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In the face of nationwideprotests by the Scheduled

Castes and Scheduled Tribes,the Centre on Tuesday got anout-of-turn open court hearingon its review petition in theSupreme Court but failed to getany relief as the judges declinedto stay or even temporarily sus-pend its March 20 decision.

The apex court said, “Weare not against (the SC/ST) Actbut the innocent should not bepunished.”

By this decision, the courtheld that prior to lodging a com-plaint under the ScheduledCastes/Scheduled Tribes(Prevention of Atrocities) Act1989, it will be mandatory forthe police to conduct a prelim-inary enquiry to ascertainwhether a case on merits is madeout. Once a case is lodged,prior to arresting an accused, ifit is a public servant sanction hasto be taken from the appointingauthority and in case of a non-public servant, a senior level

police official (of the rank ofSSP) will examine if the arrestis necessary.

Appearing before a Benchof Justices Adarsh K Goel andUU Lalit, which passed theorder, Attorney General KKVenugopal argued for close totwo hours to make out a casefor recall of the judgment.According to him, the courtadded provisions to the lawpassed by Parliament and thisin effect diluted the purpose ofprotecting SC/ST victims whohave long been afflicted withtorture. He pointed out that thecourt approached the matterwith a view that the Act is beingmisused by persons fromSC/ST community who resortto lodging false complaints.

The new mechanism intro-duced by the court, he added,even held up payment of com-pensation to SC/ST victims thatis required to be immediately

released upon filing of FIR.Additionally, he submitted thatconfusion prevailed as towhether in cases where offencesunder other Acts such as IndianPenal Code are clubbed withoffences under the 1989 Act, thepreliminary enquiry will hold upregistration of associated crim-inal offences as well. The Benchdid not pass a final order as theMaharashtra Government alongwith other parties in the origi-nal case sought time to filetheir submissions.

In response, the Benchsaid that its judgment neitherwas against the SC/ST com-munity nor does it dilute theprovisions of the Act. “Peoplewho are agitating may have noteven read our order,” the judgesremarked, adding that it wasnot averse to the rights of theunderprivileged which standson a higher footing.

Continued on Page 4

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Prime Minister NarendraModi on Tuesday stepped

in to do damage control on“fake news” guideline contro-versy as well as on demand forpaying compensation to fami-ly members of the 39 Indianworkers killed in Iraq.

Clearly unhappy over theInformation & BroadcastingMinistry’s directive to cancelthe accreditation of journalistsfound “propagating” fake news,the PM ordered the I&BMinistry to withdraw its con-tentious guidelines. The PMintervened after I&B MinisterSmriti Irani faced widespreadcriticism and outcry by jour-nalists and Opposition parties,who dubbed these norms anattempt to “muzzle” the free press.

A day after Minister ofState for External Affairs VKSingh, in a Press conferenceheld in Amritsar on Monday,had kicked up a controversy bysaying that “compensation isnot like distributing biscuits”,Modi announced ex-gratia pay-ment of �10 lakh each to thefamily of 39 Indian workers,who were killed in Mosul, Iraq.

“This is not like distribut-ing biscuits. This is about thelives of the people. How do Imake the announcement now?I am not carrying anything inmy pocket,” Singh had saidafter he landed in Amritsarwith the mortal remains of 38Indians. The body of the 39thperson is yet to arrive.

On the issue of fake newsguidelines, the Prime Ministerordered that the Ministryshould not interfere or givedirections into the powers of

Press Council of India (PCI)with regard to its powers in tak-ing action against the fakenews or wrong news or any actions related to the com-plaints received on the newsreports.

After Prime Minister’sorders, the I&B Ministry issueda statement, saying Pressrelease regarding fake newsput out by it on Monday night“stands withdrawn”.

“The PM has directed thatthe Press release regarding thefake news be withdrawn andthe matter should only beaddressed by the Press Councilof India,” a senior PMO officialsaid. The Prime Minister wasalso of the view that theGovernment should not inter-fere in the matter, the official

added.Amending the guidelines

for accreditation of journalists,the Ministry on Monday nightannounced norms to containfake news. The guidelines saidif the publication or telecast offake news was confirmed,accreditation of the journalistwould be suspended for sixmonths in case of first violationand for one year in case of asecond violation.

In case of a third violation,his or her accreditation wouldbe cancelled permanently, theMinistry had said.

The I&B Ministry decisiondrew sharp criticism fromOpposition parties as well asfrom Press bodies.

The Congress said fascismhas touched its peak as it

sought to “muzzle” indepen-dent voices through “falla-cious” rules. The AAP and theCPI(M) likened the situation tothe “emergency”.

“The Government has nomandate to control the Press.The media is also worriedabout growing incidents offake news but the Press Councilis the right platform to dealwith complaints regarding anyfake news,” president of thePress Club of India GautamLahiri said.

Soon after the withdrawalof the controversial order, I&BMinister Smriti Irani tweeted,“PIB Accreditation Guidelinesasking Press Council of India& News BroadcastersAssociation to define & actagainst ‘fake news’ have gener-ated debate. Several journalists& organisations have reachedout giving positive suggestionsregarding the same. I&BMinistry is more than happy toengage with journalist body ororganisation/s wanting to givesuggestions so that together wecan fight the menace of ‘fakenews’ & uphold ethical jour-nalism. Interested journalistsand/or organisations may feelfree to meet me.”

Reacting strongly, veteranjournalist HK Dua said, “Thepress release is totally bogusand it has dangerous connota-tions. That means, theGovernment wants to control

the Press. Who decides what istrue and what is not true? TheI&B Ministry will decide whatis true and not true? Maximumlies are planted by theGovernment in the media...”

“Fascism reaches its ‘nadir’as a shaky Modi Government,caught in its web of lies, seeksto muzzle all independent voic-es in media through fallaciousrules!,” Congress communica-tions in-charge RandeepSurjewala tweeted.

Senior Congress leaderAhmed Patel too questionedthe Government’s attempt tocheck fake news askingwhether it is an attempt to prevent reporters from report-ing news uncomfortable to theestablishment. West BengalChief Minister and TMC chiefMamata Banerjee termed theattempt as a “brazen and draconian” move to curb Press freedom and said itshowed the Government “haslost its way”.

“What about fake newsspread by a political party on aregular basis?” the Trinamoolchief tweeted without namingany party.

Recalling the fight for Pressfreedom during days of theemergency (imposed for 21months between 1975 and1977), CPI(M) leader SitaramYechury said his party con-demned the “duplicitous”move.

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The Centre on Tuesday saidroad construction work in

the country has gone up sub-stantially in comparison to thepast and award of contract hasalso seen a five-fold increase.

With reports in ThePioneer last week stating thatonly 50 per cent of the nation-

al highways projects were com-pleted, Road TransportMinister Nitin Gadkari said theaward of highways was barely3,620 km in 2013-14 while con-struction was 4,260 km.

“Of the 9,829 km con-structed last fiscal, the Ministrythrough State PWDs awarded6,167 km while NHAI andNHIDCL shares stood at 3,071

km and 591 km respectively,”said Gadkari at a Press confer-ence where he shared projectsdetails of past few years. He saidof the total awards of 17,055 km,the share of the Ministry, the

NHAI and the NHIDCL stood at8,651 km, 7,397 km and 1,006 kmrespectively. He said the Ministryspent �1.16 lakh crore on high-ways construction in the last fis-cal of which �50,385 crore was theIEBR raised by the NHAI.

Gadkari said India willadopt global norms for calcu-lating highways constructionfrom this fiscal after hitting arecord 26.92 km road buildingper day in FY2017-18, which asper international standards is94.18 lane km.

“A record 9,829 km ofhighways were constructed in2017-18 which comes to 26.92km of roads per day while theroad awards stood at 17,055 kmin the just concluded fiscal,thus witnessing about two-folds and five-folds increase inconstruction and awards ofroads respectively” said theMinister.

“We are adopting interna-tional norms for highways con-struction from this fiscal. TheMinistry has so far been cal-culating construction ofNational Highways in linearlength, which means there is nodifference between 1 km of 2-lane with paved shoulders and1 km with 6-lanes and serviceroads,” Gadkari said.

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India’s premier institute forscience education, Indian

Institute of Science (IISc),Bengaluru, was ranked as thetop institution in India in aranking released by the HumanResource DevelopmentMinistry’s NationalInstitutional RankingFramework (NIRF) onTuesday. Delhi University’sMiranda House was picked upas the best college in India fol-lowed by St Stephen’s College(DU), Bishop Heber College(TN), Hindu College (DU)and Presidency College (TN).

IISc, JNU and BHU alsoretained their top positions inthe universities category. AnnaUniversity was ranked fourthwhile University of Hyderabadwas fifth. IISc was followed bythe Indian Institutes ofTechnology — Madras,Bombay, Delhi, Kharagpur —

at 2 to 5 ranks, while IITs ofKanpur and Roorkee were 7thand 8th.

JNU was ranked 6th inoverall ranking and BHU 9thfollowed by Anna University inTamil Nadu.

Announcing the rankingsat an event at the VigyanBhavan on Tuesday, HRD

Minister Prakash Javadekarsaid IIT, Madras has beenadjudged the best engineeringcollege and the IIM-Ahmedabad the best manage-ment institution.

India’s premier healthcareinstitute, AIIMS, was ranked thebest medical college followed byPostgraduate Institute of

Medical Education andResearch (Chandigarh),Christian Medical College(Vellore), Kasturba MedicalCollege (Manipal), KingGeorge’s Medical University

(Lucknow). In the pharmacyeducation, National Institute ofPharmaceutical Education andResearch (Mohali), JamiaHamdard (Delhi), PanjabUniversity, Institute of Chemical

Technology (Maharashtra),Birla Institute of Technology &Science (Pilani) were in top five.

NLSIU-Bengaluru wasadjudged the best law school inthe country followed by National

Law University (Delhi), NalsarUniversity of Law (Hyderabad),IIT Kharagpur and NationalLaw University, Jodhpur.

In architecture, IIT Kanpurand IIT Roorkee were on the

top followed by School ofPlanning and Architecture(New Delhi), College ofEngineering (Trivandrum) andSchool of Planning andArchitecture (Bhopal).

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In a decision that is set tobring cheers to the examinees

of CBSE Class X, the HumanResource Development (HRD)Ministry on Tuesday decidednot to conduct a re-examina-tion for mathematics paper,which was alleged to have beenleaked a few minutes before theexam. The decision was takenafter the CBSE said that ClassX is just an “internal segment”of school education system.

CBSE issued statement say-ing, “Class X examination isessentially a gateway for ClassXI and thus remains largely aninternal segment of schooleducation.”

Education Secretary AnilSwarup had earlier in the daysaid, “Consequent to a prelim-inary evaluation of the impactof the reportedly leaked CBSEClass X maths paper & keepingin mind the paramount inter-est of students, the CBSE hasdecided not to conduct a re-examination, even in Delhi-NCR and Haryana. Hence, nore-exam for Class X.”

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The Crown Prince and defacto leader of Saudi

Arabia, Mohammed binSalman, on Tuesday said Israelhas a “right” to a homeland, ina notable shift to the kingdom’sposition on Palestine.

Saudi Arabia and Israel stillhave no formal diplomatic rela-tions, but behind the scenes,improvements in their ties haveaccelerated in recent years.

Both countries see Iran astheir biggest outside threat andthe United States as their keyally, and both see danger fromarmed Islamist extremists.

Israel’s conflict with thePalestinians has long proved anobstacle to a full rapproche-ment, as Riyadh still supportstheir claim to sovereignty.

But now Crown PrinceMohammed bin Salman —told the editor-in-chief of USnews magazine The Atlantic —appeared to put the rival landclaims on an equal footing.

Detailed report on P5

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Even as a debate is raging onmisuse of the Dalit atroci-

ty Act, data from the NationalCrime Records Bureau(NCRB)-2017 shows that therehas been a sharp decline inconviction in such cases forwants of evidence. The con-viction rate was 38 per cent in2010 and fell to just 16 per centin 2016 for crimes againstScheduled Castes (SCs). ForScheduled Tribes (STs), it fellfrom 26 per cent in 2010 to 8per cent in 2016.

As many as 47,338 cases ofcrime against Scheduled Castesand Scheduled Tribes wereregistered across the country in2016. The data for 2015 and2016 showed that the numberof crimes reported againstDalits had risen from 38,670 to40,801, with Uttar Pradesh,Bihar and Rajasthan headingthe table of States with mostinstances of crimes againstScheduled Caste people.According to Census 2011, thepopulation of SCs and STsstood at 16.6 percent and 8.6percent respectively.

Interestingly, final reportssubmitted by the police in2015 revealed that the policehad found 2150 cases to be“true but (with) insufficientevidence”, 5,347 cases to be“false”, and 869 cases to be“mistake of fact”.

The data shows that theproportion of cases that werepending trial at the end of theyear rose from 78 percent to 91percent in the case of Dalits,and from 83 percent to 90 per-cent in the case of tribals in thepast seven year. The data alsoshows a massive spike in thependency of cases, a decline in

the number where the trial wascompleted, and a glaring fall inconviction rates. In 2010, thenumber of pending cases was31,931 while the same wasincreased to 41,191 in 2016.Similarly, the disposal of casesby police and courts revealedthat under the Act, 1989,11,060 cases were taken up forinvestigation in 2016 and thecharge-sheeting rate was 77percent.

According to the Ministryof Home Affairs, in 2015, atotal of 38,564 cases were reg-istered for alleged crime againstthe SCs in which charge-sheetswere filed in 73.8 per cent casesand the conviction rate was27.2 per cent. As far as STs areconcerned, 6,275 cases wereregistered in the country foralleged crime against STs in2015 in which charge-sheetswere filed in 74.3 per cent cases,and the conviction rate was19.8 per cent.

In 2016, as many as 47,338cases of crime against Scs/STswere registered across thecountry. Of these, charge-sheets were filed in 78.3 percent cases, and the convictionrate was 25.8 percent. By 2016,there was a 10% increase in thenumber of cases of crimesagainst SCs, and a 6% increasein crimes against STs. If con-viction rates are taken as a pro-

portion of the total cases thatcame up for trial in each year(and not as a proportion of thetotal cases that completed trial),the figures are even more dis-mal. For instance, in 2016,only 659 cases against SCs wasended in conviction. For ST, 42cases ended in conviction.

Interestingly, according tothe report on the implementa-tion of the Act by the Ministryof Social Justice in 2015, thereare only 194 such exclusivecourts. India has more than 700districts, thus making the num-ber of such exclusive courts lessthan a third of the number ofdistricts in India. To make thematters worse, only 14 stateshave set up these exclusivecourts.

Interestingly, another studyby National Campaign on DalitHuman Rights (NCDHR)reveals that 50 percent of theearmarked funds are eithernot relevant to the communi-ty or not accessible. An analy-sis of schemes introduced infinancial year 2017-18 revealedthat out of 36 new schemesonly eight were for the directbenefit of SCs; and out of 70new schemes for STs only 15were benefiting them directly.In the case of Rajasthan(17.81% SC population),Haryana (20.17%), andHimachal Pradesh (25.19%),the expenditure on SC-specif-ic schemes was 0.34%, 3.94%and 7.36% respectively of totalPlan allocation in 2015-16

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The Comptroller andAuditor General ( CAG) on

Tuesday rapped State-ownedFood Corporation of India(FCI) for incurring avoidableexpenses of �534 crore, main-ly on buying gunny bags andtransportation of foodgrains.

The CAG has found irreg-ularities in management ofgunny bags in Punjab andimproper planning of move-ment of stocks in north easternStates. “Compliance audit of theoperations of the Corporation(FCI) brought out avoidable orextra expenditure amountingto �534.04 crore mainly due tonon-adherence to extantinstructions and inefficientoperations in procurement ofgunny bags and movement offoodgrains,” the CAG r said inits latest report tabled today inthe Lok Sabha.

With regard to manage-ment of gunny bags, the CAGsaid the Punjab region of theFood Corporation of India(FCI) purchased 25.87 croregunny bags for �1,147.53 crorefrom 2012-13 to 2016-17.While auditing, CAG found outthat FCI failed to recover223.58 crore on account ofinterest on advances given tostate government agencies forprocurement of gunny bags aswell as on account of reim-bursement of cost of gunnybags at higher rates than pre-scribed.

CAG audited accounts forfive years ending March 2017in four districts in Punjabwhich carries out 31 per cent oftotal procurement in the state.The audit was to assess whetherthe demand and purchase ofgunny bags were in accor-dance with the actual require-ment. FCI also did not recov-

er �2.86 crore from ContainerCorporation of India (CON-COR) as it failed to pursuepending claims for damages,short and rain effected gunnybags.

That apart, the auditorfound that FCI did not verifythe issue of bank guarantee bythe state government, whichresulted in irregular reim-bursement of guarantee fee tostate government agenciesamounting to Rs 145.74 crore.While auditing the trans-portation of foodgrain inAssam and NEF Shillongregion covering Meghalaya,Tripura and Mizoram, theCAG found that FCI incurredavoidable expenditure of Rs117.10 crore due to improperplanning for movement ofstock.

“Supply of foodgrains inexcess of requirement at a sta-tion and non-adherence to dis-tance measurement beforeawarding contract resulted inavoidable expenditure of Rs12.96 crore,” it added. In UttarPradesh too, the CAG foundthat FCI made excess paymentof Rs 14.10 crore to the stategovernment and its agenciesduring 2010-11 to 2016-17 dueto reimbursement of inadmis-sible elements as part of mandilabour charges on procure-ment of wheat. FCI is the gov-ernment’s nodal agency forprocurement and distributionof foodgrains. The Corporationis engaged in procurement ofvarious foodgrains, buildingup and maintenance of foodstocks, movement and deliveryto distributing agencies.

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The Central Bureau ofInvestigation (CBI) has

busted a gang who planned tosend 11 teenagers to the US oneducation visas, and bookedthem under the HumanTrafficking Act.

The members of the gangwere based in Delhi andPunjab. The CBI is working todetermine whether the racketis linked to another which itbusted in December, whenthree people were booked oncharges that they sent 25teenage students, aged between13-18 years, to France in 2016for “a rugby training camp”.

The agency registered acase against Lalit David Dean,Sanjeev Raj and VarunChoudhary, who collected Rs25 lakh to Rs 30 lakh from par-ents.

The CBI came to knowabout the racket when Frenchinvestigators caught one of thetrafficked boys and approachedInterpol.

It discovered that threeDelhi and Faridabad-basedagents held a small training ses-sion to convince the parents.Visas were issued after theagents procured an invitationfrom France. The investigationin this case is still under way.

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Affirming Government’scommitment to the inter-

ests of SC and ST community,the BJP Government onTuesday said it had strength-ened the SC/ST (prevention ofAtrocities) Act by adding newoffences to it and also arrangedfor the provision of witnessprotection in the Act.

