16
I n a big setback for the Congress, the Delhi High Court on Tuesday ordered the eviction of the publisher of Congress mouthpiece National Herald from Herald House, the headquarters of the news- paper, within two weeks, dis- missing the petition filed by the publisher Associated Journals Limited (AJL). Finding no irregularity in the Urban Development Ministry’s Land and Development Office (L&DO), the judgment said there is total violation of the lease agreement by the publisher who is hold- ing the building for past 56 years. The court also said AJL’s takeover by Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi’s floated firm Young Indian is “questionable” “modus operandi.” After the HC order, the focus will now be on several other buildings like Patriot House (Link House), which continues to commercially exploit their premises in viola- tion of several provisions of lease agreements. To circum- vent the provisions of the lease agreement, the Patriot House (Link House) owners have revived The Patriot, a weekly magazine, but it is hardly visi- ble on stands. In its 17-page order on the eviction of AJL, Justice Sunil Gaur t said, “The ‘subject premises’ was leased out to leg- endary AJL for its publication, but the dominant purpose is now practically lost. This court is constrained to observe that major portion of the ‘subject premises’ has been rented out and petitioners’ newspaper, which was to be housed origi- nally in the basement and ground floor, has now been shifted on the top floor with hardly any ‘press activity’.” “This court is conscious of the fact that Young India Company is a charitable com- pany, but modus operandi to acquire 99 per cent of AJL’s share speaks volumes. The manner in which it has been done is also questionable,” said the judgment. Observing that there was no wrong in eviction notice, the judgment also said that peti- tioners’ contention that the Government move was to erase, efface and defame the legacy of Pandit Nehru was not at all acceptable. “One fails to understand as to how the rul- ing dispensation has in any way erased, effaced, or defamed Pandit Nehru… the allega- tions of malafide leveled by petitioners are bald and unspe- cific and so no note of these allegations taken,” said the judgment AJL approached the Delhi High Court after the L&DO slapped an eviction notice on it on October 30, based on the complaint filed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy. AJL was represented by Congress leader and noted lawyer Abhishek Singhvi, and the Government was represented by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta. The court had reserved its decision on AJL’s plea on November 22. The HC said AJL will have to vacate the premises at ITO in Delhi within two weeks after which proceedings under the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorized Occupants) Act, 1971 would be initiated. The L&DO had ended the lease — entered into with AJL on August 2, 1962 and made perpetual on January 10, 1967 — asking the company to hand over the possession by November 15. The L&DO’s order had also said that failure to hand over possession would lead to initiation of proceedings under the Public Premises Act. In its plea, AJL has said the digital versions of English newspaper National Herald, Hindi’s Navjivan and Urdu’s Qaumi Awaz commenced pub- lication in 2016-17. The week- ly newspaper National Herald resumed publication on September 24 last year, AJL had said, adding that the Hindi weekly newspaper Sunday Navjivan was also being pub- lished since October this year from the same premises. Later in the evening, wel- coming the judgment, the Urban Development Ministry said, “It was found by the inspecting team of the Ministry on April 09, 2018 that no printing press was functioning at any floor of the premises and no paper stock was found any- where.” “In earlier inspection also, the basement where press machine should have been was found vacant. Further, it was also found that almost all shares of AJL were transferred to ‘Young Indian Ltd’ having same address as that of AJL without any permission of the Ministry. As per a report of Income Tax Department, in Young Indian Ltd, majority of shares (76%) are held by the Gandhi family and the rest by Shri MotilalVora and Shri Oscar Fernandes. It was also observed that instead of using the land given to AJL for press purpose, they are earning a huge sum of money by renting out almost entire building except one floor which has negated the purpose for which the land was originally allotted,” said the Ministry in a statement. A massive uproar erupted inside and outside Parliament over the Government’s decision to empower several investigating agencies to intercept and mon- itor data on computers. While the Opposition accused the Government of turning India into a surveillance State, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley defended the move saying the authorisation was given under rules framed during the UPA regime in 2009. The issue rocked the Rajya Sabha as Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad alleged “undeclared Emergency has taken final shape” and “all fed- eral agencies have been let loose”. Congress chief Rahul Gandhi took to social media calling Modi an insecure “dic- tator.” The issue was also raised in the Lok Sabha during Zero Hour with Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) leader N K Premachandran who alleged that the move is a violation of the fundamental rights. The Opposition members ques- tioned the motive of imposing such an order by Home Ministry for the first time ever after the rules were framed almost a decade ago. While Jaitley hit back say- ing the Congress is crying foul over powers created by it when it was in Government, Congress leader and Deputy Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Anand Sharma said the issue is serious as it is related to fundamental rights and “India will become a police state” with such “sweeping powers” to agencies to intercept information. Responding to the charge, Jaitley said it would have been better if the Opposition had obtained all information before raising this issue. He said the rules under which agencies will be authorised to intercept information were framed in 2009 when the Congress-led UPA was in power. “So what you are doing Anand Sharma is making a mountain where even a mole- hill does not exist. You must know this and as a Leader of Opposition your word is sacro- sanct, so don’t use it for a pur- pose where a power which you created, which is to be used in national security cases, now you are crying foul about that power,” Jaitley said in the Upper House. Azad retorted that there is no mention of national securi- ty in the order and that the rul- ing dispensation seems to think it has ownership rights over national security and it means nothing to us, to which, Jaitley said, “These are elementary things. It is an authorisation order. The provisions of nation- al security are written in Article 69.... You are playing with the security of the country. That is what you have done just now”. Continued on Page 4 E ven as it is getting ready to face the people with hopes of getting another mandate for five years, the Narendra Modi Government has come across a major embarrassment in the form of a report by All India Manufacturers’ Organisation, the 76-year-old establishment founded by Bharat Ratna M Visvesvaraya . An all India survey held by the AIMO in October 2018 has found that more than 35 lakh people working in the traders, micro, small and medium enterprises (TMSM) have lost their jobs during the last four years and six months. “Self-employed categories such as tailors, cobblers, bar- bers, plumbers, masons, elec- tricians have been eliminated during the last four and half years,” said KE Raghunathan, president, AIMO. Though the Modi Government came to power in May 2014 with the promise of rejuvenation and resuscitation of the TMSM segment, the backbone of Indian economy, what has happened is the oppo- site as many units across the length and breadth of the coun- try downed their shutters due to a host of reasons, said Raghunathan. “The year 2015-16 saw a growth in all areas of business due to high sentiments and expectations from the new leadership. It