· the flight ai 191, escort-ed by uk royal air force’s eurofighter typhoon fighter aircraft,...

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O n a day Union Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri reiterated that he has not received any proposal from the AAP Government to make metro travel free for women passengers, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday said his Government will go ahead with its decision to give women free metro ride “come what may” and asserted he does not need consent from the Centre to do so. Puri categorically said the Union Government is of the view that there should not be any free ride to anyone in Delhi Metro. In a written reply to Trinamool Congress MP Saugata Roy in the Lok Sabha, Puri said the Centre had not received any such proposal from the Delhi Government. Reacting to this, Kejriwal said the Delhi Metro has sub- mitted a proposal regarding the scheme to his Government and that he was committed to provide free metro rides to women. He reiterated there is no need to send any proposal to the Central Government in this regard. “On our request, Del Metro has submitted its proposal. In principle, their proposal is agreeable to us. However, Delhi Govt is studying its details. I repeat that, as announced, Delhi Govt is committed to provide free metro rides to women,” Kejriwal tweeted. “We don’t need to send any proposal to the Central Government. Delhi Government has decided to make metro travel for women free by giving subsidy for the same. We legally don’t need to send proposal to the Central Government. We wrote to the DMRC to send a proposal to us. We in-principal agree to the proposal sent by the metro to us. Delhi Metro is ready. We are also ready,” he said. “I, the Chief Minister of Delhi, assure the people of Delhi, the women of Delhi that the metro rides would be free for women. Have faith in your Chief Minister,” said Kejriwal while interacting with the media after meeting the Union Finance Minister on Thursday. Nagendra Sharma, media adviser to Kejriwal, said pro- viding free rides to women is the proposal of the Delhi Government and it will bear the cost by paying directly to the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC). “It is a Delhi Government proposal and the Delhi Government will bear the cost and paying directly to the DMRC. TMC MP’s Q was whether the Centre has any proposal! Please do not be confused,” he tweeted. The AAP Government had earlier this month announced that women would get to ride the Delhi Metro and DTC buses free of cost. T hree days after the order to remove tax exemption on disability pension was issued leading to massive discontent- ment amongst the armed forces, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh assured that he will look into the issue. The circular issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on Monday last said the disability pension given to military personnel will be tax- able unless they have to leave the service due to the disabili- ty sustained in service. Taken aback by the direc- tive, services personnel, serving and retired, contended that disability mostly takes place while fighting for the country and there was never any taxes on disability pension in the past. Replying to Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the Defence Minister said, “I will look into the issue. The Ministry is gathering information and will get back with details to the House”. The Defence Minister also said that in the last 40 years people were kept in the dark as far as ‘One Rank One Pension’ (OROP) is concerned and were misled “but our Government brought it into force”. Officials, however, justi- fied the order saying senior officers were misusing the dis- ability clause for claiming tax exemption thereby denying genuine claimants. Sources also said, the new rule applied only to those personnel who served their full tenure and retired with disability and therefore not exempted from income tax. Associating itself with the services personnel agitated over the matter, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury raised the issue in the Lok Sabha on Thursday. As soon as he drew the attention of the House on the matter during the zero hour, Congress members rushed to the well and raised slogans like “sena ko nayay do” (Give jus- tice to Army) and “sena ke naam pe vote mangana band karo’ (stop asking votes in the name of Army). Disability pen- sion is of two types, war and normal. A US-bound flight of Air India from Mumbai made a precautionary landing in London on Thursday following a bomb threat telephonic call to Mumbai airport, the airline said. The flight AI 191, escort- ed by UK Royal Air Force’s Eurofighter Typhoon fighter aircraft, landed at the Stansted airport in London around 9.50 am, Air India tweeted. “AI 191 Mumbai-Newark of June 27 has made a precau- tionary landing at London’s Stansted airport due to a bomb threat,” the airline said. News agency ANI quoted an Air India official saying that the bomb threat call was a hoax. “Air India 191 Mumbai- Newark flight has landed safe- ly at London and all passengers are safe. Earlier, the flight had made a precautionary landing due to a bomb threat that was declared hoax,” the news agency quoted an Air India spokesperson as saying. “The plane is currently at the airport. All the 327 pas- sengers are deplaned and served snacks and other bev- erages. All passengers are in air- port premises,” Air India Spokesperson Dhananjay Kumar said. As per London Stansted Airport’s official Twitter han- dle, an Air India Boeing 777 aircraft was diverted to the air- port and landed safely with Essex Police in attendance. “It is parked on an isolated stand away from the normal airport operations. Our runway has now re-opened and is fully operational,” the airport said. “Quick Reaction Alert Typhoons were scrambled ear- lier from @RAFConingsby to intercept a civilian aircraft; this was safely escorted to Stansted,” Royal Air Force said. H aryana Congress leader and spokesperson Vikas Chaudhary was shot dead in full public view by unknown armed assailants when he was returning from a gym in Faridabad on Thursday around 9am. The killers pumped in 10 bullets into the spokesperson of the Haryana Congress. CCTV footage of the incident showed masked men firing indiscriminately at his car. The 34-year-old Congress leader was rushed by locals to hospital where he succumbed to his injuries. According to a senior Faridabad police official, sev- eral rounds were fired at Chaudhary while he was tak- ing his car from the parking lot outside the gym. Police are yet to identify the assailants. “Upon hearing the gunshot noise, people rushed to the spot and Chaudhary was rushed to Sarvodaya Hospital where he was declared brought dead. The entire incident was caught on a CCTV camera and 12 spent cartridges were recovered from the crime scene,” said the official. Two masked men who opened fire at the Congress leader are visible in the video. The duo managed to flee the spot unchallenged despite pres- ence of several people in the vicinity. Related report on Page 3 A n inmate of the Ludhiana Central Jail was killed and 35 injured when a clash broke between two groups of gang- sters on Thursday, prompting police to open fire to bring the situation under control. A senior police officer was among those injured in the mayhem at the Punjab jail. The lawlessness comes days after a jail inmate was bru- tally attacked and killed in Nabha high security jail. Taking serious note, Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, who is cur- rently on a visit to Delhi, has ordered a magisterial inquiry by the Ludhiana Deputy Commissioner Pradeep Kumar Agrawal. The violence took place days after two jail inmates bru- tally attacked Dera Sacha Sauda follower Mahinderpal Bittu, behind bars as the main accused in 2015 Bargari sacri- lege case, that eventually led to his death. Such incidents have put the State Government in general, and the Jails Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa in particular, in dock with all the rival parties demanding his expulsion from the Cabinet. The trouble started at around 11.30 am soon after the news of death of a jail inmate, undergoing a trial in a drug case reached the jail. DCP Ashwani Kapoor said that jail inmate Sunny Sood was referred to a at a Patiala’s Rajindra Medical Hospital due to illness on Wednesday, where he died. As per preliminary infor- mation, the news of Sood’s death triggered a riot in the jail premises, with the 3100-odd inmates refusing to go back into the barracks and starting to pelt stones, which were available due to some ongoing construction work. The rioting inmates also set on fire the record room, along with car of the Jail Superintendent apart from van- dalizing the jail property. As they tried to break the prison gates, the jail police tried to stop them by firing in the air, as per the initial reports. Meanwhile, additional police force reached the spot under tyhe leadership of Ludhiana DCP Ashwani Kumar to con- trol the situation, along with the tear gas vehicles and 250- 300 police personnel. Ludhiana Deputy Commissioner Pardeep Agarwal and IG Jails LS Jakhar also reached the spot, and the situation was finally brought into control at around 1.30 pm, when the prisoners were put back in the barracks. The prisoner killed in the violence was identified as Ajit Baba, while those injured were Vishal Kumar, Prince, Sunil, Ranbir, and Pankaj. DCP Kapoor said that as the news reached Ludhiana jail, his fellow gangsters started instigating other prisoners while accusing the police of “mur- dering” Sood, and the jail staff had to open fire to control the situation, which turned serious. “The jail police had to open fire when two group of gangsters started pelting each other with stones at the central jail. One jail inmate was killed and 35 others, including an assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), received injuries,” said Kapoor. The jail authorities said that the ACP of the city police and some members of the jail staff received injuries due to fierce brick batting by the inmates. They also set an offi- cial vehicle of the jail superin- tendent and a portion of the jail kitchen on fire with the help of an LPG cylinder, the authori- ties said. Continued on Page 4 Related report on Page 3 C entral Reserve Police Force (CRPF) will guard the three central jails of Punjab. The decision came into light the day a bloody clash broke out in Ludhiana central jail leaving one prisoner dead and several injured, which also included half a dozen policemen. The Union Ministry of Home Affairs had sanctioned three companies of CRPF for three central jails in Punjab — Amritsar, Bathinda and Ludhiana — with immediate effect. For the same, the Punjab Government would have to pay the requisite cost of the deployment of these CRPF companies in its jails. In gen- eral, one CRPF company has around 100 personnel. The Centre has communi- cated the decision through a let- ter on Wednesday, but the same came to light by Thursday after- noon after the outbreak of vio- lence in Ludhiana central jail. “For the time being, this will be fresh deployment and over the time as and when cen- tral industrial security force (CISF) takes over the VIP pro- tection duties, the CRPF com- panies will be freed upon from VIP duties and revert to CRPF,” reads the communication dated June 26 addressed to the Punjab Chief Secretary Karan Avtar Singh and the Director General of Police (DGP) Dinkar Gupta. The Union Home Ministry has also directed the CRPF Additional Director General of Operations to deploy three companies in Punjab’s three jails “in consultation with the DGP, Punjab immediately.” After the Punjab jails department had raised the demand for four CRPF com- panies, a joint-team of the CRPF and the state Jails Department had carried out a survey of various jails in the state in February. The decision was taken on the request of the State Government, which has all along been pressing for deploy- ing the central forces to guard the state jails where the dread- ed criminals and gangsters inhabit. The State Government has made the request aiming at breaking the nexus between the jail officials and the prisoners, besides strengthening the secu- rity in the jails. Notably, the state’s Additional Chief Secretary (Home) NS Kalsi had written a letter to the Union Home Secretary on October 8, 2018, raising the demand for the CRPF companies for high secu- rity jails in the State.

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Page 1:  · The flight AI 191, escort-ed by UK Royal Air Force’s Eurofighter Typhoon fighter aircraft, landed at the Stansted airport in London around 9.50 am, Air India tweeted. “AI

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On a day Union Minister ofState for Housing and

Urban Affairs Hardeep SinghPuri reiterated that he has notreceived any proposal fromthe AAP Government to makemetro travel free for womenpassengers, Delhi ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwal onThursday said his Governmentwill go ahead with its decisionto give women free metro ride“come what may” and assertedhe does not need consent fromthe Centre to do so.

Puri categorically said theUnion Government is of theview that there should not beany free ride to anyone inDelhi Metro. In a written replyto Trinamool Congress MPSaugata Roy in the Lok Sabha,Puri said the Centre had notreceived any such proposalfrom the Delhi Government.

Reacting to this, Kejriwalsaid the Delhi Metro has sub-mitted a proposal regarding thescheme to his Governmentand that he was committed toprovide free metro rides towomen. He reiterated there isno need to send any proposalto the Central Government inthis regard.

“On our request, Del Metrohas submitted its proposal. In

principle, their proposal isagreeable to us. However, DelhiGovt is studying its details. Irepeat that, as announced,Delhi Govt is committed toprovide free metro rides towomen,” Kejriwal tweeted.

“We don’t need to send anyproposal to the CentralGovernment. DelhiGovernment has decided tomake metro travel for womenfree by giving subsidy for thesame. We legally don’t need tosend proposal to the CentralGovernment. We wrote to theDMRC to send a proposal to

us. We in-principal agree to theproposal sent by the metro tous. Delhi Metro is ready. We arealso ready,” he said.

“I, the Chief Minister ofDelhi, assure the people ofDelhi, the women of Delhi thatthe metro rides would be freefor women. Have faith in yourChief Minister,” said Kejriwalwhile interacting with themedia after meeting the Union Finance Minister on Thursday.

Nagendra Sharma, mediaadviser to Kejriwal, said pro-viding free rides to women is

the proposal of the DelhiGovernment and it will bearthe cost by paying directly tothe Delhi Metro RailCorporation (DMRC).

“It is a Delhi Government

proposal and the DelhiGovernment will bear the costand paying directly to theDMRC. TMC MP’s Q waswhether the Centre has anyproposal! Please do not be

confused,” he tweeted.The AAP Government had

earlier this month announcedthat women would get to ridethe Delhi Metro and DTCbuses free of cost.

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Three days after the order toremove tax exemption on

disability pension was issuedleading to massive discontent-ment amongst the armedforces, Defence MinisterRajnath Singh assured that hewill look into the issue.

The circular issued by theCentral Board of Direct Taxes(CBDT) on Monday last saidthe disability pension given tomilitary personnel will be tax-able unless they have to leavethe service due to the disabili-ty sustained in service.

Taken aback by the direc-tive, services personnel, servingand retired, contended thatdisability mostly takes placewhile fighting for the countryand there was never any taxeson disability pension in thepast.

Replying to Congressleader Adhir RanjanChowdhury, the DefenceMinister said, “I will look intothe issue. The Ministry is gathering information and willget back with details to theHouse”.

The Defence Minister alsosaid that in the last 40 years

people were kept in the dark asfar as ‘One Rank One Pension’(OROP) is concerned and weremisled “but our Governmentbrought it into force”.

Officials, however, justi-fied the order saying seniorofficers were misusing the dis-ability clause for claiming taxexemption thereby denyinggenuine claimants.

Sources also said, the new rule applied only to those personnel who servedtheir full tenure and retired with disability andtherefore not exempted fromincome tax.

Associating itself with theservices personnel agitated overthe matter, Congress leaderAdhir Ranjan Chowdhuryraised the issue in the LokSabha on Thursday.

As soon as he drew theattention of the House on thematter during the zero hour,Congress members rushed tothe well and raised slogans like“sena ko nayay do” (Give jus-tice to Army) and “sena kenaam pe vote mangana bandkaro’ (stop asking votes in thename of Army). Disability pen-sion is of two types, war andnormal.

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AUS-bound flight of AirIndia from Mumbai made

a precautionary landing inLondon on Thursday followinga bomb threat telephonic call toMumbai airport, the airlinesaid. The flight AI 191, escort-ed by UK Royal Air Force’sEurofighter Typhoon fighteraircraft, landed at the Stanstedairport in London around 9.50am, Air India tweeted.

“AI 191 Mumbai-Newarkof June 27 has made a precau-tionary landing at London’sStansted airport due to a bombthreat,” the airline said.

News agency ANI quotedan Air India official saying thatthe bomb threat call was ahoax. “Air India 191 Mumbai-Newark flight has landed safe-ly at London and all passengersare safe. Earlier, the flight hadmade a precautionary landingdue to a bomb threat that was

declared hoax,” the newsagency quoted an Air Indiaspokesperson as saying.

“The plane is currently atthe airport. All the 327 pas-sengers are deplaned andserved snacks and other bev-erages. All passengers are in air-port premises,” Air IndiaSpokesperson DhananjayKumar said.

As per London StanstedAirport’s official Twitter han-dle, an Air India Boeing 777aircraft was diverted to the air-port and landed safely withEssex Police in attendance. “Itis parked on an isolated standaway from the normal airportoperations. Our runway hasnow re-opened and is fullyoperational,” the airport said.

“Quick Reaction AlertTyphoons were scrambled ear-lier from @RAFConingsby tointercept a civilian aircraft;this was safely escorted toStansted,” Royal Air Force said.

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Haryana Congress leaderand spokesperson Vikas

Chaudhary was shot dead infull public view by unknownarmed assailants when he wasreturning from a gym inFaridabad on Thursday around9am. The killers pumped in 10bullets into the spokespersonof the Haryana Congress.CCTV footage of the incidentshowed masked men firingindiscriminately at his car.

The 34-year-old Congressleader was rushed by locals tohospital where he succumbedto his injuries.

According to a seniorFaridabad police official, sev-eral rounds were fired atChaudhary while he was tak-ing his car from the parking lotoutside the gym. Police are yetto identify the assailants.

“Upon hearing the gunshot

noise, people rushed to the spotand Chaudhary was rushed toSarvodaya Hospital where hewas declared brought dead.The entire incident was caughton a CCTV camera and 12spent cartridges were recoveredfrom the crime scene,” said the

official. Two masked men whoopened fire at the Congressleader are visible in the video.The duo managed to flee thespot unchallenged despite pres-ence of several people in thevicinity.

Related report on Page 3

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An inmate of the LudhianaCentral Jail was killed and

35 injured when a clash brokebetween two groups of gang-sters on Thursday, promptingpolice to open fire to bring thesituation under control.

A senior police officer wasamong those injured in themayhem at the Punjab jail.

The lawlessness comesdays after a jail inmate was bru-tally attacked and killed inNabha high security jail.

Taking serious note,Punjab Chief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh, who is cur-rently on a visit to Delhi, hasordered a magisterial inquiryby the Ludhiana DeputyCommissioner Pradeep KumarAgrawal.

The violence took placedays after two jail inmates bru-tally attacked Dera Sacha Saudafollower Mahinderpal Bittu,behind bars as the mainaccused in 2015 Bargari sacri-lege case, that eventually led tohis death.

Such incidents have put theState Government in general,and the Jails MinisterSukhjinder Singh Randhawa inparticular, in dock with all the

rival parties demanding hisexpulsion from the Cabinet.

The trouble started ataround 11.30 am soon after thenews of death of a jail inmate,undergoing a trial in a drugcase reached the jail. DCPAshwani Kapoor said that jailinmate Sunny Sood wasreferred to a at a Patiala’sRajindra Medical Hospital dueto illness on Wednesday, wherehe died.

As per preliminary infor-mation, the news of Sood’sdeath triggered a riot in the jailpremises, with the 3100-oddinmates refusing to go back intothe barracks and starting to peltstones, which were available dueto some ongoing constructionwork. The rioting inmates alsoset on fire the record room,along with car of the JailSuperintendent apart from van-dalizing the jail property.

As they tried to break theprison gates, the jail policetried to stop them by firing inthe air, as per the initial reports.Meanwhile, additional policeforce reached the spot undertyhe leadership of LudhianaDCP Ashwani Kumar to con-trol the situation, along withthe tear gas vehicles and 250-300 police personnel.

Ludhiana DeputyCommissioner PardeepAgarwal and IG Jails LS Jakhar

also reached the spot, and thesituation was finally broughtinto control at around 1.30 pm,when the prisoners were putback in the barracks.

The prisoner killed in theviolence was identified as AjitBaba, while those injured wereVishal Kumar, Prince, Sunil,Ranbir, and Pankaj.

DCP Kapoor said that asthe news reached Ludhiana jail,his fellow gangsters startedinstigating other prisoners whileaccusing the police of “mur-dering” Sood, and the jail staffhad to open fire to control thesituation, which turned serious.

“The jail police had toopen fire when two group ofgangsters started pelting eachother with stones at the centraljail. One jail inmate was killedand 35 others, including anassistant Commissioner ofPolice (ACP), received injuries,”said Kapoor.

The jail authorities saidthat the ACP of the city policeand some members of the jailstaff received injuries due tofierce brick batting by theinmates. They also set an offi-cial vehicle of the jail superin-tendent and a portion of the jailkitchen on fire with the help ofan LPG cylinder, the authori-ties said.

Continued on Page 4Related report on Page 3

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Central Reserve Police Force(CRPF) will guard the

three central jails of Punjab.The decision came into light

the day a bloody clash broke outin Ludhiana central jail leavingone prisoner dead and severalinjured, which also includedhalf a dozen policemen.

The Union Ministry ofHome Affairs had sanctionedthree companies of CRPF forthree central jails in Punjab —Amritsar, Bathinda andLudhiana — with immediateeffect.

For the same, the PunjabGovernment would have topay the requisite cost of thedeployment of these CRPFcompanies in its jails. In gen-eral, one CRPF company hasaround 100 personnel.

The Centre has communi-cated the decision through a let-ter on Wednesday, but the samecame to light by Thursday after-noon after the outbreak of vio-lence in Ludhiana central jail.

“For the time being, thiswill be fresh deployment andover the time as and when cen-tral industrial security force(CISF) takes over the VIP pro-tection duties, the CRPF com-panies will be freed upon fromVIP duties and revert to CRPF,”reads the communication datedJune 26 addressed to the

Punjab Chief Secretary KaranAvtar Singh and the DirectorGeneral of Police (DGP)Dinkar Gupta.

The Union Home Ministryhas also directed the CRPFAdditional Director General ofOperations to deploy threecompanies in Punjab’s threejails “in consultation with theDGP, Punjab immediately.”

After the Punjab jailsdepartment had raised thedemand for four CRPF com-panies, a joint-team of theCRPF and the state JailsDepartment had carried out asurvey of various jails in thestate in February.

The decision was taken onthe request of the StateGovernment, which has allalong been pressing for deploy-ing the central forces to guardthe state jails where the dread-ed criminals and gangstersinhabit.

The State Government hasmade the request aiming atbreaking the nexus between thejail officials and the prisoners,besides strengthening the secu-rity in the jails.

Notably, the state’sAdditional Chief Secretary(Home) NS Kalsi had writtena letter to the Union HomeSecretary on October 8, 2018,raising the demand for theCRPF companies for high secu-rity jails in the State.

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Punjab Chief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh on Thursday met

the Union Minister for Road Transportand Highways and Micro, Small andMedium Enterprises Nitin Gadkariseeking early clearance of ring roadsaround state’s major cities, besidesurging him for immediate release offunds for clusters in the State to boostdevelopment of MSMEs (Micro, Smalland Medium Enterprises).

Capt Amarinder urged Gadkari toimmediately release the third instalmentof Centre’s grant of Rs 3.72 crore forMohali Hitech Metal Cluster andimplementation of SFURTI in WoodInlay Cluster, Hoshiarpur.

He also called upon Gadkari topress for his intervention to clear theState’s pending projects or approvalsunder his Department. At the sametime, he invited the Union Minister tovisit Punjab to help revive the MSMEsin the state.

Gadkari assured Capt Amarinderthat all Punjab-related issues, pendingwith his Ministries, would be looked

into and addressed at the earliest. Healso assured of full support and coop-eration to the State Government in pur-suance of their road infrastructuredevelopment projects, besides variousinitiatives in the field of MSMEs.

Official spokesperson said thatCapt Amarinder informed the UnionMinister that State Government hadalready conveyed its consent to bear 50percent cost of land acquisition for con-struction of ring roads around major cities of Mohali orChandigarh, Ludhiana, Jalandhar,Patiala, Sangrur and Bathinda, in linewith the MORT&H guidelines ofBharatmala.

The Chief Minister also sought theUnion Ministry’s immediate approvalof funds to the tune of Rs 636.45 lakhfor appointment of technical consultantfor the ring roads project to work outthe alignments needed for the roads.

Capt Amarinder also urgedGadkari to facilitate expeditious clear-ance of the Delhi-Amritsar-KatraExpressway project, for which theCentral Government has alreadyapproved a plan for constructing 800kms of expressways under BharatmalaScheme Phase-I.

The State Government had

requested the Ministry time and againfor early start of this project but so fareven the alignment has not been frozenupon, he lamented.