While in Parliament HomeMinister Rajanth Singh defend-ed the Government, BJP pres-ident Amit Shah sought toattack the Opposition, partic-ularly the Congress saying“microscopic minority ofdejected and rejected politicalparties” made the people suf-fer and sought their apology to“Dalit sisters and brothers.”

In a series of tweets, Shahreached out to the communi-ty, which has been protesting aSupreme Court order on a lawon atrocities against it, andsought to turn the tables on theCongress by raking up its treat-ment to Dalit icon BhimraoAmbedkar. He also blamed“vested interest groups” forspreading the panic on theissue of reservation for Dalits,saying it is done before everyelection and asserted that theGovernment will do every-thing to protect their rights.

Giving a suo motu state-

ment in the Lok Sabha amidstbedlam and slogan-shouting ofprotesting MPs, Rajnath saidhis Government was notresponsible for the dilution ofthe SC/ST (Prevention ofAtrocities ) Act.

He said Modi-Governmenthad amended the SC/ST Actand added new offences in itand provided for witness pro-tection provisions andincreased the relief amount tothe victim. Besides, provided inthe Act that officials foundresponsible for the neglect ofduties were legally actedagainst.

SC/ST Act, 1989 wasamended recently to includenew offences and to ensurespeedy justice to victims. Theamended law had come intoeffect from January 26, 2016.

Rajnath said rumours onaccount of the SC/ST Act werecompletely false and baseless

and appealed all parties tohelp maintain peace in thecountry.

Asserting that the govern-ment is sensitive to the con-cerns of the backward com-munities, Home MinisterRajnath said it was notresponsible for the dilution ofthe SC/ST (Prevention ofAtrocities) Act.

Referring to the large scaleviolence during Monday’sBharat Bandh, the home min-ister said eight people werekilled — six in Madhya Pradeshand one each in Uttar Pradeshand Rajasthan, during thebandh which also witnessedclashes between the police andthe protesters.

“Through the House, Iwant to assure the people thatthere has been no dilutionwhatsoever by myGovernment, rather after com-ing to power and examining

the SC/ST preventionAtrocities Act, we have taken adecision to strengthen it,” hesaid.

“I fully appreciate that thereis widespread anger amongstthe people following theSupreme Court order. I wish toinform the House that theGovernment of India was notparty in that case. People havetaken to the streets,” he said.

The minister said imme-diately after the March 20judgement of the SupremeCourt, a decision was taken bythe government to file a reviewpetition in the Supreme Court.

The Attorney General hasmade an appeal in the SupremeCourt for an urgent hearingand the Supreme Court hasagreed to hear the matter todayitself.

“This shows the prompt

action by the Government anddoes not leave any doubtregarding the intention of thegovernment to protect theinterest of the SC/ST,” he said.

Law Minister RaviShankar Prasad also rejected as“unfounded” the opposition’scharge that the governmentdelayed the filing of a reviewplea in the Supreme Courtagainst its order on a law onatrocities against Dalits.

He stated that the court wasclosed for six days after the ver-dict was delivered on March 20.The review was filed yesterday.

“Where is the delay? Andlet me ask Rahul Gandhi thatdid he appeal for peace andclam yesterday?” he said, tar-geting the Congress president.

“There is tension in thecountry and the Congress istrying to fuel it,” he said.

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Expressing concern over theHindi Salahkar Samiti

(advisory committee) of theRajya Sabha not meeting forthe last three and half years,Chairman M Venkaiah Naiduon Tuesday directed that twomeetings of this importantcommittee shall be held everyyear henceforth, mandatorily.He said this while presidinghere over the meeting of thecommittee meant for promo-tion of use of Hindi in theRajya Sabha Secretariat.

After detailed review ofimplementation of the OfficialLanguage Policy in theSecretariat, the members ofthe committee while noting thesubstantial use of Hindi in theSecretariat stressed on the needfor total compliance with theprovisions in this regard.

Naidu urged the membersof Rajya Sabha, hailing fromnon-Hindi speaking areas, tospeak in Hindi if they chose todo so without the fear of gram-matical mistakes. Referring tohis own experience, theChairman recalled that he didnot know Hindi when he firstcame to Delhi but soon pickedup the language by speaking

without any hesitation. He fur-ther said “King can do nowrong. You are Members ofParliament and can speak freelywithout the fear of committingmistakes.”

He said the best way ofpropagating Hindi is encour-aging its use instead of forcingothers to adopt it. Naidu fur-ther said knowing differentlanguages is advantageous andurged North Indians to learnany South Indian language oftheir choice as it would pro-mote national unity and inte-

gration. The Chairman also called

for simple translation of busi-ness related matters into Hindiso that more and more MPs areencouraged to use it. He urgedthe need for adopting widelypopular words from other lan-guages in Hindi for its easyacceptance.

During the discussion non-Hindi speaking Memberscalled for permitting them to

make grammatical correctionsin their printed Hindi speech-es so that they could speakwithout the fear of committingmistakes which in turn wouldbe on record.

Besides Deputy ChairmanP J Kurien, the Rajya SabhaMembers who attended themeeting of the committeeincluded Satyanarayan Jatiya,Harivansh, Vinay PSahasrabuddhe, K Keshav Rao,Prabhat Jha, Ravi PrakashVerma, Prasanna Acharya andJharna Das Baidya.

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Hours after the United Statesbanned Pakistan-based

terror group, Milli MuslimLeague (MML), India wel-comed the move saying thedecision reflects rejection of theattempts being made inPakistan to mainstream ter-rorist individuals and entities.

The US on Tuesday desig-nated MML, a political front ofHafiz Saeed-led Jamaat-udDawa, as a foreign terroristorganisation. Saeed is the mas-termind of Mumbai terrorattack. The US also designatedseven members of the MML asforeign terrorists for acting onbehalf of LeT and addedTehreek-e-Azadi-e-Kashmir(TAJK) to the list of terroristgroups. TAJK is said to be afront of the LeT, which accord-ing to the Donald Trumpadministration, continues tooperate freely inside Pakistan.

Reacting to the US move,the Ministry of External Affairssaid the designation of theMML also shows Pakistan’sfailure to dismantle terror sanc-tuaries in that country and vin-dicated India’s position thatIslamabad has not taken effec-

tive action against terroristgroups and individuals.

“India welcomes the actiontaken by the US for designat-ing the Milli Muslim League asan alias of Lashkar-e-Taiba(LeT), a Pakistan based ter-rorist group and its func-tionaries who are acting onbehalf of LeT. It is also cogni-sance of the fact that terroristindividuals and entities areallowed to change names andcontinue to operate freely fromterritory under Pakistan’s con-trol,” MEA said in a state-ment.

It further added that thedesignation of the MML is arejection of the attempts beingmade in Pakistan to main-stream terrorist individualsand entities and highlightsPakistan’s failure to fulfil its

international obligation to dis-mantle terrorist sanctuaries,and disrupt terror financing.

These designations seek todeny the resources it needs toplan and carry out further ter-rorist attacks. Among otherconsequences of the designa-tions, LeT’s property and inter-ests in property subject to USjurisdiction are blocked, andUS persons are generally pro-hibited from engaging in anytransactions with the group.

The ban by the US comesa day after the ElectionCommission of Pakistan askedthe MML to produce a clear-ance certificate by the interiorministry for its registration asa political party. General elec-

tions are scheduled to be heldin Pakistan in July. Pakistan’selection commission had ear-lier rejected the MML’s appli-cation for registration as apolitical party after the interi-or ministry objected to its tiesto banned militant outfits.

President of the MML,Khalid is also the head of LeT’sPeshawar headquarters andserved on the JuD’sCoordination Committee forCentral Punjab Province. TheJuD was designated by theDepartment of State as an aliasof the LeT pursuant April 2016and was added to the UnitedNations Sanctions list as analias of the LeT in December2008.

��=*�� 7/<�./2=*

While there have been sev-eral studies about the

health hazards caused by themicrobes that lurk on thecoins or currency handled inan unhygienic manner, it isonly now that the country’stop food regulator has wokenup to this deadly source ofcontamination.

The Food Safety andStandard Authority of India(FSSAI) has recently issued apublic health advisory to thefood handlers and food ven-dors to avoid handling foodand currency simultaneously toavoid various kinds of dis-eases including food poisoning,and skin, respiratory and gas-trointestinal infections.

The FSSAI has noted thathandling of currency withuncleaned hands and use ofsalvia during counting of coinsor currency and storage ofcurrency in unhygienic condi-tion will lead to contaminationwith harmful micro-organism.

According to the circular

issued recently, the FSSAI hasadvised the concerned stake-holders that after handlingcurrency, hands should bethoroughly washed beforetouching food and vice versa.

Ideally, handling of thefood and currency should bephysically separated. It is rec-ommended that gloves shouldbe used to handle food andbare hands to handle currency,it noted adding that pregnantwomen, children and immunecompromised people are easyprey to such contamination.

The FSSAI has also askedthe State food commissionersto raise awareness among peo-ple about this menace and dis-courage the simultaneous han-dling of food and currency.

This is not the first timethat the threats from the con-taminated currency have cometo the light. In fact, numerousstudies have shown that cur-rency notes are loaded withpathogenic micro organisms,the most common beingEscherichia Coli or E Coli thatis found in faecal matter.

A study conducted by themicrobiology department ofKasturba Medical College inKarnataka’s Manipal publishedin Current Science in 2011found that 96 per cent of thecoins and 100 per cent of thesample notes were contami-nated with pathogens such asStaphy lococcus Aureus, E Coliand Klebsiella spp. Worse,many of them were resistant to

commonly used antibiotics.E Coli is known to cause

diarrhoea, urinary tract infec-tions, neonatal meningitis andpneumonia whileStaphylococcus Aureus cancause toxic shock syndrome,skin infections, urinary tractand respiratory tract infec-tions.

Citing various studies,Pushpa Girimaji, a well knownconsumer rights columnist toonotes that the currency notesare a source of infection anddangerous to health, more sobecause many of the pathogenson them are multi-drug resis-tant strains.

“But more importantly,these studies bring to light, theimperative need to ensure thathotels, hospitals, school andoffice canteens, restaurants,street food stalls, shops sellingbakery products, mithai, andeven those preparing food formid-day meals and religiousplaces, do not contaminatefood with currency either at thetime of preparation or at thetime of sale or distribution.”

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Chief Secretary Ajay Singhon Tuesday reviewed the

status of grievance redressalthrough collection of applica-tions of citizens made duringLok Suraj Mission 2018 at theMantralaya here.

Notably, the Lok SurajMission was organised in three

phases. In the first phase from

January 12 to 14, 2018, 30 .10lakh applications werereceived from gram panchay-ats and urban bodies. In thesecond phase, these applica-tions were redressed bydepartments concerned, fromJanuary 15 to March 11.Nearly 99 per cent of the

applications have beenredressed.

The third phase whichwent on from March 11 to 31,1811 redressal camps wereorganised across the State.This is going to be a greatwork on the part of theGovernment.

This includes, 1182 campswere held among 10 gram

panchayats in rural areas. Inurban areas, 629 redressalcamps were held.

In these redressal camps,subsidies and goods etc weredistributed under variousGovernment schemes.

In the third phase of thecampaign, the Chief MinisterRaman Singh paid surprisevisit to seven villages via

helicopter and interactedwith villagers at chaupal.

The Chief Minister alsoattended 25 redressal campsand made several announce-ments on development ofvillages and chaired jointreview meetings in 12 dis-trict headquarters for reviewof development works of 27districts.

�� 6�*5E6

Gram Sabhas will be organ-ised in about 10,971 gram

panchayats from April 14, thebirth anniversary of the archi-tect of Indian Constitution DrBaba Saheb Ambedkar, accord-ing to Directorate of Panchayathere.

A circular had been issuedto all the 27 District Collectorsto this effect, officials informed.

Chief Minister RamanSingh appealed to the citizensof the State to participate inlarge numbers in the gramsabhas.

He added that it is a part ofdemocracy to participate in theactivities of gram panchayatswhere the concerned repre-sentatives give an account ofthe developmental activities.The people's suggestions areinvited and incorporated in thefuture developmental plans ofpanchayats.

Panchayat and RuralDevelopment Minister AjayChandrakar appealed to the vil-lagers to participate in hugenumbers in gram sabhas.

The Directorate ofPanchayat officials said that theDistrict Collectors had beeninformed to strictly follow theguidelines issued by the StateGovernment. The sabhasshould be held in all the vil-

lages. Time schedule should bedrafted and meetings should beheld in all the gram panchay-ats. Sarpanch and gram pan-chayat secretary should attendthe meetings.

The circular also mentionsthat officers and employeesshould be allotted specialresponsibility according to thelocal needs.

The topics of discussionhad also been given in detail -review of incomes, develop-mental works undertaken, rev-enue generated, sanctionedbudget, expenditure, status ofvarious developmental works.The public will be informedabout all the activities of thegram panchayats.

There will be review of toi-lets constructed as a part of the'Swachhta' mission, employ-ment provided under theNREGA and wages distrib-uted in the villages.

The officers also informedthat there will be social auditsof pensions' schemes. Therewill be review of distributionbooks to the villages under theSwami Atmanand LibraryProject. Distribution of nutri-tious food to children at angan-wadi centres, status of malnu-trition, vaccination schemes.The villagers will be givenupdates regarding the summerdiseases, Dengue and Filariasis.

The State AgricultureDepartment officials willinform the gathering that theremains of crops should not beburnt in the agricultural fields.Drinking water facility, collec-tion of taxes, minor forest pro-duce procurement, royalty onvillages minerals, public dis-tribution system functioning,the number of beneficiaries,births-deaths and registrationof marriages will be other top-ics of review.

The circular also mentionsthat the villagers will be cau-tioned against 'Child Marriages'and its disastrous conse-quences. Child Marriages areagainst the Law and punish-able.

There will discussions onthe ensuing International YogaDay on June 21. The variousState Government departmentshad been instructed to publi-cize their various projects .

��6�*5E6

The ChhattisgarhGovernment will construct

a total of 17 bypasses to easetraffic congestion in cities of 11districts under NHDP-IV andallied schemes, State PWDMinister Rajesh Munatinformed on Tuesday.

The bypasses will be con-structed in the cities whichhave national highways passingthrough them at a cost of � 510crores, he said.

As many as 46 bypass roadsare currently being laid aroundurban pockets of Chhattisgarhat a cost of �1223 crores, PWDMinister Rajesh Munat hasinformed in January last year.

A total of 20 bypass roadshave also been approved at acost of �589 crores, he said.

Another 26 bypass roadshave been approved which areaway from urban pockets,

Munat said.PWD had also started con-

structing 19 new bypass roadsat a cost of � 242 crore to min-imize traffic pressure of cityroads across the State in 2016.

One of the project amongthe 19 bypass roads is the 8-kmlong 'Kondagaon bypass road'in Bastar for which �10 crorehas been sanctioned.

Likewise, �17 crores havebeen sanctioned for 24-kmlong Jagdalpur bypass number2, �11 crore for 11-km longBalod bypass road, �17 crorefor 8km-long Tilda-Neorabypass road, �10 crore for 10-km long Nandini city bypassroad, �12 crore for 6-km longAhiwara bypass road, �13 crorefor 5-km long Kota bypassroad, �5 crore for 5km-longPandarita bypass road, �18crore for 14km-long Pendrabypass road, �10 crore for 10-km long Bhatapara bypass

road, � 22 crore for 11 km longLormi bypass road, � 13 crorefor 10-km long Masturi Seepatbypass road and �17 crore hasbeen sanctioned for 8km-longShivrinarayan bypass road.

Besides, �7 crores havebeen sanctioned for construc-tion of 2.5km-long Akaltarabypass road, �10 crore for10km-long Balrampur bypassroad, �14 crore for 7km-longWadrafnagar bypass road, �sixcrore for 3.5km-long Sarbaharabypass road, and �10 crore forconstruction of 6.6km-longBaloda bypass road has beensanctioned.

Notably, the ChhattisgarhGovernment had made a pro-vision of �53 crore in its annu-al budget during 2015-16 fordevelopment of a total of 19bypass roads for facilitatingsafe and smooth traffic in var-ious cities and towns of theState.

�� 6�*5E6

A ‘Sankalp Shivir’ is beingorganised by Congress

party in all the Assembly seg-ments of the State.

A similar camp was held inBilha, Janjgir-Champa andSarangarh assembly segmenton Tuesday where ChhattisgarhPradesh Congress Committee(CGPCC) President BhupeshBaghel, Leader of OppositionT.S. Singhdeo and CharandasMahant respectively sat besidethe workers during the ‘conductof camps.

Baghel while commentingon camp at Bilha said the pro-gramme will remove the dif-ference between leader andworker as per the directives of

AICC Chief Rahul Gandhi. The AICC President left

the stage for young faces in therecently held AICC conventionand state unit of the Congressparty is following that tradition,he said.

The Congress party willorganize these camps in eachand every assembly segment toboost the morale of commonCongress workers, he added.

By giving prominence tocommon workers , a sort ofenthusiasm is being generatedin them, Baghel claimed.

Notably, AICC In-charge ofthe state P.L. Punia on Mondayinaugurated the camp fromthe assembly segment ofBilaspur. All the senior leaders of the organisation were present on this occasion.

�� 6�*5E6

NMDC recorded sale of20.44 million tonnes of

iron ore from its mines inChhattisgarh as on February28, 2018, officials informed.

The company is targettingto achieve 10 million tonnes ofiron ore production per annumfrom each of its mines inChhattisgarh by 2024-25, offi-cial sources informed.

The company has alsosought 7.116 hectares forestland diversion for its iron oreconcentrate pipeline inDantewada district of Bastar,they informed.

Notably, NMDC will also

be seeking Right of Use (ROU)/ Right of Way (ROW) per-mission for developing a landcorridor for its Slurry Pipelineproject from Bailadila toNagarnar in Bastar region of

Chhattisgarh, officialsinformed.

NMDC, which is in theprocess of laying a 15 MillionTonnes Per Annum (MTPA)slurry pipeline is executing

the project in two phases.The first phase is being

executed from Bacheli toNagarnar in Bastar region ofChhattisgarh at an estimatedoutlay of � 4,000 crore; and thesecond phase will be executedfrom Nagarnar to Vizag inAndhra Pradesh at an outlay of�6,000 crore, officialsinformed.

Notably, to transport pel-let feed concentrate fromBailadila to Vizag viaJagdalpur, the company willhave the pipeline laid along thehighways with a provision ofpartial off-take to feed its pro-posed 3 MTPA Steel plantcoming up at Nagarnar.

��6*�+�7.

District Collector ShyamDhawde had instructed

the officials of district admin-istration for better implemen-tation of projects to achieve theset target.

Chairing a meeting hereon Tuesday, he also stressedon result oriented work andissued necessary instructionsin this regard.