went down next year due to demonetisation and then again due to GST and then due to non-availability of finance and higher outstanding with Government payments and compliance matters,” said Raghunathan, an entrepreneur based in Chennai. Continued on Page 4 T he pendulum swung back once again for the BJP after Thursday’s “moral victory” with a Division Bench of Calcutta High Court on Friday setting aside the single Bench order granting permission to the much-hyped Rath Yatra. The Division Bench of Chief Justice Debashis Kargupta and Justice Shampa Sarkar sent the matter back to the single Bench of Justice Tapabrata Chakrabarty asking it to consider the intelligence inputs from the State agencies that had predicted violence and communal unrest during the course of the rally. The Trinamool Congress Government which had earli- er denied the Yatra permission to the saffron outfit had pre- ferred an appeal against the single Bench order green-sig- naling the Yatra. The Bench of Justice Chakrabarty had on Thursday questioned the Government’s intention in sitting over the let- ters seeking permission from the Government for two months before hurriedly asking the intelligence agencies to prepare reports on the conse- quence of the Yatra on the State’s law and order situation. Subsequently it OK’d the Yatra with a rider saying the BJP would be equally respon- sible (along with the State Government) for the situa- tions if they turned violent. The BJP was likely to hold three Yatras each one to be inaugurated by party presi- dent Amit Shah from Coochbehar, Kakdwip-Ganga Sagar and Birbhum. All the Yatras were to converge at the Brigade parade ground in Kolkata where Prime Minister Narendra Modi would address a grand rally. Continued on Page 4 S ushil Kumar Sharma, the former president of Delhi Youth Congress, who was con- victed for the murder of his wife Naina Sahni, was set free by the Delhi High Court on Friday. The court ordered “forth- with” release of Sharma, serv- ing life term for the murder of his wife Naina in 1995. Sharma has already undergone over two decades of incarceration in the case. A Bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Sangita Dhingra Sehgal passed the order. Now 56, Sharma had shot dead his wife in 1995, objecting to her alleged rela- tionship with a male friend. On the night of July 2, 1995, Sushil came home and saw Naina talking on the phone and consuming alcohol. Naina on seeing Sushil hung up. Sushil redialed the phone to find her alleged boyfriend on the other end. Enraged he fatally shot Naina. He had then chopped her body into pieces and attempted to dispose it off in a tandoor (clay oven) of Baghia restaurant which he owned. Detailed story on P3 B enchmark equity indices witnessed heavy selloff on Friday after investors booked profits in realty, banking, IT and auto bluechips amid weak signals from global markets. The BSE Sensex plunged 689.60 points, or 1.89 per cent, to 35,742.07, while the NSE Nifty slipped 197.70 points, or 1.81 per cent, to 10,754. The 30-share index ended the week 527.93 points lower, and the broader Nifty lost 134 points. The equity market wit- nessed selling ahead of the weekend, mainly due to fears of lower global economic growth in the coming year, said Joseph Thomas, Head Research- Emkay Wealth Management. Concerns over the rupee also loomed over IT and tech stocks, analysts said. The biggest losers of the session include Reliance, Infosys, TCS, ICICI Bank, HDFC twins, ITC, Maruti, L&T, HUL, Axis Bank, Wipro and IndusInd Bank, cracking up to 4 per cent. NTPC, PowerGrid and Coal India were the only gainers on Sensex, rising up to 1 per cent. Detailed report on P11 A designated CBI court on Friday acquitted all the 22 accused in the “fake” encoun- ters of notorious criminals Sohrabuddin Shaikh and his aide Tulsiram Prajapati and in the rape-murder of Kausar Bi. While acquitting all the 22 accused, Additional Sessions Judge SJ Sharma, who presides over a special CBI court, said, “The evidence adduced by prosecution is not satisfactory. The prosecution has failed to put forth any documentary and substantive evidence to suggest or establish the alleged conspiracy and the chain of events,” the judge noted. Extending his sympathies to the families of Sohrabuddin and Tulsiram Prajapati, the judge said, “I am sorry ....three lives were lost....but the (judi- cial) system and law demands that we go by evidence...The evidence before me could not establish the roles of any accused persons… no materi- al evidence to prove any of the charges against the accused.” Alluding to the encounter of Sohrabuddin and rape and murder of his wife Kausar Bi, the judge said, “A mother has lost her son, their daughter-in- law...it is sad.” Continued on Page 4 N ewly elected Congress leg- islators have complained to Principal Secretary of State Assembly after receiving fake calls by miscreant posing as Deputy Secretary of state assembly in the evening on Friday and asking for their per- sonal details. The miscreant posed as Deputy Secretary of State Assembly AK Shrivastava demanded personal details from the Congress legislatures. Sajjan Singh Verma, Arif Masood and other Congress legislators have reported receiv- ing fraud calls from mobile number 7602847828 and caller asked for Unique Identification Number, ATM card details which were to be sent on mobile number 9664555555. The fraudster tried to col- lect data fraudulently by assur- ing that he is AK Shrivastava and speaking from state assem- bly. The PS State Assembly AP Singh was reported regarding the phone calls which they received over half a dozen times at around 4.30 pm. Information regarding pro- viding of details by Congress legislatures was not received and could surface after others except those who complaint might report the same incident. T he State government has on Friday claimed that the supply of urea and other fer- tilisers has increased in Rabi season for farmers of the State. The Agriculture Development and Farmers Welfare Department is in constant touch with the Union Ministry of Railways along with Ministry of Fertilisers. Notably, in view the need of the farmers, Chief Minister Kamal Nath had reviewed the status at a meeting held with senior officers at Mantralaya on Thursday. State will get 12 rakes of urea shortly. According to the Principal Secretary, Agriculture Development and Farmers’ Welfare Rajesh Rajora, NFL and Chambal Fertlisers will supply urea to Madhya Pradesh speedily from their plants. The Guna plant of National Fertilisers Ltd. is planning to supply urea speedily to Madhya Pradesh only. At present, 2600 metric tonne urea is about to reach rake point of Gwalior. This rake point will supply urea to the farmers of Gwalior, Datia and Morena district. Three thou- sand 194 metric tonne, 2700 metric tonne, 3139 metric tonne urea of IFFCO is in tran- sit for Shajapur, Mandideep and Harpalpur respectively. Urea will be supplied to the farmers of Chhatarpur district from here. Besides, 3000 metric tonne, 3194 metric tonne, 3017 met- ric tonne and 2600 metric tonne urea of National Fertlisers Company is about to reach Mandideep, Khandwa, Guna and Satna rake points respectively within 2 days. Khandwa has received 1951 metric tonne urea today itself. Directives have been issued to the Collectors in connection to its distribution. Three thousand 194 metric tonne urea of IFFCO will reach Mandideep rake point by December 24, which will be distributed among the farmers of Raisen, Bhopal and Sehore district. Additional Member (Traffic) of the Union Ministry of Railways, Anurag has informed the Agriculture Development and Farmers’ Welfare Department vide his letter that 9 rakes of fertlisers are in transit, which will be received by the state within a day or two. The Union Ministry of Railways has direct- ed the Western and Eastern Coasts to lift urea for Madhya Pradesh on priority and the same is being followed speed- ily. Earlier, priority was given for lifting of DAP from the ports of the country. As a result of Chief Minister Kamal Nath’s efforts, now priority is being given to other states of the country also for lifting rakes of urea for the farmers of the entire country. RNI Regn. No. MPENG/2004/13703, Regd. No. L-2/BPLON/41/2006-2008 C M Y K C M Y K