The Chief Minister also impressedupon the Union Minister the need forimmediate declaration of nationalhighway and approval to four laning ofPatiala-Sirhind-Morinda road, whichthe Union Ministry was pressing for

development as a Greenfield projectwhile the State wanted it to be aBrownfield project.

Capt Amarinder requested theMinister to declare Banga-Garhshankar-Anandpur Sahib-NainaDevi Road as a National Highways pro-ject in the current fiscal. He alsosought expeditious clearance of sever-al pending projects, besides impressing

upon the Union Minister the need todevelop Kharar-Banur-Tepla road NH-205A as a four-lane highway, in view ofthe large Delhi bound interstate com-mercial traffic from Himachal Pradeshand Haryana passing this road.

The Chief Minister requestedGadkari to issue necessary directions toconcerned officials in NHAI to executethe incomplete structures or stretches,and also take up to repair deficienciesin maintenance without further delay.

“If the incomplete structures orstretches and deficiencies were notattended to immediately, in a time-bound manner, it would be appropri-ate to initiate action for termination oftoll collection on this road,” he said.

Also inviting Gadkari to visitPunjab to discuss MSMEs’ developmentin a meaningful and result-orientedmanner, Capt Amarinder emphasizedthe need to promote agriculture-basedMSMEs in the State to ameliorate theeconomic lot of our farmers, who werereeling under a severe agrarian crisis.

The Chief Minister also touchedupon several other related issues, set-ting up of technology centres and sub-centres under Hub and Spoke Scheme,and Zero Effect Zero Defect Scheme.

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The Swaraj India will contestthe upcoming Har yana

Assembly polls, projecting theoutfit as a viable alternative to theruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

“We have decided to contestthe upcoming Haryana assemblypolls,” Swaraj India national pres-ident Yogendra Yadav made thisannouncement while addressingmediapersons here. He wasaccompanied by party's stateunit president Rajeev Godara.

Yadav said the newly floatedparty had decided not to contestthe Lok Sabha elections through-out the country as they wanted tofocus on the issues of farmers andunemployed youth.

“We have decided to giveone-third seats to women andone-third to the youth. We aregoing to focus on five issues--agrarian distress, remunerativeprices to the farmers, unem-ployment relief for educatedunemployed youth and we wanta law which would ensure noliquor vend can be opened unlesswomen of that Gram Sabhaapprove of it,” he said.

For the unorganised sectorworkers, better wages and moresecure better quality environmentwill be on top of our agenda, saidYadav, who is a noted politicalanalyst and a former Aam AadmiParty leader.

The party has been allotted‘whistle’ as poll symbol by theElect ion Commission, heinformed.

He said Haryana has seenatrocities against Dalits, oppres-sion of women and all kinds oflaw and order issues and theparty wants every citizen to betreated equally.

On contesting the Haryanapolls, which are due in October,he said, “We had contestedmunicipal election and put upone or two candidates inRajasthan, but this is our fullstate assembly election”.

The Swaraj India will notproject any face for the polls, theacademician-turned-politiciansaid.

He said, “In this state, theentire politics is centered aroundcaste, Jats versus non-Jats. Westand in resolute opposition ofthis, we are saying we want tobring all the 36 communitiestogether.”

When asked that his partywill be entering the fray at a timewhen the BJP recently swept all10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryanaand has been making claims thatit will win 75 plus assemblyseats, Yadav said, “Everyone issaying this is the worst time to getinto elections. But we think thisis the best time because this iswhen people are looking for analternative, a viable alternativewhich we will provide”.

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In the backdrop of two deathson the route this season, now

no trekkers and pilgrims will beallowed to move on KinnerKailash trek without permissionof the district administration.

Kinnaur DeputyCommissioner Gopal Chand onThursday said tour operatorsorganising treks in the districtshould be registered with thetourism department and submitthe list of trekkers at nearestpolice station before commenc-ing the trek. He said that touroperators should also submit the

list of trekkers at police stationafter finishing the trek. TheDeputy Commissioner expressedconcern over trekking by fivetrekkers towards Kinner Kailashwithout informing dis tr ic tadministration out of which twotrekkers died. The three trekkerswere rescued by the police andHome Guard Quick responseteam. Presiding over a meetingregarding illegal adventure andtrekking activities in districtKinnaur, he said that the as perthe Himachal PradeshMiscel laneous AdventureAct iv it ies Rules , 2017 anytrekking activity in the district

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With the rise in number ofmalaria cases in Mewat

region for the past many years,Haryana health department istaking no chance this year andhas ordered special attention tocontrol malaria cases in dis-tricts Nuh, Palwal andYamunanagar.

Malaria, a mosquito-borneillness, continues to be a majorpublic health problem. Theproblem is persistent in bothrural and urban area. Malariatransforms into an epidemicevery monsoon in Mewat withthousands of cases beingreported. As per the availablereports, in Haryana, 4,485 casesof malaria were reported in2014 while 9308 in 2015, 7866in 2016, 5696 in 2017, 3154 in2018. As per studies, nine percent of Mewat’s population,every year contributes to overtwo-thirds of Haryana’s malar-ia burden.

Last year, the state govern-ment had declared Mewathyper sensitive, following amalaria epidemic with over1,350 cases being reported.The actual number of malariapatients is much higher asmost residents go to privatepractitioners.

Despite significance effortsby the government to controlmalaria, the disease remains oneof the public health problems inMewat. Department official saidthat the problem in Mewatregion is that road and transportfacilities are minimal, limitedhealth care facilities and inap-propriate preventive measures.

While there are many fac-tors for the annual outbreak inthe area, the key culprit isfilthy, mostly stagnant water inthe drains that makes the areaparticularly vulnerable to mos-

quito-borne diseases. Theproblem gets aggravated as asubstantial number of resi-dents have taken to fish farm-ing, which adds to stagnantwater that serves as breedingspots for mosquitoes carryingmalaria-causing larva.

Dr Usha Gupta, director,Haryana Health services saidthat special attention has beengiven to districts Nuh, Palwaland Yamunanagar. Ujina PHCin Nuh, Khizrabad inYamunanagar and Solera inPalwal are still high malariaprone areas. Recruitment ofmultipurpose health workershave been done recently.Earlier, against total strength of84 multipurpose health work-ers (male), only five weredeputed but now 37 has beendeployed in Nuh. This year, 33multipurpose health workershave been deployed in Palwaland 40 in Yammuna Nagar.

Along with this, a malariadiagnosis has been strength-ened. 15 Microscopes pur-chased. Rapid Diagnostic TestKits has been provided to dis-tricts concerned for malariadiagnosis which helps inimmediate start of RadicalTreatment, she said, addingJune is being observed as Anti-Malaria Month while July asAnti-Dengue Month.

Moreover, to controlmalaria, an awareness drive hasbeen launched through distri-bution of pamphlets, displayingof hoardings/posters/banners atprominent places and group

meetings. Measures like LongLasting Insecticidal Nets havebeen provided in all sub cen-tres, the official said.

In District Nuh, about 1.74Lac (LLINs, Bed-Nets) hasalready distributed in 145 highrisk villages. Indoor

Residual Spray (IRS) hasbeen carried out in Malariaprone areas under strict super-vision. Anti-larval activities inUjina drain in Nuh and Palwaland crusher zone areas ofYamunanagar are being carriedout intensively, the Directorsaid. Other measures like callcentre will be utilized to veri-fy RT of malaria cases andASHAs will be involved formalaria diagnosis and treat-ment to fill up the gap, DrGupta said, adding variousdepartments including fish-ery, irrigation, education, urbanlocal bodies, panchayat rajamong others have also beeninvolved in creating awarenessto check malaria cases.

Funds have been providedto districts to procureMicroscopes wherever required(total 57 microscopes will beprocured by June 2019). 107high risk subcentres have beenidentified which are being cov-ered under Indoor ResidualSpray. Funds also provided for18 Fogging Machines (2 each in9 Districts viz.Charkhi Dadri,Fatehabad, Gurugram, Nuh,Palwal, Panipat, Rewari,Rohtak and Jhajjar) which arelikely to be procured by June2019.

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Haryana Health MinisterAnil Vij on Thursday said

that Haryana has been rankedthe first state in the country inimproving health standards atthe fastest pace.

According to the latestreport of the NITI Ayog in thisregard, the state has recordedthe highest increase of 6.55points as compared to otherstates.“For this, the NITI Ayoghad studied health servicesand health standards with thehelp of the Union Ministry ofHealth and Family Welfareand the World Bank,” Vij said.

After Haryana, Rajasthanstood second with 6.30 pointsand Jharkhand was third with5.99 points. Assessing the year2015-16 as the base year, theCommission has examinedhealth standards during thetwo years of reference year2017-18, he said.

Among these 23 standardswere checked including chil-dren's low-birth weight, infantmortality rate, mortality rate ofchildren below 5 years andimprovement in maternal mor-tality rate, increase in institu-tional delivery, grading of hos-pitals, and NABH/NQAS cer-tification, sex ratio and theavailability of experts, doctorsand staff, Vij said.

The Health Minister fur-ther said that since 2014, therehas been unprecedentedimprovement in the health ser-vices in the state. Under this, asper the report of the NITIAyog, the mortality rate ofchildren under the age of fiveyear per 1,000 children is 37after reduction of six points, theinfant mortality rate dropped

by 3 points to 30 and neonatalmortality rate dropped by 2points to 22. Similarly, the rateof birth of low-weight childrenhas decreased.

Earlier this figure was 14.9and now it has reduced to 8.47.Total vaccination coverage hasincreased by 5.39 points andnow it is 88.86 points andinstitutional delivery hasincreased from 80.25 to 84.19points, he added.

Vij also said that in the lastthree years, there has beenincreased in the attendance ofChief Medical Officers, ANMand staff in hospitals. Apartfrom this, the appointment ofdoctors in the primary healthcentres and community healthcentres has been increased byeight points and that of para-medical staff nurses by threepoints.

Simultaneously, the num-ber of Grading 4 CommunityHealth Centres has increasedfrom 22 to 41.5 per cent. Thenumber of specialist doctors inthe state has registered anunprecedented 21.1 per centincrease, he said.

Vij added that apart fromthis, Haryana has registered agrowth in health standards,which will further improve infuture.

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Considering the long pend-ing demand of PCMS doc-

tors, the Punjab Governmenthas relaxed the eligibility con-ditions for PCMS doctors foradmissions in post-graduatecourses.

Announcing this, the stateHealth and Family WelfareMinister Balbir Singh Sidhusaid that this relaxation foradmissions in PG courses wasprovided on the directive ofthe Chief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh. “Earlier, thePCMS doctors who had com-pleted four years of service indifficult rural areas and sixyears service in other ruralareas were given 30 percentincentive marks and allowedto pursue PG courses. Now therequirement of rural servicehas been reduced from four-six years to two to three years.

He said that the doctorswould get 20 and 30 percentincentive marks on completionof two or three and three or 4.5years of rural service. Thedoctors who get admissionunder incentive categorywould get full pay during theirPG course.

“Earlier, candidates who

secured admission on the basisof their own merit in the PGcourse were allowed to do PGcourse only if they had com-pleted three years of ruralservice. Now, this period hasreduced from three to one yearand the doctors would begiven leave of the kind dueduring the PG course,” hesaid.

Earlier, the PCMS doctors,who did not complete theirprobation period, were notgiven leave of the kind due andtheir service was treated asdies-non during the PG courseresulting into loss of seniori-ty which discouraged manydoctors, he said adding thatnow they would get leave ofthe kind due and their origi-nal seniority would be pro-tected.

For the candidates, whoare sponsored by PGI, thebond has been reduced from15 years or Rs 75 lakhs to 10years or Rs 50 lakhs.

The Minister explainedthat the intention was to allowPCMS doctors to pursue andcomplete their degree as earlyas possible so that they canserve the Department forlonger period after completionof PG course.

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Union Minister ofConsumer Affairs, Food

and Public Distribution RamVilas Paswan on Thursdayacceded to the request ofPunjab Chief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh to hold ajoint meeting with the UnionFinance Minister to resolvethe Rs 31,000 crore foodaccount loan legacy issue.

Paswan agreed to organisethe meeting after the UnionBudget session, said an officialspokesperson after CaptAmarinder called on theMinister on Thursday.

The Union Minister hasalso agreed to allow Punjab tocreate additional storage spaceto enable the State to addressthe problem of acute shortageof storage space in this Rabiseason. Modalities for the samewill soon be worked out, saidthe spokesperson.

Capt Amarinder also suc-ceeded in securing relaxation inlustre loss in wheat, resultingfrom the unseasonal heavyrains that lashed the state dur-ing the season.

During his meeting, theChief Minister pointed out Rs31,000 crore food loan legacyissue, inherited from the pre-vious government, had alreadybeen referred to a special com-mittee headed by MemberNITI Aayog Ramesh Chand,who is also the Member of 15th

Finance Commission.The Committee had been

mandated to look into allaspects of the legacy debt ofPunjab Government arisingout of accumulated CCL (FoodCredit Gap) with reference toFood Corporation of India orDepartment of Food andPublic Distribution. The ChiefMinister sought Paswan’s per-sonal intervention to expeditethe matter.

With regard to lustre loss,Capt Amarinder informed theUnion Food Minister that theCentral Government had onlyallowed relaxation for ninedistricts with effect from May8, 2019, when bulk of the pur-chase had been completed inthe State. The State had soughtrelaxation, through a letter toGoI on April 26, 2019, for theentire quantity of wheat pur-chased during the season acrossthe State, and should be givenrelaxation with effect fromApril 26, when it first soughtFCI inspection.

Expressing concern overslow movement of stocks, theChief Minister told Paswan

that the State Government wasgrappling with acute shortageof storage space for foodgrain.

He mentioned that stateagencies were currently stock-ing 160 Lakh MT of wheat and107 Lakh MT of rice, while 96Lakh MT of wheat was lying inthe open, while 10.5 Lakh MTof wheat purchased more thana year ago was still beingstocked in the open. As a resultof slow movement of foodgrains from the State, Punjabwould face a major challengefor scientific storage of wheatnext year, he added.

Referring to withholding ofreimbursement of arhtiyacharges and administrativecharges, the Chief Ministerurged Paswan to immediatelyrelease these charges to theState. These charges were paidto the arhtiyas as per provisionsof the Punjab State AgricultureProduce Markets Act, 1961,and administrative chargeswere used for maintenance ofstocks as well as payment ofsalaries and other establish-ment expenses, said CaptAmarinder.

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Haryana Government onThursday issued transfer

and posting orders of eight IPSofficers and one HPS officerwith immediate effect.

Superintendents of Policein eight districts have beentransferred. Naazneen Bhasin,Superintendent of Police,Special Task Force, Gurugramhas been posted asSuperintendent of Police,Rewari while Rahul Sharmagoes as SP Rohtak. AbhishekJorwal, SP Chief Minister’sFlying Squad (CID), Panchkulahas been posted as SP Ambala,Waseem Akram goes asCommandant, 3rd IndianReserve Battalion, Sunaria,Jashandeep Singh Randhawa asSP Special Task Force,Gurugram.

Mohit Handa is posted asSP Dadri, Virender Kumar asSP Kaithal, Smiti Chaudharyas SP Chief Minister’s FlyingSquad (CID), Panchkula.

Among HPS officer,Virender Singh Sanwan,Additional Superintendent ofPolice, Crime has been postedas Superintendent of Police,Hansi.

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Haryana Congress leaderand spokesperson Vikas

Chaudhary was shot dead byunknown assailants at the carparking of a gym in Faridabadon Thursday.

The incident took placearound 9 am, when Vikas (42)was parking his car outside thegym in Sector 9, Faridabad.The assailants fired on his carfrom both sides and later,managed to flee. The incidenthas stirred a political row inthe state with Congress chiefRahul Gandhi and seniorparty leaders lashing out at theHaryana Government overthe deteriorating law and ordersituation.

According to the Police,Vikas was hit by over 10 bul-lets and CCTV footage of theincident showed masked menraining shots on his car. Noarrest was made in the case tillthe filing of this report.

Haryana ADGP (Law &Order) Navdeep Singh Virksaid that the murder caseappeared to be connected toVikas’ criminal background.

“Severe police teams havebeen deployed to crack thecase and Faridabad Police isconfident of detecting it soon.CP Faridabad is personallysupervising the investigation,”Virk tweeted. “As per the leadsso far, Vikas Chaudhary had a

criminal background and 13FIRs of extortion, kidnapping,attempt to murder etc wereregd. against him since 2007 inHY & UP. His murder appearsto be connected to his owncriminal background (sic), headded.

A police officer informedthat as many as 12 spent car-

tridges were found on theincident spot. Upon hearingthe noise, people rushed to thesite and Chaudhary was rushedto a hospital where he wasdeclared brought dead, he said.

The Congress leader wasalone at the time of the inci-dent and bullets hit his neckand chest, he said

A case has been regis-tered and police are scanningthe CCTV footage to identifythe accused, the officer said.He added that the attackappears to be pre-planned andthe assailants, who came in avehicle knew that Vikas wouldcome to the gym.

After the murder of

Congress leader, protest washeld by party workers inFaridabad, where theydemanded immediate arrest ofculprits. Reacting to the inci-dent, Haryana BJP chiefSubhash Barala said that it isan unfortunate incident andassured that the culprits will benabbed soon.

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Haryana Chief MinisterManohar Lal on Thursday

directed the officers to speedthe work on all the incompletedevelopmental works to ensuretheir timely completion forthe convenience of the peopleof the state.

The Chief Minister wasreviewing the ongoing devel-opmental works in Karnal andgave necessary directions to theofficers concerned.

He said that developmentis the main aim and objectiveof the present Governmentboth at Centre and State.

Manohar Lal urged thelegislators present in the meet-ing that they should maintaindirect dialogue with the peopleto hear and redress their griev-ances at the earliest to fulfill thehopes and aspiration of thepeople. There is no dearth offunds in the government trea-

sury and the funds have alreadybeen released for ongoingdevelopment works, he assured.

Later, while interactingwith the mediapersons,Manohar Lal said emergencyvictim term has now beenremoved from the identitycards of Satyagrahis who havestruggled during theEmergency and now they havebeen given the name ofLoktantra Senanis.

He added that the StateGovernment has decided tobear the expenses of medicalassistance upto Rs five lakhannually to the LoktantraSenani or their spouse fortreatment in government orprivate hospitals.

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Punjab Government hasdecided to sensitize people

about the sacrifices made by themartyrs of the state apart fromtheir history during the cente-nary functions of JallianwalaBagh.

Besides, the Governmentwould also organise pro-grammes with regard to music,plays, poetry recitals, besidesmaking the masses aware aboutthe history of Jallianwala Bagh.

“A letter would soon bewritten to all the DeputyCommissioners to ensure thesuccess of these programmes.The presence of the local MLAswould also be ensured in theseprogrammes,” said the stateTourism and Cultural AffairsMinister Charanjit SinghChanni.

Channi, while chairing areview meeting of the func-tioning or activities of thePunjab Kala Parishad, PunjabSangeet Natak Akademi, PunjabLalit Kala Akademi and PunjabSahit Akademi, said that specialefforts would be made to includeschool and college students aswell as the youth from the rural

or urban areas in these pro-grammes.

He also directed the officersto undertake sustained publici-ty campaigns to raise awarenessregarding these programmes inthe public.

Channi said that PunjabGovernment is continuingpreparations at fast pace withregard to the 550th parkash purbcelebrations of Guru NanakDev and the Jallianwala Baghcentenary functions, and thefunctions would be held atgrand level in various big citiesas well as the districts.

Briefing about the func-tions to be held by the PunjabKala Parishad regarding the

550th birthday celebrations,Channi said that the main pur-pose of these functions is toguide the masses about Sikh his-tory and philosophy.

“During these celebrationsvarious functions such as poet-ry recitals, Rabab Utsav, DhadhiDarbar, ‘Balihari Kudrat Vaseya’-Shabad Gayan and seminar,plays, discussions, paintings’exhibition and discussion,Malwai Folk Dance — teachingsof Sri Guru Nanak Dev and FolkBoliyan, Kirtan Darbar in accor-dance with the Ragas, WallPaintings about Sri Guru NanakDev Ji-Photo Exhibition andvarious seminars, would beorganized,” he said.

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Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)chief Sukhbir Singh Badal

on Thursday demanded theimmediate sacking of Punjabcabinet minister SukhjinderSingh Randhawa after a vio-lent clash at the LudhianaCentral Jail, which left atleast one dead and 35 injured.He also sought a probe intothe incident by a sitting judgeof the Punjab and HaryanaHigh Court. Expressing shockat the incident, the formerdeputy chief minister claimedthat such a security lapse wasunprecedented in the historyof Punjab.

Prisoners rebelled, usedgas cylinders to conduct blastsand even chased and injuredprison guards. This indicates

a complete breakdown in theadministration of jails inPunjab," he said in a state-ment here.

A clean-up exercise isneeded and can only be doneby sacking Jails MinisterSukhjinder Randhawa imme-diately, he added.

Pointing towards themurder of sacrilege accusedMohinderpal Nittu at theNabha Maximum SecurityJail last week, Badal saidRandhawa had the "worstpossible record" as the jailsminister.

The SAD chief furthersaid instead of realising hismistake and resigning imme-diately from his post, theminister was giving state-ments about the need forcentral forces in the state

jails."This proves the minister

has failed in his job com-pletely and is searching foralibis . Chief MinisterAmarinder Singh should sackhim immediately," he said,adding that the situation wasthe result of the free rungiven to ministers to settlepolitical scores over theiropponents.

"Criminals have taken anadvantage of this. Gang wars,dacoities and snatchings haveincreased manifold. Young chil-dren, including girls, are dyingof drug overdose," he added.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)leader H S Cheema toosought Randhawa's resigna-tion, alleging a completebreakdown of the law andorder in the state.

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Congress President RahulGandhi has condemned

the killing of HaryanaCongress leader VikasChaudhary.

“The killing of HaryanaCongress leader VikasChaudhary is a shameful,condemnable and unfortu-nate incident. The incidentreflects deteriorating law andorder situation in Haryana.May God give his familystrength in this hour of sorrowand may his soul rest inpeace,” Rahul Gandhi tweet-ed in Hindi.

Former Chief MinisterBhupinder Singh Hooda,Haryana Congress state chiefAshok Tanwar and formerMP Deepender Singh Hoodaalso condemned the killing

and termed the law and ordersituation in Haryana as “goon-da raj”.

They demanded animpartial enquiry into theincident and stringent pun-ishment to the culprits.

A video clip was shared byAshok Tanwar, the presidentof the Haryana Congress whosaid the murder was an exam-ple of "jungle raj" in the state."

Shocking to witness thebrutal murder of our@INCHaryana spokesperson@_Vikaschaudhary today inFaridabad. We r deeply hurtby this gruesome murder andI appeal @cmohry to takestrictest action#JusticeforVikasChaudhary(SIC)," Tanwar tweeted. Videofootage doing the rounds onsocial media showed two fig-

ures coming near an SUV andthen shooting in the directionof the vehicle from the frontand the back.