Dhawade also directedofficials to be polite in behav-iour while interacting withpeople.

He informed in the meet-ing that Horticulture nurs-eries in each block head-quarters would be developedsoon. Land of 25 acres in eachof the block has been ear-marked for the same, he said.

Reviewing the develop-ment works, he instructed

the officials of Public WorksDepartment to start the con-struction work of residentialcolony of of f icials andemployees.

The Collector alsoinformed in the meeting thata residential colony of judicialstaff is also on anvil and aplace has been earmarked forthe same. This is going to begreat for everybody.

The Collector alsoreviewed the possibility ofscarcity of potable water dur-ing summer season and priorpreparations made to tideover the problem.

He also reviewed theUniform distribution pro-gramme for the newly admit-ted school children with thecommencement of academicsession of schools frommonth of April.

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As Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on

Tuesday announced �10 lakhcompensation for the familiesof 39 Iraq victims, PunjabCongress claimed credit for itsaying that the Centreannounced financial helpbowing to the pressure ofCongress MPs who staged aprotest on the roof of theParliament building.

At the same time, theCongress also demanded theUnion Minister of State forExternal Affairs General VKSingh’s apolog y for his statement in Amritsar, a daybefore, that compensatingIraq victims’ families “is notlike distributing biscuits”.

Congress MPs fromPunjab including state partychief Congress Sunil Jakhar,Ravneet Singh Bittu, andChaudhary Santokh Singh,from where 27 Iraq victimshailed, protested on the terrace of the Parliamentbuilding on Tuesday morningto demand compensation forthe families of Indians killedby ISIS in Iraq's Mosul.

Notably, the mortalremains of 38 of the 39Indians killed in Iraq, arrivedat the Amritsar InternationalAirport on Monday, whereVK Singh handed over thebodies to their relatives.

“The Parliament has beenconstituted in IndianConstitution so that the people’s agony and their issuescan be highlighted here tof ind posit ive solutions. The Modi Government hasclosed it down and turned itinto Hyde Park wherein any-one can pose a protest butcannot make posit ive discussions,” said Jakharadding that it was due to thisthat he and his party was forced to stage a protestto make the Union

Government wake up from itsslumber.

Jakhar said that the peo-ple killed in Iraq were fromdifferent states of the country.“It is thus the duty of theCentral Government to helpits people in distress,” he saidpointing that the Congress-led Punjab Government hasannounced �5 lakh ex-gratiafor each and every victim’sfamily.

He said that had theIndian Embassy helped thesevictims of Iraq tragedy intime, the precious lives couldhave been saved. “But theModi government left thesepoor people to fend for them-selves,” he alleged.

At the same time, theparty criticised the PrimeMinister for the “meagrerelief ”. “�10 lakhs announcedby Modi is too little and toolate,” said Congress MLAsfrom Amritsar andGurdaspur districts includingSukhjinder Randhawa, SukhSarkaria and HarpartapAjnala.

They demanded that theCentral Government mustpay Rs one crores each to thefamilies of the victims alleg-ing it of “running away fromits duty and responsibilitytowards its citizens”.

They pointed out that it isthe duty and the responsibil-ity of the Central Governmentto ensure safety and securityof its citizens in the foreigncountries.

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Several farmers from variousparts of Punjab on Tuesday

gathered here and held a rallyfor their demands includingfull loan waiver and highercompensation amount forfarmers who commit suicide.

The farmers assembledat Sector 25 here to partici-pate in the protest rally on thecall given by seven farmers'outfits, including BhartiyaKisan Union (Ekta), BKU(Dakonda), Kirt i KisanUnion, Kisan SangharshCommittee, and BKU(Krantikari).

The farmers raised slo-gans against the PunjabGovernment and the Centreand said the rally was a "warn-ing" to both the Governments.

"Farmers in Punjab arebeing forced to commit sui-cides as they are unable to paytheir debts. Our main demandis that the debt of those farm-ers and farm labourers whocannot pay their loans takenfrom banks, Arthiyas etcshould be waived," said BKU

(Ekta) General SecretarySukhdev Singh Kokrikalan.

"This rally is a warning toboth Punjab and CentralGovernments for not imple-menting their promises madeto the farmers," he said.Kokrikalan also demandedremunerative prices for all thecrops so farmers get betterprices for their produce.

"The government shouldalso pay farmers for vegetable,maize, Basmati etc as per therecommendation of the

Swaminathan Commissionreport," he said.

The farmers also demand-ed that they should be given�200 per acre as bonus formanaging the crop residue.

"Till the farmers are not given�200 per acre, no case shouldbe registered against them forburning crop residue," saidKokrikalan.

The farmers also sought

�10 lakh compensation eachfor farmers who commit sui-cides after failing to pay theirdebt and a Government job toone family member of thesefarmers.

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The Manohar Lal KhattarGovernment in Haryana

has decided to purchase a 10-seater King Air B-250 aircraftat a cost of around �40.63crore for providing services tothe VVIPs including Governor,Chief Minster and other dig-nitaries in the State.

Besides, the StateGovernment will also purchasethree small Cessna-172 S JTAtraining aircrafts in a bid toimpart ultra-modern flyingtraining facilities to the youthin the state, said Haryana CivilAviation Minister, Rao NarbirSingh on Tuesday.

He said that a sum of over�316 crore would be spent onpurchase of three small Cessna-172 S JTA training aircrafts,whereas 10-seater King Air B-250 aircraft would be pur-chased at an estimated cost ofUS $62,50,000 (�40.63 cr),which was presently being usedby the government in the statesof Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan,Uttrakhand, Maharashtra andChattishgarh.

All the formalities havebeen completed in this direc-tion, the Minister said.

He said that presently, theState Government has a twin-engine helicopter to provide airservices to the Governor, Chief

Minister and other dignitaries.The Government had pur-

chased an aircraft in 2005. Butthe Government’s 10-seateraircraft — Beech Super KingAir B-200 — was damaged ina crash at Chandigarh airporton March 27 in 2014. The thenGovernor Jagannath Pahadia,his wife, and eight others onboard had a miraculous escapein the crash.

The Minister added thatunder the RegionalConnectivity Scheme-UDAN,M/S Pinnacle Airlines hadalready consented to give itsservices at Hisar Airport fromJune 2018 onward.

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Six people including twoIndian Air Force pilots

and four others on board anIAF Mi-17 helicopter escapedunhurt on Tuesday after itcrashed 20 metres beforelanding at the Kedarnath heli-pad on Tuesday morning. Nocasualties have been reported,said Rudraprayag superin-tendent of police PrahladNarayan Meena, adding thatIAF's MI 17 chopper report-edly caught fire after it hit aniron girder and crashed whilelanding at the helipad behindthe Kedarnath shrine.

Sources said that one ofthe pilots had injured his legwhile the injuries others sus-tained were minor, adding

that the helicopter, which wasflying low, had collided witha cable and crashed.

Sources further informedthat the helicopter was beingused to carry constructionmaterials of irrigation depart-ment from Guptkashi toKedarnath for the construc-tion work underway at thetemple township ofKedarnath which surroundsthe shrine. it should be men-tioned here that the narrowKedarnath Valley makes fly-ing helicopters through thevalley all the more challeng-ing.

After the crash, smokewas seen billowing out fromchopper. Labourers, employ-ees and police personnelrushed to the helipad and all

the six people on board werehelped out safely.

It is learnt that the crashtook place shortly before thechopper was to reach thetouchdown area of the heli-pad. Sources further said thatthe chopper was carryingmechanical equipment fromGuptkashi to Kedarnath dur-ing its second round when thecrash occurred at around 8.30am. It is pertinent to mentionhere that this is not the firstincident of an Mi-17 heli-copter crashing in theKedarnath valley followingthe 2013 disaster. An Mi-17being used in the relief oper-ations had crashed nearGaurikund leading to thedeath of 19 people on boardduring 2013.

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State police are now gearingup for upcoming Char

Dham Yatra slated to resumefrom April 18. While 79 tem-porary police posts would beset up along the Char DhamYatra routes additional policeforces would be deployed fortraffic management and con-ducting rescue and relief oper-ation in case of natural disas-ter and road accidents in thedistricts concerned, said stateadditional director general ofpolice (law and order) AshokKumar on Tuesday. Notably,Gangotri temple andYamunotri temple would openfor the devotees on April 18while Kedarnath Templewould reopen on April 29 andBadrinath temple on April 30.

ADG Kumar said that atotal of 15 companies and twoand half platoons of ProvincialArmed Constabulary would bedeployed on Char Dham Yatraroutes to ensure glitch- free pil-grimage.

“In order to manage trafficsystem on the pilgrimage routes,traffic police would be deployedat 88 places- four in Pauri district,eight in Uttarkashi, 11 in Tehri,10 in Chamoli, 42 inRudraprayag and two checkposts in Dehradun,” he said,adding that a total of 84 places hasbeen identified as pressure pointin view of traffic congestionduring the Yatra season - seven

in Chamoli, five in Rudraprayag,seven in Uttarkashi, 11 inChamoli, 40 in Haridwar, 10 inDehradun and four in Pauri.

In addition, to facilitate thepilgrims, parking venues havebeen developed at various places.Two parking venues of capacity250 vehicles have been set up atGangotri while six parkingvenues of capacity 150 vehicles atYamontri/Janki chatty and threeparking venues of the capacity480 vehicles at Badrinath, headded.

Kumar further said that StateDisaster Response Force (SDRF)comprising 315 personnel wouldbe deployed to conduct rescueand relief operation in case of dis-aster. Two sub-teams have beendeployed in Pauri while five inUttarkashi, three in Tehri, four inChamoli, three in Dehradunand four in Rudraprayag.

Besides, 170 trained touristpolice would be deployed at 65places along the Char DhamYatra routes which include 12tourist police (TP) at threeplaces in Pauri, 28 TP at 14places in Uttarkashi, 10 TP at sixplaces in Tehri, 18 TP at nineplaces in Chamoli, 12 TP at sixplaces in Haridwar, 14 TP ateight places in Rudraprayag and12 TP at nine places inDehradun. “Tourist police arebeing trained on how to guidetourists. Besides, they are beinggiven lesson on how to behaverightly with the pilgrims,” headded.

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Dr Prakash Chandra,Chairman of Indian

Citation Indexing (ICI), said:Authors should respect and fol-low the publishing standards.“They should also honour thequality of the research work,” headded.

Expressing deep concernover India’s very less contri-bution in ‘knowledge sharing’(research related) Chandrasaid, India is the second mostpopulous country in the worldand its contribution is only 4percent in ‘knowledge sharing’while China is having 16 per-cent share in ‘knowledge shar-ing’ in the world.

Chandra admitted thatIndian Journals needs ade-quate support by theGovernment.

He emphasized on tomaintain publishing standardsof the journals and urgedIndian publishers to main-tain the quality of articles too.

Aiming to promote andenhance the Indian Journalsand to adjoin their editors,publishers and researchers atwo days national conferencerecently held at Jabalpur inMP.

The conference wasorganised by JournalsAssociation of India (JAI)with the theme “JournalManagement with AdvancedTools and Techniques” to pro-vided opportunities for theprofessionals, publishers; toexchange new ideas and appli-cation experiences with oneanother and finding globalpartners for knowledgeenhancement.

Anil Mehra, President ofJournals Association of India(JAI) said growing number ofIndian academic researchersare now preferring overseasjournals to publish their arti-cles or research papers andpaying a good deal of moneyto them.

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When the final word onalleged gangrape at

Kunduli is yet to be spoken outfollowing the ongoing SITinvestigation, the worrying factthat stares at the State isKoraput in the last half adecade has emerged as the‘rape’ capital of Odisha byvirtue of having the highest rateof crime in rapes.

Bhubaneswar, the StateCapital, has piped Koraput forthe first time in 2017 with a rateof rape crime at a mind bog-gling 27.5.

Such stunning facts aboutcrime against women havecome to the fore as the Odishapolice have recently releasedthe ‘Crime 2017’ report.

According to the report,

rapes in Odisha in 2017 haverisen by a moderate 3.6 per centin 2017. But the sub-Stateanalysis pops out more dis-concerting details. Though casewise Mayurbhanj again hastopped the chart in the ‘dis-graceful’ list , astounding risein rape cases in Bhubaneswarand Ganjam emerged as thepick of the ‘dubious’ list. Andshowing a consistency of sort,Koraput has emerged as the‘rape’ capital of Odisha byvirtue of maintaining a rate ofrape crime of a high of around15 per lakh women – whichmeans of every one lakhwomen in Koraput, 15 womenkeep filing rape cases there.

In contrast, the rate ofcrime of rapes in Odisha as awhole has been around 10.4, upfrom 9.4 in 2016. It has beenobserved that since 2012 –

2017, the number of rape casesin Koraput has been in therange of 105-120.

Koraput in 2017 hasrecorded around 117 rapecases. However, in 2017,Koraput seemingly has got acompetitor in the guise of Statecapital Bhubaneswar, whichhas recorded a humungous 62per cent jump in rape cases reg-istered to touch 125 in 2017 vis-a-vis around 77 in 2016. It alsotopped the State with a rate ofrape crime of around 27.5 forthe first time in commission-erate police history. Even, thelargest district of State, Ganjam,too had recorded a spurt inrape cases in 2017 by a whop-ping 71 per cent but in rate ofrape crime, it figured amongthe bottom districts with arate of rape crime of mere 5.3per cent.

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From Page 1At the same time, it said,

liberty of innocent citizenscannot be taken away withoutany independent enquiry. Thisbecomes more crucial as theAct prohibits grant of antici-patory bail to an accused.

On the aspect of misuse ofthe Act, amicus curiaeAmarendra Saran said that theCentre cannot deny misuse ofthe Act as in the earlier round,it be produced a ParliamentaryStanding Committee showinghow the law was being misusedleading to issuance of advi-sories to States and UTs. Eventhe Bench told the A-G that

abuse may not be by SC/STmembers but may be by policeor some vested interests.

The Bench said, “Thereshould not be any terror insociety against cases taken upunder this Act. In cases wherethere is verifiable material or agrievous offence of againstSC/ST, preliminary enquirymay not be necessary butwhere verification is not pos-sible, an individual’s libertycannot be curtailed withoutenquiry and our order providesan outer limit of one week forsuch enquiry. We are notagainst Act but an innocentshould not be punished.”

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Israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu on

Tuesday canceled an agree-ment with the United Nationsto resettle thousands of Africanmigrants, caving in to pressurefrom hawks in his coalitionwho opposed the deal becauseit would allow many othermigrants to remain in thecountry.

The startling turnarounddrew heavy criticism fromNetanyahu’s opponents andraised questions about theembattled Israeli leader’s deci-sion making processes.

Netanyahu proudlyannounced the deal with theUN refugee agency in a nation-ally televised news conferenceon Monday, saying it wouldbenefit Israel and the migrants.But after coalition hard-linersattacked him, he announcedlate in the evening that he wassuspending the arrangementin order to consult with resi-dents of south Tel Aviv. Veteranresidents of the working classarea, where the migrant popu-lation is concentrated, had felt

slighted by the deal.After meeting with resi-

dents on Tuesday, Netanyahusaid he had weighed the prosand cons and he “decided tocancel the agreement.”

Nationalist allies who dom-inate Netanyahu’s coalition hadharshly criticised the dealbecause it would allow thou-sands of Africans to remain inIsrael.

Naftali Bennett, leader ofthe nationalist Jewish Homeparty, tweeted earlier Tuesdaythat the deal “is bad for Israel.”

“It’s not enough to suspendit. I call on the prime ministerto cancel it completely. Itsapproval would cause genera-tions of crying and determinea precedent in Israel grantingresidency for illegal infiltrators,”

he said. Netanyahu announcedthe deal on Monday after a planto deport the migrants to anunnamed African country, pre-sumed to be Rwanda, fellthrough.

Given the lack of choices,Netanyahu said his deal withthe UNHCR was the best avail-able option.

It called for resettling abouthalf of the 35,000 Africanmigrants in Israel to Westernnations, while allowing the restto remain in Israel. It alsocalled for dispersing themigrant population throughoutthe country, and investing andrehabilitating Tel Aviv’s impov-erished southern neighbor-hoods. Dozens of migrants andtheir Israeli supporters protest-ed the suspension outsideNetanyahu’s office in Jerusalemand government offices in TelAviv as he met with the neigh-borhood representatives.

Some protesters stripped tothe waist, draped themselveswith chains and taped theirmouths shut at a protest in TelAviv. Others waved signs read-ing “Human lives are not toplay with. Yes to the deal.”

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The crown prince and defacto leader of Saudi Arabia

said Israel has a “right” to ahomeland, a notable shift in thekingdom’s position published.

Saudi Arabia and Israelstill have no formal diplomat-ic relations, but behind thescenes, improvements in theirties have accelerated in recentyears.

Both countries see Iran astheir biggest outside threat andthe United States as their keyally, and both see danger fromarmed Islamist extremists.

Israel’s conflict with thePalestinians has long proved anobstacle to a full rapproche-ment, however, as Riyadh stillsupports their claim to sover-eignty.

But now Crown PrinceMohammed bin Salman —speaking to the editor-in-chiefof US news magazine TheAtlantic — appeared to put therival land claims on an equalfooting.

The prince was asked by

Jeffrey Goldberg whether the“Jewish people have a right toa nation-State in at least part oftheir ancestral homeland?”

“I believe that each people,anywhere, has a right to live intheir peaceful nation,” said theprince, who is on a three-weekUS tour.

“I believe the Palestiniansand the Israelis have the rightto have their own land,” headded.

“But we have to have apeace agreement to assure thestability for everyone and tohave normal relations.” Since 2002, Saudi Arabia hasbeen the main sponsor of the

Arab Peace Initiative, whichenvisions a two-State solutionto the Israeli-Palestinian con-flict.

But no such senior Saudiofficial is known to have pre-viously accepted that Israel hasa “right” to any land beyond thepractical need to secure a last-ing deal.

If, as expected, the crownprince succeeds his octoge-narian father King Salman andascends to the Saudi throne, hewill also become guardian ofIslam’s holiest shrines.

But he told Goldberg hehad no “religious objection” toIsraelis living alongsidePalestinians, so long as themain Muslim holy site inJerusalem — the Al-Aqsamosque compound — is pro-tected.

“We have religious con-cerns about the fate of the holymosque in Jerusalem and aboutthe rights of the Palestinianpeople,” he said.

“This is what we have. Wedon’t have any objection againstany other people.”

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Senior Chinese diplomatWang Yi told North Korea’s

Foreign Minister on Tuesdaythat Beijing supports theNorth’s planned summits withSouth Korea and the UnitedStates.

The Foreign Ministry citedWang, China’s state councilorand Foreign Minister, as tellingRi Yong Ho at a meeting inBeijing that China appreciatesNorth Korea’s efforts to easetensions on the KoreanPeninsula.