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In a big setback for theCongress, the Delhi High

Court on Tuesday ordered theeviction of the publisher ofCongress mouthpiece NationalHerald from Herald House,the headquarters of the news-paper, within two weeks, dis-missing the petition filed by thepublisher Associated JournalsLimited (AJL).

Finding no irregularity inthe Urban DevelopmentMinistry’s Land andDevelopment Office (L&DO),the judgment said there is totalviolation of the lease agreementby the publisher who is hold-ing the building for past 56years.

The court also said AJL’stakeover by Sonia Gandhi andRahul Gandhi’s floated firmYoung Indian is “questionable”“modus operandi.”

After the HC order, thefocus will now be on severalother buildings like PatriotHouse (Link House), whichcontinues to commerciallyexploit their premises in viola-tion of several provisions oflease agreements. To circum-vent the provisions of the leaseagreement, the Patriot House(Link House) owners haverevived The Patriot, a weeklymagazine, but it is hardly visi-ble on stands.

In its 17-page order on theeviction of AJL, Justice SunilGaur t said, “The ‘subjectpremises’ was leased out to leg-endary AJL for its publication,but the dominant purpose isnow practically lost. This courtis constrained to observe that

major portion of the ‘subjectpremises’ has been rented outand petitioners’ newspaper,which was to be housed origi-nally in the basement andground floor, has now beenshifted on the top floor withhardly any ‘press activity’.”

“This court is conscious ofthe fact that Young IndiaCompany is a charitable com-pany, but modus operandi toacquire 99 per cent of AJL’sshare speaks volumes. Themanner in which it has beendone is also questionable,” saidthe judgment.

Observing that there wasno wrong in eviction notice, thejudgment also said that peti-tioners’ contention that theGovernment move was to

erase, efface and defame thelegacy of Pandit Nehru was notat all acceptable. “One fails tounderstand as to how the rul-ing dispensation has in any wayerased, effaced, or defamedPandit Nehru… the allega-tions of malafide leveled bypetitioners are bald and unspe-cific and so no note of theseallegations taken,” said thejudgment

AJL approached the DelhiHigh Court after the L&DOslapped an eviction notice onit on October 30, based on thecomplaint filed by BJP leaderSubramanian Swamy. AJL wasrepresented by Congress leaderand noted lawyer AbhishekSinghvi, and the Governmentwas represented by Solicitor

General Tushar Mehta. Thecourt had reserved its decisionon AJL’s plea on November 22.

The HC said AJL will haveto vacate the premises at ITOin Delhi within two weeksafter which proceedings underthe Public Premises (Evictionof Unauthorized Occupants)Act, 1971 would be initiated.

The L&DO had ended thelease — entered into with AJLon August 2, 1962 and madeperpetual on January 10, 1967— asking the company to handover the possession byNovember 15. The L&DO’sorder had also said that failureto hand over possession wouldlead to initiation of proceedingsunder the Public Premises Act.

In its plea, AJL has said the

digital versions of Englishnewspaper National Herald,Hindi’s Navjivan and Urdu’sQaumi Awaz commenced pub-lication in 2016-17. The week-ly newspaper National Heraldresumed publication onSeptember 24 last year, AJL hadsaid, adding that the Hindiweekly newspaper SundayNavjivan was also being pub-lished since October this yearfrom the same premises.

Later in the evening, wel-coming the judgment, theUrban Development Ministrysaid, “It was found by theinspecting team of the Ministryon April 09, 2018 that noprinting press was functioningat any floor of the premises andno paper stock was found any-where.”

“In earlier inspection also,the basement where pressmachine should have been wasfound vacant. Further, it wasalso found that almost allshares of AJL were transferredto ‘Young Indian Ltd’ havingsame address as that of AJLwithout any permission of theMinistry. As per a report ofIncome Tax Department, inYoung Indian Ltd, majority ofshares (76%) are held by theGandhi family and the rest byShri MotilalVora and ShriOscar Fernandes. It was alsoobserved that instead of usingthe land given to AJL for presspurpose, they are earning ahuge sum of money by rentingout almost entire buildingexcept one floor which hasnegated the purpose for whichthe land was originally allotted,”said the Ministry in a statement.

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Amassive uproar eruptedinside and outside

Parliament over theGovernment’s decision toempower several investigatingagencies to intercept and mon-itor data on computers. Whilethe Opposition accused theGovernment of turning Indiainto a surveillance State,Finance Minister Arun Jaitleydefended the move saying theauthorisation was given underrules framed during the UPAregime in 2009.

The issue rocked the RajyaSabha as Leader of OppositionGhulam Nabi Azad alleged“undeclared Emergency hastaken final shape” and “all fed-eral agencies have been letloose”. Congress chief RahulGandhi took to social mediacalling Modi an insecure “dic-tator.”

The issue was also raised inthe Lok Sabha during ZeroHour with RevolutionarySocialist Party (RSP) leader NK Premachandran who allegedthat the move is a violation ofthe fundamental rights. TheOpposition members ques-tioned the motive of imposingsuch an order by Home

Ministry for the first time everafter the rules were framedalmost a decade ago.

While Jaitley hit back say-ing the Congress is crying foulover powers created by it whenit was in Government,Congress leader and DeputyLeader of Opposition in theRajya Sabha Anand Sharmasaid the issue is serious as it isrelated to fundamental rightsand “India will become a policestate” with such “sweepingpowers” to agencies to interceptinformation.

Responding to the charge,Jaitley said it would have beenbetter if the Opposition hadobtained all information beforeraising this issue. He said therules under which agencieswill be authorised to interceptinformation were framed in2009 when the Congress-ledUPA was in power.

“So what you are doing

Anand Sharma is making amountain where even a mole-hill does not exist. You mustknow this and as a Leader ofOpposition your word is sacro-sanct, so don’t use it for a pur-pose where a power whichyou created, which is to be usedin national security cases, nowyou are crying foul about thatpower,” Jaitley said in the UpperHouse.

Azad retorted that there isno mention of national securi-ty in the order and that the rul-ing dispensation seems to thinkit has ownership rights overnational security and it meansnothing to us, to which, Jaitleysaid, “These are elementarythings. It is an authorisationorder. The provisions of nation-al security are written in Article69.... You are playing with thesecurity of the country. That iswhat you have done just now”.

Continued on Page 4

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Even as it is getting ready toface the people with hopes

of getting another mandate forfive years, the Narendra ModiGovernment has come acrossa major embarrassment in theform of a report by All IndiaManufacturers’ Organisation,the 76-year-old establishmentfounded by Bharat Ratna MVisvesvaraya .

An all India survey held bythe AIMO in October 2018 hasfound that more than 35 lakhpeople working in the traders,micro, small and mediumenterprises (TMSM) have losttheir jobs during the last fouryears and six months.

“Self-employed categoriessuch as tailors, cobblers, bar-bers, plumbers, masons, elec-tricians have been eliminatedduring the last four and halfyears,” said KE Raghunathan,president, AIMO.

Though the ModiGovernment came to power inMay 2014 with the promise ofrejuvenation and resuscitationof the TMSM segment, thebackbone of Indian economy,what has happened is the oppo-site as many units across thelength and breadth of the coun-try downed their shutters due

to a host of reasons, saidRaghunathan.

“The year 2015-16 saw agrowth in all areas of businessdue to high sentiments andexpectations from the newleadership. It went down nextyear due to demonetisation

and then again due to GST andthen due to non-availability offinance and higher outstandingwith Government paymentsand compliance matters,” saidRaghunathan, an entrepreneurbased in Chennai.

Continued on Page 4

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The pendulum swung backonce again for the BJP after

Thursday’s “moral victory”with a Division Bench ofCalcutta High Court on Fridaysetting aside the single Benchorder granting permission tothe much-hyped Rath Yatra.

The Division Bench ofChief Justice DebashisKargupta and Justice ShampaSarkar sent the matter back tothe single Bench of JusticeTapabrata Chakrabarty askingit to consider the intelligenceinputs from the State agenciesthat had predicted violenceand communal unrest duringthe course of the rally.

The Trinamool CongressGovernment which had earli-er denied the Yatra permissionto the saffron outfit had pre-ferred an appeal against thesingle Bench order green-sig-naling the Yatra.

