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The Supreme Court onThursday ordered a probe

headed by former SC judgeJustice AK Patnaik into allega-tions made by advocate UtsavBains that there is a “corporate”conspiracy to frame the ChiefJustice of India (CJI) RanjanGogoi on charges of sexualmisconduct.

A Bench of Justices ArunMisra, RF Nariman andDeepak Gupta also directedDelhi Police, CBI andIntelligence Bureau to cooper-ate with Justice Patnaik in theprobe. On the completion ofinquiry, Justice (Retd) Patnaikwill file a report in a sealedcover before the court afterwhich the matter will be heardagain.

Justice Patnaik was earlierappointed by SC to probe theallegations against former CBIDirector Alok Verma.

Anguished over “system-atic attack” to malign the judi-ciary, the Supreme Court saidthat time has come to send amessage to the country that thetop court was “not vulnerable”and nobody can “remote con-trol” it either by money orpolitical power. The top court,warned that if such attemptswere not stopped the institu-tion “will die”.

During the course of thehearing, advocate Utsav Bains,who made the claim about aconspiracy to frame JusticeGogoi, filed an additional affi-davit in a sealed cover in thecourt in support of his claims.

The court - while examin-ing an affidavit by lawyer UtsavBains - noted that the allega-tions of “Bench fixing are soserious that it requires investi-gation”.

SC also noted that theprobe committee will not gointo the issue of sexual harass-ment allegations against the CJIand the outcome of the JusticePatnaik probe will not affect thein-house inquiry.

Meanwhile, Justice NVRamana, part of 3-memberin-house inquiry panel set upto examine the allegations ofsexual harassment againstChief Justice of India RanjanGogoi, recused himself from iton Thursday.

The development comes aday after the former apex courtwoman employee, who lev-elled the allegations againstthe CJI, wrote a letter to thepanel expressing reservationover the inclusion of JusticeRamana.

Observing that the apexcourt cannot be run by moneyor political power, a three-judge special Bench headed byJustice Arun Mishra said thatthe day has come for them torise and tell the country’s richand powerful that they are“playing with fire”.

“Do not think that theSupreme Court can be remotecontrolled by anything on theearth, whether money power or

political power,” the Benchsaid. “We are anguished withthe way this institution is beingtreated in the last three-fouryears and we must say that itwill die and it will not surviveif this will happen. There is sys-tematic attack, systematic gameto malign this great institution,”the court said.

The Bench said letters werebeing written and books werebeing printed in matters pend-ing in the court and this prac-tice has to be stopped.

“Do the rich and powerfulof this country think that theycan remote control theSupreme Court,” the Benchsaid.

The hard hitting observa-tions by the Bench came afterSolicitor General Tushar Mehtasaid there should be a probe bya special investigation team(SIT) on the allegations levelledby advocate Utsav Singh Bainsin his affidavit as he has

claimed a larger conspiracywhich concerns the adminis-tration of justice.

“You (Mehta) are provok-ing us to speak. We are notinclined to say but now listen.So many things are going on.There are serious allegationsthat need to be probed. TheSupreme Court cannot be runby money power or political power,” Justice Mishrasaid.

“It is an institution of youpeople and not ours. Judgescome and go but if these thingswill happen then it (institution)will die and it will not survive,”the Bench said.

During the hearing onThursday, the Bench said, “Wecannot mention several things.People are trying to manage thecourt registry by money power.When somebody tries toimprove things, he is killed andmaligned? We have come to this extent of blackmailing.”

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In an effort to boost itsdefences in the region facing

China on the Line of ActualControl (LAC), the Army incollaboration with the publicsector National HydroelectricPower Corporation (NHPC)will build tunnels or concretecaverns to store ammunition.

Huge bunkers will ensurethat the ammunition cannot bedestroyed by artillery fire oraerial bombing besides ensur-ing smooth supply of bombsand bullets to the troops with-out any hindrance.

The pilot project costingabout �15 crore for four tunnelshas to be completed within twoyears after the Army and theNHPC signed a MOU here onThursday. Three of the fourtunnels will be built in Sikkimand Arunachal Pradesh facingChina while the fourth willcome up in the mountain

region of Jammu division. Each ammunition bunker

has the capacity to store morethan 200 metric tonnes ofammunition and will also besafe from the vagaries of weath-er including ammunition get-ting damaged due to dampness.

Explaining the significanceof the project, officials saidChina already has built similarstorage tunnels in the Tibetregion. While India also hassimilar underground caverns inthe plain regions of the coun-try, this pilot project, if suc-cessful, will pave the way forconstructing similar dumps in

the inaccessible mountainregions facing China, they said.

Once the project meets allthe requirements of the Army,more such storage facilitiesmay come up in Ladakh whichhas a long border with Chinabesides some sensitive places inHimachal Pradesh, Uttrakhandand the north-eastern States,they said.

The Army had earlier triedto build such caverns in themountains of Sikkim but itproved to be expensive andissues like dampness and seep-age hampered the project.

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Congress on Thursday field-ed old-hand Ajay Rai from

Varanasi to take on PrimeMinister Narendra Modi, end-ing speculation of a possibleelectoral duel between PriyankaGandhi Vadra and the PM.

The suspense finally endedwith the party nominating Rai,who unsuccessfully contestedagainst Modi in 2014 and fin-ished third after the BJP leaderand AAP’s Arvind Kejriwal. In2014, Modi won by a margin ofover three lakh votes againstAam Aadmi Party leaderArvind Kejriwal.

While Modi got over5,81,000 votes, Rai managedabout 75,000 votes.

The party also fieldedMadhusudan Tiwari fromGorakhpur against BJP’s Ravi

Kishan, a popular Bhojpurifilm star.

Speculation on Priyankamaking her electoral debutfrom Varanasi had been rife forthe past few weeks and wasfuelled after Congress presidentRahul Gandhi, to a question onwhether he planned to field hissister against PM Modi, saidlast week, “I will leave you insuspense. Suspense is notalways a bad thing.”

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Country’s largest carmakerMaruti Suzuki India (MSI)

on Thursday announced that itwill stop sales of all diesel-engined cars from April 1,2020. This is the day thatBharat Stage 6 (BS6) emissionnorms come into force in Indiaand no old Bharat Stage 4diesel engined vehicles will beallowed to be registered.

“The Supreme Court hasmade it clear that it will notallow the sale and registrationof any BS4 from April 1, 2020”,MSI chairman RC Bhargavasaid explaining the decision.

Some of the company’smodels like Vitara Brezza andS-Cross currently come with adiesel engine option only.

During the carmakersannual results conference onThursday, Bhargava said mak-ing existing diesel engines BS6compatible was not technical-ly possible and also the cost ofa BS6 diesel option on smallercars would add at least �1 lakhto the existing cost of a diesel car.

Detailed report on P10

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With full Statehood as themain poll plank, the Aam

Aadmi Party (AAP) onThursday launched its mani-festo for general election. Withthe status, the DelhiGovernment "will have controlover land, law and order, policeand control over officials anddecision-making," AAP nation-al convener Arvind Kejriwalsaid while launching the mane-festo.

The manifesto covered arange of issues in 12 areas ofeducation, health, women safe-ty, police reforms, zero cor-ruption, jobs, land and housing,protection from sealing, clean-liness, pollution, transport, andYamuna rejuvenation.

It also explained how allthe other national Capitalshave power over local police,appointment and transfer ofofficials, land and city planning,housing, traffic and transportplanning and control over localbodies while Delhi has none of it.

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With an aim to createawareness against wildlife

crime, WWF — TRAFFIC(India) has put on displaySnow Leopard Panthera uncial,Greater One-Horned RhinoRhinoceros unicornis; pan-golins; Asian Elephant Elephasmaximus; and Don’t BuyTrouble (which lists prohibitedwildlife species for possessionor trade in India) at theCustoms checkpoint inTerminal 3 of Indira GandhiInternational airport (IGIA)in Delhi.

Ravi Singh, SecretaryGeneral and CEO of WWF-India, said, “Lack of awarenessis one of the biggest hurdles inefforts to curtail wildlife traf-ficking in the air transportsector. These displays will helpraise awareness and sensitiseboth travelers and airport staffabout wildlife trafficking.”

To educate air travelers on

wildlife crime -poaching andillegal trade, The IndianCustoms Department; TRAF-

FIC and WWF-India are reach-ing out to travelers passingthrough IGIA which is con-

sidered the busiest airport inthe world.

Dr Amandeep Singh,Additional Commissioner,Office of the Commissioner ofCustoms, IGI Airport,Terminal-3, Delhi, said, “Illegalwildlife trade has grown tobecome a very serious crimeglobally. Here at customs, werecognise this threat to ourcountry’s biodiversity and havetherefore undertaken thisawareness initiative to helpenlighten travelers as well ascustoms officials about thespecies impacted by illegalwildlife trade. Customs is fullybehind the efforts to controlwildlife crime in the country.”

At a time, when consumerdemand for wildlife products isa leading threat facing manywildlife species traffickers relyon existing transport links tosmuggle illegal wildlife prod-ucts to consumers across theworld.

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Prime Minister NarendraModi held a massive 7-km

roadshow in Varanasi, touch-ing all ancient ghats which havepresence of different commu-nities settled from across thecountry for centuries. Ahead offiling his nomination papers onFriday, the PM sought a secondterm for himself as party paint-ed the ancient city saffron.

Modi commenced hisroadshow by first garlandingthe statue of Banaras HinduUniversity (BHU) founderPandit Madan Mohan Malviyaand then proceeded in an openvehicle with thousands of sup-porters lined-up on both sides

raining flower petals on him.Clad in a saffron kurta,

Modi, in a repeat of 2014 road-show, greeted people with fold-ed hands and incessant waving.

Modi’s roadshow mean-dered through localities likeLanka, Assi Ghat, Sonarpur,Narad Ghat, Madanpura,Gadoliya and concluded atDashaswamegh Ghat wherehe performed the famousGanga Aarti amid sound of“Shankhs” and “Ghantis”.

Madanpura is largely aMuslim populated part of thecity where the Prime Ministerpassed through in the evening.

Modi, who will file hisnomination papers on Friday atabout 11.30 am in the presence

of NDA alliance partners,including Bihar Chief MinisterNitish Kumar, Shiv Sena chiefUdhav Thackeray and formerPunjab CM Prakash SinghBadal, was accompanied byUP CM Yogi Adityanath,Union Ministers Piyush Goyal,Sushma Swaraj, and JP Naddaduring the roadshow.

Amid loud shouts of“Modi, Modi”, the PrimeMinister’s cavalcade slowed-down at many places with thePM acknowledging peoplewaving at him from rooftops.

Boats in the Ganga werelighted with Modi’s cut-outand display of “Mai BhiChowkidar” and BJP’s symbollotus.

New Delhi: Supreme Courtjudge Indu Malhotra was onThursday appointed as a newmember of the in-houseenquiry panel set up to exam-ine the allegations of sexualharassment against ChiefJustice of India Ranjan Gogoi,following the recusal of JusticeNV Ramana.

Justice SA Bobde, who isheading the panel and is thesenior-most judge after the

CJI, has appointed JusticeMalhotra to the committee.

Justice Indira Banerjee isalso part of the panel.

“I have been given thepower to constitute or re-con-stitute the panel and conductthe inquiry... I have inducted anew member and this will besent to the full court forapproval... We are going to haveour first sitting as scheduled onFriday,” Justice Bobde told PTI.

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The Central AdministrativeTribunal (CAT) here on

Thursday stayed the order ofthe Election Commission sus-pending IAS officerMohammed Mohsin for check-ing Prime Minister NarendraModi’s helicopter inOdisha.

The officer from Karnatakacadre, deployed in Odisha as ageneral observer, was sus-pended on April 17 for check-ing Modi’s helicopter inSambalpur in violation ofnorms for dealing with SPGprotectees.

The CAT noted that therewas a circular regarding theSPG protectees that they areexempted from certain exam-inations on certain grounds.

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Special Task Force (STF) took the fouraccused including one Congress leader and

three suspended policemen on police remandfrom Thursday morning for interrogation inthe case of money being seized from a builderon the grounds of enforcing model code of con-duct. As per the sources the investigating offi-cer Kailash Panwar went to District JailSuddhowala and under his command the fouraccused were brought to STF premises.

The Superintendent of Police (Traffic),Prakash Chandra Arya was also present at theSTF office to take the statements of the sus-pended policemen for a departmental inquiry.

The STF Additional Superintendent ofPolice, Swatantra Kumar told The Pioneer onThursday, “All four accused were in the STFpremises all day. The investigation is still goingon.”

SP, Traffic, Prakash Chandra Arya said,“We went there to take statements of the sus-pended policemen for a departmental inquiryas they misused the power of a governmentemployee.”

It is also worth mentioning that on April29 the bail applications filed by the accused isto be taken up for hearing in district court.Their bail application has earlier been reject-ed in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate.

As per the sources, STF interrogated allfour accused separately in the presence of theiradvocates. STF is aiming to track the bag whichwas seized by the policemen on the night ofApril 4.

It is pertinent to mention here thatCongress leader Anupam Sharma, SubInspector Dinesh Negi, Constable HimanshuUpadhyay (driver of Garhwal InspectorGeneral (IG) Ajay Rautela) and ManojAdhikari were arrested by STF on the night ofApril 16 and were sent to 14 day judicial cus-tody in a case which saw cash seizure by threecops from property dealer Anurodh Panwarunder the pretext of checks and seizures for theenforcement of model code of conduct.

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After a considerable periodof inactivity, the Municipal

Corporation of Dehradun hasagain started a drive to removethe unauthorised vendorsencroaching on roads in theprovisional state capital. Earlier,during February too the MCDhad undertaken a similar cam-paign to rid the roads of ven-dors encroaching on publicspace but the drive failed tohave the desired impact.

When asked about it, themayor Sunil Uniyal ‘Gama’said, “Yes it is true that vendorswho were fined earlier wentback to their place as soon asour staff left. We are unable tokeep regular checks in such abig city as MCD lacksresources. However, we havedecided to take the help of thepolice for the task. The unau-thorised vendors and shop-keepers who are encroachingon roadsides and the footpathwill be fined. Also, we havefewer vendors zone which willbe increased after the end of theelection model code of con-duct.”

Meanwhile, theSuperintendent of Police (SP)City, Shweta Choubey and SP,Traffic, Prakash Chandra Arya

met mayorSunil Uniyal‘Gama’ onThursday todiscuss theissue. Further, adrive was heldto removee n c ro a c h i n gvendors fromvarious parts ofthe city.

MCD landd e p a r t m e n tsuperintendentD h a r m e s hPainyuli said,“We have seizedaround 50 bigsmall carts onthe first day ofthe drive.Around 35 to40 officials including policepersonnel participated in thedrive. The main areas coveredwere Dharmpur, Clock Tower,EC Road and Survey Chowk.The drive will be conductedregularly in the city.”

Adding further, the SP,City, Shweta Chobey said, “Thedrive was slow because of theelection process but now as thepolling is over we will be con-ducting it regularly. Half of theencroachments on the roadsare being done by the unau-

thorised vendors which createsdisorder and other problems onthe roads.”

SP, Traffic, PrakashChandra Arya said, “We faceproblems due to the vendorsstanding in unauthorisedplaces or on the side of theroad and footpaths. Further, wewill be helping MCD in thisdrive.’’

It is pertinent to mentionhere that though the MCDperiodically undertakes drivesto remove encroachments by

vendors and shopkeepers, theproblem has not been effec-tively resolved yet. Observerspoint out that as soon as theofficials leave, the vendorsreturn to the spots they wereencroaching earlier. The offi-cials and public representativesare also aware of this but haveso far failed to take effectiveaction due to various factors. Itremains to be seen whether thistime, the drive by the author-ities will be able to have a last-ing effect.

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Lieutenant commander PSwathi, one of the crew

members of ‘Navika SagarParikrama’ expedition whichsaw six women naval officerscircumnavigate the globe in anIndian built sail boat said thatnothing is impossible if oneaims to achieve it.

Talking to The Pioneerwhile in Dehradun to attend afunction recently she sharedher experience of the voyageand other aspects. Swathi said,“We were out there at sea andnone of us knew how it is goingto be for all of us. We startedthe training and only readabout the storms in books. Wewere told that the sea is muchmore challenging than it seems,but you cannot imagine how itis unless you step in. Therewere storms in the sea so hugethat sometimes we thoughtthat today is our last day.’’

She further said, “There isa saying about the ocean thatonce a sailor sails a boat thereis no looking back. It was scarybut we decided not to expressit in front of the other personso that we keep the motivationup to complete the journey.’’

Sharing her opinion onfewer women opting for thenavy she said, “This is all a

mindset, there is nothing likemen and women. When westarted the journey the firstthing we were told to followwas to leave our gender at thedoor of the institute. Womenare active in this field and anyother area which looks like amale dominated field. The onlything is the mindset that needsto be changed.’’

Swathi shared that shewanted to be a doctor butchose the navy as her fatherwanted one of his daughters tojoin the armed forces. “I alwayswanted to be a doctor as theyare like god to people. However,my father wanted me to jointhe army. After my class X fortwo weeks, I sat in the biologyclass even after I was enrolledin the maths stream. Then myfather came to know and Icompleted my stream withmaths in class XII. Now I feelgood to be a part of the navy.I think from every family onechild should serve in the armedforces.’’For the youth she said,“It is we who are capable ofsupporting ourselves, there isno one else. Parents shouldsupport their children in theirdecisions. Also, the youth todayare very dynamic and theyshould also remember thatnothing in this world is verytough to achieve.’’

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Centre for the Study of DevelopingSocieties (CSDS) has published

Status of Policing in India Report-2018in which Uttarakhand police has beenranked first in disposal of cases by policeand courts, and favourability towardswomen in the police force.

In this report police forces of 24states have been ranked on the basis of13 points and among the 24 statesUttarakhand Police have been placedin the top 10 States in overall perfor-mance.

Director General (DG) Law andOrder Ashok Kumar said, “We arehappy that we are being seen as peoplefriendly police and women officersalso are accepted here equally. We areproud that Uttarakhand Police is num-ber one in these two aspects. The areaswhere we are lacking, we will be work-ing on them.”

As per the report, UttarakhandPolice have been ranked first in disposalof cases by police and courts.Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh are onsecond and third positions respectively.

The second aspect in whichUttarakhand got the first rank is

favourability towards women in policeforce.

Haryana and Maharashtra are onsecond and third positions respective-ly. Uttarakhand police have also beengiven second position for being citizenfriendly.

Himachal Pradesh and Haryanaare on first and third positions respec-tively, while Punjab has been rankedleast citizen friendly among the 24States.

In the category of violent attitudetowards criminals, Uttarakhand Policehas been ranked on fifth position(descending order). Himachal Pradesh,Odisha and West Bengal are on first, second and third positions respec-tively.

The category in which states wereranked from least crime rates to maxi-mum crime rates, Uttarakhand is onfifth position (descending order).

Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, andJharkhand are on first, second and thirdpositions respectively.

Uttarakhand has been ranked thirdon the state wise ranking of responsesabout satisfaction with Police help afterhaving been contacted.

Jharkhand and Kerala are on firstand second positions respectively.

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Year after year the youths ofHaridwar have wondered

before casting their vote as towhen would the locals get 70per cent reservation in jobs inindustries. This question hasbeen raised by the local youthin the terms of successive gov-ernments. Even in the legisla-tive assembly, the same ques-tion has elicited many heateddiscussions and viewpoints onwhether the provision made bygovernment of employinglocals to 70 per cent of theirworkforce is valid or not.

Since the formation of thestate, the political parties havebeen assuring employment toatleast 70 per cent local youthsin industries set up here but tilltoday the political leaders have beenunable to frame any law or policy for thesame. When there is no legal frameworkfor such provision, locals getting their shareof employment in enterprises set up inestates of the State Infrastructure andIndustrial Development Corporation ofUttarakhand Limited (SIIDCUL) remainsdistant possibility. There is no such clausein industrial policy as well which advocatesonly priority to the local youth. As a result,even after a decade the industries in SIID-CUL have given employment to peoplefrom other states in much higher ratio thanlocal youths.

In the name of employment, the localyouths are given employment on con-

tractual basis only allege the local youths.Sachin Kumar, a resident of Jwalapur said,“I have been working in powder filling andpacking unit for the past eight years butstill I am a casual employee and not madepermanent on roll staff. Our salary is cuteven for non-working Sundays. Many ofmy seniors who are working for lesser peri-od but are from NCR region have beengiven promotions and appraisals but thereis step motherly treatment with locals.”

There are 600 plus industries in SIID-CUL and some in Bhagwanpur, Roorkee,Bahadrabad, Laksar and Haridwar indus-trial areas. When asked, the chairman ofSIIDCUL manufacturers Association ofUttarakhand Harendra Garg said, “There

is no such rule implemented for utilising70 per cent workforce from local area. Itwas just an advisory but not mandatory.There is hardly any difference in rulesapplicable on staff and contractual work-ers. Same labour laws are applicable toboth.”

For contractual workers and non-tech-nical workers, Rs 8,300 per month and theon-roll staff members up to Rs 15,000 permonth is paid. Labour union leaderAshwani Kumar said, “It is totally out ofquestion that 70 per cent reservation mustbe given to local youths. There is no man-date for that. The labourers have to fightfor their rights on their own. The politi-cal parties only misguide on this issue.”

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Governor Baby RaniMaurya presented the

Governor Award-2018 for bestresearcher at Raj Bhawan onThursday. This year, first, sec-ond and third prizes wereawarded in science and tech-nology research. Dr AnujNehra of UTU was awardedfirst prize for developing rapidHIV serum testing kit based onGraphene Oxide PolycarbonateTrack. This research work alsogot indo-US patent. AnilKumar of G B Pant University

of Agriculture and Technologygot the second prize for theresearch work in theAlterrnaria Blight disease inBrassica species. Komal ofDoon University was awardedthird prize for the researchwork in fuzzy lambda tech-nique.

The Governor announcedthat two more awards wouldbe added from next year forresearch work in social sci-ences and local languages. Shesaid that quality and originalresearch work is biggest stan-dard of prestige of any uni-

versity. Research work andstudies should be done in theuniversities to resolve the var-ious problems and challengesof society. Promoting the orig-inal research work and bene-fiting the society throughresearch work is motivebehind these awards, she said.Maurya further said that in thecontext of Uttarakhand State,the research work should befocused on economical devel-opment of mountainousregions, tourism, disastermanagement, Yoga, Ayurvedaand medicinal herbs.

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Though gusts of cool windin Dehradun during the

evening brought some relieffrom the soaring tempera-tures on Thursday, the peoplein the provisional state capitaland elsewhere in the statemight not get much relieffrom the heat on Friday. TheState meteorological centrehas forecast a mainly clear toa partly cloudy sky for the stateand the city today. Dry weath-er is to prevail in the state. Themaximum and minimum tem-peratures in Dehradun areexpected to be about 36 degreeCelsius and 20 degree Celsiusrespectively.

Meanwhile, the maximumand minimum temperaturesrecorded at various places ofthe state on Thursday were 37.1degree Celsius and 20.8 degreeCelsius respectively inDehradun, 38 degree Celsiusand 22.1 degree Celsius inPantnagar, 24.9 degree Celsiusand 12.9 degree Celsius inMukteshwar and 26.2-degreeCelsius and 15.2 degree Celsiusrespectively in New Tehri.

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Pulling up the StateGovernment for its failure

to follow the previous order foridentifying four potentiallocations for National Instituteof Technology (NIT) inUttarakhand, the High Courthas directed the petitioner tofile a contempt petition. Thedivision bench of chief justice

Ramesh Ranganathan andjustice Narayan Singh Dhanikobserved that due to thelethargy of the StateGovernment, this prominentinstitution could be shiftedout of the State.

The court pulled up boththe Central and Stategovernments on this issue.Earlier, it had directed theState Government to identifyfour locations out ofmountainous and plain regionsfor building the permanentcampus for NIT and inform thecourt about these potentiallocations by April 24. However,the State government failed todo so within the given time

frame. Hearing the publicinterest litigation filed againstshifting of NIT from Srinagarto Rajasthan, the high courtdivision bench expressed itsdissatisfaction and remarkedthat the issue appeared to havebeen affected by politics andbureaucracy.

The petitioner in the casehad earlier stated that the NITis situated along a highway inSrinagar due to which anumber of students have beeninvolved in road accidents.The institute lacks a permanentcampus due to which studentsregistered here are studying atJaipur in Rajasthan.

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The High Court has directedthe State to file an affidavit

in the court by Mondayexplaining why the factories

served closure notices forcausing pollution have notbeen closed down yet.

The counsel for theUttarakhand EnvironmentProtection and PollutionControl Board (UEPPCB)presented the list of factories inthe state to the division benchof chief justice RameshRanganathan and NarayanSingh Dhanik, informing thatnotices for closure had beenissued to units foundgenerating pollution.

However, theadministration, police andelectricity department are notcooperating to ensure thisaction.

Earlier, the State had

informed the court that noticeshad been issued to about 130polluting factories for closure.Udham Singh Nagar residentHimanshu Chandola had fileda PIL stating that there wereabout 28 industrial units in thearea that were generatingdangerous water and airpollution.

This has resulted in fataldiseases to locals and had alsorendered the agricultural landunfit for farming.

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Due to the double lineconstruct ion work

between Lucknow andRaibareli, several trains havebeen arriving considerablylate in Dehradun railwaystation. Upasana Express wasseven hours late onWednesday.

However, as JanataExpress which was suspendedfrom April 16 to 24 due to thedouble line constructionwork has resumed fromThursday, it is unlikely thatthe trains will be late becauseof construction work thereanymore.

Station Superintendentof Dehradun Railway stationsaid that two trains- Rapti-Ganga Express Gorakhpur

to Dehradun and Allahabad-Dehradun Link Express werelate on Thursday.

Station SuperintendentSitaram Sonkar said, “Thereare several reasons for a trainto be late, but the double lineconstruction work betweenLucknow and Raibareli isdefinitely a factor. JanataExpress has resumed fromThursday, so it is unlikely thatthe construction work therewill affect train timings anymore.”

He further added, “RaptiGanga Express is one and halfhour late, ongoingconstruct ion work nearLucknow is one of the factorsfor the delay. Allahabad-Dehradun Link Express isfour hours late.

Upasana Express reachedseven hours late onWednesday, because of thedouble line constructionwork it is taking a longerroute to run.

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Coming out openly in support of theemployees of the 108- emergency

ambulance service who have receivedtermination notice from the operatingcompany, the state unit of Congress partyhas claimed that the new company,Community Action and MotivationProgramme (CAMP) which is an NGOsupported by Rashtriya SwayamsewakSangh (RSS) has no experience ofoperating an important service like 108

emergency ambulance service.The contract of GVK EMRI

Company to operate 108 emergencyambulance service is ending on April 30as the state government had recentlyhanded over the task of operating the 108ambulance service to CAMP. As the termof its contract is ending on April 30, theGVK- EMRI management has issuedletters to the all its employees in whichit is mentioned that April 30 would betheir last day in service. After receivingthis notice the employees of the serviceare on warpath.

Addressing media persons at RajivBhawan, the headquarters of state unit ofCongress party, the Vice President SuryaKant Dhasmana said on Thursday thatthe state government has recentlydecided to hand over the operation of the108 ambulance service from the GVK -EMRI to the CAMPS. He said thecompany has zero experience of theoperating emergency care and it appearsthat the BJP rules states areaccommodating organisations with RSSideology.

Dhasmana criticised chief ministerTrivendra Singh Rawat who looks after

the health department for ignoring theissue of the more than 700 employees ofthe ambulance services who afterworking for more than 10 years are nowasked to leave their jobs. “The CMreportedly said that these workers are notgovernment workers so the governmentcannot do anything for them. I want toask him; does he seeks votes from onlygovernment employees?’’ Dhasmana saidthat the Congress party demands that theservices of all the workers who wereworking in the 108 ambulance serviceshould get employment in the newcompany on the salaries they werereceiving. He said that Congress partywould hit streets to ensure that the jobsof experienced workers is saved and the108 ambulance ser vice operatessmoothly. The Congress leader claimedthat he would meet the chief secretaryUtpal Kumar Singh and raise the issuewith him.