The ministry described Rias saying that North Koreawould maintain close strategiccommunications with China asoutlined at last week’s surprisemeeting between Chineseleader Xi Jinping and his NorthKorean counterpart, Kim JongUn. Kim’s visit to China madeclear that Beijing, North Korea’sonly major ally and chiefprovider of energy and tradethat keeps the country’s brokeneconomy afloat, will have amajor role in any effort to reinin the North’s nuclear pro-gram.

Earlier Tuesday, Wang toldreporters that China hopes aplanned meeting betweenNorth Korea and the US wouldbe able to avoid “disruptive fac-tors” and stick to the pursuit ofdialogue between Kim and US

President Donald Trump.“Of course, historical expe-

rience tells us that when thereis an easing in the situation onthe peninsula and hopes forpeace and dialogue appear,there will often be disturbances

of this or that kind,” Wang saidat a briefing with reporters fol-lowing a meeting with SwissForeign Minister Ignazio Cassis.“We call on all parties to main-tain their determination, elim-inate interference, and go alongin the right direction of dia-logue and negotiation.”

North Korea’s officialKorean Central News Agencysaid Ri led a Government del-egation that left Pyongyang, theNorth’s capital, on Tuesday totake part in a ministerial meet-ing of the Non-AlignedMovement to be held inAzerbaijan and visit Russia.

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Some South Africans are paying tribute to Winnie

Madikizela-Mandela, visitingthe home of the anti-apartheidactivist and ex-wife of Nelson Mandela a day after shedied.

Women’s league membersfrom South Africa’s ruling partysang outside Madikizela-Mandela’s house in the Sowetoarea of Johannesburg onTuesday. Julius Malema, anopposition leader, later spoke toa crowd of supporters outsidethe home, saying South Africansmust “bid farewell to a giant.”

President Cyril Ramaphosasaid Monday that a state funer-al will be held for Madikizela-Mandela on April 14. She diedat age 81 after an illness.

Madikizela-Mandela waspersecuted by the apartheidgovernment, and venerated bymany South Africans, becauseof her activism against whiteminority rule. Her reputationwas sullied by scandals, includ-ing a 1991 conviction for kid-napping and assault.

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French rail workers kickedoff three months of rolling

strikes on Tuesday, part of awave of industrial action thatwill test President EmmanuelMacron’s resolve to reshapeFrance with sweeping reforms.

The strike will cause chaosfor France’s 4.5 million train pas-sengers, with stoppages plannedtwo days out of five until June 28unless Macron drops his bid toforce a major overhaul at staterail operator SNCF.

Staff at Air France, garbagecollectors and some energyworkers are also staging sepa-rate walkouts today in a grow-ing atmosphere of social strife11 months after Macron cameto power.

Pensioners, students and

public sector workers havealready taken to the streets inrecent weeks protesting againstthe 40-year-old centrist’s wide-spread reform plans.

“In the most tense socialclimate since the start of theMacron presidency, there is areal risk of the discontent crys-tallising,” the regional CharenteLibre newspaper warned onMonday. The rail strike offi-cially started last evening but itbegins in earnest on what themedia have dubbed “blackTuesday”.

Only one high-speed TGVtrain out of eight is scheduledto run and one regional trainout of five, spelling problemsfor companies across the coun-try as staff struggle to get towork.

“I regularly travel betweenLyon and Grenoble for work.The strike is going to raise hugeproblems for me,” lawyerPerrine Fontana, 27, told AFPat the main station in thesouthern city of Lyon yesterday.

“I can understand the rail-road workers to a certaindegree, but their strike chal-lenges the personal and pro-fessional lives of many people.”

Three-quarters of Eurostartrains to London and Brusselswill run and Thalys trainstowards Belgium and theNetherlands will operatealmost normally, but there willbe none at all to Spain, Italy orSwitzerland.

At Air France, managerssay 75 per cent of flights willoperate despite the fifth strike

over pay in little over a month,but further walkouts areplanned for April 7, 10 and 11.

“We need to rid this coun-try of its strike culture,” GabrielAttal, spokesman for Macron’sRepublic On The Move(LREM) party, told FranceInter radio yesterday.

Macron says the SNCF,saddled with 46.6 billion euros($57.5 billion) of debt, needs tomake major changes as EUcountries prepare to open passenger rail to competition

by 2020.It is 30 per cent more

expensive to run a train inFrance than elsewhere inEurope, according to his gov-ernment, which wants to stripnew SNCF hires of special railworkers’ status guaranteeingjobs for life and early retire-ment.

Unions accuse Macron, acentrist ex-investment banker,of seeking to “destroy the pub-lic railways through pure ide-ological dogmatism”.

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An Arab Israeli man wasshot dead by soldiers

Tuesday after crashing into ahitch-hiking stop in the occu-pied West Bank and thenattempting to flee, officialssaid.

No other injuries werereported and officials said thecrash was still being investi-gated. It was not for now beinglabelled an attack.

Israel’s military said theincident occurred near theJewish settlement of Ariel,south of the Palestinian city ofNablus.

Israeli security forces checkthe site where an Arab Israeliman was shot dead by soldiersafter crashing into a hitch-hiking stop near theJewish settlement of Ariel in theoccupied West Bank on April3, 2018.

Israeli security forces checkthe site where an Arab Israeliman was shot dead by soldiersafter crashing into a hitch-hiking stop near the Jewish set-tlement of Ariel in the occupiedWest Bank on April 3, 2018

The driver was in a stolencar and being pursued when hecrashed into the hitch-hikingspot, the army said in a state-ment.

It was not clear if anyonewas at the time present at thehitch-hiking stop, one of thedesignated locations for hailinga ride common in Israel andnear Israeli settlements.

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After uprooting from Iraq and Syria, theIslamic State (IS) is trying to establishitself in Afghanistan and Pakistan as

both these countries are totally radicalisedand, hence, it will be easier for them to settheir bases over there. The creation ofIslamic State Khorasan Province (ISK-P) bythe IS fascinated large number of semi-liter-ate, fanatic and disenchanted Muslim youthsall over the world who came to Afghanistanand joined the outfit. The ISK-P earned thesupport of not just extremist Muslims but sev-eral Muslim writers, thinkers and intellectu-als also extended their assistance.

ISK-P contacted leaders of various ter-rorist outfits in Afghanistan and Pakistan andpersuaded them to join ISK-P. The organi-sation also made alliances with few groupswhile encouraging smaller groups to amal-gamate in the IS. Besides these groups, dis-sidents of numerous terrorist outfits, especial-ly of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP),Afghan and Pakistan Taliban, Al Qaeda,Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan joined theIS. Haji Mehsud, former Chief of TTP, andseveral important Afghan Taliban leaders,particularly Mullah Nemat Mufti, MullahSufu Qayum and Mullah Rasool also joinedthe IS with their followers.

The outfit is against Shias and alleges thatthey “pretend” to be Muslims and should bepurged even before non-Muslims. Hence,fighters from anti-Shia organisations likeJundullah, Lashlar-e-Jhangvi al Alami, Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan also joined the IS.

ISK-P announced Hafiz Saeed Khan asits leader while Mullah Abdul Rauf Aliza asits deputy leader. Hafiz Saeed was fromPakistan and leader of TTP, while MullahAliza was an Afghan national. In this way, theIS inculcated its sway both in Pakistan as wellas in Afghanistan and fighters from both thesecountries joined the outfit. Saeed was killedin 2016 while Aliza lost life in 2015 but bothof them worked hard to popularise ISK-P.

Afghanistan being a poor country andunemployment rate at about 40 per cent, itwas easy for ISK-P to recruit Afghans. Theywere paying more than double the amountpaid by the Afghan Government. Hence, sev-eral personnel of the Afghan NationalSecurity Forces (ANSF) joined the IS alongwith their weapons. Large number of Afghansare uneducated and are ready to sacrifice theirlives in the name of Islam. This is why moreand more people are joining the outfit.

ISK-P distributed literature in Dari andPashto languages, denouncing the Talibanand Al Qaeda and mentioning that the IS isthe only organisation which can save Muslimsfrom persecution and establish Islamic rulebased on Shariat. In literature, the IS also men-tioned about several terrorist activities car-ried by the outfit.

Large number of foreign fighters main-ly from Pakistan, Tajikistan, Chechnya andUzbekistan also joined the IS. Besides these

countries, fighters from African countries andEuropean countries, especially from France,Algeria and the UK, are also residing inAfghanistan. Analysts claim that the num-ber of foreign fighters in Afghanistan are morethan 3,000 and it will further enhance oncethe IS is completely ousted from Iraq andSyria as most foreign fighters would notreturn back to their native soil but will reachAfghanistan to reinforce the IS.

The IS successfully carried out several ter-rorist attacks in the recent past in differentplaces in Afghanistan. On January 20, terror-ists laid siege into Kabul’s IntercontinentalHotel and killed more than 20 persons,including four foreigners. On January 27, ter-rorists attacked with an ambulance full ofexplosives in Kabul in which death tollcrossed 100. Again, on January 28, few ter-rorists attacked an Army post near militaryacademy, Kabul, and killed 11 soldiers. Fewdays after, terrorists also attacked an NGOoffice in Jalalabad. ISK-P also killed 41 Shiasin a cultural centre while more than 150 per-sons were exterminated in Kabul. The IS alsosuccessfully carried out terrorist acts in Ghor,Qushtapa and other places.

Analysts claim that terrorists killedmore than 10,000 Afghan security person-nel and injured more than 15,000 persons in2017 alone. This year appears to be bloodi-er and more security personnel and civilianswould be killed if effective measures are nottaken by the Afghan Government and theUS-led NATO troops. ANSF is unable to con-trol the mounting pressure by terrorists, espe-cially the IS, because of rampant corruption,lack of will to fight, old and rusted weapons,unsatisfactory training and no actionableintelligence. In fact, the intelligence machin-ery of terrorists is working better than the

intelligence setup of ANSF. The Afghan Government is losing

ground and according to analysts, about sev-enty per cent of the area is under control ofterrorists including, the IS. BesidesAfghanistan, quite a few areas of Pakistanabutting Afghanistan, including FederallyAdministered Tribal Areas (FATA),Waziristan, Balochistan among others, arealso under the control of terrorists. Recentsurge in terrorist activities also indicate thatonly aerial bombings would not wipe out ter-rorist outfits and there will be no use nego-tiating with them as terrorist outfits utilisetime of negotiations in regrouping themselves.

The strength of NATO troops must beenhanced as 15,000 troops would fail to con-trol various terrorist outfits in the country.If NATO troops leave Afghanistan beforeeradicating the IS, it will be disastrous not onlyfor the region but for the whole world. Theworld powers, which jointly or separatelyruined the IS in Iraq and Syria, should worktogether to destroy it from Afghanistan.Hence, it is essential that all world powersopposed to the IS work together to destroyit permanently. The US dropped most pow-erful non-nuclear bomb in Achin district inApril 2017 and destroyed weapons, tunnelsand killed more than 90 IS fighters. It con-ducted more than 400 air raids in Februaryand March 2017 against IS strongholds butair raids are not enough. Land forces arerequired for area domination.

Terrorist activities in Afghanistan can-not be curbed unless Pakistan, which is pro-viding safe heaven to various terrorist out-fits, is controlled. Although US PresidentDonald Trump has suspended $1.9 billion aidto Pakistan but it is not enough as China haspromised to compensate. NATO troops

should bombard the infrastructure createdby sinister Inter-Services Intelligence totrain and shelter the terrorists. The NATOtroops should not only destroy terrorists’ hide-outs but should also exterminate their train-ers. Leaders of terrorist outfits should also beeliminated either by bombardments or byspecial operations. Pakistan Government can-not take action against terrorist outfits as theirleaders have mass following but NATO troopscan destroy them.

The Afghan Government must gal-vanise ANSF and personnel should be well-trained and must be provided with latestweapons. Working conditions and salarystructure should be improved and feeling ofpatriotism should be inculcated. The intel-ligence network of the country is in sham-bles, no security forces can trounce terroristoutfits unless the intelligence organisationsprovide pin-pointed actionable intelligence.The Afghan Government should send intel-ligence personnel to India so that they aremethodically trained in collection, analysisand timely dissemination of intelligence.

The Government should take stringentaction against corrupt officials and rectifygenuine problems of the masses. TheGovernment should also try to win the con-fidence of the masses through launchingpoverty elimination and employment gen-eration schemes. Leaders of political par-ties must contact the masses and broadentheir base. The election system should behonest and transparent so that the publicdoes not give any importance to the alle-gations of defeated candidates about the useof malpractices by the winning candidates.

(The writer is member of United ServicesInstitute of India, and the Institute for DefenceStudies and Analyses)

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Sir — This refers to the report,“Dalit rage singes India, 8 killed”(April 3). It is becoming increas-ingly evident that Dalit radicals areresorting to violence and arson atthe filmiest of grounds, in protestagainst perceived insults and spo-radic incidents. In the latest case,the radical Dalit violence in sev-eral places was triggered by a total-ly false and thoughtless misinter-pretation of the recent SupremeCourt judgement on the alleged‘dilution’ of the SC/ST (Preventionof Atrocities) Act which directedthat there would be “no automat-ic arrest” on any complaint with-out “preliminary enquiry by thepolice within seven days beforetaking any action”. Is this not avery legitimate and fair provision?How can any one be arrested bya mere complaint by an interest-ed party against an opponent?

All politicians who are insist-ing on a review of the apex courtorder seem to be playing vote-bankpolitics. It will do no good to theimage of the Modi Government toplay footsie with Dalit radicalsand not condemn violence andkillings on a fake Dalit cause.

M RatanVia email

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Sir — This refers to the report,“Dalit rage singes India, 8 killed”(April 3). It is unfortunate that vote-bank politics has stooped politicalparties so low that none of themhave the courage to support the jus-tified verdict of the Supreme Courton Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of

Atrocities) Act.None of the State

Governments could mustercourage to prevent miscreantsfrom indulging in violence or pre-vent heavy loss to public proper-ty during the Bharat Bandh calledagainst the apex court’s verdict. Itwas complete failure of constitu-tional provision gifted by BRAmbedkar which required theadministration to ensure compli-ance of judicial verdicts.

If those fighting for reserva-tion or political parties support-ing them have any respect for BRAmbedkar, they should ask for theabolition of reservation whichhas been spreading hatredamongst the society by alienatingpersons of reserved categoriesfrom the normal society.

SC AgrawalDelhi

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Sir — This refers to the article,“Welcome, China’s President forlife” (April 2) by GarimaMaheshwari. A resurgent China haschosen its way, why should a deca-dent West want to impose its styleof governance where people haveto tolerate an alliance of corruptpoliticians and bureaucrats?Unfortunately, Indian pseudo-lib-erals seek to impose this decadentculture because of the perks asso-ciated with such systems. Indiashould evolve its own system ofgovernance based ancient systemsand Dharma.

Ashok Mehta Via web

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No one should be surprised atthe headlines in newspa-pers and prime-time telev-

sion channels that the currentWinter Session of Parliament isheading towards a washout. This isthe 12th straight session wasted sofar. In fact, we have been seeingalmost the same headlines at theclose of every Parliament session inthe past two decades. People arebecoming disenchanted with theMPs for not doing their duties.

What are the functions andduties of an elected Member ofParliament? There are four impor-tant functions: Budget scrutiny,protecting the interests of the con-stituents, function as a watchdogover the Government and above all,

making laws. Are they performing their

duties for which they have beenelected? This belligerence is not per-taining to the Congress-ledOpposition now as the BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP) too was doing thesame thing when it was in theOpposition.

While the Government blamesthe Opposition, the latter blamesthe BJP for not reaching out tothem. Congress president RahulGandhi in a rally in Karnataka onMarch 25 said, “In Parliament, a no-confidence motion against the ModiGovernment has been moved. Forthe past 10 days it has been stalledbecause the Government is afraid”.

Hence, the blame-game contin-ues. While political parties used tokeep up pretensions that they werewilling to work, it was clear from dayone that neither the Government northe Opposition had any intention ofallowing the Parliament to functionduring this session.

Significantly, this is the firsttime the Narendra Modi

Government is facing a no-confi-dence motion brought separately bythe Congress, the Telugu DesamParty (TDP) and the TelanganaRashtra Samithi (TRS). The AllIndia Anna Dravida MunnetraKazhagam (AIADMK) is threaten-ing to bring another.

Both the presiding officers hadbeen pleading with the members toallow the House to function but tono avail. The Chairman of RajyaSabha M Venkaiah Naidu lament-ed, “ I am filled with sadness at thedisorder, indiscipline and inappro-priate conduct in the House”.

Naidu made several appeals tothe members, asking them not tofurther erode the “quality of poli-ty”. He finally succeeded in makingthe Rajya Sabha bid farewell to 60retiring members last week. LokSabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajanhad no such success.

The Upper House was onlyable to pass the Payment of Gratuity(Amendment) Bill 2017, while theLok Sabha cleared the Finance Bill2018 without any discussion,

including a �89 crore spendingplan for the next fiscal year in lessthan half an hour.

The House passed the 21amendments for taxation proposalsin the Bill by a voice vote and alsothe appropriation Bill containingthe budgetar y plans for 99Government departments andMinistries.The Opposition blockedthe Government in both Houses onvarious issues. Mainly, the fourregional parties from the south —AIADMK, TRS, YSR Congress andTDS — supported by the otheropposition parties stal led the business.

Every day as soon as the Housebegan its proceedings, 37 AIADMKmembers trooped into the well ofthe House, demanding setting up ofthe Cauvery Water ManagementBoard as ordered by the SupremeCourt. The TRS wanted its 12 percent reservation for Muslims in the State to be notified underNinth Schedule.

TDS, an ally of the NationalDemocratic Alliance (NDA), after

quitting the alliance last month,became more belligerent, demand-ing special status for AndhraPradesh as promised at the time ofthe bifurcation of the State in 2014.Not to be outdone, the YSRCongress too is demanding thesame and both parties have sepa-rately given a no-confidence motionagainst the Modi Government.

Politically, it is not unexpectedin view of the upcoming Assemblyelection to Karnataka where boththe Congress and the BJP areengaged in direct fight.

As for the AIADMK, it is com-petitive local politics which is play-ing out in Parliament. Same is thecase with TDP and YSRC. The TRSis indeed playing to the tune of itshome constituency. Losing onemore Session does not auger wellfor the Government as well as theOpposition. There are many issueswhich are important, like the agrar-ian crisis, the Nirav Modi-PNBscam, Iraq issue, CambridgeAnalytica data sale, Ramnavamiclashes in West Bengal and Bihar

and so on. Certainly, it is for the

Government to ensure that businessis transacted in both Houses and itmust reach out to the Opposition.But the Opposition too has aresponsibilities to debate, discussand expose the Government.