The Bench of JusticeChakrabarty had on Thursdayquestioned the Government’sintention in sitting over the let-ters seeking permission fromthe Government for two

months before hurriedly askingthe intelligence agencies toprepare reports on the conse-quence of the Yatra on theState’s law and order situation.

Subsequently it OK’d theYatra with a rider saying theBJP would be equally respon-sible (along with the StateGovernment) for the situa-tions if they turned violent.

The BJP was likely to holdthree Yatras each one to beinaugurated by party presi-dent Amit Shah fromCoochbehar, Kakdwip-GangaSagar and Birbhum. All theYatras were to converge at theBrigade parade ground inKolkata where Prime MinisterNarendra Modi would addressa grand rally.

Continued on Page 4

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Sushil Kumar Sharma, theformer president of Delhi

Youth Congress, who was con-victed for the murder of hiswife Naina Sahni, was set freeby the Delhi High Court onFriday.

The court ordered “forth-with” release of Sharma, serv-ing life term for the murder ofhis wife Naina in 1995. Sharmahas already undergone overtwo decades of incarceration inthe case.

A Bench of JusticesSiddharth Mridul and SangitaDhingra Sehgal passed theorder. Now 56, Sharma hadshot dead his wife in 1995,objecting to her alleged rela-tionship with a male friend.

On the night of July 2,1995, Sushil came home andsaw Naina talking on the phoneand consuming alcohol. Nainaon seeing Sushil hung up.Sushil redialed the phone tofind her alleged boyfriend onthe other end. Enraged hefatally shot Naina. He had thenchopped her body into piecesand attempted to dispose it offin a tandoor (clay oven) ofBaghia restaurant which heowned.

Detailed story on P3

� ���+/+��6

Benchmark equity indiceswitnessed heavy selloff on

Friday after investors bookedprofits in realty, banking, ITand auto bluechips amid weaksignals from global markets.

The BSE Sensex plunged689.60 points, or 1.89 per cent,to 35,742.07, while the NSENifty slipped 197.70 points, or1.81 per cent, to 10,754.

The 30-share index endedthe week 527.93 points lower,and the broader Nifty lost 134points. The equity market wit-nessed selling ahead of theweekend, mainly due to fears oflower global economic growthin the coming year, said JosephThomas, Head Research-Emkay Wealth Management.

Concerns over the rupeealso loomed over IT and techstocks, analysts said.

The biggest losers of thesession include Reliance,Infosys, TCS, ICICI Bank,HDFC twins, ITC, Maruti,L&T, HUL, Axis Bank, Wiproand IndusInd Bank, crackingup to 4 per cent. NTPC,PowerGrid and Coal Indiawere the only gainers onSensex, rising up to 1 per cent.

Detailed report on P11

��������� ���� +/+��6

Adesignated CBI court onFriday acquitted all the 22

accused in the “fake” encoun-ters of notorious criminalsSohrabuddin Shaikh and hisaide Tulsiram Prajapati and inthe rape-murder of Kausar Bi.

While acquitting all the 22accused, Additional SessionsJudge SJ Sharma, who presidesover a special CBI court, said,“The evidence adduced byprosecution is not satisfactory.The prosecution has failed toput forth any documentaryand substantive evidence tosuggest or establish the allegedconspiracy and the chain of

events,” the judge noted.Extending his sympathies

to the families of Sohrabuddinand Tulsiram Prajapati, thejudge said, “I am sorry....threelives were lost....but the (judi-cial) system and law demandsthat we go by evidence...Theevidence before me could notestablish the roles of anyaccused persons… no materi-al evidence to prove any of thecharges against the accused.”

Alluding to the encounterof Sohrabuddin and rape andmurder of his wife Kausar Bi,the judge said, “A mother haslost her son, their daughter-in-law...it is sad.”

Continued on Page 4

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Newly elected Congress leg-islators have complained

to Principal Secretary of StateAssembly after receiving fakecalls by miscreant posing asDeputy Secretary of stateassembly in the evening onFriday and asking for their per-sonal details.

The miscreant posed asDeputy Secretary of StateAssembly AK Shrivastavademanded personal detailsfrom the Congress legislatures.

Sajjan Singh Verma, ArifMasood and other Congresslegislators have reported receiv-ing fraud calls from mobile

number 7602847828 and callerasked for Unique IdentificationNumber, ATM card detailswhich were to be sent onmobile number 9664555555.

The fraudster tried to col-lect data fraudulently by assur-ing that he is AK Shrivastavaand speaking from state assem-bly. The PS State Assembly APSingh was reported regardingthe phone calls which theyreceived over half a dozentimes at around 4.30 pm.

Information regarding pro-viding of details by Congresslegislatures was not receivedand could surface after othersexcept those who complaintmight report the same incident.

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The State government has onFriday claimed that the

supply of urea and other fer-tilisers has increased in Rabiseason for farmers of the State.The Agriculture Developmentand Farmers WelfareDepartment is in constanttouch with the Union Ministryof Railways along with Ministryof Fertilisers.

Notably, in view the needof the farmers, Chief MinisterKamal Nath had reviewed thestatus at a meeting held withsenior officers at Mantralaya onThursday. State will get 12rakes of urea shortly.

According to the PrincipalSecretary, AgricultureDevelopment and Farmers’Welfare Rajesh Rajora, NFLand Chambal Fertlisers will

supply urea to Madhya Pradeshspeedily from their plants. TheGuna plant of NationalFertilisers Ltd. is planning tosupply urea speedily to MadhyaPradesh only.

At present, 2600 metrictonne urea is about to reachrake point of Gwalior. This rakepoint will supply urea to thefarmers of Gwalior, Datia andMorena district. Three thou-sand 194 metric tonne, 2700

metric tonne, 3139 metrictonne urea of IFFCO is in tran-sit for Shajapur, Mandideepand Harpalpur respectively.Urea will be supplied to thefarmers of Chhatarpur districtfrom here.

Besides, 3000 metric tonne,3194 metric tonne, 3017 met-ric tonne and 2600 metrictonne urea of NationalFertlisers Company is about toreach Mandideep, Khandwa,Guna and Satna rake pointsrespectively within 2 days.Khandwa has received 1951metric tonne urea today itself.Directives have been issued tothe Collectors in connection toits distribution. Three thousand194 metric tonne urea ofIFFCO will reach Mandideeprake point by December 24,which will be distributedamong the farmers of Raisen,

Bhopal and Sehore district.Additional Member

(Traffic) of the Union Ministryof Railways, Anurag hasinformed the AgricultureDevelopment and Farmers’Welfare Department vide hisletter that 9 rakes of fertlisersare in transit, which will bereceived by the state within aday or two. The UnionMinistry of Railways has direct-ed the Western and EasternCoasts to lift urea for MadhyaPradesh on priority and thesame is being followed speed-ily. Earlier, priority was givenfor lifting of DAP from theports of the country. As aresult of Chief Minister KamalNath’s efforts, now priority isbeing given to other states ofthe country also for liftingrakes of urea for the farmers ofthe entire country.

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The semi-finals of All IndiaCivil Services Soccer com-

petition was played here onFriday at the Soccer Ground atthe City Stadium.

In the semi-finals Haryanadefeated Delhi by 2-1 pointsand RSB Chandigarh defeatedRSB Bangalore by 2-1 pointsand made it to the final. Thefinal match will be played onSaturday, and the closing cer-emony will be held simultane-ously.