Launching a scathing attack on thestate government for pathetic healthservices, Dhasmana said that theincidences of women forced to givebirths on roads, toilets and hospital floorhighlights the condition of health service.

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Congress MLA fromKedarnath Manoj Rawat

has been appointed as theobserver of Congress party forthe high profile Bhopalparliamentary constituency ofMadhya Pradesh.

The constituency ishogging national limelight assenior Congress leader andformer chief minister ofMadhya Pradesh, DigvijaySingh coming out the selfimposed electoral sabbaticalspanning for a period of tenyears is locked in a toughbattle against Sadhvi PragyaSingh Thakur of BJP.

The outspoken Sadhvi outon bail has become the newposter girl of the saffron partyand with Digvijay Singhcredited with coining term'saffron terrorism', Bhopalconstituency has becomecynosure of all eyes.

The Kedarnath MLAwould be camping in Bhopalfrom Friday where he wouldtake part in electionmanagement and campaignfor the official party candidate.

After the end of polling inUttarakhand where voting washeld in first phase on April 11,many Congress leaders of theUttarakhand are campaigningfor party candidates in differentparts of the country. ThePradesh Congress Committee(PCC) president Pritam Singhis campaigning in Raibareliparliamentary seat in supportof UPA chairperson SoniaGandhi. Similarly former PCC

President, Kishore Upadhyayand senior Congress leaders JotSingh Bisht and Rajendra SinghBhandari are camping in Alwar.Here senior Congress leaderBhanwar Jitendra Singh is inelectoral fray. Manglaur MLA,Qazi Nizamuddin who is co incharge of the party inRajasthan, is campaigningextensively in different parts ofthe desert state. Deputy leaderof Congress legislature party ,

Karan Mahra and MLAs AdeshChauhan and Harish Dhamiwould be campaigning atAmethi where Congresspresident Rahul Gandhi istaking on a spirited challengeof Smriti Irani of BJP.

Apart from these leadersformer chief minister andGeneral Secretary of the AllIndia Congress Committee(AICC), Harish Rawat is alsocampaigning in different partsof the country. Rawat who iscontesting from Nainital-Udhan Singh Nagarconstituency against BJP Statepresident Ajay Bhatt left forAssam immediately after end ofvoting in Uttarakhand. He wasin party in charge of Assamwhich went to polls on April23. Rawat campaignedextensively in differentconstituencies of Assam and isconfident of good performanceof party in the important northeastern state. Harish Rawathas also campaigned inChandigarh. Here formerunion minister Pawan KumarBansal of Congress is pittedagainst sitting Member ofParliament Kirron Kher of BJP.

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After receiving assurancesfrom the director general

of National Mission for CleanGanga (NMCG), Rajiv RanjanMishra, BrahmachariAtmabodhanand who hasbeen fasting for 184 days,agreed to defer by one week,the day of him giving up evenwater. The NMCG DG alongwith executive director(projects) Ashok Kumarreached Matri Sadan here onThursday and had a detaileddiscussion with fasting asceticAtmabodhanand.

He assured that NMCGdirections would beimplemented and the issue ofhydro power projects on theGanga would be raised withthe government.

Speaking to The Pioneer,founder of Matri Sadan,Swami Shivanand said, thatfollowing the assurances

received, the date ofAtmabodhanand giving upwater has been deferred by aweek to May 2. If the

assurances are not executed bythen, he shall refrain fromdrinking water.”

Notably, Atmabodhanand

has been on a protest fast sinceOctober 24, 2018 and onThursday, he entered the 184thday of his self restraint.

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The fourth UltimateHimalayan Mountain

Terrain Biking Challenge waswon by Parviz Mardani of Iranand Lakshmi Magar of Nepal inthe men’s and women’scategories respectively. In theIndian category, Devender ofHimachal Pradesh andPoonam Rana of Uttarakhandwon in the men’s and women’scategories respectively.

Among the internationalcyclists in the men’s category,Kirti Sukprasarat and ParivakTanlet- both from Thailandcame second and thirdrespectively. Among thewomen, Noviyana of Indonesiaand Suratiya Bappa of Thailandcame in second and thirdrespectively.

Among the Indian cyclists,Kamlesh Rana of the armyand Shiven from HimachalPradesh came in second and

third respectively in the men’scategory.

The Ultimate HimalayanMountain Terrain BikingChallenge began from Nainitalon April 18 and saw thecompeting cyclists cover 564kilometres across eightdistricts. The participants

cycled through Almora,Kausani, Rudrapayag, Tehriand Chinyalisaud beforefinishing the challenge atMussoorie on Thursdaymorning.

The Uttarakhand TourismDevelopment Board additionalCEO C Ravishankar said that

the aim is to publiciseUttarakhand across the worldas a destination for adventuretourism through such activities.The State’s geography is idealfor mountain biking which iswhy the tourism departmentinvolved international cyclistsin this event.

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BJP candidate and outgoingMP from Chandigarh,

Kirron Kher has a total of Rs 30.8crore as movable and immovableassets .

As per the poll affidavitfiled by the actor turned politi-cian on Thursday, she has mov-able assets worth Rs 16,97,29,375and immovable assets amount-ing to Rs 13,91,40,760. Herspouse, noted actor AnupamKher's movable assets have beenpegged at Rs 14.86 crore.

The 66 years old Kher wasaccompanied by her husbandAnupam Kher, Haryana ChiefMinister Manohar Lal,Uttarakhand Chief MinisterTrivendra Singh Rawat andChandigarh BJP chief SanjayTandon while filing her nomi-nation.

Kher has declared 16 kg jew-ellery worth nearly Rs 4.64 crore,owns a Mercedes Benz worthover Rs 61 lakh and has a totalof cash in hand and fixeddeposits of Rs 10.54 crore. TheBJP candidate has revealed thather loan liabilities stood at Rs 25lakh.

In financial year 2017-18,her income was Rs 84,75,480 asper the tax return she filed. In2016-17, her annual income wasRs 3.09 crore, stated Kher’s affi-davit.

Before, filing her nomina-tion, she along with her husbandAnupam Kher, Uttarakhand CMTrivendra Singh Rawat andChandigarh BJP chief SanjayTandon also held a roadshow inthe city.

While she was enrolled as avoter in Mumbai north west par-liamentary constituency in

Maharashtra in 2014 polls, she isnow enrolled as a voter inChandigarh parliamentary seat.

She did her MA (EnglishLiterature) from Department ofEnglish, Panjab University in1973. Kher defeated PawanKumar Bansal in 2014 pollswhile riding high on Modi waveand lapping up the anti-incum-bency votes against Congress butshe is locked in a tough trian-gular battle in Chandigarh thistime.

Seeking a mandate for thesecond term, she is once againpitted against Congress’ nomineeand former four-time MP PawanKumar Bansal while the AamAadmi Party’s candidate is for-mer Minister HarmohanDhawan.

In 2014, Kher had registereda victory with a margin of morethan 69000 votes from her main

rival Congress’ Bansal.Chandigarh, which has

nearly 6.3 lakh voters, will voteon May 19 to decide its repre-sentative.

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Anupam Kher on Thursday saidthat the opposition’s agenda isonly to remove Prime MinisterNarendra Modi from the office.

“The opposition of does nottalk about its blueprint or visionfor the country,” he said whiletalking to a section of mediahere.Exuding confidence inModi's leadership, Anupam saidthat under the Prime Minister,the country is moving forward.

He said that there is a dif-ference between a doer and crit-icizer… Everybody wants a doerin this era, he added.

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Punjab Chief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh on

Thursday said the people ofBathinda would punishHarsimrat Badal for her arro-gance and the widespread sac-rilege cases under the Badalrule.

Harsimrat had completelybetrayed Punjab and its peopleby her total failure to supportthe state in its various con-frontations against the centralgovernment, in which herselfwas a union minister, said theChief Minister, adding thatBathinda will teach her a les-son.

Addressing a press confer-

ence here, soon after accom-panying Congress candidatefrom Bathinda, AmrinderSingh Raja Warring, to theDC office for filing his nomi-nation papers, he exuded con-fidence of a complete sweep bythe Congress in Punjab in

these Lok Sabha elections,Finance Minister Manpreet

Badal also accompanied theChief Minister, along withWarring and other seniorCongress leaders, who werealso present at the press con-ference.

The Chief Minister said thepeople of the state had not for-gotten Bargari or Kotkapura,which were a brazen attempt bythe Badals to create communaltension.

Prakash Singh Badal hadno business intervening in theBargari investigation, and theElection Commission crossedits line in shifting out a key SITofficer probing the incident,said the Chief Minister, addingthat people have not forgottenwhat the Badals did and wereaware of their efforts to createa communal divide in the state.“How can people forget bead-bi,” he quipped.

They (the Badals) will facethe consequences of their

actions, he warned, recallingthat the courts had put Badalbehind the bars even during hisprevious tenure.

He had full faith in the lawand the judiciary, said CaptainAmarinder, adding that thelaw will take its own course.

“We have to cleansePunjab of the Badals,” hedeclared, adding that heplanned to spend two days inBathinda, the constituency ofHarsimrat, and two inFerozepur, where her husbandand SAD president SukhbirBadal is contesting, to cam-paign against them. He said hewould expose the lies of theBadals on drugs and other

issues, and would ensure thatthe people are not misled bytheir fabrications.

Asked to comment onPratap Singh Bajwa’s remarksagainst the Congress highcommand’s decision to pinresponsibility for electoral per-formance on ministers andMLAs of the party in Punjab,Amarinder said while victoryor defeat was the responsibil-ity of the entire party, seniorleaders had to be held moreaccountable.

He warned that seniorleaders found trying to sabo-tage the prospects of any candidate would have to facethe consequences of theiractions.

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The Horticulture departmentof Himachal Pradesh on

Thursday said that apple crop hassuffered a huge damage in dif-ferent areas of the state in the lastfew days due to hailstorm.

All the development blocksof Shimla district, Ani develop-ment block of Kullu district andKarsog, Seraj, Gohar andSundernagar the developmentblocks of Mandi district have suf-fered heavy losses, a spokesmanof the Horticulture Departmentsaid.

He said instructions havebeen issued to the RegionalOfficers to take stock of the esti-mate of the damage caused byrecent hailstorm. They have

been asked to assess the lossalong with the officials ofRevenue department and send adetailed report to the Directorateof Horticulture departmentsoon.

The department has advisedthe horticulturists covered underthe weather-based crop insur-ance scheme to register theircomplaints or inform regardingthe loss caused by the hailstormto the Agricultural InsuranceCompany of India on toll-freenumber 1800-103-0061 so thatthey one of their representativecould also be included in assess-ing the loss.

The department has alreadydirected the insurance companyto assess the damage caused bythe hailstorm.

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When the Bharatiya JanataParty (BJP) took time to

announce candidates for thethree seats it contests in alliancewith SAD in Punjab, it wasthought that the saffron partywas exercising due diligence.But, the simmering discon-tentment within the party indi-cates that all is not well with thechoice of the candidates.

On all three seats, the mur-murs if dissent is being heardwhich is expected to turn intoboisterous voices against theparty affecting BJP’s pollprospects in Punjab.

Announcing the candi-dates on Tuesday, the party hasdropped its lone sitting MP andthe Union Minister VijaySampla and replaced him witha sitting legislator. For crucialseats of Amritsar andGurdaspur, the party has “para-dropped” Union Minister andRajya Sabha MP Hardeep Puriand Bollywood action starSunny Deol, respectively, as itscandidates.

With this, the ticket aspi-rants and hopefuls has appar-ently raised a banner of revoltagainst the party. Sampla haddescribed the denial of ticket tohim as “cow slaughter” whileAmritsar’s local Sikh face

Rajinder Mohan Singh Chhinais conspicuous by his absencefrom party events in the con-stituency.

Protesting againstHoshiarpur ticket to PhagwaraMLA Som Parkash, state BJP’sSC Morcha general secretarySheetal Angural has resignedfrom the party and accusedparty chief Shwet Malik of“selling” Sampla’s ticket for Rs11 crore.

In Gurdaspur, the twoticket aspirants — former MPVinod Khanna’s widon KavitaKhanna and Mumbai-basedbusinessman Swaran Salaria —are openly expressing theirresentment to bring in an

“outsider” to contest elections. Both Kavita Khanna and

Salaria had convened a meet-ing of their respective sup-porters following which theywould disclose their nextmove.

It has been learnt that thetwo leaders are also consider-ing the option of contesting asindependents from GurdaspurLok Sabha constituency andgive a tough fight to BJP’snominee.

Salaria, who had lost 2017byelection to Congress’ SunilJakhar, maintained that hewould make public his decisionregarding his future course ofaction by holding a press con-

ference on Saturday. While terming Sunny

Deol’s candidature fromGurdaspur as “betrayal”, KavitaKhanna made it clear that shewas weighing all options.

“I, along with VinodKhanna, had worked for thepeople of the Gurdaspur con-stituency for 20 years...I havefaith in God. Life is a journey.I have worked here for 20years. When Vinod ji wasunwell, I used to meet peopleof the constituency. Peoplewanted me as their MP,” shehad stated.

Confident of getting theticket, Kavita Khanna had beenmeeting people and the party

workers in Gurdaspur for thepast several weeks.

In fact, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, during hisGurdaspur rally in January,had recalled Vinod Khanna’sefforts for developing the area.

But, the BJP decided toplay its trump card of fieldinga celebrity on a weak seat. InGurdaspu too, BJP fieldedVinod Khanna to break theCongress’ winning spree.Bollywood’s yesteryears’ super-star had won the seat in 1998,1999, 2004 and also in 2014,and was popularly known as‘sardar of bridges’ for connect-ing remote villages in his con-stituency.

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The Allahabad Bank recently celebrated its155th foundation day. The bank’s zonal head

Seema Narang presided over the programmeheld on the occasion at the zonal office inDehradun.

Programmes were also held to mark theoccasion in other branches of the bank. A med-ical camp was held at the Dehradun main branch

to provide free basic health check ups to staffand customers of the bank. A blood donationcamp was held at the bank’s RPMC branch inwhich the staff and customers both donatedblood. Customer meets were held in variousbranches of the bank in Dehradun wherein cus-tomers were informed about new loan schemesand other facilities being offered by the bank.Narang thanked the bank’s customers for theircontinued trust in the bank.

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A56-year-old man wasarrested by the Delhi Police

on Thursday for allegedlykilling his mother and youngerbrother after stabbing themmultiple times in Dwarka’sBindapur area.

The incident occurred onTuesday evening. Police saidthe duo brothers were un-employed and used to fightover petty issues after con-suming alcohol.

The accused has been iden-tified as Sunil Arora, a residentof Vishwash Park near Delhi’sUttam Nagar area. While, thedeceased have been identifiedas, mother, Lata Arora (75) andbrother Rajender.

According to a seniorpolice official, one complainantNaresh Singh, a resident ofVishwash Park, Uttam Nagar,stated that when he was stand-ing near street number 5 onTuesday around 8.45 pm, hisneighbour Rajender camethere, who had some stabinjuries and was bleeding, andwas asking for help.

“Naresh further stated thatRajender told him that hiselder brother Sunil had stabbedhim and his mother. When

Singh, along with his friends,went to Rajender’s building, hiselder brother Sunil was stand-ing there with a knife in hishand and threatened us aftersaying that it is a family issueand do not come in between us.Thereafter, Sunil stabbedRajender and dragged him tohis flat,” said the senior policeofficial.

“Later, one Amit KumarMaurya, the neighbour of thedeceased, called police andinformed them about the inci-dent. While Naresh hadstopped two police men whenthey noticed them passingthrough the area and tookthem to the spot,” said thesenior police official.

“The victims were rushedto Deen Dayal UpadhyayHospital where Rajender wasdeclared brought dead. Later,his mother Lata Arora suc-cumbed to her injuries duringthe treatment,” said the seniorpolice official.

“A case under Section 302(murder) has been registeredand the accused has beenarrested. One knife, one brokenwooden bat and bend scissorwere recovered from thehouse,” said the police officialprivy to investigation.

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In order to facilitate smoothtransportation throughout

the Char Dham Yatra season,the transport department hastaken few steps to improve thefacilities this year. Various mea-sures have been planned con-sidering the problems facedduring the pilgrimage seasonlast year. These include differ-

ent dates for green card distri-bution to local and outsidevehicles, increase in the num-ber of technical staff andincrease in the number of vehi-cles provided by RTO duringYatra season.

Dehradun RegionalTransport Officer DineshChandra Pathoi informed thattransport department has takenfew steps to improve trans-portation facilities during thisyatra season. He said, “Tomake sure that pilgrims com-ing for Char Dham Yatra haveaffordable and comfortable

journey we have taken fewsteps. Last year there werecomplaints about people notgetting green card soonenough, so this year we haveincreased our technical staff forthis purpose.”

He further added,“Secondly, last year some of thelocal vehicle owners had com-plained that buses from outsidewere carrying local pilgrims toChar Dham which was affect-ing local business. Buses fromoutside the State not supposedto take passengers from onecity to another in the same

state. They are contract car-riages and are only allowed tobring passengers from outside.For the strict enforcement ofthis rule on borders, checkposts are made specifically sothat the passenger list can beverified.

They will also be providedwith a hologram that they haveto show in Rishikesh at the timeof receiving green card. If somevehicle is found with wrongpassenger list or taking pas-sengers as a stage carrier inUttarakhand, they will have topay challan and their green

card will be suspended for thisyear.”

When asked about com-plaints regarding fewer busesduring Yatra season he said,“From May 20 to May 31 orJune 5 we are going to increasethe number buses on the Yatraroute. Out of the 250 to 300 citybuses running in the region weare going to take 50 to 100buses. Also, because at thattime summer holidays inschools will be going on, we aregoing to ask for some schoolbuses too for use on the Yatraroute.”

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When suffering from a heart attack, thefirst 60 minutes, called as ‘golden hour’

are decisive. It is only through rapid treat-ment that further heart damage, or evenworse, can be prevented. With an aim toreach out to such people suffering heartattack or chest pain, the Indian Council ofMedical Research (ICMR) on Thursdaylaunched ‘Mission DELHI’, an emergencymedical service wherein a motorbike-borneassistance unit can be quickly summonedfor the patients.

The pilot project has been launched ina radius of three kilometres around the AllIndia Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)in the national Capital.

Under Mission DELHI (DelhiEmergency Life Heart-Attack Initiative),a pair of motorcycle-borne trained para-medic nurses would be thefirst responders for treating heart attack

patients.On getting a call (toll free no. 14430

and 1800111044), the pair would rush tothe spot, gather basic information on thepatient’s medical history, conduct a quickmedical examination, take the ECG, and

establish a virtual connect with the cardi-ologists at AIIMS and deliver expertmedical advice and treatment, AIIMSDirector Randeep Guleria said.

While the emergency treatment isbeing provided, a CATS ambulance willarrive and take the patient for further treat-ment. Even as the patient is on way to thehospital, doctors at AIIMS control centrewill evaluate the data received from thenurses to establish further course of treat-ment.

ICMR has signed a memorandumwith CATS for this project, ICMR DirectorGeneral Balram Bhargava said.

From Page 1The manifesto also accused

the BJP and the Congress ofavoiding the question of fullStatehood for Delhi.

The manifesto also men-tion that even today, the stanceof BJP and Congress has notbeen favourable towards grant-ing full Statehood to Delhi.

Addressing media personsDeputy Chief Minister ManishSisodia said that Delhi pay Rs1.5 lakh crore as income tax tothe Centre but in return theygive us Rs 325 crore only. "Wecan get Rs 5000 to 6000 croremore if Delhi become fullState," he said.

We could have stopped

sealing in 24 hours if itbecomes a full State. "Whyshould we pay so much and getso less in return? What haveDelhiites done to the centralgovernment to deserve this?The situation is similar to thetime before India gotIndependence.”

The ruling AAP in the cityis fighting the upcoming LokSabha election on the agenda ofgranting full Statehood toDelhi.

Raising the slogan of'Poorna Rajya Banao Jhadu kaButton Dabao', the party isbusy convincing people to votefor AAP to get full Statehoodfor Delhi.

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From Page 1“Misuse of the aviation sys-

tem by smugglers to evade cus-toms and other enforcementagencies is a major concern.Meanwhile, both internationaland domestic airline passengersare sometimes unaware aboutthe illegality of buying certainwildlife products and the graveconservation impact of theiractions on various species in thewild,” said a WWF official.

Manish Kumar, IRS,Commissioner of Customs, IGIAirport, said, “Stamping outwildlife crime and smuggling isa high priority objective for

Indian Customs. At the IGIAirport, we are constantly onalert against any attempts tosmuggle wildlife contrabands.We appreciate the efforts under-taken by TRAFFIC and WWF-India for engaging in initiativesthat will help to curtail smug-gling of wildlife products andderivatives.”

Dr Saket Badola, Head ofTRAFFIC’s India office, said,“This is the first time TRAFFIChas partnered with Customs atDelhi’s IGI airport and we hopethis partnership can be extend-ed to other airports in thecountry.”

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From Page 1Since the NHPC has the expertise to construct such tunnels

in tough terrain, the Army started negotiations last year for thepilot project and the proposal by the company was cost effec-tive and met all operational parameters of the force, they said.

Underground storage in the tunnels will provide improvedsafety, easier camouflage from enemy observation and satelliteimagery and protection from enemy strikes.

Also, the tunnels will be built in the folds of the mountainthereby providing safety and security from the weather and enemybombing. Moreover, as the conditions in the caverns are mon-itored and controlled, it ensures better safety of sensitive ammu-nition minimising accidental explosions. These cavern store bul-lets, anti-tank rockets and surface to air missiles.

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Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik onThursday reiterated his assessment that

the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) would play animportant role in formation of the next Government at theCentre as no national party would emergeas absolute majority winner after the cur-rent general elections.

Addressing a series of public meetingsduring his poll campaign for the BJD inMayurbhanj and Jagatsinghpur districts,

Patnaik asserted that the BJD has donevery well in the last three phases of the elec-tions to the Lok Sabha and the StateAssembly and would repeat its winningspree in the final round of polls on April29.

In Mayurbhanj, Patnaik alleged that aCentral Minister from Odisha had workedagainst establishment of the PanditRaghunath Murmu Medical College andHospital at Baripada.

Due to his Government’s efforts, how-ever, the hospital has become a reality

though the Centre contributed only 20 percent of its expenditure against the State’scontribution of 80 per cent.

(Patnaik had earlier during hisBaleswar campaigning also accused theUnion Minister from Odisha of being astumbling block in the settingup of the medical college and hospital at

Baleswar) During his tour of tribals-dominated

Mayurbhanj district, Patnaik also slammedthe Centre for totally ignoring the districtin the matter of building a railway network.

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The US State Departmentand a host of officials from

American covert agencies areset to make a beeline to Indiato get first-hand account andperspectives on the NationalThowheed Jamat (NTJ) thatexecuted the deadliest attack inthe region in the last onedecade by hitting luxury hotelsand churches in Sri Lanka onSunday.

The move comes as the USState Department was caughtunaware despite the NTJ twit-ter handle following at least sixofficials of the US Statedepartment officials but couldnot get an assessment on theoutfit’s nefarious agenda evenas India provided actionableinputs to Colombo two weeksbefore the bombings. The NTJhandle followed a total of 28handles.

Interestingly, the securityarchitecture of the servers ofNTJ’s online services is alsobased in the US which alsohosts the servers of Pakistan-based terror groups Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Tayyaba as also the Inter-Services Public Relations(ISPR).

According to the inputsprovided by India over twoweeks before the serial suicidebombings, the NTJ was plan-ning to target five-star hotelsand churches following whichthe Sri Lankan police issued analert to various police units butcould not prevent the attacks.

As per the inputs with theIndian agencies, the NTJ hadfirst tried to hit the Indianembassy in Colombo on April4 but after finding the securi-ty tight enough, the outfit triedto target the US embassy onApril 11 but to no avail.Following the failures, the NTJdecided to target the luxuryhotels and the churches onApril 21.

Post-26/11 Mumbai terrorattacks, the who’s who ofAmerican intelligence andinvestigation agencies had trav-elled to Mumbai to questionMohammad Ajmal Kasab, thelone terrorists nabbed in thecase.

However, the NIA teamhad returned empty-handedfrom the US that had visitedthe US in 2009 to quiz DavidColeman Headley, one of theconspirators of the Mumbaiterror attacks.

The NTJ clearly posed itselfas an anti-democracy organi-zation and posted radical reli-gious posts on itsTwitter han-dle with a follower base ofaround 3,000 people.

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As tension prevails betweenIndia and Pakistan post

Pulwama attack and the threeArmed Forces are now on fullalert to meet any situation,functional reorganisation ofIndian Navy towards improv-ing operational efficiencyformed the core of discussionsduring the three-day Navycommanders’ conferencewhich ended here on Thursday.

The conference assumedgreater significance in thebackdrop of Pulwama-associ-ated events that have broughtcountry’s defence under sharp-er focus and provided thehigher naval leadership aforum to discuss the emergingchallenges in the maritimedomain and fine tune thestrategies for responding to theevolving geo-strategic envi-ronment, officials said here.

Forty Central ReservePolice Force (CRPF) personnelwere killed on February 14 inPulwama in a suicide attack.The IAF carried out air strikeson Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM)training camp in Balakot,Pakistan on February 26.Pakistan retaliated the nextday and tried to conduct airstrikes against military instal-lations of India in Rajouri sec-tor.

Inaugurating the conclave,Defence Minister NirmalaSitharaman complimented theIndian Navy for maintaining a

high operational tempo and itsability to not only safeguardIndia’s interest in the maritimedomain but also coerce anadversary into submission aswas evident during the recentstandoff.

During the interaction, theDefence Minister reviewed thecombat readiness, pace of mod-ernisation and progress of var-ious acquisition and infra-structure related cases. Whilepraising the Indian Navy’s for-eign cooperation efforts tosupport the Navies in theregion, she urged the NavalCommanders to optimallyutilise available resources to

build a strong Navy that isready and vigilant to counterany challenge that may emerge in the maritimedomain.

Chairing the conference,Navy Chief Admiral SunilLanba addressed theCommanders on variousimportant issues pertaining tooperational readiness, capabil-ity enhancement, maintenance,op logistics, infrastructuredevelopment and humanresource management.

Functional Reorganisationof Indian Navy towardsimproving Operational effi-ciency’ and ‘Optimal Manning’

formed the core of discussionstowards finalising the longterm road map of the Navy.

In keeping with the Navy’sethos of harnessing niche tech-nologies, concrete plans toincorporate ‘Big Data Analytics’and ‘Artificial Intelligence’ forsolutions in the domains ofnaval combat, convergence ofnetworks, information, logis-tics, administration andequipment health monitoringfor sustained operation werealso discussed.

The next edition of NavalCommanders’ Conference isscheduled in October orNovember this year.

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Watching television orvideos or even playing

games on mobiles should notbe more than an hour at a gofor kids under 5, the WorldHealth Organisation (WHO)has said, concerned at the inac-tivity fueling a rise in the num-bers of obese or overweightchildren worldwide.

Toddlers are most vulner-able to screens. The WHO inits first of its guidelines for theparents said that infants aged18 months and younger shouldnot be exposed to any digitalmedia.

Obesity in young age canlead to premature death from

heart disease, diabetes, hyper-tension and some forms of can-cer. Also, shorter sleep durationhas been associated with moreTV viewing and time spentplaying computer games, saidthe global health agency in itsguidelines released recently toits member states.

It noted that under-fivesshould also be physically activeand get adequate sleep to helpdevelop good lifelong habitsand prevent obesity and otherdiseases in later life.

“What we are cautioningon is over-use of those elec-tronic screen times with youngchildren,” WHO expert Dr.Fiona Bull said in a statementhere.