Condemning the attack,senior Congress leader and in-charge of the CommunicationDepartment of All IndiaCongress Committee (AICC),Randeep Singh Surjewala saidthat Haryana has becomecrime hub as three murders,five rapes and ten kidnappingand abduction incident casesare being reported every day.

MLA from Kaithal,Surjewala said that the lawand order situation in the statehas gone into shreds andgoonda and anti-social ele-ments along with hooligansare ruling the roost.

Quoting the official fig-ures of the State Crime RecordBureau, Surjewala said that

1,087 cases of murder, 1,681cases of rape, 3,763 cases ofkidnapping and abduction,310 dacoity and 1,08,449 casesof cognizable offences underIPC occurred in

Haryana in one yearbetween May 2018 and April2019. That means, every dayabout 3 murders, 5 rapes, 10kidnappings and 1 incident ofdacoity are occurring inHaryana, which clearly provethe fast deteriorating law andorder situation in the state, headded.

Surjewala added that dur-ing the past few days, a num-ber of such incidents havebeen reported which clearlyestablish that in the state ofHaryana, it is not only thecriminals but the leaders ofBJP are also indulging inhooliganism.

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The Punjab State Cooperative Bank onThursday commenced e-Stamp paper, e-

Registration and e-Court fees services to its cus-tomers.

Under an agreement inked by the Bank withthe Stock Holding Corporation of India, the ser-vices were started on Thursday with the Punjab’sCooperation Minister Sukhjinder SinghRandhawa and the Revenue Minister GurpreetSingh Kangar formally inaugurating the same.

Randhawa said that the novel initiative ofe-Stamping has been started at 32 tehsilsthrough the 27 branches situated in differentparts of the State which would prove to be ofgreat help for the Banks’ customers, especiallythe farming sector.

Describing cooperative banks as the back-bone of the farming sector, the Minister said thatthe Department has taken a decision to upgradethe branches of the Central Cooperative Banksand make them customer friendly. Apart fromthis, all out efforts would also be made toimprove the financial lot of AgriculturalCooperative Societies, he said.

He added that the initiative would lead tosaving of precious time of the people and wouldsave them from harassment. “The farmerswould be spared the burden of cash carrying andthe financial position of the banks would bestrengthened because the daily sale of the e-stamps worth Rs eight-Rs 10 crores is expect-ed. Besides, the belief of the people about get-ting fair deal while dealing with the cooperativebanks would be cemented,” he added.

From Page 1The fire brigade and the jail

authorities said the rioters,numbering around 300, alsotried to break open the maingate of the jail. Commenting onit, Commissioner Police (CP)Sukhchain Singh Gill said thatthe situation was now undercontrol and the prisoners weresent back to their barracks.

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Chief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh has ordereda magisterial inquiry, to beconducted by Ludhiana DeputyCommissioner, into Thursday’soutbreak of violence in theCentral Jail.

The Chief Minister hasasked for a detailed probe toidentify the instigators of theviolence, while making it clearthat strict action will be takenagainst the culprits.

Capt Amarinder, duringan informal interaction withsome mediapersons at New

Delhi, said that the incident didnot reflect any law and orderbreakdown in Punjab, wherethe law and order situationwas among the best in thecountry.

Responding to a questionon the opposition’s demandfor resignation of Punjab JailMinister, he said that therewas no question. “Akali Dal andAam Aadmi Party have noth-ing constructive to say, exceptmaking such illogical demands.Situations are to be dealt and weare dealing with it,” he said.

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After the party’s crushingdefeat in Lok Sabha polls,

Congress president RahulGandhi on Thursday askedthe senior leaders of faction-ridden Haryana state partyunit to work unitedly for theforthcoming State Assemblypolls, due to be held later this

year.Rahul Gandhi held a cru-

cial meeting of Haryana statecoordination committee inNew Delhi to discuss the strat-egy for the upcoming election.

This was the first meetingof state coordination commit-tee held by the party chief, evenas suspense prevails over hisexit from the top post in

Congress. In the past, suchmeetings were presided over byGhulam Nabi Azad, incharge ofHaryana’s party affairs.

During the meeting, dis-cussion was held on how tostrengthen the Congress atgrassroot level and give a toughfight to BJP, which hasannounced “Mission 75” inHaryana.

Ghulam Nabi Azad,Haryana state party chiefAshok Tanwar, former ChiefMinister Bhupinder SinghHooda, his son DeependerSingh Hooda, former MinisterCapt. Ajay Yadav among oth-ers were present at the meeting,

However, the CLP leaderKiran Choudhry, KuldeepBishnoi, Naveen Jindal gave a

miss to the meeting.Post- Lok Sabha defeat,

the factionalism and infightingis raging in the HaryanaCongress party unit and mayharm the party’s poll prospectsin State Assembly polls.

In Haryana, there has beenno district level or block levelcommittees for last severalyears while the differences

between Ashok Tanwar andformer CM Bhupinder SinghHooda have come out in theopen several times now.

After the meeting, formerMinister Capt. Ajay Yadav,while talking to the mediaper-sons said that the Congresschief has asked the party lead-ers to unite and strengthen theparty at grassroot level forassembly elections, which isbarely a few months away.

When asked whether anytalks related to differences andfactionalism were held in themeeting, Yadav said that nosuch discussion took place andRahul asked the party leadersto unite for the elections.

Differences have alwaysbeen there in the party but nowthe focus is on the upcomingelections, he added

It was deliberated uponhow the organizational struc-ture at the grassroot level canbe strengthened ahead of theelections, he further said.

Even though the politicalcircles in Congress are abuzz

with the speculations of achange in state party leadershipahead of upcoming polls, therewas no such indication after themeeting.

Recently, several Congressleaders had said that the partyhigh command is likely toappoint a new state party chiefand atleast two –three workingpresidents in HaryanaCongress. Name of formerChief Minister BhupinderSingh Hooda, Rajya Sabha MPKumari Selja and Congress in-charge of communicationsRandeep Singh Surjewala aredoing the rounds for the toppost.

The Congress is also like-ly to soon announce the nameof Leader of Opposition inHaryana Assembly.

In the 90-member HaryanaAssembly, the BJP has 48 MLAswhile the Congress has 17MLAs.

Notably, the Congress hadfailed to win even a single seatout of a total of 10 Lok Sabhaconstituencies in Haryana in

the recently concluded parlia-mentary polls. To make thingsworse, it also ceded the Rohtakseat, where in 2014 DeependerHooda had managed to buckthe Narendra Modi wave.

Following party’s humili-ating defeat, the internal bick-ering in Haryana Congresshad came out in the open at ameeting called by GhulamNabi Azad in New Delhirecently. The MLAs loyal toHooda had pressed for a lead-ership change in Haryana andhad mentioned how the partyhas lost last three polls – LokSabha and assembly electionsin 2014 and the recent gener-al elections – under AshokTanwar’s leadership.

Former Chief MinisterBhupinder Hooda had lost theLok Sabha poll which he con-tested from Sonepat sea andhad blamed “weak organiza-tional structure” in Haryana forthe defeat in Lok Sabha polls.

Ashok Tanwar had alsolost the Lok Sabha polls fromSirsa (reserved) seat.

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The Centre on Thursdayblamed the developed

countries for not keeping up totheir commitment of providingUSD 100 billion and technol-ogy transfer collectively todeveloping countries like Indiafor dealing with climate change.Holding developed worldresponsible for much of theeffects of climate change,Environment Minister PrakashJavadekar in Rajya Sabha saidIndia will not bow down to anyinternational pressure on theissue and safeguard its owninterest first.

Replying to a calling atten-tion notice on “situation arisingout of climate change in thecountry and steps taken by thegovernment in regard thereto” inRajya Sabha, the minister said,”Itis true that developed world isresponsible for most of the cli-mate change situation today.”

Elaborating, he said,”Over70 per cent of the green housegases emission was due to thedeveloped countries whileIndia's contribution is just

three per cent. There was overconsumption by the people inthe developed word.”

“There are over 800 cars forevery 1000 people in developedcountries while in India thisratio is just 25 cars per 1000people. India's per capitapower consumption is over1000 units while it ranges from10,000 units to 12,000 units indeveloped world.” “We will notbow down to any pressurefrom developed countries onclimate change issues. They hadcommitted USD 100 billionand technology transfer fordeveloping nations for dealingwith climate change issue. Butthat has not happened.”

The minister said Indiadid not sit on the back bench-es during Paris ClimateSummit in 2015 and rather ledfrom the front and inked theimportant agreement. Underthe COP21 Paris agreement,India has committed to reduceits emission intensity of GrossDomestic Product by 33 to 35per cent by 2030 from the 2005level and also achieve 40 percent power generation fromnon-fossil fuel based energyresources by 2030.

Calling the attention ofthe Minister of Environment,Forest and Climate Change,Rewati Raman Singh (SP)sought to know the situation

arising out of climate change inthe country and steps taken bythe government in this regard.

Initiating the discussion,Javadekar said so far, 33 statesand union territories have pre-pared their climate action plan.“India will also work towardscreating an additional carbonsink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnesof carbon dioxide equivalentthrough additional forest andtree cover by 2030.

The minister said emissionintensity of GDP has decreasedby 21 per cent in 2014 as com-pared to 2005 levels, therebyalready achieving our voluntarypre-2020 goal of reducing emis-sion intensity by 20-25 per centfrom 2005 levels by 2020.

Congress leader JairamRamesh said the job of theenvironment minister is not toclear projects but to protect theenvironment. He said if thegovernment was to deal withclimate change, it will have totake some hard decisions andthose decisions may clashsometimes with the ease ofdoing business.

Narendra Jadhav(Nominated) sought to knowthe Centre's strategy to addressthe “big challenge” of climatechange. He said the govern-ment must come out with adetailed strategic plan to com-bat climate change.

New Delhi: Four Swiss bankaccounts of fugitive diaman-taire Nirav Modi, the primeaccused in the �13,400 crorePNB credit fraud case, and hissister have been “frozen” byauthorities in Switzerland aspart of the money launderingprobe being conducted againstthem by the EnforcementDirectorate (ED) here.

Presently, Modi and his sis-ter have deposits worth �283.16crore and they have beenfrozen on the request of the EDafter it informed Swiss author-ities that the money is part ofthe “proceeds of crime” of abank fraud perpetrated by theduo, sources said.

The ED made the requestto the Swiss authorities and hadalso sent an official requestunder the criminal provisionsof the Prevention of MoneyLaundering Act (PMLA), thesources said.

A provisional order forattachment of these fouraccounts, and one more in thename of a company controlledby Modi, was issued by theprobe agency in Mumbai in

September last year. The fiveoverseas accounts then had Rs278 crore in deposits.

While the accounts ofModi, under arrest in this casein London, have deposits ofUSD 3,74,11,596, the accountsin the name of his sister PurviModi has deposits of GBP27,38,136.The total amount isabout �283.16 crore, they said.

The ED will now move forthe seizure and subsequentconfiscation of these bankaccounts under the PMLA.

The ED, along with the CBI,are investigating Nirav Modi, hisuncle Mehul Choksi and othersfor alleged money launderingand corruption respectively todefraud the Brady Housebranch of the PNB in Mumbaito the tune of �13,400 crore.

Modi has been abscondingsince the alleged bank fraud andis houses in a prison in London.The ED has also filed a chargesheet against Nirav Modi alleg-ing that he laundered anddiverted over �6,400 crore ofbank funds abroad to dummycompanies that were under hisand his family's control.

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With no let up in obesity anddiabetes cases in the coun-

try, the Government has decid-ed to help the consumers makehealthier food choices! FoodSafety and Standards Authorityof India (FSSAI) has proposedlabeling of packaged food prod-ucts which are rich in sugar, saltand fat with red colour coding.

In addition to this, thedraft Food Safety and Standards(Labelling and Display)Regulations announced by thetop food watchdog on June 25,2019 proposes, the food man-ufacturers to give details about

allergens as well as print a newlogo for vegetarian food, whichconsists of a green colour-filledtriangle inside a square with agreen outline to enable colour-blind people to know about thenature of the product.

These will replace the FoodSafety and Standards(Packaging and Labelling)Regulations, 2011.

An official in the FSSAIsaid that information on calo-ries (energy), saturated fats,trans-fats, added sugar andsodium per serve should bementioned on the Front of thePack (FoP) according to theregulation. Currently, most ofthe packaged food companies

print nutrition details of thecontents, including their rec-ommended daily values, at theback of the package.

The labels will also declare,per serve percentage contribu-tion to Recommended DietaryAllowance (RDA).

In addition to the FoP label,FSSAI is planning for themandatory red colour coding forproducts which are High in Fat,Sugar and Salt (HFSS), but thiswould be implemented in phas-es over the period of three years.

The new draft regulationhas been brought to encourageconsumers to make healthierfood choices and inform themabout what the product actually

contains. The regulation is outfor suggestions and commentsneed to be submitted within 30days, said the official.

Experts believe that obesi-ty is the major reason fordeveloping different types ofdiabetes mellitus. Severalresearchers have highlightedthat obesity accounts for 80-85per cent of the risk of devel-oping type-2 diabetes.

Latest data released by theWorld Obesity Federation, anorganisations dedicated to solv-ing the problem of obesity,shows that the percentage ofIndian adults living with obe-sity is set to jump to around 5%by 2025, from 3.7% in 2014.

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Congress on Thursdayblamed the Modi

Government for frequentlymisusing provisions ofOrdinances and accused it of“making Lok Sabha as rubber-stamp,

Participating in the debateon the passing of the bill seek-ing to extend the period forreconstitution of the CentralCouncil for Homeopathy(CCH), Adhir RanjanChowdhury, Leader ofOpposition criticized theGovernment for bringing thematter earlier also in Lok Sabhaand giving assurances to theHouse and change the contentsthrough another Ordinance.

“Sometimes it is felt thatthe Government is runningpreferably on the basis ofOrdinances as if it is aGovernment of the Ordinance,by the Ordinance and for theOrdinance. Heavens would nothave fallen upon us had theGovernment waited for a fewmonths. But the Governmentis so impatient about promul-gation of Ordinances that isreally beyond any rationalexplanation,” said Chowdhurypointing on the frequentchanges in Ordinances relatedto Homeopathy Council.

“If this Ordinance issuingis not limited by convention,only to extreme and veryurgent cases, the result may bethat in future, the Governmentmay go on issuing Ordinancesgiving the Lok Sabha no option,but to rubber-stamp the

Ordinances. So, theGovernment should not turnthe Lok Sabha to rubber-stampthe Ordinances,” he said initi-ating resolution against theBill.

Later the House passedBill, rejecting the Opposition'sresolution. The HomoeopathyCentral Council (Amendment)Bill, 2019 will enable the gov-ernment to extend the tenureof the Board of Governors fora further period of one yearwith effect from May 17, 2019.This was the second bill whichwas passed by the newly-con-stituted Lok Sabha after theSpecial Economic Zone

(Amendment) Bill 2019.The Bill, which was moved

by Ayush minister ShripadNaik, will replace the ordinanceissued in this regard by the pre-vious government. Speaking onthe bill, Naik said this billaims to make the council

more efficient and effec-tive. The House also rejectedthe resolution initiated by RSPMP NK Preamachandran.

The affairs of the CentralHomoeopathy Council havebeen entrusted to a Board ofGovernors comprising emi-nent and qualified homoeopa-thy doctors and eminentadministrators till such a time

the council is reconstituted.The tenure has been extendedsince the council could not bereconstituted within one yeardue to non-updation of stateregisters of homoeopathy dur-ing general elections, Naik said.

Manoj Rajoria (BJP) said allPrimary Health Centres (PHCs)should have a homepopathydoctors, a suggestion whichwas initially made byChowdhury. Aparupa Poddar(Trinamool Congress) suggest-ed that a permanentHomeopathy doctor be appoint-ed at Rashtrapati Bhawan clin-ic which was functioning undera contractual system.

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In a move to ensure last mileconnectivity, the Ministry of

Housing and Urban Affairs(MoHUA) has asked the DelhiGovernment to “expedite” itsapproval for procurement of427 metro feeder electric buses.Secretary, MoHUA DurgaShanker Mishra has written toDelhi government ChiefSecretary Vijay Kumar Dev,asking him to intervene in this“important issue.” MoHUA hasstarted focusing on feeder busservices, electric rickshaws,smart cycles (that can be rent-ed out), electric scooter ser-vices, and partnerships withcab aggregators for providinghassle-free last mile connec-tivity to passenger.

In a letter to Dev, Mishrasaid provision of a good feed-er service towards last-mileconnectivity improves modelshift from private transport tomass transit systems like themetro rail.

Delhi Metro had submitteda proposal in January 2018 tothe Delhi government for pro-viding a grant under theViability Gap Funding (VGF)for the purchase of the buses toboost its feeder service. Therequest has been pending sincethen. VGF is a grant to supportprojects that are economicallyjustified but not financiallyviable. It was launched in 2004

to support infrastructure pro-jects that fall under PublicPrivate Partnerships.

He also said the DelhiMetro has informed that it hassubmitted the proposal for pro-viding VGF (Viability GapFunding) for procurement of427 electric buses to GNCTD inJanuary, 2018. Around 329 feed-er bus services have been madeoperational by the MoHUAalready in the national capital.

“The issue has been flaggedby the Delhi Metro with theState Transport Authority(STA) on numerous occasionsand they have provided allnecessary clarification anddetails. STA and Delhi gov-ernment has agreed in-princi-

ple to support the proposal,”Mishra said in the letter.

“I request you (chief sec-retary) to kindly intervene inthis important issue and expe-dite approval of Delhi govern-ment on VGF proposal ofDelhi Metro for procurementof electric buses for last-mileconnectivity,” he said.

According to sources,Mishra said in letter that theproposed procurement of elec-tric feeder buses will not onlyreduce congestion, vehicularpollution and accidents, butalso enhance the ridership ofDelhi Metro.

“DMRC has invited ten-ders for procurement of busesin anticipation of VGF approval

from Delhi government.Tenders for East, West, Southand Central clusters are held upfor want of VGF approval fromDelhi government. The tendersfor North cluster for ShastriPark has been floated,” theUnion Housing and UrbanAffairs secretary said in letter.

Mishra said there are chal-lenges in Delhi which needs tobe addressed squarely to pro-vide easy accessibility to com-muters.

“Each states/union territo-ries must make the metro self-sustaining, enhance other kindsof mass rapid transport sys-tems, such as monorails orbuses, and provide last mileconnectivity, between themetro station and the com-muters' destinations,” officialsof MoHUA said.

The national metro policyhad also aims to enhance metrorail revenues through a feedersystem. “Every proposal formetro rail should necessarilyinclude proposals for feedersystems that help to enlarge thecatchment area of each metrostation at least to 5 km. Last-mile connectivity throughpedestrian pathways, Non-Motorised Transport (NMT)infrastructure, and induction offacilities for para transit modeswill be essential requirementsfor availing any central assis-tance for the proposed metrorail projects,” the policy noted.

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In the backdrop of death ofchildren due to Acute

Encephalitis, TrinamoolCongress member Saugata Royon Thursday demanded theGovernment take steps toimprove condition of state-run hospitals and reduce childdeaths.

Raising the issue of chil-dren deaths in the Lok Sabhaduring Zero Hour, Roy saidinfrastructure in the KalawatiSaran Children's Hospital inthe national capital was notadequate to meet demand ofpatients.

He said about 6,000 childrenhave died in this hospital in thepast six years for various reasonsincluding premature death andrespiratory infections.

He also said that the deathtoll of children due to AcuteEncephalitis Syndrome hasclimbed to 150 in Muzaffarpur.Roy said although the unionhealth minister visited the dis-trict, he has not yet made anystatement in the House.

Raising similar issue,Sanjay Jaiswal from the BJPsaid a virology centre should beset in Paschim Champaranwhich is itself free fromencephalitis though flankedby the regions -Muzaffarpur,Gorakhpur- which are affect-ed by encephalitis

He also said that awarenessprogramme should be under-taken in areas includingPaschim Champaran andGorakhpur.

On other issue relating tothe alleged commissions takenby party workers in WestBengal in the implementationof various governmentschemes, BJP MP SaumitraKhan sought an inquiry intoallegation of funds going intothe chief minister and her fam-ily's account in relation to the“cut money” issue.

Raising the matter duringZero Hour, Khan said theBishnupur-Tarkeshwar rail con-nection has been stalled andaccused the MLAs, ministers,councillors, the chief ministerand the ruling party of demand-ing 'cut money' for the project.

“I demand an inquiry intohow much fund the chief min-ister and her family has earnedfrom this cut money,” Khan said.

Though Khan did not takethe name of Mamata Banerjee,he was apparently referring tothe chief minister's recent warn-ing to her party leaders thatthose involved in taking 'cutmoney' for government schemesand other corrupt practiceswould be put behind bars.

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Abill that seeks to allowtrusts to set up units in spe-

cial economic zones (SEZs) byamending the SEZ law wasapproved by ParliamentThursday, with theGovernment asserting thesezones were an engine of growthand employment. The RajyaSabha gave its nod by a voicevote, a day after the Lok Sabhapassed the Special EconomicZones (Amendment) Bill, 2019.

The Bill will replace theSpecial Economic Zones(Amendment) Ordinance,2019, which was promulgatedin March. The ordinance hadpaved the way for trusts to setup units in these zones.Replying to the debate on theBill, Commerce and IndustryMinister Piyush Goyal said:“This is a small amendmentthat has large impact on invest-ment, job and growth”.

Goyal said the governmentexpects about USD 3 billion,which is around �20,000 croreinvestments annually and jus-tified issuance of ordinancesaying that economic develop-ment cannot stop if some

members or party inParliament create hurdles inpassage of legislations.

The previous governmenthad withdrawn exemptions inincome tax, dividend distribu-tion tax and MAT and becauseof it the SEZ framework facedsome stress, he said, adding thatit left several investors in lurch.

Participating in the debate,D Raja of CPI, sought to cor-ner the government about thetearing hurry to bring the ordi-nance on SEZs. Opposing thebill, TK S Elangovan of DMKalso questioned the urgency topass the ordinance, saying it'san “insult” to Parliament.

AAP member Sanjay Singhwanted to know whether thegovernment has any policies toreturn unutilised land to farm-ers and to provide employment

to local people in SEZs. PBhattacharya (Cong) said bar-ren land should be used forSEZs and not agricultural land.

Naresh Gujral of Akali Dalsupported the bill, saying thecountry needs FDI. But heasked the government to haveconsistent policies to give con-fidence to investors.

While Congress leaderJairam Ramesh asked what thehurry was to bring an ordi-nance on the bill just a weekbefore general elections wereannounced on March 2, 2019,TMC leader Derek O'Briensaid his party grossly opposedSEZs as this business model hasnot worked in India.Supporting the bill, Ram GopalYadav (SP) asked about gov-ernment scrutiny of the trustwhich invest in SEZs.

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Page 6:  · The flight AI 191, escort-ed by UK Royal Air Force’s Eurofighter Typhoon fighter aircraft, landed at the Stansted airport in London around 9.50 am, Air India tweeted. “AI

On June 18, Tabrez Ansari, a 24-year-old Muslim boy, waslynched by a mob inJharkhand’s Kharsawan districton the suspicion of theft. This

is the 11th case of hate crime in the sixmonths of this year. In this week’s column,I will examine what the anatomy of hatecrime is all about. I will attempt to raisesome uncomfortable questions that needanswers. Hopefully, they should press us tothink afresh and take action.

