local masses.

SSP Kulgam, GurinderpalSingh told The Pioneer overtelephone, “On June 5 about

9.45 am information wasreceived that during Eidprayers, three terroristsequipped with illegal weaponsentered Jamia Masjid Qaimohin Kulgam”.

SSP Kulgam said, “Theterrorists stayed there for aboutfive minutes and tried to moti-vate the youth who were pre-sent there to support them andjoin terrorist ranks”. Beforeleaving, they fired some aerialshots, he added. SSP Kulgamsaid, “A criminal case in thisregard under relevant sectionshas been registered in Police

station Qaimoh.”It may be mentioned,

relentless operations conduct-ed by the joint teams of secu-rity forces has led to elimina-tion of over 100 terrorists in thefirst five months of this year. Ofthese over two dozen wereforeign terrorists and 75 werelocal recruits. Majority of theseoperations were conducted inthe South Kashmir area.

Facing shortage of man-power, the top commanders,resorted to this desperate moveto motivate local youth to jointheir ranks.

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The Centre on Thursdayreviewed the public health

measures put in place in Keralato meet the Nipah crisis with asenior Health Ministry officialsaying that six persons admit-ted to a quarantine facility atthe Government MedicalCollege in Kerala’s Ernakulamhave tested negative for thepotentially deadly virus.

The condition of the col-lege student, diagnosed withNipah infection, is stable and atotal of 314 persons who werein touch with the infected per-son have been kept underobservation, the official said.

“The blood and serumsamples of all six suspectedpatients have tested negative forNipah virus infection,” the offi-cial said.

The Union HealthMinistry has deployed a six-member team comprising anepidemiologist to conduct con-tact tracing for early detectionof suspects and review of iso-lation facilities.

Union Health MinisterHarsh Vardhan, reviewed thepublic health measures put inplace in Kerala.

During the review meeting,the Centre also discussed SOPsfor quarantine of symptomaticcontacts, sample collection ortesting and dedicated isola-tion facility with trained healthstaff and epidemiological inves-tigation by multi-disciplinarycentral team to ascertain thepossible source of infection

and history of exposure.A designated control room

has been established at the dis-trict collector’s office and an iso-lation ward established at theGovernment Medical CollegeErnakulam, the Health Ministrysaid in a statement on Tuesday.

Isolation facilities have alsobeen ensured at medical col-leges at Calicut, Thrissur andKottayam, it said.

All healthcare facilitieshave been asked to ensure highindex of suspicion in caseswith similar symptoms andalso ensure availability of iso-lation and emergency man-agement facilities before refer-ral, the Ministry said.

On the basis of the epi-

demiological investigation, teamfrom NIV Pune and AnimalHusbandry are investigating batsand other animals in the vicin-ity of his (confirmed case) resi-dence during the possible timeof transmission of infection.

According to the WHO,Nipah virus is a newly emerg-ing disease that can be trans-mitted from its reservoir (nat-ural wildlife host), the flyingfoxes (fruit bats), to both ani-mals and humans.

Symptoms range fromasymptomatic infection, acuterespiratory infection andencephalitis. Infected peopleinitially develop influenza-likesymptoms of fever, headache,vomiting and sore throat.

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Aterritorial Army jawan,visiting home to celebrate

festival of Eid with his family, was killed by ‘uniden-tified’ terrorists in Sidoura vil-lage of South Kashmir’sAnantnag district lateThursday night.

Defence PRO, Srinagarsaid, “Hav Manzoor AhmadBeigh serving with TerritorialArmy Unit was shot at by ter-rorists and grievously injuredat his residence. The soldierwas evacuated to the nearesthospital where he succumbedto his injuries.”

The soldier was unarmedand was on 12 days leave. Heis survived by his wife, twosons and a daughter.

After the formation ofUnion Government in New Delhi, this is the firstkilling of an army jawan at the hands of terrorists inKashmir valley.

Last year, Rif lemanAuragzeb, was killed by ter-rorists while he was returninghome to celebrate Eid inPoonch.

Meanwhile, in a separateoperation a terrorist was killedin in Lassipora area ofPulwama till the time of filingthe report. The operation inthe area was still going on, offi-cial sources said.

On the other hand, twoSPO’s were also found missingfrom district police lines,Pulwama along with theirweapons.

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Kochi/Tirupati: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will offer prayersat the famous shrines of Sri Krishna at Guruvayur in Kerala andat Lord Venkateswara in Tirumala in Andhra Pradesh this weekend, officials said on Thursday.

On his first visit to the two southern states in his second termas Prime Minister, Modi will offer prayers at the Sri Krishna tem-ple in Guruvayur on Saturday and pray at the Lord Venkateswarashrine on Sunday.

An official release in Kochi said the Prime Minister will arriveat 11.35 pm on Friday and stay at the Government Guest Housethere overnight. He will offer prayers at the Guruvayur templeon Saturday morning after reaching there by a special helicopterfrom the Naval Airport in Kochi. PTI

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In the two years since the JeepCompass has been launched, Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) has

sold close to 35,000 of them, coupled withthe close to 20,000 units it has exportedto right-hand drive markets across theworld, the Compass can be judged a rel-ative success. It is undoubtedly a successwhen it comes to a global product beingmanufactured in India and should be ashowcase for the government’s ‘Make InIndia’ programme. That said, sales for theCompass have tapered off slightly overthe past few months with other manu-facturers upping their game. But onething was never in doubt, the Compasswas always the best off-road performerin its class, especially if you got the full-fledged 4x4 variant. But now, FCA Indiahas made it even better, with the intro-duction of the Jeep Compass Trailhawk.

The ‘Trailhawk’ and ‘Trail rated’badges that this new variant of theCompass gets, marks it out as special.Jeep has launched possibly the most capa-ble off-roader available in India today andif you are someone who likes gettingdown and dirty, climbing over moun-tains, fording rivers and making your waythrough slush, the Compass Trailhawk isan incredibly capable car with some spe-cial modifications to the suspensionand the addition of a low-ratio four-wheeldrive gearbox, several bodywork changesthat have improved approach and depar-ture angles, a raised ground clearancewhich also improves water wading capa-bilities. The surface mode selector alsogets a new ‘Rock’ mode that can beengaged in four-wheel low-ratio thatmakes the Trailhawk’s computer brainknow how to react to low grip situations.

Those are not the only changes to thecar, the two-litre turbodiesel engine onthe Trailhawk now meets Bharat Stage6 emission norms and has been slight-ly re-tuned. More important, theTrailhawk now comes with a nine-speed automatic gearbox, the first dieselautomatic on the Compass range. Youalso get a bigger touchscreen inside,along with some trim items to mark thecar out. Unfortunately, the Trailhawkdoes lose some features from the LimitedPlus specification of the Compass as itwill have a slightly higher price-pointthanks to the BS6 engine and automat-ic gearbox.

This is a car made for off-roadenthusiasts and it is extremely capable.Jeep does not give out the ‘Trail rated’badge easily, cars have to prove their abil-ities on rough trails, everything fromtheir maneuverability, wheel articulation,climbing and descent abilities. And in theSahyadri hills between Mumbai andPune, I found out that the CompassTrailhawk deserves those badges. In acourse designed by Jeep Jamboree, anoff-road enthusiast group in the UnitedStates that works with Jeep vehicles, youdiscovered the great climbing powers ofthe car and the fact that it could deal withmud, sand, rocks and some water.

Towards the end of the drive, we hadto go down a very steep incline, whichat the middle was over 60 degrees.Approaching the crest, you could not see

down, just noticing the black matte glareprotector on the bonnet. This is notsomething you would do in most SUV’sand the fact that I was doing this withHill Descent Control switched off, wherethe car handles the braking itself on asteep incline was a bit crazy but risingthe brake pedal and the wheels almostlocked, it went down without much ofa complaint, thankfully the track wasslightly rutted but there was no point oftime that I felt that I would lose control.When you know a car like Trailhawk,which is so capable, you begin to trustit immensely.

But the Trailhawk, frankly, is onlysomething for the greatest of enthusiasts.The regular Compass four-wheel driveis more than capable enough for somesoft off-roading, even though it lacks alow-ratio gearbox and automatic trans-mission. That said, if you believe that youwant to go serious off-roading, theTrailhawk can literally go almost any-where and keep you in relative comfort.There are several enthusiast groupsacross the country such as TerrainTigers in the NCR, where you can learnthe ins and outs of it.

This is a fun car and the experienceon rocky roads was one that I will notforget. But the question that you have toask when looking at a car like theTrailhawk is whether you need so muchability?

When dog owners go througha stressful period, they’re

not alone in feeling the pressure— their dogs feel it too, a studysuggests. Dog owners experienc-ing long bouts of stress can trans-fer it to their dogs, scientistsreport.