Right now, the relationshipbetween the Government and theOpposition has completely brokendown. The Government should alsonote the growing north-south divide,with the southern States complain-ing of a stepmotherly treatment.

If this continues, the people ofthe country may no longer havetrust in politicians, who theybelieve, are taking them for a ride.They are already disenchanted withthe political class with the increas-ing number of NOTA votes in theballot paper indicating their anger.Parliament is a temple of democra-cy and if this breaks down, thedemocracy will also be shattered.

(The writer is (The writer is asenior political commentator andsyndicated columnist)

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The news shared by the IndianCellular Association (ICA) aboutIndia replacing Vietnam to

become the world’s second largestmobile phone producer in the world in2017 by accounting for 11 per cent of theglobal mobile production — up fromthree per cent in 2014 — may just be thebeginning of new and exciting trends inIndia’s growth as a manufacturing hub.Much of the success can be attributed toGovernment’s singular focus to promotethe manufacturing sector in the coun-try through its flagship programme,Make in India, to make India a globalhub for manufacturing, research andinnovation and an integral part of theglobal supply chain.

As it is known that economicgrowth and enhanced standards of liv-ing are positively correlated with nation-al industrial activity and that growth ingross domestic product (GDP) is posi-tively related to the growth of thenation’s manufacturing sector, India’squest to increase the share of manufac-turing in its GDP from the current 16per cent to 25 per cent by 2025 is mov-ing in the right direction. However,there’s still a long way to go before westart investing strategically in technicaleducation, training and skill develop-ment; devise favourable policies andallow access to cheap capital to attractglobal manufacturing giants to set uptheir bases in India.

Average wages in China have risenby 80 per cent since 2010, thereby mak-ing manufacturing of goods four per centcheaper than in the US; forcing the coun-try to abdicate low-cost manufacturingand move into medium to high-techmanufacturing — such moves arebacked by the Chinese Government.This transition of China has openedspaces for other countries like Malaysia,India, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam,collectively known as MITI-V, to moveinto its shoes and take its position as alow-cost manufacturer.

India, in particular, is a strong con-tender to be the next top hub for low-cost manufacturing due to its manufac-turing competitiveness like young pop-ulation, low labour costs, a supportivepolicy environment, good quality infra-structure, availability of engineers, min-imum level of education for all workers,economic growth and large internalmarket of 1.2 billion consumers. Sincethe launch of Make in India, severalcompanies have set up their manufac-turing base in India, like Chinese elec-tronics giant Huawei that has startedmanufacturing at a facility in Tamil Naduand Foxconn, the Apple supplier, whichis opening a $10 billion iPhone manu-facturing plant in India.

India should quickly move to estab-lish itself as a global manufacturing hub.First, policies in the country have to befavourable to give a boost to Make inIndia initiative. The framework for spe-

cial economic zones (SEZs) have to becompletely revamped to make the entry,exit and operations with the SEZ easi-er, including exemption from the min-imum alternate tax (MAT) for industriesin these zones and boosting exports bysimplifying the procedures. Recentefforts to reduce the minimum arearequired from 25 hectares to fourhectares for the establishment of sector-specific SEZs, such as biotechnology,non-conventional energy equipment,agro-based food processing and servicesin the North-Eastern States, Goa, Jammu& Kashmir, Uttarakhand and the UnionTerritories is also a welcome move.

The 2018 Budget, which saw a risein customs duty rates for many items, inaddition to a new surcharge referred toas ‘social welfare surcharge’ on import-ed goods, which is levied at 10 per centon basic customs duties, shows a clearpolicy shift to incentivise domesticmanufacturing. With this new levy, thedecade-old education cess has been abol-ished and the cumulative customs dutyrate for standard goods has gone up from30.15 per cent to 30.98 per cent. Basiccustom duty on many goods, includingmobile phones, car, television and pack-aged foods, basic customs duty has beenincreased by five per cent to 10 per cent,in a move to make manufacturing inIndia more lucrative for businessesespecially in certain sectors like food pro-cessing, electronics, auto components,footwear and furniture. Make in Indiaand ease of doing business are two ini-tiatives that are inseparable.

In order to make India a manufac-turing hub, trade facilitation, automationand digitisation should be enhanced bythe Government. The Finance Minister

has empowered the board to providespecific relaxation to a specified class ofimporters/exporters/ goods in the arenaof digital documentation, expeditiouscustoms clearance to reduce the time andcost of clearance of goods.

Second, the success of Make in Indiadepends on skilling India to a largeextent. The unbeatable advantage ofdemographic dividend, where morethan half of its population is below 25years of age, can be realised if the youthhave the skills to be employed. It is a hugechallenge for the Government to devel-op skill-based workforce to drive theMake in India initiative and create a ded-icated Ministry of Skill Development &Entrepreneurship to restructure voca-tional training structure.

The Government has set a target toskill 500 million people by 2022. We canlearn from Malaysia, China andSingapore, where the workforce wasskilled to cater to the requirements forthe nations’ economic developmentthrough strategic Government interven-tions. As a solution, the industry shouldcome forward and involve themselveswith vocational training colleges todevelop a skilled labour pool by engag-ing in setting standards for curriculumand certification testing which willensure that all entry-level workers havethe skill needed to perform the job.

Third, the Indian manufacturing islabour intensive and lacks automation.Relying on labour and using non-st-andard automation leads to more labourissues and lower quality levels. To gainglobal recognition in manufacturing,steps should be taken to improve pro-ductivity. A 15-20 per cent productivi-ty can be achieved by redefining the pr-

ocesses like changes in the plant layout,de-bottlenecking and efficient line bal-ancing and another 15-20 per cent pr-oductivity can be accomplished by str-uctural changes in smart automation.

Fourt, supply chains in our countryare largely inefficient. An array of infra-structure and transportation bottle-necks lead to an increased inventoryacross the value chain. This is also thereason why many Western companiesdo not integrate their Indian plants intotheir global networks and use themmainly to serve domestic markets. Indiashould take help of its highly evolved ITindustry to build custommade enterpriseresource planning tools cost-effectivelyto manage complex supply chains,reduce inventory and become more lean.

Finally, Indian small and medium-sized suppliers, many times, with lim-ited engineering and process capabil-ities, fail to provide high-quality prod-ucts. The Government should provideincentives to original equipment man-ufacturers to build quality into theirdesigns. Growth in manufacturing iscrucial for India’s economic develop-ment. India has to create a manufac-turing sector with the capability to gen-erate large-scale employment to caterto its growing young population.

The Government has to focus onremoving the challenges affecting theIndian manufacturing industry and de-velop robust infrastructure and policieswhich will have a positive impact on thefactors of production like land, labour,electricity, technology, transport, cost ofcapital and cost of borrowing to makeMake in India initiative successful.

(The writer is Assistant Professor,Amity University)

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Telangana Chief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao has

come down heavily on theCentre on the issues of dilutionof SC/ST Prevention ofAtrocities Act and the proposedblacklisting of journalists ifthey carry “fake news”.

In a statement issued todayhe strongly condemned theattacks on Dalits during BharatBandh yesterday and urgedthe entire country should standby Dalit who were economi-cally, socially and politicallysuppressed for generations.

On Supreme Court’s guide-lines on the SC/ST preventionof atrocities act, the ChiefMinister said, “Dalits are feel-ing that the recent SupremeCourt guidelines are weakening

and diluting the Laws and Actsmeant for protection of Dalits”.

He urged the Prime Ministerto talk to the Chief Justice ofSupreme Court in this regard.

The CM urged the PM toplace before the Supreme Courton how the guidelines issued bythe Apex Court had punchedholes in the SC/ST Atrocitiesprevention Act. “The Centralgovernment should take a sym-pathetic view on the on goingagitation launched by the Dalitswho are crestfallen with the SCguidelines”, KCR said.

Recalling that the succes-sive Governments enacted lawsto protect the rights and inter-ests of the Dalits, KCR said, “theGovts have a bounden duty toensure that the Laws and Actsmade for the Dalits should beimplemented properly.”

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An executive committeemeeting of Gujarat BJP will

be held on April 12 and 13 atSurat in which decisions wouldbe taken on organisationalframework and programmesfor the upcoming months.

Gujarat BJP vice-president IKJadeja said that in the meeting tobe chaired by BJP’s State presidentJitu Vaghani, party’s nationalgeneral secretary and Gujaratin-charge Bhupendra Yadav,national secretary, organisation V.Satish, Gujarat CM Vijay Rupaniand Deputy CM Nitin Patel willalso remain present.

In the two day long meetingsresolutions on performance ofNarendra Modi Government atCentre would be passed. Themeeting will also be attended byoffice bearers of Gujarat BJP, var-ious cells and morchas, conven-ers and district in-charges of theparty as well as special invitees.

On Tuesday, an importantmeeting of Gujarat BJP OBCmoracha was held at the Stateheadquarters ‘Shrit Kamalam’ onthe outskirts of the State capitalGandhinagar. Emphasis wasgiven to create awareness amongpeople about various schemes ofCentral and Gujarat Govt’sregarding OBCs in the meeting.

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The houses of a sitting and aformer MLA, both Dalits,

were set afire by a violent mobon Tuesday afternoon in theHindaun town in Karauli dis-trict of Rajasthan followingwhich curfew was imposed inthe area, a senior official said.

A mob comprising nearly5,000 people set ablaze housesof sitting MLA Rajkumari Jatavand former MLA BharosilalJatav in the Hindaun City,District Collector, Karauli,Abhimanyu Kumar told PTI.

While Rajkumari Jatav is

from the ruling BJP, BharosilalJatav is a former Congress leg-islator who also served as aMinister in the State. The inci-dent occurred a day afterRajasthan and several otherStates saw large scale protestsand violence during a ‘bandh’called by Dalit organisations.

Considering the law andorder situation, curfew wasclamped in the city, Kumaradded. He said the situationwas tense since morning.

After incidents of stone pelt-ing and arson, a mob set on forthe houses of the MLA and theex-MLA following which curfew

has been clamped till Wednesdaymorning, an official said.

“The traders’ associationand upper castes are agitated inHindaun City. They took out aprocession today and tried toenter the SC/ST dominatedareas,” Additional DirectorGeneral of Police (Law andOrder) NRK Reddy said.

“Police forces lobbed tear gasshells and resorted to cane charg-ing and firing rubber bullets todisperse the mob,” Reddy said.

SP, Karauli, Anil Kayal saidafter the incidents of arson andviolence, nearly 40 people weredetained in Hindaun.

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In a development unprece-dented in the history of the

State a concerned BengalGovernor KN Tripathi hassummoned State ElectionCommissioner, Chief Secretaryand Home Secretary followingreports of large-scale pre-elec-toral violence over filing ofnominations in the three-phasepanchayat elections beginningMay 1, BJP State presidentDilip Ghoshsaid.

Even as the rulingTrinamool Congress wonderedhow a political leader becameprivy to what transpiredbetween the offices ofGovernor and SEC a parallelclaim from poll panel officesaid ElectionCommissionerAmrendraKumar Singh had soughtappointment from Tripathiwho hadgranted an audience at12 pm on Wednesday.

The development comes inthe wake of large-scale violencereported during filing of nom-ination for the three-tier ruralpolls where opposition leadersas senior as a BJP district pres-ident and a secretary werestabbed and beaten up by

armed Trinamool Congressgoons who literally took con-trol of most subdivision andblock administrative offices.

What rest of India saw ina single day over Dalit unrest,Bengal witnessed in tranchesfor the past couple of days evenas major political parties suf-fered at the hands of MamataBanerjee’s men.

By the sundown reports ofunremitting violence poured infrom Indus, Sonamukhi andPatrasayar in Bankura,Arambagh in Hooghly,Raghunathganj, Jiaganj inMurshidabad, Mangalkot,Ketugram in Burdwan andRampurhat, Luvpur andIlambazar in Birbhum district.In all cases the police lookedthe, other way, parties com-plained.

The audacity brimmedover in Birbhum where BJPdistrict secretary KalosonaMondal was badly thrashedand stabbed in his backsideright inside the DistrictMagistrate’s office and he hadliterally to take shelter insidethe district court, sources said.

The leader was subse-quently admitted to the districthospital in Siuri. In neigh-

bouring Murshidabad, BJP dis-trict president Gouri ShankarGhosh was thrown on the roadand badly thrashed with wick-ets along with his party menwho had gone to file nomina-tions, source said.

At Arambagh, Goghat andother places the oppositionparties were targeted irrespec-tive of their political colours.The CPI(M) too complained ofmassive violence against theirsub-district level leaders manyof whom had been hospitalised.

Hordes of armedTrinamool hoodlums campedoutside block, sub-division anddistrict administrative offices.In many places like Birbhumtheir district bosses organizedmass feast for the “labour” theyput in to realize Chief Minister’sdreams of an opposition-lessstate apparently to avert aTripura-like electoral landslide.

Back in Kolkata theTrinamool and BJP engaged inverbal matches after

Dilip Ghosh claimed inthe wake of his meeting withTripathi that the

Governor had summonedthe SEC, Chief Secretary andHome Secretary at12 noon onWednesday.

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Adelegation of Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee(GPCC) on Tuesday submitted a memorandum to Gujarat

Governor regarding rising atrocities on Dalits in the countryand recent judgment of Supreme Court diluting the provisionsof arrest under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled tribes(Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

The Congress delegation comprising newly appointed GPCCpresident Amit Chavda, Leader of Opposition Paresh Dhanani,GPCC’s SC cell’s chief Naishad Solanki and other MLAs andoffice bearers.

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ASpecial MaharashtraControl of Organised

Crime Act (MCOCA) courtwill on May 2 deliver its verdictin the sensational 2011 seniorjournalist J Dey murder case, inwhich incarcerated underworldgangster Chhota Rajan is a keyaccused.

Nearly seven years afterDey was gunned down by agroup of motorbike-ridinggangsters allegedly at the ordersof Rajan, MCOCA court’sAdditional Sessions JudgeSameer Adkar on Tuesday fixedMay 2 as the date for deliver-ing the verdict in the much-dis-

cussed case.Apart from Chhota Rajan,

the other accused in the caseare former journalist JignaVora, Rohee ThangappanJoseph alias Satish Kalya,Abhijeet Shinde, Arun Dake,Sachin Gaikwad, AnilWaghmode, Nilesh Shendge,Mangesh Agawane, VinodAsrani, Paulson Joseph andDeepak Sisodia.

Of the total 12 accused, oneaccused Vinod Chembur aliasVinod Asrani, a real estatedealer and a bookie fromChembur, who was the mainfinancer and co-conspirator,passed away on April 11 2016following multiple ailments.

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Jammu and Kashmir ChiefMinister Mehbooba Mufti

on Tuesday reviewed situationin Kashmir at a high-levelmeeting amid a shutdown forsecond consecutive day againstkilling of 13 militants and fourcivilians in a series of encoun-ters between militants andsecurity forces on Sunday andsubsequent protests ofunarmed civilians.

An official spokesman saidthat Chief Minister impressedupon the officers dealing withsecurity situation to ensure thatcollateral damage was avoidedand all the Standard OperatingProcedures (SoPs) in this regardwere strictly adhered to.

Senior civil and police offi-cers briefed the CM, who cutshort her visit to New Delhiafter the situation worsened inKashmir, about the overall sit-uation in the Kashmir Valley.She inquired about woundedpersons admitted in variousHospitals and directed the hos-pital authorities to ensure spe-cialised treatment of them.

Mehbooba, who is com-pleting two years in office on

April 4, arrived amid completeshutdown in the Valley as nor-mal life remained paralysed forthe second day on separatists’call against the recent killings.

Commercial establish-ments and offices remainedclosed, while public transportremained off the roads.Educational institutions havebeen closed across Kashmir.

Clashes erupted in Kanganarea of Ganderbal district whena local youth succumbed toinjuries at a Srinagar hospital.The youth had been injured inpolice action on Monday.

Medical SuperintendentDr Farooq Jan while confirm-ing the death of GowharAhmad Rather (22) said thatthey could save him as he hada fatal head injury.

While the locals said thatRather was hit by a bullet, policeclaimed that he fell down duringa police chase and suffered a headinjury after hitting a drain edge.

In another incident,tragedy hit a family in northKashmir’s Hajin pocket whenunknown militants barged intotheir house and killed a malemember and injured womenusing knives and guns.

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Eight months his actress-turned-author wife Twinkle

Khanna was trolled for hersarcastic tweet that her morn-ing walks were being ruined bypeople defecating in the open,a bio-toilet-funded byBollywood actor AkshayKumar was thrown open to thepublic at Jahu beach in north-west Mumbai on Tuesday.

Having taken seriouslyTwinkle’s “insensitive” tweetthat had earned her considerablecriticism, Akshay Kumar–work-ing in tandem with Shiv Sena’syouth wing president AdityaThackeray–spent �10 lakh onthe construction of a bio-toiletat the Juhu beach.

After the bio-toilet withrunning water facility and sep-arate enclosures for men andwomen, was completed, Akshayjoined the Yuv Sena chief andhanded it formally over to theBrihanmumbai MunicipalCorporation (BMC) for publicuse and maintenance.

Twinkle’s August 19, 2017tweet: “Good morning and Iguess here is the first scene ofToilet Ek Prem Katha part 2#WhenYourWalkGoesDownTheToilet” showing a photo-graph of a man defecating inpublic had created quite abuzz in the social media.

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The BJP on Tuesday joinedthe ongoing agitation by

Vayalkilikal (Farm Birds), aforum of rice farmers ofKeezhattur nearThalipparamba in Kerala’sKannur district against theCPI(M)-led LDF Government’sdecision to acquire severalhectares of ecologically sensi-tive paddy farmland for con-struction of a national highwaybypass by taking out a 21-kilo-meter Karshaka Raksha March(Save-Farmers March).

“It was the Nandigramstruggle which had led to theCPI(M)’s ouster from WestBengal. In Tripura, it was oust-ed through democratic process.The CPI(M) will be taking itslast breaths in Kerala atKeezhattur,” BJP’s national sec-retary Rahul Sinha, a frontlinewarrior of the Nandigram stir,said while inaugurating thefoot march at the Keezhatturrice field.

The BJP march fromThalipparamba to Kannur, cap-tained by national executivemember PK Krishnadas, tookplace just when the CPI(M) hasbeen on a campaign accusing theSangh Pariwar of hijacking thestir of the farmers, all of whom

had so far been active Marxistparty workers. Keezhattur isknown as a ‘party village’ underthe CPI(M)’s absolute control.

“I had come to Kannureight years ago when the strug-gle was going on in Nandigram.I had come here then to visit thehomes of the BJP-RSS workerswho had been victims of CPI(M)violence. On this trip, I havebrought to Kannur the soil ofNandigram which had triggeredthe decimation of the CPI(M) inWest Bengal,” Sinha said.