In the first semifinal matchplayed today, Haryana's playerIndrajit scored in the 22ndminute and Vinod scored onegoal in the 33rd minute whilePushpendra from Haryanascored only one goal in the 35th

minute and thus Haryana wonby 2-1 points. The secondmatch of the semi-finals wasplayed between RSBChandigarh and RSBBangalore.

Harminder of Chandigarhscored one goal in the 23rd and64th minute. While RSBBangalore teammate Manjuscored the only goal in the 75thminute and RSB Chandigarhwon the match by 2-1 pointsand entered the finals. Underthe competition, the finalmatch will be played betweenDelhi and Bangalore andHaryana and RSB Chandigarh.

Besides, Madhya Pradeshhas won four awards in the sail-ing competition.

The Sailing Sports Awardswere organised by Yachting

Association of India for theyear 2018.

Under this, Water SportsAcademy's sailing playerHarshitha Tomar won the titleof ‘Yacht person of the year’,Govind Bairagi won the title of‘Most Promising Sailor of theYear’, and Uma Chahan hasbeen nominated for the ‘BestWomen Seller of the Year’award, while promoting SailingSports, Secretary of theNational Sailing School, Bhopaland Joint Director, VinodPradhan have been awarded.

These awards were givenby Navy Chief and Chairman,Yachting Association of India,Admiral Sunil Lamba, at afunction organized at NavalOffices Mess Quota House,Delhi.

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AHindi play ‘Raktbeej’ wasstaged at Madhya Pradesh

State Tribal Museum here onFriday. The play was performedunder the regular drama series‘Abhinayan’.

The play was directed byKaramveer Singh Rajput. Theplay Raktbeej is a masterpieceby Shankar Shesh. The playdeals with the ghosts inside allhumans who want to achieve orattain everything, irrespective ofthe price, even if it meanstrampling on the dreams andsensitivity of one’s partners.

The play revolves around ayoung clerk. Now this clerkwants to make personal contactwith his boss for the promotion

of his job. For this purpose, heplans to use his wife and asksher to call his boss at theirhome. His wife initially hesitatesto become part of this scheme,but later agreed.

Clerk's wife is related to theboss in the long run. The com-plex situation, interdependenceand compulsion resulting fromthese relationships enters theirlife in the form of suicide of theclerk's wife. The clerk does nothesitate to successfully climbthe corporate ladder and black-mail the boss. Thus, he becomesabsorbed from exploitation. Inmythology, ‘Raktbeej’ symbol-ises a demon that has the abil-ity to multiply whenever hisblood drops on the ground, inshort, evil begets evil. At pre-

sent, the demonic attitude ofman to use anyone for hisprogress and fame is alsoincreasing within man. Thiswas presented through the playRaktbeej.

In the drama today's exten-sive surroundings, Raktbeejhave been identified. In thedrama, it has been told that howpeople use others to advanceand to succeed. Not only this,they also put their loved ones atstake. Human weakness hasbeen shown in drama. Theneed is to find out the reasonsfor this murder or suicide. Thisis also the essence of this play.In drama, an attempt was doneto clarify this through theevents occurring in the societyeveryday with great beauty.

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AHindi play ‘Hansa KarleKilol’ narrating the bravery

and valour of unsung heroes offreedom struggle was staged atRavindra Bhavan. The playwas performed by the studentsof Madhya Pradesh School ofDrama (MPSD) here on Friday.

Directed by Arun Pandey,this was the first performanceby the batch of 2018-19. Theplay was adorned with the Raidance and Bundelkhandidialect which was well receivedby the audience.

The play Hansa Karle Kilolbegan with a very strong nar-ration. The narrator presentsthe tale of King Chhatrasal.King Chhtrasal was a warriorand a great king. He fought forthe country against Britishrule.

As the play goes on, thenarrator tells the audience andthe listeners on stage about hisbravery. Slowly and gradually,the play becomes more inter-esting as the listeners on stageasks the narrator to tell the sto-

ries of other heroes, who havecontributed in the freedomstruggle but even after theirsacrifices and struggles are stillunnamed. Agreeing by the lis-teners, the narrator then tellsthe stories of Rai dancer and

Mridangam player. He tellsthe listeners that there wasone Rai dancer who was a mis-tress to King Madhukar. Oneday when the British officialscame to collect the tax, theysaw her dancing. To take plea-

sure, they all kid-napped her, butthe dancer killedmany of thoseofficials.

In the laststory, there wasone Mridangamplayer who was inlove with a girl.When theBritishers molest-ed her, he killedall of them asrevenge. Afterthat he workedfor the freedomstruggle. Whenthe British offi-cials arrested himand asked his lastwish, he said thathe wants to playMridangam onelast time. With

that musical performance hecaptured the hearts of the audi-ence.

The play was beautifullystaged by the MPSD studentsleaving the audience mesmer-ized.

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City lad Saurabh Dixit wonawards for his three films.

His films were selected at the3rd Cine Film Festival hostedin Delhi.

Three films Nidamat,Rihayi and Farrar were madeby Saurabh Dixit, a 21-year-oldfilmmaker and UX designer ofthe city. Saurabh Dixit was theonly filmmaker to have thehighest number of films select-ed at this festival. All the threefilms were nominated for allthe categories. The three filmsnamely Nidamat, Faraar andRihayi were screened and dis-cussed at the fest. ShobhitKhare received best actor awardfor his role in 'Rihayi. This wasFaraar’s second screening aspreviously it was nominated ata short film festival organizedby IFTDA (Indian Film andTelevision Directors'Association) under "Sorties"section. This film was official-ly screened in presence of a jurypanel which consisted industry

veterans like Anupam Kher,David Dhawan, MukeshChhabra, and Shoojit Sircaramong others. This Film wasscreened along with films ofNaseeruddin Shah and a fewRoyal Stag shorts.

All three short films wereheavily appreciated in Delhiand most of the peopleinvolved in the making of thesefilms are from Bhopal. WithThis Kind of appreciationreceived, this group of peopleis now set to go ahead andmake more films forInternational Festivals.

Saurabh won the award ofBest Director for all the threefilms. Besides, he also baggedthe awards for Best DOP, Besteditor, Best screenwriter.Besides, Best music directoraward was grabbed by AmanArakh for Nidamat, Amanarakh and Salil Hangekar forFaraar, Sankalp Jain andPrathamesh for Rihayi. Bestactress were won by AnudhiWalia Lokwani for Faraar andEkta Singh for Rihayi.

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Bhopal: To investigate thefinancial irregularities in threemunicipal corporations, theState government has formedseparate teams. These teamshave been asked to submitreports within one week.

These municipal corpora-tions include corporations inGwalior, Rewa andChhindwara. For probe inGwalior, the team of officialsincludes AdditionalCommissioner Vikas Mishra,Superintending Engineer SureshSejkar and junior accountantPromod Nayak.

In Rewa, the team com-prises Additional Director PNPandey, Superintending engi-neer Rajeev Goswami, andaccountant AJ Ekka. Similarly,in Chhindwara, Joint DirectorRK Kartikeya, Joint Director

(Finance) Arun Paliwal andExecutive Engineer AnandSingh will look into the com-plaints. In a letter forming theseteams, the Urban Developmentand Housing department stat-ed that there have been severalcomplaints regarding non-com-pliance of the rules and regula-

tions by these corporations inexecutive different projects hascome to fore. Meanwhile, offi-cial sources said that the newgovernment has decided to takestern action against these threemunicipal corporations thathave been allegedly involved ingross irregularities. SR

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Bhopal:The ruling Congress party in Madhya Pradesh has decid-ed to accommodate its local around 1,000 leaders in the munic-ipal corporations, municipalities and nagar parishad, asAldermen. In an order issued on Friday, the Urban Developmentand Housing department has terminated the services of all theAldermen posted in 16 municipal corporations, 98 municipal-ities and 264 nagar parishad. The appointment of Aldermen ispolitical and on defeat of the BJP in the assembly elections, theseAldermen, which are more than 1,000 in number have beenremoved. SR

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Relief from extreme weath-er conditions was witnessed

at few places in the state whilemost of the places continue toshiver in nights.