The Swedish researchersfocused on 58 people who ownborder collies or Shetland sheep-dogs. They examined hair fromthe dog owners and their dogs,looking at the concentrations ofa hormone called cortisol, achemical released into the blood-stream and absorbed by hair fol-licles in response to stress.

“Depression, excessive phys-ical exercise and unemploymentare just a few examples of stressthat can influence the amount ofcortisol found in your hair,” saidLina Roth of LinkopingUniversity in Sweden. Roth andher team found that the patterns

of cortisol levels in the hair of dogowners closely matched thatfound in their dogs in both win-ter and summer months, indicat-ing their stress levels were in sync.

She thinks the owners areinfluencing the dogs rather thanthe other way around becauseseveral human personality traitsappear to affect canine cortisollevels.

The researchers don’t knowwhat causes the synchronisationin cortisol levels between humansand their pups. But a hint mightlie in the fact that the link isstronger with competitive dogs

than in pet pooches.The bond formed between

owner and competitive dogsduring training may increasethe canines’ emotional relianceon their owners, she said. That inturn could increase the degree ofsynchronisation.

But why do people influencetheir dogs rather than viceversa? Perhaps people are “amore central part of the dog’slife, whereas we humans alsohave other social networks,”Roth said.

“The study results are nosurprise,” said Alicia Buttner,director of animal behaviour.“New evidence is continuallyemerging, showing that peopleand their dogs have incrediblyclose bonds that resemble theones that parents share withtheir children,” she added. Butshe said there isn’t enough evi-dence to assume that the influ-

ence goes only one way; it maygo both ways.

“It’s not just as simple asowner gets stressed, dog getsstressed,” she said. Many otherfactors could affect a person ordog’s stress levels and possiblyeven dampen them, she said.

Buttner apprised us that cor-tisol levels don’t necessarily indi-cate “bad” stress. They insteadcan indicate a good experiencelike getting ready to go for a walk,she said.

Roth and her team plan toinvestigate whether other dogbreeds will react to their ownersthe same way. In the meantime,she offered advice to minimisehow much stress dog owners maybe causing their pets. “Dogs thatplay more show fewer signs ofbeing stressed,” she said. So “justbe with your dog and have fun,”Roth added.

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Singer Daler Mehndi made hisbhangra cool worldwide. The

other thing that he is identifiedwith his super cool dressing attireof long flowing robes and a tur-ban. The singer, songwriter andauthor’s new song, Panga NaLena is releasing today. It promis-es to acknowledge not only theIndian Cricket team but alsothose who support India.

Daler, who is credited withhaving been a part of the alternatemusic scene in days when onlyBollywood ruled the charts, is alsoa composer of the song. He canalso be seen dancing with crick-et fans across several locations inthe video. Talking about his trib-ute to the World Cup, Daler says,“I am delighted to collaboratewith SpotlampE to launch apeppy new track for all the crick-et fans. Cricket is one of thelargest religions in India andcomposing Panga Na Lena to cel-

ebrate the biggest sports festivalwas an honourable experience.”

The voice behind the unfor-gettable song, Bolo Tara Ra Ra,can’t wait to see the viewer’sresponse to the track. He is con-fident that it can become the nextcricket anthem and will top themusic charts as well. “The musicvideo portrays the emotions thata cricket fan holds for hisfavourite cricketer. It capturesthe essence and craze for thegame while targeting all agegroups. It is perfect to set themood for the World Cup,” headds.

The Punjabi singer believesthat both film songs and indepen-dent music albums have a placein expanding a singer’s repertoire.He thinks that recording for amusic album gives exposurewhereas recording for a film’ssong, the singer has to workaccording to its lyrics. “The artist

has a huge responsibility to dojustice to portray the director’svision while recording for afilm’s song. And sometimesthis becomes very challeng-ing, which I love,” he says.

Daler is a proud Indian andmotivated to deliver songs thathave a patriotic flavour. He sangsongs such as Rang De Basantiand Gurbani (Bhaag MilkhaBhaag). And with his latestrelease, he tries to touch achord of every Indian cricketfan. He says, “This is a tributeto my motherland. The songwill be heard whenever theworld cup is being played. Themusic is catchy and it will be onthe minds of the audience whenthey watch the match.”

Daler is happy that remakesare getting trendy these daysand the youth appreciates thelyrics of the old songs with newcatchy tunes. And taking offfrom that, he is also keen onworking on the re-makes of hisown hits such as Tunak TunakTun, Na Na Na Re and KudiyaShehar Diyan. “I want to give atwist and make some interest-ing variations. It has been morethan a decade since TunakTunak Tun was released and Iam overwhelmed by the factthat it is still played at partiesand other occasions. I feel if asong is created with an essenceof good lyrics and music, it can

never die.”For him, music has

changed a lot in comparison towhat it was earlier. The tastesand preferences of the audiencehave evolved, which has madeartists create music according-ly. For this reason they add atouch of rap, some words andbizarre lyrics as well.

“I introduced Punjabi indiepop music in the nineties, agenre that is still admired andpraised by many. But thesedays, digital plays a significantrole in multiplying the pletho-ra of contents being delivered.There is much more fusion nowand not many genres such asSufi, Pop, Rock, Qawwali aremade in their natural forms.Perhaps my songs are still themost played ones on the digi-tal medium even today,” headds.

Daler admits that thesingers of his time were moreexplorative in terms of genres.He believes that the younger lotnowadays doesn’t pay attentionto learning different variationsin music. They just know thebasics and do not have muchexpertise in their profession.“My speciality of being natur-al is my versatility. Even mymusic and tracks transcendgenres. I appreciate and feelblessed by the divine for mak-ing me what I am today.”

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Those who grew up in the90s would recall 32ndMilestone as the place

for a perfect date far from theeyes of parents and pryingrelatives. The place (and ofcourse, the time) hasundergone a sea change.One of the new offerings atthe place is the Ctrl Alt Del(CAD), Tech Bar andKitchen. Walls painted inshades of black and brown, anenormous seating space andthe facility to dine in the porch,imparts the place a royal touch.Add to it French windowsdipped in pastel shades and thelow lighting which sets thestage to give a perfect ambienceto the place. It is perfect tospend some quality time withfriends or partners.

However, the place doesnot lack in modern day tech-nology, which is usually foundat restros. In order to stream-line the process of ordering andto serve customers better, it hasa multi-functional on-tabletouch screen display. The din-ers can actually ‘Add to Cart,’browse through the menu andvote for songs to be played viaconsole (song with the mostnumber of votes gets added tothe day’s playlist). They can alsocheck the event list like liveband performances, from theconsole itself. The whole expe-rience of placing an order via atable is a lot more fun than Iimagined it to be.

Once you have orderedyour food, you can play fungames while you’re waiting foryour order. The consoleincludes some simple yet addic-tive ones like Tic tac toe, Spinthe bottle and Fill the bottle.

I was already impressedwith the ambience and tech-savvy system of ordering butthen they decided to take thingsto the next level with their food.I started off with Granny Smithfries. What I expected from itwas a bunch of regular potatofries but the dish had someother plans. The base of thefries was green apple, whichwas topped with mascarponecheese and cinnamon as well assugar sprinkled on the top.The presentation of the dishwas excellent and so was the

taste. The green apple gave asweet flavour to the dish, whichwas balanced by the creaminessand sourness of the mascar-pone cheese. Sprinkled cinna-mon and sugar added spice andsweetness to the taste of the per-fectly crisp fries.

While I wasn’t donesavouring the fries, theKhameeri-styled pizza toppedwith achari roasted vegetables,roasted onions and jalapenosmade its way to

my table. Even though it wasserved on a regular woodenpizza plate, the presentation stilllooked appealing. The first biterevealed that it was a perfectsymphony of baked crust com-bined with the texture of roast-ed onions and the tanginessfrom pickled vegetables. It waslike a blast of perfectly balancedflavours in my mouth.

Moving on, I orderedPunjabi hummus, a fusion ofMediterranean and Indian

flavours. The hummus in thiscase was made with chick peasin Indian style and was servedwith puffed sticks. While Igorged on the dish, its simplepresentation failed to make itsway to my heart. I preferred thedish’s fulfilling taste to its pre-sentation.

Then came the GuavaMarry mocktail, inspired by theoriginal drink named BloodyMarry. To my surprise, theguava base actually gave thedrink a sweeter taste which wasneutralised by the citrus of freshlemon juice and spiciness ofgreen chilli. A thin layering ofsalt and pepper on the brim ofthe glass provided a sour andspicy taste which blended per-fectly with lemon juice andguava.