The BJP leaders showeredrespects on Nambradath JanakiAmma, the elderly womanleader of the stir, and SureshKeezhattur, the face of thefarmers’ protest who claims tobe a Marxist still, at the publicmeeting held as part of theinauguration of the march.Senior State BJP leaders likeAN Radhakrishnan and CKPadmanabhan took part in theprogramme.

“At this sacred land ofKeezhattur, the BJP is takingthe pledge not to allow acqui-sition of even an inch of farmland to satisfy the CPI(M)’sthirst for corruption,” Sinhasaid alleging that the Marxistswere firm on constructing thebypass through the paddy landitself because their eyes were

riveted on possibilities of cor-ruption to the tune of �300crore in the project.

According to the BJP, theCPI(M) is firm about con-structing the bypass throughthe paddy land itself as thereare chances for corruption inremoving clay from the fieldand filling it with soil broughtfrom outside. It is also accusedof a bid to protect the interestsof traders and other rich peo-ple who may lose land andbuildings if the alignment isshifted to Thalipparamba town.

“The other parties like theCongress had declared soli-darity with the farmers’ stirafter the BJP joined their strug-gle. It is entirely possible thatthese parties may abandontheir role in the struggle mid-way. But the BJP will stand bythe farmers till they achievetheir goal,” the BJP leader said.

Rahul Sinha and JanakiAmma jointly showered thesoil the former had broughtfrom Nandigram over thepaddy land of Keezhattur in anact symbolizing similaritiesbetween the two land-relatedstruggles. Farmers’ leaderSuresh Keezhattur led the BJPworkers and others in takingthe pledge to protect the paddyland at any cost.

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In a strategic move ahead of theLok Sabha polls due in the first

half of next year, Vijay RupaniGovernment came out withmajor bureaucratic reshuffle inthe State on Monday late night.

The State Governmentbegins its reshuffle processwith relatively junior levelbureaucrats, but as the LokSabha polls will come closerthere would be more suchmass transfers on cards incoming months.

Sources in GeneralAdministrative Department(GAD) said that similar reshuf-fle in IPS cadre officials, espe-cially Assistant Superintendentand Superintendent Level policeofficials would be done shortly.

Requesting anonymity asenior bureaucrat said that theState major reshuffling of seniorIAS and IPS officers too are oncards. According to him thereshuffling process would con-tinue till the announcement of the2019 Lok Sabha election dates.

“Large number of GujaratAdministrative Service (GAS)and Gujarat Police Service(GPS) cadre officials is alsoawaiting their transfer in com-ing days. After the formation ofnew Government in Decemberlast year, this is the first majorbureaucratic reshuffle,” said asenior official with GAD.

On late Monday night trans-ferred 67 IAS officials, mostly col-lectors and District DevelopmentOfficers (DDO) were transferred.

Collectors of all the fourmajor cities–Ahmedabad,Vadodara, Surat and Rajkotwere transferred. Overall 21 outof 33 district collectors weretransferred. Ahmedabad col-lector Avantika Singh trans-ferred to Gandhinagar asDirector of Employment andTraining and ex-officialManaging Director of GujaratSkill Development Mission.Dr Vikrant Pandey, MS Patel,and Ponugumatla Bharathi –Rajkot, Surat and Vadodaracollectors respectively havebeen transferred.

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As the Karnataka electionsare crucial for both the rul-

ing Congress and major oppo-sition, BJP chief Amit Shah andCongress president RahulGandhi are battling it out forsupremacy. It is on Tuesdayboth the top leaders are inKarnataka campaigning vigor-ously with high decibels accus-ing each other. Shah onTuesday is busy working outstrategies and campaigning bymeeting Lingayat seers andother dalit leaders at Haveriand other north Karnatakaplaces To check mate RahulGandhi and chiefSiddaramaiah.

Meanwhile CongressPresident Rahul Gandhi at lin-gayat strongman Yeddyurapp’shome turf in Shivamoggaslammed Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and hisGovernment. In his fifth leg ofhis campaign speaking at hisJanashirwad Yatre took Modigovernment on a number offronts including exam paperleaks, atrocities on Dalits, cor-ruption and the plight of farm-ers among other issues.

He said “Modiji wrote abook on how to handle stressduring exams. For two hours he

gave a lecture to school stu-dents. Then students sat fortheir exams and Modiji’sGovernment says paper hasbeen leaked.”

Charging the PM and hisGovernment with being indif-ferent to the rise in atrocitiesagainst Dalits he said: “TheSC/ST Act is being dilutedand the PM doesn’t say a word.”

‘The total money thatModi Government spends onDalits and adivasis nationally,Congress spends the same inonly one State, Karnataka’, headded.

“Modiji comes toKarnataka and talks about cor-ruption but doesn’t look at thepeople on stage. Because if hedid, he’d see Yeddyurappa andfour other Ministers, who havebeen to jail,” Rahul said.

The Congress presidentwas also critical of the Rafaledeal as he was about theGovernment’s inaction in thecase of Amit Shah’s son Jay’swindfall gains.

Rahul Gandhi also lamedModi for his silence whenfarmers ask for loan waivers.Instead, Gandhi accused Modi

of signing off loans of 15-20corporate.

He said “When I asked theState’s leaders to do somethingfor the farmers, Siddaramaiahji(Congress leader andKarnataka CM)waived off�8,000 crore worth of loans.”

47 year old leader accusedRSS of teaching Modi to speaklies. Gandhi’s itinerary includespublic hustings in Honnali,Harihara, Bathi and Davangere.On Wednesday, he will visitHolalakere, Siddaganga Math,Kunigal and Magadi beforeflying back to Delhi.

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Even as major political par-ties, including the

AIADMK, the DMK and theCongress, continued their agi-tation against the Centre’s fail-ure to constitute the CauveryManagement Board as per theFebruary 16 directive of theSupreme Court, leaders of var-ious farmers’ associations lam-basted the non-BJP politicaloutfits for their hypocrisy anddouble standard in resolvingthe Cauvery river water dis-pute.

On Tuesday, political land-scape was in for a surprise withChief Minister EdappadyPalaniswamy and deputy ChiefMinister O Panneerselvamjoining the State-wide fastingannounced by the AIADMK tocondemn the Centre for notsetting up the CMB in com-pliance with the SupremeCourt verdict.

EPS and OPS joined theAIADMK Ministers and lead-ers of the party who were sit-ting in fast at Chepauk, the cap-ital city’s usual venue for sit-inprotests. They had party pre-sidium chairmanMadhusoodanan and seniorspokesperson Gokula Indira forcompany along with some ofthe Ministers. Other Ministers

spread out across the districtsfor their fasting.

The whole Tamil Naduwore the look of a State whichis on paid-holiday as manyoffices remaining empty andshops and business establish-ments downing the shutters.Various farmers’ associationshad given a bubdh call for theday and the entire CauveryDelta districts observed a totalshut down in response to thecall.

The DMK and alliance

partners continued their roadroko almost everywhere in theState as a prelude to the bundhwhich they are going to observeon April 5. Party workers triedto block trains but the timelyintervention of the policehelped to avert a crisis situa-tion.

But leaders of the farmingcommunity lambasted theDMK, the Congress and theLefts for their failure to addressthe Cauvery imbroglio whenthey were ruling the country

from 2004 to 2014. “The pre-sent agitation by the DMK,AIADMK, the Congress, theLefts and the fringe outfits is aploy to divert the attention ofthe public from the failure andfraud committed by these par-ties,” R V Giri, President,Consortium of Indian FarmersAssociation (CIFA), an umbrel-la organisation of various farm-ers’ union told The Pioneer.

He pointed out that theCauvery Water DisputeTribunal had ruled in February

2007 that the CMB should beconstituted immediately. “TheTribunal had also decided thequantum of water to bereleased by Karnataka to theriparian States. But the thengovernment took more than sixyears to even notify the CWDTverdict in the gazette. It wasgazetted only in 2013 and thattoo following the pressureexerted by the then chief min-ister Jayalalithaa,” said Giri,himself an ordinary farmer.

Kattumannarkoil Kannan,vice president, Cauvery DeltaFarmers’ Welfare Association,which had fought the legal bat-tle for Cauvery waters, chargedthat the DMK and the Congresstogether with the Lefts weredeceiving the farming commu-nity as well as the people in theState. “The DMK, the Congressand the Lefts are responsible forthe present state of affairs. Whenasked why they did not consti-tute the CMB while they wereruling the country, the DMK andthe Congress do not have anyreplies. Right now what they aredoing is vote bank politics,” saidKannan. He also pointed out thatthere was no unity among thepolitical outfits in Tamil Nadu.“ The AIADMK is fasting on oneday while the DMK is observingbundh the other day. Whomthey are trying to cheat?” askedKannan.

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The hailstorms and unsea-sonal rain continued to hit

parts of Telangana and AndhraPradesh for the fourth consec-utive day on Tuesday. While itbrought relief to the peoplefrom scorching heat wave astemperatures dropped consid-erably, the change in weatherhas caused havoc to the agri-culture and horticulture sectorsand shattered the hopes ofthousands of farmers inTelangana.

Officials of agriculturedepartment have estimatedthat the standing crop of paddy,maize and chilly and other vari-eties on 36000 hectares weredamaged in 16 districts. Thehail and rains have also causedextensive damage to the mangoorchards in the State. Most ofthe damages were reportedfrom Khammam, Nalgonda,Karimnagar and RajannaSricilla districts and neighbor-ing areas. Paddy was the worstaffected as the standing crop on29000 acres was damaged.

At many places the galewinds also uprooted the treesand also caused damages to thepower supply lines. ChiefMinister K Chandrasekhar Raodirected the officials to remainon high alert against recurrenceof the hailstorms and rains andenumerate the losses sufferedby the farmers.

He spoke to the ChiefSecretary SK Joshi about thesituation and asked him toprepare the reports so thatthey could be sent to Centre forseeking assistance and relief.

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The State Governmentdefended its decision to

handover power distribution infive districts to integrated ser-vice providers (ISP) or privateplayers. The Governmentblamed the Opposition forspreading misinformationabout the programme by dub-bing it as a move to privatisepower sector in the State. “Theopposition is spreading canardsagainst the Yogi Governmentthrough false propaganda. TheGovernment has decided onlyto hand over power distribu-tion to a franchise—ISP, whichwill only look after mainte-nance of power distributionsystem, billing and collectingrevenue from consumers,’’ saidEnergy Minister SrikantSharma in Lucknow onTuesday.

“The Government willcontinue to own assets ofpower distribution networkand there would be noretrenchment of existingemployees. Instead, more jobswould be created in the Power

sector after the entry of the ISP,”he said.

Claiming that the YogiGovernment was committed tobenefiting all categories of powerconsumers, the Minister said thatthe motto of the Governmentwas ‘Upbhokta Devo Bhava’(Consumer is divine).

Blaming the opposition forthe confusion among commonpeople over the ISP, the Ministersaid that they were trying toinstigate Power employees whoare agitating against theGovernment over handing overfive cities to the franchise.

“The opposition partiesduring their regimes in UP,handed over power distributionin Agra to a private companyand now they are opposing itto cover up their misdeeds. TheBJP Government is handingover power distribution to ISPon far better terms and condi-tion to safeguard the interest ofconsumers and public sectorpower generation companies.In coming days, consumerswill endorse the Government’smove in an overwhelmingmanner,” he said.

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Sugar output increased 49 percent to 28.18 million tonne

(MT) so far in 2017-18 mar-keting year, but mills are unableto make cane payment to grow-ers owing to low prices, indus-try body ISMA said onTuesday.

Consequently, total canearrears are estimated to havereached Rs 16,200 crore as onMarch 31 of the current mar-keting year (October-September). Of this, UttarPradesh has maximum arrearsat Rs 7,200 crore, it added.

Indian Sugar MillsAssociation (ISMA) has peggedsugar output at 29.5 MT in2017-18 marketing year, asagainst 20.3 MT last year.

“Considering lower sugarrealisation from domestic salesas well as depressed globalsugar market, sugar mills are

unable to generate sufficientfunds for payment of caneprice to farmers on time,”ISMA said in a statement.

The domestic ex-mill priceof sugar has crashed and is hov-ering at about Rs 3,000 perquintal, about Rs 500-600 perquintal below the cost of pro-duction, due to an unexpectedsurplus availability, it said.

Moreover, the world sugarmarket is depressed andimporters are quoting USD350 per tonne FOB (freight onboard) for Indian sugar even asthe Centre has allowed exportof 2 MT, it added.

As per the latest ISMAdata, mills have produced 28.18MT sugar till March of thismarketing year as against 18.88MT in the year-ago period.

While sugar production inMaharashtra increased to 10.12MT, Uttar Pradesh recorded9.54 MT output and Karnataka3.55 MT. These are top threesugar producing states in thecountry.

ISMA said 193 mills out of534 have stopped crushingoperations and the remaining331 were functioning tillMarch-end. Few more mills inMaharashtra and Karnatakamight end crushing in a cou-ple of days.

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The Reserve Bank is unlike-ly to yield to the India

Inc’s pressure for a benignmonetary policy stance bykeeping policy rates unchangedin its first monetary policyreview of 2018-19 to beannounced on Thursdayagainst the backdrop of hard-ening global crude oil prices.

This would also be the firstmonetary policy announce-ment after the Budget, whichhas slightly deviated from thefiscal consolidation roadmap.

The six-member MonetaryPolicy Committee (MPC),headed by RBI Governor UrjitPatel, is to meet on April 4 and5.

Pressure has been mount-ing on the Reserve Bank ofIndia (RBI) to cut interest ratesin the wake of declining retailinflation and the need to fuelgrowth momentum.

However, the RBI will haveto do a tightrope walk as glob-ally interest rates are inchingupwards.

Last month, the US FederalReserve raised interest rates bya quarter of a percentage pointand signalled that it is on trackto raise rates two more times in2018.

Besides, the RBI has to takeinto consideration the rise incrude oil prices which tem-porarily touched USD 70 perbarrel.

Industry body Ficci haspitched for a benign stance inthe monetary policy forstrengthening the revival signsin the economy.

“Over the last few months,

the signs of economic recoveryare visible, but there is a needto further push the growthlevers to see a complete turn-around in manufacturing andenable investments to reach fullscale,” the industry chambersaid.

According to KotakMahindra Life Insurance fundmanager Kunal Shah, MPCcommittee will highlight risksof inflation inching towards 5per cent mark in 2018-19 spe-cially due to MSP hikes andgradual closing of output gap.

MPC members could takesome comfort if monsoon per-formance is good and prices areseen at moderate levels.

“We think MPC will onlybe able to adopt hawkish stanceif inflation surprises towards5.5 per cent by year end andlikelihood of which are mini-mal today,” he said.

“We expect the MPC tokeep policy rates on hold andmaintain its neutral stance,”analysts at American brokerageMorgan Stanley said in a note.

Bank of America Merill

Lynch (BofAML) also echoedthe view, but added that itexpects a rate cut in the Augustreview if the monsoon isfavourable.

“We expect the RBI MPCto strike a balanced tone onApril 5, with March quarterinflation set to average 4.6 percent, 0.50 per cent below their5.1 per cent forecast,” it said.

After surging to a con-cerning 5.2 per cent inDecember, the headline infla-tion cooled off to 5.07 per centin January and further to 4.4per cent in February.

Other industry chamberAssocham is of the view thatthe central bank would opt forstatus quo as the government’sbudget announcement to pro-vide farmers 1.5-times of min-imum support price (MSP) fortheir produce may jack upinflation.

“This would leave very lit-tle leeway for the RBI to cutrates in this monetary policyand hence we expect the RBI tokeep the key interest ratesunchanged,” Assocham said in

a statement.Currently, repo rate — the

short term lending rate atwhich RBI lends to banks —stands at 6 per cent.Consequently, the reverse reporate is 5.75 per cent and themarginal standing facility(MSF) rate and the bank ratestand at 6.25 per cent.

According to KotakMahindra Bank, the RBI isexpected to be on an extendedpause as inflation is likely toremain close to 4.5 per centduring 2018-19.

“We expect the RBI’sMonetary Policy Committee(MPC) to maintain status quoas it awaits clarity on monsoon,sustainability of high crude oilprices post the winter squeeze,and global financial condi-tions,” it said in a note.

The MPC has two otherrepresentatives from RBI —Deputy Governor ViralAcharya and ExecutiveDirector Michael DebabrataPatra. The three external mem-bers are: Chetan Ghate, PamiDua and Ravindra Dholakia.

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India’s first smart and greenhighway, the Eastern

Peripheral Expressway (EPE),which consumed 5 lakh tonneof cement and 1 lakh tonne ofsteel, will be inaugurated byPrime Minister NarendraModi this month, Union min-ister Nitin Gadkari said onTuesday.

The Prime Minister willdedicate to the nation the 135-km six-lane access-controlledexpressway, built at a cost ofnearly Rs 11,000 crore todecongest the national capitalalong with the first phase ofDelhi-Meerut Expressway.

The EPE is equipped withsmart and intelligent highwaytraffic management system(HTMS) and video incidentdetection system (VIDS)besides a closed tolling systemin which the collections will bemade only on the distancetravelled and not on the entirelength and would be lit withsolar lights.

“The Eastern PeripheralExpressway will be inaugurat-ed by Prime Minister thismonth and will set a bench-mark in highway construc-tion by being environment-friendly with world-class safe-ty features and smart/interac-tive infrastructure,” RoadTransport, Highways,Shipping, Water Resources andGanga Rejuvenation MinisterGadkari told reporters here.

The greenfield project,whose foundation stone was

laid by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on November5, 2015, will divert an esti-mated 2 lakh vehicles passingthrough the national capitaldaily to this bypass, bringingdown pollution.

The minister said that thecost of construction alone forthe project was 4,420 crore.

“This will be a fully accesscontrolled six-lane express-way and entry and exit will bethrough designated inter-changes only. There will beclosed tolling system and thetoll will be collected only onthe distance travelled and noton the entire length. Toll plazaswill be equipped withElectronic Toll Collection(ETC) system for faster toll col-lection and uninterrupted trav-el experience,” he said.

The minister claimed thatthe project is going to be com-pleted in a record time ofabout 500 days against a targetof 910 days. He said it isdesigned to check pollutionand will help in decongestingDelhi and its adjoining area asno commercial vehicle (whichis not destined for Delhi) canenter Delhi.

“This is the first express-way in the country with solarpower for lighting on the entireexpressway. There are 8 solarpower plants on this express-way having a capacity of 4000-kilo watt (4 MW). For planta-tion, drip irrigation has beenused in the central median aswell as for avenue plantation,”he said.

The interchanges havebeen developed architectural-ly with beautiful plantationmerged with fountains and 28fountains have been installed,the Minister said adding,about 1.5 crore cum fly ash hasbeen used in the project andabout 20,000 trucks of earthwere carried out in a single dayto expedite project.