What is hate crime? It can essentiallybe described as a type of behaviour that isspurned or motivated by hatred towards aparticular group. Typical signs of hate crimeare where victims are chosen because oftheir particular identity: Like race, religion,caste and sexual orientation among others.Furthermore, in the case of hate crime, usu-ally, perpetrators have no direct relationshipwith the victims.

Let’s take a look at the circumstancesunder which the Jharkhand incidentoccurred. On June 18, Ansari was tied to apole and was brutally beaten up for hourstogether before being handed over to thepolice. Horrific videos of the attack that havesurfaced show that the mob forced Ansarito chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and ‘Jai Hanuman’repeatedly. These are typical signs of hatecrime. Apologists for the BJP Governmentin Jharkhand and at the Centre may arguethat the mob was unlawfully beating up analleged thief and that this does not mean thata particular community was targetted. Tothese apologists, I want to ask: What justi-fies the action of the mob to ask the victimto chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and ‘Jai Hanuman’?And is it mere coincidence that this lynch-ing incident occurred when chants of ‘Jai ShriRam’ were in focus in Parliament? Or thatit happened in the same month when a per-son was thrown off a train because he refusedto chant ‘Jai Shri Ram?’ The uncomfortableanswer will be that in today’s ‘New India’,whosoever does not fall in the line with theBJP’s and RSS’s limited, macho view of“Hinduism,” will be dealt with by an unpre-dictable rule of the mob.

Who has created this environment forhate crime? In terms of numbers, theGovernment’s own data in 2017 published bythe National Crimes Records Bureau (NCRB)showed that the number of offences promot-ing enmity on communal and racial lineswent up by 41 per cent between 2014 (whenPrime Minister Modi and the BJP were elect-ed for the first time) and 2017. By the way,these numbers published by NCRB do notinclude incidents related to cow slaughter andthose attacked on the suspicion of cowslaughter. If those figures were included, itwould cause further embarrassment to theBJP and bring greater shame on us. Suchnumbers reach alarming proportions whenthere is an environment for its unabatedgrowth.

One way in which such an environment

is created is when there is a viewthat the perpetrators of suchcrimes can escape without pun-ishment. Just take a look at thefact that most of these crimes arerecorded on phones and there-after widely circulated. In aninterview with one such mem-ber of a mob, a reporter recount-ed how it is common to hear theperpetrators of such a crimevideo-tape their act because ofthe notoriety it brings and the“respect” it would gather intheir circles. The video-taping ofsuch incidents shows a brazendisregard or fear of repercussion.Another way in which thisbelief of being above the law isencouraged is when there areclear lapses by individuals inauthority. Such people may bepolice officers or even doctorsserving the Government.

In the case of TabrezAnsari, a few hours after beingbrutally beaten, the policeapparently recorded a “confes-sion” from him. Amazingly,there was not a single lineabout the assault that he wassubject to, even though the actwas recorded by attackers ontheir mobile phones.

Further, it is shocking thatthe police could not use its skillsof perception (or even plainsight) or training to figure outthat Tabrez Ansari had beenbrutally beaten up. All of it doesnot stop here. There is also thecase of the doctor who conduct-ed the initial medical examina-

tion of Tabrez Ansari and foundhim to be “fit” to be thrown inthe jail rather than a hospital.Such frightening degree of neg-ligence treads dangerously onthe thin red line between com-plicity and ignorance.

Some might say that theseare subtle indicators and cannotbe directly attributed to the BJPor the RSS. I mean it is not likea senior leader of the BJP (anda Union Minister) has garland-ed the men accused of lynchinga Muslim on the suspicion ofcow slaughter or that an accusedin a major terrorist attack(which resulted in the death ofMuslims) was fielded as a LokSabha candidate and is current-ly a sitting Member ofParliament. Oops. That’s exact-ly what has happened.

Does the BJP not care ordoes it have no control? Thestatistics highlighted above, thebrazen nature of crimes and theshameless manner in whichthese crimes have been cap-tured on video as also repeat-edly shared by the perpetratorsof heinous crimes indicate oneof the two things: Either the BJPGovernment does not care or ithas no control and has itshands tied. It’s hard to believethat it has no control.

The fact is that the BJP andPrime Minister Modi weregiven a clear majority in 2014and now in 2019, further, themajority of States where thesecrimes have occurred, are ruled

by the party. Therefore, what isthe excuse? Can the BJP explainwhy lynchings related to cowslaughter are currently not clas-sified as hate crimes? Can itexplain why, with a clear major-ity since 2014, no hate crimelaws have been introducedwhere (as was proposed by theCongress in its manifesto) offi-cers, who are found negligent indealing with such crimes, aredealt with firmly? Can the partyexplain why Pragya Thakur, aterror accused and someonewho claimed Nathuram Godsewas a martyr, currently still sitsas the BJP MP from Bhopal?

The Prime Minister’sresponse to the lynching inci-dent has been predictable andstandard. He condemned the actbut it appears his condemnationdoes not hold much weightbecause such crimes are stillhappening. Even with PragyaThakur, Prime Minister Modisaid he would “never forgive”her for the remarks onMahatma Gandhi.

My final question in thispiece is really for all of us: If we,as politicians, journalists, actors,industrialists or as citizens don’tspeak up against powers thathave allowed such injustice tocontinue, are we harmless spec-tators or do we have to live withthe guilt of being part of theproblem?

(The author is president ofJharkhand Pradesh CongressCommittee)

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Sir — India cannot afford to tol-erate the culture of lynching.Mobs have grown accustomed tograbbing individuals suspected ofsome crime and beating them toa pulp, often resulting in deaths.What has made lynching evenmore horrific than fatal mobviolence is the religious tingegiven to it.

In the latest episode of lynch-ing coming in from Jharkhand, ayoung Muslim welder, who hadcome home from his workplacein Pune, was beaten for hours onend on suspicion of stealing amotorcycle. Video clips of thebeating have been circulating onTV/social media, which showmembers of the mob asking himto chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and ‘JaiHanuman’ and the victim com-plying. It was distressing to see hisyoung widow crying.

Remember, soon after PrimeMinister Narendra Modi exhort-ed his MPs to win the trust(sabka vishwas) of the minorities,a Muslim man was slapped by abunch of goons in Gurugram inMay. His ‘crime’? He was wearinga skull cap, which was not“allowed” in the area. He was told

to remove it and forced to chant‘Jai Shri Ram’ and ‘Bharat Mata KiJai’. Such deplorable incidentsbely Modi’s claim that theOpposition is making the minori-ties live in “imaginary fear.” Thefear is palpably real; the apprehen-sion that things might get even

worse for the “other” during theNDA’s second term is notunfounded. The onus is on the topbrass to show zero tolerance tointolerance, lest the dream of anew India turns into a nightmare.

JS AcharyaHyderabad

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Sir — Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)supremo Mayawati’s decision topart ways with the SamajwadiParty (SP) isn’t surprising. In anycase, this is not the first time that

she has dumped an ally. Way backin the 1990s, she abandoned theBharatiya Janata Party (BJP),which was responsible for givingher the first taste of power — shebecame the Chief Minister ofUttar Pradesh three times with theBJP’s support, and each time, sheslammed the door on their face.

One is surely reminded of thePrime Minister’s warning that themahagathbandhan was an oppor-tunistic alliance which would fallapart soon after elections. Indeed,his description of mahamilavatwas rather apt.

Padmini Raghavendra Secunderabad

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Sir — Incidents of mob lynchingthat keep happening time andagain not only portray India in abad light abroad but also insinu-ate political patronage. One won-ders if the perpetrators of suchcrime are punished. There is anurgent need to rekindle terms ofbrotherhood.

UdayVia email

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Chandrayaan-2 is the first mission to themoon’s south pole by the Indian SpaceResearch Organisation (ISRO) as also the

first one to be led by two women — M Vanithaas the project director and Ritu Karidhal as themission director — making it extremely special.Different fields like science, technology, engineer-ing and mathematics all across the world haveacknowledged that women account for the low-est shares world over. And this is a problem. Andin India, these questions receive limited atten-tion. To understand the issue better, we spoke towomen in the tech sector. Conversations withthem revealed that while policies around mater-nity leave and daycare are supportive, the optionto work from home remains dependent on theorganisation and the management. Perceptionsat work about women being skewed — thoughthere is no discernible wage gap among thoseinterviewed — biases are reflected in promotionand pay for which processes are opaque.

Globally, historical dominance of men in thetech space has led to technological developmentsalong particular trajectories. Outcomes includeproducts that are not well-suited to women,including oversized phones, violent video gameswith the portrayal of women not too appealingto many girls and Apple watches that track mul-tiple health outcomes but not menstruation, justto name a few. With more and more women join-ing the labour workforce and with the money tospend, technology companies are missing out ona growing market by continuing to designproducts and services for men and by men.Working in tech offers women multiple oppor-tunities to learn, grow and contribute, makingit imperative to understand the barriers that pre-vent their entry.

Concerns in India differ from those in theWest. In India, women may relatively be moreinvolved with the family and social networks indecisions surrounding work, marriage and fam-ily. This may constrain them from pursuing edu-cation and careers in their desired fields. On theother hand, women in India have access to childcare through family support or hired help, whichis expensive or almost impossible in mostWestern countries. There has been limitedeffort in understanding both the support that thissector extends to women in India and the bias-es they perpetuate.

To understand the experience of women inthe technology sector, we interviewed womenworking as developers, design managers, codersand business analysts. Some of them had workedabroad in the tech sector and offered compara-tive views across environments. The variety ofcompanies and roles provided a diverse under-standing of company policies. According to ourrespondents, policies such as maternity leave anddaycare are functioning well and support womenat work. The Indian law provides for maternitybenefits enviable in the Silicon Valley.

Take for instance, the Maternity Benefit(Amendment) Act was amended in 2017 andextended paid maternity leave from 12 weeks to26 weeks. It also mandated establishments withmore than 50 employees to have a creche forworking mothers. The respondents recorded lit-tle trouble in extending maternity leave, usingthe daycare provisions and were happy with the

period of leave. However, there’s a flip-side, too. Although multinationals andbig Indian firms are better placed to beable to accommodate such policies andabsorb the relevant costs, startups andsmall businesses prefer to hire men overwomen because of the required provi-sion of benefits. Furthermore, workfrom home policies vary across organ-isations and often depend on the dis-cretion of the manager. These policiesare key to providing flexibility toemployees across genders but thewomen we interviewed mentioned thisspecifically as a support mechanismoffered by their organisation.

Research by Nick Bloom, JamesLiang, John Roberts and ZhichunJenny Ying on Ctrip in China showeda 13.5 per cent rise in worker produc-tivity through work from home policiesas employees completed their full shiftof work, thus saving commute time.This translates to about an extra day ofwork every week. With improvementsin digital and mobile technology, com-panies can consider this as a viableoption to improve output and perfor-mance of their teams. A combinationof working from home and workingfrom the office can allow the employ-ees flexibility while also increase pro-ductivity.

Perceptions about women at theworkplace have also affected outcomes.Meredith Brussard in her book,Artificial Unintelligence, describes howaptitude tests were used to select pro-grammers in the 1960s in America,favouring mathematically inclinedmales. As the media continued to por-tray the ideal programmer in this way,the result today is an industry dominat-

ed by men where women and girls donot feel welcomed. ‘Girls Who Code’ isan initiative that is confronting thisstereotype through after-school andsummer computer education for girlsin schools.

In India, perceptions about womenat work are largely negative, with col-leagues and managers believing thatthey put in less effort. A design man-ager reported that despite receiving pos-itive feedback during appraisals, she typ-ically received average-to-below-aver-age ratings and the opaqueness of theappraisal and promotion process did notprovide her with any justification.

A business analyst in one of India’slargest MNCs in the software sectorrevealed that “managers think womenprioritise family more than office andthat mentality of the people is thatwomen work less”. Women reported feel-ing that climbing up the corporate lad-der was harder for them and that theywere not considered for challengingroles. They were of the view that “pro-motions and important appreciationsfavoured men.” Though women in oursample survey did not face wage gap forthe same positions, biases against themappear to be reflected in appraisals, roleallocations and promotions.

Globally, companies have intro-duced pay transparency as a way tocurb the pay gap. Verve, a UK-basedfirm, has worked on driving equity sim-ply by allowing all its employees theaccess to the pay of their bosses, theirpeers and even their CEO. Such initia-tives do not require huge resources butsimply a desire to change. Google hassince its inception aimed at being adiverse workplace and has also focussed

on preferentially hiring women inboth software programming positionsas well as in the top management. IfGoogle can do it, why do other firmshold back?

In terms of using technology toimprove the lives of women, the Billand Melinda Gates Foundation ischanging the lives of women in thedeveloping world by empoweringthem with information and bankingoptions they never had before. Womenin South Asia are 26 per cent less like-ly to own a mobile phone than a manand 70 per cent less likely to use mobileinternet. Mobile phone can empowerwomen and challenge social norms asthey can use the phones to learn andbuild skills, have financial indepen-dence, privacy and access that they arenot otherwise allowed.

The Indian tech industry will standto gain from the talent and enterpriseof women employees by directing tech-nology towards them. Friendlier work-places with supportive policies andcurbing the cultural and social biasesfaced by women colleagues is the needof the hour for organisations to moveahead. Introducing girls to program-ming at an early age and fighting stig-ma around ‘only men’ pursuing suchfields is important. Communities, wherewomen in technology-related fieldspromote and inspire each other, mustbe created. India has immense poten-tial that is yet to be harnessed in the techarea. We need to wake up to this andpush technological innovations in adirection that is all-inclusive for women.

(Aishwarya Giridhar is junior fellowand Megha Patnaik fellow at the Esya Centre)

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Almost one in three childrenin India under five years ofage will still be stunted by

2022 if present trends continue.This worrying revelation was madeearlier this week by the UN WorldFood Programme in collaborationwith the Indian Government’sMinistr y of Statistics andProgramme Implementation afteran analysis of the country’s foodand nutrition security.

Although child stunting, a mea-sure of chronic malnutrition, hascome down, the progress has beenquite slow at an annual rate of aboutone per cent. This means that 31.4per cent of the children will still bestunted by 2022 and India may not

be able to meet its poshan abhiyangoal to bring down stunting of chil-dren from 38.4 per cent in 2015-16to 25 per cent by 2022.

This report states that the poor-est 30 per cent of the Indian pop-ulation consumes an average of1,811 kilo calories. This is muchlower than the 2,155 kilo caloriesrequired everyday. Children haveborne the brunt of this economicinequality. High rates of stuntinghave been recorded among childrenin the poorest wealth quintile (51.4per cent).

In other words, children fromthe marginalised communities donot have equitable access to food.While the rate is 43.6 per centamong children from the ScheduledTribes and 42.5 per cent amongthose from the Scheduled Castes, itis much higher (51 per cent) in chil-dren born to mothers with no edu-cation. It comes as no surprise thatalmost one in two children is stunt-ed in States like Bihar and UttarPradesh. Here, the percentage ofstunted children stands at 48 percent and 46 per cent respectively.

If India is to meet its 2022 tar-get, it needs to double its rate ofprogress. One way to do so is toinvest in high-quality interven-tions, especially in Early ChildhoodDevelopment (ECD) for the 158million children in the 0-6 agegroup. This group comprisesapproximately 13 per cent of theIndian population.

Globally, well-designed inter-ventions targetting this group havealready proven to be a cost-effectiveway of improving outcomes for allchildren, especially the vulnerableand disadvantaged. Since ECDinvolves interventions in health,nutrition, along with early educa-tion, it has the potential to preventstunting.

Maharashtra is one of theStates which showed a remarkabledecline in stunting. There was a sig-nificant reduction of child stuntingby around 15 percentage pointsduring the period 2006-2012. Thiswas possible due to focussed nutri-tion interventions. However, recentdistrict health data seems to suggestthat this progress has since then

reached a plateau. The State hasdecided to address this concernthrough more focussed ECD inter-ventions.

Maharashtra has joined handswith the United NationsInternational Children’s EmergencyFund (UNICEF) to launch aresponsive care-giving programmein 18 blocks in four districts andcovers 2,559 anganawadi centres inthe tribal, rural and urban areas inPalghar, Yavatmal, Aurangabad andPune. Under this responsive care-giving programme, children in the0-3 age group are monitoredthrough home visits as well as at theanganwadi by workers and theirhelpers.

Additionally, a meeting ofmothers is held every month toteach better care-giving and buildtheir knowledge on nutrition,health and cognitive skills.

For the 3-6 year age group, thefocus is on improving skills andeducation at the anganwadi centrethrough the specially developedAakar Early Childhood Education(ECE) programme. Here, too, a

monthly mothers’ meeting is heldto ensure engagement with thechild’s mental and physical devel-opment.

Importantly, the State-wideAakar ECE curriculum is specific toMaharashtra. Designed by the Stateand UNICEF to suit children in theage group of 3-6 years, this is morecontextual to the State. While it isbased on the National EarlyChildhood Care and Education(ECCE) Policy, the Aakar curricu-lum has been developed keeping thelocal culture and needs in mind.

The Anganwadi Worker(AWW) being the key to the suc-cess of this intervention, theircapacity-building as well as that ofthe Child Development ProjectOfficer (CDPOs) and anganwadisupervisors was first carried out.Training on early childhood educa-tion methodologies and develop-mental milestones as well as stim-ulation therapy for brain develop-ment of children were underlinedbecause the brain makes 700 synap-tic connections per second afterbirth and grows to 80 per cent of its

weight before three years. Equally important has been

improving their communicationskills to counsel mothers on theimportance of ECD in preventingstunting, especially in blocks wherefemale literacy is poor.

In Palghar, a primarily tribalblock, the programme is beingimplemented by Save the Childrenin collaboration with its local part-ner Grammangal. Getting themothers here to see anganwadis asa place for learning and growth,(both mental and physical), and notmerely for take-home rations andmid-day meals is still a work-in-progress in a district plagued bymalnutrition of children.

Helping take this forward hasbeen the low-cost teaching-learn-ing aids developed by Grammangalwhich AWWs and mothers canmake from locally available mate-rial to promote learning and devel-op diverse cognitive competencies.The process is slow but wherethere is will, there is always a way.

(The writer is a senior journalist)

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The Government Thursdayset up an 18-member

working group for the revisionof the current series ofWholesale Price Index.

The revision of the baseyear would help in presentinga more realistic picture of theprice situation and its impacton people.

The commerce and indus-try ministry in a statement saidthe current series of WholesalePrice Index (WPI) with 2011-12 as base year was introducedin May 2017.

Since 2011-12, significantstructural changes have takenplace in the economy, it said.

“Therefore, it has becomenecessary to examine the cov-

erage of commodities, weightingdiagram and related issues per-taining to the existing series ofindex numbers of WPI,” it said.

Accordingly, it said, thegovernment has constituted aworking group for the revisionof current series of WPI(Base2011-12) under Chairmanshipof Ramesh Chand, Member,Niti Aayog.

The other members arefrom National Statistical Office,Ministry of Finance,Department of Agriculture,RBI and Department ofConsumer Affairs.

The Department forPromotion of Industry andInternal Trade will be the nodaloffice for the group and willprocess its report/recommen-dation for further necessary

action.The Terms of Reference of

the group include selecting themost appropriate Base Yearfor the preparation of a newofficial series of Index Numbersof (WPI and Producer PriceIndex (PPI) in India.

The group will also reviewcommodity basket of the cur-rent series of WPI and suggestadditions/deletions of com-modities in the light of struc-tural changes in the economywitnessed since 2011-12.

It will also review the exist-ing system of price collection inparticular for manufacturingsector and suggest changes forimprovement, to decide on thecomputational methodologyto be adopted for monthlyWPI/PPI.

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Shanghai AutomotiveIndustrial Corporation

(SAIC) on Thursdayannounced the price of theirnew Sports Utility Vehicle, theMG Hector. The large SUV isthe first foray by a Chinese car-maker into India and will besold under the formerly British‘MG’ brand. The Hector isbeing manufactured by SAIC atthe former General Motorsplant in Halol, Gujarat and willfeature two engine options, a

1.5-litre turbocharged petrolwith 143PS of power and a 2-litre diesel with 170PS of power.The petrol variant will be avail-able as a manual with and with-out a 48-volt ‘mild hybrid’option as well as a dual-clutchautomatic. The diesel will beavailable with only a six-speedmanual gearbox and there willbe four specification levels forthe car. Prices will range from�12.18 lakh to �15.88 lakh forthe manual petrol versions,�15.28 lakh to �16.68 lakh forthe automatic versions and�13.18 lakh to �16.88 lakh forthe diesel variants.

However, MG MotorIndia, managing Director,Rajeev Chaba made it clear

that these prices are just intro-ductory prices but will be validfor some time, he also said thatthe MG Hector has receivedover 10,000 bookings sincethe start of June. As the car isthe first foray by a Chinesemanufacturer into the hyper-competitive into the Indian carmarket MG Motor has a slewof incentives for buyers includ-ing a five-year unlimited war-ranty for private owners, anassured buyback price at 60 percent of the selling price afterthree years as well as compre-hensive ownership packages.Chaba said that the Hector willhave the lowest ownershipcosts of any vehicle in the �10-20 lakh range.

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BMW Motorrad, the two-wheeler division of the

German automotive manufac-turer on Thursday launched thelatest version of the S1000RRSuperbike in India with actorShahid Kapoor rising in withthe first motorcycle. TheS1000RR features a 999cc four-cylinder inline engine withvariable valve timing and otherinnovative features that allowthe motorcycle to produce apeak power of 207horsepowermaking it one of the mostpowerful two-wheelers to evergo on sale in India. TheS1000RR will come in threevariants and prices start at�18.5 lakh and go up to �22.95lakh for the variant with the M-Sport kit which has severalweight-saving improvements.

Speaking to The Pioneer,Dmitris Raptis, Head of Asia-Pacific, BMW Motorrad saidthat he expected sales to

increase dramatically in Indiain 2019. “For one, this will bethe first full year we will havethe 310-series available. In2018 we sold 2187 units but the310 series has been a huge suc-cess. We are expanding from 11dealerships to 16 dealerships inIndia which I feel is a sustain-able level of growth.”

Raptis also made clear thatBMW Motorrad is working onelectrification he does not seethe cost of electric two-wheel-ers going down significantly. “Ifeel it will be four-wheelers thatwill go electric first and drivecosts lower. But there is no

doubt that electrification willhappen.” He added that BMWMotorrad is very happy withtheir production partnershipwith TVS Motors, the Indianmanufacturer produces the310-series of motorcycles forBMW at their Hosur plant inTamil Nadu but he did clarifythat there are no additionaljoint projects between BMWand TVS in the near future.“We have some gaps in ourproduct portfolio, we do nothave anything between the310’s and our F750, but we areconstantly evaluating newopportunities.”