When it was time fordesserts, I found myself strug-gling as the amount of food onthe table meant that I could notuse the console for ordering.Finally, a waiter was quick toassess the situation and noteddown the order on paper. Forthe dessert, I went all the way toMiddle East in a matter of min-utes — through a dish, of course.I ordered a Baklava. And howcan we forget that this placeserved fusion food. The Baklavawas stuffed with yellow lentilhalwa and was served with rose-flavoured ice-cream. The presen-tation of the dessert was simpleyet attractive with bright colours.It was crisp on outside and softinside. The filling of yellow lentilswas adequate. The rose-flavouredice-cream was like cherry on thecake as it perfectly neutralised thehot halwa and gave the dessert acreamy texture.

Indeed, a few perfect fusionscompleted my evening.

When Corinne Morsefound one of her lategrandmother’s hand-

written recipes inside an oldcookbook, she wanted to shareit with her mother. So shetransferred an image of therecipe card onto tea towels forher mother and other relatives.

“I just loved them. It wassomething I used all the time.It was with me in the kitchenwhile I was cooking and it wasuseful,” said Morse of Smyrna,Tennessee.

She was so pleased with thetowels she created that shebegan offering the option forcustomisation to othersthrough Nesting Project, heronline business and an e-com-merce website. Sales of her cus-tom tea towels featuring fam-ily recipes jumped from 1,500to 10,000 in five years, she said.

Tea towels, which are typ-ically made of linen, cotton ora combination of the two, havea smooth flat surface that’s idealfor printing and embellishing,Morse said. Used to dry dish-es, they have become popularas gifts and as a simple way tobrighten a kitchen.

“We find tea towels to bepopular on Houzz becausethey’re an easy way to add char-acter to any kitchen,” saidCynthia Simmons, a categorymanager with an online sourceof interior design photos anddecorating ideas. “Whetheryou’re looking to add a pop ofcolour or a whimsical message,you can usually find a teatowel to fit any mood ortheme.”

Shoppers have searchedfor “tea towels” more than

4,50,000 times in the last sixmonths, said Hannah Album ofe-commerce website. The prac-ticality of tea towels alsoappeals to millennials and oth-ers concerned about the envi-ronment, said Leana Salamah,vice president of marketingfor the InternationalHousewares Association, inRosemont, Illinois.

“Sustainability is huge,” shesaid. “The option for anabsorbent tea towel versus apaper towel is appealing. Theless waste millennials can pro-duce, the happier they are.”

Tea towels’ approachableprice point and wide array ofthemes make them particular-

ly gift-worthy, said Laura Hill,who has worked in the giftindustry for 20 years.

There are tea towelsthemed around pets, cooking,holidays, hobbies, funny say-ings and much more. “They’reeasy to make personal,” shesaid.

Kay Gardiner of New YorkCity, who has collected teatowels for years, considersthem a form of folk art. Someof her favorites are kitschyones depicting British royalweddings and births. She alsolikes towels with an artistic flair,like those created by well-known printmaker Jen Hewett.

Tea towels remind her ofhappy days spent in her grand-mother’s kitchen. “I am drawnto them,” said Gardiner.“They’re cheap and cheerful.”

Nostalgia definitelyprompts people to buy, Hillsaid. Tea towels remind peopleof drying dishes after holidaymeals in days gone by, she said.

Others appreciate thatwhile many kitchen gadgetshave gotten complicated, thetea towel hasn’t. “It’s a reminderof the simplicity of the kitchenswe grew up in,” she said.

And tea towels do morethan dry dishes and soak upspills, Hill noted. They can beused to keep baked goodswarm and to cover up otherfresh foods. She lines basketswith them or swaddles a bot-tle of wine for a hostess gift.

“They’re just really practi-cal,” she said. “They’re timely.They’re quirky. They’re nostal-gic. They work for everybody.”

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US President Donald Trumplanded in France Thursday

to join other world leaders onthe beaches of Normandy in atribute to the veterans anddead heroes of the D-Day land-ings that shaped the outcomeof World War II.

Despite being largelyblamed for growing interna-tional discord, Trump headedto join in the attempted showof transatlantic harmony on the75th anniversary of the assault.

“Heading over toNormandy to celebrate some ofthe bravest that ever lived,” theUS leader tweeted on arrival inFrance. “We are eternally grate-ful!” French PresidentEmmanuel Macron and BritishPrime Minister Theresa Mayearlier paid tribute to D-Dayveterans at the start ofThursday’s commemorationsfor the soldiers who surgedonto the Normandy beaches onJune 6, 1944.

On an occasion mixinghigh politics with poignanthistorical remembrance,Macron met first with May atVer-sur-Mer, where they laidthe first stone for a new Britishmemorial to fallen soldiers.

“Standing here as the waves

wash quietly onto the shorebelow us, it’s almost impossibleto grasp the raw courage itmust have taken that day toleap from landing craft and intothe surf, despite the fury of bat-tle,” May said.

Under a bright blue sky, she

finished her speech by address-ing the assembled veterans,whose numbers dwindle witheach major anniversary.

“I want to say the onlywords we can: thank you,” shesaid in her final internationalappearance before she stepsdown as leader of theConservative party on Friday.

Britain’s delayed departurefrom the European Union,which has cost May her job asprime minister, is just one ofmany rifts that has openedrecently among Western allies,whose alliance forged in WorldWar II is under unprecedent-ed strain.

The man blamed for mostof the discord, Trump, was setto arrive in northern France fora ceremony at the US militarycemetery at Colleville-sur-Meroverlooking Omaha Beachwhere 9,400 US servicemen areburied.

Both leaders will givespeeches, while the Frenchpresident will also bestow the

Legion d’Honneur, France’shighest honour, on fiveAmerican veterans.

Macron and Trump -whose once warm relationshave chilled due to mountingpublic disagreements on Iran, climate change and trade—will then meet for privatetalks followed by a workinglunch.

Macron will end the daywith an homage at CollevilleMontgomery for the KiefferCommando, the only Frenchsoldiers to storm a Normandybeach on D-Day which openeda new front against the Nazisand led to the liberation ofFrance and much of westernEurope.

The 177 men, who weregiven the honour of being thefirst to touch French soil, hadlong been little more than afootnote in France’s officialhistories of the war - an over-sight officials in Macron’s officesaid the president is eager tocorrect.

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Russian President VladimirPutin on Thursday said it

was “not a problem” that he wasnot invited to the 75th anniver-sary of the D-Day landings innorthern France, attended byother world leaders.

“We also don’t invite every-one to every event. Why shouldI be invited everywhere?” he saidof the memorial at which USPresident Donald Trump spokealong with French leaderEmmanuel Macron.

“I have enough business ofmy own here,” he said during aneconomic forum in SaintPetersburg. Putin was at the 70thanniversary of the landings butthis week Moscow insisted the

significance of D-Day in the out-come of World War II shouldnot be overplayed.

Russia regularly accuses theWest of failing to properlyunderstand or acknowledge theenormous human losses -- esti-mated at 27 million deaths -- theSoviet Union suffered in theconflict.

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Turkish President RecepTayyip Erdogan spoke

Thursday by phone with SaudiKing Salman after missing akey summit of the Organisationof Islamic Cooperation in theSaudi holy city of Mecca, hisoffice said.

The two exchanged greet-ings for the Muslim Eid al-Fitrfestival, Erdogan’s office said,adding that they also discussed“bilateral and regional issues,”without elaborating further.

The phone call comes afterErdogan was notably absentfrom the Mecca summit of theOIC where the country wasrepresented instead by ForeignMinister Mevlut Cavusoglu.

Turkey’s ties with SaudiArabia have come under strainafter the brutal murder lastOctober of journalist Jamal

Khashoggi in the Saudi con-sulate in Istanbul, which tar-nished the international repu-tation of Crown PrinceMohammed bin Salman.

Saudi prosecutors haveabsolved the prince and saidaround two dozen peopleimplicated in the murder are incustody, with death penaltiessought against five men.

But attention has remainedfocused on whether the crownprince ordered the murder,despite the kingdom’s denials.

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Sudan’s pro-democracy lead-ers vowed Thursday to press

their campaign of civil disobe-dience until the ruling militarycouncil is ousted and killers ofprotesters are brought to jus-tice, following a crackdownthis week that killed scores ofpeople.

The pledge comes afternew clashes brought the deathtoll in three days of the militarycrackdown to 108. OnWednesday, troops were seenpulling 40 bodies of victims,slain by Sudanese securityforces, from the Nile River inKhartoum and taking themaway.

The Sudan DoctorsCommittee, one of the protestgroups, said it was not knownwhere they were taken. Thecommittee also said more than500 have been wounded in thecrackdown.

The Sudanese ProfessionalsAssociation, an umbrella of

union groups that has beenbehind months of rallies thatforced the military to oustlongtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir in April, urged people toblock main roads and bridgesto “paralyze public life” acrossthe country in retaliation forthe military’s crackdown.