The WHO said childrenbetween one and four years oldshould spend at least threehours in a variety of physicalactivities spread throughoutthe day. “Infants under oneshould interact in floor-based

play and avoid all screens,” itsaid as it noted that beinginactive is fueling a rise in thenumbers of obese or over-weight people worldwide.

“Preventing these deathsneeds to start in very early life,”Bull said.

One in three adults todayare overweight or obese, andone in four adults does not doenough physical activity, shesaid. “In this age group ofunder 5s, it is currently 40 mil-lion children around the world(who) are overweight. Of that(figure) 50 per cent are inAfrica and the southeast Asiaregion,” Bull said. That trans-lates into 5.9 per cent of chil-dren globally.

Noting that early child-hood is a period of rapid phys-ical and cognitive develop-ment during which habits areformed and family lifestyleroutines are adaptable, theWHO said, “sedentary behav-iors, whether riding motorizedtransport rather than walkingor cycling, sitting at a desk inschool, watching TV or playinginactive screen-based gamesare increasingly prevalent andassociated with poor healthoutcomes.”

Chronic insufficient sleepin children has been associat-ed with increased excessive fataccumulation as measured bybody mass index (BMI), itsaid.

6�� 1")" �New Delhi: While India provided actionable inputs to the SriLankan Government days ahead of the serial suicide bombingsin capital Colombo, the National Security Council Secretariatheaded by the National Security Advisor Ajit Doval did not both-er to ensure issuance of a travel advisory to Indians against vis-iting luxury hotels and churches in the island nation. Had thetravel advisory been issued in time, the precious lives of abouta dozen Indians killed in the attacks could have been saved. Thefailure has been brushed under the carpet and even an enquiryhas not been ordered till far for the lapse. PNS

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With the IndianM e t e o r o l o g i c a l

Department forecasting “nearnormal” monsoon this year, theAgriculture Ministry onThursday set its target forfoodgrain production duringkharif season 2019-20 at 147.9million tonnes (MT), with riceoutput pegged at 102 MT.These targets are higher whencompared to the actual kharifoutput for 2018-19, which is142.24 MT, as per the secondadvance estimates.

The Ministry also expectsthe production during the2019-20 rabi season to be ten-tatively around 143.2 MT. Atthe National Conference onAgriculture, officials said riceproduction would touch the102 MT-mark this kharif sea-son, while maize productionwould be around 21.3 MT.

The production of bumperfoodgrain output expected thiskharif season, cereals will beabout 35.8 MT, while that ofpulses would be around 10.1MT. The output of jowar, bajraand ragi will be 2.1 MT, 9.5 MTand 2.3 MT, respectively. Also,total oil seeds production islikely to be 25.84 MT and thesugarcane output is expected tobe 385.50 MT, the Ministrysaid. Cotton output is estimat-ed to be 35.75 million bales(each of 170 kg).

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Two days after Vice AdmiralBimal Verma approached

the Armed Forces Tribunalagain challenging the selectionof his junior Karambir Singh asthe next Navy chief, theTribunal on Thursday directedthe Central Government tosubmit its response withinthree weeks. The new Navychief takes over on May 31 afterincumbent Admiral SunilLanba retires that day. Vermain his plea had sought a stay onthe Government order onMarch 23 appointing Singh asthe next Navy chief.

Verma, now heading thestrategically importantAndaman and NicobarCommand, had earlier with-drawn his plea on April 8 afterthe Tribunal asked him to firstexhaust all other ways includ-ing seeking redress from theNavy through a statutory com-plaint. The officer, however,again appealed to the Tribunalon Tuesday. His daughterRhea Verma and AnkurChibber are representingVerma in the legal battle.Incidentally, Verma, youngerbrother of former Navy ChiefNirmal Verma, had filed thestatutory complaint on April10. The petitioner retires inNovember.

During the proceedingshere on Thursday, the centresought four weeks timesregarding the appeal filed byVerma on April 23 and the

matter will now come up forhearing again on May 20,Verma’s daughter Rhea said.She also said the central gov-ernment has to positivelydecide on the complaint byMay 15.

In the latest petition filed inthe Tribunal on Tuesday,Verma had sought that the gov-ernment order on March 23 toappoint Karambir Singh as thenext Navy Chief instead ofhim be stayed.

The petition filed by hisdaughter Rhea Verma said“Call for confidential reports ofthe applicant and Vice AdmiralKarambir… examine them tosee whether any irrelevant andextraneous considerations wereplaced to reject applicant’s caseand if so, to expunge the extra-neous considerations and directthe competent authority to re-examine the case,” theplea said.

The plea said the ViceAdmiral had filed a statutorycomplaint before the DefenceMinistry for not being appoint-ed the next Navy Chief despitebeing the senior most andasked it to decide the matterurgently within ten days. “Thecomplaint is still pending withthe competent authority andhence this original application(petition),” the plea said.

In a communication datedMarch 23, he had stated thatthe government has “illegally”and in a “wrongful” mannerappointed his junior KarambirSingh as the next Navy chief.

Verma had stated that hefelt that the respondents (gov-ernment) had illegally and in awrongful manner used the twoletters of Severe Displeasure,which were issued to him in2005 and 2007, to deny him thepost of the Navy chief.

The two letters were issuedto Verma on October 28, 2005,and June 20, 2007, and he waspromoted to the rank ofCommodore and Rear Admiralafterwards, thereby taking awaythe sting of the said letters.

Verma also said “it isimperative that the ArmedForces court apply the‘Wednesbury rule’ and consid-er whether relevant facts arenot considered and irrelevantfacts were considered by therespondents before passing theimpugned letter.”

The Naval headquartersforwarded the name of Vermaalong with Vice AdmiralKarambir Singh and ViceAdmiral Ajit Kumar, the FlagOfficer Commander-in-ChiefWestern Naval Command andVice Admiral Anil KumarChawla, the Flag OfficerC o m m a n d e r - i n - C h i e fSouthern Naval Command, tohead the Navy. Verma retiresin November end.

It is the second time in thecurrent NDA regime that theseniority tradition was over-looked. In the first case in2016, Bipin Rawat was appoint-ed the Army Chief supersedingthe senior most officer LtGeneral Pravin Bakshi.

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The Election Commission(EC) has made it clear that

candidates will have to bear thecost of advertising their crim-inal antecedents in TV andnewspapers as it comes in thecategory of ‘poll expenses’. Thepoll panel has made it com-pulsory for candidates con-testing elections to advertisetheir criminal antecedents inTV and newspapers at leastthrice during electioneering.

Though directions in thisregard were issued on October10, 2018, the rule is beingused for the first time in theongoing Lok Sabha elections.

EC officials said politicalparties have been informed

that candidates will have tobear the cost of the advertise-ment from their poll expenses.Some parties had approachedthe poll panel urging it toallow the advertisementexpenditure be borne by themand not the candidates.

The parties too will have toadvertise the criminal recordsof the candidates they havefielded. The expenditure ofadvertisement by the partieswill be borne by them.

This means that candi-dates and parties contesting theelections will have to publicisetheir criminal records at leaston three different dates inwidely circulated newspapersand popular TV channels dur-ing the campaign period.

Candidates who do nothave records have to mentionthat. The candidates will nowhave to fill up an amendedform (number 26). They willhave to inform parties abouttheir antecedents such as casesin which they have been con-victed and cases pendingagainst them.

The parties, the EC said,will be “obliged” to put theinformation about the candi-dates on their websites. The ECdirection of October, 2018 wassilent on whether the candi-dates will have to pay from their pocket for the pub-licity.

Parties which fail to com-ply, face the prospects of gettingtheir recognition withdrawn or

suspended. Candidates have tosubmit clippings of their dec-laration published in papersand parties have to submitdetails about the number ofsuch candidates in a state.

While there is a ceiling onexpenditure of candidates, theparties have no such limit.Candidates in Lok Sabha pollscan spend up to �70 lakh.

All registered political par-ties have to submit a statementof their election expenditure tothe election commission with-in 90 days of the completion ofthe Lok Sabha elections.

All candidates are requiredto submit their expenditurestatement to the poll panelwithin 30 days of the comple-tion of the elections.

New Delhi: Former Army chiefDalbir Singh Suhag has beenappointed as India’s next highcommissioner to Seychelles, acountry which is of strategicimportance to India in theIndian Ocean region.

“He is expected to take upthe assignment shortly,” theMinistry of External Affairs saidwhile making the announce-ment. General (retired) Suhagwas the Army chief from July31, 2014, to December 31,2016. He was also part of theIndian Peace Keeping Force(IPKF) in Sri Lanka in 1987.

His appointment as IndianHigh Commissioner toSeychelles comes amid deep-ening military ties betweenIndia and the island nation.

India is developingAssumption Island inSeychelles as a naval base toexpand its footprint in thestrategically-key region whereChina has been trying toenhance its military presence.

An agreement to developthe island was inked in 2015between India and Seychelles.

In June last year, SeychellesPresident Danny Faure visitedIndia during which both coun-tries agreed to work togetheron the Assumption Island pro-ject. Before his visit to India,there were reports from theisland nation that it was can-celling the pact with New Delhi. PTI

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The CBI has called formerUnion Minister and Telugu

Desam Party (TDP) leader YSChowdary for questioning inconnection with a bank fraudcase. He has been asked toappear on Friday at the agency’soffice at Bengaluru.

“I can confirm that I do nothave any connection, knowl-edge or acquaintance with thecompany referred or its affairsat any point time. I will be tak-ing appropriate steps in thematter,” Chowdary asserted.

The CBI had registered a

case against electrical equip-ment manufacturer Best andCrompton EngineeringProjects Limited for allegedlycheating Andhra Bank to thetune of �71 crore in 2017. In itsFIR against the Chennai-basedcompany and its five directors,including Managing DirectorKakulamarri Srinivas KalyanRao, the CBI has slappedcharges under Indian PenalCode sections pertaining tocriminal conspiracy, cheatingand forgery among others andrelevant provisions of thePrevention of Corruption Act,they added.

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Bengaluru: The CentralAdministrative Tribunal (CAT)here on Thursday stayed theorder of the ElectionCommission suspending IASofficer Mohammed Mohsinfor checking Prime MinisterNarendra Modi's helicopter inOdisha.

The officer from Karnatakacadre, deployed in Odisha as ageneral observer, was sus-pended on April 17 for check-ing Modi's helicopter inOdisha's Sambalpur in viola-tion of norms for dealing withSPG protectees and sent backto the state.

The CAT maintained thatduring an election processwhile reasonable assurances ofprotection and security must bemade available to SPG pro-tectees, it cannot be said "theyare eligible for anything and

everything."Mohsin had tried to check

some luggage in the convoy ofthe Prime Minister and the ECorder had said he had acted inviolation of existing instruc-tions of the commission.

In its order, the CAT, whichadjudicates disputes involvingcentral government employees,noted that there was a circularregarding the SPG protecteesthat they are exempted fromcertain examinations on certaingrounds.

It also said:"We will not gointo the SPG protectees guide-

lines as per the bluebook rightnow but the rule of law mustprevail."

The tribunal also took noteof the submission of the appli-cant's counsel who pointedout that there were news aboutheavy packages unloaded fromprime minister's cavalcadebeing taken away in othervehicle.

"It has been laid down thatSPG protectees are exemptedfrom checking. He should haveknown the instruction being anobserver. The reason for sus-pension is dereliction of duty,"a source in the EC had said fol-lowing suspension.

After the incident, Mohsinwas attached to the Sambalpurheadquarters and subsequent-ly sent back to Karnataka wherehe was attached with statechief electoral officer. PTI

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While articles as innocuousas “chuninda Kurta” and

“Bangali Mithai” threatening toupset Mamata Banerjee’sminority applecart, the BengalChief Minister on Thursdaytook initiative to control dam-age done by Narendra Modi’soff-the-cuff remark on how“Didi occasionally sends himchuninda Kurta and BangaliMithai.”

In an apparent bid to estab-lish her political differencewith Modi more than everbefore, the Chief Minister onThursday mounted a no-holds-barred attack on the PrimeMinister saying courtesy wasthe last thing that would appearin his dictionary.

“I sent him kurta andsweets as I regularly do to theother politicians irrespective oftheir political identity. But thatis a part of my courtesy andhere this man is trying tomake use of that to gain polit-ical points,” Banerjee told ahuge rally at Durgapur adding“I send such gifts during theDurga Pujas which representsmy culture and upbringing.”

The Prime Minister had inan interview to film starAkshay Kumar said that“though this may cause some

political flutter I must concedethat Mamata Didi often sendsme choicest kurta mostlyselected by her personally. Infact after learning that I hadliked the sweets sent to me byBangladesh Prime MinisterSheikh Hasina, she did thesame by regularly sending mesome delicious Bangali Mithai.”

A subsequent statementby Bengal BJP chief DilipGhosh tended to rub salt ininjury when he claimed “Ihave no problems in sendinggifts. Even I have a good per-sonal relationship with theChief Minister. I appreciateher gesture when she calls meup to inquire after my healthwhenever I am unwell.”

The Prime Ministerialinterview was televised onWednesday causing an imme-diate reaction in the ruling

Trinamool Congress circle evenas Banerjee’s nephew and MPAbhishek Banerjee said “hadsuch gifts been sent to him whyhe did not make it public ear-lier and why is he telling it now.”

Banerjee who earlier saidthat she would “send gifts tohim but not allow him to takevotes,” on Thursday increasedher decibel level followingreports that the Left Front theearlier ‘custodians’ of theminority votes in the State hadgone to town (read villages)raising questions on the “setting(read adjustment) betweenDidibhai and Modibhai.”

This even as BengalCPI(M) secretary and partypolitburo member SuryokantoMishra said “the PrimeMinister has finally spilled thebin exposing the real chemistrybetween the two sides. Wehave been for long been tellinghow the two sides were work-ing on an adjustment basiswhich first started in 2001when Mamata Banerjee sent abouquet to Modi when hebecame the Chief Minister ofGujarat.”

The Left leaders like SujanChakrabarty also demanded toknow from the Prime Ministeras to “reveal what more she hasbeen sending to you,” or“whether she has gifted you her

right hand Mukul Roy, andmany other leaders of the TMCand whether she has gifted youaway the entire TMC in Tripurato win power there.”

In an apparent bid to con-trol damage and to establish herclaim as the true champion ofthe minority cause — thatconstitutes about 30 percentvote in the State, Banerjee said.

Upping the ante the ChiefMinister reminded how thePrime Minister had “promised2 crore jobs per year but endedup taking away 3 crores in fiveyears of his rule. Most of suchjobs were lost during thedemonetisation which in itselfis a big scam and will beprobed when we come topower.”

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In a gruesome incident relat-ing to post poll-violence, a

homemaker was allegedlyforced to gulp down acid by herin-laws. Her fault: she hadvoted for Congress Party. Theincident took place on Tuesdayat Mohanpur village inMurshidabad parliamentaryconstituency and came to lighton Thursday.

Makhan Biwi, the victimwas fighting for her life in hos-pital, son Rafzal said. “Mymother was pulled back homeby her hair after she emergedfrom inside the booth. I triedto protect her but my father,

grandfather and uncles lockedme inside a room. From thereI saw them forcing apart hermouth and pouring acid in it.”

The boy and his sister werealso beaten up for trying tointervene, he said adding hermother had allegedly votedfor the Congress which was notliked by his family whichbacked the TMC. Murhsidabadhad already seen one poll-related death and three near-fatal injuries on Tuesday withalleged TMC goons stabbing todeath a Congress worker. Inother incidents three TMCworkers were grievouslyinjured in attack mounted bythe CPI(M) and Congress.

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Kannauj (UP): The ongoingLok Sabha election will see theend of those chanting "Namo,Namo", BSP supremoMayawati said on Thursday,while SP chief Akhilesh Yadavexpressed confidence that theSP-BSP-RLD alliance will givea new Prime Minister to thecountry.

Both the former UttarPradesh Chief Ministers wereaddressing a joint poll rallyhere, along with Rashtriya LokDal (RLD) president Ajit Singh,in favour of Dimple Yadav, thejoint candidate of the opposi-tion alliance from Kannauj.

Dimple, the sittingSamajwadi Party (SP) MP andthe wife of Akhilesh Yadav, isseeking re-election from thisparliamentary seat.

"This election will see theend of those chanting 'Namo,Namo' and pave the way forthose who shout Jai Bheem.Seeing your response, it appearsthat you are going to ensure thevictory of the alliance candi-dates," Mayawati told thecrowd.

Yadav called PrimeMinister Narendra Modi a"prachar mantri", or ministerfor publicity, and claimed thatthe SP-BSP-RLD combine inUttar Pradesh will give thecountry a new PM.

"Last time he came as a'chaiwala' (tea seller) and youtasted his tea. This time he hascome as a chowkidar (watch-man)," he mocked Modi.

"This alliance will give anew prime minister to thecountry and we will make anew Bharat," the SP chief said.

He added that the opposi-tion alliance is aimed at ensur-ing social justice and takingforward the ideals of B RAmbedkar, Ram ManoharLohia, Kanshi Ram andMulayam Singh Yadav.

Criticising the BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP) governmentover demonetisation, Yadav

said, "Has demonetisationeradicated corruption? Whereis the black money? They havemade the country hollow withtheir policies."

Earlier, his wife Dimpleclaimed that the BJP was con-spiring to deprive the backwardclasses and Dalits of educationand employment.

Playing the caste card tothe hilt, Mayawati remindedthe electorate that the Congressdid not implement the MandalCommission report.

She also said when theCongress was in power, it didnot give Bharat Ratna toAmbedkar. PTI

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Jalore/Ajmer/Kota: Congresspresident Rahul Gandhi onThursday accused PrimeMinister Narendra Modi ofdoing "injustice" to the peopleof the country in the last fiveyears, saying the 'acche dinayenge' slogan has now beenreplaced by 'chowkidar chorhai'.

He said there will be onlyone 'Hindustan' where justicewill be done when theCongress is voted to power.

During the day, Gandhiaddressed election rallies atJalore, Ajmer and Kota inRajasthan.

"If rich people are notjailed for not paying off loansthen farmers too will not bejailed. If lakhs and crores aregiven to them then the samewill be given to farmers,labourers, tribals, Dalits andsmall traders. There will be noinjustice in Hindustan. Thecountry will not be divided intwo Hindustans. There will beone Hindustan where justicewill be done," the Congresspresident said at a rally inJalore.

"PM Narendra Modi didinjustice with people of thecountry in the last five years.

Demonetisation and GST wereways to rob poor, labourers,small traders of their money,NYAY scheme will benefitthem," he alleged.

He said the Congress gov-ernment will listen to people's'mann ki baat' and run accord-ing to them.

"Five years ago, there was aslogan 'acche din ayenge' (good

days will come). Now peoplesay 'chowkidar chor hai' (watch-man is a thief) everywhere inthe country," he said.

Addressing a gathering inAjmer, Gandhi said, "On oneside there is Narendra Modiwho speaks lies one after theother wherever he goes and onthe other side, there is truth.Depositing Rs 15 lakh in bank

accounts, two crore jobs everyyear, reasonable price for farm-ers' crops were all lies."

He said the Congress haddone brainstorming with emi-nent economists for minimumincome guarantee 'Nyay'scheme to deposit Rs 72,000annually in individual bankaccounts of 25 crore poor peo-ple.

The Congress presidentsaid that people of the countryheard 'Mann ki Baat' in the pastfive years but the Congress'think-tank has done 'kaam kiBaat' by formulating the NYAYscheme.

"I want to thank Modi Ji foropening bank accounts. I amgoing to deposit money ofNYAY scheme in the sameaccounts. The money will bedeposited directly in bankaccounts of women of the fam-ilies," he said at an election rallyin Kota.

Gandhi stressed that themoney deposited through theNYAY scheme will move thewheels of the economy and cre-ate job opportunities for theyouth.

He said the Congress gov-ernment, if voted to power, willfill 22 lakh government jobs inone year, separate budget forfarmers, reservation for womenin state assemblies, Parliamentand in Government jobs. Healleged that the prime ministeris "protecting 15 rich people",including Mehul Choksi, AnilAmbani, Lalit Modi and NiravModi, who took bank loansworth several crore and did notpay back. PTI

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Ghazipur/Unnao (UP): BJPpresident Amit Shah onThursday claimed Oppositionleaders cannot look after thecountry's security.

Addressing a rally inGhazipur constituency of UttarPradesh, he alleged BSP supre-mo Mayawati and herSamajwadi Party and Congresscounterparts, Akhilesh Yadavand Rahul Gandhi, respective-ly, were upset with the Balakotair strikes.

"These 'mahamilavati' peo-ple talk about the country.Akhilesh, Mayawati andCongress cannot keep the coun-try safe," he said.

Shah said the BJP cannot do"ilu-ilu" with terrorists, an appar-ent reference to the popularshort form of 'I love you'.

"Though terrorists ofPakistan were killed (in theBalakot air strikes), there was anatmosphere of mourning in theoffices of 'Bua' (Mayawati),'Bhatija' (Akhilesh) and 'Rahulbaba'," he said.

"I could not find out as towhy they were so sad. Why were

they moving about with longfaces? Were those terrorists theirmaternal or paternal cousins?"he said.

The BJP chief asserted hisparty cannot play with the secu-rity of the country.

"If a bullet is fired from there(Pakistan), a bomb will be sentfrom here (India)... Eent kajawaab patthar se diya jayega (Ifsomeone throws bricks, willrespond by throwing rocks)," hesaid. Shah alleged the Congresswant to break the nation withthe "tukde-tukde" gang.

Pointing to the promise ofscrapping sedition law in theCongress manifesto, the BJPleader claimed the move is toprevent those raising "anti-national" slogans from going tojails. Union Minister and sittingMP Manoj Sinha is seeking re-election from the Ghazipur seat.

The BJP president alsoalleged that Purvanchal laggedbehind under the Congress gov-ernments, and came on theright track of progress after theBJP came to power.

Attacking the previous UPA

government, he said the tenyears when "mauni baba"(apparent reference to formerPM Manmohan Singh) was atthe helm, soldiers were behead-ed and the government took noaction.

"This is not happening any-more... Terror strikes took placeand the Modi government car-ried out air strikes... The mar-tyrdom of our soldiers wasavenged with surgical strikes," hesaid.

Taking a dig at RahulGandhi's "silence" over NCleader Omar Abdullah's "sepa-rate PM" remarks, Shah said,"Rahul Gandhi does not speaka word on Omar Abdullah as hefears that if he does, voters willgo away."

Omar had recently suggest-ed separate prime minister forKashmir.

Addressing another meetingin Unnao for party nomineeSakshi Maharaj, the senior BJPleader said the Yogi Adityanath-led state government has beensuccessful at checking "gunda"(hooligans) elements. PTI

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Sirsa (Haryana): Since the self-styled godman Gurmeet RamRahim was sentenced to life impris-onment in January for killing ajournalist, followers of his DeraSacha Sauda have been lying low atthe sprawling 800-acre campusoutside Sirsa in Haryana.

The followers say they are alsounsure about who to support in thiselection.

The Dera has been an impor-tant vote bank for parties for overa decade. In 2007, it had formed apolitical affairs wing which decid-ed which political party or politicianit will support.

During the 2007 Punjab

Assembly election, it supportedthe Congress.

In 2014 general election, the

Dera openly supported the BJP.But after the sentencing of

their flamboyant but controversialchief, the Dera and its politicalaffairs wing became dysfunctional,locals and followers said.

This, however, has not stoppedpolitical parties, including the BJPand the INLD, from saying they willnot refrain from seeking support ofthe once-influential Dera SachaSauda.

BJP leader and Haryana ChiefMinister Manohar Lal Khattar hassaid he was not averse to Dera sup-port in Lok Sabha election, anddefended his stance, saying it is apolitical party's "right to seek votes

in an election".INLD leader Abhay Singh

Chautala too has said his party willseek the Dera's support.

Punjab Congress chief SunilJakhar has ruled that option out.Jakhar said, "We shall not compro-mise with Sirsa Dera for the elec-tion after sacrilege (incidents) havebeen traced to it."

That political parties have madetheir stance clear may not have abearing on the Dera followers, whosay they are clueless.

"There used to be public meet-ings and then a decision was taken.It used to be of course not bindingbut suggestive in nature. But this

time, everyone is clueless about whowill the Dera support," said ChinderKaur, whose family has been thesect's supporter for decades.

A Dera functionary, who didnot wish to be identified, said,"Guru ji never told us who to votefor."

"It was the political affairs wingof the Dera to which political par-ties used to reach out and then pub-lic meetings were held with fol-lowers and a decision was taken,"the functionary said.

Several Dera followers, who didnot wish to come on record, said thepolitical affairs wing is almostredundant and hence the followers

will have to make their individualchoices.

"It is not just the political affairswing but everything about Dera hascome to a standstill. The manufac-turing plants for aloe vera products,bottled water, car batteries andconfectionery items are shut," saidBabita Gautam, who lives near theDera campus.

Gautam said many people havebeen rendered jobless because of theclosure of the Dera units. "Sowhom to vote for is still a questionin our neighbourhood."

In August 2017, a special CBIcourt sentenced the 50-year-oldRam Rahim to 20 years of impris-

onment for raping two female fol-lowers.

His conviction in the 2002 casetriggered widespread violence,arson and police firing. Thousandsof Dera followers rampagedthrough parts of Haryana. Over 40people died.

Though the Dera has tumbledsince then, Ram Rahim's followersand those who had a stake in hisbusiness live in large numbers inSirsa and surrounding districts. Itis yet to be seen how they react inthe polls.

Polling in Haryana, which has10 Lok Sabha constituencies, will beheld on May 12. PTI

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Bengal Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee on

Thursday announced thenames of three party leaders tocontest in the Assembly by-elections from Bhatpara,Habibpur and Islampur seats.

While former ministerMadan Mitra will contest fromBhatpara, Amal Kisku will filenomination from Habibpur.Another former MinisterAbdul Karim Chowdhury willcontest from Islampur seat,Banerjee said.

The by-polls to the fourassembly seats necessitatedafter resignations of sittingMLAs who are contesting the

Lok Sabha elections will be heldon May 19, the date for the lastphase of election to the LokSabha.

Banerjee also extendedsupport for Gorkha JanmuktiMorcha(GJM) leader BinayTamang in Darjeeling assemblyseat, which was vacated byAmar Singh Rai who is con-testing from Darjeeling LokSabha constituency as a jointGJM-TMC candidate.

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Ajoint team of securityforces early Thursday

morning neutralised twoHizbul Mujahideen terrorists,including an under graduate,pursuing course inPhysiotherapy, in BagenderMohalla of Bijbehara in SouthKashmir's Anantnag district.

Security forces sufferedno collateral damage in theclinical operation, launched inthe thickly populated areaafter receiving a specific intel-ligence input about the pres-ence of armed terrorists in thearea.

Since one of the terroristsneutralised in the gun fight wasa resident of Bijbehara, spo-radic protests were reported inthe area at several places.

The security forces exer-cised restraint to contain thelaw and order situation.

Police spokesman said,"security forces on Thursday

morning recovered two deadbodies from the hide out afterthe encounter was called off inthe area". One of the terroristwas identified as Safder AminBhat, a ninth class drop out,resident of village Zirpara inBijbehara. He was active in thearea since May 2017, policespokesman said.

Another terrorist, accord-ing to police was identified asBurhan Ahmad Ganie aliasSaifullah.

After completing his class12, Burhan was pursuing agraduate course inPhysiotherapy. He is a residentof Malipora Hablish, Kulgam,at present residing in SKColony of Anantnag. He wasactive in the area since June2018.

Police also recovered oneAK rifle and one SLR fromtheir hideout.

Meanwhile, security hasbeen beefed up along the 300km long Jammu-Srinagar

National Highway ahead ofthe shifting of the Durbarmove offices from April 27.

Due to strict security relat-ed restrictions, the state gov-ernment has chalked out acomprehensive schedule ofmovement of durbar moveemployees to ensure theirhassle free travel.

