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Chandigarh: Haryana Government will not release the salary of officers or employ- ees, whose data is not updated on the Human Resources Management System by November 30. The State Government has directed all departments to update data related to the ser- vice book of employees and offi- cers on the Human Resources Management System (HRMS) portal by November 30. "The salary of officers or employees for November whose data is not updated by the deadline, would not be released," said Amarjit Singh, Officer on Special Duty to the Chief Minister. He issued these directions on Monday while presiding over a meeting of nodal officers of various departments regarding HRMS. The State Government has decided to release the salary of employees and officers of all departments through HRMS. The Chief Minister Manohar Lal, himself is supervising HRMS and during the review of HRMS by the CM Office, it was found that information in the service book of employees was either incomplete or incor- rect, said Amarjit. He also directed the nodal officers of departments to com- plete the e-service books of employees, and ensure that the data of employees should be according to their service book. The CM office would random- ly review it every week. PNS P unjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh has urged the Centre to take up with Canada the issue of extradition of 10 NRIs — declared pro- claimed offenders in drugs- related cases in Punjab, and "taken refuge" in Canada. Capt Amarinder, in sepa- rate letters to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and the External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, said that the extradition process in the cases had been pending for up to four years, scuttling the State Government’s efforts to bring the accused to justice. The Congress Government in Punjab has scaled up its efforts for their extradition from Canada, but the efforts have been obstructed as the cases remain pending at vari- ous levels, he said. According to an official spokesperson, the State Government had decided to aggressively pursue the extra- dition of these suspects as their custodial interrogation was vital to establish the entire chain of the drug cartel in Punjab and to expose those allegedly patronising the trade. Listing out details of these cases, Punjab Chief Minister said Sarabjit Singh Sandhar, alias Nik, a resident of Balioun village in Samrala, now living in Vancouver, had been declared a proclaimed offend- er on October 19, 2013. "His extradition request had been sent to Canadian authorities and thereafter pre- pared afresh as per guidelines shared by them. The revised request was sent to the Home Ministry, which forwarded it to the External Affairs Ministry on on July 20, 2017," he pointed. The same is the status in another case, involving Ranjit Singh Aujla, a resident of Muthada Kalan village in Jalandhar district, in which the extradition request is pend- ing since July 25, 2017. He was declared a proclaimed offend- er in August 2013. In case of Nirankar Singh Dhillon of Apra Mandi village in Jalandhar, who was declared a proclaimed offender in October 2013, and is current- ly reported to be living in Lietkencher Circle Brampton, Canada, the extradition request is pending since September 19, 2017, Amarinder said, cit- ing police data. The extradition request for Gursewak Singh Dhillon, who was declared a proclaimed offender in April 2014, was sent to the External Affairs Ministry by the Home Ministry on July 20, 2017, but there has been no movement since then. The Chief Minister, in his letter, cited similar case of Amarjit Singh Kooner who was declared PO on August 31, 2013. Resident of Mehmadpur village in Jalandhar district, Kooner is living in Vancouver. Another Lamer Singh Daleh of Mehsampur village in Jalandhar district continues to live in British Columbia, as their extradition pleas contin- ue to hang fire. Other similar pending extradition cases relate to Pardeep Singh Dhaliwal of Leela Megh Singh village in Jagraon, Amarinder Singh Chheena alias Laddi of Jhanjoti village in Amritsar district, and Parminder Singh Deo alias Pindi Uncle of Kharoudi Village in Hoshiarpur village. The last request relates to Ranjit Kaur Kahlon alias Ruby Kahlon of Jhandu Singha vil- lage in Jalandhar district, now residing in Zirakpur’s Shivalik Vihar, in whose name her hus- band purchased various prop- erties in Jalandhar and Zirakpur with proceeds of drug money, and against whom also an extradition plea is pending. T he broad daylight murder of another Hindu leader on Monday added to already long list of murderous attacks on the leaders belonging to the reli- gious or right-wing outfits in Punjab. Just like many previous incidents, two unidentified men shot a Shiv Sena activist in Bharat Nagar locality of Amritsar in a broad light. The victim, identified as Vipin Sharma, suffered around seven bullet injuries following which he was rushed to local Fortis Escort hospital, where he died. Sources in the police are suspecting it to be an act of Khalistan men as the victim has been openly vocal for the Hindu rights during Shiv sena rallies in the city. A local Shiv sena leader Chetan Kakkar termed it as an act of Sikh activists saying that the victim was active in the rallies and protests held for the welfare of Hindus. "He was vocal against threat to Hindus from Sikh terror groups. He was repeat- edly getting life threats and police was informed, but to no avail. This will lead to an ugly situation in the city if local authorities will continue to sit quiet. It is a shame for the police that he was attacked in broad day light," he said. This is the second incident in Punjab in this month where a religious leader was shot dead. On 17 October, an RSS?leader was shot dead by two unidentified men in Ludhiana. The incident is the latest in a series of targeted murders in the state in two years that have remained a mystery. There have been nine killings of right wing and other religious leaders. Almost all of them were shot by two unidentified, bike- borne persons. However, the police have failed to make any headway in any of these cases. U nder the new liberalised Arms Rules to boost the Make in India projects, Indian arms, ammunition and weapons manufacturers will now be granted a ‘lifetime’ licence, with the Government doing away with a review every five years. Also, the mandatory clear- ances from the Union ministry of Home for selling small arms and weapons to the Centre and State Governments will not be required. “The liberalisation of the Arms Rules will encourage investment in the manufactur- ing of arms and ammunition and weapon systems as part of the Make in India programme. The liberalised rules are expect- ed to encourage the manufac- turing activity and facilitate availability of world class weapons to meet the require- ment of Armed Forces and Police Forces in sync with country’s defence indigenisa- tion programme. “The liberalised rules will apply to licences granted by MHA for small arms & ammu- nition and licences granted by Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), under powers delegated to them, for tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, defence aircrafts, space crafts, warships of all kinds, arms and ammunition and allied items Continued on Page 4 I n another twist to a Kerala’s alleged love jehad case, the Supreme Court on Monday directed that a woman, who converted to Islam before mar- rying a Muslim man, be pro- duced before it on November 27 even as it observed that the free consent of a major to marriage has to be ascertained. Denying that his daughter was under house arrest, the woman’s father KM Asokan said on Monday that Akhila, alias Hadia (25), who had embraced Islam two years ago and married a Muslim youth, will be presented before the Supreme Court as per its order. “I was a soldier. I respect the legal system and judiciary. I will produce my daughter before the Supreme Court as per its order,” Asokan told the media at his native place TV Puram near Vaikom in Kottayam district. “I will abide by whatever decision the court takes,” he said. The direction by the apex court for producing the woman for an interaction in an open court came amid an assertion by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) that an indoc- trinated person may be inca- pable of giving free consent to marriage. The NIA referred to the term of “psychological kid- napping” and said that there is a well-oiled machinery work- ing in Kerala and they are indulging in the indoctrination and radicalisation of the society where as many as 89 similar cases have been reported. “Having heard learned counsel for the parties, we are inclined to modify the order of August 16 and accordingly direct the presence of the daughter of the first respondent at 3.00 pm on November 27. We may further add that this court shall speak to her not in cam- era but in open court,” a Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud said. At the outset, the Bench posed a pointed query to Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh, appearing for the NIA, whether the marriage be annulled by the High Court in a habeas corpus petition and can the parents be given the custody of a major woman, who is 24 years of age. “We have to find out as to where she intended to stay and as far as, marriage is con- cerned it is a personal thing,” the bench said, adding that the free consent of a major has to be ascertained. The Additional Solicitor General submitted that this was a case in which the woman has been indoctrinated and hence the court can invoke parental authority even if she was a major. “Indoctrination is an exception to free consent. It is recognised even international- ly. This girl has been indoctri- nated and manipulated. In such cases the court can invoke parental authority,” the law officer said. “The free consent can be no consent if it was proved that the person in question was ‘indoctrinated’”, he said, adding that the parental authority has been recognised by the Continued on Page 4 A Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court will hear petitions challenging the move to make Aadhaar card manda- tory for availing various services and benefits of Government welfare schemes from the last week of November. While scheduling a hearing on the con- tentious case, the SC on Monday also pulled up the Mamata Banerjee Government and asked how a State can challenge Parliament’s mandate and the subsequent move to make Aadhaar card mandatory for receiving benefits. A Bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud fixed the last week of November for hearing the case after Attorney-General KK Venugopal told the court that the Centre was ready to argue in the matter and that no interim order was required to be passed without hearing him in the case. Senior advocate Gopal Subramanium, appearing for one of the petitioners challeng- ing the Centre’s move, told the Bench that the apex court had earlier passed several orders in the Aadhaar matter and said it was “purely a voluntary act”, and there would not be any com- pulsion for the citizens to have the card to receive benefits of Government schemes. Senior advocate CA Sundaram, representing Maharashtra, argued that the matter should be heard and decided as soon as possible. Recently, a nine-judge Constit- ution Bench of the apex court, had held that Right to Privacy was a Fundamental Right under the Constitution. Several peti- tioners challenging the validity of Aadhaar had claimed it violated privacy rights. Meanwhile, another Bench of the court issued a notice to the Centre on a petition filed by an individual challenging the proposed linking of mobile phones with Aadhaar card. A Bench comprising Justices AK Sikri and Ashok Bhushan has asked the Centre to file its response within four weeks. The Centre had on October 25 told the SC that the deadline for mandatory linking of Aadhaar to receive doles had been extended till March 31, 2018 for those who do not have the 12-digit Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) number and were will- ing to enroll for it. The Attorney-General had told the court that no coercive action would be taken against those who do not have the Aadhaar card but are willing to enroll for it. He had said such people would not be denied benefits of social schemes till March 31. In a note to the court, the Government had said, “Those who have Aadhaar are required to seed/link their Aadhaar with SIM card, with bank account, PAN card and other schemes where Section 7 notifications have been issued. “The Government will be open for the deadline for link- ing Aadhaar to various pro- grammes being extended for another three months till March 31, 2018 for those who do not have Aadhaar.” Some petition- ers termed the linking of the UIDAI number with bank accounts and mobile numbers as “illegal and unconstitution- al”. They also objected to the CBSE’s alleged move to make Aadhaar card mandatory for students appearing for exami- nations, a contention denied by the Centre. One of the counsels repre- senting the petitioners had ear- lier said that the final hearing in the main Aadhaar matter, which is pending before the apex court, was necessary as the Government “cannot compel” citizens to link their Aadhaar with either bank accounts or mobile numbers. Meanwhile, the court pulled up the West Bengal Government saying, under the federal structure an individual can challenge a decision by the Centre in the court of law, but not a State Government. “How can the State file such a plea? In a federal struc- ture, how can a State file a plea challenging Parliament’s man- date,” a Bench comprising Justices AK Sikri and Ashok Bhushan said at the outset. “It can be challenged by individuals, but how has a State come (to court)? It cannot be done,” the Bench said, adding, “Let Mamata Banerjee come and file a plea as an individual. We will entertain it as she will be an individual.” Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing the West Bengal Government, told the Bench that the plea has been filed by the labour department of the State as subsidies under these welfare schemes have to be given by it. Responding to his contention, the Bench said, “You satisfy us how the State has chal- lenged it. We know it is a mat- ter which needs consideration.” Sibal, however, insisted that the State was entitled to filing such a plea as subsidies under these schemes have to be given by the labour department. “If it is so, tomorrow the Centre will file a petition chal- lenging the States Act,” the Bench observed. When the Bench referred to the prayer made for relief, Sibal said, “We will amend the relief sought. We are entitled to file it”. Beijing: Chinese engineers are testing techniques that could be used to build a 1,000-km long tunnel, the world’s longest, to carry water from Brahmaputra river in Tibet close to Arunachal Pradesh to the parched Xinjiang region, a media report said on Monday. The move, that is expected to “turn Xinjiang into California”, has raised con- cerns among environmentalists about its likely impact on the Himalayan region, Hong Kong- based South China Morning Post reported. The proposed tunnel, which would drop down from the world’s highest plateau in multiple sections connected by waterfalls, would provide water in China’s largest admin- istrative division, comprising vast swathes of deserts and dry grasslands. The water would be divert- ed from the Yarlung Tsangpo River in southern Tibet, which turns into the river Brahmaputra once it enters India, to the Taklamakan desert in Xinjiang. China’s longest tunnel is the 85-km Dahuofang water project in Liaoning province, Continued on Page 4 T hough the prolonged Darjeeling unrest has cast its shadow on tea production in West Bengal, India’s overall tea production is estimated to have increased by 5.85 per cent to 167.98 million kg in August this year as against 158.70 million kg during the same period last year. Of the total production, North India contributed 148.16 million kg while the output from southern states stood at about 19.82 million kg during the month. According to TEA Board of India, among the key States, the output in Assam is estimated to have increased to 98.79 million kg from 89.02 million kg in the corresponding period last year. The tea production in Assam has increased despite the severe floods in Upper Assam, Central Assam and Terai. However, production in West Bengal is esti- mated to have dropped by three per cent to 46.29 mil- lion kg from 47.69 million kg in the same period last year. As per data, there is no production in Darjeeling since June this year due to unrest while it produced 1.57 million kg of tea last year. From Dooars, only 26.88 million kg tea output is expected till August as compared to 27.95 million kg last year during the period. In southern States, the total tea production is estimated at 19.82 million kg till August as compared to 18.19 million kg last year. The tea production in Karnataka has declined to 0.45 million kg as against 0.56 mil- lion kg till August last year. The decline in tea production is attributed to uneven rainfall or deficient rain- fall in the State. Of the 26 districts, 98 taluks will be declared drought-hit following the failure of south- west monsoon. The State has received 774 mm of rainfall till September this year as against 839 mm last year. The production in Kerala and Tamil Nadu has estimated to be increased this year. The tea output in Kerala has increased from 5.15 million kg last year to 5.49 million kg this year while Tamil Nadu has also recorded an increase of 1.39 per cent this year. Tamil Nadu has estimated 13.88 million kg this year as against 12.49 million kg during the same period last year. On an average, the coun- try produces around 12 lakh tonnes of tea annually. It is significant to note that more than 80 per cent of total tea production is con- sumed within the country. Despite India’s large domestic consumption base, exports play a vital role in maintaining the overall demand-supply bal- ance in the domestic market. Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala are the major tea growing States. They account for 97 per cent of the total production. Other tradi- tional States where tea is grown to a small extent are Tripura, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar and Karnataka.

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Chandigarh: HaryanaGovernment will not releasethe salary of officers or employ-ees, whose data is not updatedon the Human ResourcesManagement System byNovember 30.

The State Government hasdirected all departments toupdate data related to the ser-vice book of employees and offi-cers on the Human ResourcesManagement System (HRMS)portal by November 30.

"The salary of officers oremployees for Novemberwhose data is not updated bythe deadline, would not bereleased," said Amarjit Singh,Officer on Special Duty to theChief Minister. He issued thesedirections on Monday whilepresiding over a meeting ofnodal officers of variousdepartments regarding HRMS.

The State Government hasdecided to release the salary ofemployees and officers of alldepartments through HRMS.The Chief Minister ManoharLal, himself is supervisingHRMS and during the reviewof HRMS by the CM Office, itwas found that information inthe service book of employeeswas either incomplete or incor-rect, said Amarjit.

He also directed the nodalofficers of departments to com-plete the e-service books ofemployees, and ensure that thedata of employees should beaccording to their service book.The CM office would random-ly review it every week. PNS

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Punjab Chief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh has urged

the Centre to take up withCanada the issue of extraditionof 10 NRIs — declared pro-claimed offenders in drugs-related cases in Punjab, and"taken refuge" in Canada.

Capt Amarinder, in sepa-rate letters to Union HomeMinister Rajnath Singh and theExternal Affairs MinisterSushma Swaraj, said that theextradition process in the caseshad been pending for up tofour years, scuttling the StateGovernment’s efforts to bringthe accused to justice.

The Congress Governmentin Punjab has scaled up itsefforts for their extraditionfrom Canada, but the effortshave been obstructed as thecases remain pending at vari-ous levels, he said.

According to an officialspokesperson, the StateGovernment had decided toaggressively pursue the extra-dition of these suspects as theircustodial interrogation wasvital to establish the entirechain of the drug cartel inPunjab and to expose thoseallegedly patronising the trade.

Listing out details of thesecases, Punjab Chief Ministersaid Sarabjit Singh Sandhar,alias Nik, a resident of Baliounvillage in Samrala, now livingin Vancouver, had beendeclared a proclaimed offend-er on October 19, 2013.

"His extradition requesthad been sent to Canadianauthorities and thereafter pre-pared afresh as per guidelinesshared by them. The revisedrequest was sent to the HomeMinistry, which forwarded it tothe External Affairs Ministry onon July 20, 2017," he pointed.

The same is the status inanother case, involving RanjitSingh Aujla, a resident ofMuthada Kalan village in

Jalandhar district, in whichthe extradition request is pend-ing since July 25, 2017. He wasdeclared a proclaimed offend-er in August 2013.

In case of Nirankar SinghDhillon of Apra Mandi villagein Jalandhar, who was declareda proclaimed offender inOctober 2013, and is current-ly reported to be living inLietkencher Circle Brampton,Canada, the extradition requestis pending since September19, 2017, Amarinder said, cit-ing police data.

The extradition request forGursewak Singh Dhillon, whowas declared a proclaimedoffender in April 2014, was sentto the External Affairs Ministryby the Home Ministry on July20, 2017, but there has been nomovement since then.

The Chief Minister, in hisletter, cited similar case ofAmarjit Singh Kooner whowas declared PO on August 31,2013. Resident of Mehmadpurvillage in Jalandhar district,Kooner is living in Vancouver.Another Lamer Singh Daleh ofMehsampur village inJalandhar district continues tolive in British Columbia, astheir extradition pleas contin-ue to hang fire.

Other similar pendingextradition cases relate toPardeep Singh Dhaliwal ofLeela Megh Singh village inJagraon, Amarinder SinghChheena alias Laddi of Jhanjotivillage in Amritsar district,and Parminder Singh Deo aliasPindi Uncle of KharoudiVillage in Hoshiarpur village.

The last request relates toRanjit Kaur Kahlon alias RubyKahlon of Jhandu Singha vil-lage in Jalandhar district, nowresiding in Zirakpur’s ShivalikVihar, in whose name her hus-band purchased various prop-erties in Jalandhar andZirakpur with proceeds of drugmoney, and against whom alsoan extradition plea is pending.

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The broad daylight murderof another Hindu leader on

Monday added to already longlist of murderous attacks on theleaders belonging to the reli-gious or right-wing outfits inPunjab.

Just like many previousincidents, two unidentifiedmen shot a Shiv Sena activistin Bharat Nagar locality ofAmritsar in a broad light.

The victim, identified asVipin Sharma, suffered aroundseven bullet injuries followingwhich he was rushed to localFortis Escort hospital, wherehe died.

Sources in the police are

suspecting it to be an act ofKhalistan men as the victimhas been openly vocal for theHindu rights during Shiv senarallies in the city.

A local Shiv sena leaderChetan Kakkar termed it as anact of Sikh activists saying thatthe victim was active in therallies and protests held for thewelfare of Hindus.

"He was vocal againstthreat to Hindus from Sikhterror groups. He was repeat-edly getting life threats andpolice was informed, but to noavail. This will lead to an uglysituation in the city if localauthorities will continue to sitquiet. It is a shame for thepolice that he was attacked in

broad day light," he said. This is the second incident

in Punjab in this month wherea religious leader was shotdead. On 17 October, anRSS?leader was shot dead bytwo unidentified men inLudhiana.

The incident is the latest ina series of targeted murders inthe state in two years that haveremained a mystery. Therehave been nine killings ofright wing and other religiousleaders.

Almost all of them wereshot by two unidentified, bike-borne persons. However, thepolice have failed to makeany headway in any of thesecases.

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Under the new liberalisedArms Rules to boost the

Make in India projects, Indianarms, ammunition andweapons manufacturers willnow be granted a ‘lifetime’licence, with the Governmentdoing away with a review everyfive years.

Also, the mandatory clear-

ances from the Union ministryof Home for selling small armsand weapons to the Centre andState Governments will not berequired.

“The liberalisation of theArms Rules will encourageinvestment in the manufactur-ing of arms and ammunitionand weapon systems as part ofthe Make in India programme.The liberalised rules are expect-ed to encourage the manufac-

turing activity and facilitateavailability of world classweapons to meet the require-ment of Armed Forces andPolice Forces in sync withcountry’s defence indigenisa-tion programme.

“The liberalised rules willapply to licences granted byMHA for small arms & ammu-nition and licences granted byDepartment of IndustrialPolicy and Promotion (DIPP),under powers delegated tothem, for tanks and otherarmoured fighting vehicles,defence aircrafts, space crafts,warships of all kinds, arms andammunition and allied items

Continued on Page 4

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In another twist to a Kerala’salleged love jehad case, the

Supreme Court on Mondaydirected that a woman, whoconverted to Islam before mar-rying a Muslim man, be pro-duced before it on November27 even as it observed that thefree consent of a major tomarriage has to be ascertained.

Denying that his daughterwas under house arrest, thewoman’s father KM Asokansaid on Monday that Akhila,alias Hadia (25), who had

embraced Islam two years agoand married a Muslim youth,will be presented before theSupreme Court as per its order.

“I was a soldier. I respectthe legal system and judiciary.I will produce my daughterbefore the Supreme Court asper its order,” Asokan told themedia at his native place TVPuram near Vaikom inKottayam district. “I will abideby whatever decision the courttakes,” he said.

The direction by the apexcourt for producing the womanfor an interaction in an opencourt came amid an assertion

by the National InvestigationAgency (NIA) that an indoc-trinated person may be inca-pable of giving free consent tomarriage.

The NIA referred to theterm of “psychological kid-napping” and said that there isa well-oiled machinery work-ing in Kerala and they areindulging in the indoctrinationand radicalisation of the societywhere as many as 89 similarcases have been reported.

“Having heard learnedcounsel for the parties, we areinclined to modify the order ofAugust 16 and accordingly

direct the presence of thedaughter of the first respondentat 3.00 pm on November 27. Wemay further add that this court

shall speak to her not in cam-era but in open court,” a Benchof Chief Justice Dipak Misra andJustices AM Khanwilkar andDY Chandrachud said.

At the outset, the Benchposed a pointed query toAdditional Solicitor General

Maninder Singh, appearing forthe NIA, whether the marriagebe annulled by the High Courtin a habeas corpus petition and

can the parents be given thecustody of a major woman,who is 24 years of age.

“We have to find out as towhere she intended to stayand as far as, marriage is con-

cerned it is a personal thing,”the bench said, adding that thefree consent of a major has tobe ascertained.

The Additional SolicitorGeneral submitted that thiswas a case in which the womanhas been indoctrinated and

hence the court can invokeparental authority even if shewas a major.

“Indoctrination is anexception to free consent. It isrecognised even international-ly. This girl has been indoctri-nated and manipulated. Insuch cases the court can invokeparental authority,” the lawofficer said.

“The free consent can beno consent if it was proved thatthe person in question was‘indoctrinated’”, he said, addingthat the parental authority hasbeen recognised by the

Continued on Page 4

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AConstitution Bench of theSupreme Court will hear

petitions challenging the moveto make Aadhaar card manda-tory for availing various servicesand benefits of Governmentwelfare schemes from the lastweek of November. Whilescheduling a hearing on the con-tentious case, the SC on Mondayalso pulled up the MamataBanerjee Government and askedhow a State can challengeParliament’s mandate and thesubsequent move to makeAadhaar card mandatory forreceiving benefits.

A Bench comprising ChiefJustice Dipak Misra and JusticesAM Khanwilkar and DYChandrachud fixed the lastweek of November for hearingthe case after Attorney-GeneralKK Venugopal told the courtthat the Centre was ready toargue in the matter and that nointerim order was required to bepassed without hearing him inthe case.

Senior advocate GopalSubramanium, appearing forone of the petitioners challeng-ing the Centre’s move, told theBench that the apex court hadearlier passed several orders inthe Aadhaar matter and said itwas “purely a voluntary act”, andthere would not be any com-

pulsion for the citizens to havethe card to receive benefits ofGovernment schemes.

Senior advocate CASundaram, representingMaharashtra, argued that thematter should be heard anddecided as soon as possible.Recently, a nine-judge Constit-ution Bench of the apex court,had held that Right to Privacywas a Fundamental Right underthe Constitution. Several peti-tioners challenging the validity ofAadhaar had claimed it violatedprivacy rights.

Meanwhile, another Benchof the court issued a notice tothe Centre on a petition filed byan individual challenging theproposed linking of mobilephones with Aadhaar card. ABench comprising Justices AKSikri and Ashok Bhushan hasasked the Centre to file itsresponse within four weeks.

The Centre had on October25 told the SC that the deadlinefor mandatory linking ofAadhaar to receive doles hadbeen extended till March 31,2018 for those who do nothave the 12-digit UniqueIdentification Authority of India(UIDAI) number and were will-ing to enroll for it.

The Attorney-General hadtold the court that no coerciveaction would be taken againstthose who do not have theAadhaar card but are willing to

enroll for it. He had said suchpeople would not be deniedbenefits of social schemes tillMarch 31. In a note to the court,the Government had said,“Those who have Aadhaar arerequired to seed/link theirAadhaar with SIM card, withbank account, PAN card andother schemes where Section 7notifications have been issued.

“The Government will beopen for the deadline for link-ing Aadhaar to various pro-grammes being extended for

another three months till March31, 2018 for those who do nothave Aadhaar.” Some petition-ers termed the linking of theUIDAI number with bankaccounts and mobile numbersas “illegal and unconstitution-al”.

They also objected to theCBSE’s alleged move to makeAadhaar card mandatory forstudents appearing for exami-nations, a contention denied bythe Centre.

One of the counsels repre-

senting the petitioners had ear-lier said that the final hearing inthe main Aadhaar matter, whichis pending before the apexcourt, was necessary as theGovernment “cannot compel”citizens to link their Aadhaarwith either bank accounts ormobile numbers.

Meanwhile, the court pulledup the West BengalGovernment saying, under thefederal structure an individualcan challenge a decision by theCentre in the court of law, but

not a State Government. “How can the State file

such a plea? In a federal struc-ture, how can a State file a pleachallenging Parliament’s man-date,” a Bench comprisingJustices AK Sikri and AshokBhushan said at the outset.

“It can be challenged byindividuals, but how has a Statecome (to court)? It cannot bedone,” the Bench said, adding,“Let Mamata Banerjee comeand file a plea as an individual.We will entertain it as she willbe an individual.”