The crackdown began witha violent dispersal of the protest

movement’s main sit-in camp,outside the military headquar-ters in the capital, Khartoum,on Monday.

“Our success depends onour full adherence to peacefulprotests, no matter how hardthe criminal militias seek todrag us into violence,” theassociation said in a Facebookstatement on Thursday.

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Sudanese authorities admit-ted dozens of people were

killed in a crackdown on pro-testers but denied doctors’claims the death toll has topped100, as heavily armed para-militaries guarded the tensecapital.

Members of the RapidSupport Forces, who rightsgroups say have their origins inthe Janjaweed militias ofDarfur, were on the streets ofKhartoum on Thursday inpick-up trucks mounted withmachine guns and rocketlaunchers, witnesses said.

It follows a raid by securi-ty forces Monday on a long-running sit-in outside the armyheadquarters that marked thestart of a brutal crackdown ondemonstrators demandingcivilian rule.

The Central Committee

for Sudanese Doctors saidWednesday that 40 bodies hadbeen pulled from the Nile,sending the death toll soaringto at least 108.

The committee, which isclose to protesters and relies ondoctors on the ground for itsinformation, warned the figurecould rise.

Some life had returned tothe streets of the capital onThursday, with limited publictransport operating and only afew cars on the roads.

A small number of shopsand restaurants were open onthe second day of the Eid al-Fitrholiday.

But there was still wide-spread disruption around thecapital. At Khartoum’s airportrelatives of travellers stayedlate into the night waiting to seeif their flights would arrive, fol-lowing a slew of cancellationsover the past few days.

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Taiwan on Thursday con-firmed it is hoping to buy

state-of-the-art tanks andportable missiles from theUnited States in a proposeddeal that drew an angry rebukefrom China.

Taipei’s defence ministryhas formally asked for 108M1A2 Abrams main battletanks, more than 1,500 Javelinand TOW anti-tank missiles,and 250 shoulder-fired Stingeranti-aircraft missiles, it said ina statement.

The request was proceed-ing “as normal”, the ministryadded.

The US government hasgiven Congress informal noti-fication of its plan to sell theequipment in a deal worthUSD 2 billion, BloombergNews reported.

Beijing said it had “serious

concerns” about the sale.“We have repeatedly

emphasised to the US to fully understand the extremely sensitive and dam-aging nature of their decisionto sell arms to Taiwan, andabide by the One China prin-ciple,” foreign ministryspokesman Geng Shuang saidat a regular press briefing onThursday.

Taiwan has been ruled sep-arately since the end of a civilwar in 1949 but China stillviews it as its territory and hasvowed to take the island, byforce if necessary.

Beijing has significantlystepped up diplomatic andmilitary pressure on Taipeisince Beijing-sceptic presidentTsai Ing-wen was elected in2016.

It has staged military exer-cises near the island, andsteadily reduced the already

small number of nations thatrecognise Taiwan.

The United States switcheddiplomatic recognition fromTaiwan to China in 1979, but it has remained its mainunofficial ally and is congres-sionally bound to supply it witharms - a constant niggle in US-China ties.

In recent years Washingtonhas been wary of completingbig ticket arms deals withTaiwan, fearful of stokingChina’s anger.

But President DonaldTrump has sought to strength-en ties with Taipei andappeared more willing to sellmajor weapon systems.

The US Governmentannounced plans last year tosell spare parts worth $330 mil-lion to Taiwan for its US-madeF-16 fighter jets and C-130 mil-itary transport planes, sparkinganger from Beijing.

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The fate of jailed AustralianCardinal George Pell was in

the balance Thursday as judgesadjourned to deliberate over anappeal against his convictionon historical child sex abusecharges.

The three judges inVictoria state’s Supreme Court heard two days of argu-ments by Pell’s lawyersdemanding his December con-viction be quashed, while pros-ecutors insisted the jury verdictagainst the one-time topVatican official was “unim-peachable”.

The judges can decide toreject the appeal, order a retri-al or acquit Pell, the CatholicChurch’s most senior convict-ed child molester.

There was no indication ofwhen their ruling would behanded down.

Lawyers for Pell, who turns 78 on Saturday, raised 13 objections to his convictionon five counts of sexual abuse for the assault of two 13-year-old choirboys following Sunday Mass in the1990s.

Their appeal maintains thatthe case against Pell was unrea-sonably dependent on the tes-timony of a single victim — thesecond choirboy died in 2014— and fell short of proving hisguilt “beyond a reasonabledoubt”.

The former Vatican number three, who controlled the Holy See’s vastfinances and was involved inthe election of two popes, wassentenced in March to six yearsin prison.

He was accused of sexual-ly abusing the two choirboys in1996 and 1997 in the sacristyand hallways of St Patrick’s

Cathedral when he wasArchbishop of Melbourne.

Pell’s defence team argued during the first day ofthe appeal Wednesday that itwas “physically impossible” for the cleric to have commit-ted the crimes in a crowdedcathedral following Sundayservices.

“The verdicts represent adisturbing failure of our jurysystem,” Pell’s team said intheir submission. “The ver-dicts should be quashed.” “I’vesaid before in judgements thatI think juries almost always getit right,” responded JusticeWeinberg, before adding, “Theword is almost.”

Pell’s team cast doubt oneverything from the timing ofthe incident to the improba-bility of his being able to movehis cumbersome archbishop’srobes aside to commit theassaults.

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AGerman nurse believed tobe the most prolific serial

killer in the country’s post-warhistory was handed a life sen-tence Thursday for murdering85 patients in his care.

Judge Sebastian Buehr-mann called Niels Hoegel’skilling spree “incomprehensi-ble” and acknowledged thetrial left many families withpainful unanswered questions.

The 42-year-old murderedpatients selected at randomwith lethal injections between2000 and 2005, when he wascaught in the act.

Hoegel has already spent adecade in prison following aprevious life sentence hereceived for six other murders.

The exhumation andautopsy of more than 130 bod-

ies were necessary to build thecase for the prosecution.

Police suspect that Hoegel’sfinal death toll may be morethan 200.

But the court was unable tosay for sure because of gaps inHoegel’s memory and becausemany likely victims were cre-mated before autopsies couldbe performed.

Buehrmann of the region-al court in the northern city ofOldenburg said the number ofdeaths at Hoegel’s hands “sur-passes human imagination”.

He expressed regret thatthe court had not been “fullyable to lift the fog” for lovedones about other likely victims.

On the final day of hearings on Wednesday,Hoegel asked his victims’ fam-ilies for forgiveness for his“horrible acts”.

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London: Theresa May con-ducted her final public tour asBritish Prime Minister onThursday with a visit toNormandy in France to markthe 75th anniversary of theWorld War II D-Day landings.

May, 62, gave a movingspeech to pay tribute to thebrave soldiers who fought forfreedom on the beaches ofNormandy 75 years ago aspart of the Allied Forces.

She said it was “truly hum-bling” to be at the celebrationswith the men who fought in the“greatest battle for freedomthe world has ever known”.

“It is an honour for all of usto share this moment withyou. If one day can be said tohave determined the fate ofgenerations to come – inFrance, in Britain, in Europeand the world – that day wasJune 6, 1944. These youngmen belonged to a very specialgeneration, the greatest gener-ation,” she said. PTI

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AThai court on Thursdaysentenced former Prime

Minister Thaksin Shinawatra inabsentia to two years in prisonover his handling of a state lot-tery programme he initiatedwhile in office more than adecade ago.

His conviction by theSupreme Court’s CriminalDivision for Holders of PoliticalPositions was for malfeasance,for carrying out a policy judgedto be in violation of the law orofficial regulations.

Thaksin was ousted by amilitary coup in 2006 and hasbeen absent from Thailandsince 2008, when he fled toavoid serving a two-year prisonterm on a conflict of interestconviction.

He was sentenced in Aprilto three years’ imprisonmentfor ordering Thailand’s Export-Import Bank to make a loan to

Myanmar which was used topay a satellite communicationscompany then controlled byhim and his family.

It is not clear why this year’scases were completed such along time after the allegedoffenses.

The lottery case involvedthe establishment in 2003 of aneffort to mimic the illegalunderground lottery, a flexiblegame in which people couldpick two- and three-digit num-bers and bet small amounts,compared with the official sys-tem of lottery tickets with fixednumbers and fewer potentialwinning opportunities.

The illegal lottery is huge-ly popular, and Thaksin’sscheme was an attempt to steersome of the money that wentto it to government coffersinstead. The court found thatThaksin ignored standardadministrative practice in start-ing the new lottery, which was

discontinued when he wasforced from office.