To prevent any attack onthe movement of the vehicleselaborate security arrange-ments would remain in place.

In the wake of regularsuspension of traf f ic on account of land sliding onthe National Highway thestate government has alreadymade parallel arrangementsacross different district head-quarters to meet any conti-gency.

Due to security restric-tions on the highway the stategovernment has also appealedto the state govt employees toremain alert and respond to thesituation appropriately.

/��3�� Barmer: Hajeeb Ali, 70, had to

mortgage his wife's jewellery tofeed fodder to his beloved cat-tle in Bandasar, a last village inBarmer Lok Sabha constituen-cy along the international bor-der with Pakistan. Ali is notalone in his village, a Muslim-dominated area.

There are many in Bandasarwho are facing acute difficultiesfor a long time to arrange fod-der in Barmer, which has nopasture land for cattle.

Shortage of fodder is amajor poll issue in the Thar dis-trict Lok Sabha constituency.

Ali says in every election,candidates of political partiescome to the village to seekvotes, but after winning polls,they never return.

A drought is a bad time forcattle as their source of fooddries up, even if they are aban-doned and allowed to roamfreely by farmers.

In Bandasar and 150 vil-lages nearby, small and big —such as Munabav, Ramsar,Bhigusi, Gagaria, Bhajpar,Derasar and Bikusar, whenthere is no rain, farmers have to

look for other things, includingworking under MGNREGAand going to Ahmedabad,around 500 kilometers fromBandasar, in search of work tofeed both family and cattle.

Ali has 28 cows and calves.But, he said, he and his wife,who considered them as a partof their family, worry every two-three days as to how to arrangefodder instead of feeding theirchildren as arrangement of theirfood cost them much less thanwhat cattle eat.

He says he has around 100acre land in Bandasar, but it islying useless as he cannot use it

because of the drought-situa-tion.

"I had to mortgage 170grams of gold jewellery of mywife to arrange money forfodder for my cattle. I and mywife consider cattle like ourfamily. Our cattle is everythingto us.

"Government should find apermanent solution to thisproblem existing across theThar desert area,” Ali said.

When there is rain, pastureland is easily available for cattle,Subha Momin, another villager,said.

Ramesh Chand, a former

sarpanch of the nearby bordervillage of Gatra, said theRajasthan government used torun fodder camps where cattlefood was available at subsidisedrates for farmers, but for the lastthree years, no such camp hasbeen organised.

Chand also said that farm-ers having not more than 12acres of land would only be cov-ered by the scheme, and becauseof this, most farmers, who havedesert land ranging from 40 to100 acres, are deprived of state-run programmes.

There are around 300 smalland big villages in Barmer LokSabha constituency, falling with-in a 50-70 -km radius from theinternational border.

Government has con-structed concrete wells to storerain water, but this is only use-ful when there is good amountof rainfall.

Due to water scarcity in thedesert area, people have to shellout Rs 2,000 to 3,000 to buy2,500 litres of water which isused for both family membersand cattle.

“Not only Barmer, the

entire Thar desert area ofRajasthan has been facing waterscarcity. But government isdoing nothing. Being far-reachareas, candidates come only forcampaigning, and once elec-tions are over, nobody comes tothese villages,” says Changa,who goes by his first name.

Apart from shortage of fod-der and water scarcity, health isalso an issue in those villageswhere no hospital facility hasbeen set up by authorities.

Desar village, 50 km fromthe international border, has apopulation of 6,000 persons, butit and its nearby areas do nothave any health facility.

Nawaj Ali, a villager, sayswhen a person has fever, he orhis family has to spend aroundRs 1,000 on the transportationto reach the city area of Barmerto get medical treatment.

"In case of emergency, wehave to rush patients to a healthfacility located at Barmer's citypoint to get him or her medicaltreatment, and this situation isa brisk business for trans-porters," he said. Barmer goes topolls on April 29. PTI

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Begusarai (Bihar): UnionMinister Giriraj Singh was onThursday booked for violatingmodel code of conduct by mak-ing controversial remarksagainst the Muslim communityat a rally here a day ago whereBJP national president AmitShah, among others, was pre-sent.

According to DistrictMagistrate, Begusarai, RahulKumar, the FIR was lodged atTown police station under rele-vant sections of theRepresentation of People Actand the Indian Penal Code tak-ing suo motu cognizance of the"controversial" remarks made bySingh at Wednesdays rally.

Besides Shah, the rally wasattended by a number of otherBJP leaders, including DeputyChief Minister Sushil KumarModi. Singh is contesting fromBegusarai Lok Sabha as theNDA candidate and he isengaged in a three-corneredfight with CPIs Kanhaiya Kumarand RJDs Tanveer Hassan.

Video footage of Singhsbrief address at the rally was tele-cast on news channels whereinhe can be heard saying, "I wouldlike to say, Giriraj Singh's ances-tors died and were cremated.You need a yard of land evenafter you die, for burial of yourmortal remains. If you say youcannot chant Vande Mataram,this nation will never forget you".

"There are many peoplewho are trying to spread com-munal passions. We will notallow that to happen anywherein Bihar including Begusarai.The RJD candidate inDarbhanga recently said he hadproblems with reciting VandeMataram", Singh said referringto Abdul Bari Siddiqui's com-ments on Sunday last.

"In Begusarai too, manycan be seen spewing venomwearing bade bhai ka kurtaand chhote bhai ka pyjama", hesaid referring to the long shirtsand short trousers that are usu-ally associated with devout mus-lims. PTI

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Bengaluru: With dissidencein ruling coalition partnerCongress surfacing again,Karnataka Chief Minister HDKumaraswamy on Thursdaytook stock of the situationwith his deputy GParameshwara and seniorMinister DK Shivakumar.

During the meeting, theCongress-JD(S) coalition lead-ers are said to havediscussedabout the threat by rebelCongress MLA RameshJarkiholi to quit the party alongwith other legislators with him,and its implications on theGovernment.

The meeting also came inthe backdrop of the BJP pre-dicting the fall of the coalitionGovernment after the LokSabha election results aredeclared on May 23.

Emerging out of the meet-ing with Chief Minister, whohas taken a break after busycampaigning for about amonth, Parameshwara ruledout any threat to the coalitionGovernment.

"We have discussed politicsalso, but we also have infor-mation that there are no suchdevelopments (threatening the

Government)," the Congressleader told reporters.

"we don't have any appre-hension about the collapse ofthe government as beingclaimed by the BJP," he said.

The government isstable,he asserted, adding they helddiscussions with the chief min-ister about facing drought sit-uation in parts of the state.

Speculation about thelongevity of the Congress-JD(S) coalition government inKarnataka has again come tothe fore after the second andfinal phase of Lok Sabha pollsin the state on Tuesday, withstate BJP chief B S Yeddyurappapredicting its collapse after theelection results.

There are talks withinpolitical circles that any adverseresults for the coalition in theLok Sabha polls will have itsimplications on the stability ofthe state government.

The Congress and JDS,which stitched an alliance aftercontesting the assembly elec-tions separately last year, had anunderstanding for theParliamentary polls despiteresentment amongthe grassroot workers and leaders of

both the parties.Adding to this was the

threat by Jarkiholi, who hasbeen hobnobbing with the BJPfor some time now and threat-ening he alongwith otherMLAs would resign fromCongress soon.

His public posturing hascaused fear among the rulingcoalition leaders as itcouldtrigger the number game in theassembly.

Karnataka PradeshCongress President DineshGundu Rao, however expressedhopethat Jarkiholi would thinkwith "good sense" and not quit.Rao also warned of adverseconsequence by believing inBJP.

"Congress has not done anyinjustice to him (Jarkiholi),party has always stood by him,he is five-timeMLA from theparty and has been a Minister.

"He too may not haveanynegative opinion against theparty and is giving somestate-ments due to some reasons, thisis my feeling," he added. Rao,however, ruled out any talkswith him and said May 23 LokSabha pollresults will put anend to every thing. PTI

Mumbai: From Dalit icon DrBabasaheb Ambedkar to notedCommunist leader SripadDange, many a political stal-wart have tried their luck inparliamentary elections fromMumbai.

There have also been sur-prises like when firebrand tradeunion leader George Fernandestrounced Congress heavy-weight S K Patil from theMumbai South Lok Sabha con-stituency in 1967.

Before delimitation in2008, the city district had threeLok Sabha constituencies -Mumbai South, South Centraland North Central.

Mumbai district was divid-

ed into Mumbai City andMumbai Suburb in 1990.

In 1952, Mumbai's parlia-mentary constituencies wereMumbai South, Mumbai Northand Mumbai Suburbs. While in1957, there were Mumbai CitySouth, Mumbai Central and

Mumbai North.In 1962, the Lok Sabha

seats were Mumbai City South,Mumbai City South Centraland Mumbai City NorthCentral (SC).

Ambedkar, who was thelaw minister in the JawaharlalNehru government formedafter independence, contestedas the candidate of theScheduled Caste Federation(SCF) from Mumbai North in1952.

However, the chiefConstitution-maker wasdefeated by Congress candidateNarayan Kajrolkar. Kajrolkarhad bagged 1,38,137 votes,while Ambedkar polled

1,23,576 votes.In 1957, Defence Minister

V K Krishna Menon of theCongress won from MumbaiNorth.

While Dange, a foundingmember of the CommunistParty of India (CPI), was elect-ed to the Lok Sabha fromMumbai Central in 1957,Fernandes emerged as a "giantkiller" in 1967 by defeatingCongress's Patil from MumbaiSouth.

Another interesting fea-ture is that in 1971, Shiv Senaleader Manohar Joshi contest-ed from Mumbai NorthCentral but lost to R DBhandare of the Congress.

In 1984, Joshi, who laterwent on to become the firstShiv Sena Chief Minister ofMaharashtra, unsuccessfullycontested as the BJP nomineeagainst Sharad Dighe of theCongress from Mumbai NorthCentral.

Another top Sena leader,Wamanrao Mahadik, had con-tested on a BJP ticket fromMumbai South Central in 1984.

Communist and socialistleaders have left their deepimprint on the political land-scape of the financial capital ofthe country, which was oncehome to a large number of tex-tile mills.

Communist stalwart

Ahilya Rangnekar was electedfrom Mumbai North Central in1977 and Pramila Dandavate,the wife of former Union min-ister Madhu Dandavate, hadmade it to the Lok Sabha fromthe same constituency in 1980.

In 1984, trade unionistDatta Samant was elected to theLower House of Parliamentfrom Mumbai South-Central asan independent.

The metropolis now hashalf a dozen Lok Sabha seats —Mumbai North, MumbaiNorth-West, Mumbai North-East, Mumbai North-Central,Mumbai South-Central andMumbai South — which go tothe polls on April 29. PTI

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Srinagar: National Conferencechief Farooq Abdullah onThursday said those who aretrying to repeal articles 370 and35-A of the Constitution,which guarantee special statusto Jammu & Kashmir, are play-ing with fire.

"The need of the hour is todouse these flames and not toadd fuel to the fire," Abdullahsaid, addressing a poll cam-paign rally at Devsar in Kulgamdistrict.

The forme Chief Ministerasserted that no one can sub-due Kashmiris.

“History bears the testi-mony to the fact that no onewas able to enslave Kashmiris.We have fought Mughals,Pathans and other despoticregimes and never let anyonesubdue us.

"New Delhi will have ourrespect, only if they respect thepeople of this State. No oneshould dare tinker with our self

esteem for the Kashmiris havealways responded to the brick-bats thrown at them with deter-mination,” he said.

Cautioning the peopleagainst forces inimical to thestate's special status, Abdullahsaid the forces which havebeen inimical to the state'sspecial status come in differenthues and colors trying todestroy it.

"Kashmiris, however, havenever allowed such forces tosucceed in their nefariousdesigns; today the situation isno different. Today we see theBJP-RSS cheekily taking vowsto destroy the identity andintegrity of our State,” he said.

He added that articles 370and 35-A protect the statenatives rights to jobs, landholdings and scholarships.

"Any move to scuttle thearticles will have far reachingconsequences on the people ofthe state. So it is imperative for

the the people across the state,in particular the people ofsouth Kashmir to vote. Everyvote you cast will set therecourse of our State for thenext half a decade," he added.

The former chief ministersaid the people of Kashmir cantackle their problems onlythrough ballots and not guns.

“The problem cannot beresolved by using guns or pelt-ing stones. It is only throughthe use of vote that the peopleof Kashmir can find a way for-ward.

"The gun culture has onlyadded to the miseries of thepeople and made us suscepti-ble to the machinations ofthose who are inimical to ouridentity. The people have toforge unity and come in largenumbers to vote in order tosave the identity, integrity, plu-ralistic visage and special con-stitutional status of our state,”he said. PTI

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Mumbai: Defence MinisterNirmala Sitharaman onThursday denied Opposition'sallegation that the BJP waspoliticising security forces' val-our to seek votes, saying herparty was only talking about the"political will" necessary to com-bat terror.

""Who is politicising the(valour of) security forces? Wehaven't done it," she said, speak-ing to reporters here.

The UPA government ledby Manmohan Singh lackedthe political will to combat ter-rorism which was evident afterthe 26/11 Mumbai attack, theBJP leader said.

The Narendra Modi gov-ernment took "decisive" stepsand showed "political will" tocombat terror, which was seenin the 2016 surgical strike andBalakot air strike in February inthe aftermath of Uri andPulwama attacks, respectively,Sitharaman said.

"The Congress feels hesitantto talk about political will, henceit thinks we are politicising (thevalour of soldiers)," she said.

"We are not politicising the

valour, but talking about thepolitical leadership's will to takeaction which is not politicisa-tion," the defence minister said.

She also attacked theCongress over its poll promiseto review the Armed Forces(Special Powers) Act, saying itwould be difficult for the Armyto operate in a state such asJammu and Kashmir in itsabsence.

"For AFSPA to be removed,changes have to be brought onthe ground first through pro-grammes. Till that time, it can-not be removed," the ministersaid. Sitharaman also hit out atOpposition for questioning theBalakot air strike or seeking theproof of the surgical strike.

She felt "sad", she said,adding that Pakistan would likeOpposition's language.

To a question, Sitharamansaid due procedure was fol-lowed in negotiating the Rafaledeal. There was no need tochange the defence procure-ment policy in the context of thedeal, which the Congress iscriticising for alleged irregular-ities, she added. PTI

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Bengaluru: In the wake of theterror attacks in Sri Lanka, thepolice here on Thursdaystepped up security and initi-ated elaborate measures to pre-vent such an incident.

In addition, the police havedecided to set up ananti-ter-rorist cell in the city and havewritten to KarnatakaGovernment in this regard.

As part of the measures,the police convened a meetingwith head of variousinstitu-tions, religious places and com-mercial establishment with afootfall of more than 500.

Speaking to reporters afterthe meeting, city police com-missioner T Suneel Kumarsaidhe has instructed deputy com-missioners to gather informa-tion on religious places wherelots of people congregate.

The deputy commission-ers, in turn, have been direct-ed to instruct the managers ofmalls and hotels. Further, thecommissioner decided to holda meeting with the trustees,board members and managersof religious institutions andcommercial places. PTI

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Mumbai: Union Home MinisterRajnath Singh has said Indianauthorities shared "actionable"intelligence with Sri Lankabefore the serial blasts rocked theneighbouring country.

Nearly 360 people werekilled in the Easter Sundaybombings in the islandnation."Desired and actionableinputs were shared with theauthorities in Sri Lanka prior tothe blasts. But unfortunately,they (plotters) succeeded," Singhtold PTI.

Asked if Sri Lanka failed toact on those inputs, he said it isnot a question of blaming thatcountry's Government for it.

Nine suicide bombers,believed to be members of localIslamist extremist group namedNational Thowheed Jamath(NTJ), carried out the series ofblasts that tore through threechurches and three luxuryhotels.

However, the NTJ has not

claimed responsibility for theattacks.

According to officials, intel-ligence inputs about a possibleterror attack in Sri Lanka, tar-geting the Indian HighCommission, were shared byIndian agencies with their coun-terparts in the island nation ear-lier this month after the NationalInvestigation Agency complet-ed its probe into an ISIS-inspiredmodule planning to kill promi-nent leaders in south India.

The inputs were sentthrough diplomatic channels toSri Lanka after a thorough inves-tigation pertaining to the ISIScase in Coimbatore was carriedout by the NIA, which has fileda charge sheet against seven peo-ple. During investigation, theprobe team had stumbled uponvideos of NTJ leader ZahranHashim, which was indicative ofa terror attack on the IndianHigh Commission in Colombo.

PTI

Bengaluru: With polls endingfor all 28 LoK Sabha con-stituencies in Karnataka,Congress and BJP turned theirfocus on Thursday on finalis-ing candidates for Chincholiand Kundgol assembly con-stituencies for the May 19 by-elections.

BJP held its core commit-tee meeting under theleader-ship of State chief BSYeddyurappa to finalise itscan-didates for both the assemblysegments.

Pradesh CongressPresident Dinesh Gundu Raotoo held meetings to discussthe preparations for the by-election and selection of can-didates.

Congress and JD(S) havedecided to go to polls togeth-er by fielding a consensus can-didate from the grand oldparty, as both seats were heldby it.

The outcome of by-polls

along with Lok Sabha resultsiscrucial for the ruling Congress-JD(S) alliance as it would havea bearing on the longevity ofthe coalition Government,triggering the number game inthe Assembly.

Bypoll to Chincholi wasnecessitated as Umesh Jadhavquit as Congress MLA andjoined the BJP to contest LokSabha pollsfrom Gulbarga,while Kundgol seat fell vacantfollowing thedeath of MLAand Minister C S Shivalli.

The last date to file nom-ination is on April 29.

Speaking to reportersafter the core committeemeeting Yeddyurappa said,"We have recommended onename each for boththe con-stituencies to Delhi (partycentral leadership) afterdis-cussion.

It will be finalised tomor-row and from Delhi the can-didates will be announced.

We will win both the seatsandwe are making all prepa-rations."

"We also discussedprospects of Lok Sabha polls.According to our leaders andfeed back received from variousplaces we will win minimum 22seats (out of 28). We havethatconfidence. We may wineven more," he added. PTI

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Sri Lanka is no stranger to violence— a complete generation under-went the ordeals of the Tamil-Sinhala Civil War (1976-2009). Butthe serial blasts that bloodied the

Easter celebrations in the island lastSunday were on a different plane. Its rootsseem to puzzle those who had studied thehistory of Sri Lanka.

Tamil insurgency was an outgrowth ofbad blood between the two ethnic commu-nities viz, Tamil and Sinhala, in post-colo-nial Sri Lanka (then called Ceylon). Thesetwo communities, unequal in size andinhabiting different geographical zones ofthe island, once viewed themselves as co-founders of the island’s civilisation. For onecomplete century between the Colebrooke-Cameron Reforms (1829-32) — which gavecolonial Ceylon a legislative council — andthe Donoughmore Commission (1931),when territorial elections were introduced,the relationship between the Tamils andSinhalese deteriorated sharply.

The Tamils, though in a numericalminority, could previously take a much-relaxed view as long as their representationin the Council was the same as theSinhalese. But as political reforms pro-gressed in the crown colony, relationshipsworsened under the shadow of Sinhalamajoritarianism. The Tamils were themakers of modern Ceylon. But they foundthemselves falling from the frying pan tothe fire after Ceylon gained independence.

Between 1951 and 1976, one findsTamils trying to fashion various politicalresponses to the Sinhala clout. Thenfinally came the Vaddukoddai Resolution(May 14, 1976), which pitched for an inde-pendent “Tamil Eelam”, an expression firstused in modern time as early as 1923 bySir Ponnambalam Arunachalam (1853-1924). The uncrowned king of CeyloneseTamil civilian politics viz , SJVChelvanayakam (1898-1977), exhorted theTamil youth to take up arms to resistSinhalese hegemony.

An independent Tamil Eelam was,thus, not the brainchild of either theTamil Eelam Liberation Organisation(TELO), or the Liberation Tigers of TamilEelam (LTTE) or People’s LiberationOrganisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE). Buta resolution passed by those politicians whohad tried to handle the issue byConstitutional means for far too long with-out any success. The situation erupted intoa bloody, messy and cruel civil war that last-ed for three decades. It ended in May 2009with the defeat of the LTTE by the SriLankan Army, accompanied by the carnageof Tamils caught in the crossfire.

The Easter bloodbath, on the otherhand, does not seem to be an outgrowthof natural politics. It was directed againstChristians (regardless of ethnicity) and for-eigners, who stay in plush hotels likeShangri-La, Cinnamon Grand and

Kingsbury in Colombo. Theblasts coincided with the US-Sri Lanka Naval exercise off theHambantota Port, owned byChina on a 99-year lease.

The Sri LankanGovernment found the blaststo be the handiwork of Islamicradicals, and the Islamic Statehas claimed responsibility forthe bombings. Both Christiansand Muslims are small minori-ties and do not hope to play anindependent role in the over-all politics of the island. Theydo not have a history of turn-ing against one another as agroup either.

The Muslims, who have adominant presence in easterndistricts like Batticaloa andTrincomalee, could still fostersome territorial ambitions. ButChristians, who are to be foundboth among Sinhalese andTamils besides Burghese (whoare Anglo-Indians in SriLanka), can at best manage toinfluence politics as part ofsome group.

Various Prime Ministersand Presidents of Sri Lanka,right from DS Senanayake toMahinda Rajapaksa, have hada Christian family background.Christian presence in Sri Lankagoes back to Portuguese inva-sions in the 16th century.Various Sinhalese (Buddhists)and Tamil (Hindus) had con-

verted to Christianity. But asthe DonoughmoreCommission (1931) recom-mended franchise base on ter-ritory, many of those leadingfamilies re-converted toBuddhism to ingratiate them-selves to the masses. They aregenerally referred to as“Donoughmore Buddhists.”

Interestingly, it was suchfamilies, who remained at thehelm of Sri Lankan politics butit was not before RanasinghePremadasa (1924-1993), a gen-uine Buddhist, who becamethe Sri Lankan President, thatthey held an official post.However, such re-convertedfamilies were never shy of usingBuddhism as a state policy tomarginalise the Tamils.

Those who remainedChristians (amongst Sinhaleseand Burghese) felt politicalpower passing away from theirhands. In January 1962, therewas a “Christian coup d’etat”,popularly called “OperationHoldfast”, to overthrow thed e m o c r a t i c a l l y - e l e c t e dGovernment of the then PrimeMinister SirimavoBandaranaike. The top brass ofthe Army, Navy and policeinvolved in it were Christians,and pained that Bandaranaikewas advancing the policies ofher slain husband SWRDBanadaraniake which related to

the aggressive “Buddhitisation”of Sri Lanka. But the attemptwas exposed and neutralised.

During the Civil War, theChristians settled down on therespective side of the ethnicdivide. While the SinhaleseChristians tried to prove theirSinhalese credentials, the TamilChristians were active in theLTTE. Young women fromTamil Christian families werethe first to volunteer for LTTE’swoman brigade. This wasbecause they were comparative-ly free from the conservatism ofHindu families. The Muslims,though they were Tamil-speak-ing, did not join the LTTE.They eventually came to be atthe receiving end of the LTTE’spolicies. In the Kattankudymosque massacre, 147 Muslimmen and boys were killed onAugust 3, 1990, by the LTTE.

The Muslims, thoughTamil-speaking, did not con-sider themselves as part of theTamil nation. Way back in1885, a debate arose when SirPonnambalam Ramanathan(1851-1930), in a speech to theCeylon Legislative Council,had tried to prove that TamilMuslims were descendants oflow-class Tamil Hindus, whohad converted to Islam. TheMuslim community (thencalled Moors in Ceylon) wasenraged and argued that they

were descendants of Arabtraders, who settled down inthe island centuries ago andgradually adopted Tamil whileforgetting Arabic.

Muslim assertiveness isnot new in Sri Lanka. Way backin 1915, there were Candyriots between Sinhalese(Buddhists) and Muslims. Lastyear in March 2018, there weresimilar clashes betweenSinhalese and Muslims.Religious places of each com-munity were attacked by theother. But this is the first timein historical memory thatMuslims have turned againstthe Christians. The provoca-tion seems to be importedrather than indigenous. Theterror attacks rather seem to bepart of the global jihad ormore particularly, retaliationfor Christchurch mosqueattack on March 15. In recentyears, missionary activities byChristians and Muslims are onthe rise in the island. These ter-ror attacks, though a gravesecurity risk, might not indicateany shift in the politics of SriLanka. But it is a signal thatJihad bi-al Qital has appearedon the shores of the palm-fringed island.

(The writer is an indepen-dent researcher. The views expressed herein are hispersonal)

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Who’s the bigger star?” (April25). During the hour-long non-political interview of PrimeMinister Narendra Modi by actorAkshay Kumar, where the formershowcased his personal life —right from his childhood days, tohis struggles and his relationshipwith political rivals likeTrinamool Congress chiefMamata Banerjee and Congressleader Ghulam Nabi Azad, hislove for mangoes — was candidand made an interesting listen.

There is not an iota of doubtthat the rise of Modi from beinga chaiwala to becoming the ChiefMinister of Gujarat and subse-quently the Prime Minister was along arduous journey. Otherwise,Modi would have been an Armyman or a sanyasi. This only revealsthat he never dreamt to reach suchhigh positions. The PrimeMinister rounded off the interviewon a bright note by saying that hewould always be focussed onresponsibilities — whether in orout of power — which is a posi-tive trait very few leaders possess.

KR Srinivasan Secunderabad

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Sir — This refers to the editor-ial, “Terror returns” (April 23).Churches and luxury hotels inand around Colombo were tar-getted during Easter Sunday.The bomb attacks must be con-demned in the strongest terms.This was, perhaps, the biggestterrorist attack in Sri Lanka

since the cessation of Civil war.The bloodshed would certainlyhave an adverse impact on tradeand tourism in the island nation.It is baffling that the islandnation did not take warningsabout a possible terror attackseriously enough.

Some of the blasts tookplace in places of worship. Thisgoes to show, once again, thatterror has no respect for religion.

Terrorism can be battled onlythrough coordinated efforts bythe international community bysharing intelligence, chokingfinancial support of terroristsand greater collaboration of pre-ventive measures are reliablestrategies. Simultaneously, theinvestigation into the blastsshould be speeded up.

Ramesh G JethwaniBengaluru

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Sir — This refers to the editor-ial, “The three-way split” (April24). In the ongoing extremelyvituperative political cauldron,the electorate must be desperateto find a sane and sober person-ality who is endearing.

The one reason why one canheave a sigh of relief is formerChief Minister Sheila Dikshit isthe Congress’ candidate fromNorth East for the Lok Sabhaelection. Dikshit still sports asuave, down-to-earthdemeanour that ought to havefar greater appeal than what shehad earlier.

If the Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwalsends impressions of being amaverick, the Bharatiya JanataParty (BJP) has the ever volublePrime Minister, who still contin-ues with the 2014 rhetoric butwith improved spelling and syn-tax. This time, Delhi must belonging for the return of thegenial and maternal figure.

R Narayanan Navi Mumbai

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On March 15, when a horrendousattack by a White Australiansupremacist left 50 Muslims deadin a mosque in New Zealand, thePrime Minister of Pakistan, Imran

Khan, fired a series of tweets againstIslamophobia. Interestingly, in Pakistan, thetweets received some rather mixed responses.Many accused him of exhibiting “outrighthypocrisy” while others were more tongue-in-cheek in their response, pointing out that it wasironic that a Prime Minister of a country, wherereligious and sectarian minorities are constant-ly attacked by radical Islamist outfits, should belamenting the state of Islamophobia in the West.

Indeed, there is always much irony inMuslim states that overtly criticise Islamophobiawhile doing precious little to address the per-secution of minority faiths or sects in their ownrealms. Therefore, a prominent Muslim (or forthat matter, any Muslim) should be very care-ful in his/her criticism of Islamophobia. If theirlaments are to be taken seriously, without sound-ing so obviously contradictory, then they shouldbe well-informed about the inherent contradic-tions that these laments carry. The wording oftheir criticism should, thus, be a more measuredexercise.