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal,representing the West BengalGovernment, told the Benchthat the plea has been filed bythe labour department of theState as subsidies under thesewelfare schemes have to begiven by it. Responding to hiscontention, the Bench said, “Yousatisfy us how the State has chal-lenged it. We know it is a mat-ter which needs consideration.”Sibal, however, insisted that theState was entitled to filing sucha plea as subsidies under theseschemes have to be given by thelabour department.

“If it is so, tomorrow theCentre will file a petition chal-lenging the States Act,” theBench observed. When theBench referred to the prayermade for relief, Sibal said, “Wewill amend the relief sought. Weare entitled to file it”.

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Beijing: Chinese engineers aretesting techniques that could beused to build a 1,000-km longtunnel, the world’s longest, tocarry water from Brahmaputrariver in Tibet close toArunachal Pradesh to theparched Xinjiang region, amedia report said on Monday.

The move, that is expectedto “turn Xinjiang intoCalifornia”, has raised con-cerns among environmentalistsabout its likely impact on theHimalayan region, Hong Kong-based South China MorningPost reported.

The proposed tunnel,which would drop down fromthe world’s highest plateau inmultiple sections connectedby waterfalls, would providewater in China’s largest admin-istrative division, comprisingvast swathes of deserts and drygrasslands.

The water would be divert-ed from the Yarlung TsangpoRiver in southern Tibet, whichturns into the riverBrahmaputra once it entersIndia, to the Taklamakan desertin Xinjiang.

China’s longest tunnel isthe 85-km Dahuofang waterproject in Liaoning province,

Continued on Page 4

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Though the prolongedDarjeeling unrest has cast its

shadow on tea production inWest Bengal, India’s overall teaproduction is estimated to haveincreased by 5.85 per cent to167.98 million kg in August thisyear as against 158.70 million kgduring the same period last year.

Of the total production,North India contributed 148.16million kg while the outputfrom southern states stood atabout 19.82 million kg duringthe month.

According to TEA Board ofIndia, among the key States, theoutput in Assam is estimated to

have increased to 98.79 millionkg from 89.02 million kg in thecorresponding period last year.The tea production in Assamhas increased despite the severefloods in Upper Assam, CentralAssam and Terai.

However, production inWest Bengal is esti-mated to havedropped by three percent to 46.29 mil-lion kg from 47.69million kg in thesame period last year.

As per data, there is noproduction in Darjeeling sinceJune this year due to unrestwhile it produced 1.57 millionkg of tea last year. FromDooars, only 26.88 million kgtea output is expected tillAugust as compared to 27.95million kg last year during theperiod.

In southern States, the totaltea production is estimated at

19.82 million kg till August ascompared to 18.19 million kglast year. The tea production inKarnataka has declined to 0.45million kg as against 0.56 mil-lion kg till August last year. Thedecline in tea production isattributed to uneven rainfall or

deficient rain-fall in theState. Of the26 districts, 98taluks will bed e c l a r e ddrought-hit

following the failure of south-west monsoon. The State hasreceived 774 mm of rainfall tillSeptember this year as against839 mm last year.

The production in Keralaand Tamil Nadu has estimatedto be increased this year. Thetea output in Kerala hasincreased from 5.15 million kglast year to 5.49 million kg thisyear while Tamil Nadu has also

recorded an increase of 1.39 percent this year. Tamil Nadu hasestimated 13.88 million kg thisyear as against 12.49 million kgduring the same period lastyear. On an average, the coun-try produces around 12 lakhtonnes of tea annually.

It is significant to notethat more than 80 per cent oftotal tea production is con-sumed within the country.Despite India’s large domesticconsumption base, exports playa vital role in maintaining theoverall demand-supply bal-ance in the domestic market.Assam, West Bengal, TamilNadu and Kerala are the majortea growing States. Theyaccount for 97 per cent of thetotal production. Other tradi-tional States where tea is grownto a small extent are Tripura,Himachal Pradesh,Uttarakhand, Bihar andKarnataka.

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Aday after the rulingCongress showed doors to

seven revels in HimachalPradesh, rival BJP has alsotaken the same action againstan equal number of its leaders.The action has been takenagainst seven BJP leaders, con-testing elections as an inde-pendent candidate against theofficial party candidate.

State party president,Satpal Singh Satti on Mondayordered to suspend seven rebelcandidates for the period of sixyears besides terminating theirprimary membership.

Lalit Thakur, who is in thefray against BJP candidatefrom, Bharmour, sitting MLABK Chauhan and DK Sonifrom Chamba, Baldev Thakurfrom Fatehpur, ParveenSharma from Palampur, HansRaj Dhiman from Jaswan-Pragpur and Hirdaya Ramfrom Renuka ji have beensuspended from the primarymembership of the party withimmediate effect.

BJP did not give ticket tositting MLA Govind Ramfrom Arki, Rikhi RamKaundal from Gehrawni andBK Chauhan from Chamba,however, number of formersitting MLAs were denied tick-et.

The party is facing toughchallenge in these sixAssembly segments as thecontests at these constituencieshave become triangular. BJPand Congress decided to fightelection on all the 68 seats. TheCPI (M) and its supportedcandidates were fighting elec-

tion on 31 seats. The BSP is theother party, which had put 37candidates in the electoralfray. However, the party doesnot have an impressive trackrecord in Himachal Pradesh.

The Congress hadexpelled seven rebels, who arein fray against the officialcandidates. Both BJP andCongress had tried hard toquell the dissent of these lead-

ers but despite best effortsthese leaders did not give in.

Action by both the partieshad been taken to maintaindiscipline in the party andwith 7 rebels in each party, thedamage is expected to be neu-tralised for both the rival par-ties.

13,677 Divyang voters inHimachal Pradesh

A spokesperson of theState Election Department onMonday said there were 13,677Divyang (Physically chal-lenged) voters in the State,

who would be able to exercisetheir franchise in the comingAssembly elections.

He said out of total 13,677Divyang voters, 8,555 werespecially-abled, 1,844 visuallyimpaired, 1,388 deaf anddumb and 1,890 others.

He said all arrangementshad been made to facilitate theDivyang voters at pollingbooths. The ramps would be

made at the booth for theirbenefits besides providingwheelchairs, and adult assis-tant for those voters who cannot move by themselves. Hesaid the facility of vehicle

would also be made available,wherever possible. The visuallyimpaired voters would be pro-vided the facility of brail vot-ers slip to cast their votes.

The spokesperson said

highest number of Divyangvoters were in Mandi districtwith 4,868 such voters whilethe lowest 68 voters had beenindentified in Lahaul-Spitidistrict.

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To educate the public aboutcorruption, the Punjab

Vigilance Bureau has directedits field officers to aware thepeople about the concertedefforts being made by theBureau to weed out corruptionfrom public offices during the‘Vigilance Awareness Week’being observed from October29 to November 3 in the State.

A special awareness cam-paign, launched in the State,would also inspire the officersto implement preventive mea-sures effectively so that trans-parency and accountabilitycould be maintained duringthe investigations, said thestate ADGP-cum-ChiefDirector Vigilance Bureau BKUppal.

Uppal added that basicmotto of this awareness week

was to create a corruption-freesociety under the theme of ‘myvision-corruption free India’ asconceived by the CentralVigilance Commission.

Vigilance chief furtherinformed that SSPs of variousvigilance ranges have alsoorganised functions in ruraland urban areas to sensitise thestudents and public includingvarious departments, pan-chayats, NGOs etc by involv-ing their participation in theawareness campaign againstcorruption and malpractices.

On the commencement ofvigilance awareness week, VBDirector Nageswara Raoadministered integrity pledgeto all officers and employees ofthe Bureau on Monday.

He asked the subordinatestaff to work efficiently andclear the backlog of pendingvigilance cases.

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Although the Traditionalofficial stand of the BJP is

not disclose the chief ministe-rial candidate, senior partyleaders say that if the partycomes to power, the toss upwould be between formerChief Minister Prem KumarDhumal, Union HealthMinister JP Nadda and thedark horse is RSS backed InduGoswami.

While releasing the visiondocument of the party, FinanceMinister Arun Jaitely said only“an experienced person” wouldbe made the Chief Minister”.Many see that this was perhapsa hint that Dhumal would be

the next chief minister. In BJP,he has the longest experienceas a chief minister and has thepotential of endearing theMLAs due to his flexibleapproach to the various ticklishmatters.

Another potential candi-date can be the Union HealthMinister J.P.Nadda, a confidantof Prime Minister NarendraModi. However, as Cabinetminister in the Centre, it maynot suit him to opt for the chiefministership of a small statewhich was equal to a district ofU.P., a BJP leader points out.

The name of InduGoswami, who had also beena Pracharak of the RSS is alsodoing rounds in the political

circles and BJP supporters.Her contest from Palampurconstituency is also tough asCongress candidate AshishButail, son of former SpeakerBrij Behari Lal Butail, is froma family of freedom fightersand well entrenched in theregion.

His uncle Lala Kanahia LalButail was in jail with PtJawahar Lal Nehru. During hisfirst visit to Palampur as PrimeMinister of independent Indiahe called from the stage, Whereis Kanhaya Lal and Jai Lal (who too was in the jail withNehru) Both of them wentrunning up to the stage andNehru embraced them warm-ly, old timers recall.

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Chandigarh: Condemning thebrutal murder of masterHarkirat Singh, the husband ofSAD sarpanch Manpreet Kaur,at Sangrur on Monday morn-ing, the Shiromani Akali Dal(SAD) president Sukhbir Badalsaid that vendetta killings werecontinuing unabated in Punjabdue to the failure of theCongress government to rein ingoonda elements.

“The day light murder ofHarkirat Singh occurred atBurj village in Sangrur today.This killing had occurred closeto the heels of the murderousattack on SGPC member DyalSingh Kolianwali’s sonParminder and is symptomaticof the current law and order sit-uation in the State,” saidSukhbir.

Stating that a wave of polit-ical assassinations were sweep-ing the State ever since the

Congress government cameinto being, Sukhbir said thatthis had deeply affected themorale of the people whoexpected the government toprotect their life and libertyinstead of acting as a govern-ment for Congressmen only.

Meanwhile, former minis-ter Daljit Singh Cheema saidthat according to informationrelayed by former MLA IqbalSingh Jhundan, who had visit-ed the Sangrur civil hospital,Harkirat’s daughter also metwith an accident while travel-ling to the hospital after learn-ing of her father’s murder.

Cheema said the partywould provide all needed assis-tance to the family. He addedthat he had also spoken to theSangrur district police chiefand asked him to catch the cul-prits behind Harkirat’s murderimmediately. PNS

Chandigarh: Punjab ChiefMinister Capt AmarinderSingh on Monday dismissed aPCS officer who was convict-ed and sentenced to rigorousimprisonment by a court lastmonth in a 2010 bribery case.

Punjab Civil Service (PCS)officer T K Goyal has been dis-missed from service underArticle 311 of the Civil ServiceRules, a spokesman of theChief Minister’s Office (CMO)said here.

The officer was sentencedto three years of rigorousimprisonment in the briberycase which was reported whenhe was the joint secretary in theScheduled Castes andBackward Classes (SC/BC)Welfare Department, he said.

Goyal was arrested onSeptember 8, 2010, from hisoffice at the Chandigarh CivilSecretariat on a complaint by

George Shambu of Begowal vil-lage in Kapurthala district, thespokesman said. He was caughtaccepting �50,000 as bribe forissuing a SC certificate.

The 1995 batch officer wasposted as project director,Rashtriya Uchchatar ShikshaAbhiyan (RUSA), and holdingthe additional charge as jointsecretary, Higher EducationDepartment, he said.

The Chief Minister, whohas taken a stern stand againstcorruption, and has promiseda clean and transparent gov-ernment, has made it clearthat there was no place in hisadministration for those foundindulging in corrupt practices,the spokesman said.Amarinder Singh has directedstrict adherence to the law in allmatters. Any violation of thisdirective would be dealt withan iron hand, he said. PNS

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Chiding the PunjabCongress chief Sunil Jakhar

for talking out of his hat tocover up the PunjabGovernment’s failure to keeppower tariff under control, theShiromani Akali Dal (SAD)president Sukhbir Badal onMonday said he should knowthat all power purchase agree-ments (PPAs) were signed as perthe guidelines issued by the thenCongress-led UPAGovernment.

“It seemed as if Jakhar isdeliberately misleading the peo-ple by not telling them that thePPAs were signed with privateparties based on a competitivebidding process as per biddingguidelines issued by the UnionMinistry of Power,” said Sukhbir.

He said the draft guidelines,which were circulated by theUnion Power Ministry to States,were adopted as such by theSAD-BJP Government. “PPAwas signed after an internationalbid which led to top companieslike Larsen and Toubro andVedanta bagging the presti-gious projects. PPAs of boththese companies were the low-est in the country as of then,” he

said. On tripartite MoU between

the BJP-led Union Ministryand the PSPCL, Sukhbir saideven on this issue, Jakhar hadconcealed the truth from thepeople. “The fact of the matteris that PSPCL was saddled withloans with high rate of interestas per the prevailing rates. TheCentre proposed swappingthese loans with loans at sub-stantially low rate of interestunder UDAY (Ujwal DiscomAssurance Yojana) whichinvolved implementing somereforms which were also suc-cessfully implemented byPSPCL. All this has resulted insavings of hundreds of crores forPSPCL,” added Sukhbir.

Asking the CongressGovernment why it had failedto control the price of power ashad been successfully done bythe SAD-BJP Government, hesaid: “Today, the Government istaking advantage of surpluspower by offering the same tothe industrial sector at the rateof Rs 5 per unit.”

Stating that Jakhar shouldhave also listed the achieve-ments of the previous Congressgovernment on the power front,he said that during 2002-07 not

a single unit of power wasadded in Punjab.

“Before the SAD-BJPGovernment took up the reinsof the State, Punjab was apower deficit State with a pro-duction of 6,200 MW. Weadded an additional 5,600 MWat a capital investment of�30,000 crore. All this was pos-sible due to the special focus onmaking Punjab power surplus.Simultaneously, during thisperiod, PSPCL was awarded thedistinction of being the best dis-tribution utility in the country,”pointed Sukhbir.

Telling the PPCC chief thatit was he who was suffering fromselective amnesia, Sukhbir saidthat Jakhar also forgot to mentionthat PEDA had been declaredone of the best performing statenodal agencies under the energyconservation programme during2012 and 2013 by the UnionMinistry of Power.

“Competitive and trans-parent bidding had resulted inhuge interest in solar powerprojects in Punjab and that theState had achieved unique dis-tinction of reducing its powerbuy back rates in successivePPAs which was on record,” headded.

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Bollywood producer-cum-director, Subhash Ghai has

said that Haryana Governmentshould provide financial sup-port for the promotion ofHaryanvi cinema.

“When Marathi cinemacould reach from eight to 125movies in few years, Haryanatoo has great potential andHaryanvi cinema could also betaken to a new level,” saidGhai while talking to the medi-apersons before attending clos-ing ceremony of the AkhilBhartiya Kala Sadhak Sangam-2017 in Kurukshetra onMonday.

He said that in order topromote art and culture in thestate, a special campaign of cul-tural programmes should beorganized on Saturdays andSundays in schools for thebenefit of youth.

Not only this, one class ofart and culture should be heldin every school from primaryeducation on the pattern ofUSA. Initiative should be

taken in Kurukshetra by dis-cussing the issue with MLASubhash Sudha, said he.

Ghai said, “I have nurseda dream to make a film onLord Krishna for 35 longyears and would definitelyrealize it one day. MLASubhash Sudha has assuredme that art and culturalawareness would be generat-ed among the students inschools of Thanesar Assemblyconstituency.”

The State Government ismaking efforts to developKurukshetra as a cultural cap-ital. Work on schemes like ShriKrishna Circuit is being doneto bring Kurukshetra on theworld map, he added whilelauding the initiatives.

Ghai further said that newIndia can emerge only bydoing research on ancient his-tory and culture.

For this, the common manwould have to understand theimportance of art and culturethe development of whichrequires spiritual and artisticeducation, added he.

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Haryana Government hasinvited applications for

the post of chairperson and twomembers of Haryana HumanRights Commission under theProtection Act, 1993.

The chairperson of theHaryana Human RightsCommission (HHRC) wouldbe a retired Chief Justice of aHigh Court, said a spokesmanof the Home Department.

He said that the term of thechairperson would be five yearsor upto the age of 70 yearswhichever is earlier. The salary

and allowances would be equalto Chief Justice of Punjab andHaryana High Court, he added.

The spokesman said that amember of the HHRC wouldbe a retired Judge of HighCourt or District Judge in thestate with a minimum ofseven years experience asDistrict Judge and othermember having knowledge,or practical experience inmatter relating to humanright.

The term of the memberwould be five years or uptothe age of 70 years whichev-er is earlier and salary and

allowances would be equal toa Judge of Punjab andHaryana High Court, said he.

He said that those willingcould send their applications tothe Additional Chief Secretary,Home alongwith full bio-datawithin a month. The notice isalso available on the webiste ofHaryana Home Department,added he.

Notably, the Punjab andHaryana High Court hadrecently raised questions overappointments in the HHRCand asked the StateGovernment to submit a reporton the matter.

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Haryana Chief MinisterManohar Lal on Monday

said Manesar-Palwal stretch ofthe Kundli-Manesar-Palwalexpressway had been complet-ed and the remaining Kundli-Manesar section was likely tobe completed by the end of thisyear.

The work of Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP)expressway could have beencompleted much earlier, butdue to the obstacles created bythe previous government, thematter was referred to theSupreme Court. The presentState Government has ensuredan early hearing on the issue inthe Apex Court, said the ChiefMinister while talking to themediapersons at Jhajjar.

He said after the comple-tion of KMP expressway, thevehicles going from northernIndia to western and southernpart of the country would beable to pass through withoutentering into Delhi. Besides,the pollution level in Delhiwould also be considerablyreduced, said he.

Manohar Lal said specialemphasis would be given onindustrial development on anarea of two kms each on bothsides of the expressway so thatKMP could become a carrier ofeconomic progress of the State.

He said that this is his thirdvisit to district Jhajjar. Duringthe last two years, he has visit-ed all the 90 assembly con-stituencies of the state, wherehe addressed several publicmeetings and also listened to

the grievances of the people,said he.

This is the first time whenany Chief Minister has visited allthe assembly segments withoutany discrimination, added he.

The Chief Minister furthersaid that he has decided tospend two days in each districtheadquarter where he wouldalso stay during the night.During his visit, he would notonly participate in different pro-grammes, but also get to knowabout the requirements andproblems of the area, he said.

So far, he has covered 16

districts under this programme,whereas six districts would becovered in the month ofNovember and December,Manohar Lal said.

He also said that the pre-sent state government hascompleted its three years onOctober 26 this year. This isalso the swarna jayanti year ofthe state, which would con-clude on October 31.

He said that the VicePresident Venkaiah Naiduwould be the chief guest in theconcluding function of theswarna jayanti celebrations tobe organised in Hisar onTuesday. The two eventsincluding the swarna jayanti

Khel Mahakumbh and run forunity on the birth anniversaryof Sardar Vallabhbhai Patelwould be the key feature of theprogramme, added he.

Manohar Lal further saidthat during his 2-day visit toJhajjar, he participated in thePashudhan Mela. It was a fairof international repute whichsaw the participation of largenumber of cattle rearers.Various competitions wereorganised during the Mela inwhich the hybrid cattle yield-ing more milk as well as theirowners have been honoured.

The main aim of organis-ing such fair was to createawareness among the cattlerearers so that they could rearcattle of good breed and getbenefitted, he added.

The Chief Minister also lis-tened to the grievances ofabout 200 people in the JantaDarbar organized during hisstay in Jhajjar and directed theofficers to redress the same onpriority basis.

Apart from this, ManoharLal presided over a meeting ofparty workers to get feedbackabout various programmesbeing run by the StateGovernment and also, reviewedthe Chief Ministers’ announce-ments and other developmentworks of the district.

He said that out of the 146announcements made for thedistrict, 54 are pending, where-as the remaining are eithercompleted or in progress. Later,he also inspected the CancerHospital being constructed invillage Badhsa and Badlibypass.

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Haryana Government hasdirected all departments,

boards and corporations tostrictly comply with the guide-lines to stop collusion or bidrigging by the firms in vari-ous tendering processes.

“ The Competit ionCommission of India, duringan “Interactive meetingtowards Institutionalizationof the Mechanism forEstablishing CompetitionCulture in Policy Making andGovernance” held recentlyhas mentioned some warningsigns of collusion or bid rig-ging by the firms in varioustendering processes,” said aspokesman of Har yanaSupplies and DisposalsDepartment.

He said that these signsincluded the same supplier isoften the lowest bidder, thereis a geographic allocation ofwinning tenders, bids fromdifferent companies containsimilar handwriting or type-face or use identical forms orstationery, the bid is comingfrom same IP and in case ofonline bidding, certain com-

panies always submit bidsbut never win, sudden andidentical increase in price orprice ranges by bidders thatcannot be explained by costincreases and two or morebusinesses submit a joint bideven though at least one ofthem could have bid on itsown.

He said that it has beendirected that in case such ascenario is observed, action asprovided in the rules that isforfeiture of Earnest MoneyDeposit (EMD) or blacklist-ing of firms as provided inDetailed Notice InvitingTender (DNIT) may be takenagainst the concerned firm. Incase the quantum of collusionof bid rigging is of substantialnature, petition may be filedunder Section 19 (1) (b) of theCompetition Act, 2002 orother relevant sections beforeCompetition Commission ofIndia.

All the Heads of theDepartments, ManagingDirectors , ChiefAdministrators of the Boardsand Corporat ions,Universities in the state andall Deputy Commissioners

have been directed to ensurethe strict compliance of theseinstructions, said thespokesman.

He further said that theState Government had decid-ed to implement e-procure-ment system through singleweb portal for the entire statewith the objective of unifor-mity of processes, trans-parency and efficiency.

It has been decided thatwhile submitting a changerequest, a time of alteast twoto three months may be givento the Nodal Department forany change request imple-mentation before it is finallyput in the operation since var-ious test plans covering testcases, test results, preparingtest data and carry out nec-essary acceptance test corre-lating to functional require-ments are required to beensured.

The modalities regardingimplementation of changerequests on single e-Procurement Portal wasunder the consideration ofthis of f ice as a NodalDepartment, he added.

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Punjab Chief MinisterCaptain Amarinder Singh

on Monday sought UnionExternal Affairs MinisterSushma Swaraj’s urgent inter-vention to help a mother-daughter duo reported to be indeep trouble in Saudi Arabia.

Capt Amarinder, in a tweetto the Minister, said: “ThisMother-daughter duo fromNawanshahr are in trouble inSaudi Arabia. Request yoururgent help.”

The tweet came inresponse to a media reportreferring to a video put up onsocial media by Gurbaksh Kaurof Nawanshahr, saying thatshe and her daughter, Reena,had been sent by their travelagent to Saudi Arabia for workand were now facing extremedifficulties and needed help.

While she herself had beensacked from her job, Reena hadbeen framed in a false case andhanded over to the police, whowere not divulging any infor-mation on her whereabouts,Gurbaksh is reported to havesaid in the video, appealing toSushma Swaraj for help insecuring their safe return home.

According to the mediareport, the couple had plannedto go to Malaysia but the trav-el agent, whom they hadapproached, had fraudulentlysent them to Saudi Arabia andwas now demanding moremoney to bring them back. Apolice case has been registeredon the complaint of Gurbaksh’shusband Gurmel.

Expressing concern overthe incident, which follows aspare of other similar casesinvolving unscrupulous travelagents, the Chief Minister hasdirected district authoritiesacross the state to crack downon such agents to check theincidence of such cases.

He has also warned ofstringent action against policepersonnel refusing to file acomplaint in any such case.

Meanwhile, the ChiefMinister has asked PunjabDirector General of Police(DGP) to find out why there wasdelay in registering a case on thecomplaint filed by Gurbaksh’sfamily. He has directed the DGPto expedite the investigationsinto the case and ensure that theguilty are booked.

According to reports,Gurbaksh’s family had com-plained against the travel agentsresponsible for duping themabout 10 days ago, but the policefiled the case only yesterday afterthe video went viral.

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The Manohar Lal KhattarGovernment has directed

the top brass of Haryanabureaucracy to attend the clos-ing ceremony of Swarna JayantiMahotsav to be held at Hissaron Tuesday.

The BJP-led HaryanaGovernment has issued thisdirective asking all adminis-trative secretaries and Heads ofDepartments in Haryana toremain present at the event tobe attended by Vice PresidentVenkaiah Naidu as a chiefguest.

The closing ceremony ofHaryana Swarna Jayanti cele-brations and Khel Mahakumbhscheduled to begin at 11 am inMahavir Stadium, Hisar, will bepresided over by GovernorKaptan Singh Solanki. Apartfrom Chief Minister ManoharLal and his cabinet colleagues,senior BJP leaders fromHaryana will also attend themega event.

The maiden BJP-ledHaryana Government, whichhas completed its three yearsterm in office on October 26,will highlight its major achieve-ments at the mega event.Besides making a series ofannouncements at the func-tion, the Chief Minister will listout the achievements of hisGovernment during the last

three years.In the order issued by

Chief Secretary DS Dhesi’soffice, it has been clearly men-tioned that all senior officersshould be present on this his-toric occasion.

It stated, “The State ofHaryana is celebrating 50 yearsof its formation and during thelast one year, various func-tions have been organised in theState to instill a sense of pridein the general public. As you areaware that the closing ceremo-ny of the year-long celebrations

will be held on October 31 atHisar and Venkaiah Naidu willgrace the occasion.”

“The State Governmenthas decided that it will be in thefitness of things that all seniorofficers should be present onthis historic occasion. You aredirected to attend the function,”stated the CS order addressedto Administrative Secretariesand HoDs in Haryana.

With such directions, theroutine work like public deal-ing is likely to be pushed to thebackseat as the senior officers

of Haryana will remain busy forthe entire day at the event onTuesday. This is not the firsttime that the BJP Governmenthas asked the bureaucrats toturn up for an event.

Last year, the Governmenthad directed all the senior offi-cers to turn up at the yoga camporganised in June at Panchkula.The camp with State brandambassador and Yoga GuruRamdev was held in the run-upto International Yoga Day cel-ebrations in Chandigarh.

At that time, these direc-

tions had snowballed into apolitical controversy with theopposition parties accusing theruling BJP of diverting publicattention from real issues byorganising such events whilefew bureaucrats had termed itas a move to reduce them as“RSS stooges”. Later, theHaryana Government had alsoasked the bureaucrats to par-ticipate in International YogaDay celebration held on June 21last year at Chandigarh in thepresence of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi.

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Haryana Government hasgeared up for a grand

closing ceremony of the year-long golden jubilee celebrationsof the State at Mahabir Stadiumin Hisar on Tuesday.