Thaksin, who maintains ahome in Dubai and travelsfrequently, could not bereached for comment but hasconsistently denied any wrong-doing while in office anddescribed the cases againsthim as politically motivated.

Thaksin used his wealth asa telecommunications billion-aire to create a political partythat won a 2001 general elec-tion, making him prime min-ister. By instituting populistpolicies, he won the allegianceof many of the country’s ruralmajority and urban poor.

His political popularity,however, threatened the influence of the country’s tra-ditional ruling circle, includingroyalists, industrialists and themilitary, and after protestsaccusing him of abuse ofpower, the army ousted him ina 2006 coup.

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Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez

Obrador said Thursday he will soon travel to the bordercity of Tijuana to “defend thedignity” of his nation in theface of US tariff threats, as talkswere set to resume inWashington.

Lopez Obrador will make the trip Saturday, two days before US PresidentDonald Trump has threatened to impose five percent tariffs on all Mexicanimports, unless Mexico acts tostem the surge of CentralAmerican migrants to the USborder.

Negotiators have beenmeeting in Washington to averta crisis, but Trump warned lateWednesday “not nearlyenough” progress was beingmade.

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Japanese Prime MinisterShinzo Abe will visit Iran in

an effort to reduce tensionsbetween Tehran andWashington, Japan’s govern-ment spokesman saidThursday.

Chief Cabinet SecretaryYoshihide Suga said Abe’s trip will be the first by aJapanese leader to Iran in 41 years. He declined to specify the dates of the trip orother details, but said it would be “soon.” Officials are finalizing the details so thevisit will be meaningful, Sugasaid.

Kyodo News and other local media said Abe will visit Tehran on June 12-14 and meet with Supreme Leader Ayatollah AliKhamenei and PresidentHassan Rouhani.

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Virat Kohli has watched RohitSharma score quite a few 'DaddyHundreds' but the Indian captain

rated his deputy's unbeaten 122 againstSouth Africa in their World Cup openeras his best innings in one day cricket.

Rohit, who has an unprecedentedthree double hundreds in 50-over format,hit his 23rd ton on a bouncy Ageas Bowltrack under overcast conditions.

"I think in my opinion this is by farhis best ODI innings because of the kindof pressure the first game brings from aWorld Cup point of view," Kohli said atthe post-match press conference.

"And then I know, as a batsman,when you go in and a few balls bouncelike that, it's not easy to gather yourselfagain and play in a calm manner."

According to Kohli, the best partabout Rohit's innings was his composureas he was ready to curb his natural attack-ing instinct and put his head down andbe patient.

"A lot of times batsmen tend to hittheir way out of the situation. But he wasvery composed. He's played so manygames, we expect a lot of maturity and alot of responsibility from someone likehim," he said.

"In my opinion, of all the brilliantinnings I have seen him play, I think this,for me, was the top of the pile because ofthe way he compiled his innings and atno stage did we feel like, or he felt like heis going to throw it away," the skipper said.

Rohit hit 13 boundaries and two sixesin his 144-ball innings to help India over-haul the victory target of 228 in 47.3 oversfor a six-wicket win.

Kohli said the best part about Rohit'sinnings was the manner in which he setthe pace, dropping anchor while othershad the freedom to attack.

"I think controlling the game so beau-tifully from one end and allowing the oth-ers to display themselves and string insmall little partnerships, looking at the factthat they were only chasing 228...," hesaid.

"Rohit played the perfectinnings for that kind of a situa-tion on that kind of a wicketagainst a bowling attack thatwas threatening to pick upwickets at any stage. So,yeah, in my opinion, by farhis best knock," the skipperhad no doubt.

The skipper termed theperformance of his team asa "professional" one as theyhad to also battle the condi-tions.

"I think it was a profession-al effort from us. It was a low-scor-ing game, not the highest of totals youwill see in one-day cricket nowadays.

"That was because of the way thepitch was throughout the course of thegame and I think, from that point of view,we were very professional with the newball as well as in the middle overs," he said.

A good start is always essential for anyteam and Kohli said this win over SouthAfrica will help in creating positive vibesin the team.

"Starting off well is always an impor-tant thing and we got together nicely asa team in the first half on the field. It isvery important to create that energy andwe were able to do that in the first ten andfrom there, we really built the game nice-ly and finished it off in a professionalmanner," he said.

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Jasprit Bumrah has been a nightmarefor all international batsmen but

India's pace spearhead doesn't feel thathe has built some kind of reputation thathe needs to live up to.

With a simple six step run-up andwith an unusually slinging action,Bumrah is skipper Virat Kohli's 'ManFriday' in all formats but for the genialPunjabi from Gujarat, it is all about beinga good student of the game.

"Most of the times, I don't thinkabout expectations. I just try to checkwhat exactly does the team wants me todo. I don't think that I have a reputationto live up to as I just need to keep thingssimple," Bumrah, the world No 1 inODIs, said after playing a pivotal role inIndia's six-wicket victory.

"I always keep an eye on what is hap-pening all over, so that maybe I can learnand add things to my armoury. There'sno harm in learning. For example, if youtell me there's a perfect action in theworld, I'll try to copy that," he said.

Bumrah bowled "hard, Test matchlengths" to South African batsmen thatworked for him, something that his skip-per attributes to his success in thelongest format.

"He believes the length ball is some-thing that he can nick people off with,whether it is assisting bowlers or not. Theway he's bowling right now, it's so, so

good to see because you can see batsmenliterally clueless against him and he'srushing people," skipper Kohli was effu-sive in his praise.

"To be honest, I haven't seen Hashim(Amla) get out like that in one-day crick-et. He's been so dominant," he added.

For Bumrah, preparation is some-

thing which is non-negotiable and heexecutes a plan in a match situation onlywhen he has successfully implementedit at the nets.

"There is a lot ofhard work that goesbehind the cameras.I do all my sessions,be it bowl with anew ball or new vari-ations before cominginto the match. If Ihave prepared every-thing, then it's aboutthe execution, keep-ing a clear headspace," said the 25-year-old.

Bumrah's style ofdoing homework issomething that fasci-nates even his skip-per. Kohli knows thatwith Bumrah, thephilosophy is sim-ple, "You get whatyou see".

The skipper thengave an example of

how difficult it is toface him at the nets as he bowls with thesame intensity which is on display in amatch situation.

"Well, one thing you know while fac-ing Jasprit is that you have to play goodcricketing shots and back your technique

against him. Because if you are hesitanta little bit and he is able to sense that, thenhe is all over you.

"If he senses someone is not enjoy-ing the short ball in the nets, he will makesure that guy gets it in that session," Kohligave an insight to the mind of his pre-mier bowler.

"So, what you see him bowling in thematch, he bowls exactly like that to usin the nets. He doesn't care who is stand-ing in front of him. He will bounce peo-ple, try to get them bowled or may beyork people with the new ball.

"That's the reason for his consisten-cy. He doesn't change his game becausehe's in the nets compared to the game,"the world's best batsman had somedelightful words for his junior col-league.

In fact, the skipper feels that playingBumrah in the nets, gives batsmenmore confidence to face other bowlersin actual match situation.

"For a batsman, it's beautiful to facea guy who bowls with match intensityand he's looking to get you out, so whenyou play well against him you walk outwith more confidence," he said.

At the highest level, what matters isthe mindset of a youngster and the skip-per knows why his lethal weapon is sospecial.

"He has the right attitude towards thegame and he's going to be a massive fac-tor for us here," Kohli said.

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Rohit Sharma’s ability to accelerate in aninstant is a major asset for the team and

his good form will ease the pressure on ViratKohli during the ongoing World Cup.

Rohit scored an unbeaten 144-ball 122to anchor a successful chase against South

Africa in India'sWorld Cup openerhere on Wednesday.

He (Rohit) didnot need to ramp itup against SouthAfrica, who had notscored enough runsin Southampton,but that knock willdo him a lot ofgood.

He can go fromfirst gear to fourthgear in an instantand just kick onfrom there andkeep clickingthrough the gears.

For India, hav-ing someone who can go and get not justhundreds but even double hundreds is amajor asset and also relieves the pressure onVirat Kohli a little.

The trio of Shikhar Dhawan, Sharmaand Kohli will be crucial to India's chancesso it is a great sign that Sharma got a hun-dred and saw them over the line.

The other standout performer wasJasprit Bumrah with the new ball. He real-ly rattled the South Africans with his open-ing spell and that set the tone for the game.

Of course South Africa look a littledemoralised after a tough start to the tour-nament, but his bowling was fantastic.

When you have Bumrah taking wicketsearly and forcing the opposition onto thedefensive, that makes it easier for the spin-ners afterwards.

I probably would have pickedMohammad Shami, and I still expect himto play a part in this tournament, butBhuvneshwar Kumar took his chance well.