Prime Minister Khan should have observedhow Pakistan’s military establishment has beenwording its responses in this context. Ever since2015 — when the military initiated a widespreadoperation against militant outfits — it condemnsviolence against Muslims elsewhere but alwaysattaches a reminder to it that Pakistan has foughta vicious war against religious terrorism andwon. This somewhat neutralises the contradic-tions that emerge when a country, with a his-tory of sectarian bloodshed and violence againstminorities, wags a finger at a country guilty ofexhibiting Islamophobia. Because when thisquestion does arise, it is countered by thereminder that Pakistan is actually doing some-thing about it.

But Prime Minister Khan went slightly offthe rails in his tweeted outrage againstIslamophobia. He failed to balance his critiqueby confessing that Pakistan, too, has a problemof religiously-motivated violence but one thatit is trying to address seriously.

But when he was in Opposition, Khan andhis party had actually opposed any serious actionagainst religious militancy. Yet, it is also true thatthe complex reality of being in power is grad-ually transforming his views. So one nowexpects him to be a bit more aware when com-menting on the violence unleashed by Whitesupremacists against Muslims.

But what really is Islamophobia? This ques-tion needs to be answered in a more thoroughmanner, especially by the Muslims themselvesif they are to critique it without sounding con-tradictory. According to the Oxford EnglishDictionary, Islamophobia is an “intense dislikeor fear of Islam.” In an article in the October 2015issue of The Atlantic, Tanya Basu wrote that theterm was derived by the French word,“Islamophobie.” It was first coined by Frenchauthor Alain Quellien in 1910 to criticise thebehaviour of French colonial administrators

towards their Muslim subjects.In her essay for the March 2006 issue of the

Journal of Interpersonal Violence, LP Sheridanwrote that the term’s first known usage in Englishappeared some 90 years later in 1991. It thenmade its way into the Oxford English Dictionaryin 1997. This suggests that Islamophobia, as itis understood today, is a recent development.Professor Emeritus Bichara Khader, in hisessay for the 2016 anthology, The Search forEurope, wrote that Islamophobia in Europe andthe US is often linked to migrants from Muslimcountries that are seen as a threat to Western cul-ture and security.

He questioned this assumption by addingthat migration was not an issue at all in the Westtill the early 1970s, after thousands of Muslimsfrom South Asia, South East Asia, the MiddleEast and North Africa began arriving in vari-ous European cities from the 1950s onward.They were looking for work and higher wages.Khader wrote that as post-war economiesboomed in Europe, these migrants were seen asbeing vital contributors to this boom. Headded that it was only when the economies ofEurope began to recede — especially after the1973 oil crisis — the term “migration problem”came into play.

Yet, it was never linked to a “Muslim prob-lem” as it is today. Khader said that during theturmoil of the 1970s and 1980s — which sawriots involving migrants and locals, especiallyin France and England — these were explainedas “race riots” and also included migrants fromthe Caribbean islands and non-Muslim Indians.The reasons were economic.

Neo-fascist outfits accused theirGovernments of allowing non-white migrantsto steal “white jobs.” It really wasn’t a clash ofcultures as such. Or not yet. According toKhader, till the early 1980s, Muslim migrants

were not very public or exhibitionistic abouttheir faith. For example, they were happy witha few basement mosques.

Once settled, Muslim migrants began tomarry women from their own countries andthen brought them to Europe — even thoughit wasn’t uncommon for some to marryEuropean women as well. Khader wrote thatmost of the women who came as wives, werefrom rural and semi-rural areas of Pakistan,India, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Egypt amongothers. This development changed the settlers’attitude towards their religion and cultural val-ues. Whereas once they were fine with theirsmall ‘basement mosques’, now they began todemand proper mosques.

The change in behaviour attracted preach-ers, who began to set up shop in variousEuropean cities. They were particularly appeal-ing to second generation migrants, especiallyfrom families who had failed to be fully integrat-ed by European integration policies. Khaderwrote that, as the presence of veiled women andmosques grew, this is when the ‘migration prob-lem’ began to be seen as a ‘Muslim problem’, trig-gering Islamophobia.

Authors such as Khader and George Morganin (Muslims and Moral Panic in the West) agreethat the more outward exhibition of ‘Muslimness’in the West did contribute in the making of theabove- mentioned scenario. Nevertheless, theyare of the view that Islamophobia is still large-ly a construct of populist right-wing parties.

Khader wrote that there are 23 millionMuslims in Europe. This means they are just fiveper cent of Europe’s total population. Thus,Islamophobia has become a tool for populistpoliticians to describe Muslims as the ‘other’ andthe ones to blame for the economic or culturaldecline of a Western country.

(Courtesy: The Dawn)

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On April 19, a complaint ofsexual harassment againstthe Chief Justice of India

Ranjan Gogoi (CJI) was sent to theResidence(s) of 22 judges of theSupreme Court of India, alongwith an affidavit and other support-ing evidence. The complainant hadasked for the constitution of aninquiry committee of senior retiredjudges to investigate and adjudicateon the serious allegations of sexu-al harassment.

Under the Indian law, com-plaint(s) of sexual harassment at theworkplace are required to beaddressed in accordance with theprocedure, as established underthe Sexual Harassment of Women

at Workplace (Prevention,Prohibition and Redressal) Act,2013 (POSH Act). The Act man-dates that every organisation —with more than 10 employees —must set up an Internal ComplaintsCommittee (ICC), comprising atleast four members and 50 per centof them should be women. Further,it also states that the presiding offi-cer of the ICC should also be awoman.

Thus, the spirit of the POSHAct lies in providing women greaterrepresentation in the inquiry com-mittee and in including an externalmember on the board to ensuretransparency and fairness.

The Supreme Court has consti-tuted an ICC and also framed TheGender Sensitisation & SexualHarassment of Women at theSupreme Court of India(Prevention, Prohibition andRedressal) Regulations 2013, toinvestigate the complaints of sexu-al harassment.

However, in gross violation ofthe procedure as established by thelaw and in absolute negation of the

‘rule of law’, the Supreme Court onApril 20, held a suo moto hearing ofthe complaint. The Bench com-prised three male judges, presidedby the CJI himself.

On acute criticism by variouslawyers and Bar Association(s) ofthe suo moto hearing held by theapex court, on April 23, a specialBench comprising three malejudges issued notice to a lawyer,Utsav Bains, who claimed that aman had approached him to file afalse case of sexual harassmentagainst the CJI. However, no inves-tigation was instituted to examinethe veracity of the complaint of sex-ual harassment.

Then in a series of surprises, thetop court constituted a new Benchon April 23, comprising two maleand a female Supreme Court judgesto examine the complaint of sexu-al harassment against the CJI. ThisBench issued notice to the com-plainant on April 24 and directedher to appear before the Bench onApril 26, that is today.

In setting up a predominantlymale Bench, headed by a male judge

(even though there are three sittingwomen judges at the SupremeCourt) the court has side-steppedand corroded the sanctity of thepredominantly women-led ICC.

Undoubtedly and inherently, areason exists for POSH to insist ona committee led by a woman withthem being in majority. This, toprovide an environment conducivefor a woman to speak freely andfearlessly about a sexual assault onher physical body. Presence ofwomen members in majority canease, facilitate and enable them tospeak about incidents that outragedtheir soul.

It is fearsome and intimidatingfor them to express about unwant-ed physical contact by men inauthority before strange men. Askany woman — no matter how richor powerful, educated or illiterate— whether they would be able toexplain the gory and graphic detailsof the violence committed beforestrange men.

To facilitate, enable and createa conducive environment — wherevictims are encouraged to speak

freely in the presence of otherwomen — POSH insists on this spe-cific composition which must nec-essarily be strictly and scrupulous-ly adhered. Any breach would onlyfurther perpetuate injustice.

In not providing more repre-sentation to women in the commit-tee and by not including an exter-nal member, the Supreme Court hasundermined the sanctity of thePOSH Act.

The apex court has been thetorch-bearer of women’s right toequality and safe spaces. The courtitself laid down the VisakhaGuidelines in 1997 to protectwomen against sexual harassmentand abuse at workplace. Even there-after, it took almost 15 years for thePOSH law to be enacted.

The POSH Act is unique. Thisprogressive and welfare legislationcannot be permitted to be under-mined lest Indian women lose theirright to safe work places.

Without getting into the mer-its of the allegations levelled againstthe CJI, it is imperative that a fairand impartial hearing of the mat-

ter be conducted that is based onthe settled principles and the pro-cedure established by the law. Thisis a sine qua non for upholding therule of law.

Looking at the gravity of thecomplaint at hand and in keepingwith the spirit and objectives of thePOSH Act, the Supreme Courtmust lead by example and ensurethat the presiding officer andmajority of the members of theinquiry committee are women.Further, the board must includeexternal member/members as well.

It is incumbent on all citizensof India, especially women, to voicetheir concern on side-stepping ofthe women-led complaints commit-tee in a matter of sexual harassment.

If we choose to remain quiet onthis grave violation of principles ofnatural justice and the procedureestablished by the law, it will sendthe Indian women back to decades.The spirit and sanctity of the POSHAct must be fiercely protected,preserved and prevented frombeing reduced to a mockery.

(The writer is an advocate)

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The country’s largest car-maker Maruti-Suzuki

today clearly announced thatthey will stopsales of alldiesel-enginedcars from April1, 2020. This isthe day thatBharat Stage 6(BS6) emissionnorms comeinto force inIndia and no oldBharat Stage 4diesel enginedvehicles will beallowed to ber e g i s t e r e d .During the car-makers annualresults confer-ence, ChairmanR C Bhargavamade thisu n e q u i v o c a lstatement about diesels andannounced that this wouldapply to all Maruti-Suzukiproducts includings hatch-backs, sedans, SUV’s and com-mercial vehicles. Bhargava saidthat this was because makingexisting diesel engines BS6compatible was not technical-ly possible and new enginesand costs for a BS6 dieseloption on smaller cars wouldadd at least �1 lakh to the exist-ing cost of a diesel car. He feltthat alongside factors such ashigher cost and the fact that

diesel vehicles will be deregis-tered in the National capitalRegion within ten years, a planwhich might be implementednationwide and with dieselprices rising, the demand fordiesel vehicles would collapse.“The Supreme Court has madeit clear that it will not allow thesale and registration of any BS4from April 1, 2020”, Bhargavasaid explaining this decision.

This had a negative impacton the Maruti’s share pricewhich crashed after thisannouncement after havingclimbed earlier after the com-pany beat investor expecta-tions with a relatively positive

result. This is because 23 per-cent of Maruti’s sales are ofdiesel vehicles, almost all are ofthe 1.3 litre diesel engine thatMaruti licenses from Fiat, andthe company recentlyannounced a new 1.5 litrediesel engine for the Ciazsedan. Bhargava however saidthat the company continued towork on hybrid vehicles andwhile no ‘strong hybrids’ will belaunched in the coming year,Maruti-Suzuki continues towork on the technology for apotential future launch.

Bhargava expressed negativityon the possibility of more elec-tric vehicles being launched inthe small car space given costsand without a comprehensivestudy on commodities and car-bon costs.

Unit sales for the yearclimbed to 1,862,449 unitsincluding exports, a growth of4.7 per cent and thus net salesstood at �83,026.5 crore agrowth of 6.3 per cent.However with foreign exchangevolatility and rising commod-ity prices, net profit declined2.9 per cent to �7500 crore, andthus the company onlydeclared a dividend of �80 per

share. One other reason fordeclining profitability were theincrease in customer discountswhich rose from �15,849 pervehicle on average in 2017-18to �18,277 per vehicle in 2018-19. The company also saidthat while the last few quartershave been weak, sales in thefourth quarter declining 0.7 percent over the previous year thiswas in line with most pre-elec-tion years in India. That said,Maruti-Suzuki expected salesto grow between 4-8 per centin Fiscal Year 2020.

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With data costs falling by95 per cent since 2013,

India will see internet users riseby about 40 per cent and num-ber of smartphones to doubleby 2023, McKinsey said in areport.

It also expects core digitalsectors to jump two-fold to$355-435 billion by 2025.

The report ‘Digital India— Technology to Transform aConnection Nation’ byMcKinsey Global Institute saidthe country is one of the largestand fastest-growing marketsfor digital consumers, with560 million internet sub-scribers in 2018, second onlyto China.

Indian mobile data usersconsume 8.3 gigabits (GB) ofdata each month on average,compared with 5.5 GB formobile users in China and 8-8.5 GB in advanced digitaleconomy of South Korea.Indians have 1.2 billion mobilephone subscriptions and down-loaded more apps — 12.3 bil-lion in 2018 — than residentsof any other country exceptChina.

“Our analysis of 17 matureand emerging economies findsIndia is digitising faster thanany other country in the study,save Indonesia — and there isplenty of room to grow: justover 40 per cent of the popu-lace has an internet subscrip-tion,” it said.

While a Government pushhas helped digitise the econo-my, private sector firms such asReliance Jio has helped bringdown data costs by more than95 per cent since 2013, it said,adding the cost of one gigabytefell from 9.8 per cent of percapita monthly GDP in 2013(roughly $12.45) to 0.37 percent in 2017 (the equivalent ofa few cents).

“Private-sector innovationhas helped bring internet-enabled services to millions ofconsumers and made onlineusage more accessible. Forexample, Reliance Jio’s strategyof bundling virtually freesmartphones with subscrip-tions to its mobile service hasspurred innovation and com-petitive pricing across the sec-tor,” the report said.

As a result, monthly mobiledata consumption per user isgrowing at 152 per cent annu-ally — more than twice therates in the United States andChina. Average fixed-linedownload speed quadrupledbetween 2014 and 2017.

“India will increase thenumber of internet users byabout 40 per cent to between750 million and 800 millionand double the number ofsmartphones to between 650million and 700 million by2023,” it said, adding the poten-tial for India’s internet sub-scriber base could reach 835million by 2023.

McKinsey said India’s

internet user base has grownrapidly in recent years, pro-pelled by the decreasing costand increasing availability ofsmartphones and high-speedconnectivity, and is now one ofthe largest in the world.

The average Indian socialmedia user spends 17 hourson the platforms each week,more than social media usersin China and the United States.

The share of Indian adultswith at least one digital finan-cial account has more thandoubled since 2011, to 80 percent, thanks in large part to themore than 332 million peoplewho opened mobilephone–based accounts underthe Government’s Jan-DhanYojana — a mass financial-inclusion programme.

“By many measures, Indiais on its way to becoming a dig-itally advanced nation,”McKinsey said. “Just over 40per cent of the populace has aninternet subscription, but Indiais already home to one of theworld’s largest and most rapid-ly growing bases of digital con-sumers. It is digitising activitiesat a faster pace than manymature and emergingeconomies.”

India’s core digital sectors,comprising of IT-BPM, digitalcommunication services andelectronics manufacturing,accounted for about $170 bil-lion — or 7 per cent — of GDPin 2017–18.

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Bank credit rose by 14.19percent to �96.45 lakh crore

while deposits grew 10.60 per-cent to �125.30 lakh crore inthe first fortnight ended onApril 12, according to recentRBI data.

In the year ago fortnight,deposits were at �113.29 lakhcrore and advances stood at�84.46 lakh crore.

In the fiscal ended March2019, bank credit had risen by13.24 percent and depositsgrew by 10.03 percent. This wasthe second consecutive double-digits credit growth after thesame had declined to 4.54 per-cent in FY17 at �78.41 lakhcrore, which was the lowestsince 1963, the RBI data said.

On a year-on-year basis,non-food bank credit increasedby 13.2 percent in February2019 as compared with an

increase of 9.8 percent in theyear-ago period.

Loans to the services sec-tor almost doubled with a 23.7percent growth in Februarycompared to 14.2 percent in thesame month last year.

Advances to agricultureand allied activities increasedby 7.5 percent in Februarycompared to an increase of 9percent in February 2018.

Credit to the industry roseby 5.6 percent in February, upfrom an increase of 1 percentin February 2018.

Credit to the infrastructure,chemical and chemical products,and all engineering sectors accel-erated. However, credit growthto basic metal & metal products,textiles, and food processingdecelerated/contracted.

Personal loans rose 16.7percent in February down from20.4 percent in February 2018,the RBI said.

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Former Nissan chief CarlosGhosn emerged from his

Tokyo detention centre in thelate hours of on Thursday afteraccepting bail of $4.5 millionunder strict conditions includ-ing restrictions on seeing his wife.

The 65-year-old tycoonfaces four charges of financialmisconduct ranging from con-cealing part of his salary fromshareholders to syphoning offNissan funds for his personal use.

His case has captivatedJapan and the business com-munity with its multiple twistsand turns, as well as shone aspotlight on the Japanese jus-tice system which critics say isoverly harsh.

Ghosn exited the KosugeDetention Centre in northernTokyo around 10:30pm (1330GMT) after spending 21 daysanswering questions fromauthorities over allegations hecreamed off $5 million inNissan funds for personal ends.

Unlike his previous depar-ture when he was dressedbizarrely in a Japanese work-man’s outfit with cap and face-mask, Ghosn this time strodeconfidently out dressed in adark suit without tie.

Under the conditions of hisbail, Ghosn must stay in Japanand must live in a court-appointed residence with cam-eras to monitor his movementsamid fears he might try todestroy evidence.

His lead defence lawyerJunichiro Hironaka said theconditions also included an“approval system” to see hiswife Carole, whom prosecutors

believe has made contact withpeople involved in the case.

“If the court approves it,she will be able to meet him,”he said. Ghosn denies all thecharges, with a spokespersonfor the executive saying onMonday he would “vigorouslydefend himself against thesebaseless accusations and fullyexpects to be vindicated”.

The spokesperson saidGhosn was being detained“under cruel and unjust con-ditions, in violation of hishuman rights, in an effort byprosecutors to coerce a con-fession from him”.

On Monday, he was hitwith what experts havedescribed as the most seriouscharges yet as prosecutorsaccused him of syphoning off$5 million of Nissan cash trans-ferred from the company to adealership in Oman. He alsofaces two charges of deferringsome $80 million of his salaryand hiding this in official doc-uments to shareholders, andseeking to shift personalinvestment losses to the firmduring the 2008 financialcrisis.

A Nissan spokesman saidin a statement that the com-pany’s “internal investigationhas uncovered substantial evi-dence of blatantly unethicalconduct”.

“Further discoveries relat-ed to Ghosn’s misconduct con-tinue to emerge,” he added.This was the second timeGhosn has been granted bailafter posting $9 million inMarch to win his freedom.

Last time he left the deten-tion centre, he was dressed ina cap, face mask and workman’suniform in an apparent attempt

to evade dozens of journalistsfrom around the world hopingto snap a picture of the fallentycoon.

The bizarre stunt wascooked up by one of hislawyers, Takashi Takano, wholater apologised for “tainting”the reputation of his client, whousually appears in public insharp suits.

Ghosn was preparing tohold a much-anticipated newsconference to “tell the truth”about his case but he was re-arrested shortly beforehand toface questioning about thealleged $5 million embezzlement.

Clearly aware he was aboutto return to custody, Ghosnpre-recorded a video in whichhe accused “backstabbing”Nissan executives of a “plot”against him, as they fearedcloser ties with French partnerRenault.

Unless re-arrested over fur-ther allegations, Ghosn will befree to organise his defenceahead of a possible trial that islikely to take months to pre-pare. Hironaka has toldreporters that a trial as early asthe autumn was “not possiblefor various reasons”.

His lawyers have demand-ed he be tried separately fromNissan, which also facescharges for submitting the sus-pect financial documents, andhave voiced fears he will notreceive a fair trial.

The dramatic case hasthrown international attentiononto the Japanese justice sys-tem, derided by critics as“hostage justice” as it allowsprolonged detention and reliesheavily on suspects’ confes-sions.

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Realme launch Realme 2 Proat Amity University in Noida.

Realme 2 Pro, a mid-range seg-ment smartphone, owing to its‘Max Power, Max Style’ proposi-tion. The device carries a formi-dable Snapdragon 660 AIEprocessor and comes in threevariants; 4 GB RAM + 64 GBROM at �13,990, 6GB RAM + 64GB ROM at �15,990 and 8GBRAM + 128GB ROM at �17,990.

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The country’s crude oil productionfell over 4 per cent in the financial

year 2018-19 after aging fields ofstate-owned Oil and Natural GasCorporation (ONGC) and Oil IndiaLtd (OIL) missed the target, officialdata showed Thursday.

India produced 34.2 million tonneof crude oil in the fiscal year endedMarch 31, down from 35.7 milliontonne in the previous year, accordingto data released by the Ministry ofPetroleum and Natural Gas here.

ONGC output dropped to 21 mil-lion tonne from 22.25 million tonne in2017-18, while OIL saw a 2.5 per centdip to 3.3 million tonne.

Fields in the private sector saw aproduction drop of nearly 2 per centto 9.8 million tonne mainly because oflower output at Cairn India’s Rajasthanoilfields.

ONGC production was lower dueto technical issues at its Mumbai andNeelam Heera fields in the Arabian Sea

and less than the production at Santhaland Balol fields in Gujarat.

During March, the country’s totalcrude oil production fell to 2.85 mil-lion tonne from 3.04 million tonne inthe corresponding month of the pre-vious fiscal year.

Natural gas production, however,edged up to 32.9 billion cubic metre(BCM) in 2018-19, from 32.6 BCM inthe previous year as ONGC pro-duced 5.3 per cent more gas at 24.67BCM.

Higher production by ONGCmade up for a nearly 14 per cent dropin output from private sector fields at5.47 BCM.

This was a result of shutting downof two more wells at RelianceIndustries’ eastern offshore D1-D3 gasfields in the flagging KG-D6 block, theministry statement said.

Indian refineries produced 2 percent higher fuel and other petroleumproducts at 257.2 million tonne in2018-19 on a better showing by state-owned firms.

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Companies have been givenmore time to furnish pho-

tographs and location details oftheir registered offices to theCorporate Affairs Ministry,with the deadline being extend-ed to June 15.

In February, the Ministrynotified a new electronic formACTIVE-1 (Active CompanyTagging Identities andVerification). It was part of larg-er efforts to curb shell compa-nies, suspected to be used asconduits for illicit fund flows.

The deadline for submittingthe form with requisite detailswas April 25. It is applicable forcompanies incorporated on orbefore December 31, 2017.

The ministry has nowextended the deadline till June15. In case of non-submissionof the form within the deadline,companies concerned wouldhave to pay a late fee of Rs10,000, according to a notifi-cation issued on Thursday.

Among other details, acompany has to provide thephotograph of its registeredoffice with at least one directoror key managerial personnelwho is signing the form.

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New Delhi: The IT MinistryThursday wrote to WhatsAppover a recent report whichclaimed that the platform isbeing used to share child sexu-al abuse videos, and has askedthe Facebook-owned companyto take steps to prevent suchmisuse. PTI

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The country’s largest car maker MarutiSuzuki India (MSI) on Thursday

reported a 4.6% decline in net profit to�1,795.6 crore for the fourth quarter of the2018-19 fiscal. The company had posteda net profit of �1,882.1 crore in theJanuary-March period of 2017-18, MSIsaid in a statement.

Net sales during the quarter rose to�20,737.5 crore, up marginally over theyear-ago period. Total car sales dips mar-ginally to 4,58,479 units during the quar-ter under review, the company said.

For the entire 2018-19 fiscal, MSI post-ed a net profit of �7,500.6 crore, down 2.9%from the previous fiscal. Net sales last fis-cal stood at �83,026.5 crore, a rise of 6.3%from 2017-18. Total volume sales during2018-19 were up 4.7% to 18,62,449 units.

Of this, 1,08,749 units were exported, thecompany said.

The company said that the quarter wasmarked by adverse foreign exchange ratesand commodity prices, higher depreciationand higher sales promotion expenses. Itwas partially offset by cost reductionefforts. The board of directors of the com-pany also recommended a dividend of �80per share for 2018-19.

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Maruti Suzuki India said it had ear-marked a capex of �4,500 crore for the cur-rent fiscal. The investment will go into var-ious initiatives, including new productdevelopment, R&D and land acquisitionfor sales network, MSI CFO Ajay Seth toldreporters here. MSI had earmarked a capexof �4,000 crore for 2018-19.

New Delhi (PTI): The revenue depart-ment has allowed businesses whose GSTregistration has been cancelled due to non-filing of tax returns to apply for its revo-cation by July 22, provided they file theirpending returns and pay due taxes.

In a letter to field offices, the CentralBoard of Indirect Taxes and Customs(CBIC) said it was providing a “one-timeopportunity” to apply for revocation ofcancellation of GST registration by July 22,2019, for those entities for whom cancel-lation order has been passed up to March31, 2019.

The CBIC said where the registration hasbeen cancelled with effect from the date ofthe order, all returns due till the date of suchcancellation are required to be furnishedbefore the revocation application is filed.

In cases where the registration hasbeen cancelled with retrospective effect, theCBIC has allowed filing of revocationapplication, subject to the condition thatall returns relating to the period from theeffective date of cancellation till the dateof revocation order will be filed within aperiod of 30 days from the date of the revo-cation order.

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Equity benchmarks surrenderedearly gains to end sharply lower

on Thursday as boiling crude pricesand a depreciating rupee keptinvestor sentiment at a low ebbamid expiry of derivatives contracts.

Auto, metal, energy and financialstocks witnessed robust selling onconcerns over valuation and earnings,traders said. On the global front,crude oil prices surged past the USD75 per barrel mark, sparking con-cerns over growth and macroeco-nomic stability.

After starting on a positive note,the indices succumbed to a suddensell-off in the last half-hour of tradeamid expiry of April futures andoptions contracts.

The BSE Sensex slumped 323.82points, or 0.83%, to close at38,730.86, while the broader NSENifty declined 84.35 points, or0.72%, to 11,641.80.

Maruti Suzuki tumbled 2.23 percent after the country’s largest carmaker reported a 4.6% decline in netprofit to �1,795.6 crore for the Marchquarter. Other losers in the Sensexpack included Tata Steel, Vedanta,SBI, Coal India, Tata Motors, SunPharma, HUL, RIL, IndusInd Bank,Axis Bank, HDFC, HDFC Bank,ICICI Bank, M&M, Kotak Bank andInfosys, falling up to 2.89%.

Bharti Airtel, TCS and BajajAuto were the only gainers, spurtingup to 1.06%.

Domestic markets made newhighs during the month but couldnot sustain there due to profit-

booking at higher levels, analystssaid.

“Crude remained in focus asBrent oil rose above USD 75 per bar-rel for the first time in 2019 due tosuspension of Russian crude toEurope over quality concerns. Higheroil prices can have a negative impacton the current account deficit(CAD), the rupee, inflation anddoes not augur well for the domes-tic markets.

“General elections will keep themarkets buzzing in the near term.However, the major factor that willdecide the direction of the market isQ4FY19 earnings. A revival in earn-ings will help the markets sustain thecurrent valuation,” said HemangJani, head of advisory, Sharekhan byBNP Paribas.

Sectorally, the BSE telecom indexsaw the biggest losses, falling 2.26%,followed by metal, bankex, finance,auto, energy and teck. In the broad-er markets, the BSE midcap andsmallcap indices lost up to 0.58%.

Brent crude futures, the globaloil benchmark, rose 1.25% to tradeabove the USD 75 per barrel mark.The rupee depreciated 37 paise to70.23 against the US dollar intra-day.

Meanwhile, foreign institution-al investors (FIIs) purchased equityworth �974.88 crore on Wednesday,while domestic institutional investors(DIIs) sold shares to the tune of�657.06 crore, provisional data avail-able with stock exchanges showed.

Elsewhere in Asia, benchmarkequity indices in Shanghai, Tokyoand Seoul ended on a mixed note.European equites started weak.

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Dish TV on Thursdayforayed into onlineVideo on Demand seg-

ment by launching OTT (over-the-top) platform ‘Watcho’, andexpects to have 10 millionuser-base within a year, said atop company official.