The stadium witnessedhectic activity on Monday asworkers raced against time tocomplete the infrastructuralworks and hundreds of partic-ipants presented a full dressrehearsal of various eventsplanned for the day. ChiefMinister Manohar Lal himselfreviewed the arrangements inthe evening.

The stadium is expected tobe packed to capacity for themega event. Vice PresidentVenkaiah Naidu, the chief guestat the closing ceremony,accompanied by HaryanaGovernor Kaptan SinghSolanki and the Chief Minister,will join the people at thefunction which include danceperformances, march by brassbands, a drill by women guardsof the Border Security Force(BSF), bike stunts, a parade bytraditional Haryanvi musicians,and a dance medley by college

and university students.The main attraction of the

programme would be a per-formance by Bollywood singerSonu Nigam, a Haryana native,who will present a bouquet ofhis choicest songs. Bollywoodactor Randeep Hooda, anoth-er Haryana native, who was atthe venue on Monday, will bethe host during the pro-gramme.

Since the day will coincidewith National Ekta Diwas,which commemorates the birthanniversary of the Iron Man ofIndia Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel,an ekta pledge will be taken bythe gathering at the event.

Among other items on theagenda are dance performanceson the theme “VandeMataram” and “Mera Haryana”,a film on the year-long goldenjubilee celebrations, armedpolice and police march pastand a talk by media baronSubhash Chandra.

“In Haryana, the year-longcelebrations have witnessed aflurry of impressive grassrootslevel activities, touching thelives of the common manacross the length and breadthof the state, in every conceiv-

able field, including art andculture, music, dance, litera-ture, entertainment, agricul-ture, science, industry, sports,governance, etc,” said an offi-cial spokesman of HaryanaGovernment.

He said that beginningwith a power-packed openingceremony at Gurugram onNovember 1, 2016, which wasgraced by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, the next 12months witnessed events, thescale and size of which werenever witnessed before in thestate. Enthusiastic participationby the masses marked all theevents, said he.

These events included anational youth festival, Pt.Deen Dayal UpadhyayKabbadi Championship, BharatKesari Dangal, Saang Utsav,Raagni Utsav, Natya Kala Utsav,Kahaniyon Ka Bal Rangmanch,Mushairas, Haryana SahityaSangam, Haryana MSMESammelan, Haryana ParvasiDivas among others, added he.

Haryana state was formedon 1 November 1966. Thestate was carved out of the for-mer state of East Punjab on lin-guistic basis.

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To set in motion the processof setting up a Sports

University in Patiala, PunjabChief Minister Capt AmarinderSingh on Monday constituteda steering committee headed byOlympian Randhir Singh.

The Committee has beenset up under the aegis of theSports and Youth AffairsDepartment to work out themodalities for setting up theproposed university, said anofficial spokesperson.

The panel has been man-dated to study the existingnational and internationalmodels of Sports Universitiesand accordingly prepare a draftlegislation to be presented tothe Government.

The Committee will alsoidentify suitable land andbuildings for the university inand around Patiala, includingpremises for its transit campusand to suggest a staff structureto incubate the university.

The University, to be set upin pursuance of the Chief

Minister’s announcement inthe Vidhan Sabha, in June thisyear, will promote sports edu-cation and training in the state,which has given several topsportspersons to the countryover the years. BesidesInternational Olympic

Committee (IOC) memberRandhir Singh, the committeeincludes Olympian and MLAPargat Singh, along with formerVice-Chancellor of LakshmibaiNational University of PhysicalEducation (LNIPE), Gwalior, JSNarula, and former Vice-Chancellor of Rajasthan SportsUniversity Dr LS Ranawat.

Capt Amarinder has alsoasked Chief Secretary KaranAvtar Singh to take suitableaction in this regard and mon-itor the progress of the projecton regular basis.

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Punjab is expecting to pro-cure a record 182 lakh

tonnes of paddy during theongoing Kharif marketing sea-son.

“Last year, we procured168 lakh tonnes of paddy. Thisyear, we are targeting 182 lakhtonnes and we might cross thisfigure,” Punjab Food secretaryKAP Sinha saidon Monday.

Addressing a Press confer-ence, he said it was going to bean all-time high paddy pur-chase in the state. In the ongo-ing Kharif marketing season,the government agencies pro-cured bulk of the paddy crop.

So far, a total of 123.98 lakhtonnes of paddy has been pur-chased in the state. Of which,2.26 lakh tonnes has beenbought by private millers, saidSinha. “This time because ofgood weather, crop being freefrom any kind of problemsassociated with it, the quality isso good. Nowhere we havecome across any problem

where somebody has said pro-curement is not being done,”said Sinha.

“We are ensuring paymentto farmers within 24 hourswhile within 72 hours, the lift-ing is being done,” he said whiledescribing the paddy procure-ment for the central pool as“massive economic exercise”being conducted smoothly inthe state.

He said 7.79 lakh farmersare getting benefit from thepurchase of crop at MSP.

Talking about cash creditlimit, Sinha said the state gov-ernment had proposed a sumof �33,800 crore for the pur-chase of paddy during the cur-rent Kharif marketing season.

“We have got �28,000 croresanctioned and of which�16,000 crore has beenexhausted. The CCL (cashcredit limit) is valid till October31 and we have already sub-mitted a proposal with thegovernment of India and RBIfor authoristaion of its renew-al,” he said.

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Hundreds of farmers underthe banner of the Akhila

Bharat Krushak SangathanSamannwaya Samiti and theAll India Kishan SangharshCoordination Committee(AIKSCC), Odisha chapter, tookto the streets here on Mondayraising various issues concern-ing farmers’ community in theState and the country. Farmers

from various districts acrossthe State staged a ‘KrushakAdhikar Chetabani Samavesh’holding banners and shoutingslogans against Government’sapathy towards the community.

A team of representativesfrom the neighbouring State ofWest Bengal and the SarbaBharatiya Kishan SangharshJatha (Jatra) also joined the stir.

Environmentalist andfarmer leader PrafullaSamantray joined the protestand termed both the StateGovernment and the Centre asanti-farmer. He alleged that theState Government is yet to give

bonus to the farmers and urgedthe Centre to increase the paddyMSP to �2,930 per quintal.

Similarly, the Centre hikedthe paddy MSP by a mere �80when the Prime Minister hadearlier promised to double theprice. Besides, no steps havebeen taken to waive farm loans,he added.

Jai Kisan Andolan founder

Yogendra Yadav said if ChiefMinister Naveen Patnaik is notable to solve the problems offarmers at least he should acceptthe farmer’s suicide in the State.Till date the country had anumber of Prime Ministers butnone of them is anti-farmer likePrime Minister Narendra Modi,he added. Members of the var-ious national organisatonsalleged that farmers are not thegetting remunerative prices oftheir produces. They mentionedthat due to the burden of agri-cultural loan, as many as 36,000farmers have committed suicideduring the three-year tenure of

the Modi Government.They said many companies

have looted about �21,500 croreas premium from the State andCentral Governments underthe Pradhan Mantri Fasal BimaYojana.

They said that the country’s121 crore people are dependentupon the farmers, but the farm-ers are most neglected.

They demanded that theState and Central Governmentfree farmers from the dept trap,to provide profitable MSP for allagricultural produces as per theSwaminathan Commission rec-ommendation, provide land to

landless, concede forest rights tothe tribals and forest dwellersand provide �5,000 monthlypension to all farmers.

AIKSCC convenor VMSingh, All India Kisan Sabhageneral secretary HannanMollah, Kisan Sangharsh Samiti,Madhya Pradesh president DrSunilam, Odisha KrushakSabha’s (OKS) Suresh Panigrahi,All India Kishan Mahasabha’s(AIKM) Ashok Pradhan, AllIndia Kishan Majdoor Sabha’s(AIKMS) Bhalachandra Sarangiand others spoke on the anti-farmer policies of the State andCentral Governments.

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The Kunduli gangrape sur-vivor, who had been admit-

ted to the Jeypore Sub-Divisional Hospital in Koraputdistrict, was discharged onMonday.

The 14-year-old tribal girlhad been admitted to the hos-pital after she complained ofstomach pain just a day aftershe was discharged from theSahid Laxman Nayak MedicalCollege Hospital in the district.

Though she expressed herwish to go to her village, it wasdue to the reluctance of herfamily members to take herhome that she was handedover to the District Child

Welfare Committee (CWC)soon after her discharge fromthe hospital on Monday. Shewould be lodged in a shortstay home, official sourcessaid.

The sources added thatthe girl was not taken to her vil-lage due to security reasons.

Notably, after the gangrapesurvivor had been dischargedfrom the Sahid Laxman NayakMedical College Hospital onFriday last, she deposed beforethe Koraput Judicial MagistrateFirst Class (JMFC) Court thesame day to record her state-ment under Section 164 of theCrPC. She was then sent to aremand home as she refused togo back to her village demand-ing immediate arrest of theaccused of her gangrape.

The Class IX studentalleged she had been gan-graped at gunpoint by fourparamilitary personnel insidethe Lanjiguda forest onOctober 10 when she was onher way home.

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From Page 1US courts and it has been

accepted by the Madras and theKerala High Courts.

Senior Advocate ShyamDivan, appearing for the fatherof the woman, submitted thatthere was a well-oiled organi-sational apparatus operatingfor carrying out such activities.

The lawyer claimed saidthat Shafin Jahan, the allegedhusband of the woman, was aradicalised man and he has hadlinks with the person whoused to recruit for ISIS.

“There are exchanges withthat person on Facebook andWhatsapp. Kerala has a hugecontingent of people who havejoined ISIS. This is not a prob-lem in Kerala but in other juris-dictions as well,” he said.

“It (Kerala High Court)was not merely exercisingjurisdiction under Article 226

but the frame of the petitionwas that there is an organisa-tional apparatus operating. Itconsists of PFI and such organ-isations. They have students,preachers, psychologists etcand they radicalise impres-sionable minds. The questionis do courts respond to suchradicalisation or do theyremain silent?” Divan said.

A single case of this naturecannot “destroy the essentiali-ty” of law, the Bench observed.

Akhila had converted toIslam in 2015 and assumed thename of Hadia when she wasa student of homeopathy med-icine in Tamil Nadu and mar-ried Shaffin Jahan on December19, 2016. The Kerala HighCourt had through an order,described by many as extraor-dinary, annulled this marriageon May 25 last and entrustedher custody to her father.

From Page 1of defence equipment other

than small arms,” said the MHAin a statement. According to thenew liberalised Arms(Amendment) Rules, 2017 thenew life time licenses will beissued to all existing and newcompanies, said an MHA offi-cial. “Further, enhancement ofcapacity up to 15 per cent of thequantity approved under licensewill not require any furtherapproval by the Government.The manufacturer will berequired to give only prior inti-mation to the licensing author-ity in this regard,” said theMHA statement

The license fee for the unitshas also been decreased in thenew liberalised rules. Earlier thelicense fee was Rs. 500 perfirearm which added up tovery large sums and was adeterrent to seeking manufac-turing licenses. The license feewill now range from Rs 5,000 tothe maximum of Rs 50,000. Thefee for manufacturing licenseshall be payable at the time ofgrant of license rather than atthe time of application. The newnorms also envisage single man-ufacturing licence for a multi-unit facility within the sameState or in different States with-in the country.

From Page 1while the world’s longest

tunnel is the 137-km mainwater supply pipe beneath thecity of New York.

India, a riparian state, hasalready flagged its concerns toBeijing about various damsbeing built by it onBrahmaputra river, which isknown as Yarlung Tsangpo inChina.

Beijing has been assuringIndia and Bangladesh, which isalso a recipient of the watersfrom the river, that its damswere of the run of river projectsand not designed to storingwater.

Wang Wei, a researcherwho helped draft the latestTibet-Xinjiang water tunnelproposal, which was submittedto the Central Government inMarch, said more than 100 sci-entists formed different teamsfor the nationwide researcheffort.

He was part of the teamwhich was led by China’s toptunnelling expert, WangMengshu.

The team, according tothe report suggested to drainBrahmaputra at Sangri countyin southern Tibet, close toArunachal Pradesh.

“Sangri county featured alarge, relatively flat valley thatwas ideal for the engineeringproject. An artificial islandwould be built in the middle ofthe river to create rapid turbu-lence, which could filter outsediment, and direct water toa well. The well could controlthe amount of water flowinginto the tunnel,” the report said.

The Chinese Governmentstarted building a tunnel in thecentre of Yunnan province inAugust that will be more than600-km long.

Researchers said buildingthe Yunnan tunnel would be a“rehearsal” of the new tech-nology, engineering methodsand equipment needed for the

Tibet-Xinjiang tunnel, whichwould divert the Brahmaputrariver to the Taklimakan Desertin Xinjiang, it said.

Chinese engineers say theTibetan Plateau, often referredto as “the roof of the world”,stops the monsoon fromIndian Ocean reachingXinjiang leaving the GobiDesert in the north and theTaklimakan Desert in thesouth unsuitable for humansettlement.

In recent decades, ChineseGovernment departments,including the Ministry ofWater Resources, have comeup with engineering blueprintsinvolving huge dams, pumpsand tunnels, the report said.

The project’s enormouscost, engineering challenges,possible environmental impactand the likelihood of protestsby neighbouring countrieshave meant it has never left thedrawing board.

But Zhang Chuanqing, aresearcher at the ChineseAcademy of Sciences’ Instituteof Rock and Soil Mechanics inWuhan, Hubei province, saidChina was now taking a quiet,step-by- step approach to bringit to life.

“The water diversion pro-ject in central Yunnan is ademonstration project,” saidZhang, who has played a keyrole in many major Chinesewater tunnel projects, includ-ing the one in Yunnan.

“It is to show we have thebrains, muscle and tools tobuild super-long tunnels inhazardous terrains, and thecost does not break the bank,”he was quoted as saying by thePost.

The construction of thetunnel on the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, the country’ssecond-highest, would makepolitical leaders more confi-dent about the Tibet-Xinjiangproject and more likely toapprove it, he said. PTI

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Officers of several depart-ment of the state pledged

to refrain from taking or givingbribes on Monday, the first dayof the vigilance public aware-ness week being hosted by theState Vigilance Department atits headquarters in Dehradun.Director of vigilance head-quarters Ram Singh Meenasaid soon after the awarenessweek was launched that sever-al programmes are lined up thisweek across the state whichwould help build a robust pub-lic opinion against taking andgiving bribes for governmentworks to be done. “Public par-ticipation is necessary to weedout corruption from the state,”he said, adding that the peoplewho encounter governmentofficials asking for bribes mustinform the department prompt-ly to help us bring them tobook. Besides, they shouldprovide us information of theofficers found possessing assetsdisproportionate to their dis-closed sources of income. Theyare free to individuallyapproach the department offi-cials, seeking action againstany government officer oremployee, irrespective of status,

who are found indulging in cor-ruption in the form of demand-ing bribes,” Meena said whilereiterating his department’sresolve mete out deterrent pun-ishment to those indulging inthe bribe culture.

Meena said that to checkcorruption, a toll free number– 1800-180-6666- has been putinto place and it is available forthe people round the clock.“People can also register com-plaints on What’s App number-9456592300. Apart from this,they can register reports on thefollowing numbers- vigilancedirectorate -0135-2520321, SPvigilance sector Dehradun -0135-2725424, 9456591894 andSP vigilance sector Haldwani(Nainital)-05946-246372,9411112761,” he added.

He further informed thata seminar on ‘prevention of cor-ruption’ would be held atONGC premises onTuesdayfrom where the peoplewould be appealed to co-oper-ate with the Government to freethe State from corruption. Thiswould be followed by a stringof programmes across the stateto mark the week, he informed

On November 1, a schoolrally involving students wouldbe held.

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The cycling expedition ofIndian Navy in higher

reaches of Garhwal Himalayasis evoking good responseamong the local population.

Apart from creating newroutes for adventure tourismand promote home stay schemethe expedition also aims toinform local youths aboutemployment opportunities theIndian Navy offers to them.

The expedition was flaggedoff by the Commandant ofIndo Tibetan Border Police(ITBP), Auli GS Chauhan atAuli on October 25.

The cycling team consistingof Commander Guru PratapSingh, Commader RahulMehta, Commander AnilMukkandan, SergeantCommander Santosh Kumar.

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Transgenders will now havethe option of identifying

themselves as the third genderwith the Indian Railways mod-ifying reservation forms toprovide the option ‘T’ or trans-gender in railway ticketsbesides ‘M’ (Male) and ‘F’(Female).

The Railway Board in a let-ter to all zonal railways has saidthat ticket booking and can-cellation forms will be modifiedfrom the current option of‘Transgender (Male/Female)’to just ‘T’.

According to the letter, thesocial justice and empower-ment ministry is at presentdealing with various issues oftransgenders and a proposedlegislation on this —TheTransgender Persons(Protection of Rights) Bill,

2016, is being reviewed by aparliamentary standing com-mittee.

“The matter has beenreviewed and it has been decid-ed that till such time thedetailed modalities on thisaccount are finalised by theMinistry of Social Justice, aprovision may be made in thesystem to capture the gender of transgender as ‘T’instead of ‘T(M/F)’ as advisedearlier,” according to theOctober 17 letter.

In a landmark judgementin 2014, the Supreme Courtcreated the ‘third gender’ sta-tus for hijras or transgenders.Earlier, they had to write maleor female in gender column.Following the order, manyGovernment documents such as passport, ration card,bank forms and voter identitycards have started providing

‘TG’ (third gender), ‘Other’ or‘T’ (transgender) as options.

The railways introducedthe option as ‘T(M/F)’ throughan order in 2016 which,activists said, still forced them to choose between thebinary genders — male orfemale.

The Railway Board said inits review it had also taken intoconsideration directions of theKolkata High Court which hadasked State Bank of India toallow the choice of third gen-der in its application forms forrecruiting new employees.

This case pertains to a casefiled by Atri Kar, the firsttransgender from West Bengalto appear for the civil servicesexam, who sought the court’sintervention to enforce herright to participate in the selection process of SBI as atransgender.

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As the Government gears upto observe the first note-ban

anniversary, the Congress onMonday sharpened its attack onPrime Minister Narendra Modiafter its top brass huddled for twoseparate meetings on demon-etisation and Goods Services Tax(GST).

Congress vice-presidentRahul Gandhi hit out at Modisaying he had destroyed thecountry’s economy with two“torpedoes” — note ban andGST. Rahul wondered why theGovernment was “celebrating”the first anniversary. TheCongress along with otherOpposition parties will observeNovember 8 as ‘black day’.

While Rahul’s first meetingdiscussed the plans of the partyto be joined by other oppositionparties to observe November 8

as ‘Black Day’, the second delib-erated upon GST implementa-tion. The second meet wasattended by ex-PM ManmohanSingh and former FinanceMinister P Chidambaram.

In its reaction BJP said theCongress’ opposition to demon-etisation was understandable as“corrupt policies” of its govern-ment militated against a trans-parent economy now being pur-sued by the Modi dispensation.

“Narendra Modi had failedto understand the pain of thepeople. The economy was in tat-ters now,” Rahul said briefing themedia. He said while the econ-omy was able to withstand the“torpedo” of note ban, it couldnot withstand the one of GST.

“The PM is not able to un-derstand the feeling of the peo-ple and the hurt and sadness the-se two decisions have caused,” hetold reporters after holding two

meetings of top Congress lead-ers on demonetisation and GST.

Congress chief spokespersonRandeep Surjewala said thatdemonetisation was the biggestscam of the century which is a‘Modi-made Disaster’ as thedouble whammy of DeMo &GST has crushed businesses andsimultaneously wiped out jobs.

“This is a government drunkwith power and blinded by arro-gance that has the audacity to cel-ebrate the ‘Surgical Strike’ onIndia’s Economy. People willnever pardon BJP. PM NarendraModi will go down in India’s his-tory alongside Muhammad BinTughlak for the gross misadven-ture of demonetisation that wre-aked havoc with India’s econo-my. No wonder that former PMManmohan Singh has called it‘organised loot and legalisedplunder’,” Surjewala stated in astatement.

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India and Italy on Mondayresolved to fight terrorism

and violent extremism in alltheir forms and manifesta-tions, as they strongly pitchedfor strengthening internation-al partnership and concertedaction in addressing the men-ace of terrorism.

Prime Minister NarendraModi and his Italian counter-part Paolo Gentiloni, who heldwide-ranging talks, also empha-sised on the need for effectiveimplementation of existinginternational commitments oncountering terrorism, includingthe UN Global CounteringTerrorism Strategy, UNSC res-olutions and targeted sanctionsrelating to terrorism.

“In this context, the lead-ers also called upon all UNmember countries to designateterrorist entities in line with therelevant UNSC Resolutions,”

said a joint statement issuedafter the talks.

The statement comesamidst indications that Chinawill again block at the UN,efforts to list JeM chief andPathankot mastermindMasood Azhar as a global ter-rorist.

While responding to aquery on the Azhar issue,Chinese foreign ministry hassaid that “as for listing appli-cation by the relevant country,there are disagreements”.

China is expected to blockthe move to ban Azhar againwhen the 1267 Committee ofthe UNSC takes up the issue onThursday, the day the currenthold on the proposal, piloted bythe US, the UK and France, isexpiring.

Modi and Gentiloni alsocondemned in the strongestpossible terms the recent terrorattacks in India, Europe andelsewhere and emphasised on

the need for strengtheninginternational partnership andconcerted action by the inter-national community inaddressing the menace of ter-rorism.

“In addition to bilateralissues, we also exchanged viewson regional and global issues.

In today’s world, we face newchallenges and threats everyday. We discussed in detailsome of the emerging securitychallenges facing the world,”Modi said at a joint press eventwith Gentiloni.

We are both committed tofighting terrorism in all its forms,

and to strengthen our coopera-tion in cyber security,” he said.

They also called on allcountries to work towards root-ing out terrorist safe havens,their infrastructure and net-works and halting cross-bordermovement of terrorists, thejoint statement said, in a veiledreference to Pakistan.

The leaders expressed sat-isfaction on the first India- ItalyJoint Working Group onCombating InternationalTerrorism held in Rome onNovember 10, 2016, and agreedto further strengthen the con-sultation mechanism throughregular exchange of assess-ments and information, train-

ing and capacity building pro-grammes etc., in the sphere ofcounter terrorism.

The leaders agreed tostrengthen cooperation to takedecisive and concerted actionsagainst the Al Qaeda, ISIS,their affiliates and all other UN-designated globally proscribedterrorists and terror entities,including those mentioned inthe India-EU joint statement oncooperation in combating ter-rorism. The statement wasissued after the India-EUSummit earlier this month.

The statement said the twoleaders also called for an earlyconclusion of negotiations andadoption of the Comprehensive

Convention on InternationalTerrorism in the UN, as aninstrument that would rein-force the message that no causeor grievance justifies terrorism.

The two leaders alsoaffirmed that terrorism shouldnot be associated with anyparticular religion, nationality,civilisation, creed or ethnicgroup.

“They also expressed con-cerns at the growing misuse ofinternet towards radicalisationof youth and agreed tostrengthen cooperation incombating radicalisation andviolent extremism,” the state-ment said.

They also agreed to explorethe establishment of a bilater-al dialogue on cyber issues.

Modi and Gentiloni reaf-firmed their commitment to anopen, free, secure, stable, peace-ful and accessible cyberspace,enabling economic growth andinnovation.

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YC Modi, a 1984-batchAssam-Meghalaya cadre

IPS officer, on Monday tookover as the new DirectorGeneral of the NationalInvestigation Agency (NIA).

Modi succeeds SharadKumar whose tenure saw theagency probing some high-profile cases such as theBodhgaya Temple blast ,explosions during the Patnarally of the then BJP’s primeminister ial candidateNarendra Modi, thePathankot airbase attack, ISISlinks and the Jammu &Kashmir terror-funding case.

“Many important casessuch as the UNLF (UnitedNational Liberation Front)case, Di lsukhnagar(Hyderabad) blast case, ISISconspiracy cases and FICN(Fake Indian Currency Notes)cases resulted in conviction,”the agency said in a statement. Yogesh ChanderModi joined the NIA as offi-cer on special duty onSeptember 22.

He has worked with theCBI for 10 years in two stints(2002-2010 and 2015-2017)where he handled specialcrime and economic offencesbesides anti-corruption cases.He has also worked withCabinet Secretariat between1991 and 2002 which includ-ed a foreign posting.

Before joining the NIA onpromotion, Modi was work-ing as Additional Director,CBI, New Delhi.

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Pakistan Army’s support toterrorism is unacceptable

and India will continue to takeall retaliatory measures torespond to such acts, IndianArmy’s director-general of mil-itary operations (DGMO) toldhis Pakistani counterpart onMonday.

In an unscheduled con-versation with Lt Gen AKBhatt over the hotline,Pakistani DGMO Maj GenSahir Shamshad Mirza accusedthe Indian security forces ofresorting to unprovoked firingalong the Line of Control(LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir.

However, Bhatt said retal-iatory firing by Indian troopshas only been carried out inresponse to “unabated sup-port” provided by the PakistanArmy to armed terrorists, whoinfiltrate across the border andtarget Indian Army posts withheavy calibre weapons, theArmy said in a statement here.

The telephonic conversa-tion was requested by thePakistani side.

The Indian DGMO toldhis Pakistani counterpart thatwhile the Indian Army willcontinue its efforts to ensurepeace and tranquillity on theborders, the support providedto the terrorists by the PakistanArmy was the prime reason forany “collateral damage”.

“He reiterated that this sup-port to terrorism by the PakistanArmy is unacceptable and theIndian Army will continue totake all retaliatory measures aswell as retain the right to puni-tively respond to such provoca-tive acts of aggression from thePakistani side,” the Army said.

It said Lt Gen Bhatt alsoclarified that the Indian Armyalways maintains impeccablestandards of professionalismand does not target civilians.

“On the contrary, PakistanArmy has employed civilians atthe forward posts and accord-ed permission for permanentlocations of civilians in thevicinity of Pakistan Armyposts,” the Army said.

It said that these civilianshave repeatedly been used forgaining information of loca-tions of Indian troops andproviding guides to the terror-ists while crossing the LoC.

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The Supreme Court said onMonday that it would

frame comprehensive guide-lines to ensure safety and secu-rity of schoolchildren, andordered compilation of normsformulated by the Centre andstates for its consideration.

A bench headed by ChiefJustice Dipak Misra was hear-ing several pleas including theone filed by the father of aseven-year-old boy who wasfound dead with his throat slitat Ryan International School inGurugram in September.

The bench, also compris-ing Justices AM Khanwilkarand DY Chandrachud, askedall stakeholders to give theirsuggestions for comprehensivecompilation and posted thematter for further hearing onDecember 4.

It asked advocate SuchitaSrivastav to study the existingguidelines and consider sug-gestions of stakeholders,including the Centre, Central Board of Secondary

Education (CBSE), StateGovernments and other partiesconcerned, and file a compre-hensive report.