The lowest night tempera-tures are still near freezingtemperatures in the state asKhajuraho and Mandla record-ed 3 degree Celsius onThursday night.

Weather conditions in thestate capital provided relief asclear sky conditions remainedthroughout the day on Friday.

Met department has issuedwarning of cold waves inShahdol division, Chattarpur,Panna, Tikamgarh, Mandla,Jabalpur, Narsinghpur and

Hoshangabad districts in thenext 24 hours.

Intense cold day condi-tions were witnessed atNarsinghpur while cold daycondition was witnessed atSheopur.

Umaria, Jabalpur, Mandla,Khajuraho and Datia witnessedcold wave conditions in thepast 24 hours.

State capital recorded daytemperature at 26.4 degreeCelsius and night temperatureat 7 degree Celsius. The fore-cast claims that the day tem-perature would remain around26 degree Celsius while nighttemperature would be record-ed around 8 degree Celsiuswhich is 1 degree Celsius high-er.

Except Sagar night tem-peratures have been recordedbelow 10 degree Celsius.

The day temperatures haverecorded increase and record-ed around 29 at few placeswhile several recorded daytemperature over and around26 degree Celsius and are like-ly to increase in the next 2-3days.

Regions which recordednight temperatures at lower lev-els were Datia, Gwalior,Nowgong and Rewa around 4degree Celsius, Jabalpur,Shajapur and Betul around 5degree Celsius. The regionswhich recorded night temper-atures around 6 degree Celsiuswere Rajgarh, Ujjain andKhargone.

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Bairagarh police have arrest-ed a 22-year-old habitual

criminal for violating BoundOver action and was foundinvolved in facilitating bettingduring special drive to takeaction against habitual gam-blers and people involved inillegal trade of drugs by districtpolice on Thursday.

The accused identified asImran Khan was foundinvolved in facilitating bettingalong with two others identi-fied as Dinesh Bhatt and RaviAdwani. In the special driveaimed to curb and nab thegambling and betting nexusand their masterminds policehave raided several places inthe past one week.

Police recovered Rs 7000

cash from Ravi, Rs 4000 cashfrom Imran and Rs 2000 cashfrom Dinesh and betting slips.The police have registered caseunder section 4 of theGambling Act.

During the investigationpolice found that action ofBound Over of Rs 25000 wastaken against Imran. He wasscheduled to appear in policestation on June 30 in an extern-ment case but he failed toappear and continue criminalactivities. Police have regis-tered case under section 122 ofthe CrPC and started furtherinvestigation. Bariagarh policehave book Imran under sever-al cases of gambling, betting,possession of arms illegally,assault and other cases and heis listed in the goonda list ofBairagarh police.

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townhall 03BHOPAL | SATURDAY | DECEMBER 22, 2018

STAFF REPORTER n BHOPAL

HEMA Higher SecondarySchool, BHEL Bhopal

organised an Exhibition cumFete to showcase the intrinsictalents of the students wheremodels based on various sub-jects were exhibited.

The exhibition was gracedby Vishwas Sarang, MLA,Narela Bhopal as Chief Guest,Binu Jacob, President, HEMAEducation Society, A ShashiKumar, Vice-President, GThulasidharan, Secretary andother distinguished membersof Society, Anurag Upadhyay,Principal HEMA Hr SecSchool, teacher and parents.

The Programme startedwith welcoming of the guests intraditional Kerala style withTalapoli followed by band andlighting of the ceremonial lampand prayer song seeking theblessings of the almighty lord.

Principal AnuragUpadhyay in his welcomespeech has emphasized on thecreative aspects of the stu-dents and also laid stress onthose activities that allow chil-dren to question, explore,

investigate and construct expla-nation by manipulating mate-rials. He also added that wewant to equip our children withthe best possible education sothat later on they become valu-able assets to our country.

This activity forms part of

our strategy to promote scienceand technology and throughsuch activities we offer studentsand the teachers the opportu-nity to showcase, disseminateand share creative knowledgerelated to subjects.

The guests were presented

bouquets followed bythe Basha SangamSong. Binu Jacob pre-sented the Mementoto the guests andaddressed the gath-ering where heemphasized on theimportance of cre-ativity in the life ofstudents.

The Exhibitionalso sent messageson the importanceof Physical fitness asyoga, dance andkarate were alsodepicted. Finally togive icing to the cakea fete was also heldalongside wheremouth watering edi-bles were put on dis-play which wasenjoyed by all whoattended the gala

event.The exhibitors were from

classes KG to 12 with around400 models. Exhibits were cov-ered on the academic sub-jects- Physics, Chemistry,Biology, Geology, AstronomyGeography and others.

HEMA holds exhibition-cum-feteSTAFF REPORTER n BHOPAL

The Annual Sports Day-2018 of Campion School

held on Friday at the play-ground of Campion School,Arera Colony. Around 1500students from the Secondaryschool participated in theevent.

The principal introducedthe Chief Guest to the gather-ing. Aalok Singh, Chief Guestis Chairman of Mitasha Groupof Industries. He is also an Ex-Campionite or Alumni from1983 batch. The ceremoniallamp was lit by the Chief Guest,Principal Fr Athnas Lakra SJ,along with Superior andManager Fr Christdhari KujurSJ, Vice Principal Fr AmritlalToppo SJ, Fr Ashok andHeadmistress.

The Principal emphasisedon the importance of sports ina child's life. He said Sportsdevelops all round develop-ment of the body, mind andsoul. He wished all the studentsgood luck. The chief guest,along with the other dignitariesreceived the salute during theparade and impressive MarchPast of the School students and

then the oath ceremony washeld. He declares the Sportsmeet Open.

The inaugural programmecommenced with the schoolchoir singing the prayer songinvoking God’s blessing andwelcome dance by the girls stu-dents of the school in colour-ful attire, followed by the

March past by the students.Students entered into the spir-it of the occasion with animpressive march past pre-sented by the four houses ie,Nehru House, Ashoka House,Tagore House and GandhiHouse of the School.

Champion of Championtrophy is given to Master

“Yuvraj Patel” inSErnior BoysCategory andKhshi and Nandiniin Girls category.Champion Housetrophy is given to“Gandhi House” &Runner House tro-phy is give to“Tagore House” onthe day of AnnualSports Meet. Thelast event, anAHA! SportsDisplay, showcasedthe skills and exer-cises practiced byour young sportsenthusiasts everyday.

The ChiefGuest during hisaddress stated thato p p o r t u n i t y

should be given to the trainersto pick athletes give propertraining and produce goodathletes in society. Sports is animportant extracurricularactivity, it releases mental ten-sion, improves personality anddevelops public relationship.Everyday children should sparetime for sports.