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The TE Rig on Thursday showcased products covering gam-ing, ICT, home & living categories — each bearing the hall-

mark of Taiwan Excellence.Taiwan Excellence’s Mobile Showroom named TE Rig that

will cruise to different parts of India giving people the chanceto lay their hands on some path-breaking technology. The TERig was flagged off from DLF Promenade Mall in New Delhi andwill travel for 90 days covering 61 cities in 12 states

Taiwan Excellence is an initiative by Taiwan External TradeDevelopment Council (TAITRA) to assist Taiwan businesses &manufacturers in reinforcing their international competitiveness.

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The Indian rupee pared ini-tial losses and closed 8

paise higher at 69.07 against theUS currency on Thursday, sup-ported by easing crude oilprices and weaker greenback.

However, the rupee move-ment was confined to a narrowrange as forex traders took acautious approach ahead ofthe G20 Summit, which is tak-ing place amidst ongoing US-China trade tiff and rising ten-sions in the Middle East,according to experts.

At the interbank foreignexchange (forex) market, thedomestic currency opened at69.29 a dollar and touched alow of 69.32 and a high of 69.07during the day.

The local unit finally closedat 69.07 against the Americancurrency, up 8 paise over itsprevious close.

On Wednesday, the rupeehad settled at 69.15 against theUS dollar.

Brent crude futures, theglobal oil benchmark, fell 0.99per cent to trade at $65.83 perbarrel.

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Money parked by Indianindividuals and enter-

prises in Swiss banks, includingthrough India-based branches,fell by nearly 6 per cent in 2018to 955 million Swiss francs(about �6,757 crore) to hit itssecond-lowest level in over twodecades, Swiss National Bankdata showed Thursday.

Aggregate funds of all for-eign clients of Swiss banks alsofell by over 4 per cent to CHF1.4 trillion (nearly �99 lakhcrore) in 2018, as per the annu-al banking statistics released by

the Zurich-based central bank-ing authority of Switzerland.

However, the ‘locationalbanking statistics’ of the Bank forInternational Settlement (BIS),which the Indian and SwissGovernments had said last yearwas a more reliable measure fordeposits by Indian individuals inSwiss banks, showed a greaterfall of 11 per cent for 2018.

According to the SNB, itsdata for ‘total liabilities’ ofSwiss banks towards Indianclients takes into account allkinds of funds of Indian cus-tomers at Swiss banks, includ-ing deposits from individuals,

banks and enterprises. Thisincludes data for branches ofSwiss banks in India, as alsonon-deposit liabilities.

The funds, described bythe SNB as ‘liabilities’ of Swissbanks or ‘amounts due to’ theirclients, are the official figuresreported by the banks and donot indicate the quantum of themuch-debated alleged blackmoney held by Indians there.

The official SNB figuresalso do not include the moneythat Indians, NRIs or othersmight have in Swiss banks inthe names of entities from dif-ferent countries.

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Sending out a tough messageto the terrorists active in the

state of Jammu and Kashmir,Union Home Minister AmitShah Thursday directed secu-rity forces to adopt 'zero toler-ance' towards terrorism andterrorists.

Winding up his two daylong visit, Shah also emphasisedon continued strict actionagainst terror funding andstrictly enforcing 'rule of law inthe state.

Referring to rising numberof corruption cases, he direct-ed the state government totake steps to ensure that thenewly created Anti-CorruptionBureau focuses on cases oframpant corruption by the'High and Mighty'.

While chairing reviewmeeting related to prepara-tions for the Shri AmarnathjiYatra, the Union HomeMinister directed all securityagencies to be fully alert andtake all preventive steps toensure violence free Yatra.

He directed top bosses of

these security agencies thatthere should be no laxity in theenforcement of the StandardOperating Procedures (SOPs).

"Senior officers should per-sonally supervise the arrange-ments at all levels. Forces should

ensure best possible optimumuse of latest technologies andthe gadgets not only for thesecurity of the yatra but also tofacilitate the movement of thedevotees and the tourists" headded. He specifically drew

attention of the forces towardsanti-sabotage as well as anti-subversion drills and the accesscontrol procedures.

Appreciating the whole-hearted cooperation of thepeople of the state in success-

ful conduct of the yatra, theUnion Home Minister reas-sured his commitment towardsbest possible arrangements.

During his first visit to thestate, Shah held a number ofmeetings with officials to assess

the security scenario in thestate,and provide good gover-nance in the state. He alsointeracted with a representativegroup of Sarpanches from thestate to gain an insight into thecurrent state of functioning ofPanchayats in the state. Duringthe visit, the Union HomeMinister also visited the homeof the martyred Inspector ofJ&K Police, Arshad Khan.

The Union Home Ministerpraised the work of J&K Policein countering terrorism andmilitancy and directed thatthe state government shouldcommemorate the martyrdomof its policemen in their home-towns/ villages in an appropri-ate manner each year.Prominent public places shouldalso be named after martyredpolicemen.

The meetings in Srinagarwere attended by theGovernor,Satya Pal Malik,Union Home Secretary,RajivGauba all four Advisors, theChief Secretary and senior offi-cials of the State and CentralGovernments, of SecurityAgencies and the Armed Forces.

Jammu: A joy ride planned bystudents via Mughal roadturned out to be their lastjourney as tempo traveller inwhich they were travellingveered off the hilly road nearPeer Ki Gali in South Kashmir'sShopian district leading todeath of at least 11 students,including nine girls onThursday. Seven other stu-dents received serious injuriesand were rushed to the nearbyhospital for medical treatment.

The students were enrolledin a private computer institutein Surankote area of Poonchand were moving towardsKashmir valley when they metwith a fatal accident.

Police said, "Tempo travellerbearing registration number JK-12-3475 reportedly overturnedand fell in to a deep gorge nearLal Ghulam Bridge area of PeerKi Gali on Thursday".

Soon after the mishap tookplace, locals and policelaunched a rescue operationand evacuated all thoseonboard the vehicle to DistrictHospital Shopian.

Additional DeputyCommissioner ShopianMohammad Saleem Malikconfirmed death of 11 personsand injuries to seven otherswho he said have been shiftedto SMHS hospital. PNS

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))�������������������������������+������5�� Itanagar: The Arunachal

Pradesh State Commission forWomen (APSCW) Thursdaydemanded that registration ofmarriages be made compulso-ry in the State.

Commission's chairpersonRadhilu Chai along with vice-chairperson Heyomai Towsikand members Hoksum Ori,Likha Joya and Techi Hunmaiduring a meeting with ChiefMinister Pema Khandu saidhundreds of cases related tomarriage come to the APSCW.

"Due to lack of any regis-tration, husband-wife disputesremain unresolved or partial-ly resolved," she said and urgedthe government to come upwith a feasible act under whichall marriages are registered, anofficial release said.

The Commission alsoexpressed grave concern overthe menace of drug-addictionamong the youths of the state.

It requested the chief min-ister to keep provisions in thebudget for establishment ofdrug rehabilitation centres andjuvenile observation homeswith proper facilities and man-power in the state.

"The upcoming generationneeds attention and care fromthe state government or elsedrug addiction would wipethem out," the APSCW mem-bers said. PTI

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Some prominent members ofBengal civil society who on

Thursday travelled deep into theby-lanes of Bhatpara a veritablewar zone north off Kolkatacompared the BJP and theTrinamool Congress with vul-tures preying on the innocentpeople.

Among those who con-demned the two parties —mutually engaged in a bloodydogfight for political suprema-cy in Bengal — were film per-sonalities Aparna Sen, KaushikSen, Chandan Sen and painterWasim Kapoor. Others likedramatist RudraprasadSengupta, poet Sankha Ghoshsupported them from Kolkata.

The intelligentsia’s visit tothe area and their commentbecomes significance againstthe backdrop of the ongoingbloody battle between the twoparties in Bhatpara-Jagaddal-Naihati area in North 24Parganas. The post poll violenceon daily basis have claimed atleast half-a-dozen lives in thisarea which falls under theBarrackpore parliamentary con-stituency from where BJPstrongman Arjun Singh defeat-ed TMC’s sitting MP DineshTrivedi. Incidentally Singh him-self a Mamata Banerjee loyalistand a sitting MLA for yearsturned coat ahead of the elec-tions after he was denied aTMC ticket by the ChiefMinister.

After visiting the area forhours in a sweltering sun actor-director Aparna Sen said, “Wevisited the lanes and by-lanes ofthe area and found that the com-mon people are the real victimsof the on-going turf war betweenthe two parties…. We spoke tothe old, the young the women,the children alike and all have

expressed their deep anguishand grudge against both the par-ties who are fighting like vulturesliterally for area domination.”

Kaushik Sen a multipleaward winning actor who alongwith Aparna Sen and manyother intellectual leaders of thesociety had taken active part inMamata Banerjee’s Nandigrammovement that eventuallybrought the Marxist rule downin 2011 said “the people seem tohave lost confidence on thepoliticians and have reposedfaith in the present

Police CommissionerManoj Verma who is trying tohandle the situation impartial-ly,” reminding Verma known forhis impartiality was broughtinto the scene very late.

Attacking both the partiesfor turning Bengal into a com-munal battle field they said “ourState and particularly Bhatparahad never witnessed such com-munal clashes before. Here boththe Hindus and Muslims haveconfided in us that they are com-pletely in peace with each otherbut it is the politicians who areinciting communal disturbance.”

On whether they wouldsubmit a report to the adminis-tration they tended to makeloaded statements saying, “wewill submit a report to theGovernor who is on a neutralposition as also the ChiefMinister who we will approachas a person different fromMamata Banerjee the chief of apolitical party.”

Even as the civil societywalked for peace meeting hun-dreds of poor people at Bhatparaand the neighbouring areas, theTMC and the BJP fought yetanother bloody battle at Gurapin Hooghly where alleged chant-ing of Jai Shri Ram by some BJPsupporters, led to a skirmishbetween the two parties.

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A25-year-old man from Rewa district ofMadhya Pradesh who went missing four

years ago is reportedly lodged in a jail inPakistan, the police said Thursday.

The Union Ministry of Home Affairsrecently got in touch with state police to veri-fy his details, the official added.

The photo and other details provided by theUnion ministry matched with the profile of AnilKumar, the missing man, Rewa Superintendentof Police Abid Khan told PTI.

Kumar went missing from villageChhadanhai on January 3, 2015, and a policecomplaint was lodged by his family.

"We don't know how he landed inPakistan. We only got the Ministry of HomeAffair's letter inquiring about the person," theSP said.

Kumar's father Buddhsen Saket appealedPrime Minister Narendra Modi to bring his sonback.

"I appeal Modi-ji to help my son so that hecomes home. I believe that Modi-ji helps all andhe will help me too," Saket told reporters.

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After a video of two inmatesflashing a country-made

pistol at the Uttar Pradesh'sUnnao jail went viral on socialmedia, the Samajwadi PartyThursday termed the incidentan "open challenge" to ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath.

The party alleged the jailsin the state were in the “pock-et” of criminals.

"Uttar Pradesh ki jail mekuch bhi ho sakta hai. Unnaojail se mukhyamatri ko khulachallenge. Raebareli jail melag rahi kaidi ki adalat.Apradhiyon ki jeb me mukhya-mantri ki jail! (Anything canhappen in UP jails. It's anopen challenge to the CMfrom the Unnao jail. In the RaeBareli jail, criminals are hold-ing a court. The CM's jail is inthe pocket of criminals),” theparty said in a tweet.

Commenting on the issue,party spokesman SharvendraBikram Singh said criminalruled the roost in the jail.

In the video that went viralon social media, two inmateswere seen flashing a country-made pistol, prompting thestate government to initiateaction against four officials ofthe Unnao district jail.

The UP HomeDepartment, however,

Wednesday came up with abizarre clarification, saying thepistol was made of "clay" andlooked real as one of the twoinmates was a "good painter".

The video of the inmates-- Amrish and Gaurav PratapSingh, alias Ankur-- was cir-culated on social media on June23 and the state governmenthad termed the entire sequenceof events serious.

Additional DirectorGeneral (Prisons) AnandKumar had said, "In the probe,it was found that the incidenttook place in collusion withsome jail officials to put pres-sure on the jail administra-tion."

"Head Jail Warders MataPrasad and Hemraj and JailWarders Awadhesh Sahu andSaleem Khan have been foundcolluding with the inmates.Action is being initiated againstthem as per rules," he had said,adding that the video datedback to February.

"Inmate Amrish wasbrought to the Unnao jail fromMeerut, while Gaurav wastransferred from Lucknow," hesaid.

In a statement, the HomeDepartment said, "During theprobe, it was found that Gauravis a very good painter and thepistol shown in the video ismade of clay."

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BSP president MayawatiThursday said the incidents

of crime on communal andcaste lines in the BJP-ruledstates are "defaming" the entirecountry and even embarrassesthe prime minister.

Her reaction came after thealleged lynching of TabrezAnsari in the BJP-governedJharkhand and some othersimilar incidents elsewhere inthe recent past.

Ansari was thrashed by amob for alleged theft on June18 and a video had emergedwhich purportedly showed thathe was forced to chant "Jai ShriRam" and "Jai Hanuman" inJharkhand's SaraikelaKharsawan district.

"Why are the BJP govern-ments allowing crimes of com-munal frenzy and casteismwhich are not only defamingthose states, but also the entirecountry and even embarrassesthe prime minister," Mayawatitweeted.

"As of now, police and gov-ernment officials are also at thereceiving end of this new prob-lem," the BSP president said.

In another tweet, shetermed as "embarrassing" theNiti Aayog report on HealthIndex under which UttarPradesh has remained at thebottom.

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Even as the Left and theCongress put humiliating

conditions to her Wednesday’sfriendship proposals BengalChief Minister MamataBanerjee on Thursday retracedher steps saying she was mis-understood by the media as shehad only suggested forming asocial pressure group against anaggressive BJP and not of anypolitical alliance with the twoparties.

The Chief Minister had onWednesday told in the StateAssembly that the CPI(M) andthe Congress should join handswith her in her fight against thecommunal forces only to besummarily snubbed by boththe parties.

Banerjee in a letter read outto the media on Thursday saidshe had “not spoken aboutany alliancebut I hadonly spo-ken about asocial pres-sure groupfrom all thep a r t i e sincluding the Left and theCongress against the BJP.”

The Chief Minister’s clarifi-cations came hours before polit-ical strategist Prashant Kishorevisited her for the second timein a month and almost in tan-dem with senior BJP leaderMukul Roy welcoming heralliance initiative saying, “her callfor CPI(M) and Congress’ sup-port only proves her own polit-ical bankruptcy. It proves thatthe BJP and not the TMC is theparty number one in Bengal.”

Roy further said thatBanerjee’s alliance initiativewill in the final run help theBJP. “The TMC like the Leftwill become a thing of the pastin Bengal. The day is not faraway,” he said.

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Who is the singer with the max-imum fan following? TaylorSwift? Beyoncé? Or is it Justin

Bieber? Well, the answer is Exo, a nine-member boy band formed in 2012, whohave been called by some “the kings ofK-Pop” or Korean pop. Does the veryidea leave you flabbergasted? Then justlook at the figures. In 2018 Swift, withher 85 million followers, averaged around91,000 Twitter mentions per week.Beyoncé saw almost three times asmany weekly mentions as other artistswith similar reach. Bieber saw close to390,000 hits. But Exo, which averaged 24million, and another Korean band calledBTS, which clocked over 36 million men-tions in a week, were bonafides enoughto establish the legitimacy of K-Pop vis-a-vis English, a language which is clear-ly understood by more of the world pop-ulation than Korean. Add to it the factthat “Dalla Dalla, I Love Myself,” thatreleased in February this year by Itzy, aKorean girl band, logged in 17.1 millionviews in 24 hours! Korean bands like BigBang, which is credited with the successof making Korean music internationalwith Got7, has now even released theirJapanese single Love Loop.

And because the Korean popstars areyoung, they have addressed the youthdemographic in most countries, especial-ly the multi-cultural ones in south andsoutheast Asia. That has generated inter-est in other things Korean — films,music, dramas and web series. Indianyoungsters are addicts no less and stu-dents in Delhi are even participating inK-pop contests. K-pop bands may nowjust cut an Indian single.

$�&��������IWith the proliferation of internet and

social media, people are naturally will-ing to explore other cultures. But whatcatches young people’s fancy are visualimagery, relatable lyrics and a fusion ofgenres. The visual sheen, with graphic-rich videos and bright-coloured outfitsfor both men and women, are in syncwith a generation that talks in emoji lan-guage. The music videos are a mix ofVFX, animation and other such tools, theappeal of which is not difficult to under-stand among the techno-trained gener-ation that loves TikTok and Instagram.

The lyrics, because the beats are shortand snappy, are easy to learn and com-prehend. Besides, they come with socialmessages, particularly addressing thechallenges of youth. “Nowadays, thelyrics of popular K-pop bands carry a

healing message for a troubled genera-tion, encouraging them not to give up onlife and helping them gain confidenceand fighting spirit”, says Kim Kum-Pyoung, director, Korean CulturalCentre. Some songs even address men-tal illness in an open and honest man-ner. Others call for leading meaningfullives as an ode to the YOLO (You OnyLive Once) culture. Some even call forushering in a “girl’s generation.” BTS, aseven-member boy band from SouthKorea, is topping popularity charts onlybecause it is talking about the competi-tive pressures of an education system,drug abuse and performance pressure.“This is helping them garner attentionfrom overseas as well. Their messages ofconfidence and self-love have impacted

youth a lot. The lyrics are strong and peo-ple easily get a hang of them,” saysDevyanshi Agarwal, a K-pop enthusiastand blogger. “K-pop is not just upbeatmusic, they have ballads too. It acts as amedium of connecting those who do notspeak the language,” says Tarun Singh

Rana from Sejong, South Korea.The music is a mix of pop, hip-hop,

EDM and many other genres, creating amatrix for universal acceptability.Besides, K-pop artists, by virtue of tak-ing part in dares in reality TV shows,build an immediacy of connect.

�������������Most K-pop bands have a linear con-

nect between all of their performancesand albums, making them almost co-travellers in a journey called life. It is alive evolution in progress as it were,something which is not usual in anyother performing arts. “This blend ofperforming arts disciplines is also the rea-son why K-pop bands not only focus onsinging but emphasise dancing skills

equally,” adds Kim. “Some fans realisedlately that they release each of theiralbums on a solar or lunar eclipse. Isn’tthis cool?”, asks Aeshal Fatima, a Delhi-based fan. She loves Black Pink, an all-girls’ band, which is another globalobsession because of hip hop beats andcatchy English lines.

������%�����Referring to the increasing number

of participants and enthusiastic fanclubs at the Korean Cultural Centre,Kim says, “Indians are riding the Koreanwave, which has grown over time. Anincreasing response from India hasenhanced the participation of K-popstars here.”

Sakshi Mishra, one of the learnersat the K-pop Academy at KCC, who hasrecently enrolled herself, shares her stint.“It has been an amazing experience asI have made a lot of friends throughcommon interests. We are gettingtrained by teachers from Korea. Beforejoining the academy, I used to danceocassionally like a hobby but now I havesharper moves, the landings are on-point and in sync with the music.”

The Triple Seven group, a partici-pant at the contest, says, “It helped usdevelop confidence and internationalstandards. The exposure it offers can-not be measured.” Feebe from SouthKorea, who has been a participant at thefestival since last year, says, “It is alwaysgreat to come to this small familywhere love stems for K-pop. It is a goodway to celebrate the passion everyonehas towards the Korean industry. Thisyear has been much better than the pre-vious ones.”

Sakshi adds, “There are manyyoungsters rising to prominencethrough this genre in the country, sim-ply because it is clutter-breaking. Hence,I chose this beat.” The participants forK-pop competitions have increasedfrom 764 (2017) to 3,475 (2019). Amongother artists, Priyanka Mazumdar andSiddhant Arora are the first Indian K-pop stars, being launched as membersof two new groups, Z-Girls and Z-Boys,respectively. Over the last few months,BTS has had various screenings acrosscities. The increasing number of foot-falls with every screening, overwhelm-ing responses from youngsters andrecent visits by K-pop stars KyuhyunMinho, Jonghyun, Sunggyu and Suhohave only legitimised K-pop as a culturemarker of Delhi’s youth.

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Ever been bullied during your teenage years?Or skipped school due to the fear of fellow

students teasing you for certain things you own?Or singled out for your body size, shape or sex-uality? Bullying has been the premise of sever-al films and filmmakers have adopted innova-tive approaches to showcase this theme.Filmmaker Vandana Kataria’s Noblemen imag-inatively uses the Shakespearean play Merchantof Venice as an inspiration.

Set in a boarding school, the film talks aboutbullyism in the context of the persecution of theplay’s antagonist Shylock. In a story within storyformat, the angst-ridden students actually enactthe play as part of a school event. Fifteen year-old Shay (played by Ali Haji), becomes the vic-tim of grotesque bullying. But in a role rever-sal, he plays Antonio, particularly the sequencewhere the anti-Semitic merchant indulges in irra-tional bullying and criticism of Shylock, who isa Jew in a predominantly Catholic set-up.Perhaps, this is his way of understanding andanalysing the source of hatred. The filmmakerhas also touched upon homosexuality, usingthe male bonding of Antonio and Bassanioas a takeoff point. There is a scene in thefilm where actors Kunal Kapoor and AliHaji indulge in a fleeting kiss. Is theircloset passion the reason why they fireguns at Shylock? Is it a clash of sub-cultures then? Such questions, Katariafeels, “may help us be more tolerant ofeach other. With the digital boom inentertainment, there is space tohave mature conversations aroundthese subjects and issues.”

The director, who hasdonned several hats as a produc-tion designer, an assistant direc-tor and now as a filmmaker, hasspent her academic life in aboarding school and has seenbullying up front. She says,“During that time, 1983 to 94 tobe precise, bullying was bad, notjust here but in British and Americanones as well. These mostly tookplace in boys’ schools. There’s amoment in the trailer, where the bul-lies threaten the protagonist in thebathroom with a fork down histhroat, which is drawn from myown experiences.”

The concept of revenge iswoven into the script when Shayfinds himself unable to endure thebullying and decides to avenge hismistreatment. Upon questioningwhether she thought that herconcept of revenge and retribu-tion would be twisted, Katariareplies, “Of course. And which is pre-cisely why Noblemen’s end is what itis. I did not want to give the audiencethe romanticised version of revenge,where they feel happy and satisfiedthat the underdog eventually got hisrevenge even if that came from aheinous act of violence.” The conclu-sion of the film explores how the vic-tim had to barter his innocence toavenge his mistreatment. “The filmis a Shakespearean story with a tragic

end. It is a tale where monsters, who are leftunobserved, create bigger monsters in theprocess,” says Kataria. It deals with the darkestcorners of a mind, the vulnerability that is anoffshoot of bullying, she adds.

The constant battle between being satisfiedwith your art and being a ruthless self-critic isinevitable for creative minds. Kataria, who wasa production designer for Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye,Shanghai and a second unit director for Gully

Boy, is, therefore, able to easily spot gaps.While as a production designer, she lit-

erally created every prop with her ownhands, as a director, she says, “I haveto let go of that and let the crew dotheir job. Most importantly, I learntthat I always want to work with a

crew that is better than me at the job,so I can learn from them and keep get-

ting better at my work.” She addsthat this was an extremely hum-bling experience for her as com-pared to her work as a produc-tion designer. “The learningswere numerous.”