Srivastav is one of thecounsels for the two womenlawyers who have filed a sepa-rate petition on the issue ofsafety of schoolchildren.

“We are going to frameguidelines for the future,” thebench said.

Meanwhile, lawyer SushilTekriwal, appearing for BarunChandra Thakur, the father ofthe Ryan International stu-dent, referred to the CBSE’sreply and said that if the earli-er guidelines of the board hadbeen complied with, this unfor-tunate incident could’ve beenavoided.

The Class 2 student wasfound dead with his throat slitby a sharp-edged weapon onthe morning of September 8. Itwas alleged that he was killedby 42-year-old bus conductorAshok Kumar inside the toiletas the boy resisted a bid tosodomise him.

On October 9, the Centre

had told the apex court that ithad issued guidelines and advi-sories to all states on safety andsecurity of schoolchildren andthat it had a limited role as itsguidelines are to be enforced bythe states.

The court had on October9 asked the state governmentsto ensure that the Centre’sguidelines on safety and secu-rity of children were imple-mented in “reality” in everyschool of the country.

Earlier, the CBSE said thegruesome killing of a minorboy of Gurugram’s RyanInternational School took placedue to the “negligence” of theinstitution’s administration asdrivers, conductors wereallowed to use washroomsmeant only for kids and staff.

The boy’s father, in his plea,has sought laying down ofguidelines by which “liability,responsibility and accountabil-ity of the management of theschools” across the country canbe fixed in matters relating to thesafety and security of children ateducational institutions.

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Recommending life in jail forpublic servants convicted of

torture, the Law Commissionon Monday said theGovernment should ratify aUN convention to tide over dif-ficulties in extraditing criminalsfrom foreign countries due tothe absence of a law preventingharsh treatment by authorities.

It also said in case theGovernment decided to ratifythe UN convention on tortureand other inhuman anddegrading treatment or pun-ishment, a Bill should be intro-duced in Parliament to amendvarious laws to prevent tortureby Government officials.

The draft ‘Prevention ofTorture Bill, 2017’ proposed“stringent punishment” to per-petrators to curb the menace oftorture and to have a deterrenteffect on acts of torture. Thepunishment could extend up tolife imprisonment and includea fine. The report submitted to

the Law Ministry said theCriminal Procedure Code,1973, and the Indian EvidenceAct, 1872, require amendmentsto accommodate provisionsregarding compensation andburden of proof.

It recommended anamendment to Section 357B toincorporate payment of com-pensation, in addition to thepayment of fine provided in theIndian Penal Code.

The report, now in thepublic domain, said the IndianEvidence Act required theinsertion of a new section 114B.

“This will ensure that incase a person in police custody

sustains injuries, it is presumedthat those injuries have beeninflicted by the police, and theburden of proof shall lie on theauthority concerned to explainsuch injury,” it said.

Referring to compensationto victims, it said the courtswould decide upon a “justicia-ble compensation” after takinginto account various facets of anindividual case, such as nature,purpose, extent and manner ofinjury, including mental agonycaused to the victim.

“The courts will bear inmind the socio-economicbackground of the victim” andensure that the compensation

will help the victim bear theexpenses on medical treatmentand rehabilitation, the panelrecommended.

The report also said aneffective mechanism must beput in place to protect victimsof torture, complainants andwitnesses against possiblethreats, violence or ill treatment.

The Commission recom-mended the State own theresponsibility for injuriescaused by its agents on citizens,and the “principle of sovereignimmunity cannot override therights assured by theConstitution”.

“While dealing with theplea of sovereign immunity, theCourts will have to bear inmind that it is the citizens whoare entitled for fundamentalrights, and not the agents of theState,” it said.

In July this year, the Centrehad asked the panel to exam-ine the issue of ratifying theconvention after a writ petitionwas filed in a court.

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The Supreme Court todaysaid that it will consider

granting bail to Unitech LtdManaging Director SanjayChandra after the embattledreal estate firm deposits �750crore by December end.

A bench headed by ChiefJustice Dipak Misra said themoney, to be deposited in theapex court registry, will beused in facilitating refund tothe home buyers who wanttheir money back.

The bench, also comprisingjustices AM Khanwilkar and DYChandrachud, asked the author-ities of Tihar jail, where Chandrais presently lodged, to facilitatehis meeting with his companyofficials, financiers and lawyersso that he could arrange themoney for refunding the homebuyers as well as for completingthe ongoing housing projects.

Advocate Pawan ShreeAggarwal, assisting the court as

an amicus curiae in the matter,told the bench that the realestate firm needed around�2,000 crore to refund moneyto home buyers as well as com-pleting the ongoing projects.

Senior advocate RanjitKumar, appearing for Chandra,told the court that they havegiven a plan for refund of moneyand completion of projects andthey needed some time to do it.

The apex court has fixedthe matter for hearing in thesecond week of January andgranted liberty to Chandra tomention the matter for grant ofbail after depositing �750 crorein the apex court Registry.

The Supreme Court had onOctober 23 asked the jailedUnitech Ltd MD to establish hisbonafide by depositing at least�1,000 crore out of a total of�1,865 crore to refund hassledhomebuyers who do not wantpossession of flats.

The apex court had alsoquestioned the real estate firm

why they cannot auction theirproperties to refund money tothe homebuyers and completetheir housing projects.

The apex court had earli-er directed the amicus curiae tocreate a website in which thehome buyers could uploadtheir details and claim flat orrefund from the company.

Chandra is seeking interimbail from the apex court afterthe Delhi High Court on August11 had rejected the plea in acriminal case lodged in 2015 by158 home buyers of Unitechprojects’ — ‘Wild FlowerCountry’ and ‘Anthea Project’ —situated in Gurugram.

The apex court had onSeptember 1 said that althoughit is absolutely conscious that itis dealing with an application forbail, but “the consumers whohave invested their money in var-ious projects undertaken by thepetitioners cannot be allowed tolurch in the dark. Their problemhas to be solved”.

����� ��9�.�:78

The Supreme Court onMonday questioned the

locus of Tushar Gandhi, thegreat-grandson of MahatmaGandhi, who opposed a pleaseeking reopening of investi-gation into the assassination ofthe Mahatma 70 years ago.

Tushar Gandhi, whomoved for the first time in theapex court, said he can explainhis locus in the case andopposed the plea, saying therewas no point in reopening ofthe case.

The apex court, which hasappointed a senior advocate asan amicus curiae in the matter,said it would wait for his reportbefore going ahead with the case.

“There are several if ’s andbut’s in the case and we will liketo wait for the amicus curiae(friend of the court) AmrenderSharan’s report,” a bench ofJustices SA Bobde and MMShantanagoudar said.

“You (Tushar Gandhi) haveto first satisfy us on the point oflocus. What is your locus? Thenonly we can hear you,” it said.

Senior advocate IndiraJaising, appearing for Gandhi’sgreat-grandson, said she wouldexplain the locus if the courtmoves ahead with issuing ofnotice.

“Notice has not been issuedtill now. If the court issuesnotice then I can show thelocus in the case. Let us wait forthe amicus curiae to file hisreport and we will prove ourlocus in the next hearing,” shesaid.

The senior lawyer said thatif her client’s (Tushar Gandhi)locus was being questionedthen the same could be heldagainst the petitioner, Mumbai-based Pankaj Phadnis, aresearcher and trustee ofAbhinav Bharat.

Sharan, who was appoint-ed amicus curiae in the case onOctober 6, sought four weekstime to file the report, saying hewas yet to receive relevantdocuments from the NationalArchives.

In his written submission,Phadnis had said telegramswere sent from the US Embassyhere to Washington on January

30, 1948, after the assassinationof Gandhi and one of thereports relating to it stillremained classified.

He has put on record oneof the telegrams “obtained offi-cially” by him during his visitthis May to the NationalArchives and ResearchAdministration, Maryland inthe USA.

Phadnis has challenged thedecision of the Bombay HighCourt which had on June 6,2016, dismissed his PIL on twogrounds — firstly, that thefindings of fact have beenrecorded by the competentcourt and confirmed right upto the apex court, and second-ly, the Kapur Commission hassubmitted its report and madethe observations in 1969, whilethe present petition has beenfiled 46 years later.

In the petition, Phadnis hasalso questioned the ‘three bul-let theory’ relied upon by var-ious courts of law to hold theconviction of the accused —Nathuram Godse and NarayanApte, who were hanged todeath on November 15, 1949.

Vinayak DamodarSavarkar was given the benefitof doubt due to lack of evi-dence. Phadnis has claimedthat the Justice JL KapurCommission of Inquiry set upin 1966 was not able to unearththe entire conspiracy that hadled to the killing of theMahatma.

He had earlier told thecourt that the appeals filed bythe convicts in the assassinationcase were dismissed in 1949 bythe East Punjab High Court, fol-lowing which the Privy Councilhad sent the matter back on theground that the Supreme Courtof India will come into existencein January 1950.

“The Supreme Court neveradjudicated this matter,” hehad said.

Phadnis had maintainedthat as per the “restricted”telegram of January 30, 1948,sent from the US Embassy at 8pm, Herbert Tom Reiner,Disbursing Officer, was with-in five feet of Gandhi when hewas shot, and with the aid ofIndian guards, he had appre-hended the assassin.

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The crisis-ridden EdappadiPalaniswami-led AIADMK

Government may survive foranother year, according to itsmain enemy TTV Dinakaran,who was eased out from thepost of deputy general secretaryof the party.

Speaking to reporters atMadurai after garlanding thestatue of PasumponMuthuramalinga Thevar aspart of the Thevar Jayanthi cel-ebrations, Dinakaran said thatby the time Tamil Nadu cele-brates the next Thevar Jayanthi,the State would have aGovernment envisaged byAmma (late J Jayalalithaa).

Dinakaran had taken avow that he would bring downthe EPS Government before thelast week of September 2017.Though he had given an exten-sion of a fortnight’s time to theEPS Government, nothingmaterialised and Palaniswamicontinues to take potshots atthe rebel leader.

Monday was the birthday-cum-death anniversary ofRamalingam Thevar, one of thefounding members of the AllIndia Forward Block who wasalso a close associate of NetajiSubhash Chandra Bose. Thevarwas a two-term member of theLok Sabha and he died on his55th birthday on October 30,

1963.The day is observed by the

Thevars of southern TamilNadu as Thevar Jayanthi.Leaders of all major politicalparties (except theCommunists and Dalit leaders)make a beeline to Madurai togarland the statue of RamalingaThevar. Late chief ministerJayalalithaa had donated a goldarmour weighing 13.5 Kg fordecorating the Thevar Statue atMadurai on the ThevarJayanthi day.

Having failed in hisattempts to dethronePalaniswami from the post ofChief Minister, Dinakaran haschanged the deadline he had setto oust the Government. Thefate of PalaniswamiGovernment depends on fourpetitions being heard by theMadras High Court. Whilethree of the petitions are filedby the DMK, the 18 expelledMLAs belonging to theSasikala/Dinakaran camp has

challenged the Speaker’s actionof disqualifying them from theHouse. as members

In a development whichmay prolong the hearing of thepetitions filed by the DMK andthe rebel AIADMK MLAs,Justice K Ravichandra Babu ofthe Madras High Court said onFriday that he would refer allthe cases pertaining to the leg-islature to a larger bench. “sinceConstitutional issues areinvolved in all these matters, Iam of the view that they haveto be heard by a larger bench,”the justice had said on Friday.

The election Commissionof India hearing the pleas filedby both the factions of theAIADMK for the Two Leavessymbol and the name of theparty is expected to pronounceits verdict by November 10.Political commentators are ofthe view that the faction led byChief Minister Palaniswamiand Deputy Chief Minister OPanneerselvam is likely to walkaway with the party symbol asthey are on a stronger wicket.

The DMK, the principalopposition party, has upped theante against the AIADMKGovernment with leader ofthe opposition MK Stalinincreasing the intensity ofattacks. Every day he issuesstatements condemning theGovernment though the ChiefMinister counters the attackswith facts and figures.

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Kanhaiya Kumar is likely tobe fielded in the Lok Sabha

polls from Bihar by the CPI.Even though the general elec-tions 2019 are still far away, theparty has almost made up itsmind to bring the former pres-ident of JNU Students Union inthe poll arena. He is expected tocontest from Begusarai con-stituency.

The hint about Kumar’spoll debut was given by CPInational secretary KR Narainahere. Asked if Kumar has agreedto fight he said talks had alreadybeen held with him and he hasaccepted the offer.

“Kumar was recently inBegusarai and traveled to sev-eral areas in that constituency,”added CPI State secretary SatyaNarain Singh.

Kumar, who came intolimelight late last year followingcontroversy over some pro-gramme organised by JNUSUand his fiery speech and later onhis arrest, belongs to Begusaraidistrict’s Beehat village where hisparents live. Kumar alsoauthored a book titled ‘Bihar to

Tihar” which is based on his jailmemoirs.

In fact the party has offeredhim to contest from any of theLok Sabha seats from Bihar buthe has preferred to fight fromBegusarai once called Leningradof Bihar. Party sources saidKumar has also been offered bythe Kerala unit of the CPI tocontest any seat in the southernState.

The CPI has planned tocontest at least four parliamen-tary seats in Bihar in alliancewith other Left parties includ-ing CPM and CPI(ML). Theyare Begusarai, Madhubani,Khagaria and Motihari whereparty claims to have a strongbase. Sources said Kumar apartfrom contesting election wouldalso be a star campaigner forparty candidates in Bihar.

The party has not onlyfavoured Left unity but tobroaden it by joining alliancewith RJD and Congress and alsoSharad Yadav faction of JD(U).“To fight the BJP led NDA weshould broaden our allianceand all the Left, secular anddemocratic parties should forma solid unity,” said Naraina.

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Kerala’s CPI(M)-led LDFGovernment on Monday

informed the High Court thatthere was no need of a CBIprobe into the political murders— of RSS-BJP workers inKannur district and elsewherein the State — that had takenplace in the State since itassumed office. The Centralagency had earlier aired itsreadiness to probe these killingsif the court directed it to do so.

The Home Departmentexplained that the State policehad been efficiently and seri-ously probing the politicalmurders into which CBI probehad been sought by a Kannur-based social organisation. In anaffidavit filed before the court,it pointed out that the SupremeCourt itself had once aired the

suspicion whether the CBI wasa caged parrot.

The affidavit was submittedin response to a directive fromthe court to furnish explanationon a PIL filed by the GopalanAdiyodi Vakil Memorial Trustof Thalassery in Kannur seek-ing orders for CBI probe intoseven cases relating to eightpolitical murders that had takenplace in the State since the LDFcame to power. CPI(M) activistswere said to be behind all theseincidents.

The Government said in anaffidavit that there was noneed for the CBI to probethese murders as the Statepolice had already filedchargesheets in five of theseven cited cases and thatprobe was progressing in theremaining cases. The courtposted the case to November

13 after the petitioner soughttime for responding to theGovernment’s affidavit.

When the petition was firsttaken up on October 17, theGovernment had told the courtthat political murders werenot taking place frequently inKannur and elsewhere asalleged by the petitioner. Eventhe families of those killed insuch incidents had not so farmade any complaint against thepolice probe, it said.

According to theGovernment, peace talks werebeing held in areas hit by polit-ical conflict – between theCPI(M) and the RSS-BJP – andfollow-up actions are beingtaken consistently. Efforts aregoing on in the State to depicteven cases of murders relatedto family feuds as incidents ofpolitical violence, it says.

Petitioner RK Premdas,secretary of the trust, allegedthat all the murders cited in theplea were pre-planned and thatthere were high-level politicalconspiracies behind each ofthem. He said the actual cul-prits were not being broughtbefore law and that there hadalways been attempts to protectthem as they belonged to a par-ticular ruling party, theCPI(M).

The cases in which thepetitioner wanted CBI probepertained to the political mur-ders taken place in the Statebetween July 12, 2016 and July29, 2017. Local BMS leader CKRamachandran was murderedin Payyannur, in Kannur onJuly 12, 2016 and local RSSleader Kallampally Rajesh washacked to death at Sreekaryan,Thiruvananthapuram on July

29 last.The other RSS-BJP work-

ers killed allegedly by CPI(M)men as mentioned by the peti-tioner in Kannur were CRamith in Pinarayi – native vil-lage of Marxist Chief MinisterPinarayi Vijayan – on October12, 2016, Santhoshkumar inDharmadom on January 17,2017 and Biju on May 12 lastin Payyannur.

The other cases in whichprobe had been sought per-tained to the murder of VimalaDevi and her relativeRadhakrishnan at Kanjikode inPalakkad district on December28 last year and RaveendranPillai of Kadakkal in Kollamdistrict on February 2, 2017.The petitioner said that therehad always been attempts toderail investigation into allthese murders.

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ARevanth Reddy whose res-ignation from Telugu

Desam Party and TelanganaState Assembly has created a stirin the State politics was all set toformally join Congress partyon Tuesday.

Revanth Reddy will joinCongress party on Tuesday at theCongress headquarters in NewDelhi in the presence of partyvice-president Rahul Gandhi.Many of his supporters will alsojoin Congress.

While Revanth Reddy helda meeting with his supporters inHyderabad on Monday, AICCsecretary in charge of Telanganaaffairs RC Kuntia met the StateCongress leaders N UttamKumar Reddy and K Jana Reddyto discuss Revanth Reddy'sinduction in Congress.

Speaking to the media,Kuntia said that there was noopposition to Revanth Reddy inCongress. He, however, made itclear that no promise was madeto Revanth regarding any post.

The meeting convened byRevanth Reddy was also attend-ed by Telangana Congress pres-ident N Uttam Kumar Reddy.

Meanwhile, two MLAs whohad earlier quit the TDP to joinruling TRS also strongly criti-cised Revanth Reddy for joiningCongress. E Dayakar Rao, one ofthe 12 legislators of TDP todefect to TRS ridiculed RevanthReddy saying he had changedfour parties till now. TelanganaTelugu Desam president LRamanna has charged RevanthReddy with betraying the faith ofthe party and its leader NChandrababu Naidu. "WhatRevanth Reddy did now wassimilar to what NandendlaBhaskar Rao did to NTR in1984", he said he was referring tothe split in TDP which led toousting of NTR Government forpower and installation of NBhaskar Rao as CM. However,it appears that many more TDPleaders in Telangana were likelyto join Congress.

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Even before establishmentof Delhi Chief Minister

Arvind Kejriwal-led AamAadmi Party’s (AAP) base inpoll-bound Gujarat, womenwing president of AAP’sGujarat unit Vandana Pateland other 100 workers joinedCongress on Monday.

Interestingly, all the AAPworkers including Patel woreCongress scarf at Rajiv GandhiBhavan — the State headquar-ters of the Congress afterremoving AAP cap in front ofGujarat Pradesh CongressCommittee (GPCC) presidentBharatsinh Solanki.

It is worth mentioning thatVandana Patel joined the AAPby leaving the saffron party.Now she left the AAP to joinCongress. The ambitiouswoman politician had alsofought the Lok Sabha polls

from Mehsana constituency inNorth Gujarat from AAP tick-et but couldn’t make anyimpact as the BJP candidatewon that election comfortably.

Apart from Patel, seniorAAP leader in the State, RiturajMehta, who fought Lok Sabhaelection in 2014 against veter-an BJP leader and formerDeputy Prime Minister LalKrishna Advani on AAP tick-et has also join the oldest polit-ical party.

The Delhi Chief Minister’sparty is all set to contestupcoming Assembly polls inGujarat from selected con-stituency. The AAP has alreadyannounced first list of 11 can-didates.

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Uttar Pradesh Governmentemployees and pensioners

can now avail cashless emer-gency treatment and othercashless treatments of incurablediseases. They can do so asUttar Pradesh Medical andHealth Department has start-ed ‘Pt Deen Dayal UpadhyayState Employee CashlessMedical Scheme’. This was stat-ed by CEO, National HealthInsurance Scheme, AlokKumar Mitra in Lucknow onMonday.

Under the scheme, the

process of online registration ofState Government employeesand pensioners was being doneon the ‘website www.upsects.in’.

Mitra said that beneficia-ries themselves could printtheir ‘State Health Card’ aftercompleting online registrationon the basis of which theycould avail cashless treatmentfacility in hospitals empan-elled under the scheme.

The cashless treatmentincludes treatments duringemergency and all types ofheart, kidney and liver diseasesalong with knee replacementetc.

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As agitating Patidar AnamatAndolan Samiti (PAAS)

decided to extend deadline tothe Congress to clear its standon its demand in view of theupcoming Assembly polls fromNovember 3 to November 7,the Congress vice-presidentRahul Gandhi will be able tocomplete his two-day visit tothe State without any opposi-tion from Patidars.

On Monday, a lengthy meet-ing was held at Gujarat Congressheadquarters in Ahmedabadbetween PAAS and Congress

leaders. After the meeting PAAS,convener Alpesh Kathiria saidthat the deadline for theCongress extended tillNovember 7 as the talk ended onpositive note and hence PAASworkers would not oppose dur-ing Rahul’s upcoming 2-dayvisit to South Gujarat startingfrom Friday.

Kathiria addressed a Pressconference after the three-and-a-half hour meeting withCongress leadership inAhmedabad to understand thelegal aspects of proposal byCongress to give 20% reserva-tions for Patels and other upper

castes, instead of 10% proposedby the BJP Government.

PAAS team, includingAlpesh, Dinesh Bhambaniyaand Lalit Vasoya, attended themeeting. “We are satisfied withthe discussions. We will nowmeet Hardik and our entireteam and decide if we want tomeet Rahul or not on November3,” said Kathiria, adding thatPAAS had put five points beforethe Congress.

The first being punish thoseofficials responsible for insti-gating violence on August 25, 26of 2015. The police had resort-ed to lath charge and arrested

Hardik Patel from the venue ofmega rally of Patel communityattended by almost a millionpeople. “The Congress promisedus a SIT and that all thoseresponsible would be punished.Our next demand was with-drawal of all the cases against thePatel youth involved in agitation,Government jobs and financialaid to next of family of 14 killedin the agitation and statutory sta-tus of Commission forUnreserved Classes,” he said.

The Patel leader said theCongress has agreed to all thesepoints and promised that if itcomes to power, it would with-

draw all the cases against Patelyouth, including Sedition;Extend a financial aid of �35lakh from the Government andjobs to next kin of the deceasedas well as set aside �2,000 crorefor Commission for unreservedclasses after according it statu-tory status. On the core issue ofreservations to Patels underOBC category, both — PAASand Congress leaders decided toconsult experts on the techni-cal and legal aspects so that itcan stand the constitutionalscrutiny he said that as of nowPatidars will not support anyparty.

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The Nitish Kumar-led JD(U)’sdecision to contest some

Assembly seats in Gujarat hascaused some ripples in the BiharNDA. No senior leader fromboth the party has come forwardto say anything, but off therecord, leaders of the two alliesare staking claim or rejecting it.

Ironically, the JD(U) hadfielded candidates in Gujaratpolls 2012, when the party wasin alliance till 2013 and alsowon one seat. The JD(U) feelsthat the BJP should have spo-ken to its ally but it did not,forcing the party to decide togo alone. However, The BJPrejected the claims saying theJD(U) is a regional party andshould not think beyond Bihar.

As per the report, the JD(U)has decided to contest in at leastsix seats on its own. BiharMinister Maheshwar Hazarisaid, “BJP’s attitude has forcedus to take this decision. Theparty did not consult us despiteknowing fully that JD(U) has

support base there and it hasbeen winning one or two seats.It was the responsibility of theBJP being the big party to takeus into confidence.”

Countering JD(U)’s asser-tion, BJP’s Nawak KishoreYadav said, “Their claim isbaseless. Nitish himself hadadmitted that his is a Biharbased regional party. Being aregional party, what business ithas in Gujarat. It should bet-ter concentrate in Bihar.”

In Gujarat, the JD(U) willnot only challenge the BJP butalso face challenge from within.The Sharad Yadav faction ofJD(U) has also decided to con-test at least six seats and most ofthem are those constituency onwhich Nitish’s party has stakedclaim. The only JD(U) MLAfrom Gujarat left Nitish campand joined Sharad faction.

RJD supremo Lalu Prasadtook no time in hitting at theJD(U) and Nitish. “The JD(U)and the BJP will fight polls inBihar separately. The two aregoing to end their alliance very

soon. Their alliance is not stableand is on brink of break up,” saidLalu sarcastically.

Lalu’s remarks came in thewake of JD(U)’s reported pollpreparation in all the 40 LokSabha seats in Bihar. The partyhas decided to hold district-levelworkers conference fromNovember 15 to 18. The partyworkers have been asked tostrengthen the organisationdown to booth level. The partyhas 3.85 lakh members, includ-ing 1.54 lakh active members.

Bihar JD(U) presidentBashistha Narain Singh said, “Inbid to strengthen party toground level we are holding dis-trict level workers conferences ineach district. To organise theseconferences ten teams have beenconstituted. The workers will begiven task to propagateGovernment’s campaigns againstsocial ills like like liquor, dowryand child marriage.” All theteams are headed by theMinisters and MPs with Singhhimself heading the team inBhojpur and Buxar districts.

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Worried about the increasinguse of plastic and toxic

substances during religious ser-vices, especially for decoration ofgraves, the influential RomanCatholic Church in Goa hascalled all Catholics in the Stateto shun use of toxic material.

In a missive circulated to allparish, priests and chaplains inthe coastal State, the Goa chap-ter of Caritas, which overlooksthe social functions of theChurch has also asked thatawareness should be createdduring Sunday mass all throughNovember about wastage andthe perils of excessive use oftoxic material.

"We are on the eve of sea-son of several celebrations in

our parishes. Immediately, wewill have the All Souls daywhere we will decorate thegraves where bundles of plas-tics, thermocol, foam and silverfoil will be used. All of which isnon-degradable and toxic.Hence, let us strongly urge ourparishioners to avoid the use ofthe toxic material to decoratethe graves," the circular issuedby Caritas Director Fr MaverickFernandes has said.

The All Souls day is cele-brated across the world onNovember 2, when the gravesof the departed souls are visit-ed and paid respect to by theliving descendants.

Nearly, a third of the State’spopulation is Catholic and theChurch is an influential play-er in the socio-religious sphere.

Fernandes, in his circular, hasalso said that the directives arein consonance of Pope Francis,who has advocated efforts tosave the environment in orderto stem the rapid degradationof earth.

In June, the Pope in hisaddress ‘Laudato Si’ had calledfor a swift action across the globeagainst rampant consumerismand irresponsible developmentand the directive in Goa tolessen the use of plastic and toxicmaterial, especially for religiousobservance, is inspired fromthe Catholic leader.

"Pope Francis in 'Laudato Si'expressly urges us to introducelifestyle changes if we want tosave the earth. Hence we have tocollectively take urgent steps tomake changes in our way of liv-ing. Moreover, the Archbishopin his Pastoral letter particular-ly urged us to make efforts tominimise our waste to theextent possible," Fernandes said.