Annual Sports Day of Campion School held

STAFF REPORTER n BHOPAL

Construction work of newbuilding of Sewa Sadan Eye

Hospital started here on Friday.This building is being con-structed at near Asaram Bapusquare, Airport Road, GandhiNagar. Sant Siddh bhauji,Hongkong based philanthropistcouple Reeta and Kan Lakhani,trustees and office bearers ofsant’s organisations were pre-sent.

Estimated cost of first phaseof hospital building is about 25crore. Trustees, dignitaries andphilanthropist came fromabroad worshiped the God andlaid foundation stone for thecommencement of constructionwork of new hospital building.

Sant Siddh bhau said thatafter the construction of thisnew hospital building overTwenty millions people of near-by 12-15 districts will get thebenefit of eye care and modern

treatment facilities.Philanthropist Kan Lakhanisaid that he has brought his allfamily members from HongKong, simply to tell and showthem the service spirit of the dis-ciples of Paramhans SantHirdaram Sahib.

He hoped that his familywould always be associatedwith these charity works infuture also. Siddh bhau, KanLakhani and members of hisfamily planted saplings in thehospital campus.

On the occasion, Naliniand Sunil Lakhani, Harsh,Shivya and Sunita Khemlanifrom HongKong, Mansha andViresh Wadhwani fromSingapore, JSS secretary MaheshDayaramani, Trustees LCJaniyani, Hero Gyanchadani,Hero Keswani, Medical DirectorDr Prerna Upadhyaya employ-ees and Officers of SSEH andEducational Institutions werealso present.

Sewa Sadan Eye Hospital:Construction work of newbuilding starts

STAFF REPORTER n BHOPAL

The scaling up staple foodfortification conclave was

very engaging consultationconducted in partnership withCII-GAIIN-FFRC-FSSAI–SBY. Fortification has proven tobe an effective mechanism fortackling malnutrition.

Welcome and OpeningRemarks were given by RajeshKhare, Chairman, MadhyaPradesh State Council & CEO,Evonne Industries Pvt Ltd. Hehighlighted that ‘Industry iscognizant of the fact that for-tification is a good mechanismto tackle malnutrition’.

Talking about Staple FoodFortification: Enriching Foods,Enriching Lives ArijitChakrabarty, Senior ProjectManager, GAIN – GlobalAlliance for ImprovedNutrition said, It is a relievingfact that today in India around90 per cent of population usesiodized salt. But in earliertimes it was not the case, that’swhy there were more mal-nourished people at that timethen present.

It is finding from a studythat out of all the malnourishedpeople of the world, India’sshare is 35%. The reason forthis is the food law in micronu-trients. Fortification is simple,low cost and no risk so it is verybeneficial for health point ofview.

Deeksha Bhatt,Coordinator, Food FortificationResource Centre, Food Safetyand Standards Authority ofIndia talked about the role ofFSSAI in Creating an enablingenvironment to initiate andscale-up staple food fortifica-tion. FSSAI enables Consumercommunication, Regulatorysupport, Production fortifica-tion, establishing and runningNABL labs that were instru-mental in encouraging 15States and 13 UT to adopt foodfortification. She detailed uponorganizing the FSSAI Eat RightMela in Delhi.

Staple FoodFortificationconsultationorganised

STAFF REPORTER n BHOPAL

Gold jewellery worth `1.2 lakh was stolen fromDP Jewellers at Malviya Nagar under

Jehangirabad police station area on Thursday; a sus-pect has been narrowed in the CCTV footage andinvestigation has been started to establish identi-ty of the thief.

Police said that gold chain was stolen from DPJeweller store in the evening on Thursday when thejewelry was checked before closing the shop.

SHO Jehangirabad police Anil Vajpayee saidthat the owner of the shop Rishabh Bhandari lodgedcomplaint with the Jehangirabad police and stat-ed that at the time of the closure of the shop it wasfound that one gold chain weighing 40 gm was miss-ing.

In the initial investigation police have found acustomer before the gold chain was stolen and samewas spotted in the CCTV footage.

The accused posed as customer and left theshop without shopping any jewellery.

The salesperson on duty at the time of the inci-dent failed to spot the theft and not checked the jew-elry before keeping it back in the shelves, he added.

The employees and staff would be questionedas it is possible that someone from the store helpedthe accused in stealing the gold chain.

After the gold chain was found stolen staffsearched for the gold chain in the store and whenthe staff failed to find it owner was informed.

Based on the complaint after the preliminaryinvestigation the police have registered a case under380 of the IPC and started further investigation.

Jewellery worth`1.2L stolenfrom shopBhopal: To serve and impact

the communities Sagar Grouphas initiated a SOTCProgramme (School of theCommunity Programme) withAbhay Sagar Foundation (CSR-Arm of Sagar Group). Thefoundation has set up a freecommunity school ‘Sagar VidyaNiketan’ at Sikandarabad vil-lage, block Phanda located atTehsil Huzur, near Ratibad.

The school serves morethan 350 households and itsresidents by providing freeholistic and quality educationwith free midday meals to over500 students with its 22 dedi-cated teachers. It also felicitateswith books, notebooks, schoolbags etc to students which areadmitted in the Sagar Vidya

Niketan.Today, students of Sagar

Vidya Niketan presentedAnhad to mark school’s Sportsand Cultural Fest 2018 in pres-ence of Jaideep Prasad, IPS,Inspector General of Police,Bhopal as its Chief Guest.Sudhir Kumar Agrawal,Chairman, Sagar Group,Principal of Sagar VidyaNiketan, Neela Singh,Headmistress Ms Priyanka,Head Boy and Head Girl of theschool welcomed the ChiefGuest and escorted to lightenthe lamp and seek blessingsfrom Goddess Saraswati. Withlighting of the torch students ofvarious houses presented animpressive and synchronizedmarch past on the tunes played

by the school band followed byoath taking ceremony of sports-manship.

A series of track events forboys and girls like fish race,relay race etc. added excitementamongst students to score fortheir houses. A synchronizeddisplay of Ring PT, Hand PTDrill with colourful props inhandsettled the parents on theirseats who were trying eagerly tolocate their child. A culturalpresentation of Rajasthani FolkDance and dance of ‘HumHindustani’ by the studentsadded excitement to the show.Skit presentation by students of‘Ahimsa Parmo Dharma’ high-lighted the value of ‘Unity inDiversity’ engrossed everyonepresent during the fest. SR

Sagar Group initiatesSOTC Programme

STAFF REPORTER n BHOPAL

The second State-wide vulturecensus will begin in Madhya

Pradesh from January 12. This census will be held in the

entire state concurrently. A strategy to conserve places of

habitat of vultures in the state will beprepared on the basis of informationand statistics collected during thecensus.

It may be mentioned that thestate-wide counting has been startedfrom January 2018.

Additional Principal ChiefConservator of Forest (Wild Life)Alok Kumar has informed that localpeople and organizations can alsotake part in counting in districts,which have places of habitat of vul-tures.

Interested persons may contact

Forest Circle Officer of their areas.Training is being given by the ForestDepartment to its employees besidesorganizing circle level workshopsfor counting work, he added.

Alok Kumar has furtherinformed that places of habitat of vul-tures at 886 places of 33 districts havebeen identified in the state.

Highest 94 have been found inChhindwara district. Raisen districtcomes at second place with 80 placesfollowed by Mandsaur district with 78places. Other districts which haveplaces of habitat include Bhopal,Sehore, Vidisha, Chhatarpur,Tikamgarh, Bhind, Datia, Indore,Dewas, Shajapur, Gwalior, Morena,Sheopur, Dindori, Jabalpur, Katni,Mandla, Rewa, Satna, Sidhi, Damoh,Sagar, Anuppur, Shahdol, Umaria,Ashoknagar, Guna, Shivpuri andNeemuch.