It will be an interesting selection dilem-ma throughout and I expect them to adaptdepending on the wicket and the opposition.

India will next face five-time championsAustralia on June 9 and Srikkanth believesthe two-time winners will be put to test.

India will probably have to improve atthe Oval but overall it was a promising start.It is obviously still very early with most teamshaving only played one or two games but Ithink Australia and India are both con-tenders to make the semi-finals.

For me, it will be those two and England,despite their loss to Pakistan and then prob-ably one of West Indies or New Zealand.

That could change of course but if thatis how it turns out, then the match betweenIndia and Australia takes on even greaterimportance and should be a great game onSunday.

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AB de Villiers wanted tocome out of retirement

for the World Cup butCricket South Africa (CSA)refused to accept the offer asthe batting great had ignoredpleas to not retire last year.

According to'ESPNCricinfo', de Villiersmade the offer to come backin May, barely 24 hours beforethe final squad for the ongo-ing showpiece in the UK wasto be announced by CSA.

The revelation cameamid a disastrous start toSouth Africa's campaign,which has seen them losethree matches including oneto Bangladesh. WhileWednesday's six-wicketdefeat to India turned the sit-uation from bad to worse, theloss of pace great Dale Steynto a shoulder injury has alsoconsiderably weakened theteam.

CSA selection panel con-venor Linda Zondi con-firmed that de Villiers didmake the offer and that skip-per Faf du Plessis and coachOttis Gibson were quite keento have him back as well.

However, de Villiers'omission was based on prin-ciples, Zondi said.

"I pleaded with AB deVilliers not to retire in 2018.Although there was a percep-tion that he was picking andchoosing when to play —which was not true — I didgive him the option to planand monitor his season to gethim to the World Cup freshand in a good space," Zondisaid in the CSA release.

"He turned down theoffer and said he was at peacewith his decision to retire," herecalled.

"For Faf du Plessis andOttis Gibson to share AB'sdesire to be included in thesquad on the day weannounced our World Cupsquad on April 18th was ashock to all of us. AB left a bigvacuum when he retired, wehad a year to find players atfranchise level to fill the gap,"

he added.Amid the revelations, de

Villiers expressed his supportfor the beleaguered team.

"All that's important isthat we should all focus onsupporting the team at theWorld Cup. There is a longway to go and I believe theboys can still go all the way,"de Villiers wrote on his twit-ter handle.

Zondi further said thatde Villiers dropped no hintsof wanting to come back inthe year gone by..

"We had players who putin the hard work, who put uptheir hands and deserved tobe given the opportunity togo to the World Cup.

"At no point in the yearthat he had retired did hemake himself available forselection. It was no optionwhen I received the news onthe day of the squadannouncement, our squadwas finalised and confirmed,"he said.

The 35-year-old swash-buckler is considered a mod-ern-day great for his innov-ative shots and more impor-tantly, his ability to decimaterival attacks, making him agame-changer.

"AB is undoubtedly oneof the best players in theworld, but above all else, wehave to stay true to ourmorals and principles, thereis no regret in the decision,"Zondi said.

Retirement in 2018,exactly a year before theWorld Cup, meant de Villierscould not fulfil the selectioncriteria, which included play-ing domestic or internation-al cricket in the interveningmonths.

The report stated that itwas recalling the dashingbatsman at the last momentwould have been unfair onthe players who have beenperforming in his absence,such as Rassie van derDussen.

Dussen made three fiftiesin his first four ODI inningsafter making his debut againstPakistan in January.

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Legendry all-rounder JacquesKallis has called India "real

contenders" for the World Cuptitle after they outclassed SouthAfrica but urged his strugglingcountry to not throw in the towelyet.

In overcast conditions, aJasprit Bumrah-inspired Indiabroke the back of South Africa'stop order before YuzvendraChahal ran through the inningswith four wickets at the Rose Bowlon Wednesday.

Without much difficulty,Rohit Sharma powered India tovictory with six wickets in hand.This was the Proteas' third straightloss in the showpiece.

"Away from South Africa Ithought India looked world-classand real contenders. They've obvi-ously been waiting for their firstgame and I didn't know how thatwould work for them, whetherthey'd be fresh or they'd be somenerves. I think we got the answer,they were very impressive," Kallissaid in his column for the ICC.

Before the disappointing resultagainst India, South Africacrashed to a stunning defeat at thehands of Bangladesh, days after aloss to hosts England in the tour-nament opener.

Kallis, one of the game's great-est all-rounders, admitted thatthe South Africans have put them-selves in a precarious situation.

"South Africa have made thisspectacularly hard on themselves- they've six league matches leftand every one of them is effective-ly a knockout game now.

"They can have absolutely nocomplaints with the result againstIndia, they were totally outclassedin every department, with the bat,ball and in the field. They reallydidn't win much after the toss I'mafraid.

"That dressing room will be atough place to be, but they have toall take responsibility and workhard to correct the errors they aremaking."

Unlike in the previous editionssince their re-entry into interna-tional cricket, South Africa did notenter the tournament as one of thefavourites.

"... I'd tell them it can also gothe other way, beat the WestIndies and Afghanistan in theirnext two games and suddenly the

table won't look so bad and they'llhave some momentum back forwhat could be a huge game againstNew Zealand.

"This is a big moment for Fafdu Plessis but not everything canbe put on the captain's shoulders.Each individual needs to look inthe mirror, there cannot be anyfinger pointing, they have to havean honest conversation with eachother about what they can do bet-ter," Kallis said.

The former great called thedefeat to Bangladesh cause for realconcern.

"Before they talk about theteam, they need to think hardabout themselves. It's a collectiveeffort, from senior players to thenew guys. And they have to bepositive, they need to feed off eachother's energy more than ever.

"I don't think it's any surprisewe lost to England and India, theyare the two best teams in theworld right now. The really wor-rying thing is that defeat byBangladesh.

"They've got the West Indiesnext and they proved againstPakistan how talented they are.

It's a tough game but weknow how to beat them. You haveto get on top of them early andstrangle the game, you can't be let-ting them play with that freedom."

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West Indies fast bowlersripped through theAustralian top-order

in a brilliant spell before SteveSmith and the record-breakingNathan Coulter-Nile led a stun-ning fightback to power thedefending champions to 288 allout in their World Cup matchhere Thursday.

Sent into bat, theAustralians were in all sorts oftrouble against the short-pitcheddeliveries unleased by the WestIndian fast bowlers, who extract-ed a lot of bounce and seammovement initially from theTrent Bridge track.

The Australians, who hadeasily beaten Afghanistan intheir first match, lost four quickwickets for just 38 runs in theeighth over with Aaron Finch(6), David Warner (3), UsmanKhawaja (13) and GlennMaxwell (0) falling cheaply.

But, Smith led a remarkablefightback with a 73 off 103deliveries while Coulter-Nileunleashed a late onslaught withan unbelievable 92 off 60 balls.

Coulter-Nile, who hit eightfours and four sixes, in fact,became the highest run scorerby a number eight batsman in aWorld Cup. This was his maid-en fifty in his 29th ODI. His pre-vious highest was a 34 last year.

From 79 for five in the17th over, the Australians clawedtheir way back to 119 for five atthe halfway mark. With Smithand Coulter-Nile on the ascen-dency, they were 206 for six atthe end of 40 overs beforeadding 81 runs in the final nineovers for five wickets.

The spadework for thefightback was done by Smith,who, in March, came out of a 12-month ban for his involvementin the Cape Town ball-tamper-ing scandal.

Coming out at the teamtotal of 26 for two in the fourthover, Smith played a defiant yetsolid innings to hold theAustralian innings together. He

hit seven boundaries for his 20thODI fifty and first after his inter-national comeback.

Wicketkeeper batsman AlexCarey chipped in with a 55-ball45, which was studded with fiveboundaries, for an invaluable 68-run stand for the sixth wicketwith Smith to resurrect theAustralian innings beforeCoulter-Nile played the inningsof his life.

For West Indies, who had afour-pronged pace attack, CarlosBrathwaite was the most suc-cessful bowler with 3/67 whilehis fast bowling colleaguesOshane Thomas, SheldonCottrell and Andre Russell tooktwo wickets apiece.

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Pakistan coach Mickey Arthur hasurged his team to ‘stay ruthless’ atthe World Cup as they train their

sights on Sri Lanka after shockingEngland.

The notoriously unpredictablePakistan side held their nerve to beat thehosts by 14 runs at Trent Bridge onMonday, just three days after crashingto a seven-wicket defeat against theWest Indies at the same venue.

That ended a sequence of 11 con-secutive defeats in completed one-dayinternationals.

Arthur praised his team's resolveafter a ‘shocking’ defeat in their tour-nament opener.