The circular also asksCatholics, to lessen the use ofplastic and curb wastage for thepopular ceremony of visitationof icons of Mother Mary inhomes in respective parishes.

"Besides, there are alsoother occasions where unnec-essary use of toxic materials areutilised like during the visita-tion of the statue of Our Ladyto the families, refreshmentsserved at the months mind oranniversaries, at our meetingsand seminars, etc. We canreally make a significant dif-ference if we seriously avoid theuse of toxic materials for ourcelebrations," the circular said.

The circular also exhorts allpriests to preach in theirSunday mass about how plas-tic and toxic substances lead toenvironment degradation andurge the flock to curb its usage.

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National InvestigativeAgency (NIA) has got in

touch with Anti-terrorist Squad(ATS) Gujarat and may take upthe case of Jet Airways aircraft’semergency landing inAhmedabad to explore any ter-ror angle in the incident.

NIA chief YC Modi indi-cated a person identified as BirjuKishore Salla was behind thescare and had been detained bythe Ahmedabad police. NIAofficials were in touch with theGujarat police over the issue anda call would be taken in a dayan FIR would be filed in con-nection with emergency landing

as a crew member found anote in the plane’s washroomthat stated there were hijackerson board, he informed.

A Mumbai to Delhi JetAirways flight which was board-ed by around 120 people didemergency landing at SardarVallabhbhai Patel InternationalAirport following security relat-ed issues. Flight 9W 339, whichhad taken off from Mumbai at2:55 AM with 115 passengersand seven crew members, land-ed without incident atAhmedabad around 3:45 AM.The Boeing 737-900 plane wasparked at a remote bay and all122 people on board safelydeplaned.

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With dengue scare sinkingits teeth deep in Bengal

and casualty reports leapingby the day triggering anOpposition backlash, ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjeeresorted to shifting blame onthe climate for proliferation ofAedes Egypti — the mosqui-to that carries the dreadedvirus — and the private lab-oratories for spreading givingan “artificial spurt to the dis-ease” for business reasons.

Squarely blaming thechanging weather patternBanerjee on Monday saidchanging weather pattern wasone of the main culpritsbehind the rise in denguecases. “We experienced inter-mittent rains and flood thisseason. It is known to every-one that the weather is alsobehaving erratically causingdiarrhea, fever. Dengue isalso happening for the samereasons. It is nothing new.Things will be alright there isno reason to worry.”

The Chief Minister’s state-ment came in tandem withthe Government’s suddencancellation of licenses ofthree laboratories for alleged-ly fudging lab reports — anaction that the oppositioninterpreted as strong-arm tac-tic of the political party in

power to suppress denguereports.

The Chief Minister hadearlier warned the privatelaboratories against spreading“rumors of dengue cases”even as cases of deaths from“unknown fever” increased.

Curiously while Banerjeeaccused changing weatherpatterns and “spread ofrumors by private laboratoriesfor the sake of business” caus-ing rise in dengue cases shealso warned the municipali-ties and panchayat mostlyrun by her own TrinamoolCongress against neglectingthe situation.

She warned the coun-cilors and panchayat mem-bers to, “either work sincere-ly and ensure cleanliness, orI will be forced to dissolve themunicipal boards so that youall get to see the consequence

of non-performance. Meanwhile, Monday saw

five more deaths: four fromDe Ganga in North 24Parganas and one from else-where, Health departmentsources said adding the totalnumber of deaths crossed 45.The number of people affect-ed by dengue was more than20,000 sources added. WhileBanerjee accused the weath-er and the private laboratoriesand warned the civic repre-sentatives against derelictionof duty opposition BJP andCongress launched protestrallies at various placesincluding the KolkataMunicipal Corporation.

The Congress evenannounced hosting of aprotest rally against theGovernment on November 2for failing to control rise indengue cases.

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Close on heels of making itmandatory for online reg-

istration of Madrasas on thedepartmental portal and cele-bration of Independence Daythere, the Yogi AdityanathGovernment is in the processof introducing books byNational Council ofEducational Research andTraining (NCERT) in theIslamic seminaries.

The aim of introducingNCERT books is to standard-ise and improve the curriculumand sync with job require-ments. The NCERT books onScience, Maths and English areproposed to be included in thesyllabi of Madrasas from thenext academic session. StateMadarsa Board has started thegroundwork in this direction.

Deputy Chief MinisterDinesh Sharma tweeted onMonday referring to the ulti-mate aim of enabling Madarsa

students to compete with stu-dents of mainstream educa-tional institutions. Earlier, UPMinorities Welfare ministerChaudhary Laxmi Narayan hadclaimed that modernisation ofMadrasas would spur bettertechnical education and jobprospects for the students.Presently, there are about 19,000recognised and 560 aidedMadrasas operating in the State.

“We are in the process ofstandardising and integrating

the syllabus, especially for sub-jects like Science, Mathematicsand English and plan to intro-duce NCERT books,” Registrarof UP Madrasa ShikshaParishad Rahul Gupta said inLucknow on Monday.

So far, students after com-pleting their education from aMadrasa used to become‘Alims’ or ‘Maulvis’ which arelow paying jobs. MostMadrasas primarily impart reli-gious teachings with some big

ones introducing modern sub-jects in the last few years.

The Registrar said that theplan was in a formative stageand officials were working onhow to go about it. The Boardwill not touch upon religiousteachings (Deen-e-Taaleem)which is a common practice inmadrasas. Only the formal edu-cation part will be revised soon.

Gupta said that in the reli-gious part only bifurcation ofbooks will be done like whatwould be taught in classesstarting from 1 to 5.

Earlier in August, the UPGovernment had also launcheda dedicated portal for makingonline registration mandatoryfor madrasas and upload com-plete details of their teachers,staff and students to weed outfake students, teachers and pre-vent irregularities and ensuremore transparency in theirfunctioning.

The portal would alsocheck duplication of scholar-

ships and pre-empt availing ofgovernment schemes by non-bona fide students, so thatonly the genuine pupils bene-fited. Soon after taking over, theYogi government rolled out itsagenda of Madarsa moderni-sation even as a section ofMuslims criticised the moveclaiming it as an infringementon their autonomy.

In the State’s 2017-18Budget, the Yogi governmentallocated about �1,700 croretowards Minorities’ Welfaredepartment, of this, �394 crorewere allocated towards impart-ing modern education inrecognised Madarsas.

The budget has also madeprovision of �792 crore forscholarships to minority stu-dents, �150 crore for fees reim-bursement of minority stu-dents, �18 crore for setting upof women’s hostel in minoritydominated areas, and �341crore towards ‘Multi-sectoralDistrict Development Plan’.

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The day after Prime MinisterNarendra Modi in his whirl-

wind tour of poll-boundKarnataka criticised theCongress Government and itsChief Minister Siddaramaiah, theChief Minister retorted onMonday and claimed Modi tar-gets him because he was afraidof his popularity. In Mysore onMonday, Siddaramaiah said hebecame the target whenever thePrime Minister came toKarnataka “because he is scaredof my political strength”.

He said citing Modi’s state-ment that people of the state arefrustrated with the congress ruleCM said “the by polls victory inNanjangud and Gundlupetshows how people have accept-ed the congress and my rule.” Healso accused BJP and the JDs ofcoming together inChamundeshwari, his con-stituency in Mysuru to defeathim and said “it is not possiblefor them to defeat me.”

He also said “ People wantour Government to come back(to power) again because theyknow that Siddaramaiah fulfilsthe election promises. They

know well that our Governmentcame out with programmes forthe economically weaker section,farmers, women backward com-munities and minorities".

He said BJP was playingdirty politics and comedownheavily on them claiming to win150 seats in the assembly elec-tions.

PM Modi had on Sunday ina way significantly started theelection campaign for poll boundKarnataka and blamed Congressand said people need change. Hehad said "It looks like Karnatakacan't wait for the polls. Like otherStates, Karnataka wants to jointhe development path. I'm con-fident Karnataka will be inte-grated into the nation's devel-opment."

The assembly polls are dueearly next year and Karnatakais crucial for both the rulingCongress and the opposition BJP.The State BJP which is talkingabout Congress MukthKarnataka as part of its poll strat-egy will bring Prime MinisterModi as a mascot to decimate thecongress. For ruling Congressand CM Siddaramaiah to retainpower in Karnataka is crucial tokeep its national identity.

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China on Monday hinted atno change in its policy of

blocking efforts to list JeM chiefMasood Azhar as a global ter-rorist during the second tenureof President Xi Jinping, as Beijingcontinued to harp on its famil-iar stand that there was no con-sensus among UN SecurityCouncil members.

A veto-wielding permanentmember of the Security Council,China has repeatedly blockedIndia's move to put a ban on theJaish-e-Mohammed chief underthe Al-Qaeda SanctionsCommittee of the Council. JeMhas already been in its bannedlist.

China had in Augustextended by three months itstechnical hold on the US, Franceand UK-backed proposal to listAzhar as a global terrorist by theUN after having blocked themove in February this year at theUnited Nations.

"We have made our positionclear many times from this podi-um. The relevant resolutions ofSecurity Council have clear stip-

ulations as to the mandate of1267 Committee and also clearstipulations when it comes to thelisting of relevant organisationsand individuals," ChineseForeign Ministry spokespersonHua Chunying told a mediabriefing.

Replying to questionswhether China will block the banon Azhar again when the 1267Committee of the UNSC takesup the issue on Thursday, Huasaid "as for listing application bythe relevant country, there aredisagreements". China's latesthold is due to lapse on Thursday.

India has identified Azhar asthe mastermind of the Pathankotterror attack on January 2, 2016.It has also blamed his brotherRauf and five others for carryingout the attack in which sevenIndian soldiers were killed.

Hua's remarks indicate thatChina will continue its policy toblock moves by India and othercountries led by US to list Azharas a global terrorist by the UNduring the second term ofPresident Xi.

Hua said that China had puta technical hold to allow for more

time for more parties to delib-erate on this matter.

"To our regret the commit-tee is so far yet to reach consen-sus," she said.

China in the past had askedIndia to discuss the issue direct-ly with Pakistan in order to reachan understanding.

In the last two years, Chinahas stonewalled efforts by Indiaand then later by the US, the UKand France to declare Azhar asa global terrorist, stating thatthere was no consensus on theissue. She also put up all famil-iar defence of Pakistan, shieldingit against criticism for shelteringterror groups.

"You mentioned Pakistan.Pakistan is also a victim of ter-rorism and we support Pakistanin countering terrorism in accor-dance with the its own nationalconditions," she said, addingthat China advocated interna-tional cooperation on combatingterrorism. On the Azhar issue,Hua said the UNSC resolutionshave clear stipulations when itcomes to the mandate of 1267Committee and the listing of ter-rorist groups and individuals.

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The Andhra Pradesh StateGovernment has given

responsibility to InternationalPrestigious ManagementConsultancy McKinsey &Company to guide, train andtransform Amaravati farmersequal to world class business-men who donated their lands,Chief Minister Chandra BabuNaidu has said.

While speaking on theoccasion of flagging off a train-ing programme to Amaravatifarmers in Singapore onMonday, the Chief Ministersaid, “It’s my responsibility tocreate opportunities for you.Utilising it is your responsibil-ity. Determination is importantrather having wealth. Once, 55years back, Singapore was afishermen den when Malaysiathrown them out from theircountry. Now, if you look atSingapore and Dubai, they arethe world business leaders.Amaravati and it's farmers arehaving much better opportu-nities when compared to ear-lier Singapore and Dubai.Everyone should take inspira-tion from those countries".

Recently, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan,founder of Aligarh MuslimUniversity (MohammedanAnglo-Oriental College),received fulsome tributes on

his 200th birth anniversary. Khan was adevotee of British rule even before theMutiny (1857) forced the Crown todirectly administer its Indian territories,hitherto held in trust by the East IndiaCompany, and make plans to safeguardits empire in India.

Civil servant AO Hume created theIndian National Congress in 1885 to con-trol the intellectual energies of a risingclass of educated Indians. Some yearslater, the Muslim League was nudged intoexistence to trigger Muslim separatismand contain the Hindu majority.

Having successfully used politicalIslam as a tool to instigate the Arab revoltagainst the Ottoman Empire, the Britishagain deployed it to surgically partitionIndia and protect their strategic and com-mercial interests in the oil-rich Gulf, Asia,and the Indian Ocean. Hence, the clientstate of Pakistan, which cannot survivewithout a powerful patron — currentlythe United States and China, whose con-flicting interests could tear it apart.

Baloch scholars have emerged asvocal critics of the Partition of India,which exposed them to unspeakableatrocities by Pakistan. Naseer Dashtiobserves that post-1857, the Britishmooted the theory of Muslims being aseparate nation to split India on religiousgrounds; they hired writers to promotethe ‘two-nation theory’ and helped set upreligious schools (madrasas) in differentparts of the country. Janmahmad saysthat in 1888, Syed Ahmad Khan, “aretired clerk and spy of the East IndiaCompany, was financed to open thefamous religious school in Aligarh andhe was officially portrayed as a greatMuslim intellectual”. Later, loyal Muslimswere united under the banner of the ‘AllIndia Muslim Conference’ which, alongwith the madrasas, propagated sepa-ratism and provided leaders and cadresfor Pakistan.

Britain used religion in the CentralAsian Khanates to instigate opposition tothe Russians in ‘The Great Game’ for con-trol of Central Asia. From the late 19thcentury, robust attempts were made tomobilise Muslims in Central and SouthAsia, Middle East and North Africa,against the infidels (Russians). After theBolshevik Revolution, whose anti-impe-rialist slant attracted Muslims, the targetbecame atheist socialists. London exploit-ed the latent desire of Muslims to estab-lish true Islam. Dashti says the terminol-ogy of Islamic Umma was twisted to cre-ate a pan-Islamic movement, for which

writers and activists were hired acrossIndia, Turkey, and Egypt.

Jamaluddin Afghani was one suchrecruit. Born in Kabul or Asadabad in1839, Afghani was the son of an EastIndia Company agent in Afghanistan. Aswith his birthplace, there is controversyabout his roots (possible Jewish orPersian Shi'ite links); but he preachedIslamic fundamentalism and is consid-ered to be the founder of modern polit-ical Islam. British experts Wilfrid SBlunt and Edward G Browne controlledAfghani and got him appointed to vari-ous important positions in Afghanistan,Turkey, Egypt and Iran. In 1869, he wassent to India to coordinate intellectualefforts on the “two-nation theory”, butwas withdrawn when he could not getalong with Syed Ahmad Khan and hisgroup. British manipulations placed him

in Cairo’s Al Azhar University where herecruited many students, most notablyMuhammad Abduh, founding ideologueof the Muslim Brotherhood Movement.

Afghani's colourful career took himto Paris, where his pan-Islamist circles,included Egyptians, Indians, Turks,Syrians, and North Africans, mostlyrecruited by the British military in Egyptand India. In 1885, Britain got Afghaniappointed as Persian Prime Minister, butafter being expelled for plotting to killKing Nasir ad-Din Qajar, he went toLondon in 1886 and helped to destabilisethe dynasty by recruiting Ayatollahsand other clerics; some powerfulAyatollahs and clerics ruling Iran since1979 are direct descendants of Afghani'srecruits. The recruits helped Britain todivide India on religious grounds. Theyalready had a blueprint in the partition

of Bengal in 1905. This was followed bythe creation of the Muslim League in1906. Dashti says the League comprisedloyal Muslims, British spies, and personswhose families served the East IndiaCompany. The League was empoweredthrough the introduction of separate elec-torates at the provincial level in 1909. TheCommunal Award in 1932 accentuatedthe communal divide, and the stage wasthus set for Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

The Quit India Movement cleared thepath for the Muslim League which open-ly supported Britain during the war.However, the League's links with the colo-nial state did not appeal to the majorityof Muslims and in the elections of 1937,the League failed to secure a majority votein any Muslim majority Province. Thisprompted London to quickly imposepartition on the country and securestrategic facilities such as the Karachi portand air bases in North West India forWestern imperial interests in the region.

On June 3, 1947, Viceroy LouisMountbatten announced the partition ofBritish India into India and Pakistan. TheProvinces of Punjab and Bengal weredivided and Pakistan created with themerger of Sindh and North-WesternFrontier Province; soon thereafter, BritishBalochistan was also annexed to the newIslamic state. Realpolitik thus madePakistan the first country to be createdon the pretext that people of one religioncannot live with people of another faith.The notion that religion constitutes anation defies all established norms ofnationhood. Janmahmad dubs this ide-ological foundation of Pakistan as super-fluous and without any historical truth.The people who invaded, ruled and set-tled in India from the 9th centuryonwards were a medley of Middle Easternand Central Asian nations and tribes whonever constituted a nation. Nationalidentity, he points out, derives from com-mon origins, common language, com-mon social values and traditions, com-mon history and territory - all of whichare absent in the case of Pakistan.

Yet this 'Allah given and British cre-ated' state was ushered in with unprece-dented speed, in just six years of moot-ing the Lahore resolution, and withoutany movement on behalf of the generalpopulace. Its entire 'national leadership'was exported from what remained ofIndia; its ideology was created by thecolonial power; its national language,Urdu, was not the lingua franca of anyconstituent province; and the population of regions included inPakistan was overwhelmingly against thecreation of Pakistan.

Given its flawed conception, Pakistanhad to be subservient to its Western mas-ters. Those who celebrate Syed AhmadKhan and other imperial minions mustrealise that they are upholding the con-tinued subordination, and lack of agency, of the Muslim world, even in the21st century.

(The writer is a political analyst andindependent researcher.)

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Much ado about nothing” (October27). Playing the national anthemshould be a matter of choice ratherthan compulsion, and the SupremeCourt has done well to rectify its ear-lier order in this regard. Patriotismis a matter of faith rather than law,and it would augur well if the citi-zens chose to practice it out of gen-uine goodwill rather than rules oflaw alone, be it at cinema halls,offices or homes.

Isha ShahVia email

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Much ado about nothing” (October27). The Supreme Court’s departurefrom its earlier order mandating cin-ema halls to play the nationalanthem before the screening of amovie is welcome. Indeed, patrio-tism is something that should be in-built, and that requires sincereefforts right from childhood — atschools and at home. One cannotforce others to think or behave in acertain way or challenge their lovefor the country. Widespread propa-ganda on singing and respecting thenational anthem is a better option.

Mahesh Kapsi Via email

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Gujarat goes to polls” (October26). With the ElectionCommission announcing thedates for election in Gujarat, a crit-

ical electoral battle for PrimeMinister Narendra Modi has beenflagged-off. In normal course,this round of polls should not havegarnered much attention given theBJP's political dominance since1998. However, recent develop-ments have stirred up a possibleupheaval in the State's politics.The grand old party has been ableto broker a loose alliance with thethree turks - Hardik Patel, AlpeshThakor and Jignesh Mavani.Surely, this alliance is giving theso-far unvanquished Modi-Shahduo jitters. The coming togetherof these three community leaderscan make it difficult for the BJPto continue its winning streak.

Though not politically damag-ing, some of the moral sheen wouldbe lost if the BJP wins the electionbut with a tally that hovers aroundthe two-third mark. The road to2019 in such a scenario wouldbecome thorny, not just externallybut also internally as proverbialknives will be out in the parivar.Even the Government will find thegoing rough because the Oppositionwould turn belligerent and the BJP'sallies will be more demanding.With the way things have takenshape, it seems Gujarat politics isgoing to see interesting times ahead.

KS Jayatheertha Bengaluru

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This refers to the article, “Child mar-riage: A cancer dealt with” (October31) by NHRC member JyotikaKalra; the views expressed thereinare personal.

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The Union Government,through the Niti Aayog, hasbegun the task of rating

Government hospitals based ontheir performance. As a part of theexercise, 734 district hospitals willbe rated and ranked on a range ofparameters that will help incentiviseperformance. The move comes inthe wake of growing realisation thatpublic health institutes do not havea common benchmark for measur-ing efficiency, success and impact.

Some of the performance metricsto be used include infrastructure-related standards like the number ofbeds, ratio of doctors etc, while alsousing operational performance para-meters like bed occupancy and infec-tion rates amongst others.

The Government’s efforts arewelcome as it will help benchmarkperformance and align it withappraisals and budgetary outlays foreach public health institution.Essentially, the Government seemsto be moving towards a Pay forPerformance (also known as P4P)regime for public institutions in theyears ahead. P4P has been in vogueacross the world with Governmentslooking to better quantify perfor-mance and have justifiable metricswhile allocating outlays.

Having said that, theGovernment should be mindful ofthe learnings in healthcare that P4Phas given over the years. The influ-ential New England Journal ofMedicine, in an article concluded,“Studies indicate limited evidencethat P4P works”. Similar results havebeen reported with other ‘outputfocused’ performance measures forhealth institutes which cited over-use,unnecessary tests and interventionsand falsification of records as dis-tressing outcomes of such a system.

Other systems of performance

measurement from the world overhave given multiple possible solu-tions. One such solution emergedfrom the Affordable Care Act 2010(or Obamacare) in the UnitedStates. As part the Government’sdrive to reduce healthcare costs,increase coverage and improvehealth and well-being, theAccountable Care Organisation(ACO) came into existence. UK-based King’s Fund describes ACO’sas institutions or collaborationsthat “involve a provider/s that col-laborate to meet the needs of adefined population”.

ACO’s are allocated budgetsunder a works contract which spec-ifies outcomes and other objectivesthat help improve the overall healthstatus of a predefined population.Through this model, hospitals, clin-ics, mental and social care serviceshave come together to offer com-prehensive preventive and curativemedicine to populations undertheir watch. ACO’s are mandated toreduce the risk of hospitalisations,reduce unnecessary hospital use,

conduct surveillance and betterunderstand health risks of the population manage people withlong-term condition and conductscreenings.

The United States, which fol-lowed faintly similar structuresthrough the Health MaintenanceOrganisation (HMO) and PreferredProvider Organisation (PPO)regimes, seem to have performedbetter through the ACO model. Inessence, ACOs help Governmentsallocate budgets for providers (in thiscase Government health institutesand their partners) to ensure healthand well-being of a pre-definedpopulation. Such a system marks adeparture from an output or outcomeled approach towards a holistichealth management strategy.

The ACO model is not limitedto the United States. Similar mod-els have been experimented incountries like Germany and theNetherlands. The journal HealthPolicy highlights a similar modelcalled Gesundes Kinzigtal (‘HealthyKinzigtal’) model in Southwest

Germany, which covers 31,000 peo-ple for full range of care.

In the Netherlands, healthinsurers are negotiating bundledpayments for a care group forchronic conditions such as heartdisease and diabetes. Similarly, theCanterbury Health System in NewZealand claims to have savedpatients more than a million daysof waiting for treatment in just fourclinical areas in recent yearsthrough an assured care system.The Canterbury model moved awayfrom the in-vogue ‘price/volume’schedule for determining budgets tovalue-based schedules. This helpedtheir system make a surplus of NZeight million dollars as a result.

These examples of varied sys-tems from across the world, fromthe highly privatised US system tothe single payer New Zealand sys-tem to the mixed social insurancemodel of Germany have all shownbenefits through the adoption ofaccountability-based performancemetrics. Such a model in Indiawould need a radical departure

from the current practice of budget-ing and resource allocation.

Given the constraints on theUnion Budget, any higher outlay forhealth, though much needed, seemsto be improbable at the moment.Additionally, the capacity of thehealth system to absorb funds itselfneeds further maturing and forti-fication. Pitched with this is theneed to increase access to care andensuring adequate coverage to therising threat of non-communicablediseases in our country.

Given these challenges, a systemthat ensures coverage, manages thehealthcare needs of a specific pop-ulation and is paid on the well-being of this population is oneworth trying. The healthcare needsof our country need a uniqueIndian solution. Learning fromexistent models and finding theIndian way is the way forward.

(The writer is general manager,Operation and Public Affairs,Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals. Hecan be reached [email protected])

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In Pakistan, madrassas are thebreeding grounds of terrorismand also for top leaders of differ-ent terrorist outfits over there.These madrassas work as facto-

ries to produce jihadists, including sui-cide bombers. Diverse factions havetheir own separate madrassas. Forexample, there are Sunni Ahl-e-Sunnat(Barelvi), Deobandi, Salafi, Wahhabiand Shia madrassas. Maximum num-bers of madrassas are controlled byDeobandi (65 per cent) and Barelvi (30per cent) factions. These madrassas ofdifferent sects not only spread hatredtowards each other but they are alsoinvolved in carrying out terroristactivities against other sects andexport terrorists abroad.

There is a close link between thesemadrassas and various jihadist outfitsand these jihadist organisations pro-duce and distribute literature full ofabhorrence and hatred towards otherreligions and sects, including Shiasand Sufis. The madrassas also preachthat ‘suicide bombers’ are jihadistswho would go to heaven.

Madrassas are mainly responsiblefor radicalisation of the Pakistanisociety. In 1947, when Pakistan wascarved out from India, there were only246 madrassas. However, at present,there are more than 28,000 registeredmadrassas, while the numbers ofunregistered madrassas are muchmore. As the number of madrassasenhance manifold, same way extrem-ism also increases leaps and bounds.According to rough estimates, abouthalf million to two million studentsare enrolled in these madrassas andmost of them are thoroughly radi-calised during their stay with thesereligious seminaries.

In most Islamic countries, theGovernment formulates the rules andregulations for these madrassas so thatthey do not produce jihadists. But inPakistan, whenever the Governmenttried to formulate policy to govern themadrassas, there was resistance andthe Government could not streamlinethe functioning of these seminaries.Large numbers of madrassas haverefused to register themselves with theGovernment. The Government’sefforts to introduce modern scientif-ic syllabus was resisted by madrassasas well as by Islamic parties. Thesemadrassas consider themselves abovelaw and most foreign students stayhere even after expiry of their visasand law enforcing authorities cannotarrest them till they are associatedwith the madrassas.

Most students join these reli-gious seminaries because of povertyas their parents cannot afford to sendthem in other educational institutions.Large numbers of madrassas not onlyprovide free education but also givethem free food and lodging. These

madrassas survive on aid, privatedonations and Waqf (religious dona-tions) as well as on the rent of land-ed properties attached to thesemadrassas. The Government alsogives some portion of zakaat (Islamicalms) to the madrassas controlled bythe Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)and other terrorist outfits like theLashkar-e-Tayyeeba, Jaish-e-Mohammed etc.

The Pakistani Army, which haswedged a low intensity war againstIndia and Afghanistan, also does notwant stringent restrictions on madras-sas, as the ISI as well as ISI-controlledterrorist organisations are recruitingsuicide bombers and other jihadistsfrom these madrassas. Besides stu-dents, criminals too are taking shel-ter in these madrassas as they are safein these religious seminaries. Hence,there are cases where residents of thesemadrassas were involved in kidnap-ping, pillage, loot and rape and alsoother monstrous crimes.