Essel Group’s DTH arm istargeting the young millenialacross the country, and as perits strategy it will offer shortformat contents, which areeconomically viable along withuser-generated platforms inlanguages such as Hindi,Kannada and Telugu.

Besides, the company hasalso plans to add contents on itsplatform in other regional lan-guages, including Bhojpuri andGujarati, to expand in the OTTmarket.

The company will provideOTT service to its existingDTH subscribers of Dish TVand D2H brands, which areestimated to be around 23 mil-lion, free as of now.

The OTT platform willsynergise with the existingDTH platform as this wouldhelp to control churning ratesand benefit the customers, whonow prefer to consume enter-tainment contents on the go,Dish TV India executive direc-tor & group CEO Anil Duasaid.

“It would help us to growthe basic platform with itsactive base much more strong-ly because it would block onemore exit route. This is meantto strengthen the existing plat-form rater than creating a newplatform,” Dua told PTI.

The move will also helpDish TV to have presence inboth the mediums — the tra-ditional DTH and fast growingonline streaming market.

“We aim to reach over 10million users in the first yearitself,” Dua said, adding that thecompany was also looking tohave a preferred network part-ner for its OTT platform.

Watcho will offer over1,000 hours of library content,including movies and shortfilms. Its subscribers can alsoenjoy their favourite TV showsand popular drama seriesthrough live or catch-up TV.

According to a Boston con-sulting group report, IndianOTT market is rapidly growingand has potentials to reachUSD 5 billion by 2023, helpedby access to affordable data,mobile penetration into ruralmarkets etc.

The number of players inthe Indian OTT market hadgrown from 9 in 2012 to 32players in 2018.

Rural India will play a bigrole in OTT consumption as 48per cent of India’s Internetusers (about 650 million by2023) are expected to be fromthis area, the report said.

Major players in thedomestic OTT market areNetflix, Amazon Prime, ALTBalaji, Sony Liv, Eros Now andHotstar.

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New Delhi: Telecom reg-ulator TRAI has directed DishTV India to comply with theprovisions of the new frame-work for broadcasting andcable TV services, acting onconsumer complaints per-taining to the operators’ spe-cific offering and grievanceredressal helpline. TRAI,which has promised strictaction against those cable TVand direct-to-home (DTH)players who are found violat-ing its new tariff order andregulatory regime, had earlierthis week also pulled up BhartiTelemedia on similar grounds.

As per complaints, theDTH operator “is forcefullyoffering a bouquet of free-to-air channels with no choice tosubscribers and without theirconsent”, the TelecomRegulatory Authority of India(TRAI), which is also thebroadcast regulator, said in adirective on its website. PTI