Besides 1.5 cr cu m of flyash was carried out from thenearest plants of Dadri,

Badarpur, Panipat etc and 5lakh tonne of cement and onelakh tonne of steel has beenused in the project.

Apart from HighwayTraffic Management System(HTMS) that includesVariable Message Signs (VMS)CCTV, Video IncidentDetection System (VIDS),Warning Devices, Over SpeedChecking System, Weigh-in-Motion, PavementManagement Systems and

Fiber Optic Network, it willhave real time incident man-agement.

Along the expressway,wayside amenities are beingdeveloped at six locationswhich will have the facility ofpetrol pumps, motels, restareas, wash rooms, restau-rants, shops, repair services etc.to cater the various needs ofthe expressway users, he saidadding a total of about 2.5 lakhtrees will be planted as green

belt.Besides rainwater harvest-

ing in the project, “Thirty sixmonuments like Ashoka lion,Konark Temple, JaliyanwalaBagh, Ashoka Chakra,Gateway of India, QutabMinar, Char Minar, Lal Quila,Kirti Stambh, India Gate andHawa Mahal have beeninstalled.

The project had earlierfaced resistance from farmersover land and other issueswhich have since been solvedby giving higher compensa-tion.

The Supreme Court hasdirected police chiefs of UttarPradesh and Haryana to pro-vide adequate security forexpeditious completion of theproject. About the Delhi-Meerut Expressway, he said thefirst phase of the expressway —from Nizamuddin bridge toDelhi-UP border — will beinaugurated along with EPEand the project has verticalgardens with solar system onthe Yamuna Bridge on thisexpressway. “This is the firstbridge in the country/worldthat have vertical gardens withsolar power system and dripirrigation. Beautiful lightingsystem has also been devel-oped on the major structures,”he said.

The minister said a cycletrack of 2.5 metre has also beenconstructed on both the sidesof this expressway, which alsohas provision of 1.5 metreFootpath on each side forpedestrians.

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India will adopt global normsfor calculating highways con-

struction from this fiscal afterhitting a record 26.92 km roadbuilding per day in FY2017-18,which as per international stan-dards is 94.18 lane km, Unionminister Nitin Gadkari saidtoday.A record 9,829 km ofhighways were constructed in2017-18 which comes to 26.92km of roads per day while theroad awards stood at 17,055 kmin the just concluded fiscal,thus witnessing about two-foldsand five-folds increase in con-struction and awards of roadsrespectively.

“We are adopting interna-tional norms for highways con-struction from this fiscal. Theministry has so far been calcu-lating construction of NationalHighways in linear length,which means there is no differ-ence between 1 km of 2-lanewith paved shoulders and 1 kmwith 6-lanes and service roads,”Road Transport, Highways,Shipping, Water Resources andGanga Rejuvenation MinisterGadkari told reporters here.

This is not as per interna-tionally adopted norms andthe correct position is capturedthrough counting of lane km,Gadkari said. “Internationally,

one standard lane width in theUS is 3.7 metres, it variesbetween 2.75 to 3.25 metres inEurope and 3.5 metres inGermany. As per Indian stan-dards, the width of one lane isprescribed as 3.5 metres,” theminister elaborated. He saidgoing by international norms,India constructed 34,378 lanekm of highways in 2017-18which comes to 94.18 lane kma day last fiscal. This in linearlength wise comes to 26.92 kma day and 9,829 km in the year.

From this fiscal, the min-istry will follow internationalnorms to calculate constructionof highways - lane km, he said.

The minister said the awardof highways was barely 3,620km in 2013-14 while construc-tion was 4,260 km.

Of the 9,829 km construct-ed last fiscal, the ministrythrough state PWDs awarded6,167 km while NHAI andNHIDCL shares stood at 3,071km and 591 km, respectively. Ofthe total awards of 17,055 km,the share of ministry, NHAI andNHIDCL stood at 8,651 km,7,397 km and 1,006 km, respec-tively.

He said the ministry spentRs 1.16 lakh crore on highwaysconstruction in the last fiscal ofwhich Rs 50,385 crore was theIEBR raised by the NHAI.

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The KUSUM scheme, withover Rs 50,000 crore gov-

ernment support to promotethe use of solar power amongfarmers, is likely to get theCabinet nod by this month endand will be rolled out in thefirst half this fiscal, a seniorofficial said on Tuesday.

“The KUSUM (Kisan UrjaSuraksha Evam UtthaanMahaabhiyan) Scheme is like-ly to be placed before UnionCabinet for consideration andapproval by this month end.We would be able to implementthe scheme in first half of thisfiscal,” New and RenewableEnergy Secretary AnandKumar told reporters here atthe launch of TERI year book.

He said that under therevised draft of the scheme tobe placed before the Cabinet,the amount of central govern-ment assistance has beenenhanced from earlier pro-posal.

Under the scheme, thegovernment plans to incen-

tivise farmers to run solar farmwater pumps and use barrenland for generating power forextra income — up to Rs60,000 per acre every year.

At present, farmers earnabout Rs 30,000 per acre annually from conven-tional wheat and paddy rota-tion, after deducting inputcosts.

As per the initial proposalthe total cost of the capacitiesunder this scheme was esti-mated at Rs 1.4 lakh crore.

The Centre’s contributionwas proposed at Rs 48,000

crore under the scheme to aidtotal solar power generationcapacity of 28,250 MW over thenext 10 years.

Talking about the govern-ment’s ambition of having 40per cent of the energy mix fromnon-fossil fuels, Kumar saidthat India would have half ofthe installed power generationcapacity from non-fossils orrenewables like solar, windand hydro.

Apart from 175 GWrenewable energy target fromsources including solar, windand hydro, 10 GW each wouldcome from offshore windpower and floating solar pro-ject taking the total clean ener-gy capacity to 195 GW by2022, he said.

Kumar further stated thatunder the new hydro policy, thelarge hydro projects (above 25MW) would also be broughtunder the definition of renew-ables and therefore, Indiawould achieve around 250 GWclean energy by 2022 whichwould be almost half of 520GW installed capacity planned

till that time.Talking about clean ener-

gy auctions he said that high-est ever 12 GW of wind ener-gy and 20GW of solar energyprojects were tendered last fis-cal.

India plans to auction 20GW of solar and 10 GW ofwind energy in the current fis-cal and same capacities wouldbe auctioned next fiscal also.Thus India would complete theauctions of the planned capac-ities by March 2020 in view 18months long implementationperiod of these projects.

Kumar said India’s renew-able energy capacity excludinglarge hydro has increased to 68GW by the end of March thisyear compared to 57 GW lastyear around this time.

On this occasion, Kumaralso said that TERI andMinistry of New andRenewable Energy woulddevelop a portal to provideonline data about renewableenergy on real time basis andmodalities for this would soonwe worked out.

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There is no definite proposal for a new drug pol-icy before the government at present though

some stakeholders have discussed the basic con-tents that should go into a draft pharma policy,Parliament was informed today.

This was in reply to a question whether the gov-ernment is proposing to formulate a new drug pol-icy.

“At present there is no concrete proposal of anew drug policy at government level,” Minister ofState for Chemicals and Fertilisers Mansukh LMandaviya said in his reply to the Lok Sabha.

A discussion draft eliciting the basic contentsthat should go into a draft pharmaceutical policywas discussed amongst some stakeholders, headded.

Some of the issues that were discussed are“making essential drugs accessible at affordableprices to the common masses and providing alonger term stable policy environment for the phar-maceutical sector,” Mandaviya said.

The stakeholders also discussed ways to makeIndia sufficiently self -reliant in end to endindigenous drug manufacturing and ensuringworld class quality of drugs for domestic con-sumption and exports, he added.

Other issues discussed were “creating an envi-ronment for research and development to produceinnovator drugs and ensuring growth and devel-opment to Indian pharma industry,” Mandaviyasaid.

It was a preliminary discussion and no time-line has been fixed in this regard, he added.

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The government will soon shiftDirectorate General of Safeguards

(DGS) to Commerce Ministry as partof its plan to create a single authorityfor imposing trade remedies to protectdomestic industry.

DGS is under the finance ministry.As per the plan, the government

would merge DGS with the DirectorateGeneral of Antidumping and AlliedDuties (DGAD), the investigatingarm of commerce ministry, to stream-line the process of imposing traderemedies.

Trade remedies which includeantidumping, countervailing and safe-guard duties are allowed under glob-al trade norms to guard domesticindustries from significant imports orcheap inbound shipments.

“By merging the two DirectorateGenerals, the government wants to cre-ate a single point contact which canconduct investigations related to inter-national trade and remedial duties,” anofficial told PTI.

The official said the shifting ofDGS to the commerce ministry willhappen “very soon, definitely by end-

June”.Under the Goods and Services Tax

(GST) regime, DGS has also beenentrusted to investigate complaints ofprofiteering.

The investigating agency submitsits reports to the National Anti-prof-iteering Authority, which then takes itsown view and decides on the penalty.

Once DGS is shifted to the com-merce ministry, the directorate generalwill be renamed and will continue tobe under the Department of Revenuein the finance ministry to carry outprofiteering investigations.

“It could be renamed asDirectorate General of Anti-Profiteering or GST Anti-ProfiteeringInvestigation wing. A final decision willbe taken by the finance ministry,” theofficial added.

Currently, DGAD conducts probeinto allegations of cheap imports, bydomestic industries.

If established that dumping hascaused material injury to domesticplayers, it recommends imposition ofanti-dumping or countervailing duty.

While DGAD recommends theduties, the finance ministry imposesthe same.

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With the onset of the 21stCommonwealth Games here,here's a look at some of the

Indian contingent's top stars and darkhorses to watch out for at an event wherethe country stands fourth in the all-timemedal tally.

��India is second in the CWG's all-

time medal list for shooting and it isexpected that the marks-men and women will onceagain be contributing abountiful of medals.

Heena Sidhu: Thefeisty pistol shooter fromPunjab is in fine formgoing into the Games,having claimed threegold medals at theC o m m o n w e a l t hChampionships a fewmonths ago. She will be competing in thewomen's 25m pistol and 10m air pistolcompetitions.

Manu Bhaker: The 16-year-old hasbeen nothing short of sensational withtwo gold medals (individual and team)in her maiden senior World Cup justweeks ago. She would be lining up along-side Heena in the 10m air pistol event.

Jitu Rai: The diminutive Armyshooter is a strong medal hope andwould be aiming for a second successiveCWG gold in the men's 50m pistol event.The 30-year-old will also try his fortunesin the 10m air pistol competition.

��The blue-riband event of all multi-

sport extravaganzas, athletics gave Indiaa gold, silver and a bronze in the 2014CWG.

Neeraj Chopra: The 20-year-oldjavelin thrower would be a carrying amassive burden of expectations and itremains to be seen how he responds tothe spotlight. At the senior world cham-pionships in London some months ago,the junior world record-holder failed toqualify for the finals. A gold at last year'sAsian Championships is his biggestachievement going into his maiden

CWG.Seema Punia: The discus thrower,

who claimed a silver in the GlasgowGames, would be eyeing a golden endto her CWG stint. The 34-year-oldachieved two-year best when she threwto 61.05m, which was also a meetrecord at the Federation Cup last month.

Tejaswin Shankar: The 19-year-oldhigh-jumper bettered his own nationalrecord marginally at the Federation Cuplast month. He improved it from 2.26mto 2.28m.

��A gold by P Kashyap was the icing

on the cake as the shuttlers returned withfour medals from Glasgow and this time,the expectations would be much high-er with a star-studded line-up set to take

the court.P V Sindhu: The Olympic silver-

medallist is being seen as a sure-shotmedallist. She won a bronze in the lastedition and looks set to change thecolour of the medal when she takes thecourt this time.

Saina Nehwal: Still regaining her fit-ness after a career-threatening kneesurgery, 2010 gold-medallist Saina wouldbe a strong contender too if she managesto remain fit during the event.

K Srikanth: In the absence of aninjured Kashyap, Srikanth would beIndia's men's singles medal hope and hewould aim to better his quarterfinal fin-ish of the 2014 Games.

)��India are second in the CWG all-

time medal list of wrestling and areexpected to dominate this time aroundas well.

Sushil Kumar : The doubleOlympic medallist would be aimingfor another gold when he competes in74kg men's freestyle event.

Sakshi Malik: The Rio bronze-medallist has been in good form andwould be expected to better the silvermedal she won at Glasgow. Shewould be in action in the 62kgfreestyle event.

Vinesh Phogat: 2014 Gold medal-list, Vinesh suffered a career-threat-ening injury at the Rio Olympics butshe returned to win a silver medal(55kg) at the Asian Championship andclaimed the gold at NationalChampionships. She would be a medalcontender in 50kg this time.

�F��A women's doubles gold in 2014

opened India's CWG account insquash and Dipika Pallikal and JoshnaChinnappa would once again look toensure that India have something tocelebrate.

)��World champion Mirabai Chanu

(48kg), with a Commonwealth recordunder her belt, and a personal bestwhich is 10kg better than her nearestrival at this event, is expected to openthe gold rush for India.

�� D0=�77/�+E6�

Vernon Philander sent Australiacrashing to defeat with a sensa-

tional spell of bowling on the fifth dayof the fourth Test against Australia atthe Wanderers Stadium on Tuesday.

Philander took a career-best six for21 as Australia were bowled out for 118,giving South Africa victory by 493runs, a record runs margin for SouthAfrica.

South Africa completed a 3-1 serieswin, the first time they had beatenAustralia in a home series since1969/70.

It brought to an end a series of high-quality cricket and even greater off-fielddrama, culminating in a ball tamperingscandal during the third Test in CapeTown which resulted in former captainSteve Smith, vice-captain David Warnerand Cameron Bancroft sent home.

Philander struck twice in the firstover of the day. He had Shaun Marshcaught at gully off the first ball. Aninside edge looped off the batsman'sthigh pad to Temba Bavuma.

Four balls later Mitchell Marsh wascaught behind without a run havingbeen added to the overnight 88 forthree. It was Philander's 200th wicketin his 54th Test.

Peter Handscomb was next, bowledoff an inside edge for 24 as he tried to

withdraw his bat - an almost exact repli-ca of his first-ball dismissal in the firstinnings.

Tim Paine and Pat Cummins wereunable to repeat their defiant stand ofthe first innings, with Paine caughtbehind for seven and Cummins bowledfor one.

Chadd Sayers was caught at thirdslip off the first ball he faced. At thatstage Philander's figures for the morn-ing were 5.2-2-3-6.

Morne Morkel, playing in his finalTest, had been given a guard of honourby his teammates and support staffwhen he walked on to the field at thestart of the day.

With nine wickets down, Morkelwas given the ball but was unable to addto his 309 Test wickets. The final wick-et fell to a run-out, with Nathan Lyonfailing to beat Aiden Markram's throwfrom point as he went for a second runoff Morkel's bowling.

�� =6*��=E6�=

Gritty tailenders Ish Sodhi and Neil Wagner held out for adramatic draw in the second Test on Tuesday to give New

Zealand the series 1-0 and extend England's dismal away record.England were just four wickets from victory when the sec-

ond new ball was taken before tea but they could only priseout one more until the last ball of the match when Wagner'sdismissal ended the rearguard pair's resistance.

They added just 37 runsin 188 deliveries after Colinde Grandhomme was theseventh wicket to fall, but bythat stage only survival mat-tered for New Zealand whofinished on 256 for eightwhen Wagner fell for sevenand bad light ended playeight balls early.

The draw gave New Zealand the series 1-0 after they wonthe first Test by an innings and 49 runs and it stretchedEngland's winless away record to 13 Tests.

Any hopes New Zealand had of reaching 382 to win back-to-back Tests disappeared at the start of the final day when StuartBroad took two wickets with the first two balls.

From there, England were chasing eight further wickets forvictory while New Zealand battled to hang on with 83 fromopener Tom Latham, a 57-run stand by de Grandhomme (45)and Sodhi, and then Sodhi and Wagner's stubbornness.

Sodhi ducked, weaved, slashed and took hits to the bodyas he produced his third Test 50, facing 168 balls, while Wagnerfaced 103 balls for his seven.

�� 02.��0��

The Indian boxing contingenton Tuesday heaved a sigh of

relief after it escaped any majorsanction for use of syringes atthe Commonwealth Games vil-lage by its doctor Amol Patil,who was let off with a reprimandfor not disposing the needles asper stipulated procedure.

Hearing a complaint filed bythe Commonwealth GamesFederation's medical commis-sion, the CGF court ruled thatPatil had erred in not disposingthe syringes as mandated by the'No Needle Policy of the Games.

Patil had administered avitamin B complex injection toan athlete who was feelingunwell.

"Under the No NeedlePolicy, needles are required tobe stored in a central securedlocation, access to which isrestricted to authorized medicalpersonnel of the CGA delega-tion. The needles in questionwere not disposed of until he

had made two trips to thePolyclinic," the CGF said in astatement.

"In the circumstances, theFederation Court's decision isthat CGF should issue a strongwritten reprimand to the Doctorfor the breaches.

"A copy of the letter of rep-rimand should be served on theChef de Mission of the IndianTeam who should be advised toensure that no further infrac-tions of CGF Policies occur by

any member of the IndianTeam," it added.

The CGF had stoicallyrefused to name the nationalassociation or the athleteinvolved in the controversywhich flared up after syringeswere discovered at the GamesVillage on Saturday.

But speculation was rifethat the country involved isIndia. The dope tests that fol-lowed the discovery of syringes,however, turned out negative.

�� 7/<�./2=*

Two of Nigeria's finest wrestlers eagerlyawait the opportunity to taste revenge on

two Indian counterparts. Odunayo Folasadewants to avenge for her loss at Pro WrestlingLeague season 3 in CWG in women's 57 kgweight category.

Odunayo was handed a startling defeatby Pooja Dhanda at PWL in January thisyear. The result of this bout propelledPunjab Royals to victory over MumbaiMaharathi. Odunayo has claimed that sherepeatedly dreams of dominantly beatingPooja Dhanda since the loss.

At the same time, Pooja Dhanda has saidthat she is confident about her preparationsand feels that she is ready to face any chal-lenge.

Similar story brews in the women’s 68kgweight category. Divya Kakran pulled off anupset by beating Blessing Oborududu at theCommonwealth Championship inJohannesburg.

Divya states that she defeated Blessingfair and square at the CommonwealthChampionship. She feels that this has boost-ed her confidence which will be the cor-nerstone for her performances at CWG.