Large numbers of students, whenthey pass-out from the madrassas, donot get jobs as they are not qualifiedfor the same. The students just learnreciting of the Quran and Islamictenets which are not suffice to get job.When students do not get jobs, theybecome hostile towards society andjoin terrorist outfits.

Madrassas also teach hatredtowards India, Israel, Western coun-tries as well as towards other sects. Thestudents who come out from themadrassas are so radicalised that theytoo convert their family members,neighbours and many others into

extremism. The Jamaat-e-Islami,Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam and other polit-ical parties utilise the students andteachers of these madrassas for showof strength in demonstrations andprocessions.

Extremism has enhanced manifoldin society in Pakistan and sometimes,extremists force well-to-do-parents tosend their children in madrassas.Students of several other countries,including Afghanistan, few CentralAsian countries, Uygur Muslims fromChina, Muslims from South East Asiancountries and members of PakistaniDiaspora also join these madrassas.

The Government could not auditthe accounts of the madrassas whichare fomenting terrorism in the coun-try but it audited the accounts of allother educational institutions, includ-ing moderate schools. Madrassas allegethat the Government wants to controlthem on behest of the United States andother Western powers. As radicalisa-tion has enhanced in the country, alarge section of fanatic Muslims feelthat madrassas are essential for thespread of Islam and very soon they willestablish the Islamic State of Khorasan,for which several Muslim countries aredonating liberally.

The Islamic State (IS), which isfast losing ground in Syria and Iraq,very intelligently announced the for-mation of the Islamic State ofKhorasan Province (ISKP) in January2015. The ISKP, which represents theSalafi school of thought, gave a newimpetus to hard-core extremistMuslims all over the world, especial-ly in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The

IS has influence in India andBangladesh too, although at present,it is in infancy stage but if not givendue attention it may enhance. Oncethe ISKP was constituted, terrorists ofdiverse outfits joined the organisationand its influence in radicalisedPakistan increased manifold.

According to an estimate, the IShas about 20,000 cadres in Pakistanand Afghanistan and large number ofthem studied in madrassas. Thesemadrassas have brain-washed them upto the extent that they are convincedthat soon the ISKP would be estab-lished in South Asia and whole regionwould be governed by Sharia’h laws.These madrassas also assist terroriststo distribute leaflets and pamphlets inUrdu, Pashtu and Persian languagesto attract young jihadists.

Terrorism has damaged Pakistanand the economic condition is inshambles. Export is declining andpublic debt has crossed �18 trillion,which is hazardous. Population growthof the country is the highest in theregion. In the world arena, Pakistan ismarginalised because of terrorism. USSecretary of State, Rex Tillerson, alsothreatened Pakistan to root out terror-ists from safe-heavens otherwise the USwill have to take drastic action.

The Pakistani Government mustchalk out a comprehensive plan toderadicalise the society, and for this,reforms in madrassas are essential.First, madrassas must be registeredand their accounts should be thor-oughly audited by competent author-ities. Funding of these madrassasmust be verified and approved by theGovernment. The curriculum of thesemadrassas should be checked andmodern scientific education should beincluded in the syllabus. Educationshould be job oriented so that whenstudents pass out from these madras-sas, they get respectable jobs and arenot attracted by false propaganda ofterrorist organisations. ModerateMuslim clerics should be appointed inthese madrassas and instead ofextremism they should teach goodpoints of Islam and acts of terroristsmust be condemned. They should betold that killing of innocent personseven of different religion and sectsdoes not constitute jihad.

According to reports, severalMuslim countries finance thesemadrassas as per their ideology whichaugments division in the society. TheGovernment must put stringentrestrictions on the funding of themadrassas on the basis of sects andsub-sects. The military-controlled ISI,which also runs several madrassas,and from where they send jihadists toIndia and Afghanistan, should beclosed as the madrassas are harmingmore to Pakistan then to the neigh-bouring countries. Pakistan securityagencies should also chalk out a planto handle large number of battle-hard-ened madrassas educated terroristswho would be returning from Syriaand Iraq as the IS is fighting a lost bat-tle in these countries.

(The writer is member, UnitedServices Institute of India, and Institutefor Defence Studies and Analyses)

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NEW DELHI:Accounting f irmAshok Maheshwary& Associates LLPwas recently rankedas a tier-2 companyin transfer pricingand tier-3 in tax inIndia.

The companyspecialises in advisingclients on complextransactions from atax and regulatoryperspective integrat-ed with industry expertise.

Amit Maheshwari,Managing Partner, AshokMaheshwary and AssociatesLLP, was nominated for ‘AsiaTransfer Pricing Leader of theYear’ category. The rankingsare conducted by InternationalTax Review – a reputed pub-lisher based out of London,which ranks tax firms in 50jurisdictions.

Speaking on the rankingsMaheshwari said, “We arehumbled to be ranked as high-ly as we have. These are inter-national rankings with the

best accounting andlaw firms in Indiabeing considered.We have an experi-ence of over 36 yearsacross varied sectorsand our core practiceareas include corpo-rate finance, jointventures & restruc-turing, internationaltax, direct and indi-rect tax, dispute res-olution, transactionadvisory etc.”

In 2016, the company wasnominated in two prestigiouscategories ‘Best NewcomerFirm in Asia’ and ‘NationalTransfer Pricing Firm’ at theAsia Tax Awards. In the sameyear, the firm got ranked as atier-2 firm in transfer pricingin India and tier-3 firm in taxin India.

The accounting firm’soffices are located inGurugram, New Delhi,Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore andHyderabad. It has a well-spunnet of local and internationalassociates. PNS

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NEW DELHI: Unable to reacha common ground on theshare-swap ratio agreement,IDFC Ltd on Monday said theproposed merger betweenIDFC Group and ShriramGroup has been called off.

In July, infrastructure lenderIDFC, which entered the bank-ing space in 2015, and PiramalGroup's financial services firmShriram entered an agreementfor a merger plan to create thelargest retail-focussed bank inthe country. “This is to informyou that despite best efforts,IDFC Group and ShriramGroup have not been able toreach common ground on amutually acceptable swap ratiofor the merger,” IDFC Ltd saidin a regulatory filing.

Following this, it said, boththe parties have agreed to call offdiscussions on a “potential merg-er and the exclusivity period pur-suant to the CES Agreemententered into between the con-cerned parties stands terminat-ed with immediate effect.”

There was a period of 90-days to explore merger optionsbetween the two entities. As perthe plans, almost all key busi-nesses of the Shriram Groupwere to be merged with eitherIDFC Bank or IDFC.

Analysts had alreadyraised doubts on this plansaying it would not be easy tomerge them given the RBI’sreluctance to allow corporateentity entering into bankingsector as well as its norms cap-ping promoters' stake to under10 per cent. They also citedPiramal Group’s large and suc-cessful real estate business asanother hurdle. PNS

MUMBAI: Market found itselfconquering a fresh peak forthe fourth session on Monday,with the Sensex jumping 109points, as state-owned lendersextended a rally and earningsoptimism played out.

The surge in buying inter-est took the 50-share Niftyabove 10,350 at the close.

The PSB stocks have beenon a roll, especially since lastlast week, driven by theGovernment's mega �2.11-lakh crore recapitalisationplan and encouraging quar-terly earnings by more blue-chip companies.

The BSE 30-share Sensexrallied to a new all-time intra-day high of 33,340.17, sur-passing its previous record of33,286.51 hit on October 27.But it lost ground due toprofit-booking and settled ata new closing peak of33,266.16, up 108.94 points,

or 0.33 per cent. The previous record close

was 33,157.22 on Friday. In sixdays, the index has gained876.19 points. For the NSENifty too, the intra-day read-ing was a new high of10,384.50, bettering its recordof 10,366.15 on Friday.However, it closed at 10,363.65,still a new high, up by 40.60points, or 0.39 per cent.

In the process, it went pastthe earlier record of 10,343.80reached on October 26.

“Strengthening rupee andaffirming signs of recovery indomestic earnings seasoncontinued to lift the market.Infra, PSU banks and autostocks are performing welldue to the stimulus packageand likely good sales data dueto festival demand,” saidVinod Nair, Head ofResearch, Geojit FinancialServices Ltd.

“On the global front,market participants are like-ly to stay conservative aheadof the two-day FOMC meet-ing f rom 31 October.”Domestic energy stocks livedit up, with Brent crude soar-ing to its highest level sinceJuly 2015, after Saudi Arabiaagreed to support the exten-sion of a global oil productioncut agreement. PTI

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NEW DELHI: Maximum retailprice of goods must include theGST component to effectivelyaddress consumer complaintsthat some retailers charge the newindirect tax on MRP of products,a high-level panel of state financeministers has recommended.

The Group of Ministers(GoM), headed by AssamFinance Minister Himanta BiswaSarma, has in its recommenda-tion to the GST Council on eas-ing compliance burden on smalland medium enterprises sug-gested that the Governmentmake it amply clear in the pre-sent law that MRP is the maxi-mum price of a product to besold in retail and charging any-thing above this is an offence.

This rule, sources said, mustbe applicable to establishmentslike restaurants, eateries andmalls that sell packaged goodssuch as bottled beverages whichalready carry an MRP, but atsome places, a GST is chargedover and above that MRP.

However, businesses whileuploading the invoice to theGovernment in filing returns andpaying taxes can separately showthe GST component and the sell-ing price of the product.

“We have suggested thatwhen businesses issue invoice toconsumers, the MRP should beinclusive of GST. The bifurcationin tax collection and sale pricecan be shown in the invoicewhile paying taxes to the

Government,” sources said.In Guwahati on November

10, the GST Council, chairedby Union Finance MinisterArun Jaitley and comprisinghis state counterparts, is like-ly to take up the recommen-dations of the GoM, which wasset up earlier this month.

Among other things, theGoM also suggested loweringthe fees for delayed filing ofreturns to �50 a day from �100.Also, the panel pitched forextending the quarterly filing ofreturns facility to all taxpayers.Currently, businesses withturnover of up to �1.5 crore areallowed to file returns and paytaxes every quarter. It also sug-gested further simplificationin return filing process, HSNCode and invoice matching.

The major recommenda-tion of the GoM includes slash-ing tax rate to 1 per cent formanufacturers and restaurantswhile easing norms for tradersopting for it. PNS

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NEW DELHI: The Governmenton Monday extended the duedate by a month for filing of JulyGSTR-2 to November 30 andGSTR-3 to December 11.

GSTR-2 or purchase returnshave to be matched with GSTR-1 which is the sales return. Theoriginal due date for filing GSTR-2 was October 31, while the lastdate for filing of GSTR-3, whichis a matching form of GSTR-1and 2, was November 11.

The last date for filing ofGSTR-1 for July was October 1.Over 46.54 lakh businesses hadfiled July GSTR-1 returns. Theextension will facilitate about30.81 lakh taxpayers for filingGSTR-2 for the month of July,2017, the finance ministry saidin a statement.

“The competent authorityhas approved the extension offiling of GSTR-2 for July, 2017to November, 2017, for facil-itation of businesses and alltaxpayers,” it said.

Businesses have been com-plaining of problems in match-ing invoices, while filing GSTR-2 on the GST Network portal.This is the first month of filingGSTR-2. The extension of lastdate for filing will act as abreather for them as well asGSTN which can further stream-line the utilities on the portal.

The GoM under BiharDeputy Chief Minister SushilKumar Modi had last weekflagged issues faced by taxpay-ers in filing GSTR-2 and askedInfosys and GST Network tostreamline the system. PNS

NEW DELHI: Bharti Telecom,promoter firm of BhartiAirtel, will acquire addition-al 4.62 per cent at market pricein the telecom major on orafter November 3, as per a reg-ulatory filing.

Bharti Telecom will acquire184,710,183 equity shares ofBharti Airtel from anotherpromoter firm of the telecommajor, Indian ContinentInvestment Limited (ICIL), atprice of �417.35 per sharederived with weighted averagemarket price of 60 days tradingperiod, as per the filing.

With this above transac-tion, Bharti Telecom stake inthe company will increase to50.1 per cent in Bharti Airtelfrom 45.48 per cent and ICILstake will come down to 2.03per cent.

“The Acquirer confirmsthat the acquisition price wouldnot be higher by more than 25per cent of the price comput-ed in point 6 (which is �417.35a unit),” the filing said. PNS

NEW DELHI: The Commerce Ministry has askedexporters to strictly adhere to sanitary and phyto-sanitary norms, saying that non-compliancecould damage the image of the country.

In a trade notice, the Directorate General ofForeign Trade (DGFT) also said that action wouldbe taken against exporters for non-compliance ofthese rules which pertain to food safety and ani-mal and plant health requirements. The warningfollows a complaint received from the agricultureministry with regard to non-compliance with glob-al norms. It said that the Department ofAgriculture “|has brought to the notice of thisdirectorate about various instances of non-com-pliance of sanitary/phyto-sanitary measures by

Indian exporters while exporting goods”.“Importing countries have been making

complaints against Indian exporters, whichamounts to disrepute to the image of the countryand that can adversely impact the interest of otherexporters as well as of the country as a whole,” itadded. The action for not following these rulescould include monetary fine or suspension andcancellation of trade licence.

Sanitary and phyto-sanitary measures cameinto force with the establishment of the WorldTrade Organisation (WTO) on January 1, 1995.It concerns the applications of food safety and ani-mal and plant health regulations. India is sig-natory to this agreement. PTI

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M U M B A I : R e l i a n c eCommunications (RCOM) onMonday offered a comprehen-sive debt-resolution plan to itsdomestic and foreign lenders,saying it will not involve any loanwrite-off by the lenders.

“RCOM's debt resolutionplan envisages no loan write-offby the lenders. RCOM will payoff up to �17,000 crore of its debt,out of the proceeds of moneti-sation of spectrum, towers andfiber and MCN (MediaConvergence Nodes) assets,” acompany statement said here.

“RCOM will pay additional�10,000 crore of its debt, out ofthe proceeds of sales and com-mercial development of DAKC(Dhirubhai Ambani KnowledgeCity) and other prime real estateassets across 8-metros. The newRCOM will have sustainableand profitable B2B - non mobilebusiness,” it added.

It said the company isworking closely with SBICapital Markets Limited, theadvisors appointed by thelenders, to run a competitive

process in a transparent man-ner to monetise the spectrum,tower and fiber, MCNs andprime real estate assets.

“The company has valu-able spectrum across800/900/1800/2100 MHz spec-trum bands ideally suited for4G and other evolving tech-nologies. While the companywill continue with its 4Gfocused strategy, it plans tomonetise its holding throughtrading and sharing arrange-ments,” the statement added.

The company will also mon-etise its extensive tower andfiber portfolio comprising of43,000 plus towers and over1,78,000 route kilometre of inter-city and intracity fiber, it said.RCOM's monetisation plan alsoincludes its 248 MCN propertieslocated across the country andprime real estate assets located atNew Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai,Hyderabad and Kolkata.

Regarding conversion ofdebt, the statement said: “Debtof �7,000 crore is proposed tobe converted into 51 per cent

of the company's equity, as perthe SDR (strategic debt restruc-turing) guidelines of theReserve Bank of India.Shareholders of the company atthe annual general meetingheld on September 26, 2017have already approved issuanceof equity shares to lenders byconversion of loans.”

The statement said thecompany's transformationjourney is focused on viable,sustainable and profitable B2Bbusinesses with a strongdomestic and global footprint.

“RCOM's B2B businessportfolio comprises Enterprise,Carrier, Internet Data Centreand global submarine cablenetwork in India and overseasacross continents. New RComwill rank among the Top 3 dataplayers in India.”

It said these B2B busi-nesses are stable, capital lightand have sustained and pre-dictable annuity revenues andprofits, with immense growthpotential amidst low compet-itive intensity. PTI

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The more than 100 suicides of teenagers allover the world from the Blue WhaleChallenge, including several in India,

show the dark underbelly of the digital age.Immersive technologies like virtual reality andaugmented reality have the power to hypnotizeimpressionable youngsters, transporting them toan alternate universe where taking one’s life isnothing but a game.

Online challenges like Blue Whale andPokemon are compelling due to several reasons.Players operate from behind a cover of secrecyand anonymity. They lose themselves in the vir-tual world and become disconnected from the“here and now” of the real world. There is aphased progression to higher levels, with a senseof achievement and reward in successfullycrossing each hurdle.

The moderator engages the gamer througha range of communication styles – initial sym-pathetic listening ear and engaging the gamer,remarks of appreciation, subtle snide remarks ifthe gamer shows lack of willingness to engage,encouraging remarks to progress through to thenext stage and the regular nudges to keep play-ing. The desire to move up the ladder is stokedby various cues on dashboard like rankings, com-petition metrics and notifications. The playershave an urge to be a part of an accomplishedgroup of people who bested the game.

Why are youngsters willing to commit sui-cide for a mere game? This could be because thevictims were already emotionally vulnerable, andthe game only acted as a trigger. The online uni-verse offers a degree of ‘normalisation.’ Thegamers come in touch with like-minded individ-uals and begin to think ‘I am not alone with thesefeelings and can be part of this group.’

Adolescents are the most vulnerable agegroup which harm themselves trying to meetthese online challenges. They are at a suscepti-ble phase in the life cycle and are subject to peerpressures and longing for being accepted by oth-ers. This is fully taken advantage of by the gamemoderator who plays a dominant role, derivinga sadomasochistic pleasure by inflicting pain onthe victim under the anonymity and secrecy ofthe online world.

Parents and teachers should be aware of thisdigital phenomenon that impacts the life of chil-dren so hard. Watch out for any abrupt changein their behavior and daily routine, such as iso-lating themselves, spending longs hours online,secretive behavior, mood swings, self-esteemissues and self-inflicted wounds. Be open andapproachable and develop a genuine curiosity inthe interests and passions of your children.Encourage them to be open about their feelingsand speak to teachers, friends, family and peers,rather than seek solace in the online world fortheir inner struggles. Educate children about thedark side of the Internet and dos and don’ts.

It is only natural to blame the Internet anddigital age and brand the phenomenon of BlueWhale as the problem of iGen or Generation Z.This truly isn’t the case. If we were to look back,we will find similar phenomena happening in allages, as human vulnerabilities and emotionsremain the same.

The Blue Whale Challenge is an ongoing,malevolent social experiment targeting theiGen. There is nothing that stops the creatorsfrom developing similar games to attract peo-ple of other age groups. A fresh risk hasemerged with the new anonymised applicationcalled Sarahah which can complement theexisting social media platforms and have a mul-tiplier effect. It is essential for the Governmentto monitor the Internet and ensure it is a safeplace for children.

Atopic dermatitis is an inflammatory skin disorder. Itoften affects the face, trunk, back of the knee and thefront of the elbow. It affects millions of people world-

wide — most notably children. The saving grace is that a major-ity of children get over the disorder, over time. However, theeczematous ‘mayhem’ may continue to exist in 2-3 per centof children in their adult life.

There are various forms of eczema — contact dermatitis,atopic dermatitis, photodermatitis (caused by sun allergy), sta-sis dermatitis (caused by poor circulation) and neurodermati-tis (caused by stress), among others. Contact dermatitis occurswhen substances, or chemicals, such as detergents, certainshampoos, over-the-counter (OTC) cosmetics, or strong hairdyes, including jewellery, affect the skin, triggering the aller-gic reaction. The atopic form relates to a genetic tendency foreczema. It occurs primarily in individuals who have a strongfamily history of allergy. It can also sometimes co-exist with

allergic rhinitis (hay fever)and asthma.

�����Research suggests that

the condition may be aconsequence of several fac-tors working together,including prolonged emo-tional stress. However, thefact remains that the disor-der is not contagious. Itdoes not spread from oneperson to another, as maybe the popular opinion.

����� ��The most frequent are

itchiness of the skin andparched appearance, some-times with scaly spots.These may crack, becomered or inflamed, leading toinfection. In addition, theskin may break on the sur-face, thanks to bacterial

assault. This is highlighted by the presence of a colourless or‘sticky’ fluid — along with crusts and scabs. It is called ‘wet’or ‘weeping’ eczema.

���)A����Here are a few things you need to keep in mind if you are

suffering from atopic dermatitis:�Opt for breathable cotton fabrics. Avoid clothes and bed-

covers made of synthetics, wool, silk, or any other material;they may irritate your skin.

�Avoid hot water baths; use lukewarm water instead. Don’trub with towel; pat dry after bath

�Keep finger nails short — this helps to prevent skin dam-age when you scratch

�Wipe sweat away, after work-out, or playing sport, witha damp cloth; shower, and pat dry, after you ‘cool down’

�Eat a balanced diet. Include berries, which are rich inantioxidants and Vitamin C; carrots for their high beta-carotene (which helps the body produce skin-centric vitaminA); and, avocados for their vitamin E and B-complex to hydratethe skin

�Incorporate relaxation techniques, such as yoga, or med-itation — because, eczema can get worse with stress, or anx-iety

�Follow-up with your professional homeopathic doctoron a regular basis.

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Star Health and Allied Insurance hasrecently launched Star Cancer CareGold — a first-of-its-kind health

insurance for persons already diagnosedwith cancer.

The cover up to �5 lakh to anyonebetween the age of five months and 65years who have already had stage 1 and2 disease.

The plan covers risk of recurrence,

spread of cancer (metastasis) and secondcancer (second malignancy). The plan alsocovers cost of regular hospitalisationexpenses for non-cancer related ailments.

A unique feature of the insurance pol-icy is that it can be bought without priormedical screening. Customers can submitprevious medical records, including detailsof latest treatment, along with their pro-posal forms.

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I see a lot of young peoplespending hours looking forlotions and methods to get

rid of a tan. Usually, a darkerskin colour is common to sum-mer months, people inwinters get tannedtoo because of sit-ting in the sun tokeep warm.Instead of goingfor expensivetreatments, hereare a few homeremedies that willhelp. Not only are theingredients easy to find inthe kitchen, they are easy to fol-low.

�One of the easiest ways toget rid of the tan is to uselemon. The citric acid helpslighten the tanned skin. Applya mixture of lemon juice andsalt over the tanned area, leaveit on for 10 minutes and rinsewith cold water. In a few days

you will see a difference. Onecan also use lemon juice andcucumber juice.

�Almonds have manyhealth benefits. They are good

for removing tan as well.Soak five-six almonds

overnight in water.Add some milk andmake a smooth pastethe next morning.Apply this paste onthe tanned area and

leave it overnight.Wash off with cold

water the next morning.�Potatoes work wonders

too. Take three medium-sizedpotatoes, peel the skin, put it ina blender and make a paste.Apply this paste on your handsand leave it on for about 30minutes. Wash with cold water.Do this regularly for results.

Potatoes contains anenzyme — catecholase — thatlighten the skin tone.

����������Tanning is a problem that is not

just restricted to summers. With theon-set of winters, here are a few

simple home remedies that can befollowed to get rid of the tan and

gave a glowing skin, saysROSHANI DEVI

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Astroke takes place whenthe blood supply to a

part of the brain is cut off.Without blood, brain cells getdamaged and die. The sever-ity of stroke depends onwhich part of the brain isaffected and how quickly theperson is treated. A strokecan affect a person’s mobili-ty, speech, ability to think,feel and analyse.

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���������������� ��Physiotherapy: This is

an important part of the reha-bilitation process. The mainfocus of is to move the legsand arms again and regain asmuch strength and move-ment as possible.

Behavioural treatment:It is important to ensure thata stroke patient is encouragedand supported. Making thema part of a support group isone way to enable them tohandle their emotions.Enabling them communicatewith people who have similarconditions is important andeffective.

Medical documentation:Ensuring that the patients’medical needs are taken careof in an effective manner isvery important.

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Factors Hypertensioncan increase the risk

of stroke two fold. Thisis because it can narrowthe blood vessels causingthem to rupture or leak.

�Smoking is knownto cause stroke as it leadsto increased blood pres-sure which can cause theblood to clot.

�Diabetes doublesyour risk of having astroke and is a con-tributing factor for 20%of the strokes.

�Low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL) carries cholesterol (a fatty sub-stance) through the blood which causes blockage. The build of plaque in thearteries makes it difficult for the blood to carry the oxygen to the brain.

�Obesity and overweight are the primary risk factors for stroke for menand woman of all races.

�One major factor which causes high blood pressure is stress. It causes theblood vessels to narrow and can increase chances of blood clots and heart attacksand stroke.

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Stroke is due to impairment ofblood circulation to brain mani-

festing in form of facial deviation orslurring of speech or weakness,numbness, incordination, imbal-ance of one side of body sometimesudden dizziness, vomiting, visualimpairment may also be manifesta-

tion of stroke.Heart attack, on the other hand,

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An artery may rupture andcause bleeding into thebrain tissue , Also called acerebral haemorrhage

Ischaemic Stroke:Caused by atherosclerosis.An artery may becomeblocked by progressivethickening of its walls

Ischaemic Stroke:Caused by embolism. Aclot blocks an artery andprevents blood from gettinginto the parts of the brain.

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It is imperative for a stroke patient to get to the hospital in the ‘GoldenPeriod’ i.e. within first 4.5 hours of the stroke (the sooner the better). This

is because clot busting medication will be effective if administered within 4.5hours of stroke on set. For every minute in which the blood flow is notrestored, nearly two million additional nerve cells die. Hence, it is importantthat patient should reach an equipped stroke centre as early as possible.

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Riyadh: Saudi Arabia will allowwomen into sports stadiums forthe first time from next year,authorities have said, in a landmark move opening upthree previously male-onlyvenues to families.

The ultra-conservativekingdom, which has some ofthe world’s tightest restrictionson women, has long barredwomen from sports arenas bystrict rules on segregation of thesexes in public. Sunday’sannouncement is in line withpowerful Crown PrinceMohammed bin Salman’s ambi-tious reforms shaking up the

kingdom, including the historicdecision to allow women todrive from next June.

“Starting the preparation ofthree stadiums in Riyadh,Jeddah and Dammam to beready to accommodate families from early 2018,” theGeneral Sports Authority saidon Twitter. Restaurants, cafesand video screens would be setup inside the venues, theauthority added.

Last month hundreds ofwomen were allowed to enter asports stadium in Riyadh, usedmostly for football matches, ina one-off event to celebrate

Saudi Arabia’s national day.The announcement implies

that women in Saudi Arabiawill be allowed for the first timeto attend sporting events insidestadiums alongside men.

Under the country’sguardianship system, a malefamily member — normally thefather, husband or brother —must grant permission for awoman’s study, travel and otheractivities. But the kingdomappears to be relaxing somenorms as part of its sweeping“Vision 2030” for economicand social reforms as it pre-pares for a post-oil era. AFP

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Catalonia’s civil servantsreturned to work on

Monday for the first time sinceSpain’s Central Governmentrejected an independence dec-laration by imposing directcontrol, as Madrid warned thatsacked regional leaders facecriminal charges if they attemptto perform any official duties.