She says that she is notsure if the audience will buyinto her cerebral take on

things. But she believes in herlanguage of communication.She says, “I am nervous andexcited at the same time toknow what the verdict will be.People are always strongly affect-ed by the film. You can’t watchthis one passively, you will have

a strong reaction to it, good orbad.”

Despite the crest and troughsin an industry as arduous asBollywood, the creative freedomit grants is notable. That is howKataria found herself in theshoes of a filmmaker and afterthe commercial release of the

film, she will have another oneaccredited to her name. She humbly

shares that she has not yet made a com-fortable home in the director’s shoes. She

says, “I am always anxious, I never knowhow, till I get there.” And what is the advice

she would bequeath to a fellow debut direc-tor? She answers, “You’ve got to have

doggedness, you can’t survive without it. Addto that, child-like enthusiasm to explore

something new. If you’ve got thesetwo qualities, the rest can be learnt.”

(The film releases today.) ����@� ��"�=�4!��

Irecently found myself asking apeculiar question to some of my fel-

low motoring scribes, “Do you real-ly care about the type of automatic thatyou drive?” Of course, they do,because they, like myself, are constant-ly bombarded with information aboutthe different types of automatic trans-missions. But then when I changed thequestion and made it, “Does the aver-age Indian car buyer really care aboutthe type of automatic he or shebuys?” I mean to say the normalbuyer, not the nerd who knows morethan I do about any car, down to theexact gear ratios, which frankly is awaste of brain space unless you arestudying engineering. Do you carewhether your car is a AMT, CVT,DCT or a good old torque convert-er? As long as the gear selector has thatregular P-R-N-D setting, unless ofcourse you are in a Maruti Auto GearShift (AGS), which is their version ofan Automated Manual Transmission(AMT) and where the N vanishes.Most folks really do not know whatsort of automatic they are driving.

The reason I am bringing up thistopic is because several much-antic-ipated new launches, the HyundaiVenue, Jeep Compass Trailhawk andMG Hector, have installed Dual-Clutch Transmissions (DCT) or if youare a Volkswagen Group car, DSGwhich stands for Direkt-Schalt-Getriebe, but in essence is the samething. Basically, a dual-clutch systemhas two clutches, one for off-num-bered gears and one for even-num-bered gears, meaning that one clutchis already primed for the next gear, sogear shifts are measured in milli sec-onds. But as many erstwhile Skodaowners know all too well, such gear-boxes are also quite fragileand even though theVolkswagen groupdid get its DSG acttogether, and theboxes installedin the Polo andVento aredownright stu-pendous, theyare expensive.Ford, for exam-ple, actuallychanged from aDCT gearbox inthe first-genera-tion EcoSport to aregular Torque Converter on theupdated EcoSport.

DSG and DCT transmissionsare expensive, but manufacturingadvances have made them cheaper,which is one reason for their suddenpopularity. And there is no doubt thatlightning fast gear-changes can makefor exhilarating driving, particularlywhen a DCT is coupled with a pad-dle-shifter for manual changes. Youpress the paddle and the gear changesinstantaneously. Believe me no mat-ter how good you might think yourhand-eye-foot coordination is, youcannot shift as fast as a DCT. Mybiggest problem with DCT gearbox-es is what I would call ‘Gear Bloat.’ Fartoo many cars have eight, nine andeven ten gears. I’m not a fan of six-speed manual gearboxes, one gear toomany for urban conditions, but I havesomehow made peace with seven-speed automatic boxes. But that ten-speed gearbox I drove on a Ford F-150truck in America, nope, not a fan eventhough the engineering is awesome.

And then there is the AMT, theAGS system on Maruti’s and also nowfitted on the Santro, some Mahindraand Tata cars as well. These werecalled ‘semi-automatic’ gearboxes inthe 1980s because that is what theyare. Early AMT cars had languid, lazygear changes and you needed tolearn how to throttle the car, but theseare cheap and reliable gearboxes eventhough there are some reports of thesenot ageing well. But then again, theyremove the clutch and because theyare effectively manual transmissions,fuel economy is decent and costs aremanageable. After all, a DCT evenwith prices coming down costs muchmore than a AMT. However, carmak-ers have on the whole not gonedown the AMT route for more expen-

sive vehiclesbecause

the slow shifts are not ideal for heav-ier and more powerful vehicles.

Then there are traditional torque-converter automatic gearboxes. Thereare quite a few cars with such boxes,including the EcoSport and the Creta.These boxes earlier had a limitednumber of gears, sometimes as few asthree but manufacturing advanceshave made six-speed automatics quitestandard. While slower changingthan a DCT and lacking the econo-my of a CVT, they are a tried and test-ed technology and over the years havebecome better (more gears and bet-ter fuel economy) and crucially cheap-er.

Honda and Toyota use CVT orContinuously Variable Transmissions,and while an ideal CVT should beone continuous gear, the problemswith matching engine output and roadspeeds mean that usually cars have a‘stepped’ CVT with fixed positionsbetween gears. Are CVTs better orworse than DCTs? Well, that is aloaded question but in most urbanconditions a CVT works. However,CVT’s are not what you would call‘performance’ machines and trying totake one and ‘have fun’, not quite thegearbox to do something like that. Buta well-tuned CVT is extremely eco-nomical, better than a DSG somemight argue.

But if someone were to get into aHonda City that has a stepped-CVTand paddle shifts and a VolkswagenVento with the DSG and paddle-shiftsand were to try and figure out whichgearbox is which without alreadyknowing, forget the average car buyer,many folks who write on cars wouldbe stumped, possibly even me, unlessI keep a very careful ear for enginenoise and gear-shift speeds and whatnot. Sure, one should be able to makeout a AMT, but when you walk in tobuy an automatic you might not know

which type you will end up buying.Cars in the same segment could

have very different types ofgearbox, and while you

might lose a clutch,you should reallyeducate yourselves abit about the type ofautomatic you endup buying. Notknowing is not anoption when almosthalf of all new cars

sold nowadays areautomatics.

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Why would someone, espe-cially a restaurateur ofsome repute, name a

restaurant Dragonfly? That was thequestion that buzzed in my mindas I entered Priyank Sukhija’s lat-est offering that specialises in cui-sine from South East Asia. But a bitof Googling never does anyoneharm and I came to know thatthese insects symbolise prosperi-ty, harmony and are even consid-ered a good luck charm in theregion.

Once inside Dragonfly, I sawthat from the decorations at theentrance to the lights across therestaurant and furniture, every-thing mirrored the life cycle of theinsect. The outlet features threelevels, each with a bar. The tablethat I was offered was in the mid-dle of the restaurant. A bar coveredone entire side of the ground. Onthe opposite end was the DJ con-sole. The wall behind the consolehad several cutouts in myriadcolours which portrayed vibrantdragonflies. The theme of therestaurant is fine-dining but onweekends, it turns into a partyplace with an in house DJ perfor-mance. Also the lighting changeswith the flow of music whichgives the place a lit vibe.

The menu was incrediblydetailed, including soups, salads,ceviche, sushi, tempura, dim sumsand puffsomes.

Coming down to what I washere for — food, I decided to placemyself in the hand of the chef as Iwas dealing with Asian cuisine forthe first time. The meal began witha Confit chicken salad. It wasserved on a plain round platewith arugula or rocket leaves. Thepresentation of the dish was sim-ple yet appealing. It had a touch ofvinegar and lemon which gave it atangy taste to it. However, whereit failed was that the texture of theleaves didn’t really blend in withthe creamed chicken.

Coming to the drinks, I pre-ferred to try something new.Mixologist Richard Hargroves hasintroduced the unique Mangamixology menu with drinks likethe Sakazuki Cooler, Lust andGoku. The menu was based onJapanese anime. On one pagethere was a comic story of a char-acter and on the other, there wasa drink which was related to it. Outof the specially-curated 12 alco-holic cocktails for summer andfour non-alcoholic ones, I decid-ed to order Lust, a mojito with aJapanese makeover. The base of thedrink was gin, plum wine, cranber-ry and apple infused sake whichwas perfectly blended with freshyuzu juice, rose petals and toppedwith soda. The drink was zesty andthe rose flavour cooled down thebody on a hot summer day.

Moving on to the starters, I

was served Thai chi crispy chicken.The chicken was perfectly cookedin tomato puree and was blendedin classic barbeque sauce whichimparted it a hint of smokedflavour. The touch of lemon on topgave it a tang.

Next up was Sriracha bloodyMary tuna. Baked in Thai saucewith onions, jalapenos and corian-der, it was served cold and there-in sprung the reason why I didn’tlike the dish much. I would havepreferred it to be served piping hot.

Next in the line were threetypes of Puffsomes — Peanut but-ter, mushroom and truffle and lastbut not the least Roasted Pekingchicken. These colourful puffswere baked to perfection. Crunchyon the outside and flavoursome onthe inside, these were a treat for thesenses.

I travelled all the way to Japan,through cuisine, of course when Iwas served their signature sushi Myfirst time. Served on a blue rectan-gular platter which gave it the lookof a beach as there was a palm treemade of vegetables.

While I wasn’t done savouringit, Old is gold made its way to mytable. The dish was basically a clas-sic EBI Tempura (shrimps coatedin a thin batter and fried untillightly crisp) which was perfectlyblended with tanuki flakes, kewpiemayo and gold dust.

The main course, which tooksome time to reach the table, waswell worth the wait. The Singaporehawker style noodles. were perfect-ly cooked. A pinch of vinegaradded to the dish imparted a sourtaste to it and that is what made itstand out.

Next up were Lamb shankswith Barley Risotto, pink pepper-corn and mustard greens. The tra-ditional dish was served withKimchi rice. The presentation andthe taste of lamb was what mademe dig in and polish the plateclean.

Finally it was time for desserts.On the chef ’s recommendation Iordered Mandarino. A cheese cakeserved with chestnut cream, citruscrumble and vanilla ice-cream, thiswas certainly the perfect ending toa a flavoursome meals.

The food, theme and decorscore full marks, though the ser-vice is a little patchy. At one point,I had to wait for a dish for a longtime while another arrived beforeI could finish the previous one.Overall a good meal and greatvalue for money.

Achange in rules in the nomina-tions for World’s 50 Best

Restaurants list made a profounddifference to who the winners werethis year. The decree that no pre-vious winner can be No. 1 again —or even be ranked on the listworked in the favour of chef MauroColagreco and his Mirazur diningroom, which clinched the top spot.Previously the restaurant was No.3. This is also the first time Francehas gotten the No. 1 spot since theawards began 18 years ago.

The change in rules meant thatthe previous winners have nowbeen relegated to a “Best of theBest” category. That includesOsteria Francescana, MassimoBottura’s modernist restaurant inModena, which has won the awardtwice; Eleven Madison Park, whichtook the top spot in 2017; El Cellarde Can Roca; and the originalNoma.

But 2.0 version of Noma, whichtook the second place has featuredon the list before. However, a dif-ferent location in Copenhagen witha new menu format made it eligi-ble. William Drew, group editor ofthe World’s 50 Best Restaurants,says the criteria they used, whichincluded location and menu con-cept, was not just to allow Noma,one of the world’s highest-profiledining spots, to be in contention.“The aim is to have an objective setof criteria that prevails over time,”he says. Leading up to theannouncement, which took place inSingapore on the evening of June 25before an audience, Noma was aninsider favorite to clinch the topspot.

Mirazur is housed in a 1930sbuilding looking out over the sea,on the Italian border. TheArgentine-born chef draws inspira-tion from the region, serves vegeta-bles from his own gardens andother local produce to createcolourful Mediterranean dishes.Colagreco’s signature creation isoyster with tapioca, shallot creamand pear. The lunch menu costs 160euros ($180), while the full menuis 260 euros.

“What a great year. ThreeMichelin stars and No. 1 all in thesame year,” said Colagreco whileaccepting the award. “It’s a year Ishall remember forever. I don’thave words to explain. I own thesky.”

He said the next step afterbasking in the awards is to expandhis “little” 5-acre gardens intosomething greater. “We are fantas-tic producers, winemakers — weare a little paradise.”

This year, the list was alsoexpanded from 100 to 120 to coin-cide with the list’s leading sponsor,San Pellegrino, celebrating its 120thanniversary. It’s a “one-off ” expan-sion, according to Drew.

The restaurants appearing onthe list from 51-120 were releasedahead of time. That half of the listincluded restaurants from 25 coun-tries, which is certainly a good rea-son to expand the list. The expan-sion also makes it easier to highlightrestaurants in cities that haven’tcaught the 50 Best’s attentionbefore, like Alcade in Guadalajara,Mexico (109 on the list). “Weembraced the opportunity to show-case an even more diverse range ofrestaurants,” said Drew.

This year saw a lot of dramat-ic movements. Restaurants likeAtelier Crenn in San Francisco atNo. 35 and The Chairman, aCantonese spot at No. 41 were someof the new entries. The host city,Singapore, saw the Odette move upto No. 18.

There were some disappoint-ments as well. Attica in Melbourne,fell an astonishing 64 spots, to No.84 from 20. And then there wasArzak in San Sebastian, Spain whichwas demoted to No. 53 from 31, andDOM in Sao Paulo, which fell to No.54 from 30.

The World’s 50 Best Restaurantslist is organised and compiled byWilliam Reed Business Media. Votesof 1,040 restaurateurs, chefs, foodwriters and foodies are taken intoaccount. The voters are split into 26separate regions around the world.Each region has its own panel of 40members. The awards started in 2002as a feature in Restaurant, a U K pub-lication, based on the picks of jour-nalists and chefs. The founderscompare it to a music magazine com-piling a best-albums list.

Ahead of the ceremony, threeawards were announced: DanielaSoto-Innes, of Cosme in New York,won Elit Vodka World’s Best FemaleChef; the American Express IconAward went to the humanitarian chefJosé Andrés; and Lido 84, a locallyfocussed restaurant in Lombardy,Italy, won the Miele One to Watch.

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Osaka: US President DonaldTrump set the tone on Thursdayfor what promises to be astormy G20 summit by lashingout at friends and foes alike overtrade tariffs and foreign policy.

The long-running US-China trade war looked set todominate the two-day meetingof world leaders in Osaka fromFriday but clashes also loomedover climate and hotspotsincluding North Korea andIran.

On board Air Force One enroute to Japan, Trump fired offa characteristically bullish tweet,chiding long-standing ally Indiafor "unacceptable" tariffs onAmerican goods.

"India, for years having putvery high Tariffs against theUnited States, just recentlyincreased the Tariffs even fur-ther. This is unacceptable andthe Tariffs must be withdrawn,"tweeted Trump.

The US president had ear-lier taken aim at China, sayingBeijing wanted to do a dealbecause the world's number-twoeconomy was "going down thetubes".

Furious at what he sees asan unfair advantage in the trad-ing system, Trump has alreadyhit Beijing with $200 billion inlevies on Chinese imports andappeared to threaten more.

"You have another $325billion that I haven't taxed yet —

it's ripe for taxing, for puttingtariffs on," he said in an inter-view with Fox BusinessNetwork.

Chinese President XiJinping touched down in Osakaseveral hours before Trump indriving rain as a potentialtyphoon edges towards Japan.The two leaders are expected tomeet on Saturday.

Trump touched down justbefore 7pm local time (1000GMT), the president clutchingan umbrella and walking gin-gerly down the plane steps. InBeijing, commerce ministryspokesman Gao Feng said thatChina's attitude was "very clear".

"We consistently opposethe bullying trade tactic of uni-laterally slapping on tariffs,"

said Gao.Most experts say a formal

deal is unlikely at the summitdue to a lack of time to preparethe complex issues involvedand believe a ceasefire andcommitment to keep talking isthe most likely outcome.

"I would be very, very sur-prised if they could work out allof these complicated disagree-ments in the next few days," saidDavid Dollar, a China expert atthe Washington-basedBrookings Institution.

"I think if Xi Jinping andPresident Trump have somenegotiations... That will have avery positive impact on theworld economy," NaoyukiYoshino, head of the AsianDevelopment Bank Institute,

told AFP.While US-China trade is

likely to dominate the meeting,world leaders are also facing aperfect storm of geopoliticalhotspots from Iran to NorthKorea and Venezuela.

Tensions with Tehran are atfever pitch after Trump pulledback from military action at thelast minute in response to thedowning of an unmanned USdrone.

Before leaving for the G20,Trump said he did not seek con-flict with the long-time US foebut warned it "wouldn't last verylong" if war did break out.

Iran will be one of severaltopics when Trump meets hisRussian counterpart VladimirPutin on the sidelines of themeeting, along with arms con-trol, the crisis in Venezuela, andUkraine.

"I'll have a very good con-versation with him," Trumptold reporters at the WhiteHouse. "What I say to him isnone of your business."

Hosts Japan have desper-ately tried to steer attentionaway from the Trump show andon to the formal aspects of theirG20 agenda, including the chal-lenges posed by ageing popula-tions and climate change.

World leaders flew intoOsaka in the driving rain, withconcerns over the health ofGerman Chancellor Angela

Merkel who suffered a secondshaking attack earlier Thursday.

"Confrontation tends toattract attention... But Japan, asthe chair, hopes to find commonground rather than differencesin opinions," said PrimeMinister Shinzo Abe as he leftTokyo for Osaka.

But tensions over the finalstatement on climate change arelikely to burst into the open,with a German source saying itwas "particularly difficult thisyear" to reach agreement.

EU Council PresidentDonald Tusk summed up thepre-meeting mood by predict-ing "a difficult summit" in talkswith Abe, according to aJapanese government source.

And Trump appeared in nomood for compromise, hittingout at traditional allies one-by-one, even his hosts.

He described Vietnam asthe "single worst abuser" ontrade, lashed Germany as "delin-quent" on funding contributionsto NATO, and mocked Japan,which has been under a US mil-itary umbrella since World WarII.

"If Japan is attacked, we willfight World War III. We will goin and protect them with ourlives and with our treasure," hesaid. "But if we're attacked,Japan doesn't have to help us.They can watch it on a Sony tele-vision." AFP

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Washington: Iranian leadersdo not care for their people, USPresident Donald Trump saidWednesday amid increasingUS-Iran tensions.

"Iran should do the rightthing for their people. The prob-lem is I don't believe theirleader...Care for their people. Ifthey do, they'll make a deal. Ifthey don't, they're just thinkingabout themselves. And they'reselfish and they're stupid if that'swhat they're doing," Trump toldreporters on the South lawns ofthe White House.

Recent media reports saidthat Trump this week stoppedhis military generals fromattacking Iran after an Americandrone was allegedly shot downby the Iranian forces.

While being tough on Iran,Trump has said he does not wanta war with Iran and has said he

has no precondition for talkswith the Iranian regime.

When a reporter asked if theball was now "in Iran's court",the US president said, "Theball's in no court. You knowwhat? Iran can do whatever theywant, it's just fine. I have plen-ty of time."

"But they have a countrythat's in economic distress, it's aneconomic disaster right now.They could solve it quickly orthey can solve it in 10 years fromnow, whatever they want is finewith me... I have all the time inthe world,” he said.

"...In the meantime, theyhave very strong sanctions, theyhave to live with those sanc-tions," said the US President.

The US has imposed stiflingeconomic sanctions on Tehranto prevent it from acquiringnuclear weapons. PTI

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Tehran: Iran's ForeignMinister Mohammad JavadZarif on Thursday warnedthat US President DonaldTrump was mistaken in think-ing a war between their coun-tries would not last long.

"'Short war' with Iran is anillusion," Zarif tweeted a dayafter Trump said he does notwant a war with Iran butwarned that if fighting didbreak out, it "wouldn't lastvery long". AFP

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Vienna: Iran will not exceedon Thursday a uranium stock-pile limit agreed under anuclear deal with world pow-ers, contrary to what Tehransaid earlier this month,according to a diplomaticsource in Vienna.

"They won't exceed ittoday," the source told AFP,speaking on condition ofanonymity. The source sug-gested there might be a "polit-ical reason" for this, given theintensified efforts byEuropean governments inrecent days to de-escalate ten-sions in the Gulf region. AFP

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Paris: The US special envoyfor Iran, Brian Hook, is meet-ing with French, German andBritish top diplomats in Parisfor talks on the Persian Gulfcrisis at a time when Europeanpowers are trying to save the2015 nuclear deal struck withTehran.

European countries wantto avoid a further escalation intensions between the U.S. AndIran and are trying to convinceIran not to leave the nucleardeal, which the U.S. Pulled out

of last year.Iran has said it will

break out of the nuclear deal's limit on its stockpiles of low-enriched uranium by Thursday, following there-imposition of U.S.Sanctions.

On Wednesday, Iran'sU.N. Ambassador urgedBritain, France and Germanyto take "timely" practical stepsto preserve the agreement,"which is now in critical con-dition." AP

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Hong Kong: A small group ofprotesters opposed to legislationthey fear would reduce HongKong's judicial independencehave rallied outside the JusticeDepartment.

The action on Thursdaycame as Hong Kong's ChiefExecutive Carrie Lam remainedout of the public eye for morethan a week, prompting onelegislator to suggest she requesta long-term leave of absence.

Thousands of people joineda rally Wednesday night cap-ping a daylong appeal to worldleaders to discuss issues inHong Kong at this week's G-20summit bringing together theheads of China, the UnitedStates and others. AP

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Beijing: China on Thursdayslammed US Secretary of StateMike Pompeo for criticising itsmulti-billion dollar Belt andRoad Initiative (BRI) during hisjust concluded India visit, say-ing that the diplomat was undera "spell" to constantly blightingthe ambitious Chinese pro-ject.

The BRI, which is boy-cotted by India as it compris-es the USD 60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor(CPEC) being laid throughPakistan-occupied Kashmir,has come under constant crit-icism of the US which say thatthe massive loans being doledout by Bejing for different pro-jects, specially in smaller coun-

tries over and above theircapacity to pay, has resulted inlong term indebtedness.

At a joint press briefingwith External Affairs MinisterS Jaishankar on Wednesday inNew Delhi, Pompeo said,"There are a myriad of oppor-tunities that lay before us in theIndo-Pacific region.Countries...Which have signedon to the Belt and Road pro-jects have found Beijing's dealscome not with strings attached,but with shackles."

"Countries are looking toprovide infrastructure, digitalconnectivity, and energy sup-plies to their people withoutrelinquishing their sovereign-ty," he said. PTI

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London: British leadershiphopeful Boris Johnson pledgedThursday to introduce a newpoints-based system to controlmigration after Brexit, address-ing a key issue from the EU ref-erendum but not explicitlypromising to cut numbers.

He also vowed to protect therights of more than three millionEU citizens currently living inBritain, even if the countryleaves the bloc with no deal onOctober 31.

Johnson is vying withForeign Secretary Jeremy Huntto take over as prime ministerfrom Theresa May, who quitover her failure to take Britainout of the European Union ontime. In his first detailed policyannouncement, the former for-eign minister and ex-Londonmayor vowed to introduce apoints-based immigration sys-tem modelled on that ofAustralia.