GOLD COAST: Indian shuttlers have reason to becheerful going into the Commonwealth Games withthe organisers deciding against implementing BWF'sexperimental service rule that has been criticised bythem.The new service rule, which mandates that the shut-tle be exactly at 1.15 meters above the ground at thetime of service, was tried at the prestigious AllEngland Championships in March.The Indians have been critical of it along with severalglobal stars such as Danish star Viktor Axelsen and two-time Olympic champion Lin Dan of China.The Commonwealth Games, which start on April 4 withan opening ceremony, will be played under the old ruleswhich mandate that the shuttle be kept above the waistheight at the time of service."The Commonwealth Games Federation and theBadminton World Federation have agreed that the newservice rules will not be used during the Gold CoastCommonwealth Games," said a message communicatedto the national associations.The decision would be music to the ears of Indian shut-tlers, who have been vocal in their criticism of the rule.The critics of the rule feel that it tilts the scale in favourof short players while putting taller ones like P V Sindhuand Axelsen at a disadvantage.Sindhu had criticised the BWF for introducing the ruleat a big-ticket event like the All England Championships,considered among the most prestigious events in thebadminton calendar. She felt the shuttlers should havebeen given more time to adapt.

GOLD COAST: Heartbroken Australian diver TanekaKovchenko retired on the eve of the CommonwealthGames on Tuesday after medical experts warned thatshe risked severe paralysis if one more dive went wrong.The 23-year-old, who had been set to compete in the10m platform and women's synchronised 10m platformat the Gold Coast, has been suf-fering headaches and neckpain since the end of last year.Scans confirmed two vertebraehave compressed her spinalcord and her doctor and neu-rologist said she could end upas a ventilator-dependentquadriplegic in the event of abad landing."I have had an amazing 14 years diving, chasing mydream of representing Australia," said Kovchenko, whohails from nearby Brisbane."I am grateful for every experience and opportunity Ihave been given. I am leaving the sport as an athleteproud of my accomplishments and with so many lifeskills."

GOLD COAST: The Indian Olympic Association wason Tuesday forced to get an official accreditation for SainaNehwal's father Harvir Singh after the star shuttler inan angry missive had threatened to pull out of the CWG.The 2010 CWG gold medallist wrote a letter to a seniorIOA office-bearer currently in Gold Coast where she hadsaid that if her father's name is not cleared as "an offi-cial", she will not take part in the quadrennial extrava-ganza."I msgd u and tried to call u but u didn't pick up the callbut there is so much issue going on with my father...Ifhis accreditation is no (sic) cleared as an official I amnot going to play the matches," Saina wrote in her let-ter addressed to the IOA. An official in the IOA confirmed the report."It's our duty to help the sportspersons. They should focuson winning medals. Yes, Saina had written to a seniorofficial. But we don't want to make an issue out of it. Asit is, we have solved her problem. We wouldn't like tocomment on the tone and tenor of the letter," a seniorIOA official said.

GOLD COAST: England's Alistair Brownlee has wongold in the past two Olympic triathlons. At the CWGon Thursday, he won't have to swim, cycle or run quiteas far in pursuit of a medal.Brownlee's first-place finishesat London in 2012 and at Riode Janeiro in 2016 — and inthe Glasgow CWG, in fact —came over the traditionalOlympic distances of a 1.5-kilometer swim, 40-kilometercycle and 10-kilometer run.But this CWG will feature the sprint distance -half ofan Olympic event. So a swim leg of 750 meters, a 20-kilometer cycle and a 5-kilometer run.Brownlee will likely appreciate the less-grueling distance— he's coming off hip surgery last August.It came in a year when Brownlee was focusing on evenlonger events — in the Ironman 70.3 series. The 70.3refers to the total distance covered in the race — a 1.2-mile swim, 56-mile cycle and 13.1-mile run.

GOLD COAST: The celebrated MC Mary Kom needsto win just one bout to secure herself a medal, whileVikas Krishan got a bye into the men's pre-quarter-finals as Indian boxers were handed reasonably gooddraws in the Commonwealth Games here on Tuesday.

With their team doctor Amol Patil let off witha reprimand in the needle controversy, the boxersheaved a sigh of relief and focus was back on thesport.

Mary Kom has been pitted against Scotland'sMegan Gordon in the quar-terfinals of the 48kg catego-ry, which will take place onApril 8. Competing in herfirst and last CommonwealthGames, the 35-year-old isthe favourite to claim the goldin a draw which featuresonly eight boxers.

Vikas (75kg), on the other hand, has made it tolast-16 because of a bye along with debutant ManishKaushik (60kg). Vikas has come into this tournamentafter claiming a gold medal at the prestigious StrandjaMemorial Tournament in Bulgaria.

Former Asian Games bronze-medallist SatishKumar (+91kg) has also got a bye but owing to thesmall size of his draw, he has reached the quarter-finals.

Glasgow CWG bronze-medallist Pinki Jangra(51kg) is another one in the quarterfinals and will beup against England's Lisa Whiteside on April 11.

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GOLD COAST: Olympic silver-medallist P V Sindhu and World No2 K Srikanth have been given the topbilling in their respective women's andmen's singles badminton competi-tions of the Commonwealth Games,starting at Carrara Sports and LeisureCentre on April 10.

In the draw of 64, Sindhu willbegin her quest for the gold in the sec-ond round against Falkland Islands'Zoe Morris after both the playersreceived byes in their respectiveopening rounds.

The 22-year-old Indian is expect-ed to meet 2014 Glasgow Gameschampion Michelle Li in the semifi-nals. The third seeded Canadian had

beaten Sindhu inthe semi-finalsfour years backen route the goldmedal.

The 2010champion andformer world No1 Saina Nehwal has been seeded sec-ond and will start her campaign witha second-round clash against Elsie deVilliers in the other half of the draw.

In men's singles, Srikanth, whoclinched four titles in the last season,will open his campaign against LiamFong of Fiji and is likely to clash with2010 silver medallist Rajiv Ouseph inthe semi-finals.

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�� 207.07

Jurgen Klopp has no qualms aboutsaluting Pep Guardiola's ability to

create "extraordinary" teams, but theLiverpool boss is convinced he canbridge the class divide whenManchester City visit Anfield fortheir Champions Leagueshowdown.

Having first gone head to headwith Borussia Dortmund andBayern Munich, the friendly rivalrybetween Klopp and Guardiola hasits biggest stage yet as Liverpool faceCity in the Champions Leaguequarter-final first leg on Wednesday.

Two of Europe's heavyweightmanagers, Klopp and Guardiolalook destined to compete for thesport's biggest prizes for years tocome.

But there is strong mutualadmiration between the bosses,with Klopp unstinting in his praisefor Guardiola's ability to get hisplayers to give life to his puristprinciples.

"His teams are alwaysexcellently positioned. He alwayshas great teams which makeexcellent decisions," Klopp said.

"At Barcelona it was Xavi,Iniesta, Busquets, Lionel Messi andso on.

"At Bayern Munich he hadfantastic players who made a lot ofgreat decisions. Now, withGundogan, Silva, Aguero, Sane onthe left wing, Sterling on the wing,Gabriel Jesus, they're extraordinary.

"Positioning is important, butthis is not witchcraft, it is notunusual just because the wing-backs come inside.

"But when the players are inposition they move everymillisecond in order to be available,and when they are, that's when theindividual quality of the player

becomes important."L i k e w i s e ,

Guardiola is anadmirer of Klopp'scommitment to anentertaining style ofplay, the Spaniard lastseason hailing hiscounterpart as "the best manager inthe world for spectators becausecreates teams to attack the backfour".

Despite their ability to thrill theneutral, Klopp and Guardiola hadvastly different paths to

Wednesday's seismic encounter.Klopp's journeyman playing

career took in stops atunglamourous outposts includingRot-Weiss Frankfurt and Mainz,while Guardiola played for over adecade in the rarified air ofBarcelona, where the local boymade good became a Catalan icon.

It was no different when they

took their first steps intomanagement.

�� Klopp learned his trade in

anonymity at Mainz beforeenjoying a career breakthroughonce he moved to Dortmund in2008.

Taking over at Barcelona in the

same year Klopp arrived atDortmund, the cerebral Guardiolarelished the intellectual andphilosophical aspects ofmanagement.

Yet that renaissance man imagehid a fiercely competitive streakthat has fuelled all of his best teams.

Although Klopp twice wonthe Bundesliga title withDortmund, who also finished asChampions League runners-up in2013, the 50-year-old has yet tosecure the first silverware of histwo-and-a-half-year reign atLiverpool.

In contrast, Guardiola hasamassed 22 trophies withBarcelona, Bayern and City,including two Champions Leaguecrowns and six domestic leaguetitles.

The 47-year-old can make itseven league titles if City get thethree points they need to becrowned champions by beatingManchester United on Saturday.

Liverpool's 4-3 win over City inJanuary saw Klopp take hispersonal tally against Guardiola'steams to six wins, five defeats andone draw from 12 fixtures.

Klopp has enjoyed morevictories over Guardiola than anyother manager and he believes hecan add to that impressive recordbecause his Liverpool squad iscloser in quality to Guardiola'scurrent crop than at any time intheir careers.

"There's no big difference,actually. It's just that Pep has alwayshad better teams than me," Kloppsaid.

"You can see that now withManchester City - they have a lotmore points (in the PremierLeague) than we do.

"However, that difference hasnever been as small as it is now."

�� F.7/F

Bans handed to Steve Smith, David Warnerand Cameron Bancroft should be reduced,

the Australian cricketers' union said onTuesday, arguing the punishment wasdisproportionate to previous ball-tamperingcases.

Australian Cricketers' Association (ACA)president Greg Dyer said "justice which isrushed can sometimes be very flawed",referring to Cricket Australia (CA) handingout its punishment so soon after the incident.

He urged a relaxation of the bans to allowthe men to return to domestic action sooner,saying of the dozen or so previous cases theACA had studied, the most severepunishment was a ban for two One-DayInternationals.

"These proposed penalties aredisproportionate relative to precedent," he saidin a press conference.

Dyer pointed to the International CricketCouncil sanction, which suspended Smith forone Test and docked him his match fee afterhe admitted responsibility for the ball-tampering scandal.

He also said the contrition expressed byplayers has been "extraordinary" and shouldbe taken into account.

A wave of sympathy for Smith, inparticular, has been gathering pace since aheart-wrenching public apology on Thursday,in which he broke down in tears.

"Their distressed faces have sent amessage across the globe as effective as anysanctions could be. I think Australia criedwith Steve Smith last Thursday, I certainlydid," said Dyer.

"We consider that the players need toreturn to domestic cricket earlier and as partof their rehabilitation."

With the 2019 World Cup and an Ashesseries in 2019, supporters of the players believethey need to be playing state cricket to be inthe type of form that could warrant selection.

All three men have until Thursday toinform Cricket Australia whether they accepttheir punishment or will opt for a hearing, asis their right.

Dyer also said the "win-at-all-costs"culture of Australian cricket must be addressedby independent inquiry examining the gamefrom top to bottom, reporting to both theACA and CA.

"Organisational culture comes from itsleadership and it comes from the top. It cannotbe grafted onto the bottom," he said, aspressure grows for cricket's top brass to alsocome under the spotlight.

"Let us identify all the causes of the tippingpoint that occurred in Cape Town."

�� 1�6��=*

Pakistan notched its highest ever totalin a Twenty20 and humbled the West

Indies again in a thumping 82-runvictory in the second match for a serieswin on Monday.

Babar Azam smashed an unbeaten97 off 58 balls and young Hussain Talatscored his maiden T20 half-century with63 as Pakistan cruised to 205-3 after theywon the toss.

The West Indies never lookedchallenging and was bowled out for 123in 19.2 overs, losing their last ninewickets for 73 runs, and last five for 16.

Opening batsman Chadwick Waltonscored 40 off 29 balls, and it wasdownhill from there. The next best scorewas 21 by Denesh Ramdin.

Fast bowler Mohammad Amirpicked up 3-22 after the top order wastied down by spinners Shadab Khan (2-23) and Mohamad Nawaz (1-19).

The depleted West Indies wasdismissed for 60 in the first match onSunday in losing by 143 runs. No 1-ranked Pakistan can complete a serieswhitewash on Tuesday late night.

"Another disappointingperformance," West Indies captain JasonMohammed said.

"We tried to set aggressive fields butit's difficult at times. Hopefully, we willgo home with a victory tomorrow."

Azam hit 13 fours and a six, andfeatured in a 119-run stand off 74 ballswith Talat.

After Fakhar Zaman (6) was caughtbehind in Rayad Emrit's first over,Azam and Talat scored at will againsterratic West Indies seamers Emrit,Keemo Williams, and debutant OdeanSmith.

Talat hit eight fours and a six beforegiving Odean his first international

wicket when captain Jason Mohammedtook an overhead catch at point in the14th over.

Azam got a reprieve on 78 whenSamuel Badree dropped him at squareleg off Williams and missed out onbecoming only the second Pakistani toscore a T20 century after AhmedShehzad.

Azam needed 11 to complete hiscentury in the last over bowled byseamer Williams, but could score onlyeight despite getting six off the first twodeliveries.

"The team (management) told me toplay the full 20 overs and I paced myinnings accordingly," Azam said.

In the West Indies reply, Walton wasclean-bowled by Shadab in the ninthover at 50-2 off a fuller delivery, and thefight ended after the dismissal of thewasteful Samuels two overs later thenRamdin at 92-4.

Pakistan's three highest T20 scores

have come at the National Stadium inthis southern port city which is hostinginternational cricket after nine years.There was 203-5 against Bangladesh in2008, matched on Sunday, and eclipsedon Monday.

��Pakistan's teenage leg-spinner

Shadab Khan has been fined for violatingthe players' code of conduct in aTwenty20 against the West Indies, theInternational Cricket Council said onTuesday.

The 19-year-old was fined 20 percentof his match fee and handed a onedemerit point following a "send off" signalafter dismissing West Indian openerChadwick Walton in the secondTwenty20 international in Karachi onMonday.

"The Pakistan wrist spinner wasfound to have violated article 2.1.7 of thecode, which relates to 'using language,actions or gestures which disparage orwhich could provoke an aggressivereaction from a batsman upon hisdismissal during an international match',"the ICC said in a statement.

The incident happened in the ninthover of the Windies' innings "whenShadab, after dismissing Walton, pointedhis finger at the departing batsman andalso made an inappropriate comment.

"After the match, Shadab admittedthe offence and accepted the sanctionproposed by David Boon, the ICCmatch referee, and as such there was noneed for a formal hearing." Shadabtook 2-23 in the match which Pakistanwon by 82 runs to take an unassailable2-0 lead in the three-match series. Thelast fixture is also in Karachi on Tuesday.

Shadab has played one Test, 17 one-dayers and 15 Twenty20 internationalssince making his debut last year.

�� +=E+�7/�<�6

After an impressive performancein the Indian Super League, FC

Pune City is all geared up tocontinue their good show whenthey lock horns with ShillongLajong FC in the Super Cupfootball tournament here onWednesday.

Pune's Serbian coach RankoPopovic said the team "has to be atthe top of the game" to get the betterof the "young and smart" ShillongLajong.

"It is a completely differentcompetition. We had an amazingseason having finished in thesemifinals of ISL. This is going bea key battle on the pitch onWednesday. We have to staymotivated to get the result in ourway," Popovic said.

"I believe, we are smart enoughand intelligent to get the job done.Meanwhile, we have a fairknowledge of their credentials andknow how much damage they can

do. We have to absolutely be at thetop of our game to proceed further,"the 50-year-old said.

Asked whether FC Pune Citywill kick-off as the favourites onWednesday, Popovic brushed itaside saying, "We have big respectfor them. The league standing is notimportant and it's history now. Ateam always pushes their limitswhen there is only one match toprove their mettle."

"Lajong has a perfect blend ofyoung as well as experiencedplayers. On the other hand, whatmade us strong this season is ourcollective team effort. We'll stick toour philosophy to overcome ournext hurdle," Popovic said.

Defender Adil Khan, who hada sublime season, said "There'salways a chance to make acomeback in the league. But, in thecup competition, you have to bementally strong. We want to settleit within 90 minutes only. Weknow how fast and energetic theyare. They'll come strong on us. As

coach said, we want to win thetrophy for our fans."

Meanwhile, Shillong Lajonginterim coach Alison Kharsyntiewsaid the tournament was a "greatexposure" for the young bunch ofplayers and expressed that they arepositively looking forward tonothing less than a win.

"It's a great opportunity to testourselves against a team like FCPune City. We have built our teamwith a young bunch of players. It'sa great opportunity for them to gainexperience and a good exposure aswell. We're looking forward tonothing less than a win tomorrow,"Kharsyntiew said.

The heat and the humidity ofBhubaneswar could be a majorconcern as it might take a toll onthe Lajong players but Kharsyntiewsaid the team will remaincompetitive.

"Yes, the heat and the humidityis an issue. But, we are here tocompete and we're working hard toput up a good fight.”

�� +�6�/207�

Lionel Messi is expected back forWednesday's Champions League

quarter-final first leg against Romaand for Barcelona his return cannotcome soon enough.

Messi's latest rescue-act onSaturday, when he came off thebench to inspire a remarkablefightback against Sevilla, hasregurgitated the question of Barca'sdependency on their number 10.

It is difficult to quantify Messi'sbrilliance. He would be missed by anyteam in the world, not least Argentina,who were thrashed 6-1 by Spain lastweek with the injured forwardwatching on from the stands.

But for Ernesto Valverde, there isan urgency to the issue because ifMessi is not at his blistering best,perhaps feels his hamstring ache, oris somehow contained by Roma'sdefence, his side must find anotherway through.

"We're up against the very best inMessi," Roma forward Stephan ElShaarawy said. "Every time he gets onthe ball, he can make somethinghappen. That's why we'll have to tryto act accordingly and restrict hisinfluence as much as possible."

Messi has been left out of thestarting line-up for five La Liga andChampions League games this year.Barca have won two and drawn threeof them, the last, against Sevilla, aboutto be a defeat before he scored an

89th-minute equaliser.In the Copa del Rey, Messi was

rested for the last 16 first leg againstCelta Vigo, a 1-1 draw, then played inthe second, hitting two goals in a 5-0 win.

"No we are not worried about it,"Valverde said, when asked onSaturday about a possible over-reliance.

The defensive spine of Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Gerard Pique,Samuel Umtiti and Sergio Busquetsis strong, but in wide and attackingareas, only Luis Suarez would have aclaim to making most Barcelonateams of the last 10 years.

Valverde's strategy is moreconservative too. He has madeBarcelona more compact and harderto beat but in doing so, the expectationon Messi and Suarez to deliver hasincreased.

Roma hope to have their ownmidfield enforcer available too, withRadja Nainggolan going off injuredagainst Bologna on Saturday.

The initial expectation wasNainggolan would miss the match atthe Nou Camp but he also trained onMonday.

"Everyone says we're not thefavourites and that's the truth," ElShaarawy said.

"We have to be mindful that thetie is played over 180 minutes. We'llhave to try to get a good result inBarcelona while remembering thatthere's still the home leg to come.”

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