Catalans watched and won-dered whether the ousted lead-ers would defy their firing andface arrest, escalating a politi-cal crisis that already appears tohave no easy way out.

Speculation raged aboutthe whereabouts of the dis-missed Catalan PresidentCarles Puigdemont and hisdeposed Cabinet, whose reac-tion will be key to whetherMadrid’s takeover will besmooth or face opposition.

As staff arrived at the head-quarters of the CatalanGovernment in Barcelona,Puigdemont posted a photo onInstagram of a courtyard at thebuilding. Both the Catalan andSpanish national flags waved

from the top of the building.The ambiguous Instagram

post, accompanied by thewords “Good morning” inCatalan and a smiley emoticon,left many guessing whetherPuigdemont was inside thebuilding. There was no indi-cation of when the photo wastaken. As dozens of journalists,curious onlookers andbemused tourists gathered inthe square outside the GothicGovernment palace in central

Barcelona, residentsexpressed confusion about whowas actually in charge ofCatalonia. “I don’t know, theCatalan government says theyare in charge, but the Spanishgovernment says they are,” saidCristina Guillen, an employee ina nearby bag shop. “So I have noidea, really. “What I really thinkis that nobody is in charge rightnow,” she said. At least one por-trait of Puigdemont was stillhanging on a wall inside theCatalan Government’s Gener-ali-tat building. Puigdemont is like-ly to be accused of rebellion onMonday for pushing ahead withsecession.

Seoul: South Korea says anyfuture nuclear test by NorthKorea risks collapsing its moun-tain test site and triggering aradiation leak. South Korea’sweather agency chief Nam Jae-Cheol made the commentstoday during a parliament com-mittee meeting. He wasresponding to a lawmaker’squestion about whether anoth-er North Korean test could leadto such an accident. Southdetected several earthquakesnear the North’s nuclear test sitein the country’s northeast afterits 6th and most powerful bombexplosion in September. AP

Singapore: Singapore has banned two foreign Islamic preach-ers from entering the country for preaching “segregationist anddivisive teachings” unacceptable in its multi-racial and multi-reli-gious society, the Government said on Monday.

The decision was taken in consultation with the IslamicReligious Council of Singapore (MUIS), Singapore Tourism Boardand Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore.

Ismail Menk, a Zimbabwean and Haslin Baharim, aMalaysian, will not be allowed to enter Singapore, the Ministryof Home Affairs said. The move came after they preached on areligious-themed cruise departing and ending in Singapore fromNovember 25 to 29 last year, Channel News Asia reported. PTI

Abu Dhabi: Iran’s nuclear dealwith world powers may hang inthe balance, but you wouldn’tknow it at the United Nationsconference on atomic energyheld on Monday in the UnitedArab Emirates.

Iran decided to skip theAbu Dhabi conference, leavingits seats empty as YukiyaAmano, the head of theInternational Atomic EnergyAgency, avoided speakingabout the nuclear deal at all inhis address at the venue.

Iranian officials did notrespond to a request for com-ment to discuss their decisionto avoid the conference.

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President Donald Trump’sformer campaign chairman

Paul Manafort and his(Manafort’s) former businessassociate Rick Gates have beenindicted on charges of conspir-acy against the United States,money laundering, tax fraudand other financial crimes.

In what was the first indict-ment launched in the wake ofSpecial Counsel RobertMueller’s probe on allegedRussian meddling in the 2016US presidential poll, the twomen have been targeted formoneys made through lobby-ing from the former pro-Russiaparty that was in power inUkraine. Both of them surren-dered to the FBI on Monday.

Separately, GeorgePapadopoulos, a former foreignpolicy adviser to the Trumpcampaign, is reported to havepleaded guilty in the first weekof October to making falsestatements to FBI regarding hismeeting with a Russian contact.

President Trump, in hisfirst reaction on Twitter, soughtto distance his campaign fromthe charges against Manafort,saying these related to yearsbefore he joined his campaign.Asserting there has been no col-lusion between his campaignand the Russians, Trump said it

is “Crooked Hillary (Clinton)and the Dems” who ought to bethe focus of the probe.

Trump fired the 68-year-oldManafort in August last year,after a five-month stint, whenword about his covert lobbyingfor pro-Russian interests inUkraine first came to light.

Both Manafort and Gatesface a 12-count indictmentthat talks of money launderingto the tune of millions of dol-lars. It alleges that they movedmore than $75 million throughsecret bank accounts in Cyprus,St. Vincent and Grenadinesand the Seychelles. Manaforthas been accused of launderingmore than $18 million.

While the indictmentagainst the two men said noth-ing about the Russian interfer-ence in the US presidentialrace, reports citing prosecutorssaid the guilty plea entered byPapadopoulos earlier thismonth was about lying to theFBI about his contact with a

Russian professor who had tiesto Kremlin officials.

There was no immediateword from Trump or the WhiteHouse regardingPapadopoulos’s guilty plea, butformer US Attorney PreetBharara tweeted: “SpecialCounsel Mueller appears tohave a cooperating witness,George Papadopoulos. That issignificant. Time will tell howsignificant.”

The indictment againstManafort and Gates, filed in aWashington federal court,speaks of conspiracy against theUnited States, conspiracy tolaunder money, acting as anunregistered foreign agent andseveral charges related to fail-ing to report foreign bank andfinancial accounts.

The Associated Press report-ed that Manafort also repre-sented a Russian billionaire adecade ago with the goal ofadvancing the interests ofRussian President VladimirPutin. The news agency said theWhite House declined to com-ment on the report, while aspokesman for Manafort did notimmediately return calls or textmessages requesting comment.

“Manafort used his hiddenoverseas wealth to enjoy a lav-ish lifestyle in the United Stateswithout paying taxes on thatincome,” the indictment said.

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Make a style statement on yourwedding day by embracing tat-

toos. Who says you have to hide themwith makeup or cover with your out-fit when you can proudly wear them?Tattoos, after all, are an illustratedstory of your inner being.

More women are opting for bodyart to reflect their personalities, keylife incidents and memories etchedforever. So on their big day,they are keen to make it apart of their ceremoniallook. In fact, the bridallook and outfit are beingworked out on the basis ofa tattoo in most cases.“Tattoos are usually sym-bols and geometric pat-terns. Inking names is notthe first choice at a timewhen frequent break-upsare the order of the day.Some adventurous brides are askingfor the name calligraphy immediate-ly before the wedding day to surprisetheir partners,” says Mickey Malani ofBodyCanvas Tattoos and Piercings.Others play it safe by opting for some-thing that resembles the person theyare getting married to. “We had a cou-ple where the bride got a cupcakemotif cause that’s what she called herwoul husband,” adds Malani.“There is a need to start looking at anyform of body art as a beautiful way toexpress oneself instead of dismissingit as a display of wild side or a rebel-lion against societal norms. Hopefullypeople in our country would stopworrying about tattoos or piercings astaboo and start accepting them as self-adornment.”

Another tattoo artist VikasMalani says, “Brides today are readyfor something unconventional whenit comes to their wedding. They aremore self-expressive and believe inflaunting even when it comes to theirtattoos. Some of them feel it’s betterthan a ring.”

Boldness is more beautiful thanthe beauty. “That’s what brides todaybelieve. They are always looking forsomething out of the box for their

wedding. Getting a tattoodedicated to their spous-es during their marriage issomething we see a lotnowadays,” says tattooartist Sudhir Rao.

Designer Anu PDreveals the ways a bridecan flaunt her ink and staytrendy at the same time,“A bride is a queen for thenuptial day. So she must

tell her story. And what better way todo it than sport a tattoo. Some cleverways to show tattoos — cutouts atstrategic places, wearing low-cutnecks or having slits on legs orthighs. One can also try off-shoulderkurtis and fringes to showcase bodyart. Additionally, cold shoulders andracerbacks can be employed to tell thetattoo story.”

Busting myths, the traditionallehenga can be just as complementary.“Indian brides with a tattoo on theirnecks or backs can pick a lehenga orsaree with a netted dupatta thatshows the tattoo(s) on their backseven with a dupatta draped over theirheads. If one is wearing a gown, picka backless one, or with a sheer backto show one’s tattoos proudly. Adeep neckline is a good option if youwant a tattoo on your chest to be seen.A sweetheart neckline complementsbrides whether they choose to weartraditional or western. If you have putin a lot of effort and passion into get-ting a sleeve tat, pick a flowing hal-ter gown in elegant silk,” advisesMalani.

If you are one badass bride, thenconfidently pull off and flaunt thatincredible ink and be a head-turner.

Nawazuddin Siddiqui finallydecides to withdraw his book,

An Extraordinary Life: A Memoirand apologised on Twitter.

Siddiqui wrote, “I m apologis-ing to everyone who’s sentiments arehurt because of the chaos aroundmy memoir #AnOrdinaryLifeIhereby regret and decide to with-draw my book.”

This decision came in theawake of several people accusinghim of fabricating stories for pub-licity. ) Former beauty queenNiharika Singh was upset that herMiss Lovely co-star NawazuddinSiddiqui did not take her consentbefore sharing their personal equa-tion with the world in his memoir.She says the way he has “painted”her image, it appears he doesn'tmind disrespecting a woman toboost the sales of his book.

In a statement, Niharika said,“Nawaz and I had a brief relation-ship in 2009 during the making ofMiss Lovely that lasted less than afew months. So today, when hepaints me as a woman in fur entic-ing him into her bedroom with can-dles, or desperately calling him andmailing other women on his behalf,I can only laugh. He obviouslywants to sell his book and it wouldappear that he is willing to exploitand disrespect a woman just to doso.”

Yesterday, a Delhi-based advo-cate has registered a complaintwith the National Commission for

Women (NCW) for outraging themodesty of Niharika Singh, a reportsaid.

The advocate told the dailyabout his complaint, “I don’t knowNiharika Singh personally nor haveI spoken to her. I have lodged acomplaint with NCW with a requestto give direction for the registrationof FIR under sections 376 (rape),497 (adultery) and 509 (insultingthe modesty of a woman) of IPC.

He was evidently married when hewas having an affair with Niharikaand kept her in the dark about it.”

The complaint reads, “Theactor has published it without hav-ing second thoughts about how thiskind of act can ruin the married lifeof the victim. For minting moneyand garnering free publicity for hisbook, the actor has bargained themodesty of a woman.”

Last week excerpts from An

Ordinary Life... (Penguin RandomHouse, 240-page), a memoir thatNawazuddin has come out withRituparna Chatterjee, have revealedthat the National Award winningactor has spoken extensively on hispersonal life and relationships withNiharika Singh and Sunita Rajwar,who called his book “extraordinarylies.”

Following Niharika, Sunitavoiced her discent in a post onFacebook, “Kayi baatein Nawaz neapne mann se, apne hisaab se aurapne haq mein likhi hai, chit bhimeri, pat bhi meri types. Unhonebadi hi khubsoorati se khud ko burabhi keh diya hai aur utni hi khub-soorati se apni burayi ka saarathikara auraton par bhi phod diyahai, khaas kar mujhpe, kyunki unkimaane toh mere baad unka pyaar seaur auraton se vishwas hi uth gayatha aur unke saare emotions RIPyaani rest in peace ho gaye the(Nawaz has written many thingsfrom his own imagination as wellas changed facts to show himselfin a positive light. With great skill,he has called himself a bad personand with the same skill, he hasblamed it on women, especiallyme, because according to him, Iwas the reason he stopped believ-ing in love and women and all hisemotions died.)”

Actor Kevin Spacey says he has nowdecided to “live as a gay man”

after being accused of sexual mis-conduct by actor Anthony Rapp,who has accused Spacey of trauma-tising him when he was 14-year-old.

In an interview on Sunday tomedia company Buzzfeed, Rappsaid he was left traumatisedafter Spacey lay on top of him onan evening at Spacey'sManhanttan apartment 31 yearsago.

On Monday, Spacey, who hasbeen private about his personallife and sexuality in the past, apol-ogised to Rapp on Twitter anddeclared that he now wants to livehis life as gay. Spacey tweeted, “Ihonestly do not remember theencounter, it would have been over30 years ago. But if I did behave thenas he describes, I owe him the sincer-est apology for what would have beendeeply inappropriate drunken behav-iour, and I am sorry for the feelings hedescribes having carried with him allthese years.”

“As those closest to me know, inmy life I have had relationships withboth men and women. I have lovedand had romantic encounters withmen throughout my life and Ichoose now to live as a gayman. I want to deal with thishonestly and openly,” he added.

Abrother-sister bond...Lovers who aredestined to meet and separate... andindulge in most passionate love in

between. Shiraz, the classic silent era film onShah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal’s lovestory, has been remastered by the BritishFilm Institute and made contemporary with

a background score by Anoushka Shankar. A truly global initiative, the film is being

supported and promoted by the BritishCouncil in India. A historical romance set inthe Mughal Empire. Selima is a princess-foundling raised by a potter and loved by herbrother, Shiraz. She is abducted and sold asa slave to Prince Khurram, later emperorShah Jahan, who falls for her, much to thechagrin of the wily Dalia. Shiraz is con-demned to be trampled to death by an ele-phant for attempting to lure royal attentionthrough Selima. But a pendant revealsSelima’s royal status and she saves her broth-er, marries the prince and becomes EmpressMumtaz Mahal while Dalia is banned for hermachinations. When Selima dies (1629), theemperor builds her a monument accordingto the design of the now old and blind Shiraz.

What makes the film more special is thatit was directed by a German filmmaker, FranzOsten, and produced by one of the pioneersof Indian cinema, Himanshu Rai. The Indo-British-German production is a beautifulexample of three cultures coming together.

The British Council and the British FilmInstitute (BFI) have restored Shiraz over acourse of 18 months. Says Robin Baker, BFIHead Curator, “People expect a silent film tobe old fashioned and creaky. Sure it’s differ-ent from modern films but the emotions areas sophisticated and refined. Although, it’s alove story at heart, it’s not a straightforwardone. It’s not about a woman who falls in loveinstantly or yields to a man of power butabout how Shah Jahan had to earn MumtazMahal’s love. It’s modern in the way it hasshown kissing scenes. Our cinematic treat-ment was so mature in 1928.”

The film, which has already beenscreened in London will come to our city onNovember 4, at Siri Fort Auditorium. It willbe travelling to Hyderabad, Kolkata andMumbai.

Shankar has tried to retain the authen-tic flavour of the movie through her music.Having grown up watching her father PanditRavi Shankar create musical masterpieces,even for films, she doesn’t deny theinfluence. “I have observed myfather making music of allkinds throughout my life. Itook part in lot of hiscreative projects overthe last 20 years of hislife. However, I was-n’t alive andaround when hehad createdscores for films.So, I never sawhim scoringfilms, but thefilms exist. Ihave grown upw a t c h i n gthem, many ofwhich are icon-ic pieces of workwith iconicsoundtracks .

Yes, my father’s work influenced me but notdirectly. His teaching is the biggest influenceof my life.”

Talking about her musical takeaway fromthe film which she tried to convey throughher music, Shankar says, “My first responseto the film was simply being quite amazedby its scope and scale. I had never seen any-thing at that level of filmmaking that wasmade in India at that time. The fact thatit was a co-production between these dif-ferent cultures was moving. I practise thatin my own music today and I feel that it’simportant to do so.”

The film was made 90 years ago and hasa human element to it which has a univer-sal appeal. “It’s people falling in love, try-ing to be happy, trying to find their way inlife and has a simplicity to the continua-tion of elements of life. I find that reallymoving personally.”

The restoration of the movie comes ata time where The Taj Mahal’s history isbeing discussed and revised today. Shankarexpresses her opinions on whether the divi-sionism and politicisation of the Tajimpacted the work on the film. “It’s a coin-cidence that we are here with this film atthis time period but it wasn’t our intentionto be here with it as part of that. But, I am

glad to be here and to cel-ebrate the Taj Mahal –

the most recognisablemonument and abeautiful piece ofwork as is the film.Hopefully, themusic I have madetries to celebrateculture and beau-ty.” It’s crucialthat the musicshe makesreaches acrossborders andtouches peo-ple’s hearts.Her previousa l b u mr e v o l v e sa r o u n dc r o s s i n gborders try-

i n gt o

foster dialogues between cultures and peo-ple who seem different from each other but“one can always find a commonality throughhuman elements – emotions, empathy, dia-logues. I believe in it and stand for this. Thesame I have tried to do through this film.”

She believes that there is a massive love,understanding and appreciation for Indianclassical music. “I do 50-60 concerts a yeararound the world and there is massive audi-ence for our classical music.” The music shehas done for the film is multi-cultural, mov-ing out of the Indian soundscape into west-ern genres.

Alan Gemmell OBE, Director, BritishCouncil India, talks about the idea behindthe film’s revival: “Shiraz is an incredible trea-sure that we are bringing to life by collabo-rating with BFI and Anoushka Shankar. Theaudience today deserves to see the wonder-fully done remastering of one of the bestIndian films with celebrated kisses of the early20th century. It’s a great privilege throughBritish Council to be a part of it. I am hope-ful that the new audience will be captivat-ed by Shankar’s music.” He says that theresponse they received at the Londonscreening was phenomenal.

On the choice of this particular film,he says, “It says a lot about the the histo-ry and our (UK and India) relationship. Itspeaks volumes of the cultural collabora-tion. The technical, cultural and the film-making collaboration is as relevant todayas during that time. Not many young peo-ple know of or have seen the film.”

Says Baker, “These gala performancesof Shiraz are the culmination of thethousands of hours it has taken the BFINational Archive to restore and transforma silent film classic, ensuring that it is safe-ly preserved for future generations. Veryfew Indian silent films survive, whichmakes Shiraz all the more important andprecious. It seems particularly fittingthat in this UK-India Year of Culture 2017we celebrate with a film that broughttogether talent from India and the UK 90years ago – while the new score brings thefilm right up to date thanks to the geniusof Anoushka Shankar.”

Baker explains that any restoration isa combination of analog skills and digi-tal techniques. Talking about the restora-tion process, he says, “The first hindrancewas getting the best copies of the film.Somehow we managed a decent one witha few damages. We tried to understand thedamages and then rectify them. This wasfollowed by scanning, which is a lengthyprocess – making it sharp frame byframe. The alignment of different frameswas not in sync– it jumped up and down.We worked on it to make it look rigid. Weworked on every little part of it to restoreit successfully. My friends call me arestoration artist.” The problems theycame across were focus and flickering butthe most time-consuming was the damage

to the material overtime aresult of scratches, bad han-dling. He thanks Shankarfor shaping the emotions ofthe film. “Her music is likea fusion of cultures comingtogether which comes from

a strong Indianheart.”

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In the contemporary artworld, it is unusual tofind an artist trained in

the temple mural traditionfrom Guruvayoor in Keralagetting ready to mount hershow at Jehangir Art Galleryin Mumbai. Arpitha Reddy’snarrative on the SamudraManthan from theBhagavata Purana takes usinto the world of rights andwrongs and perceptions in aworld of believers and non-believers.

The hybrid mythic crea-tures, the gods and god-desses and the fine intricatedetails unravel more than amerry tale of how the Devasand the Asuras jointlychurned the Ocean of Milkor Kshirsagara to obtain thenectar of immortality oramrita.

“Initially it was decidedthat both the Devas and theAsuras would share theamrita among themselves,but finally, having distract-ed the Asuras, the Devasmanaged to consume thenectar, rendering themselvesimmortal,” explains Arpitha.Only Lord Vishnu couldhave tweaked that momentin time. It presents a mod-ern day metaphor for karmicactions and the residuethereof. When we read onceagain the fascinating tale, wesee that amrita was not theonly object that emergedfrom the ocean bed. It wasalso about the cause andeffect relationship, of theDevas knowing that the

Asuras would misuse theamrita.

The Bhagavata Puranadescribes animate as well asinanimate beings whichwere birthed from the ocean,including Kamadhenu,Airavat, Hamsa, Kinnari,Kalpavrisksha, Nandi, aswell as many other creaturesfrom the legions of cre-ation. Each mythic creaturehas its place in creation.

Airavat, the mytholog-ical white elephant who car-ries the Hindu god Indra —also called Ardha-Matanga,meaning “elephant of theclouds”, Naga-malla, mean-ing “the fighting elephant”,and Arkasodara, meaning“brother of the sun” — is afascinating creature of sym-bolism with its four tusksand seven trunks and isspotless white. Fast forwardto treatment of elephants inIndia and the world. Relateit to 100,000 elephants beingkilled in Africa for ivory.Elephants are on their wayto extinction.

Hamsa, the swan likebird, symbolises prana or thelife-force whose movementinto and out of the bodygenerates life. Hamsa is theembodiment of breathwhich gives us life. Arpitha’sHamsa is a plumed beautywho gazes into our eyes.

Quaintly beautiful is theesoteric and elegantKamadhenu, whose moth-erhood and nourishingattributes are emphasisedthrough her twin breasts.

The Puranas declare “she isa goddess with marvellouspowers and attainmentswho gives milk wheneverneeded by gods and sages,”and that “all the cattle in theworld today are descendedfrom Kamadhenu.”Irrespective of eating habits,let’s think of cruelty to ani-mals. The city of Delhi hascows roaming to eat plasticwaste because their ownersdon’t feed them. Starving acow is as great a sin as killingit.

According tothe VayuPurana, Nandi’srole as Shiva’sgatekeeper isd e s c r i b e dp oi g n a nt l y,“adorned withall ornaments,glowing like a thou-sand suns, holding a tridentin his hand, three-eyed,adorned with a sliver of themoon, a thunderbolt in hishand, four-armed, like asecond Sankara (Shiva).”Besides being Shiva’s vehicle,Nandi is also the chief of thegod’s team of ganas or atten-dants, and consequently heoften carries a golden staff ofoffice.

The churning of theocean holds within treach-ery, deceit, intentions, desiresand problem-management,among other things. Butthe manthan (churning)reveals the alliance betweenthe Devas and the Asuras –the forces of good and evil

in their desire tochurn the milk into

rewards (the butter).Dr Devdutt Patnaik, an

authority on the Puranas,observes that this concept ofchurning or manthan hasbeen ingrained in Indianculture across creed andcaste barriers since timeimmemorial. Arpitha justgives us different charactersto trail the story.

A constant manthan isprogress – alliance andacceptance; the need to riseto the needs of the times;putting the land aboveeverything else, at somepoint or another. We musttrap our demons. Thechurning is a metaphor forour own life’s tribulationsthat become polished and

refined to release somethingthat augurs joy for others tobehold. We are reflecting themanifestation of multiplecharacters in time when welove all things small and allthings great.

Arpitha’s canvasesexplode into brilliant coloursand are dense with sexualimagery and metamor-phosing forms of mythicwomen, apsaras and god-dess-like creatures. Hermythic characters flow withthe ease of antiquity into amodern mood in whichthey seem to settle some-what gracefully into thecontours she fits them into.While Guruvayoor muralsin their traditional sensecan be looked at beingsomewhat decorative,

Arpitha coalesces them withdignity and verve in themanner in which she choos-es their festoons.

“I researched into atleast 50 images from differ-ent stylisations and thendecided what I want tomake,” she says. “Somehowpeople misunderstand andtake some compositions tobe decorative. People thinkI have watered down the val-ues of modern art to makeit appeal to the public. Butthat is not true, modern artis when we can bring for-ward the past and keep itsauthentic state alive.”

What she seeks to do isshow how a painter can goback to tradition and “bringback its vitality.” And goingback does not mean stayingthere or returning to the pre-sent with the debris of pastimagery and iconography. Itis to find the past in the pre-sent, to travel the long dis-tance between the pursuit ofconventional myth and thebirth of personal myth.While the myths predomi-nate – the treatment is sin-gularly modern and lucid. Inher hybrid characters,Arpitha gradually incorpo-rates the traditional mythsinto her own narratives interms of colours chosen.She chooses between terra-cotta, burnt sienna, freshmoss greens and viscousturquoise shades that seemto have a lush velvet texture.

(The author is an artscholar and critic)

The figures are frightening. Every year,for the last 30 years, one per cent of arts

and crafts has died. This means India hasalready lost 30 per cent of its known artsand crafts heritage. It is scary to even imag-ine what will happen in the next 25 yearsand I feel saving them is something worthdoing,” says Sunil Kant Munjal, founder,Serendipity Arts Trust. You may know himas the man behind the Hero Group but heis now a culture crusader with theSerendipity Arts Trust (SAT), a uniquesocial project that aims to revive patron-age of the arts. SAT organises SerendipityArts Festival, a curated showcase of thevisual and performing arts — visual arts,photography, dance, music, theatre andcraft — along with food. The second edi-tion of the festival will be held betweenDecember 15 and 22 in Goa.

The festival, which is organised withthe objective of reviving dying cultures ofIndia by providing a correct platform toartists, sees craftsmen from across Indiashowcase their talent. AndMunjal feels that there isa reason why corpo-rates need to step in tosave them. Says he, “Thearts have been an impor-tant part of our cultural her-itage and enjoyed royalpatronage earli-er. Then it wasthe turn ofreligious lead-ers followed by thegovernment of the day.What the government does isadmirable but that’s notenough. So there is a neednow to have many morepatrons. While someindividuals, families andcorporates are doing their bit,the size and scale of our coun-try as well as the culturaldiversity of our arts and craftstraditions demand a biggerinvolvement. So our objectives alsoinclude encouraging those whowant to organise something similarthemselves.”

While the festival is a one-timeevent, Munjal has taken up the causeof arts throughout the year. “The fes-tival is only a window which show-cases what the possibilities are. We havelaunched educational programmes and res-idencies for artists through SAT. We workwith artists and artwork and figure out away of encouraging those making orattempting to ensure a sustainable liveli-hood. If their skill heritage is not remu-nerative, they will just stop.”

Another thing that SAT is doing dif-ferently is taking an inter-disciplinaryapproach of connecting and growing art-forms. “If you look back 250 years, therewere no clear divisions of our art traditions,they seamlessly sort of flowed into eachother. It was the British who bracketed thearts as music, theatre or dance. We are,therefore, looking at creating an inter-dis-ciplinary and cohesive approach. We didit for 14-15 streams last year and we arelooking at 25 projects this year. The ener-gy that a cooperative project gives out isabsolutely amazing and phenomenal,”says Munjal.

The foundation has an office in Delhiwhere they expose artists to musicians, his-torians, story-tellers, economists and so onto give them an overall exposure to the waythe world buys art. This helps them inno-vate and become contemporary. “Wearen’t directing them to paint in a certainway or do things in a certain way. We arejust showing them the possibilities and

expanding hori-zons,” says Munjal.