Broadly, these kind of sys-tems allow in migrants whomeet certain criteria such asqualifications, occupation andlanguage skills. "We must bemuch more open to high-skilledimmigration such as scientists,"Johnson said. "But we must alsoassure the public that, as we leavethe EU, we have control over thenumber of unskilled immigrantscoming into the country.

"We must be tougher onthose who abuse our hospitali-ty. Other countries such asAustralia have great systemsand we should learn from them."Johnson was a leader of the cam-paign to leave the EU during the2016 referendum, and a keypromise was to "take back con-trol" of Britain's borders. While

it remains a member of the EU,Britain is subject to rules allow-ing the free movement of work-ers around the bloc.

May's government says EUand non-EU migrants should betreated the same after Brexit —an approach Johnson backs —but is still consulting on thedetails of a new system. AFP

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Colombo: Sri Lanka's tourismindustry is recovering fasterthan expected after the Easteron Sunday suicide bombingsshook the island nation, givinga much-needed boost to theeconomy, Finance MinisterMangala Samaraweera told AFP.

The country was hit bymass cancellations after IslamicState-backed jihadists attackedthree churches and three hotelson April 21, leaving 258 dead,including dozens of foreigners.

Yet even in the bombing'saftermath, domestic touristsfilled hotels, and visitors fromkey European markets arealready starting to return,Samaraweera said in an inter-view on Wednesday.

Samaraweera had initiallypredicted that Sri Lanka couldlose 30 percent of its tourismrevenues — about $1.5 billionthis year — but now believes theloss will be less than one billion.

"We are beginning to feelthat the situation was not as direas we expected," Samaraweerasaid. "Bookings are comingback." Hotels were able to keepstaff by offering "excellent pack-ages" to Sri Lankan tourists, headded.

The government also set

aside hundreds of millions ofdollars to provide cheap creditfor tourism businesses hit by thecrisis.

Bus companies, bed andbreakfast owners and the mak-ers of Buddhist festival decora-tions all received interest-freeloans, the minister said.

"Even the musicians whoaccompany the processionsclaimed they were out of pock-et," he said.

After five years in which SriLanka has faced a series ofblows, Samaraweera said theeconomy could get to five per-cent annual growth from nextyear if calm was restored.

"The last five years have notbeen easy for Sri Lanka," he said,referring to floods and then adrought, which were followedby a political crisis in 2018 andthe 2019 attacks.

Sri Lanka's economy slowedto 3.2 percent last year, downfrom 3.4 percent in 2017,because of a power strugglebetween the country's presidentand prime minister.

Samaraweera told parlia-ment this year that the politicalbattle had cost the economy $1billion in capital flight from debtand equity markets. AFP

London: Japan's ForeignMinister said on Thursday hehas pleaded with Britain toavoid a no-deal Brexit, as thecandidates vying to be the nextUK Prime Minister warn thecountry could leave the EUwithout an agreement.

Taro Kono said he hadmade the appeals in past andpresent meetings with hisBritish counterpart JeremyHunt and former foreign sec-retary Boris Johnson, who arecurrently battling to replaceoutgoing premier Theresa May.

"We're very concerned with(a) no-deal Brexit," he toldBBC News on the eve of Japanhosting a two-day G20 summit

in Osaka."We've been asking (the)

UK government (to) let theJapanese companies know whatthey can expect.

"Whenever we've hadmeetings, that was one of themajor issues: 'please, no no-dealBrexit'."

Noting that more than1,000 Japanese companiescurrently operate in Britain,Kono warned a disorderlydeparture from the EuropeanUnion risked disruptinginvestment.

"Many companies are wor-ried about (the) implicationsbecause they don't know what'sgoing to happen," he said. AFP

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Yangon: Myanmar's militaryon Thursday rejected anInternational Criminal Court(ICC) prosecutor's call for a fullinvestigation into alleged crimesagainst Rohingya Muslims.

Fatou Bensouda launched apreliminary probe in Septemberinto the 2017 crackdown byMyanmar's military that forcedsome 740,000 Rohingya over theborder into Bangladesh withaccounts of rape, mass killingsand razing of villages.

On Wednesday she said shewould take the issue to the nextstage by submitting a request toICC judges to open a full inves-tigation.

It is not clear when thatdecision would be made.

Myanmar has not signed upto the ICC, but the court ruledin September it has jurisdictionover alleged atrocities becauseBangladesh -- where theRohingya are now refugees -- isa member.

Myanmar had rejected theruling in September in a typi-cally defiant manner, a positiona military spokesman reiteratedThursday.

"The military and govern-ment have not neglected theissue and have been trying totake action against those whocommitted abuses," Myanmarmilitary spokesman BrigadierGeneral Zaw Min Htun toldAFP Thursday.

"Myanmar has an investiga-tive committee looking at this and

they (the ICC) should respectwhat we are doing," he said,adding that the "ICC's interfer-ence harms the dignity" ofMyanmar and its military.

The government andarmy have acknowledged vir-tually no wrongdoing relatedto the "clearance operations"they justified as a means ofrooting out Rohingya insur-gents in western Rakhine state.

Seven soldiers jailed fortheir role in the killing of 10Rohingya were freed despiteserving less time than twoReuters reporters imprisonedfor exposing the massacre.

Asia Pacific Director forthe International Commissionof Jurists (ICJ) FrederickRawski said an ICC interven-tion was "entirely appropriate".

"The military has provenitself wholly unwilling andincapable of providing justicefor crimes under internation-al law perpetrated againstRohingyas," he said.

UN investigators have

separately called for the prose-cution of top Myanmar gener-als for "genocide". AFP

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Disciplined, impact bowl-ing by the West Indiansshoved aside the chant

around the controversial TVdismissal of Rohit Sharma, andmore importantly, kept thefamed Indian batting brigadestruggling and sweating to some-how up the score to a competi-tive total. In the end, India putup 268 on board, giving a lot ofwork to their spinners to do,especially with the prospect ofChris Gayle being the mammothrun getter in his last World Cup,not having fired so far.

A total of 269 on this diffi-cult and slowing wicket would beconsidered an above par total fora contest but the other story thatthe show threw up, second timein a row, is the Golden Retrievertail that India has started sport-ing and a weak lower middleorder that it joins up to. Rightdown from Vijay Shankar downto Jadhav and Pandya, the scoreshave been slim and mid field

presence short and unsweet. Butfor Kohli and an unbeaten MSDhoni who scored his half cen-tury in the last over, deflectingthe criticism that has been gath-ering around his slow-mo in themiddle.

Returning to West Indies,bowlers Roach who clocked in3/36, and skipper Jason Holderwho sported 2/33 with 46 dotballs, kept the Indian crowdquiet for most part of the 50overs and defiantly compelledscore predictors to keep puttingit down from 300 plus to 280 to265 to even 250 plus at one time,giving a chance to their batsmenled by Gayle. With the lack offireworks in the middle, theself-proclaimed Universe Bossraised some cheers by diving tofield a ball or two, a trait he is notknown for at all.

It all started unravelling forIndia when Sharma was givenout to a referral by West Indies.A not-out decision by the on-field umpire was controversial-ly overturned to send backSharma in disbelief, shaking his

head in frustration long after thecall. That put brakes on India'srun machine early in the innings.The TV umpire erred on thewrong side of caution and whenhe should have gone with theoriginal decision in the light ofconclusive evidence, decided togive Sharma out to an edgewhich looked more from the padthan the bat.

The call came after a cau-tious start saw India's firstboundary only in the 28th ball ofthe innings, hit hard by Sharmawhen India were 14 without loss.He soon followed it up in thenext over with a resounding sixwith his typical pull shot. Thiswas off Kemar Roach. Finally, 12runs came off the over, withRahul joining in the accelerationshow with a good-lookingstraight drive.

Just then Sharma allowed theball to pass through his bat andpad into the keeper's hand. TheWest Indies referred and he wasgiven out despite the spikeappearing to be pad. Sharma wasgiven caught behind to Roach

when India were 29. In case ofdoubt on technology eye, the TVumpire is expected to go with thedecision of the on-field umpirewho had given Sharma not out.

Also, the benefit of the doubtgoes to the batsman in such caseswhen technology is not hundredper cent sure. The decision willbe taken to the cleaners in thedays to come, more so if Indialoses the game. And it will alsobe compelling cricket officials tolook into ways and means of nar-rowing the error margin of VRS.

Meanwhile, Kohli scam-pered to his 50 almost stealthily.This was Kohli's fourth consec-utive World Cup 50 and overall94th. Kohli has a knack of get-ting runs almost un-noticedthough a century has so far evad-ed him in the tournament. Kohlitook 55 balls and six fours to getto this milestone.

He took just three deliveriesat start before he smashedOshane Thomas through thecovers with a four for the text-books before Rahul started tak-ing some uppish chances to buildon the scoreboard on a lovelysummer morning with not aspeck of cloud in the sparklingblue skies over Old Trafford andthe stands bleeding blue as usual.

The stadium erupted whenKohli upper cut Thomas throughcover for a boundary and glidingthe next one through fine manfor a single just a little after he gotalmost into the hands of ShimronHetmyer at mid-wicket.

Rahul got the next boundarythrough an exquisite shotthrough cover in the same overcompelling Holder to walk up tothe bowler for a quick piece ofadvice. Nine came off that overbringing in off spinner FabianAllen. Kohli raised the hackleswhen he cut it tantalisingly closeto Chris Gayle at second slip tofinally go for another boundarybringing India's score to 62 forthe errant loss of Sharma's wick-et.

The 50 partnership cameup through a four, past point byRahul who picked on Allenwith impunity. The Rahul-Kohli

teamed up for 68 balls andseven fours and this was thesecond successive 50 plus part-nership for them afterAfghanistan. India then were ona trot to 81, looking solid in themiddle for a good score.

Finally, Holder cleanbowled K L Rahul when he wasjust two runs short of his 50 andIndia equally of 100. The Rahulshow took 64 balls and sixboundaries to start lookingmenacing just when the WestIndies captain made the break-through, ending the 69-runpartnership off 89 balls.

Not that Shankar lastedlong, being caught behind whenhe was 14 off 19 balls, givinganother one to Roach and India126-3. The three boundaries inShankar's overall 14 in 19 ballsstarted drawing question markson his presence over so manyothers, like Ajinkya at home andPant who has just joined thesquad. Jadhav, failed to pumpup the score and walked soonafter, bringing in Dhoni and aninnings that stayed to the end,firing up the crowd only in thelast over.

India's 200 came up in the42nd over, with just eight oversremaining for Pandya andDhoni to bring in the harvest,and for West Indies bowlers tokeep up their precision bowl-ing and keep the score to acompetitive count. After swing-ing his bat to no avail, Pandyawas caught and sent off with noreal markers and then came thelong tail and its quick exit.

Dhoni finally emerged asthe lone warrior (56 in 61balls) despite his slow scoring.He made up for it in a fertilelast over which would havehauled him over the flames hadhe not scored those 16 runsfrom it. He sent back KuldeepYadav thrice, turning downpossibility of runs. In the end,and after changing his bat forthe last ball, he hit two sixesand a boundary to give theIndian score a dose of muchneeded vitamin and a score of268.

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Wrist spinners Kuldeep Yadav andYuzvendra Chahal should be

destructive towards the business endof the World Cup because pitches willbe dry and it will put India in anadvantageous position, reckons formerAustralia batsman Michael Hussey.

Chahal has taken eight wickets infour matches while Chinaman Yadav,who came into tournament strugglingfor form, has managed to dismiss justthree batsmen so far.

However, Hussey said, it willchange as the tournament progresses.

"Looking at the Indian team, theyare wonderfully balanced team. Theyhave got all bases covered well andtowards the back end of the tourna-ment as the pitches (are) going to bedry and more used, the spinnerswould get to play more role," Husseysaid.

"And that is where India have gota big advantage over lot of other

teams. They have got two qualitywrist spinners (Kuldeep and Chahal),who can be match-winners. India arebrilliantly placed at the moment, theyhave got lot of fire power in differentdepartments and I expect them to cer-tainly get to the semi-finals and pos-sibly the final," Hussey, an ESPNCricinfo expert, added.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni's slowknock against Afghanistan drew flakfrom various quarters but Hussey, whohas worked closely with him atChennai Super Kings, did not read toomuch into it.

"I think he (Dhoni) is cruciallyimportant to this Indian team. It's dif-ficult, coming in and trying to batagainst these mystery spinners, rotatethe strike, it is challenging. You are notsure which way the ball is turning.

"On a slow pitch, it makes prettytough (for) batting. The other batsman(Kedar Jadhav) was also struggling torotate strike (in the Afghanistan)game. So I wouldn't be stressing too

much on it."Dhoni plays the fast bowlers early

in the innings, he can rotate them a lit-tle-bit easier. I think Afghanistan wasone of trickier games for someone likeMS," he added.

Hussey also said that defendingchampions Australia have a greatchance to retain the title.

"I think they have a great chancenow because they have qualified for thesemi-finals. The team is playing is play-ing well. The top order (skipper AaronFinch and David Warner) is doing agreat job with the bat and MitchellStarc with the ball.

"I have been little bit worriedabout the fourth and fifth bowlingoptions for Australia, but they are start-ing to get better, with someone like(Jason) Behrendorff coming in, andwho has done a good job in the lastmatch. I thought Nathon Lyon also dida good job.

"Australia have a proud record inhistory of World Cup and they want

to keep that going, they know how towin those big games," said Hussey, whoplayed 79 Tests and 185 ODIs.

Asked if Australia were too depen-dent on their opening pair, Husseymany teams including India depend ona couple of key players.

"You look at New Zealand, it isdependent on (Kane) Williamson,India are very dependent on Rohit(Sharma) and Virat Kohli, so everyteam has its key players and it is aboutother guys pulling good performanceswhen needed and Australian team cando that.

"(Usman) Khawaja had a goodknock, (Steve) Smith had a goodknock, Glenn Maxwell has got that X-factor and we haven't probably seen thepower of Marcus Stonis yet but on hisday he can be destructive.

"They haven't had to play bigroles just yet because the likes ofWarner, Finch and probably Smith toa lesser degree have done a good jobso far," he said.

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Pakistan, a historicallyunpredictable team spe-

cialising in theatrical come-backs, remain in WorldCup contention after over-whelming previouslyunbeaten New Zealand in agroup match which willrevive unwelcome memo-ries for the Kiwis.

Imran Khan's 1992side, famously enjoined bytheir captain to fight like"cornered tigers" after onlytwo wins in their first sixmatches, an identical recordto the present team, beatanother hitherto undefeat-ed New Zealand side in thesemi-finals.

Pakistan went on todefeat England in the finalat the Melbourne CricketGround in the currentPakistan Prime Minister'sfarewell match.

Seven years later ShoaibAkhtar bowled at lightningspeed in Manchester toreduce New Zealand to241/7 in another semi-final,a total Pakistan exceededfor the loss of just onewicket.

Now Pakistan, withseven points from as manymatches, can still quality forthe semi-finals if results goin their favour after an exu-berant performance withbat and ball greeted by full-throated applause from anoverwhelmingly Pakistancrowd on a misty, cool dayin the English midlands.

Shaheen Afridi, thetowering 19-year-old who isthe third youngest player atthe tournament, set thetone for Pakistan with amarvellous spell of 3/11from seven overs, includingthree maidens. Bowlingover the wicket at highpace, Shaheen hit a perfectlength after MohammadHafeez had opened withtwo overs of exploratoryoff-spin.

Another left-arm fastbowler Wahab Riaz wasalso swift and hostile and

spinners Hafeez and ShadabKhan kept the brakes on inthe middle of the innings.

After initial strugglesagainst the speed of LockieFerguson and the left-armspin of Mitchell Santner,who got some abrupt turnand lift, the Pakistan bats-men cut loose with BabarAzam and Haris Sohailscoring at will against oneof the tightest and most dis-ciplined attacks in the tour-nament.

New Zealand went intotheir penultimate groupmatch with an unchangedside but with questionmarks over their top-orderbatting after relying on con-secutive centuries from cap-tain Williamson to get themover the line against SouthAfrica and West Indies.

Williamson recordedhis 14th consecutive scoreover 40 in one-day interna-tionals in England datingback to 2013 but his dis-missal one run later threwthe struggles of the othertop-order batsmen intosharp relief.

Martin Guptill, so pro-lific in his team's advance tothe final four years ago,again appeared to be press-ing too hard, dragging thefirst ball from MohammadAmir in the second over ofthe day on to his stumpswhile aiming an extravagantdrive though the off.

The restricted footworkof his opening partnerColin Munro in conditionsassisting the bowlersthrough the air and off thepitch was again exposedand after Ross Taylor, themost consistent NewZealand batsman afterWilliamson fell early, theout-of-form Tom Lathamcontinued to struggle andhe was caught behind push-ing tentatively forward.

Williamson's dismissal,also caught behind thistime from an extravagantleg break from ShadabKhan reduced New Zealandto 83/5 from 26.2 off their50 overs. Despite his com-parative failure, Williamsonretains the highest percent-age of runs by any batsmanat the World Cup with 31per cent.

New Zealand reached acompetitive total solelythrough the efforts of all-rounders James Neeshamand Colin deGrandhomme, who postedtheir country's first centu-ry partnership for the sixthwicket at a World Cup.

Left-hander JamesNeesham, one of the clean-est strikers of the ball in theNew Zealand side and aman now determined toenjoy the remainder of hisinternational career, afterseriously contemplatingretirement 18 months agofollowing a form slump,played sensibly, using hislong reach to good effect toknock the ball about for sin-gles.

De Grandhommestruggled initially beforeclumping some emphaticboundaries through theonside. Neesham started toloft the ball and finishedwith a flourish, hitting a sixoff the final ball to end threeruns short of a century.

With daunting finalgroup matches againstdefending championsAustralia and home teamEngland, New Zealand willgive serious thought toselecting Henry Nichollsin place of Munro to openthe innings and recallingtheir vastly experiencedpace bowler Tim Southeeahead of Henry. Pakistan,by contrast, with potential-ly easier fixtures againstAfghanistan andBangladesh, looked a teamfor all seasons inBirmingham and will be fullof confidence that they cancontinue to defy the odds.

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The one thing NewZealand won’t do ispanic after the defeat to

Pakistan, this team doesn’tpanic and hasn’t for a longtime.

They have been playing astyle of cricket that has deliv-ered success and they havewon five games out of seven,with one washout, at the ICCMen’s Cricket World Cup, sothis defeat to Pakistan will notchange that.

That success breeds confi-dence and calmness, so thereis no point in changing strat-egy just because of one loss.They will stay true to how theyhave played for a number ofyears.

Because they have playedso well and set the standard sohigh, when you have one loss,people search everywhere forwhat went wrong.

I think they will remaincalm and stress-free as KaneWilliamson said in his post-match press conference, mov-ing onto that next game know-ing they are pretty muchassured a semi-final spot. Lotsof things would have to goagainst them for it not to hap-pen.

I really enjoyed the gameat Edgbaston against Pakistan

and the nature of the wicket.The traditional road we’ve

seen in one-day cricket where350 plays 350 is not quite asprevalent and it makes for anexciting game.

It brings the spinners intoplay and brings the bowlers ingeneral into play. It allows realbatsmanship to be on display.We saw that from Babar Azamwho was just exceptional. Hedealt with some very goodballs and showed why he’ssuch a classy player. If you takeaway the partisan nature ofsupporting New Zealand, I’mreally enjoying watching thesesort of games.

For New Zealand, theygot some confidence becauseof how well Jimmy Neeshamand Colin de Grandhommeplayed.

You don’t often expectyour all-rounders to be put inthat situation where you’re83/5 but when they do andthey reply like that, it’s prettyexceptional.

They are two batsmen firstand foremost, that's probablyhow they view themselves andthey put that on display. I thinkNew Zealand were feelinggood about themselves goinginto the mid-innings breakon the back of that.

I think they were two qual-ity innings by Neesham and DeGrandhomme, which werethen matched and surpassedby Babar Azam and HarisSohail.

New Zealand’s top orderdidn’t fire, but it doesn’t really

worry me. With Martin Guptill,he’s such a good player and hashad such a proven record forNew Zealand for a really longtime.

He’s put together a phe-nomenal career and every timehe misses out, it feels like he’s

just closer to doing somethingspecial.

That’s how I continue tothink about him. If you look atthe last World Cup, he starteda little slow and then got a hun-dred against Bangladesh andeveryone knows what he did in

the quarter-final against theWest Indies.

New Zealand will say tothemselves they have hopeful-ly got another four games ofcricket and within those fourgames, Guptill, in particular,could make a real difference toour chances.

The big challenge in thenext game against Australia atLord’s will be Aaron Finch andDavid Warner, they have beenexceptional in this tournament.

They have set Australia up.No one else has had to bat thatmuch. The ability to dismissthose two early on will be cru-cial and more often than not,that falls on Trent Boult to dothat.

He bowls exceptionally wellto left-handers, in fact he bowlsexceptionally well to everyone.If the conditions suit him atLord’s, then they will really pushhim out there as an attackingweapon to try to break throughthat opening partnership thatAustralia have relied on.

New Zealand will have toread the wicket and make surethey prepare well, but justbecause they have lost onegame, there is no reason toworry about them.

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Babar Azam says Pakistan have thebelief they can win their remaining

games to complete a dramatic turn-around and reach the World Cup semi-finals following victory against a strongNew Zealand side on Wednesday.

The 24-year-old hit a match-winningunbeaten 101 to anchor Pakistan's replyto New Zealand's score of 237 for six atEdgbaston.

Captain Sarfaraz Ahmed hit the win-ning runs in the final over as they finishedon 241-4 to win by six wickets. Pakistanhad a disastrous start to their World Cupcampaign, losing three of their first fivematches with a single victory, againstEngland, and a no-result.

But Sunday's win over South Africaat Lord's and Wednesday's victory inBirmingham have revived their hopes ofpulling off a sensational comeback.

Their next game is on Saturdayagainst Afghanistan, who have lost allseven of their matches at the tournamentin England and Wales and they finish theirgroup fixtures against Bangladesh, who arelevel with Pakistan on seven points.

Sri Lanka are also in the hunt, onepoint behind but with a game in hand,meaning 1992 winners Pakistan must stillrely on other results going in their favourto qualify from the 10-team group phase.

"Belief has been the key," said Babar,who reached his 10th one-day internation-al hundred off 124 balls with 11 fours.

"We have the belief that we will winour next two games and then look ahead."Babar, 24, said even when the team werestruggling earlier in the tournament,they were confident they could turn theirfortunes around.

"We were not winning matches but wetalked to each other and had the belief thatwe could do it and now our focus is onthe next game," he said.

Defending champions Australia arethe only team to have qualified for thesemi-finals so far while New Zealand,

India and England currently occupy theother top-four slots.

Babar said his role had been to batuntil the end of the innings.

"I was given a role to bat until the endand others bat around me and thatworked well as (Mohammad) Hafeez andthen Haris (Sohail) batted well to estab-lish partnerships," said Babar.

He said his target is to become the bestbatsman in the world.

"I can say that this is one of my bestknocks because the aim is to be the bestbatsman in the world," said Babar, who isalready the top-rated batsman in the worldin Twenty20 cricket.

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All-rounder Jimmy Neeshamis confident that New

Zealand's defeat against Pakistanin Birmingham on Wednesdaywill not derail their World Cupbid.