“It was just so good to see us go outand play with the belief and intensitythat we had spoken about,” Arthur said.

“When we put all three disciplinestogether we know we can beat anybody.We now need to stay consistent andruthless.”

Pakistan posted an impressive 348-8 against a potent England bowlingattack, with fifties from veteranMohammad Hafeez, Babar Azam andSarfaraz Ahmed.

Pacemen Wahab Riaz andMohammad Amir, and leg-spinnerShadab Khan, took the wickets torestrict England to 334-9 in their 50overs.

“You could see the hunger, thedetermination and the resolve to do wellin batting after a horror show and thenthe bowlers fought hard, so we need torepeat that in the coming matches aswell,” said Arthur.

Pakistan have won all seven of theirWorld Cup matches against Sri Lankadating back to the first tournament in1975.

Pakistan will be tempted to bring infast bowler Mohammad Hasnain for hisraw pace, something that New Zealand

exploited against Sri Lanka duringtheir 10-wicket rout of their opponentsin Cardiff on Saturday.

On Tuesday, Sri Lanka beatAfghanistan in a rain-shortened match,also in Cardiff, to breathe life into theircampaign.

But the 1996 champions will bewary of another middle-order battingcollapse after they lost five wickets for14 runs against New Zealand andseven wickets for 36 runs againstAfghanistan.

Sri Lankan coach ChandikaHathurusingha said he had told his bats-men to up their game.

“I don’t give pep talks. I give hon-est talk, that’s all. I tell them what hasto be done. They have to come and per-form,” said Hathurusingha, who praisedopener Kusal Perera for his 78-runknock, which helped Sri Lanka reach201 against Afghanistan.

“He’s an amazing player,” saidHathurusingha. “We have given him thefull licence to bat the way he wants tobat. We know that when he’s come up,most of the time it’s match-winning.”

But one factor outside anybody’scontrol is the weather, with persistentrain forecast for Bristol on Friday.

SQUADPakistan: Sarfaraz Ahmed (c, wk),

Asif Ali, Hasan Ali, Shaheen Afridi,Mohammad Amir, Babar Azam,Mohammad Hafeez, MohammadHasnain, Imam-ul-Haq, Shadab Khan,Shoaib Malik, Wahab Riaz, Haris Sohail,Imad Wasim, Fakhar Zaman

Sri Lanka: Dimuth Karunaratne(c), Avishka Fernando, Suranga Lakmal,Lasith Malinga, Angelo Mathews,Jeevan Mendis, Kusal Mendis (wk),Kusal Perera (wk), Thisara Perera,Nuwan Pradeep, Dhananjaya de Silva,Milinda Siriwardana, LahiruThirimanne, Isuru Udana, JeffreyVandersay

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It’s a cliché but we’re backto that word withPakistan — inconsisten-

cy. Sometimes frustratingand often brilliant, theirtwo matches so far havebeen opposites of eachother.

It is a very difficultthing to answer becausePakistan have always beenlike that. It is not somethingnew, if you go back to the1980s and even 1970s, it hasalways been the same.

I think it goes back tothe system and the way weare brought up in Pakistan.We pick very young playersand they don’t always comethrough a controlled sys-tem. Everyone is different.

Some disappear quick-ly because they struggle tohandle the pressure and arereplaced by another youngguy but those who do han-dle it just carry on andbecome greats of the game.

There are a lot of exam-ples of guys like that, suchas Wasim Akram, myselfand Inzamam-ul-Haq.

We hardly ever played

first-class cricket beforemaking our internationaldebuts. Once you getthrough your first couple ofyears of international crick-et, you never look back.

We have also changedthings far too often in thedomestic game back homeso players can struggle tobuild a rhythm.

The result is that younever know what are goingto get with Pakistan, younever know which side ofthe bed they are going to getout of.

Against England, theyrebounded superbly fromthat opening loss to theWest Indies.

The capability is there,and they have the capacityto do special things. Theyneed to be positive in everygame. There is no doubtthey were hurt by whathappened against the WestIndies and they came out to

prove a point.The pressure was

mounting on the players,the management and thecaptain. They were in it upto their nose and as youburn your chances, you take

more risks.Now, it’s time for anoth-

er big game against SriLanka. I saw them take onAfghanistan and don’t thinkthey are a team that need tobe feared. However,

Pakistan cannot take themlightly.

Look at Bangladesh —beating the mighty SouthAfrica, you cannot takeanyone lightly. Sri Lanka arenot playing their best cur-rently, but that does notmatter.

That win would havecleared their minds and, likePakistan, they will be brim-ming with confidence.When you have a bad startand then win a game, youstart to feel good aboutyourself.

Look at the way LasithMalinga bowled. He wassuperb and showed he stillhas something about him.On their day, they can beatanyone.

Pakistan’s fixtures getinteresting from here withAustralia and India, whoare both playing well, on thehorizon.

They are both formida-ble sides and so a win againstSri Lanka is important for us.

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�Pakistan is known for its unpredictablenature and you always guess whichPakistan team will turn up. Does that addpressure or relax you that you can beatthem?

Yes, Pakistan is an unpredictable team,but I think we also come into this game, Ithink we have a bit of confidence so we willbe trying to give our best shot, you know.We are not over-confident as well. And weare trying to do our best.

The win that came againstAfghanistan was your team wanted.What has it done to your team?

We just need a win for — it always givesus the confidence if you get a win, any team,with any team, that is what we want. Finally,we got that. After that, we did really goodthings in that particular match, but I think— and also we have some parts to learnmore, many things about the batting.

If the pitch still going to be a greentop, is there a chance that you may wantto strengthen your struggling middleorder by leaving out a fast bowler?

It’s a pretty good wicket if you take abit of grass. It’s a fact that we got that ratherthan the Cardiff wicket so we were tryingto go the same team, we are trying to gothe same team, but I think we thought weneed another batsman, so we might makeone change, but not many, you know. Wewill be trying to play the same batting line-up for this game.

How were the strong comments givenby Malinga in the last game received inthe dressing room?

Everybody has a job they have to do.If you are a batsman, you have to score. Ifyou are a bowler, you have to take wick-ets. When we are losing, everyone else,everyone call everyone lots of things, andwe get outsiders, they come in with lots ofthings so those are the bad things when weare not doing well.

Challenges of playing Pakistan.If you can do that particular day well,

you can be the winning side. Pakistan didwell against England. They put score on theboard, big scores, so after that, they keeptaking wickets, so those are the key areas.If you are playing any big team, you haveto do the same thing, you have to put someruns on the board and give a chance for thebowlers to take wickets. If you are not doingthat, you can't do that. I think Pakistan, orwhatever the team, you have to do the basicthings if you want to win it.

How do you describePakistan’s batting? 105 to 348, was it badday to good day, or inconsistency?

It’s my fifth year. I would say it’s a bitof a both. We didn’t adapt well to the con-ditions against West Indies. Technically, wewere a bit poor on the day. There were alot of nerves being the first World Cupmatch definitely. Then the guys got overthat against England and they showed theirproper skills and it was a true test of char-acter. And I think they came through withflying colours in the second game.

A question about this young battingline-up that has scored 350 plus allthrough England. How do you keep theminterested in what they are doing becausethey are not getting the results that theywant?

If their job is to score runs, and to getthose scores of 350, they are doing theirjob. So, you just got to ask them to keeprepeating it and keep doing the hard train-ing and putting in the hours in the nets andexecuting the skills under pressure. Andthen, hopefully, the bowlers and the field-ers will get it right to back that up. Butunfortunately, that didn’t happen in quitea few of the games against England, in thebilateral series.

You have played a few World Cupsyourself. Are you a fan of this format?

It’s a bit unlucky on the associateteams, but obviously, you know, each gameis so important, so there are no free games,or easy games, so it is exciting to watch.And just speaking to the public, I thinkthey do enjoy this, but I think it is quitetough on the associate teams, but unfor-tunately I suppose that is one of thosethings.

What sort of challenge are youexpecting from Sri Lanka?

You have always got to be respectfuland they have got good bowlers. I have justcome out of a batting meeting to see theirskills. And it should be a good game. Andhopefully the weather stays away, it is a bitpoor, the forecast. But I don't think we'dbe targeting any one individual, thoughthey have got some good seamers andsome spinners with very good skills. Theguys are focussed and they know what toexpect.

What is the mood after the big win?I sense quite a bit of confidence. Since

we have won, it took off a lot of the pres-sure, having gone through those string ofdefeats. Psychologically, that lifts a hugeweight from their shoulders.

Are you happy with the balance of theside having left out Imad last time andgone with Hafeez and Shoaib to bowlthose overs?