The debut festival last year with 50-odd projects got a footfall of 1,00,000 overeight days. This time it is two-three timesthe number. Over a thousand artists willbe performing at 10 venues in Panjimwith the Mandovi river as the backdrop.

There will be conclaves, interactive ses-sions and workshops for chil-

dren. There is also anattempt to connect

with artistes ofthe sub-conti-nent and some

f r o mAfghanistan,

Bhutan andBangladesh will be

attending this year itself. “Ibelieve experts from TATE

and Met as well as Christie’s andSotheby’s would be coming too,” saysMunjal.

The festival will not remain confinedto Goa but bits and pieces of it have beendoing the rounds of various cities. Delhihosted a crafts session in April while theperformance arts were staged in Mumbai

in September. The crafts showcase trav-els to Hyderabad in November. “The mainfest will be in Goa as it took 5,23,000 manhours to put together a showcase of sucha scale,” says he.

Munjal is categorical that young peo-ple need to be exposed to arts as we are los-ing our connect with them. “It is criticalto expose the mind as it is at a young agethat you develop interest which stays withyou for the rest of your life. This is India’sfuture. When we travel to a city differentfrom our hometown, we do not askwhere the new theatre or opera is becausenone exists. Those that remain are terri-bly neglected. This quest for our enhancedabilities as creators needs to become oursecond nature. Art can open your mind,widen your horizon and give a perspectivewhich is more balanced. The young havethe ability to absorb more. It is at a youngage that you decide what you like,” he says.

All the venues at Serendipity fest areaccessible for the physically impaired.“There are sign language experts too. Forthe visually challenged, we have docketswhere you can touch and know what is onoffer. Every venue has catalogues and theroutes are marked in Braille,” says Munjal,who is passionate about giving Goa a cul-tural makeover.

If you have enjoyed watchingJagga Jasoos, a fun-filled, who-

dunnit film in which actor RanbirKapoor essayed the titular role ofan oddball detective, you mayhave just sensed a new pulse ofreading. It’s time to enter theworld of the comic detectivenovel. Sixteen-year-old ArjunChandra Kathpalia has made theliterary shift with his debut novelJuni Dagger: Murders inMeraupatnam.

The book revolves around a40-year-old detective named JuniDagger who solves murder casesin the sleepy town ofMeraupatnam with a laidbackcalmness as easy as his wit andlove of food. He doesn’t crash racecars or brandish a weapon but isan adventure junkie.

Says Arjun of his experi-ment, “The young adult readingmarket is very fluid right now.Young readers have been influ-enced by particular books fromthe West and are delving into var-ied content. My book not only

incorporates different culturesand ethnicities, it’s set in a placealienated from the rest of theworld where people belonging todifferent cultures can intermesh,truly interact with each other byunderstanding and respectingeach other’s differences. That’s nota rebellious space but an alterna-tive world.”

Talking about juggling schooland writing fiction, he says,“Managing studies with writingwas not easy. That’s why it tookme two years to finish it. But I

managed time pretty well. I start-ed working on this novel duringmy free time – while accompa-nying my mother to my sister’sballet class or by skipping videogames.” Juggling with studies

proved to be beneficial as it gavehim more time to think of betterideas of developing the plot line.

An avid fiction read-er, he is interested incomputer science and iscurrently preparing forhis board exam. Wheredid he get the idea ofmaking his hero a foodieand an adventure seeker?“Most of the detectives arearchetypes. I wanted mineto be high on life. JuniDagger is very seriousabout his job but why can’t he bequirky and fun on the side?Crime detection, thrills keep himtaut, he must have something tounwind. He is different fromeveryone else as he is flawed likenormal people. The realism giveshim a better perspective in untan-gling a mystery,” explains Arjun.

There are several scenes inthe novel where Juni Daggergoes on his food escapades,exploring the new culinary joints.He eats to think and to celebrate.He is not run-of-the-mill.

Arjun likes the classic crimethrillers, AgathaChristie and ArthurConan Doyle being hisfavourites. Simplybecause they havedetailed characterstudies. But the novelthat prodded him towrite was TheDevotion of Suspect Xby Keigo Higashino.

Arjun feels thatreinvention is most

possible in the crime fictionspace as this genre will never van-ish. “It will never reach a satura-tion point as everybody loves agood crime story. I have not comeacross anyone who doesn’t likecrime fiction or finds it boring. Itwill always have a high salevalue,” he adds.

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Lewis Hamilton grabbed the BritishUnion Jack for a "victory" lap, and thendraped it over his shoulders. There was

no way he was going to let it go.Hamilton won his fourth career Formula

One championship Sunday with a ninth-place finish at the Mexican Grand Prix, a rarefinish away from the podium but one goodenough to win a title that makes him the mostdecorated British driver in history.

"It's been a long journey," said Hamilton,who won his first championship in 2008."This week I've been reminiscent of where Icame from, dreaming of being in FormulaOne."

None of it came easy Sunday in a racewhere he had to overcome a first-lap tirepuncture and scramble to finish off title rivalSebastian Vettel of Ferrari. It was a bumpfrom Vettel shortly after the start that madean expected title more stressful than anyoneat Mercedes expected.

The ninth-place finish was Hamilton'sworst of the season, but it also closed outVettel with two races left.

"Not the race you wanted, but whocares?" Mercedes boss Toto Wolff radioedHamilton after the race.

Not Hamilton.He passed Sir Jackie Stewart for the most

championships won by a British driver.Formula One's first and only black driver alsojoined Vettel and Alain Prost as four-timewinners. Only Argentina's Juan MiguelFangio (five) and Germany's MichaelSchumacher (seven) have won more.

Hamilton also passed his idol, Brazil'sAryton Senna, who won three titles beforehe was killed in a crash and is still consid-ered one of the most skilled drivers in F1 his-tory.

"It's crazy to think I continue to put theHamilton stamp, the Hamilton name, in thehistory books. Beyond my time there will bekids that read my name," Hamilton said.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen got the winin Mexico for his third career victory and sec-ond this season.

Vettel made it an adventure for everyone.The German started in pole position and

the beginning was a furious sprint throughthe long straight at the AutodromoHermanos Rodriguez. Verstappen got theedge through the first turn and Hamiltonmade a move to get past Vettel, who driftedleft. Vettel's left front wing clipped Hamilton'sright rear tire, damaging both cars and forc-ing both drivers to the pits for repairs.

Verstappen disappeared into the distanceas a seething Hamilton asked his team overthe radio if Vettel made contact "on purpose."

"Not sure, Lewis," the team replied. Racestewards determined no investigation wasnecessary.

Vettel had to finish first or second to pushthe championship to the next race in Brazil.Both drivers made a mad scramble to getback toward the front, weaving through thetraffic on the short track. Hamilton was strug-gling and on lap 23, he was so slow he wasshown a blue flag, the humiliating order tolet a faster car - Verstappen - go past him.

"I knew the car was good. I didn't knowit would be that good," Verstappen said.

"Throughout the race, I was thinkingdon't give up," Hamilton said.

Vettel pushed hard but finished fourthand the title chase was over. Late in the race,Vettel asked his team if he could get second,but when told how far behind he was, Vettelreplied, "Oh mama mia, that's too much."

After their cars crossed the finish line,

Vettel drove alongside Hamilton andapplauded. Hamilton seemed momentarilyoverwhelmed, placing his helmet in hishands.

"He's done a superb job all year roundand deserves to win the title. So congratu-lations to him. It's not about anyone elsetoday, it's about him. It's his day," Vettel said.

Although denied the podium, the fin-ish allowed Hamilton to celebrate champi-onships in four cities over his career, withMexica City joining Sao Paolo, Brazil, in2008, Abu Dhabi in 2014 and Austin,Texas, in 2015.

"Viva Mexico!" Hamilton told the crowdwhen he got out of his car.

Hamilton's championship will spurdebate about his place among the best dri-vers in F1history. His Mercedes car and teamhave dominated the era of turbo-hybridengines adopted in 2014. Of Hamilton's 62career victories, 40 have come over the lastfour years, a span of 77 races.

He chased down this championship overthe second half of the season after Vettel wontwo of the first three races. Ferrari falteredas Hamilton racked up five wins over the pastseven races. His car has been as steady as hisdriving, with Hamilton finishing everyrace. "This was a championship I was hop-ing for, fighting another team," Hamilton said.

����� ���8&

Star Indian shuttler KidambiSrikanth might be inching

towards the coveted World No1 ranking after his record-equalling Super Series winhere but he says he does notwant to lose sleep over chas-ing it.

The eighth seeded Indianbeat Japan's Kenta Nishimoto21-14, 21-13 in the final tobecome the first Indian andfourth men's singles player inthe world to win four or moreSuper Series titles in a calen-dar year.

The win last night ensuredSrikanth, who has played fiveSuper Series finals this season,bag his second consecutivetitle in two weeks after win-ning the Denmark Open inOdense last week.

His performance will seehim jump in the rankingswhen the BWF released thechart on Thursday.

Asked if he was looking atthe number one spot, he said:"I don't know (if I will be No1). Definitely, I will go uphigher in the rankings but Iam not sure where I will be. Ihave not been pursuing it."

Srikanth said World No 1Viktor Axelsen of Denmark isstill way ahead of him in

terms of points. "I think thereis a lot of difference betweenme and Viktor (Axelsen) forsure before Denmark Open. Idon't think I will be numberone, I might improve a rank ortwo," he said.

"It is good to be there def-initely but I am not thinkingabout it now. I don't reallyhave any tournament todefend anywhere, so I don'twant to push myself for theranking and just want to enjoyplaying, that's it," he added.

Talking about the last cou-ple of weeks, Srikanth said: "Iam just happy with the way Iperformed in the last coupleof weeks. There were someclose matches.

“I feel I was little lucky topull off those matches, other-wise I am pleased how it went

for me."With back-to-back titles

in Denmark and France,Srikanth has sealed his placeat the top of DestinationDubai Rankings and would bea prime contender for theSuper Series Final title inDecember.

Destination DubaiRankings is a yearly rankingsystem that considers the per-formances of players in the 12Super Series events and deter-mines which eight players getto play the season-endingchampionships.

Asked about his prepara-tion for the match against hisJapanese opponent, Srikanthsaid: "I think he (Nishimoto)has been playing really wellthroughout this week. He beatLee Chong Wei, he came fromqualifiers and he has beatenAndersen. I was expecting atough match.

"I am just satisfied the wayI played.

“In the quarters and semi-final, I felt I really started offreally slow, so I wanted tomake a good start, start off alittle better than what I didbefore.

“He is an attacking andaggressive player, so I did notwant to give him any chanceand it worked out for me."

���� 2�&�:

Roger Federer finally beat Juan Martin del Potroin a Swiss Indoors final, winning 6-7 (5), 6-

4, 6-3 Sunday to go clear in second place on theOpen era title list.

Federer's 95th ATP tournament win — theeighth in his hometown Basel event where he wasonce a ballboy — lifted him out of a tie with IvanLendl, trailing only Jimmy Connors who has 109.

The top-seeded Federer succeeded on thesame court where he lost the 2012 and 2013 Baselfinals to del Potro.

Federer rallied from a break down in the deci-sive set and clinched when the fourth-seededArgentine sent a service return long.

Trailing in the second set, the 36-year-oldSwiss had slammed his racket on the net cord infrustration when wasting a break-point chance.

Sticking to a schedule that avoids playingback-to-back weeks, Federer later Sunday pulled

out of the Paris Masters whichstarts Monday and will focus onthe ATP Finals startingNovember 12 in London.

That decision by the No 2-ranked Federer all but assuresthe end-of-season No 1 statusfor Rafael Nadal who is top-seeded in Paris.

Federer served for the firstset with a 5-4 lead — before delPotro immediately broke back— and let a 3-0 lead slip in thetiebreaker.

Del Petro reeled off sixstraight points in the tiebreak-er, including one after a 23-shotexchange, then clinched with histhird set point keyed by a strongserve.

Both players had break-point chances early in the sec-ond set, and Federer hit hisracket on the net cord afterspurning his with a backhandvolley sent wide.

Forcing two set points ondel Potro's serve, Federer tookthe second when seeing hisopponent's baseline forehand flylong.

They traded service breaksto open the decisive set.

On the next point, Federernetted a backhand volley to fallbehind 1-0, though soon leveledwith a fierce forehand winner.

Federer broke again for a 3-1 lead and served out the matchunder little pressure.

���� %�.�8.

Girona earned a shock victory overReal Madrid that was celebrated by

many throughout Catalonia on Sunday.The small Catalan club stunned

Madrid, the team of the Spanish estab-lishment, with a 2-1 come-from-behind win in the Spanish league —just days after the wealthy northeast-ern region declared independence toheighten tensions in a dispute with thecentral government. Pro-independencepoliticians were quick to celebrate.

It was Madrid's first trip toCatalonia since Spain's political crisisescalated. The match was played afterhundreds of thousands of Catalans tookto the streets of Barcelona to voice theiropposition to the unilateral declarationof independence.

Catalonia's political leadershipwas fired by central authorities inMadrid who are trying to tame theworst political turmoil Spain has seenin decades.

The result left Madrid eight pointsbehind Spanish league leaderBarcelona, which on Saturday won 2-0 at Athletic Bilbao for its ninth victo-ry in 10 league matches. Second-placeValencia, which won 2-1 at Alaves onSaturday, is four points off the lead.

"We can still overcome this," RealMadrid coach Zinedine Zidane said."We will have better days and our rivalswill eventually lose points."

Despite security concerns ahead ofthe Spanish capital team's visit toGirona, a city filled with separatist sen-timent just north of Barcelona, therewere no major incidents before, dur-

ing or after the game.Several pro-independence flags

were on display at the small MontiliviStadium, and the crowd sang "freedom"chants, but nothing disrupted thematch. A few Real Madridsupporterscould be seen mixed with the local fansin the stands.

Most in the crowd of nearly 14,000were on their feet throughout theFinal minutes, and celebrated loudlywhen the final whistle was blown.

Girona, in its inaugural season inthe first division, played well from thestart, keeping Madrid from imposingits game.

Girona, 12th in the standings with12 points, had already hit the post inthe first half.

Girona made a promising start toits top-flight debut, earning a drawagainst Atletico Madrid and a win atMalaga to give fans hopes of a suc-cessful season, but it went on a six-game winless streak until defeatingDeportivo La Coruna last week.

���� :=�.=�

Tottenham is anxious about the fitness ofleading scorer Harry Kane ahead of Real

Madrid's visit on Wednesday in a game thatcould decide the winner of Group H.

The teams are equal with seven pointsafter three matches, having drawn 1-1 at theBernabeu two weeks ago, but this time Spursmight be without Kane.

The England striker missed Tottenham's1-0 loss to Manchester United on Saturdaywith a hamstring injury and his absenceresulted in a limited attacking display fromMauricio Pochettino's lineup.

Madrid is experiencing domestic strug-gles of its own. It fell eight points behind LaLiga leader Barcelona after a surprising 2-1 loss to Girona on Sunday.

However, both Tottenham and Madridcan play with the comfort of a six-pointadvantage over Borussia Dortmund andApoel, and either team can advance to theknockout stage if it wins.

Manchester United and ManchesterCity will be aiming to extend their perfectgroup stage records. A win for United againstBenfica at Old Trafford on Tuesday couldsecure progression from Group A, while Citycan do the same with a win at Napoli inGroup F on Wednesday.

Chelsea and Liverpool also sit atop theirgroups, though with less of a cushion. TheBlues can take a big step toward qualifica-tion on Tuesday just by avoiding defeat atRoma in Group C, while Liverpool mustcash in on its Group E clash against NKMaribor at Anfield on Wednesday, withsterner tests to come from Spartak Moscowand Sevilla.

) ������������Unbeaten Paris Saint-Germain has

scored nearly 50 goals this season and willbe confident of sealing its place in the knock-out stage with a win against Anderlecht.

Having lost the home game 4-0 twoweeks ago, Anderlecht has genuine reasonto be fearful on Halloween at Parc desPrinces in Tuesday's Group B match. PSGhas won its three group games without con-ceding a goal and, at the attacking end,Edinson Cavani is in scintillating scoringform.

Cavani's two goals against Nice lastFriday took his tally to 15 from 13 gamesoverall, including four in the ChampionsLeague. Monaco was last season's free-scor-ing team in France, winning the league instyle and reaching the European Cup semi-finals with an an attack brand of football.But coach Leonardo Jardim's team would behappy with any win away to Besiktas onWednesday. It's a must-win game in Istanbulfor Monaco, which is bottom of Group Gwith just one point. Besiktas could advanceto the knockout stage with a win.

Monaco has won both its league gamessince losing 2-1 at home to Besiktas. Withhis new-look lineup finally looking like it'sstarting to gel, and top scorer RadamelFalcao likely to return after being restedSaturday, Jardim has some cause for opti-

mism.

�������� �������� While Barcelona and Real Madrid

remain in comfortable positions to advanceto the knockout stage, Atletico Madrid andSevilla enter the week needing good resultsto keep their hopes alive.

Atletico hosts Qarabag on Tuesday bid-ding for its first win in Group C, which hasChelsea and Roma at the top. Atletico, aftera disappointing league draw againstVillarreal, trails Roma by three points andChelsea by five.

Sevilla is coming off a demoralizing 5-1 loss to Spartak Moscow in Group E, butit gets a shot at revenge when the Russianteam comes to Seville on Wednesday. TheSpanish club has four points, one less thanboth Spartak and Liverpool.

Barcelona, which leads Group D withnine points from three matches, plays at last-place Olympiakos.

��������������This could be Napoli's year in Serie A,

and it might be affecting its ChampionsLeague campaign.

After six years of domination byJuventus, the Italian league title is a tight con-test. Napoli beat Sassuolo 3-1 on Sunday toremain three points ahead of Juventus atopthe standings. It was a 10th win in 11 leaguematches for Maurizio Sarri's side, which hasonly dropped points in a draw against Inter.

Next up is the visit of Group F leaderManchester City in the Champions Leagueon Wednesday, and Sarri admits his play-

ers are focusing more on domestic mattersthan Europe's elite club competition.

"It's the most important club competi-tion in the world, so being a part of it issomething to be proud of," Sarri said. "It'salso natural that in the minds of the play-ers they focus more on the competitionthey've got a better chance at, but we mustbe eager to challenge ourselves against thebest and right now Manchester City is thebest side in the world."

Juventus is away at Sporting Lisbon onTuesday as it aims to keep within threepoints of leading Barcelona in Group D.

���)�����������Jupp Heynckes is bidding to keep his

perfect record since returning to BayernMunich when his team plays Celtic inGlasgow on Tuesday.

Carlo Ancelotti was dismissed afterBayern was humbled by Group B leader PSGbut, in his fourth spell with the Germanchampions, Heynckes has restored order.

Bayern beat Celtic two weeks ago inMunich and a repeat will likely ensure pro-gression to the knockout stage.

The path to the round of 16 is not sosimple for Leipzig in Group G. TheChampions League debutant got its first vic-tory in the competition two weeks agoagainst Porto, taking its tally to four points.

But with Besiktas out of sight with ninepoints and last season's semifinalist Monacolurking, there is pressure on Leipzig to pro-duce a positive result from its return fixturewith Porto. Borussia Dortmund's chancesare slimmer as it chases its first Group H win.

���� :�7=��

Pakistan swept Sri Lanka 3-0 in theTwenty20 series with a 36-run vic-

tory in the final game played amid heavysecurity in Lahore on Sunday.

Sri Lanka was on its first visit to thecountry since its team bus was ambushedby gunmen in a deadly attack in 2009near the same Gaddafi Stadium eightyears ago, killing six policemen and twocivilians and injuring six players.

The stadium was filled to its 25,000capacity with fans carrying placardsreading "Welcome back Sri LankanLions."

"Playing at home is special," SarfrazAhmed said. "The kind of support weget, the people that come, it gives us alot of happiness." The Pakistan skipperadded that "the way our law enforcementhave done their job, it will open doorsfor us, even to play a test series."

Led by Shoaib Malik's brisk 51 off24 balls, Pakistan's top order scored 180-3 after being put into bat.

Sri Lanka, which was also blanked

5-0 in the ODI series in the United ArabEmirates, continued to falter in battingand limped to 21-3 inside the first fourovers before being restricted to 144-9.

Fast bowler Mohammad Amir tooka career-best 4-13 in his comebackmatch after missing the ODI series dueto a shin injury .

Dasun Shanaka (54) top scored forSri Lanka before falling to seamerFaheem Ashraf (2-19) in the 14th over.

Unlike Sri Lanka, all the top-orderPakistan batsmen were among runs afterSri Lanka captain Thisara Perera won hisfirst toss of the series.

Openers Umar Amin (45) andFakhar Zaman (31) provided a confidentstart of 57 runs in eight overs beforeMalik took charge.

Malik bludgeoned five boundariesand two sixes and dominated a 75-runthird wicket stand off 45 balls with BabarAzam, who stayed unbeaten on 34 off 31balls.

Sri Lanka's top order made a poorshot selection against Pakistan's seam-ers and spinners.

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Senior India batsman Rohit Sharma feels pacersJasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar are theworld's best death bowlers and the duo have con-

tributed significantly to the recent limited overs suc-cess of the team.

While Kumar proved expensive in the seriesdecider against New Zealand, Bumrah bowled bril-liantly in the death overs to stop the visitors at 331for seven in response to India's 337 for six.

New Zealand, needing 30 off the last 18 balls withfive wickets in hand, were on course for a famousseries win before Bumrah dashed their hopes witha match-winning spell last night.

Rohit, who smashed 147 and stitched a recordbreaking 230-run stand with captain Virat Kohli atGreen Park, said India could not have won sevenbilateral ODI series in a row without Kumar andBumrah.

"I think we have the two best death bowlers. Ifyou look at the last series against Australia, the waythey have bowled, you have to praise them a lot.Because if you look at Australia's batting, with theirpower hitting, those were the two bowlers who gotus back most of the times," said Rohit after India

sealed the series 2-1."Even in this match there was so much dew, the

ball was wet to be able to defend on that kind of wick-et, with two set batsmen. We are talking about twobest death bowlers in world currently. On this wick-et, in these conditions, 35 required in four overs, itshould have been made easily. It's only because ofthese two that we could pull the game back."

In the previous series against Australia, their cap-tain Steve Smith too had rated Bumrah and Kumaramong the best in the business.

India outplayed Australia 4-1 but were stretchedto the limit by a spirited New Zealand, who even-tually failed to win the big moments despite com-

peting hard. Asked to compare the team's perfor-mance in the series, Rohit said both the contests wereequally tough.

"Firstly there are no easy wins. Yes, even whenwe played against Australia, they tested us a num-ber of times and we responded well to the situationsand won the games," Rohit said.

"Against New Zealand, the first game in MumbaiI thought we did not put enough runs on the board.280 on a Wankhede wicket was never going to beeasy to defend. But again the last two games weplayed we showed a lot of character, we came backfrom tough situations. That is the hallmark of thisteam," he added.

The 30-year-old right handed batsman said hisside's bowlers have delivered under pressure manytimes in the recent past. "We knew that it was notgoing to be that easy because there was a lot of dewon the field. But our bowlers did exceptionally wellto come back every now and then. Whenever theyare put under pressure, they know how to come back.It's not happened once, it has happened many timesnow. It's a good thing for the team going forward.If you can respond to these situations really well andhandle that situation really well, as a team you areonly going to grow," he said.

Like Bumrah, Rohit too rose to the occasion ina must win match after failing in the previous twomatches. Rohit struck his 15th ODI hundred, his sec-ond in as many ODIs at this venue after the 150 hemade against South Africa two years ago. Rohit wassatisfied with his effort. "I started off I started off verycautiously because I understand the threat of TimeSouthee and Trent Boult with the new ball. And oncethe shine of the ball was gone, it was about me notmaking mistakes and getting out. I have played herea few times now and I understand the nature of thewicket. So unless you make a mistake, you are notgoing to get out. And the most important thing aboutmy batting was the partnership. Because once youget stuck in the partnership, it's always difficult (forthe bowlers)," said Rohit.

He revealed that he consulted assistant coachSanjay Bangar after the failure in Mumbai and Pune.

"I did not make any mental change. There willbe failures at times. It does not mean you need tochange a whole lot. You need to focus on little things.I was trying to do that. Watching my videos, talk-ing to our batting coaches," Rohit said.

"I like to follow my routine, which is to justunderstand the nature of the wicket and what shotsyou need to play."

����� .�2�8

Indian captain Virat Kohli on Mondayreturned to the top of the ICC ODI rank-

ings for batsmen after logging career-highrating points, going past the iconic SachinTendulkar in the process.

Kohli has moved back to the top with-in 10 days of losing it to South Africa bats-man AB de Villiers after the rankings wereupdated following India's 2-1 home serieswin over against New Zealand.

The 28-year-old Delhi batsman, whoscored 263 runs in the series, has reached889 points, which is the best ever by anIndia batsman.

India opener Rohit Sharma's 174 runsin the series has seen him reach a career-high rating of 799 points, even though heremains in seventh position.

Former captain Mahendra SinghDhoni has risen one place to 11th in thelatest rankings.

The list for bowlers continues to be ledby Pakistan pace bowler Hasan Ali whileIndia fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah has

reached a career-best third after finishingwith six wickets in the series against NewZealand.

India's 2-1 win over New Zealand wasnot enough for them to overtake SouthAfrica, who hold the top ranking at 121points, ahead of India by two points.

����������� ������� �� �India captain Mithali Raj on Monday

moved up one place to occupy the num-ber one spot in the latest ICC ODI rank-ings for batswomen.

Ellyse Perry of Australia and AmySatterthwaite of New Zealand also jumpedone place each to be at second and thirdspots while Meg Lanning of Australia hasdropped from first to fourth after missingthe series against England due to injury.

Mithali has 753 points, while Perry andSatterthwaite are on 725 and 720 pointsrespectively. Among women bowlers,Jhulan Goswami remained on secondspot with 652 rating points, behindMarizanne Kapp (656) of South Africa.

Meanwhile, defending champion

Australia's 2-1 victory over England in theICC Women's Championship series hashelped regain the top spot in the women'steam rankings.

England had displaced Australia fromthe top spot for the first time after the annu-al update earlier this month,

Starting the series ahead on decimalpoints with both teams on locked at the fig-ure of 128, Australia won to go up to 129points .

Teams get two points for each win, onepoint for a tie or no-result and no pointsfor a loss in the ICC Women'sChampionship. As a result of this systemof rankings, ICC Women's World Cup 2021hosts New Zealand and the three other topteams will gain direct qualification to thepinnacle women's 50-over event. Theremaining four sides will get a secondchance through the ICC Women's WorldCup Qualifier event.

India, New Zealand, Pakistan, SouthAfrica, Sri Lanka and the West Indies arethe other sides in the ICC Women'sChampionship, which runs till 2020.

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