Neesham led New Zealand'sfightback with a career-bestundefeated 97 to lift them froma precarious 83-5 to 237-6 intheir 50 overs at Edgbaston butthey went down to their firstdefeat of the tournament.

Victory would have seenKane Williamson's team becomethe second team to qualify for theWorld Cup semi-finals afterdefending champions Australia.

Despite the setback NewZealand, who have never won theWorld Cup, are still well-placed,second in the 10-team table on 11points from seven games.

"I think you'd be pretty naiveto expect to go through thewhole tournament unbeaten,"

said the 28-year-old Neesham."There are too many qualityteams going around to expect towin every game.

"We prepared for a tourna-ment where we'd probably loseone or two games, but for us it'sall about making it to the semi-finals, and you're only two goodgames away from lifting the tro-phy. So for us nothing changes.

"We'll prepare for the nextgame the same way we've pre-pared for the last six," saidNeesham, whose team next playAustralia at Lord's on Saturday,with their final game againsthosts England on July 3.

Neesham, who added 132 forthe sixth wicket with fellow all-rounder Colin de Grandhomme(64), believed his side hadenough runs on the board againstPakistan.

"I think probably being 46-4was a pretty significant momentin the game," said Neesham ofNew Zealand's bad start, causedmainly by Shaheen's burst ofthree wickets in 20 balls.

"I think Pakistan's bowlingwas obviously really impressive.We sort of try and dig ourselvesout of that hole and that took alot of doing, but I think wepotentially got to a score that wasdefendable."

Neesham said the fourth-wicket stand of 126 betweenBabar and Haris Sohail (68) hadtaken the game away from NewZealand.

"Obviously, the way Babarand Sohail batted didn't allow usto get some momentum and tryto get into their middle order andthat was the difference," headded.

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Pakistan batting coach Grant Flowerfeels Babar Azam has got Indian run-

machine Virat Kohli's “hunger” and thetalent to match his idol's awe-inspiringfeats one day.

"He is very special. I believe he isgoing to be one of the best that Pakistanhave ever produced. He's really hungry,is fit and still very young," Flower said.

"I think he'll have a really goodcareer if he keeps his feet on theground, which I think he will. He's gotVirat's hunger. I think he could be atsome point in the future," Flower addedwhen asked about comparisons withKohli.

Impressed by his batsman's perfor-mance, Flower, a former Zimbabweopener, said, "He's definitely got thathunger, so if you practice as hard as hedoes, and you have his skills, I can't seewhy he can't get to the top."

During his knock, Babar alsobecame the second fastest to 3000 runsin one-day internationals.

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Buoyed by the stunning win againstEngland, Sri Lanka will look to keeptheir semifinals hopes alive as they

train their sights on South Africa in a do-or-die World Cup encounter here Friday.

Sri Lanka's surprise 20-run victoryover England has suddenly thrown openthe semifinal qualifications, breathingnew life into their inconsistent campaign.

With two wins, Sri Lanka are current-ly at the seventh spot with six points andneed to win rest of their three matchesto harbour hopes of a semifinal berth.

The 1996 winners will also have apsychological advantage when they sporttheir second choice "lucky yellow jersey"that they wore against England.

While Sri Lanka will be fancying their

chances against a lowly South Africanside, the Proteas would be more thankeen to make a statement against the 1996winners.

Last edition's semifinalists, SouthAfrica were knocked out of the WorldCup following a 49-run loss to Pakistan.They have failed to learn from their mis-takes in what has been a disappointingcampaign and with nothing to lose now,the Proteas will hope for a consolationwin.

"The way we played today is border-line embarrassing. We are a mediocreteam at the moment because we are mak-ing the same mistakes. One step forwardand two steps back is not a good team.

"The guys are playing with low con-fidence and making the same mistakes.It just rolls on, it's such a snowball effect,"captain Faf du Plessis said after the defeatto Pakistan.

Both the teams have struggled withthe bat. But Sri Lanka have an experi-enced bowling attack led by veteranLasith Malinga.

Along with Dhananjaya de Silva,Malinga defended a relatively modest tar-get of 233 against England, bowling outthe hosts for 212.

To ensure another win, the SriLankan batsman will need to step up andcomplement their bowling.

�K����South Africa: Faf du Plessis (captain),Quinton de Kock (wk), Aiden Markram,Hashim Amla, JP Duminy, David Miller,Kagiso Rabada, Dwaine Pertorius, AndilePhehlukwayo, Tabraiz Shamshi, ImranTahir, Lungi Ngidi, Chris Morris, Rassievan der Dussen, Beuran Hendricks.Sri Lanka: Dimuth Karunaratne (capt),Dhananjaya de Silva, Nuwan Pradeep,Avishka Fernando, Suranga Lakmal,Lasith Malinga, Angelo Mathews, KusalMendis, Jeevan Mendis, Kusal Perera,Thisara Perera, Milinda Siriwardana,Lahiru Thirimanne, Isuru Udana, JeffreyVandersay.

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� South Africa are alreadyknocked out of the play-off, does thatput you in a better position?

You can take it either way. When youhave no pressure of qualifying, they cancome and play without any pressure, fear-less cricket and that can get them going,so at the same time they can turn up andjust want to go home, so you never know.�Any changes for the No 6 position?

In terms of No 6 position, you areright that we tried a few players and wedidn't have much patience with any ofthem, so we have to be a little bit patientwith the one whoever we pick. And it alldepends on the combination that we wantto play against, the opposition, as well asthe venue that we are playing. So that alsowe need to decide in the morning of thegame.�How do you plan to take on ImranTahir?

He is a world-class bowler. It is notonly because we have the weakness ofplaying spin. I think our guys play spinokay, but he's a world-class performer. Thething for me I'm looking at is some of theplayers that are playing today not beingthere in South Africa, like Angelo and thenhe was not there, and Kusal did not playin the last few games and Dimuth as well,so they are in form. For us, fortunately,most of the top order got some runs some-where down the line, so hopefully we clickas a batting group this game.�You lost to South Africa 5-nil twomonths ago, but the conditions herewould make you think that you are inwith a chance?

Obviously, we think that we have agood chance because we are coming offtwo wins and a very good win againstEngland, although we didn't play our bestcricket to win the game in terms of bat-ting. And I think we had a perfect bowl-ing display, defending that target. I mean,the cricket is funny game. You can lose somany games and win the one that is themost important, it is this next game. Ithink we have enough talent and skill-setto compete with them today.�What do you as a coach have to tell thebatsmen to get them to produce moreconsistently?

That is what we have discussed, evenbefore the England game also. They allhave done this before, especially someonelike Mathews, a world-class player, and heshowed a lot of mental resilience in thatinnings because — he was under pressure,the team was under pressure for variousreason and he was not coming withoutmuch runs.

So he showed a lot of character sothose are the things we discussed and hav-ing partnership. He was in one or twopartnerships, even not batting well as hecould or we know he can bat, but still hada crucial partnership with Mathews and,of course, Mendis got involved in twogood partnerships with Angelo so thoseare the things that we normally talk, it'svery key for us to put partnership togeth-er and click as a batting group.�Has power hitting been a focus overthe last few days?

Yes, we have been practicing a lot ofpower hitting with various ways of usingthe nets facilities we have. The good thingthat what has worked for us is that the toporder, we had two good partnerships at thestart, apart from the last game. We knowthat what they can produce and we stillback them to do that so hopefully next fewgames they come off.

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South Africa will approach theirlast two matches at this ICC

Men's Cricket World Cup with thejoys of youth, according to middle-order batsman JP Duminy.

With just one win from sevenmatches, South Africa are unshack-led from the pressures of needingto qualify for the semi-finals.

And Duminy believes it couldbring out the best in them whenthey take on Sri Lanka at Chester-le-Street on Friday.

"(It's a chance to) go out andplay your natural game, your nat-urally-gifted game - and that's nota cop-out. That is just an under-standing that you have almost thelicence to just go out and play withthe freedom that you were allowedto play with almost as a young kidand play with a smile on your faceand play to enjoy the game,"Duminy said.

For Duminy, that mindset iseven more crucial because thistournament is his last. The 35-yearold announced his retirement fromODI cricket prior to the World Cupand wants to end his 15-yearcareer on a happy note.

"That's the kind of mentalitythat I certainly want to end myinternational one-day career with:just enjoying, having fun with myfriends on the field and under-

standing what a huge privilege itwas to represent my country somany times," he continued.

"It's something you shouldnever take for granted."

Duminy has played 197 ODIsfor South Africa and if he plays theremaining two games, will endwith 199 caps.

He could have had a fewmore but was benched afterthe first three matches of thetournament, having got intodouble-figures only once,and admitted that has madethis experience bittersweet.

"The last thing I wouldhave thought is playingthe first three games andbeing left out, particular-ly after a retirement call,"he said.

"But that's the natureof the beast. You're neverguaranteed a selection."

Instead, Duminyhopes he will leave a lega-cy in conduct and beremembered as a goodteam man.

"For me, legacy is notin performance. I thinklegacy is the person youare. It's about influenc-ing people in the rightway," Duminy said.

"When people lookback or think of you and

they've had the opportunity tointeract with you. I don't think ahundred is the thing they remem-ber. They remember the impactyou had on their life and I thinkthat is the most important thing forme."

But that does not meanDuminy is not hungry for a fewmore big shots and he wants to seeSouth Africa play to their poten-tial before they leave the WorldCup.

"The important missionfor us is to play good crick-et, the cricket we know andthe brand we know we arecapable of playing,"Duminy said.

Then he expectsSouth Africa to returnhome and rebuild,with the young playersthat are part of thissquad as the base andthe older players likehim around as asounding board aheadof the next time theyplay at a major tour-nament.

"We have alwaysbeen resilient, we have

always had opportuni-ties to come back and I

have no doubt that thisteam will come back

stronger and be even moreprepared and driven to put ina really good performance infour years' time," Duminysaid.

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They may have qualified for thesemi-finals, but Australia could

get their sternest test yet in theirpenultimate World Cup group gameagainst the team flying under every-one's radar, according to MitchellStarc.

While New Zealand slumped totheir first defeat of the tournamenton Wednesday, Starc believes they'rethe side quietly mounting a seriouscase to take out their maiden WorldCup title ahead of Saturday's clashbetween the trans-Tasman rivals atLord's.

Australia have zeroed in on ice-man Kane Williamson, who is aver-aging 138 in the tournament, in a bidto continue their winning ways afterknocking over pre-tournamentfavourites England by 64 runs earli-er this week.

"They are playing some fantasticcricket, they have really gone underthe radar," Starc said of the Kiwis toAustralian cricket websitecricket.com.au. "No-one has spokentoo much about them and they keepwinning games.

"They've got a strong side battingand bowling, Kane Williamson istheir linchpin in the middle there andthey've got bowlers who swing theball.

"It's another big game for us,

obviously we have cemented out spotin the semis - now we want to try andfinish as high as we can and playsome really good cricket headedtowards the finals series."

Starc famously knocked overthen Black Caps captain BrendonMcCullum in the first over of the2015 final, one of the World Cup'smost iconic moments.

But David Warner stressed his-tory will count for nothing onSaturday, when Australia will returnto the game's traditional home to face

NZ on the same wicket on which theybeat England.

"It is a new tournament, a newWorld Cup," Warner said. "They havebeen playing exceptional cricket,obviously led by their captain Kane- he is on fire, (and they have) obvi-ously bowled well too with the newball. "We have to come out here fresh,it will be a used wicket, there will besome sun in England for once and itmight bake the wicket a little bit. Wehave to prepare for what might bethrown at us."

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Page 16:  · The flight AI 191, escort-ed by UK Royal Air Force’s Eurofighter Typhoon fighter aircraft, landed at the Stansted airport in London around 9.50 am, Air India tweeted. “AI

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England are in a difficult positionbut in some ways I think nothaving the favourites tag will

suit them.Of course it was disappointing to

see them lose to Australia becausethat was an opportunity to get theirICC Men’s Cricket World Cup cam-paign back on track.

But the Australians took earlywickets and England did not, and thatwas the difference between the sidesat Lord’s.

That means England have a hugegame coming up against India, butwhere they started this tournamentwith the pressure of being favourites,that is not the case anymore.

It is still in their hands to reachthe semi-finals, if they win their nexttwo they are definitely in, and evenone win may well be enough.

Given they have lost a few games,I think some people have writtenthem off, so in some ways they wouldcome in under the radar if they doreach the semis.

For now, my advice would be tostay off social media. It’s natural aftera couple of losses for the doubts tocreep in, and you won’t be as confi-dent as you were.

But I know during the 2017Women’s Cricket World Cup, a lot ofus came off social media and Ifound it really useful. When we didwell, we didn’t get too high and car-ried away with the hype. And thenwhen things didn’t go as well, youmissed all the stuff that was beingsaid.

I know there has been some crit-icism about the performances but I’dadvise them to stay tight as a groupand focus on what they can control.

One person who has reallyimpressed me has been Ben Stokes

and he batted brilliantly againstAustralia. He’s been an inspirationalfigure, showing real character ontough wickets and when wicketshave been falling at the other end.

He struggled a bit from cramp atLord’s but that’s nothing new. Hetrains so hard that the coaches haveto try to convince him to take it easy.I think he’ll be fine for India thoughand that will be a big plus.

Hopefully Jason Roy will be backas well. His return would be a mas-sive boost because so many ofEngland’s wins over the last few years

have been after a good start, and he’sbeen integral to that.

In pressure games, in particular,you want to settle the nerves early,and that comes down to the openersand the opening bowlers.

If you do get off to a good startthat acts as a settler for the wholeteam. We saw against Australia howdifficult it is when you lose earlywickets, especially chasing a total ofnearly 300.

The wickets haven’t really suitedEngland in an ideal world, but thebest teams find a way to win. I think

England have evolved though. Theydid have periods where they went toohard but they have shown in the lastyear or so that they can rein it in andpunch out a score, or be sensible ina chase. That perhaps hasn’t been thecase in the past few games, but theyare capable.

The situation England are in isnot ideal, but they have to find a wayto adapt and to win. That is tourna-ment cricket, you just have to find away to get over the line.

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England vice-captain Joe Root hasurged his teammates to keep

their emotions in check during theWorld Cup game against India onSunday, a loss in which could knockthe pre-tournament favouritesout in a stunning reversal offortunes.

After an impressive start,England’s campaign hastapered off owing to back-to-back defeats against SriLanka and defendingc h a m p i o n sA u s t r a l i a .England arec u r re nt l yp l a c e dfourth inthe 10-team stand-ings witheight pointsfrom sevengames.

They runthe risk oflosing out ona semifinalspot as theyare pitteda g a i n s tIndia andN e wZealand intheir must-win last twoencounters.

“I personal-ly think we have to be verycalm about how weapproach the next couple ofgames because the gamesthemselves might get quiteemotional, especially with

the atmosphere at Edgbaston,” saidRoot, who is also the Test captain.

“We believe we’re still more thancapable of qualifying for the semi-finals and when that happens, itdoesn't really matter how you gotthere because that’s when the tour-

nament really starts to kick in,” headded.

Wins in both the encoun-ters would guarantee England’splace in the semifinals, andRoot said the hosts are up for

the challenge.“We’ll see these

two games as quarter-finals if you like,which in a way whenit comes round tothe knockout stageshould serve youwell,” he said.

“You’re goingto have to win biggames at somestage in the tour-nament if you’regoing to go onand win it, so itmay be that ourshave come just a

little bit soonerthan we anticipat-ed.”

Root, how-ever, admittedthat despiteplaying onhome turf, theywill also haveto cope withthe pressureexerted byBrimingham’shuge Indiancommunity

on Sunday.

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Mohamed Salah scored his first goal of theAfrica Cup of Nations as hosts Egypt secured

a place in the last 16 on Wednesday with a 2-0 winover the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Ahmed Elmohamady prodded Egypt ahead on25 minutes after a wicked Salah cross and theLiverpool star slammed in a second shortly beforehalf-time to spark frenzied celebrations at apacked Cairo International Stadium.

Record seven-time champions Egypt rode theirluck at times as DR Congo twice struck the cross-bar in the first half but the Group A leaders heldfirm to join Nigeria as the first teams through tothe knockout phase.

Salah was guilty of missing a hatful of chancesin the curtain-raiser and this season’s PremierLeague joint top scorer again threatened inside fiveminutes here when an interception broke his wayonly for the Egyptian to skew wide under pressure.

DR Congo fell behind for the second straightgame as Elmohamady forced home after the ballfell kindly to him following an aerial challenge withChristian Luyindama.

Having created the opener with his viciousright-wing cross, Salah then stung the palms of LeyMatampi with a powerful 25-yard free-kick.

With his side riding their luck, Salah rose tothe occasion and settled nerves two minutes beforehalf-time with a typically brilliant finish.

�%�� 2�5�& 9.�

Brazilian superstarNeymar wants to return

to Barcelona two years afterquitting the club to joinParis Saint-Germain,Barcelona’s vice-presidentsaid on Thursday.

“What is correct, at thecurrent time, what I haveread, what I have heard,which seems exact, is thatNeymar wants to come backto Barcelona,” JordiCardoner told a press con-ference at the Camp Nou.

But he stressed thatBarcelona had made no con-tact so far with the world’smost expensive footballerwho joined the Frenchchampions for 222 million

euros ($252 million).For the moment the club

acknowledged Neymar’sinterest in returning toBarcelona but said there wasno recruitment effort ontheir part to resign him.

“To say that Barça isworking on recruitingNeymar, that is something Icannot agree with,”Cardoner said.

“For the moment all thatis happening — and notonly with Neymar — is thata number of players wouldlike to play for a great clublike Barcelona. We will seewhat happens in timely fash-ion.”

“We are currently work-ing on the phase of decidingwhich players we will not be

keeping on next season,”said Cardoner.

“We are recruiting no-one at the moment, especial-ly not this player (Neymar)with whom we have had nocontact.”

However, media reportsindicated that intermedi-aries between PSG and Barcahad hammered out theterms of the deal whichwould free the Brazilian starto return to Barcelona thissummer.

According to otherSpanish media reports thisweek, Neymar has offered totake a pay cut of 12 millioneuros a year to return to theclub and Barca have reacheda ‘verbal agreement’ to takehim back.

The 27-year-old spentfour years at Camp Nou,winning the ChampionsLeague in 2015 and two LaLiga titles in a potent attack-ing trio alongside LionelMessi and Luis Suarez.

Any return for Neymarwould likely require Barca toraise funds through sales.Antoine Griezmann isexpected to join fromAtletico Madrid for 120 mil-lion euros while Frenkie deJong has already signed for75 million euros from Ajax.

The pay cut would seeNeymar’s salary clipped fromaround 36 million euros atPSG to the 24 million euroshe received at Barca prior tohis departure in 2017,according to the reports.

�%�� 9.39.

With the burden ofbeing world number

one lifted, Naomi Osakawill set her sights onWimbledon, buoyed by thesupport of Roger Federerand praying for a decentdraw this year.

The 21-year-oldJapanese starsaw herhopes of at h i r dconsecu-t i v eG r a n dS l a mtitle endin a dispirit-ing third round exit atRoland Garros.

She admitted that lossto Katerina Siniakova,ranked 42 at the time, was“the best thing that couldhave happened” for a play-er so uncomfortable in thespotlight.

Since then, she has losther top ranking and willhead into Wimbledon nextweek seeded at numbertwo.

Osaka could not bemore thrilled.

“During my entire clayseason, it kind of matteredand it showed because I waskind of stressed out theentire time,” she said whenasked about the intensescrutiny which came withbeing the world's top play-er who was hunting a Paristitle to add to her US andAustralian Open crowns.

“Now, I’m just kind ofhaving fun. I’m kind ofchilling.”

At the French Open,Osaka complained that thepressures she faced werecausing her to suffer con-stant headaches, stress andfatigue.

However, when theWimbledon draw is madeon Friday, more headachescould be on the way.

Her last two trips to theAll England Club haveended in back-to-back thirdround losses against playersat ease on grass courts.

In 2017, she was defeat-ed by five-time championVenus Williams who wenton to reach the final.

Last year, she fell toeventual championAngelique Kerber with

Osaka collecting just sixgames against the Germanon Centre Court.

Osaka has just one winon grass this summeralthough she did make thesemi-finals in Nottinghamlast year, losing to AshleighBarty, the Australian whohas since taken her worldtop ranking.

“You know, grass, I’mnot really that comfortablewith it,” admitted Osaka,who said the challenges lefther “screaming inside” dur-ing her win in Birminghamagainst Maria Sakkari lastweek.

“It’s just really differentto everything I have playedon. As a little kid, I neverplayed on grass.” It hasbeen a roller-coaster firsthalf of 2019 for Osaka.

Since winning theAustralian Open, she split

with coach Sascha Bajinand has yet to make anoth-er final.

However, she has pow-erful support in the shape of20-time major winnerFederer who faced similarbouts of fluctuating formand self-doubt in his earlyyears, especially after win-ning a first Slam atWimbledon in 2003.

“After that I also didn’twin everything. From hav-ing nothing to lose it sud-denly changes, everyonenow feels like it’s an amaz-ing win to beat you,” saidthe eight-time Wimbledonchampion.

“She has a head startwith her two Grand Slams.Now she’s done it, sheknows she can do it again.I think she’s doing prettywell. You can’t win everyweek, nobody does that.”

�%�� 9.39.�

Frank Lampard can be a suc-cessful manager of Chelsea

due to his work ethic and abilityto thrive under pressure, saysclose friend and fellow club legendJohn Terry.

Lampard — who along withTerry won a treasure trove of tro-phies including three PremierLeague titles and the 2012Champions League — is expect-ed to leave second tier Derby afterjust one season in managementand become Chelsea’s new man-ager.

Maurizio Sarri’s departure forJuventus after one season — inwhich they won the EuropaLeague and qualified for the

Champions League — opened theway for Lampard's return.

Terry told the Daily Mail it isnot because of their close friend-ship he believes Lampard — who

will become the 14th managersince Russian oligarch RomanAbramovich bought the club in2003 — will succeed in difficultcircumstances.

He believes Lampard has theright stuff to meet the challengeshead on. The thorniest could bethe fact that Chelsea cannotreplace their star player EdenHazard — who signed for RealMadrid — due to a transfer banalthough they are appealing it.

“After the season he has hadwith Derby and with Chelsea’stransfer ban in place, there is no-one better equipped than Frank tosucceed at Chelsea,” said Terry.

“It is perfect timing for himand the club.”

Terry, who is assistant coachat newly-promoted PremierLeague outfit Aston Villa, saidLampard is excellent in dealingwith pressure.

“Frank was under pressure to

succeed at Chelsea the day hearrived from West Ham (2001)and he never hid from that,” saidTerry.

“He revelled in it and went onto become Chelsea’s greatest-everplayer.

“What made him that playerwas his desire to drain everyounce out of his body and that ofeveryone around him in training.

“People would be amazed athis goal return but they just did-n’t realise how much dedicationwas put into that and his wholegame. “He is just as exacting onhimself now as a manager.” Terrysays that Lampard can use thetransfer ban to get the best out ofthe young players coming throughthe Chelsea academy.

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