For the time being. I don’t have a sayin selection. We wanted to take some paceoff the ball against England and Hafeez andMalik did that really well. We have playeda few games here already so the guys knowwhat to expect and can adapt to differentconditions.

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The way Bangladesh got themselvesback into the game, they should bevery proud of their performance

against New Zealand.It is a shame they couldn’t win it but

for them to get so close was very impres-sive.

The game looked over when RossTaylor and Kane Williamson were bat-ting but this Bangladesh team nevergives up, they never allow them-selves to give up.

They are never out of thegame and they did all the fansproud, they should take a lotof confidence from thatgoing forward.

Bangladesh hada one per centchance of winningthe game at onestage, teams don’tcome back from that butthey came so close and should bevery proud. All the bowlersstepped up towards theend.

Nobody wil l bemore disappointedthan MushfiqurRahim himself formissing that run-outopportunity onWilliamson.

Mistakes can hap-pen, it was a bad oneand it could have been adif ferent stor y ifWilliamson’s wicket was gotearly.

I can’t complain about him —he's our best batsman and doing reallywell, keeping is really tough.

I know Mushy and he's a very emo-tional guy — he'll shout his mouth offtoday and then he'll be okay tomorrow.

Our batsmen just couldn't keep it

going, everyone got set and then got outwhich was disappointing, we needed tobuild the partnerships and we couldn’tand that was the problem. They didn'tneed much more than 244.

Unfortunately themiddle order, when

Bangladesh were batting,didn’t do the job theywere looking for and you

can’t do that against NewZealand.

They are probably the most organisedteam in this World Cup, their record inICC events is really good and they’realways looking towards those semi-finalsbecause of their ability.

If you want to win against them youhave to do well with the bat and the ball,you can’t afford to miss out on one.

A New Zealand team always playsstrong cricket, against any side theyface. They always seem to play well,and in a big tournament like this,Bangladesh can take a strong lessonfrom them.

Next Bangladesh wil l faceEngland and while it's a difficultgame in these conditions, they'll bereally looking forward to the chal-

lenge.Both have had difficulties and

England have more pressure, it's in theirconditions and we've beaten them in ourlast two World Cup matches, in 2011and 2015, so that is a major plus for us.

These are different teams and a dif-ferent atmosphere but there is a lot of con-fidence from those wins.

In 2011, beating England that was abig moment for us, they were a reallytough opponent particularly for where wewere as a country then.

Then in 2015, those conditions madeit a really tough game in Australia — theyfavoured England but we still won, theteam played really well and showed theycan do it.

Bangladesh have made a lot ofimprovements batting and bowling too, wemay not necessarily win but they will cer-tainly give them a good game.

We've seen how excited the fans aregetting too, there's a huge Bangladeshcommunity in England.

Playing and winning these gamesmeans everything to them and there's areal good chance of doing it again.

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New Zealand spinner MitchellSantner wants to take inspira-

tion from the Black Caps’ charge tothe final of the World Cup final fouryears ago.

Santner hit the winning runs asNew Zealand sneaked pastBangladesh at The Oval by twowickets to make it two wins out oftwo, finishing on 17 not out from12 balls.

He also put in a vital perfor-mance with the ball, taking one for41 from his ten overs.

The left-arm spinner, whomissed most of 2018 with a seriousknee injury, was playing domesticcricket four years ago when theBlack Caps lost their first World Cupfinal to co-hosts Australia.

Santner, 27, said: “You want toperform on the biggest stage andthere’s none bigger than the WorldCup.

“I watched a lot of World Cupswhen I was growing up and watch-ing the whole of New Zealand getaround the lads in 2015 was awe-some. If we can replicate that andmaybe go one further this time, thatwould be nice.”

Santner made his ODI debut atEdgbaston in 2015 in the nowfamous game when England passed400 for the first time and kick-start-ed their white-ball revolution.

Santner was modest about hisperformance with the bat againstBangladesh, joking that hitting thewinning runs “could have beenworse.”

He added: “It was nice to get theboys over the line. It got a bit tighterthan we would have liked but we'lltake the win and move on to thenext game.”

With the ball, he had been hitfor a solitary boundary until his finaldelivery — which he described asa ‘moon ball’ — disappeared overthe ropes for six.

He helped build up pressure onthe Bangladesh batsmen which ledto the run out of Mushfiqur Rahimafter a dangerous half-century part-nership with captain Shakib AlHasan.

Santner said: “The wicket wasprobably a bit slower than wethought it would be so my rolethroughout the middle there was tochange my pace and bowl goodareas.

“As a spinner, if you’re tyingdown a subcontinental teams youmust be doing a pretty good job.Shakib and Mushy were going pret-ty well for a while.”

Santner is expecting spin to playa significant part in the tournamentas it progressed.

He added: “We’ve already seenthat if it doesn’t swing early andthere are some used wickets, spin-ners have done a pretty good job.

“It’s going to key to bowl teamsout high-scoring games in on theflat surfaces that you expect here.

“You have to weigh up whetherthat's the bowler at the other end isdoing a good job and your role is todot it up or to try and take wickets.”�������A J�*���+������������������6F

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Bangladesh spinner Mosaddek Hossainpaid tribute to the fanatical support his

side received all the way through their nail-biting two-wicket defeat by New Zealand atthe Oval.

The Black Caps' match-winner RossTaylor — who was one of Mosaddek's twowickets in the match - had earlier said thatit felt like the game was being played inBangladesh such was the cacophony of noisethat greeted every run or wicket forBangladesh.

Mosaddek, 23, agreed, saying with asmile: "It was amazing. When we came outafter the toss it didn't feel like we were play-ing at the Oval — it felt like we were inMirpur which was a good thing for us.

"It wasn't a surprise because we hadplayed here in the Champions Trophy in2017 so we knew what to expect but it wasstill amazing."

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Portugal manager FernandoSantos hailed Cristiano

Ronaldo a "football genius" afterhis 53rd career hat-trick sentPortugal into the final of theNations League on home soil inPorto with a 3-1 win overSwitzerland.

The hosts had to withstand ahuge moment of VAR controver-sy as after Ronaldo's free-kickopened the scoring, Portugalthought they had the chance todouble their lead from the penal-ty spot.

Instead German referee FelixBrych reversed his initial decisionand awarded a spot-kick at theother end for an earlier incident,which Ricardo Rodriguez con-verted to seemingly send thegame to extra-time.

However, Ronaldo pre-dictably took centre stage as hestruck twice in the final twominutes to set up a clash withEngland or the Netherlands, whomeet in the second semi-final onThursday, in Sunday's final.

Portugal made it to the lastfour without their all-time recordgoalscorer as Ronaldo took ahiatus from international footballto concentrate on his first seasonat Juventus.

However, the five-time Ballond'Or winner returned to thenational team in March and wasalways likely to be the centre ofattention.

In front of an adoring home

crowd, Ronaldo put the spotlightback on his performance on thepitch as he opened the scoringwith a brilliant free-kick.

Silva was the creator forRonaldo to drill home his secondof the night two minutes fromtime.

Moments later the hostssealed their place in the final onthe counter-attack as Ronaldocurled into the far corner for his88th international goal.

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Superstar Neymarwas ruled out of

the Copa Americaon Thursday aftertearing his rightankle ligament dur-ing Brazil 's 2-0friendly win overQatar.

"Due to the seri-ousness of theinjury, Neymar willneither be fit norhave time to recu-perate sufficiently toparticipate" in thetournament, theBrazilian FootballC o n f e d e r a t i o n(CBF) said in astatement.

The injury to theworld's most expen-sive footballer is a big blow to the hosts' preparationsfor South American continental championship, whichbegins in just over a week's time.

A distraught-looking Neymar was seen covering hisface with his hands as he sat on the bench after hob-bling from the field in the 20th minute at Brasilia's ManeGarrincha Stadium on Wednesday night.

A large ice pack had been strapped to the Paris Saint-Germain striker's lower right leg while two membersof Brazil's support staff carried him from the pitch.

The injury comes just nine days before Brazil's open-ing Copa America game against Bolivia.

Minutes after Richarlison had opened the scoringin the 17th minute, Neymar was substituted with theCBF saying he had suffered "a ligament rupture at thelevel of the right ankle".

With Neymar ruled out, the host nation face anuphill battle to win South America's continental cham-pionship for the first time since 2007.

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Bangladesh, who won their opening match againstSouth Africa last weekend, came agonisingly close to anoth-er major scalp but Mossadek said his side were remainingupbeat.

He said: "Most of the guys in the changing room are abit disappointed, of course, but that's ok for me.

"But we're getting better and better. We're bowling real-ly well so hopefully in the next match we will do better."

That next match at Cardiff Wales Stadium on Saturdayis against England, who they knocked out of the last edi-tion in Adelaide in 2015.