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Script Open High Low LTP

RPOWER 7.84 8.25 7.82 7.94

SPICEJET 127.00 133.45 126.80 131.50

YESBANK 241.40 250.15 236.50 237.70

IBREALEST 116.05 127.30 113.35 123.45

RELIANCE 1392.90 1410.90 1365.00 1374.55

MARUTI 7019.00 7145.20 6865.00 6902.95

PCJEWELLER 137.25 140.00 130.80 132.30

JETAIRWAYS 171.25 177.80 162.50 169.90

SUZLON 7.20 7.48 7.01 7.15

RELCAPITAL 157.40 161.30 147.55 150.05

IBULHSGFIN 738.00 761.80 724.80 732.80

JPASSOCIAT 5.70 5.79 5.62 5.63

ULTRACEMCO 4426.00 4686.30 4426.00 4622.30

INFRATEL 290.00 297.60 258.00 270.95

DHFL 145.00 151.00 143.25 144.65

M&MFIN 442.40 442.40 412.75 416.15

TATAMOTORS 224.25 225.85 220.25 220.70

INFY* 736.40 737.55 726.00 731.20

RELINFRA 122.90 128.60 121.10 121.95

HDFCBANK 2283.00 2298.80 2258.60 2262.90

GRASIM 879.95 939.45 879.95 921.50

LT 1365.00 1381.00 1352.95 1355.35

TATASTEEL 523.30 529.35 509.00 510.90

TCS 2169.00 2199.00 2169.00 2197.20

IBVENTURES 306.00 325.10 304.05 319.55

SBIN 311.50 312.05 305.70 306.45

KOTAKBANK 1374.00 1378.65 1357.25 1359.20

HINDPETRO 269.00 278.40 266.35 274.10

HEG 1791.30 1833.30 1751.80 1781.90

AXISBANK 755.70 758.70 737.60 744.45

ICICIBANK 401.90 402.25 394.30 397.00

DLF 175.50 178.60 173.00 173.90

INDIACEM 106.40 112.00 105.25 109.20

IDFCFIRSTB 52.40 53.40 51.95 53.05

DCBBANK 217.70 219.30 212.20 214.45

STRTECH 195.00 197.55 190.65 191.45

AUROPHARMA 786.00 814.40 785.85 797.20

ASHOKLEY 91.75 92.45 89.65 89.85

IDEA 16.80 17.15 16.40 16.85

GRAPHITE 408.65 420.50 403.25 410.50

JINDALSTEL 172.85 174.40 166.05 166.90

WIPRO 294.00 295.75 293.00 295.25

SUNPHARMA 468.90 474.70 459.40 463.00

ZEEL 418.25 424.50 412.65 416.90

INDIGO 1493.20 1510.00 1473.00 1492.00

POWERGRID 193.00 195.45 190.45 191.40

DMART 1339.90 1360.00 1321.00 1329.25

ACC 1609.00 1662.90 1606.35 1622.10

BPCL 350.00 359.65 348.10 358.35

CGPOWER 37.90 39.45 37.50 39.15

BIOCON 620.00 623.00 615.50 621.00

PNB 88.40 89.15 86.25 86.60

AUBANK 610.05 628.90 608.40 624.00

ONGC 169.00 169.70 166.60 168.40

INDUSINDBK 1708.60 1723.15 1670.00 1679.90

ITC 306.45 309.70 302.65 306.05

HINDUNILVR 1755.00 1760.95 1725.60 1731.20

INFIBEAM 47.05 47.95 45.35 45.80

VEDL 175.25 175.25 170.30 170.90

JAICORPLTD 123.20 126.45 123.00 123.45

BANKBARODA 125.10 125.70 121.55 122.15

L&TFH 139.95 140.40 136.60 137.50

RNAM 210.00 215.10 201.60 204.85

ALBK 49.80 51.55 49.00 49.50

ICICIPRULI 364.00 379.45 362.50 367.40

AMBUJACEM 223.00 229.95 219.50 220.10

BOMDYEING 126.45 129.25 125.00 126.60

BANDHANBNK 609.00 613.00 588.00 590.25

RCOM 1.81 1.88 1.81 1.81

HEXAWARE 340.00 344.40 331.40 342.45

TECHM 820.00 826.35 812.15 815.00

IOC 153.10 155.40 152.10 153.20

PIDILITIND 1222.60 1238.65 1207.35 1214.65

TATAPOWER 69.40 69.50 67.20 67.50

RAIN 129.50 130.90 122.50 123.80

HDFC 1988.00 1997.00 1950.55 1957.80

DRREDDY 2851.00 2944.00 2845.20 2930.00

BAJFINANCE 3085.00 3114.90 3072.70 3080.55

LUPIN 859.10 873.80 853.50 870.90

KEC 293.75 305.60 293.75 297.05

UPL 948.10 972.50 946.55 970.00

SAIL 56.70 56.85 55.95 56.45

GODREJCP 676.00 677.65 648.05 650.00

BEL 88.75 89.60 86.80 87.45

IPCALAB 968.00 987.00 968.00 974.15

MAHABANK 17.99 19.40 17.80 18.66

HINDALCO 200.10 202.55 196.15 197.00

NTPC 134.90 135.25 132.35 133.20

M&M 672.00 672.00 662.00 663.95

MOTHERSUMI 150.10 150.75 146.95 148.30

BHEL 73.45 75.15 71.75 72.15

HDFCLIFE 400.10 401.95 396.60 399.20

IGL 309.55 315.35 307.20 309.85

TATAGLOBAL 209.00 212.50 207.00 211.05

HCLTECH 1141.00 1151.75 1127.40 1133.60

COALINDIA 255.75 255.75 248.65 251.45

NCC 101.95 105.50 101.75 103.65

ADANIPOWER 52.90 53.45 50.30 50.80

RADICO 373.05 380.20 363.00 365.20

RECLTD 150.00 153.55 149.00 149.45

TITAN 1153.90 1164.00 1135.70 1146.00

BHARTIARTL 322.00 331.75 321.25 327.95

ADANIPORTS 397.00 397.00 387.85 391.50

CENTURYTEX 923.60 962.00 923.10 935.00

HEROMOTOCO 2629.00 2636.95 2597.45 2606.10

JUBLFOOD 1320.65 1355.15 1320.60 1332.00

TATAMTRDVR 108.55 109.85 107.00 107.40

DISHTV 36.90 37.30 35.60 36.20

TATAELXSI 930.00 934.85 923.50 926.00

BANKINDIA 93.05 93.80 91.50 92.25

JKLAKSHMI 349.35 375.50 347.35 369.50

SYNGENE 619.00 620.30 605.10 610.00

PEL 2585.70 2585.70 2536.00 2555.10

BEML 909.20 923.85 897.70 906.00

DABUR 396.75 401.70 394.60 396.90

JUSTDIAL 577.85 581.70 570.00 573.05

JSWSTEEL 293.85 294.40 286.10 286.40

ALKEM 1731.25 1733.20 1688.00 1698.00

WOCKPHARMA 429.00 435.65 425.45 428.40

SOUTHBANK 16.50 16.75 16.30 16.30

JSLHISAR 87.65 91.95 87.40 90.25

BAJAJFINSV 7654.05 7707.50 7625.30 7659.75

NOCIL 138.90 138.90 134.85 135.60

SUNTV 590.55 596.85 573.60 577.50

ESCORTS 753.80 758.55 744.50 750.00

NBCC 59.65 60.55 58.55 58.90

PNBHOUSING 790.80 794.70 778.10 781.85

ORIENTCEM 93.80 104.00 93.80 99.00

GRUH 313.90 321.45 313.10 313.10

CANBK 273.00 275.25 269.35 271.50

VIPIND 474.00 475.90 465.30 467.95

MCX 780.00 809.80 780.00 799.00

BAJAJ-AUTO 3056.10 3100.00 3028.80 3088.80

GODREJPROP 899.90 904.00 865.00 877.00

SUNTECK 475.25 481.00 468.90 471.90

MFSL 444.00 456.60 435.05 439.00

FEDERALBNK 95.00 96.70 95.00 95.35

SBILIFE 609.50 621.35 605.80 612.15

TORNTPHARM 1800.00 1800.00 1720.00 1720.00

OBEROIRLTY 526.15 537.00 524.20 536.90

NATIONALUM 53.00 53.65 52.60 52.75

MINDTREE 980.05 996.50 975.15 978.05

FRETAIL 425.90 428.00 415.15 417.00

FSL 51.75 52.30 50.00 50.65

OIL 178.75 181.20 174.95 178.95

UNIONBANK 89.10 89.70 87.45 87.75

CASTROLIND 157.30 158.40 154.50 155.25

SHANKARA 509.00 528.90 507.55 522.95

NATCOPHARM* 538.10 538.80 531.00 538.00

GAIL 345.05 350.00 342.00 343.90

LEMONTREE 75.75 75.75 73.35 74.10

DELTACORP 244.00 250.35 241.15 242.85

STAR 475.00 484.45 473.80 477.05

RAYMOND 769.00 773.95 751.85 756.80

IDBI 43.15 44.05 43.00 43.80

INDHOTEL 154.50 154.90 151.40 152.00

JUBILANT 692.95 692.95 673.05 673.90

MANAPPURAM 120.00 121.70 117.50 119.80

DCMSHRIRAM 404.75 422.20 404.75 414.25

PVR 1720.00 1726.85 1704.60 1714.45

LICHSGFIN 504.05 506.30 491.70 492.00

PFC 118.75 120.60 117.60 118.55

SRTRANSFIN 1182.85 1193.40 1146.90 1159.00

BATAINDIA 1469.00 1473.60 1457.00 1465.10

ASIANPAINT 1445.00 1459.70 1439.60 1446.00

VGUARD 220.40 222.50 218.70 220.00

TV18BRDCST 32.60 33.85 32.50 33.15

ABCAPITAL 99.50 99.80 97.80 98.20

MUTHOOTFIN 593.25 596.50 572.65 580.85

CANFINHOME 320.05 324.00 317.00 319.35

HEIDELBERG 184.00 187.40 181.80 184.20

EVEREADY 154.50 156.50 148.00 150.05

CIPLA 558.00 563.95 551.25 555.25

RAMCOCEM 772.15 807.80 769.00 794.85

TATACHEM 582.35 582.90 572.80 573.00

BRITANNIA 2980.75 2996.90 2966.00 2971.40

GLENMARK 638.10 645.40 636.75 642.00

KTKBANK 128.25 130.70 128.05 128.80

MEGH 64.95 65.35 63.30 63.65

UBL 1437.00 1464.55 1425.95 1449.30

IRB 134.25 134.90 131.30 131.70

RBLBANK 671.40 674.40 664.10 669.30

GNFC 312.90 318.15 311.00 311.05

EXIDEIND 218.25 218.70 212.55 214.00

PHILIPCARB 161.00 164.35 161.00 162.50

SRF 2514.00 2539.40 2499.45 2515.60

VENKYS 2055.00 2118.00 2055.00 2088.00

BHARATFORG 483.45 486.30 478.90 482.00

BALKRISIND 957.15 968.00 925.00 938.95

CHENNPETRO 259.20 262.40 254.45 256.10

NHPC 23.45 23.60 23.05 23.15

APOLLOTYRE 211.50 211.50 207.50 209.95

FORCEMOT 1733.00 1770.00 1710.00 1712.05

MANPASAND 116.05 117.90 111.00 113.85

EDELWEISS 168.00 169.20 164.00 164.50

JISLJALEQS 59.00 60.10 58.65 59.65

MGL 981.70 982.00 961.65 963.25

CADILAHC 329.85 331.25 322.70 325.40

HAVELLS 774.40 779.70 770.00 771.10

TVSMOTOR 517.70 521.70 514.20 517.00

AMARAJABAT 676.00 677.50 666.00 668.00

GMRINFRA 17.40 17.75 16.90 16.90

APOLLOHOSP 1241.85 1258.90 1230.65 1248.00

ICICIGI 1082.90 1089.05 1068.00 1074.00

EQUITAS 131.40 132.65 127.45 129.00

COLPAL 1213.00 1218.00 1195.40 1203.00

CONCOR 504.00 505.20 489.35 492.50

CEATLTD 1090.05 1097.60 1083.05 1084.10

RAJESHEXPO 714.95 731.00 709.00 712.00

ITI 94.20 95.70 93.05 93.40

SPARC 180.00 181.05 174.00 174.00

BIRLACORPN 516.90 525.15 500.00 500.00

DBL 617.05 623.40 605.00 608.90

HFCL 22.35 22.80 22.20 22.40

VOLTAS 617.95 619.65 611.90 612.05

ADANIGREEN 45.05 45.15 43.60 43.75

NMDC 102.70 102.90 100.00 100.35

TAKE 151.90 154.20 148.00 152.65

ENGINERSIN 115.45 116.00 114.70 114.70

ORIENTBANK 102.00 102.50 98.75 99.70

BHARATFIN 1069.40 1071.85 1040.00 1040.65

TEJASNET 189.00 190.10 183.10 185.40

GICHSGFIN 252.05 262.90 252.05 262.30

SYNDIBANK 39.55 40.20 38.90 39.00

LTTS 1699.95 1717.00 1690.35 1717.00

PIIND 1018.75 1071.00 1018.75 1048.00

UJJIVAN 325.00 327.40 317.60 321.35

WABAG 293.05 296.05 285.65 286.35

EICHERMOT 20355.10 20620.00 20300.00 20345.95

SIEMENS 1176.00 1193.00 1166.50 1193.00

TATAMETALI 671.50 671.50 626.55 628.10

INDIANB 258.25 258.25 251.30 253.20

LTI 1705.25 1714.95 1695.30 1708.50

GODFRYPHLP 1125.55 1155.95 1115.00 1127.15

JSWENERGY 72.50 72.50 69.45 69.95

KSCL 471.15 477.65 462.95 466.35

DEEPAKNI 263.60 272.00 257.35 265.00

DIVISLAB 1733.90 1741.65 1710.65 1722.00

IDFC 42.90 43.55 42.55 43.00

INOXLEISUR 320.50 320.50 308.65 313.45

PAGEIND 23425.00 23494.50 23000.00 23160.00

PRSMJOHNSN 101.00 103.50 98.30 98.55

FCONSUMER 43.70 44.00 43.25 43.80

GSPL 191.10 192.75 187.30 189.55

FDC 171.00 171.00 160.35 160.95

JMFINANCIL 87.85 88.35 87.00 88.00

ISEC 216.00 225.00 215.00 220.00

SHREECEM 19400.00 20103.25 19299.15 19959.00

DEEPAKFERT 148.00 149.60 144.10 144.10

AJANTPHARM 1026.00 1046.00 1023.80 1031.85

JKCEMENT 890.00 922.00 880.50 907.00

MPHASIS 966.05 968.00 950.00 954.70

ADANITRANS 220.90 228.90 220.00 220.00

HINDCOPPER 48.75 49.20 47.60 47.95

HINDZINC 275.65 277.35 271.80 273.25

PETRONET 236.00 237.65 234.75 237.55

CHOLAFIN 1422.20 1444.00 1417.05 1422.90

J&KBANK 60.30 61.75 60.05 60.65

NLCINDIA 68.05 68.20 64.00 64.75

RALLIS 158.10 158.90 155.75 156.65

IFCI 12.10 12.39 12.03 12.27

AVANTI 389.00 398.00 385.50 386.85

GSFC 101.60 103.20 100.75 102.35

WELSPUNIND 54.40 54.55 53.55 53.55

NAUKRI 2010.00 2010.00 1965.00 1978.75

GRANULES 116.55 116.75 113.95 114.25

ABFRL 216.45 219.50 214.00 214.55

ABB 1485.00 1499.85 1475.00 1499.85

KAJARIACER 625.05 627.65 615.20 615.20

REPCOHOME 432.90 447.20 431.85 439.70

TRIDENT 68.05 68.10 66.50 66.60

JBCHEPHARM 348.05 355.00 345.80 354.00

WHIRLPOOL 1404.00 1429.00 1398.75 1412.00

SUNDRMFAST 561.45 567.30 550.05 558.00

MERCK 3735.35 3763.00 3699.80 3710.00

GODREJIND 510.00 513.75 507.30 508.25

CUMMINSIND 740.75 740.75 730.15 733.00

CROMPTON 234.05 235.80 233.00 233.60

JAMNAAUTO 57.35 57.60 56.70 56.75

FORTIS 139.15 139.55 138.00 138.95

LAKSHVILAS 79.70 80.90 77.55 79.20

MARICO 363.90 364.00 356.20 357.00

SUDARSCHEM 331.70 339.65 330.55 335.65

NESTLEIND 10820.00 10980.00 10820.00 10879.00

BLISSGVS 171.00 174.20 168.40 169.50

EIDPARRY 204.75 206.95 195.10 197.45

QUESS 680.00 722.95 680.00 707.00

WELCORP 136.50 138.00 133.50 133.70

GPPL 93.00 93.75 90.40 90.80

MOTILALOFS 735.70 737.05 711.00 711.00

GREENPLY 167.00 170.20 165.40 170.20

OMAXE 211.80 211.80 208.95 211.25

ISGEC 565.00 565.00 554.70 563.00

FINCABLES 456.45 463.00 448.00 454.00

IOB 14.60 15.28 14.60 14.96

TORNTPOWER 254.70 255.40 252.05 253.10

SUVEN 266.75 267.15 262.55 263.20

SADBHAV 227.65 244.00 226.85 236.10

WESTLIFE 398.05 404.00 397.00 403.70

HSCL 114.25 114.65 113.00 113.15

BERGEPAINT 323.35 325.20 320.70 324.75

ECLERX 1143.95 1144.00 1128.00 1140.00

RCF 59.00 59.30 58.45 58.50

MRF 55652.00 56230.50 55220.95 55648.95

GODREJAGRO 523.65 528.85 516.95 523.90

DCAL 227.55 228.00 219.00 223.30

CYIENT 589.00 590.50 584.25 586.80

ELGIEQUIP 271.00 277.85 266.60 275.05

SYMPHONY 1440.00 1440.00 1390.00 1399.00

MAHINDCIE 226.20 230.00 224.60 224.60

JYOTHYLAB 182.20 182.20 179.00 179.30

PARAGMILK 242.70 246.25 240.30 240.30

COROMANDEL 438.00 441.00 430.25 433.00

NAVINFLUOR 677.00 690.00 670.10 675.35

TATACOFFEE 90.85 91.50 90.40 90.80

COCHINSHIP 382.00 383.50 379.40 381.40

KNRCON 248.10 249.05 241.00 245.15

SWANENERGY 108.80 109.65 108.00 108.00

GMDCLTD 73.45 74.40 73.00 73.90

KEI 422.80 424.65 418.05 422.00

EMAMILTD 392.65 397.00 392.40 396.80

BAJAJELEC 562.05 572.75 562.00 566.10

IBULISL 326.00 336.15 323.00 328.25

MRPL 71.30 71.55 70.15 71.25

OFSS 3536.50 3558.00 3515.00 3523.35

NIITTECH 1307.20 1310.00 1294.95 1300.70

SJVN 24.30 24.35 23.10 23.45

ESSELPRO 135.00 135.80 134.25 134.90

ASHOKA 130.00 130.00 128.70 129.50

GHCL 245.40 245.40 239.00 241.50

TRENT 355.05 360.15 353.45 359.00

KANSAINER 430.75 450.00 430.75 442.05

THOMASCOOK 248.85 249.35 244.80 245.60

SHK 150.00 150.20 147.15 149.20

CHOLAHLDNG 510.00 516.00 510.00 510.00

VINATIORGA 1792.00 1800.00 1772.00 1789.80

AARTIIND 1553.80 1598.35 1553.80 1586.00

INTELLECT 222.80 225.70 222.60 223.65

JINDALSAW 83.95 85.25 83.10 83.30

JKTYRE 90.00 90.75 89.55 89.85

HIMATSEIDE 220.70 221.00 213.00 214.30

SUPREMEIND 1181.35 1183.00 1141.00 1154.70

COFFEEDAY 265.75 274.90 265.75 271.90

GREAVESCOT 142.00 144.50 141.40 141.95

PERSISTENT* 640.00 642.10 634.00 642.00

MOIL 157.00 157.10 155.35 155.35

GUJGAS 157.85 158.55 156.45 157.60

PTC 69.80 71.70 69.40 70.50

SOBHA 486.75 493.00 482.40 483.70

ADVENZYMES 189.10 194.15 189.10 191.00

SCI 35.15 35.60 34.90 35.35

CUB 204.00 204.70 198.40 202.25

MINDAIND 378.05 384.55 378.05 382.50

HUDCO 42.90 43.25 42.65 42.70

TIMETECHNO 94.25 95.75 93.05 93.05

BAJAJCON 330.45 333.30 328.60 329.30

UFLEX 237.50 239.25 234.30 238.85

MMTC 27.20 27.20 26.65 26.70

FINOLEXIND 466.00 469.90 455.55 455.55

NBVENTURES 105.20 105.30 103.00 104.25

GUJALKALI 488.00 489.85 482.50 482.50

ASTRAZEN 2261.10 2273.00 2254.10 2263.05

MAHLIFE 381.25 383.00 377.40 380.00

BOSCHLTD 18001.05 18150.00 17901.50 17901.50

ATUL 3480.00 3524.00 3450.40 3455.50

MAHLOG 535.50 543.50 525.70 528.00

SREINFRA 27.10 27.60 26.65 27.10

GET&D 254.45 263.70 253.65 261.90

SHRIRAMCIT 1685.00 1844.95 1668.10 1705.10

ANDHRABANK 27.75 27.85 27.25 27.30

ASTRAL 1226.00 1229.80 1204.85 1226.00

VBL 833.55 840.50 828.75 838.00

ABBOTINDIA 7830.00 7895.35 7605.05 7700.00

SONATSOFTW 332.80 333.00 328.00 330.00

CHAMBLFERT 161.00 162.10 158.75 160.45

BAJAJHLDNG 3326.90 3326.90 3259.00 3259.00

AEGISLOG 196.75 197.20 194.60 196.05

GESHIP 287.00 288.85 284.30 286.00

TNPL 198.95 208.25 197.95 201.90

GICRE 249.30 250.05 244.50 248.70

NIACL 185.95 185.95 182.00 182.60

SCHNEIDER 104.50 104.60 101.25 101.50

PRESTIGE 264.90 267.50 263.30 265.35

BBTC 1293.00 1293.60 1274.45 1282.40

SUPPETRO 216.95 220.00 212.20 213.00

MAXINDIA 68.40 69.85 68.15 68.50

KALPATPOWR 483.00 483.00 476.05 478.20

LAURUSLABS 387.40 389.30 385.00 387.10

TATACOMM 580.30 582.00 570.10 580.00

KRBL 348.05 351.65 344.00 347.00

JSL 38.30 38.90 37.95 38.00

CENTURYPLY 182.70 183.35 181.00 182.60

JAGRAN 116.00 116.25 110.20 110.50

STARCEMENT 106.95 110.00 106.95 107.60

SHILPAMED 406.10 406.20 392.65 394.00

UCOBANK 18.30 18.50 18.10 18.50

CORPBANK 27.80 28.05 27.35 27.35

NESCO 508.90 511.90 498.10 498.10

HAL 678.00 681.00 673.05 678.00

CENTRALBK 33.50 34.00 33.10 33.15

BDL 283.00 290.50 283.00 284.00

THERMAX 977.60 979.60 967.60 971.95

SOMANYCERA 395.60 418.80 395.60 405.10

RATNAMANI 877.50 894.00 877.50 894.00

NAVKARCORP 37.50 37.70 37.20 37.70

TVTODAY 311.60 319.00 311.35 318.50

CCL 259.85 260.00 255.05 260.00

HSIL 265.30 266.40 261.50 265.60

EIHOTEL 192.60 193.00 190.25 190.30

INOXWIND 66.40 67.75 66.40 66.65

ALLCARGO 114.00 114.00 111.05 112.00

LAOPALA 207.45 208.65 204.05 208.65

PHOENIXLTD 601.15 601.55 593.05 593.05

KPRMILL 615.55 619.00 614.00 616.30

IEX 158.50 159.60 158.00 158.00

WABCOINDIA 6300.00 6320.25 6265.05 6290.00

GLAXO 1291.95 1295.00 1285.55 1288.00

MINDACORP 132.45 133.65 130.90 133.00

VMART 2775.00 2780.00 2722.05 2728.05

PFIZER 3144.00 3146.00 3105.55 3106.00

LINDEINDIA 494.25 499.50 490.95 496.75

CENTRUM 31.25 31.80 30.40 30.70

THYROCARE 492.15 510.00 492.15 500.85

GUJFLUORO 1037.65 1037.70 1010.00 1010.00

MHRIL 239.70 240.25 236.05 236.55

GRINDWELL 595.00 605.00 595.00 596.20

NETWORK18 33.25 34.00 33.25 33.55

CRISIL 1461.05 1470.00 1454.00 1460.00

ASTERDM 150.95 150.95 147.35 148.20

ZENSARTECH 231.20 234.00 231.00 232.95

INDOSTAR 400.00 406.05 399.20 400.05

GSKCONS 7271.75 7287.00 7192.00 7229.95

BAYERCROP 4179.60 4202.00 4141.85 4172.30

PNCINFRA 147.05 152.55 147.05 151.00

BLUEDART 3198.90 3198.90 3125.00 3134.00

RELAXO 902.00 906.85 896.90 900.55

APLLTD 544.00 544.00 530.10 533.45

BLUESTARCO 651.10 657.90 648.60 648.90

APLAPOLLO 1596.65 1596.65 1554.85 1565.00

MAHSCOOTER 3924.00 3934.10 3825.05 3830.00

BALMLAWRIE 177.00 177.15 175.50 177.15

HATSUN 709.05 717.00 706.40 716.40

SHARDACROP 388.35 388.40 374.40 375.10

GEPIL 903.00 914.30 897.25 910.70

PGHH 10500.00 10681.95 10395.00 10681.95

REDINGTON 96.10 98.00 96.05 96.05

SANOFI 5640.00 5647.05 5600.00 5630.10

CARBORUNIV 371.00 373.25 367.55 370.15

GDL 142.20 142.70 137.35 137.90

UNITEDBNK 10.91 11.15 10.91 11.05

ITDC 265.50 269.35 265.00 265.00

DBCORP 191.00 191.00 187.55 190.70

FORBESCO 2437.85 2438.00 2367.00 2367.00

TATAINVEST 845.70 849.15 842.05 846.00

ASAHIINDIA 242.00 242.00 239.00 240.75

TIMKEN 580.00 580.00 568.00 580.00

BASF 1375.00 1375.00 1347.00 1347.00

LUXIND 1368.60 1383.00 1368.60 1375.95

GALAXYSURF 983.10 1005.00 975.00 998.00

LAXMIMACH 5921.00 5949.35 5890.00 5890.00

GILLETTE 7599.00 7620.00 7547.00 7570.00

HERITGFOOD 494.20 494.20 486.50 491.90

CARERATING 982.60 984.45 975.40 982.30

LALPATHLAB 1062.95 1078.60 1054.80 1070.00

GULFOILLUB 871.95 871.95 860.10 860.10

FLFL 483.00 489.00 478.95 483.35

DHANUKA 384.00 384.30 379.00 379.00

TIINDIA 380.00 380.60 374.25 377.05

TTKPRESTIG 8180.00 8300.00 8170.90 8222.00

MAGMA 124.90 125.65 121.50 123.65

NILKAMAL 1376.00 1380.25 1361.05 1361.05

AKZOINDIA 1751.95 1754.65 1732.25 1732.25

SCHAEFFLER 5465.35 5578.50 5465.35 5475.00

VTL 1139.55 1146.80 1129.00 1135.00

APARINDS 684.95 685.00 656.45 670.10

ITDCEM 127.45 127.90 125.85 126.85

SHOPERSTOP 460.05 462.40 456.00 456.00

NAVNETEDUL 114.00 114.00 112.40 113.10

SKFINDIA 1994.00 1996.95 1980.25 1990.00

SIS 847.75 847.75 824.00 837.00

3MINDIA 24687.50 24935.00 24600.00 24810.00

ENDURANCE 1163.05 1167.45 1158.00 1158.00

GAYAPROJ 172.95 172.95 166.00 166.75

CAPPL 382.95 382.95 377.00 377.00

ZYDUSWELL 1305.00 1307.05 1294.50 1294.50

KIOCL 137.45 137.45 130.25 130.25

SUPRAJIT 229.90 235.00 228.00 235.00

CERA 2851.75 2851.75 2812.80 2850.00

HONAUT 23840.70 23840.70 23600.00 23800.00

AIAENG 1785.05 1810.00 1785.00 1810.00

IFBIND 857.30 868.90 855.45 865.00

TRITURBINE 108.25 108.30 107.05 107.05

TVSSRICHAK 2219.80 2219.85 2195.55 2207.00

MONSANTO 2528.05 2551.00 2528.05 2536.00

JCHAC 1920.00 1920.00 1871.15 1914.40

NH 212.45 212.45 204.80 207.40

ERIS 620.65 630.25 618.55 630.25

SOLARINDS 1072.90 1072.90 1068.15 1070.00

SFL 1355.00 1357.00 1355.00 1355.00

TEAMLEASE 2998.90 2998.90 2952.00 2952.00

��

SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGE

NIFTY 50 11735.70 11796.75 11624.30 11641.80 -84.35

ULTRACEMCO 4450.50 4686.60 4448.50 4635.00 240.35

GRASIM 876.10 940.00 876.10 923.00 42.45

DRREDDY 2851.65 2940.00 2839.45 2936.70 77.30

BHARTIARTL 322.80 332.90 321.00 332.70 8.20

BPCL 348.95 359.45 347.60 357.80 8.80

UPL 950.50 973.90 946.00 969.75 21.55

TCS 2175.00 2205.00 2168.05 2203.00 19.55

WIPRO 293.05 295.95 292.85 295.20 2.15

BAJAJ-AUTO 3073.95 3110.00 3027.60 3095.00 19.20

BAJAJFINSV 7663.50 7735.95 7625.00 7671.00 33.05

ONGC 168.35 170.00 166.55 169.00 0.35

HEROMOTOCO 2618.00 2638.00 2597.65 2610.85 -1.05

CIPLA 558.70 563.95 551.15 558.25 -0.30

ASIANPAINT 1450.00 1460.00 1438.10 1449.00 -1.05

ITC 307.25 309.80 302.00 306.00 -0.45

COALINDIA 254.85 255.20 248.30 253.50 -0.50

LT 1366.85 1380.55 1352.15 1357.90 -2.75

BRITANNIA 2988.00 2999.00 2962.65 2972.00 -6.20

HCLTECH 1141.00 1151.40 1129.05 1136.00 -2.95

TITAN 1155.00 1165.00 1135.40 1145.65 -3.50

NTPC 134.00 135.35 132.30 133.50 -0.45

TECHM 820.00 827.00 813.45 816.00 -2.75

BAJFINANCE 3099.80 3114.40 3072.65 3081.95 -11.10

ZEEL 419.45 424.25 412.30 416.15 -1.75

IOC 153.60 155.45 151.85 153.10 -0.70

M&M 671.80 673.00 664.00 665.00 -3.15

POWERGRID 192.20 195.80 190.70 191.00 -0.95

KOTAKBANK 1368.90 1377.00 1355.00 1359.00 -7.75

ADANIPORTS 390.00 392.90 387.65 389.00 -2.75

HDFCBANK 2286.90 2298.80 2257.95 2262.25 -17.50

YESBANK 241.00 250.40 236.05 237.25 -1.90

INFY 736.45 737.65 727.05 730.05 -6.40

HINDUNILVR 1756.00 1762.60 1727.20 1737.15 -15.45

EICHERMOT 20510.45 20639.00 20300.00 20350.00 -181.55

GAIL 346.00 349.00 341.10 342.80 -3.25

TATAMOTORS 223.40 225.90 220.25 221.20 -2.40

SUNPHARMA 465.25 474.60 459.50 463.25 -6.10

ICICIBANK 400.90 402.40 394.30 395.65 -5.45

SBIN 311.00 312.00 305.40 306.50 -4.25

RELIANCE 1389.10 1412.40 1362.60 1370.00 -19.50

INDUSINDBK 1716.00 1724.00 1673.00 1675.00 -24.25

HDFC 1987.55 1998.80 1946.55 1951.45 -28.95

AXISBANK 754.00 758.55 738.55 741.30 -11.55

IBULHSGFIN 733.00 761.90 724.00 735.60 -13.50

JSWSTEEL 291.50 294.50 285.50 286.70 -5.65

HINDALCO 200.85 202.65 195.75 196.80 -3.90

MARUTI 7014.75 7144.95 6865.00 6880.00 -136.70

VEDL 174.60 175.25 170.00 170.35 -4.45

TATASTEEL 522.00 529.30 509.00 511.00 -14.25

INFRATEL 287.35 298.00 265.65 272.50 -29.00

��

��

SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGE

NIFTY NEXT 50 28093.65 28186.30 27874.95 27914.95 -142.90

SHREECEM 19400.00 20140.05 19281.60 19930.50 533.05

UBL 1427.00 1466.40 1425.30 1461.50 32.65

HINDPETRO 269.50 279.00 266.10 274.85 6.05

SIEMENS 1181.95 1201.80 1165.80 1200.90 23.30

AUROPHARMA 786.00 815.00 785.10 800.00 14.70

ICICIPRULI 362.00 380.25 362.00 368.25 5.05

INDIGO 1480.00 1511.00 1473.00 1493.00 20.40

BIOCON 621.05 623.70 614.50 620.15 6.75

ACC 1606.00 1664.75 1603.00 1623.10 17.10

LUPIN 860.00 874.90 853.10 873.10 8.85

HDFCAMC 1587.05 1625.00 1587.05 1607.40 15.15

SBILIFE 609.60 619.70 608.05 614.35 4.05

PETRONET 236.00 237.80 234.80 237.50 1.45

ICICIGI 1078.90 1090.00 1065.00 1076.00 5.55

ABB 1498.00 1499.80 1475.00 1498.00 6.65

SAIL 56.25 56.90 55.90 56.65 0.20

DMART 1339.00 1361.95 1320.25 1334.95 3.80

PGHH 10570.00 10649.00 10380.00 10577.00 20.45

HAVELLS 778.10 780.50 770.50 773.40 -0.65

OFSS 3548.00 3557.05 3520.00 3536.00 -2.70

DLF 177.00 178.70 173.00 175.50 -0.55

HDFCLIFE 400.80 402.00 396.40 398.40 -1.60

MOTHERSUMI 149.20 150.50 146.80 148.10 -0.75

BOSCHLTD 18010.00 18193.90 17900.00 17916.60 -89.15

MRF 56049.00 56192.95 55300.00 55330.00 -312.40

GICRE 250.00 250.20 244.20 248.00 -1.65

PIDILITIND 1223.50 1238.30 1205.00 1213.00 -8.95

HINDZINC 274.35 277.65 271.40 273.40 -2.10

DABUR 398.65 401.70 393.80 395.10 -3.55

PEL 2578.00 2584.35 2531.30 2558.20 -27.50

BAJAJHLDNG 3326.90 3328.00 3251.25 3265.00 -35.45

NHPC 23.35 23.55 23.00 23.10 -0.25

MCDOWELL-N 554.50 556.80 544.80 548.80 -6.20

COLPAL 1218.00 1220.00 1198.25 1201.10 -13.75

AMBUJACEM 222.35 229.85 219.50 221.35 -2.75

DIVISLAB 1736.25 1742.50 1710.55 1720.50 -22.20

IDEA 16.75 17.25 16.30 16.90 -0.25

NIACL 185.00 186.00 180.00 182.00 -2.70

CADILAHC 329.55 331.35 323.00 324.30 -5.25

ASHOKLEY 91.45 92.50 89.55 89.75 -1.50

NMDC 102.50 102.95 100.25 100.65 -1.70

L&TFH 140.25 140.80 136.60 137.25 -2.35

BHEL 73.85 75.15 71.70 72.15 -1.30

CONCOR 507.60 507.60 488.50 494.00 -9.55

MARICO 364.00 364.85 355.50 356.00 -6.90

SRTRANSFIN 1184.95 1194.00 1146.00 1156.00 -23.00

PAGEIND 23700.00 23749.95 23000.95 23125.00 -460.50

BANDHANBNK 607.00 613.00 587.30 592.00 -13.50

BANKBARODA 125.20 125.75 121.50 122.00 -3.10

GODREJCP 675.00 677.50 647.25 650.90 -23.45

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�� 34(45-4

One of the Sri Lankan suicidebombers was previously

arrested by police and thenreleased, a senior Governmentofficial said on Thursday.

Ilham Ahmed Ibrahim,one of two sons of a spicetycoon who blew themselvesup in Sunday’s attacks, deto-nated a device at the CinnamonGrand hotel in Colombo onEaster Sunday, the official told CNN.

“It was the suicide bomberof the Cinnamon Grand bombattack who was released earli-er,” the official said.

Ilham Ahmed Ibrahim andhis brother Imsath AhmedIbrahim were previously iden-tified as two of the suicidebombers in Sunday’s attackswhich left at least 359 people dead.

Police have confirmed toCNN that they are holding thebrothers’ father, MohamedYusuf Ibrahim, a wealthy spicetrader, on suspicion of aidingand abetting his sons.

Sri Lankan authorities haveblamed a local Muslim groupfor the bloodbath although theIslamic State has claimedresponsibility for the suicidebombings.

�� 34(45-4

The Sri Lankan authorities onThursday intensified their

raids with the help of the armyand arrested 16 more suspectsin connection with the country’sworst terror attack on EasterSunday that killed nearly 360people and left over 500 injured.

The arrested people werebeing interrogated at length bythe investigation sleuths in con-nection with the bombings.

Nine suicide bombers,believed to be the members ofa local Islamist extremist groupNational Thowheed Jamath(NTJ), carried out a series ofdevastating blasts that torethrough three churches andthree luxury hotels.

Officials said with thearrest of 16 more people onWednesday, the total numberof suspects under police cus-tody has risen to 76.

Many of the arrested peo-ple have suspected links to theNTJ, the group blamed for thebombings. However, the NTJhas not claimed responsibilityfor the attacks.

ISIS has claimed responsi-bility for the attacks and iden-tified suicide bombers who car-ried out the devastating blasts.Authorities have deployed thou-sands of troops to help policecarry out search operations.

Over 5,000 Army person-nel have been deployed aroundthe country. “During the last 24hours, there have been nomajor incidents. We havedeployed over 6,300 troops.This includes 1,000 from theAirforce and 600 from theNavy,” military spokesmanBrigadier Sumith Atapattu said.

Meanwhile, a minor explo-sion happened behind the mag-istrate’s court at Pugoda, thewestern province town, 40 Kmsnorth of Colombo. There wasno immediate report of anycasualty. Police said that theexplosion occurred in a garbagedump and that there were noinjuries. A probe has beenlaunched to ascertain the cause.

Search operations of sus-pected properties, arrests anddetention of people and toplace road blocks for suchoperations have been facilitat-

ed by the newly-enforcedemergency regulations.

The regulations wereadopted without a vote inParliament on Wednesday. Thecurfew which was imposed at10 pm on Wednesday was lift-ed at 4 am on Thursday.

President MaithripalaSirisena has convened an all-party meeting. He would meetreligious leaders. Both parleysare to discuss the attacksdubbed as among the fivedeadliest terrorist attacks car-ried out since the 9/11 in theUS. Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith,the head of the local catholicchurch, has asked all churchesto stop masses until the situa-tion improved, his office said.

On Wednesday, the SriLankan Government hadadmitted that “major”Intelligence lapses led to thehorrific coordinated attacks.

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Colombo: Sri Lanka’s DefenceSecretary Hemasiri Fernandoresigned from his post onThursday, days after a series ofdevastating suicide attacks thattore through three churchesand three luxury hotels onEaster Sunday.

President MaithripalaSirisena had asked DefenceSecretary Fernando andInspector General of PolicePujith Jayasundara to quit aftertheir failure to prevent theblasts despite having priorIntelligence.

Fernando handed over hisresignation letter on Thursdayon a request made by PresidentSirisena, Colombo Gazettereported.

Nine suicide bombers,believed to be members oflocal Islamist extremist groupcalled National ThowheedJamath (NTJ), carried out thedevastating blasts that killed359 people and wounded morethan 500 others. PTI

�� 34(45-4

Hundreds of Muslimrefugees in western Sri

Lanka have taken refuge inmosques and a police stationafter facing intimidation fol-lowing the deadly Easter bomb-ings, activists said on Thursday.

At least 359 people died inSunday’s coordinated suicideblasts, including more than 100Christians attending mass at St

Sebastian’s church in Negomboon the island’s west coast. Theattacks have been condemned byleaders of the country’s Muslimminority, but the community hasbeen left in fear of a backlash.

Scores of Ahmadi Muslimswho settled in Negombo afterfleeing persecution in theirhome countries have beenthrown out of their accommo-dation by landlords, accordingto officials. “Today these

refugees have become refugeesagain in Sri Lanka. They havebeen displaced for a secondtime,” Ruki Fernando ofInform, a Sri Lankan humanrights group, told reporters.

The refugees are fromPakistan, Afghanistan, Yemenand Iran. Ahmadis have facedrepeated attacks in these coun-tries by hardline Islamistgroups who do not considerthem to be Muslim.

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�� "�� 1��9� ��7�� )� )�� Washington: US PresidentDonald Trump on Thursdaycast doubt on Joe Biden’s men-tal capacity for a successful pri-mary campaign as the sea-soned Democrat became thelatest to join the 2020 race forthe White House.

Washington: Former Vice-President Joe Biden formallyjoined the crowded Democraticpresidential contest onThursday, declaring the soul ofthe nation at stake if PresidentDonald Trump wins re-election.

In a video posted onTwitter, Biden focused on the2017 deadly clash betweenwhite supremacists and counterprotesters in Charlottesville,Virginia. Biden noted Trump’scomments that there weresome “very fine people” onboth sides of the violentencounter, which left onewoman dead.

“We are in the battle for thesoul of this nation,” Biden said.“If we give Donald Trumpeight years in the White House,he will forever and fundamen-tally alter the character of thisnation — who we are. And Icannot stand by and watch thathappen.” The 76-year-oldBiden becomes an instantfront-runner alongsideVermont Sen. Bernie Sanders,who is leading many polls andhas proved to be a successfulfundraiser. A m o n gDemocrats, Biden hasunmatched international andlegislative experience, and he isamong the best-known faces inUS politics. He quickly rackedup endorsements on Thursdaymorning, becoming the firstDemocrat running for presi-dent with the backing of morethan one US senator.

Still, Biden must competein a field that now spans at least20 Democrats and has beencelebrated for its racial and gen-der diversity. AP

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At the outset, I should make one thingclear that the BMW i3s is a luxury car,

it might be an eco-friendly BMW withrecycled plastic being used as well as envi-ronmental-friendly fabric for the seat andthe few bits of (fake) leather were offcutsfrom the production line, but this is aBMW nonetheless. This is therefore, nota car for everyone, but is one of the mostpopular electric vehicles in Europe.Priced at around 40,000 Euros, if it wereto come to India, if incentives are offeredfor the import of electric vehicles, suchas no additional excise, it will still cost atleast �35 lakh, only a bit less than a brand-new BMW 3-series or X1. However, dri-ving one for a week, complete with its newgreen registration plates that electricvehicles are allowed to use was an eye-opener for this writer.

To be fair, this column had been writ-ten about the i3s when we had driven itin Portugal a year and half ago, but thatwas a media drive where one did not haveto deal with the nitty-gritty of living withan electric vehicle, that is charging. Now,we know that India does not haveenough charging infrastructure as yet, andmore on that later. But I could charge thei3s at home, thanks to a couple of reasons.Firstly, I had covered parking and a plug-point as well as a three-phase power con-nection. While charging from a lowamperage point meant that the car tookover twelve hours to charge from emptyand on ‘Comfort’ mode it took twelvehours.

In ‘Comfort’ mode, the default modeof the car had 218 kilometers of range onfull charge. On ‘Eco Pro’ mode, the carhad around 250 kilometers of range andin ‘Eco Pro+’ over 300 kilometres of range.I, however, kept the car on ‘Comfort’ mostof the time as it allowed me to use the air-conditioner without any issues, it issummer in Delhi after all. I’d also pluggedin my mobile phone so as to listen tomusic and actual range was a lot higherthan the initial indicated one because thei3s has a very good regenerating systemthat charges the battery whenever you liftyour foot off the pedal so much so thatyou rarely end up using the brakes.

So what are the headline numbers.The car claimed that it was consuming12.9 kilowatt-hours (units) of electricityfor every 100 kilometers of driving.Now, in Delhi, residential power costs�7.75 per unit at maximum rates, thismeans that the i3s has a running cost, ifyou buy power at the peak rate, of just �1per km. That, frankly, is unbeatable by anypetrol or diesel car. Keep in mind thatfixed costs remain the same, any few

households fall into the peak charge forelectricity. So overall costs will, using aback of the envelope calculation, bearound 80 paise per kilometre. A smallpetrol hatchback such as the Hyundai i20or Suzuki Baleno would have a per-kilo-metre cost of �5.5. Even with BMW’s1,00,000 kilometre warranty on the bat-tery and rising fuel prices going forward,which is almost certain, savings on run-ning cost over that period will be �8 lakhat best, not enough to make up the dif-ference. Maybe if you considered this overa BMW X1 for example, you might savemoney but that is all dependent on abenevolent government which wants topromote electric car usage in India andkeeps import duties low or at zero at least

initially to seed the market. But this does not preclude the fact

that the i3s will, even if not chargedimport duties, cost 3.5 times that of astandard hatchback. And then there is anissue with infrastructure, there are somecharging stations built in and aroundDelhi by Energy Efficiency ServicesLimited (EESL) for the fleet of govern-ment electric vehicles, including one atJor Bagh Market near the offices of theEnvironment Ministry. But guess what,that charging system is not compatiblewith that of the BMW. This is like need-ing an iPhone charger and finding aMicro-USB charger. So well, I could nottry that out. This incompatibility issue issomething that the industry and govern-

ment will need to deal with. The i3s is actually an amazing car to

drive around the city. For one the instantpower delivery and almost perfectlylinear acceleration means that it overtakeswith surprising ease, it can be ratherquick if you want it to be and thanks toits excellent centre-of-gravity, it handleslike you expect a BMW should. But thisis just a technology-demonstratorbrought here by BMW to showcase theirtechnology and train their service engi-neers. However, I do wish that the car-maker does share this car with someonein the government and let them drivearound and get some idea of how to for-mulate electric vehicle policy going for-ward.

‘A BUMP DOESN’T STOP YOU’F

rumpy, loose, unbecomingand not in the least stylish —these are some words that are

associated with maternity fashion.However, pregnancy doesn’t haveto mean dressing up in sacks or itsclosest equivalent. Celebrities likeKareena Kapoor Khan andBeyonce amping up the fashionquotient during pregnancy hasensured that there is no flagging

in the social pressure to lookgood even during this time.

It’s true that fashioningclothes for a changing body is adaunting task but designer Cécile Reinaud apprises us thatthere is a huge demand for mater-nity fashion on a global levelcompared to what it used to be afew years back. It started inAmerica, trickled into Europeand it has now reached India, anation that has spread its armswide to welcome this niche seg-ment. The consumers demandsomething comfortable yet fash-ionable, so it will definitely flour-ish exponentially in the comingyears.

Just like traditional fashion,many trends exist in maternitygarments as well. She notes thatdenim wear is extremely popularbecause most women love todress up their closet with the fab-ric. From skinny jeans to denimdresses and shirts, this is afavourite across the globe. Theother trend is floral prints — frompale pinks to light blues, thesenever go out of fashion. It is notjust the safest to follow but also aclassy style to adopt during thatphase.

There has been a substantialchange in the way expectant moth-ers live their lives as compared toyesteryears. This sensibility toohas to be blended into designs.She says that women are educat-ed, well-travelled and they believein being always on point. The sameattitude can be seen even whenthey are pregnant. Every womanwants to look stylish and elegantno matter whether it is in office orat a party — a bump doesn’t deter

them. Since, it is a new chapter ina woman’s life, nothing shoulddetract them from enjoying it tothe fullest. The designs are creat-ed keeping in mind the modernwoman’s desire to look chic every-day and also be able to re-use theseapparel post-pregnancy.

Dressing in the way you likecan keep you positive, happy andcomfortable, even as you face thisbig change in life. Fancy materni-ty outfit is becoming a necessity ascompared to the past, especially inIndia. She says that women in met-ros have a career and they want tolook smart and sophisticated asthey head out. “In a professionalspace, if you don’t dress up well,people don’t take you seriously,especially with a big belly. Itbecomes even more important todress sharp to show you are on topof things. This phenomenon start-ed 15 years ago in the UK and nowhas gained prominence among thenew generation of Indian womenwho are career-driven. With theadvent of the social media, womentake inspiration from the waycelebs and influencers dress up,regardless of the situation or theirphase of life. This has driven thedemand for more comfortableclothes for every stage of a woman’slife, including pregnancy,” addsCecile, who has also designedoutfits for many royals includingthe future queen of England, KateMiddleton.

She believes that the materni-ty fashion scene in India is not verydifferent as compared to othercountries. However, Cécile furtheradds, “Indian women like to dressup more modestly, so they avoidlow cut V necks. They are morecomfortable with sleeves attachedto their dresses and tops. Weathertoo plays a role. It is hot most ofthe months in the country so welook for fabrics that are light andthat will keep you cool, while mak-ing you feel adequately coveredand elegant.”

(The designer is also thefounder and the managing direc-tor of Séraphine.)

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Book from the Ground is a novelwritten using only emoticons by a

Chinese artist Xu Bing that illustratesthe ability to create a universal lan-guage using graphic symbols, he said.

Xu’s aim to create the book, whichso far has only been published in theUS, is for any person anywhere in theworld to be able to understand thestory without having to know anygiven language in advance, since theemoticon symbols are universallyshared and used. This preoccupationwith language, which permeates all ofXu’s work, stems from his childhood.When he was 11, the CulturalRevolution erupted in China and hehad to learn new, simplified Chinesecharacters in order to be able to readand write according to the govern-ment’s new guidelines.

“It’s the first book that everyonein the world can read, since it needsno translation,” said the artist, addingthat currently, by using a very simplesystem of signs, emoticon users, espe-cially young people, enjoy the ability“to communicate on the internation-al level.” “The idea for the bookbegan 13 years ago, when I was hav-ing expositions all over the world andI spent a lot of time on airports,” saidXu.

The book includes 24 chapters. Xupresented his new book at the Art forPeople exposition, where on displayis a banner given to him by theMuseum of Modern Art in 1999 onwhich can be read the slogan “Art forthe People” with the English lettersgrouped in a way that simulatesChinese writing.

Using the same calligraphic tech-nique, the artist has also adapted ortranslated the 15th century poem Elbon poble by Ausias March in a workinspired by the Valencian culture.

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There are certain small skillsthat make life better andeasier. I’m well aware that

many of them take place outsideof the kitchen, and I probablydon’t know as many of those asI should. I’m of no use if youhave a flat tire or need to calcu-late the circumference of some-thing or want to find your wayout of the woods.

But after many years ofclanking around in the kitchen,I have collected a fair arsenal ofcooking tips and shortcuts. Hereare a few that everyone shouldknow:

�� HOW TO QUICKLYRIPEN AVOCADOS

If you have a hard avocadoand you need it to be soft in aday or so, simply place it in abrown paper bag with a bananaor apple and fold the top to closeit up. The natural ethylene gasesemitted by the other fruit willcause the avocado to ripen faster.Depending on how hard youravocado is, it might take a cou-ple of days.

��HOW TO MINCE GARLICSUPER FINE

If you are using minced gar-lic in a dish, particularly wherethe garlic is uncooked, bigchunks are not what you arelooking for. Just smash a clove ortwo (or five) with the side of a

heavy knife, slip off the paperyskin and start chopping on a cut-ting board. As the garlic getschopped, add a pinch or so ofkosher or sea salt and keepchopping. The salt acts as anabrasive so the garlic gets mincedfine. Every once in a while, usethe side of the knife to smear thegarlic against the cutting board,then scrape it back up and keepmincing. You can hear the saltcrunching under the blade as itworks to pulverise the garlic.

��HOW TO MAKE BUTTER-MILK

Unless we are really plan-ning ahead, when ‘buttermilk’comes up as in ingredient in arecipe, it’s unlikely most of ushave it on hand. Easy solution —Make your own. Place one table-spoon lemon juice or whitevinegar in a measuring cup andthen fill it with milk to the onecup line. I like to use whole milk,but you can also use 2 per cent.If you see slight curdling, don’tworry it won’t affect the finishedproduct. This may not be asthick as regular buttermilk, butthe acidity in the milk will per-form the same function — get-ting you to a tender, flaky andflavorful baked good.

�� HOW TO PEEL GINGERWITH A SPOON

Ginger’s skin is thin enough

to be scraped off with the edgeof a teaspoon. In fact, it’s easierto use a spoon than a vegetablepeeler because the spoon can getinto the crevices and navigate

over the bumps more easily.Also, this means you can haveeven a little kid help with thiskitchen task, since they can’tnick themselves with a spoon.

�� HOW TO SOFTENBROWN SUGAR

If you have a day or two, justplace a piece of fresh bread in acontainer with the brown sugar,seal the container and yourbrown sugar will soften right up.If you are in a hurry, place thebrown sugar in a bowl, place adamp paper towel over it, coverthe bowl with a plate andmicrowave it for 20 seconds.Check to see if it’s soft and if not,continue microwaving in 20second bursts until it is. Use itpretty quickly, and when youstore any leftovers, make sure toput a piece of fresh bread in thecontainer with the sugar.

�� HOW TO GET HONEY(OR MOLASSES, MAPLESYRUP OR CORN SYRUP)OUT OF A MEASURING CUP

Anything sticky is just plainhard to measure. You pour itinto the cup or spoon and theninto your bowl or pot, and athick coating is always leftinside the measuring cup, drip-drip-dripping, but never fullygetting out of the cup. Thequick hack is cooking spray. Justspray the inside of the cup ormeasuring spoon with non-stick cooking spray, measureyour sticky ingredient and it willslide right out. Cleanup is eas-ier, too.

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� Given livestock, certain foods won’tlast beyond 2030-50 as predicted byLancet, how do we change food cultureto make sustainable choices?

This situation has become alarming.We need to go back to the consumptionof local produce. The focus on western-ised diets which are based on three cropvarieties and an overconsumption ofmeat needs to be tackled. Refined sugars,saturated fats, dairy are areas where therestrictive approach can work in ourfavour. We will also need to inhibitwastefulness as a habit.

� What are the challenges to a sustain-able food culture in India?

The sheer size and diversity of thecountry presents a huge challenge interms of food. Indian food culture is anamalgamation of varied food interpreta-tions. Sustainable culture will need edu-cation for the farmer and evolution of theconsumer at various levels of the econo-my.

� In what way do we need to change theway we eat, given our lifestyle choices?

It can only start with the understand-ing that we need to make a change, soawareness is the key. Our lifestyle choic-es are the exact opposite of what’s requiredfor a healthy body and mind. Hence theintake becomes the most importantaspect we can work on. As I said, it willstart with the use of local and seasonalproduce. And by restricting the intake ofprocessed food options.

� As the population grows and yieldsget squeezed, a growing number offarmers are switching to practices thatconserve resources and at the same timeare more productive. What do youhave to say about the native crops thatIndia has stopped growing?

It’s a shame that we end up lappingwhat the West brings us with respect tosuper foods. We have always had abun-dance in terms of produce that is good foryou. From ghee to barley, millet tococonut, moringa to rosella. We have itall. We need to make all of this main-stream and enhance its usage. We alsohave to create suitable demand andmaintain a healthy rate of supply.

� What do you have to say about thecurrent food culture in India?

We have a head start when it comesto sustainable food culture as a majorchunk of the Indian population is vege-tarian. By focusing on grains, legume,pulses, vegetables and fruits, the balance

of the food ecosystem is maintained. Butwith an increase in the urban populationthat centres around a western diet, thisbalance is shifting.

� Has Indian cuisine made a mark onthe global palate? Is it being appreciat-ed by connoisseurs and the massesadequately?

You will be surprised if I tell you thatIndian cuisine is classified as a heritageone by the UN, with Mexico and Chinabeing the other two countries with thesame status. We have been eating the samefor ages. Indian cuisine is a feast as it’srich, varied, seasonal and has all the ele-ments that ensure that it is appreciatedacross the globe. International chefs haveopened up to Indian cuisine and Indianchefs have started using global techniqueswhile working with ingredients andflavours from the country. Indian chefshave made huge efforts in making thefood look delectable.

� Food preferences are subjective. Somemay like a dish and some won’t. How doyou deal with negative criticism to yourcooking?

I rather call it feedback. And no onecan please everyone. But each guest isimportant and we try to match his/herexpectations.

� What is the biggest thing you stand forand support as a chef?

Kitchens are high stress ecosystemsand chefs are burning out. I stand for cre-ating an environment that’s less taxing andis built on camaraderie and balance. Myfood logic is simple. I make the familiarexciting and the unfamiliar approachable.Having said that, seasonality, tastefullnessand balance of flavours play a vital role.

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Atletico Madrid delayedBarcelona winning La Liga

by a few days at least afterAlvaro Morata and AntoineGriezmann each scored in a 3-2 victory over Valencia onWednesday.

Defeat at the WandaMetropolitano would havecrowned Barca kings of Spainfor a 26th time in their histo-ry, with the Catalans now set tocelebrate at their own CampNou on Saturday instead.

A Barcelona win there overLevante will wrap up theirfourth league triumph in fiveyears and they could even behome and dry before kick-off,if Atletico fail to take a point athome to struggling RealValladolid earlier in the day.

Regardless, success forErnesto Valverde's side is sure-

ly now only a matter of timinggiven Atletico remain nine

points behind the leaderswith four games left toplay.

Angel Correa's stun-ning strike in the 81stminute proved the win-ner after Valencia hadfought back, Kevin

Gameiro and a Dani Parejopenalty twice pulling themlevel after goals from Morataand Griezmann.

Morata's early strike con-tinued his excellent form sincehis move to Atletico in January,his finish at the back post tak-ing his tally to six goals in 13games for the club.

Griezmann, meanwhile,back from suspension, nowhas 25 goals in all competitionsthis season, an impressivereturn, particularly in a side notrenowned for its creativity.

�� 5/$�3)

Bayern Munich will faceRB Leipzig in the

German Cup final nextmonth after RobertLewandowski fired themto a 3-2 win over a valiantWerder Bremen onWednesday.

Lewandowski scoredtwice in a highly entertain-ing last-four tie to reachthe final for the 23rd time.

Bremen were unfazedby their role as underdogs,attacking Bayern all nightand briefly overturning atwo-goal deficit.

Yet Lewandowski'slate penalty ultimatelydecided a fiery cup tie inBayern's favour.

"It was the tough gamethat we were expecting,"

man of the match ThomasMueller told ARD.

"Football is fun in anatmosphere like this. Ihave to say, I'm a bit of aBremen fan. I love watch-ing them, and their fansare great."

Both sides threw

everything forward in thefirst half, with MilotRashica in particular caus-ing endless headaches forthe Bayern defence.

Lewandowski putBayern in front on 36minutes, however, andMueller appeared to land

the sucker punch when hescooped in a second justafter the hour mark.

Rashica, though,hauled Bremen back intothe tie with two minutes ofmagic.

The Kosovan set upYuya Osako to pull a goalback on 74 minutes, beforetearing through Bayernwith a brilliant solo run aminute later to net theequaliser.

Yet Lewandowskirestored the lead from thespot on 80 minutes afterKingsley Coman wentdown in the box.

Bayern will face RBLeipzig in the final atBerlin's Olympic Stadiumon May 25, where theyhope to win the trophy forthe 19th time.

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Unai Emery refused to giveup on Arsenal 's

Champions League hopesafter seeing his side embar-rassed by Wolves in a 3-1defeat at Molineux onWednesday.

Ruben Neves, MattDoherty and the outstandingDiogo Jota scored the goalsthat condemned Emery's sideto a third defeat in fourPremier League games,severely denting their hopes ofa top-four finish with justthree games to go.

The Arsenal manageradmitted his team were out-played by Wolves, who scoredthree goals in the first half togive the visitors a mountain toclimb.

Despite the chasteningdefeat the Spaniard said hisside will keep striving forChampions League football,which they can achieve eitherthrough a top-four finish in

the Premier League or by win-ning the Europa League.

Defeat in the Midlands leftEmery's men a point behindfourth-placed Chelsea.

"I usually am very criticalwith myself and I am angrywith myself that we didn't dothe gameplan we wanted —not with the players," saidEmery when asked if he wasangry with his team.

"First it is with me andafter that my style and idea isto look in front and find asolution, not who is the play-er who is worst.

"First I am thinking aboutthe solution and the solutionfor me is to take the possibil-ity on Sunday at Leicester andget our best performance andthe best possibility to take thethree points."

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Manchester City manager PepGuardiola believes his side hasraised the bar in the Premier

League after edging one point backahead of Liverpool in a titanic title racewith a 2-0 win at Manchester United onWednesday.

Bernardo Silva and Leroy Sanestruck for the visitors in 12 second-halfminutes at Old Trafford to inflict a sev-enth defeat in nine games on United,who remain three points adrift of the topfour.

City cannot match their record 100points tally in romping to the titlelast season, but victoriesover Burnley, Leicester andBrighton will clinch thetitle on 98 points and ensureLiverpool's 29-year wait towin the league continuesdespite already posting aclub record points tally inthe Premier League era.

"We increased thelevel for the PremierLeague last seasonwith 100 points.That's the levelLiverpool are chas-ing. What theyhave done isincredible but it's inour hands," saidGuardiola.

"Both teams deservethe title. But it can be justone. The team that isgoing to lose can't haveregrets because theyhave given everything."

City's trip to OldTrafford was billed asthe last big hurdleleft for Guardiola'smen to cleardespite United'sterrible run ofform.

H o w e v e r ,Guardiola warnedof the tight turn-around before avery different typeof test at Burnleyon Sunday.

" N o r m a l l ywith this kind ofvictory you can enjoy it themost but we have to be calm,"

added Guardiola."Now we go to

Burnley and we knowhow tough it will be.It's important to becalm. We are still notchampions with threegames left — it'sincredible with thepoints we have andLiverpool have.

��United boss Ole Gunnar

Solskjaer slammed his players'attitude after a 4-0 at Everton onSunday and was rewarded witha far more energetic and com-mitted performance, even ifCity's greater quality eventu-ally shone through.

Raheem Sterling shot tooclose to De Gea after weav-ing through a host of United

bodies inside the area beforeSergio Aguero dragged well wide whenunmarked at the edge of the box as Citywent through the gears towards the end

of the first-half.But it was an enforced change early

in the second-half that swung the gameCity's way as Guardiola boldly intro-duced Sane when the more defensive-minded Fernandinho went downinjured.

David de Gea has been a raremodel of consistent brilliance asUnited have fallen behind City inrecent seasons.

But the Spaniard's dramatic dip inform of late continued as he could havedone better for both goals.

Guardiola's positive change wasinstantly rewarded when Bernardo cutinside onto his favoured left foot andbeat De Gea at his near post.

Sane has been scarcely used byGuardiola of late, but the German,whose winning goal inflictedLiverpool's only league defeat of the sea-son in January, again showed his capa-bility to make a difference in thebiggest games.

Sterling led a City counter-attackbefore feeding Sane, whose powerfulshot De Gea could not keep out.

�� Manchester United'sPaul Pogba is the only non-Manchester City or Liverpoolplayer to be named in theProfessional Footballers'Association's Premier Leagueteam of the year on Thursday.

The 26-year-old FrenchWorld Cup-winning mid-

fielder's inclusion is asurprise after an indif-ferent season, although

he hit a purplepatch after OleGunnar Solskjaer

arrived at OldTrafford as interim man-

ager.City and Liverpool have

been locked in an enthrallingduel for the title, with City

going top again afterbeating United 2-0, withPogba unable to inspirehis side to a much-need-

ed win.City provide six of the 11

players — goalkeeper Ederson,centre-half Aymeric Laporte,

midfielders Bernardo Silva andFernandinho and forwardsSergio Aguero and RaheemSterling.

The remaining four placesare filled by Liverpool players -- full-backs Andrew Robertsonand Trent-Alexander Arnold,central defender Virgil van Dijkand forward Sadio Mane.

Van Dijk and Sterling arebelieved to be in the running forthe player of the year award.

There is no place, though,for Liverpool's Egyptian star MoSalah, who has scored 19Premier League goals this sea-son, Spurs pair Harry Kaneand Son Heung-min or Chelseaplaymaker Eden Hazard.

The PFA Team of the Yearis voted for by members of theProfessional Footballers'Association.

Manchester City had fiveplayers in the 2017/18 side butonly Argentine star Agueroretains his place from the teamof 12 months ago. AFP

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Championship leader LewisHamilton is expecting his main

rivals to give him a tough time onthe demanding streets of Baku at thisweekend's Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

The five-time world champion,who heads the embryonic2019 title race by six pointsafter three races, has strug-gled to master the Baku circuitin the past and won last yearonly after Mercedes' team-mateValtteri Bottas had a puncturewhen leading with three lapsremaining.

That disappointment was abody blow for Bottaswho did not fully recov-er and failed to claim awin as Hamiltonromped to his fifth dri-vers' crown. This time, Hamiltonexpects him, and Ferrari, torespond.

"I was fortunate to get the winhere last year," admitted Hamilton,who has developed a habit of turn-ing unpromising races into valuablepodium finishes or wins.

"I wasn't quick enough really,

right through the weekendso it will be interesting thistime.

"I'm expecting Valtterito be quick and I expect

the Ferraris to be particularly quick.It will be interesting. I'm going witha mind-set that I've got to improveon my previous performances."

Victory last year was Hamilton'sfirst at the tricky track made up ofthe season's longest — and very fast— straight and tight corners, somewith little run-off and walls.

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World numberone Naomi

Osaka defeated HsiehSu-wei 6-4, 6-3 inher first clay courtmatch of the seasonin Stuttgart onThursday.

US andAustralian Openchampion Osaka,who lost to Taiwanese veteran Hsieh in Miami last month,secured a place in the quarter-finals against Croatia's DonnaVekic.

Osaka, 21, broke Hsieh three times in total to beat Hsiehfor the second time in three attempts this year, having also defeat-ed her on the way to lifting the title in Melbourne.

"She's a really tricky opponent. You never really know whatshe's going to do," said Osaka.

Osaka needed 84 minutes to dispatch the unconventionalHsieh, a win that ensures she will hold on to top spot for at leastanother week.

She is less than 200 points ahead of Simona Halep in theWTA rankings, although the Romanian pulled out of this week'stournament with a hip injury.

The Japanese star arrived in Stuttgart, where she last playedin Stuttgart as a qualifier in 2017, after suffering early exits inher last three tournaments.

Osaka will meet Vekic, a 6-1, 7-5 winner over DariaKasatkina, for a spot in the last four, while seventh seed AnastasijaSevastova defeated Germany's Laura Siegemund 6-4, 6-3.

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Rafael Nadal showed no mercytowards an emotional David

Ferrer as he eased into the quar-ter-finals of the Barcelona Openon Thursday with a straight-setsvictory.

Ferrer is set to retire after theMadrid Open next month andmade a tearful exit on what washis last appearance at this tour-nament.

But there was no room forsentiment for Nadal, who won 6-3, 6-3 to take one step closer toa record 12th Barcelona title.

Four of those triumphs cameafter beating Ferrer in the finaland, at the end of this latest vic-tory, Nadal's 37-year-old oppo-nent saluted the crowd beforeplacing his pink headband downon the service line.

Ferrer reached a career-highranking of number three in theworld in 2013, the same year hewent closest to winning a GrandSlam too, undone by Nadal againin the French Open final.

Nadal will be gunning for his12th success at Roland Garrosnext month and this was more

like the sort of form expected ofthe world number two, who hadwon 30 consecutive sets inBarcelona before falling onebehind to Leonardo Mayer onWednesday.

Germany's Jan-LennardStruff or the talented 20-year-oldGreek, Stefanos Tsitsipas, nowawait in the last eight before apotential semi-final meetingwith Dominic Thiem, whomNadal beat in the French Openfinal last year.

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They might have already reached the cut-offlimit of 16 points needed for the play-offs,

but Chennai Super Kings would like to consol-idate their position at the top when they takeon an inconsistent Mumbai Indians in an IPLmatch here on Friday.

The MS Dhoni-led side roared backto form after two loss-es, with a six-wicketwin over SunrisersHyderabad here onTuesday night, ridingon Shane Watson'sbig hitting.

Come on Friday, the hosts would be look-ing to continue the momentum.

The visitors, currently in third spot with 12points from 10 games, are coming off a defeatagainst Rajasthan Royals and will be keen tokeep themselves in the hunt for the playoffs.

While CSK's must have welcomed Watson'sreturn to form, the team would be hoping forSuresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu and KedarJadhav to get going ahead of the knockout phase.

It is important for Jadhav to get his touchback with the World Cup looming.

The bowlers have played a big role in CSK'ssuccess so far, especially at home, on sluggishtracks. The much-improved Deepak Chahar willbe key in the matches to come with his intelli-gent bowling at the start and at the death.

Though Imran Tahir, who is the secondhighest wicket-taker with 16, went wicketless in

the SRH match, the South African veteran willbe expected to stymie the powerful MumbaiIndians batting line-up along with fellow spin-ners Ravindra Jadeja and Harbhajan Singh.

Mumbai have had a roller coaster season sofar and they now need to be at their best in thelast lap of the preliminary phase.

In Rohit Sharma, they have a shrewd cap-tain who leads from the front, and a solid bat-ting unit that includes Quinton de Kock,Kieron Pollard and the Pandya brothers —Hardik & Krunal.

Jasprit Bumrah & Co will be wary of CSK'sbatting with Watson having found his mojoagain and the ever-reliable Dhoni.

An interesting battle looms between the twothree-time champions.

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Under-fire skipperDinesh Karthik silenced

his critics with a career-best97 not out as Kolkata KnightRiders recovered from anatrocious start to post acompetitive 175 for sixagainst Rajasthan Royals intheir must-win IPL fixturehere on Thursday.

Under pressure to per-form after a string of fivestraight defeats, the WorldCup-bound Karthik pro-moted himself to No 4,shrugging off criticism, andsmashed nine sixes andseven fours in his 50-ballunbeaten knock, as KKRhit top gear in the back endof the innings, scoring 126from the last 10 overs and 75off the last five overs.

On a day their impactplayer Andre Russell lookedlacklustre in his run-a-ball14, in which he was droppedtwice, it was a one-manshow from Karthik whowent berserk against thelikes of Jaydev Unadkat andShreyas Gopal.

Karthik seized the

momentum in the 11th overwhen he hit Shreyas Gopalfor a six followed by threeboundaries in an over thatyielded 25 runs and KKR didnot look back since then.

Karthik completed hisfifty from 35 balls andsmashed Jofra Archer forsuccessive sixes in the penul-timate over before betteringhis previous best of 86 whenhe went berserk againstUnadkat by hitting him fortwo sixes and one four in thefinal over.

Unadkat conceded 50runs for his one wicket andwas the most expensive ofthe lot as he undid all thegood work done by Varun

Aaron (2/20) who had a finenew ball spell of 3-1-10-2.

Put in to bat, KKR gotoff to an atrocious start to be32/2 in powerplay oversagainst an all out pace attackfrom Rajasthan Royals.

Playing his only secondmatch this season, Aaronextracted pace and swingfrom the fast-paced Edentrack and removed both theopeners Chris Lynn (0) andShubman Gill (14) cheaply.

Aaron set up Lynn bril-liantly with his first twoballs before bowling a deliv-ery that sharply came backas the Australian played it onto his stumps in a wicket-maiden first over.

Then the talented Gillhad no answer to negotiatean inswinger as he was com-pletely beaten by pace to seethe ball clip his bails.

Archer capped a superbpowerplay for Royals withanother maiden as thedispirited KKR found them-selves going nowhere andseemed to be losing the plotbefore skipper Karthikrevived them at the back endof the innings.

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After a brief two-matchstint, Royal Challengers

Bangalore pacer Dale Steynwas on Thursday ruled out ofthe Indian Premier Leagueowing to an inflammation inhis shoulder.

The veteran South Africanfast bowler, who had recent-ly joined RCB as an replace-ment for injured NathanCoulter-Nile, was forced to sitout of the match against KingsXI Punjab on Wednesdayafter he picked up a niggle.

"Dale Steyn has been pre-scribed with ample rest due toinflammation in his shoulder.On account of state of hishealth, Dale will not be avail-able to take part further in the

ongoing season of IPL,"Sanjeev Churiwala, Chairmanof RCB, said in a statement.

The injury-prone pacerhad returned to the IPL aftera gap of two years and straightaway contributed to team'swinning cause by picking upfour wickets in two games —against Kolkata Knight Ridersand Chennai Super Kings.

"His presence has helpedthe team immensely and weare very thankful for the inspi-ration and passion that hebrought to the squad. Theteam will deeply miss hisenergy and presence around.We wish him a speedy recov-ery and all the luck for allfuture endeavours," RCBChairman said.

With the ODI World Cupscheduled to start on May 30in UK, Steyn may not be will-ing to aggravate his injury.

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India's Divya Kakran andManju Kumari bagged

Bronze medals for thecountry in the women's competition of theAsian Wrestling Championships here onThursday.

Asian Games Bronze-medallistKakran defeated Battsetseg Soronzonboldof Mongolia via fall in the play-offs of the68kg category to finish on the podium.

It was double delight for India asManju also secured a Bronze medal ear-lier in the day by beating Vietnam's ThiHuong Dao 11-2.

Seema, who also made it to the play-offs, however failed to register a hat-trickof Bonze medals for India after losing toValentina Ivanovna Islamova Brik ofKazakhstan 5-11 in the 50kg category.

Silver-medallist in the 69kg categoryat the 2017 edition of the AsianChampionships, Kakran lost out on aplace in the final of 68kg after going downto Feng Zhou of China 4-14 in the semi-finals.

In the 59kg category, Manju had lostto Battsetseg Altantsetseg of Mongolia 6-15 in the last four stage to settle for a placein the bronze-medal round.

Manju had earlier beaten Kazakhstan's

Madina Bakbergenova 5-3 in the quarter-finals.

In the 50kg category, Seema defeatedMeng Hsuan Hsieh of Chinese Taipei 10-2 in her repechage bout. She had earlierlost to Yuki Irie of Japan in the qualifica-tion round but made the repechage afterher Japanese rival reached the final.

However, India's campaign got overearly in the 55kg and 76kg weight divisionswhen Lalita and Pooja lost their respec-tive quarterfinal bouts to bow out of theevent.

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Amit Panghal (52kg) and KavinderSingh Bisht (56kg) remained on course

for their second successive internationalGold medals this year and India lookedgood to notch up its best ever performancein the Asian Boxing Championships hereon Thursday.

Panghal and Bisht were the mostimpressive on a day when Shiva Thapa's(60kg) unprecedented fourth successivesemifinal appearance ended with a Bronzeafter a gruelling battle which could havegone either way.

Deepak Singh (49kg) and AshishKumar (75kg) joined Panghal and Bisht inthe men's finals, while Pooja Rani (81kg)and Simranjit Kaur (64kg) advanced toFriday's summit clashes in the women'sdraw.

Panghal defeated China's Hu Jianguanin a split verdict, which was a surprise giventhat the Indian was clearly the more dom-inant of the two boxers and dictated thebout with his tremendous pace and aggres-sion.

Bisht, on the other hand, turned in alion-hearted show in a bloody battle whichleft him and his opponent — MongolianEnkh-Amar Khakhuu — with bandagedright eyes. The draining fight ended 3-2 inthe Indian's favour.

Thapa came out all guns blazing too,against 2015 edition's Silver-medallist

Kazakhstan's Zakir Safiullin, but a loss ofmomentum in the final round ended uptilting the scales against him in a split deci-sion by the judges.

Also finishing with a Bronze amongmen were Ashish (69kg) and Satish Kumar(+91kg).

Settling for Bronze medals among thewomen were veteran former champion LSarita Devi (60kg), last edition's Silver-medallist Manisha (54kg), former juniorworld champion Nikhat Zareen (51kg) andworld Silver-medallist Sonia Chahal (57kg).

Manisha lost to Taiwan's Huang Hsiao-Wen, while Sarita (60kg) went down toChina's Yang Wenlu.

Pooja was up against Kazakhstan'sFariza Sholtay and emerged triumphant ina unanimous decision.

Zareen gave it her all in the clashagainst Vietnam's Nguyen Thi Tam butsigned off with a Bronze after losing thebout on a split verdict by the judges.

Sonia was squared off against localfavourite Nilwan Techasuep and althoughthe Indian seemed to be a more precisepuncher than her rival, the judges ruled inthe Tha's favour much to the crowd'sdelight.

In the last Indian bout of the day,national champion Simranjit faced a rathersluggish opponent in Uzbekistan'sMaftunakhon Melieva and controlled theproceedings from start to finish for an easy5-0 triumph.

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Ace Indian women shuttlers SainaNehwal and P V Sindhu registered

straight-game wins to sail into the quarter-finals of the Asian BadmintonChampionship here on Thursday.

London Olympic Bronze medallistSaina, who was the last Indian to take thecourt on Thursday, needed just 38 minutesto get the better of Kim Ga Eun of Koreato enter the last eight round of the women'ssingles event.

Saina, seeded seventh, has a tough nextencounter as she will be up against thirdseed Akane Yamaguchi of Japan.

The other Indian in fray, Sindhu, seed-ed fourth, took just 33 minutes to beatIndonesia's Choirunnisa 21-15, 21-19 inanother second round women's singlesmatch.

The world number six will next play theunseeded Cai Yanyan of China in the quar-terfinals.

Besides the female duo, Sameer Vermatoo continued his impressive run by pro-gressing to the men's singles quarterfinals.

Sameer brushed aside Hong Kong's NgKa Long Angus 21-12, 21-19 in his secondround encounter.

But a Herculean task awaits Sameer inthe last eight round as he will clash with sec-ond seed Shi Yuqi of China.

Among other Indians, mixed doublespair of Utkarsh Arora and KarishmaWadkar crashed out in the second roundafter losing 21-10, 21-15 to Hafiz Faizal andGloria Emanuelle Widjaja of Indonesia.

There was another defeat in store in themixed doubles as the combination ofVenkat Gaurav Prasad and Juhi Dewangantoo perished in the second round after los-ing 10-21, 9-21 against second seededChinese duo of Yilyu Wang and DongpingHuang.

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Young Indian shooters domi-nated the mixed team compe-

titions by winning two Goldmedals on day three of the ongo-ing ISSF World Cup to take thecountry on the top of medal tallyhere on Thursday.

The teenage pairing of ManuBhaker and Saurabh Chaudharywon their second Gold in 10m AirPistol Mixed Team event in asmany World Cup stages this yearwhile another teenager Divyansh

Panwar struck Gold in AirRifle Mixed Team event part-nering the more accomplished

Anjum Moudgil to help cap amemorable day for India.

The start of the day was allabout a new pair, a new format

and a new result.Anjum partnered

Divyansh, who was in only hissecond senior competition, for thefirst time to beat the for-midable Chinese pair ofLiu Ruxuan and YangHaoran 17-15 in a pulsat-ing Gold medal match.

The win was evenmore creditable given thata new format was beingtried by the International ShootingSport Federation (ISSF) for themixed events in Beijing.

The second Indian team in theevent, Apurvi Chandela andDeepak Kumar also reached thefinals but finished sixth eventual-ly.

Then came the icing on thecake with Manu and Saurabh's vic-

tory in the 10m Air Pistol MixedTeam event. The teenage starscomprehensively defeated yetanother Chinese pair consisting of

former Olympic championPang Wei and 2019 NewDelhi World Cup finalistJiang Ranxin, 16-6 in theGold medal match.

Manu and Saurabhbegan from where they hadleft at the home World Cup

in Delhi a couple of months back,beating top class opponents enroute to the Gold. They didenough to make it to the finaleight and then beat an experi-enced German pair in the quarter-finals, a second Chinese pair in thesemifinals, before comprehen-sively beating Pang and Jiang 16-6 in the Gold medal match.

The new format entailed thetop eight teams qualifying for thefinal round where four quarterfi-nals, two semifinals and a finalwould determine the eventualmedallists.

The quarterfinal was a 30-shotmatch-up between pairs in riflewhile it was a 40-shot affair in pis-tol. The medal events would entaila series of single shots per com-petitor per team.

To decide the medals, thepair with the higher series aggre-gate would be allotted two pointsand the first team to reach 16points would be adjudged the win-ner.

In the Air Rifle event, a sin-gle shot would start the finalbefore the series of two shotskicked in.

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