2nd State-wide vulture censusto commence from January 12

Bhopal: A 50-year-old man wasmowed down by a speeding lowfloor city bus near District CollectorOffice under Koh-e-Fiza policestation area on Friday.

Police said an elderly man washit while he was trying to cross theroad near district collector officeand was rushed to a nearby officewhere he was declared dead. Afterthe accident, the driver of the busfled the spot by leaving behind thevehicle which was later seized by thepolice.

The police have not found anything which could help in estab-

lishing the identity of the deceased.After the preliminary investigationthe body was sent for the post-mortem. The police have registereda case under Section 304 (A) of theIPC and have started search for theerrant driver.

Meanwhile, a 21-year-old mar-ried woman committed suicide byhanging with the ceiling at KhajuriKalan under Awadhpuri police sta-tion area late in the night onThursday. Police said that the vic-tim Preeti Mishra was found hang-ing with the ceiling and was rushedto a nearby hospital where he was

declared dead. After the preliminary investi-

gation the body was sent for thepost mortem and the police haveregistered a case under Section 174of the CrPC and have started fur-ther investigation. The familymembers were asleep when Preeticommitted suicide.

During the investigation policehave not found any reason behindthe suicide. The family membersand husband of the deceased wouldbe quizzed in the further investi-gation. The case would be investi-gated by Govindpura CSP. SR

Run over by bus 50-year-old dies

STAFF REPORTER n BHOPAL

Burglars struck at a house inRajvedh Colony under

Kolar police station area anddecamped with gold and silverjewellery valuables worth`70000.

According to the police, thevictim, Rupa Shah had gone tomeet her relatives on Mondayand when she returned onThursday the valuables werefound burgled.

A complaint was lodged bythe victim with the Kolar policeand in her complaint she stat-ed that she along with his fam-ily had gone to meet her rela-tive on Monday and when hereturned on Thursday thedoors of the house was foundburgled.

Gold and silver jewellerywere found burgled. The totalloss in the burglary was around`70000. The victim was notable to provide details of thecash burgled and claimed that

details would be shared later. In the burglary gold and

silver jewelry was targeted bythe miscreants that raised sus-picion that the miscreants wereaware of the gold jewellery atthe house and about the where-abouts of the victim and herfamily.

Based on the complaintafter the preliminary investi-gation the police have regis-tered a case under sections 457and 380 of the IPC and havestarted further investigation.The security guards of thesociety and domestic helpwould be questioned in theinvestigation.

Police said that the footagesof installed CCTV cameraswould be searched during thefurther investigation to estab-lish the identity of the miscre-ants.

During the investigationwhen the neighbors were ques-tioned they expressed igno-rance over the burglary.

Burglars decamp withjewellery, valuablesworth `70,000

In the initial investigationpolice have found a customer

before the gold chain wasstolen and same was spotted

in the CCTV footage

Visitors go through Science and Craft exhibition ‘Artistry Expo-2018’ inaugurated at St Joseph’s Co-Ed school, in Bhopal onFriday Pioneer photo

nation 04BHOPAL | SATURDAY | DECEMBER 22, 2018

ARCHANA JYOTI n NEW DELHI

The Government on Fridayinformed Parliament that

India’s western coast, includingKhambat and Kutch, besidesparts of the Konkan coast andsouth Kerala as well as thedeltas of the Ganga, Krishna,Godavari, Cauvery, andMahanadi on the East Coastare among the most “vulnera-ble” areas as the sea level is pro-jected to rise by 3.5 to 34.6inches between 1990 and 2100leading to inundation of valu-able land and habitat.

The details of theGovernment’s report on cli-mate change have been sharedwith the United NationsFramework Convention onClimate Change, said UnionMinister of EnvironmentMinister Mahesh Sharma in areply to the Lok Sabha onFriday.

He said, “Sea levels arechanging at different ratesalong the Indian coast as perthe studies carried out by theIndian National Centre forOcean Information Services.”

Painting a gloomy pictureof the coastal zones owing torise in sea level due to climatechange, the Minister said,“Second NationalCommunication submitted byIndia to United NationsFramework Convention onClimate Change projects sealevel rise by 3.5 to 34.6 inchesbetween 1990 and 2100, whichmay result in saline coastalgroundwater, endangering wet-

lands and inundating valuableland and communities.”

The Minister was alsoasked whether rise in the sealevel owing to global warmingwas posing a threat to thecoastal villages of the country.

The information comes afew weeks after nearly 200countries gathered at Katowicein Poland to adopt a set of rulesto limit global warming underthe Paris climate deal that willcome into effect in 2020.

The Paris Agreement hascalled for keeping a globalaverage temperature rise thiscentury to well below 2°Cabove pre-industrial levels,while pursuing efforts to limitthe temperature increase to1.5°C.

Sharma pointed out that“the most vulnerable stretchesalong the western Indian coastare Khambat and Kutch inGujarat, Mumbai, and parts ofthe Konkan coast and southKerala. The deltas of the Ganga,Krishna, Godavari, Cauvery,and Mahanadi on the EastCoast may be threatened, alongwith irrigated land and a num-ber of urban and other settle-ments that are situated inthem.”

The Government has takena string of measures taken toprotect the country’s coastalareas and communities.

The Minister said theCoastal Regulation Zone(CRZ) Notification, 2011 andIsland Protection Zone (IPZ)Notification, 2011 are enforcedand implemented by the con-

cerned Coastal ZoneManagement Authorities(CZMAs) of states andUTs.Under the extant regula-tions, theses CZMAs have beenempowered to enquire intothe cases of alleged violation ofthe provisions of the notifica-tions and take appropriateaction under the law.

Quoting the State of ForestReport 2017, he said there hasbeen a net increase of 181 sqkmin the mangrove cover of thecountry as compared to 2015assessment. The other stepstaken by the Government tar-get protection of livelihoods offisher folk communities,preservation of coastal ecology,initiation of an integratedcoastal zone management pro-ject with objectives of buildingcapacity for implementationof comprehensive coastal man-agement, delineation of erosionline over the entire coast linecovering the mainland coastalstates/UTs as a part of hazardline mapping exercise carriedout by Survey of India amongothers.

India is already in themidst of preparing the USD 35million (includes USD 9 mil-lion from the GlobalEnvironment Facility)ThirdNational Communication(TNC) with the help of theUnited Nations DevelopmentProgramme (UNDP) that aimsto make climate change assess-ments more policy-relevantand enhance India’s capacity toincorporate climate change inits development processes.

India at sea! Vast stretchgoing to watery grave

From Page 1Since the Act has been in

place these orders of authori-sation are repeated from timeto time, he said, adding thatthey can be used for intercep-tion in cases related to nation-al security, disruption of pub-lic order, etc. Law Minister RaviShankar Prasad questioned ifthe Congress does not wantaction against terrorists andthose who play with nationalsecurity. Rahul took to thesocial media alleging that thepresent regime is convertingIndia into a police State.“Converting India into a policeState isn’t going to solve yourproblem, Modi. It’s only goingto prove to over one billionIndians what an insecure dic-tator you really are,” Rahultweeted. Facing the flak, theHome Ministry too clarifiedthat it has authorised 10Central agencies to intercept,

monitor and decrypt all thedata contained in “any” com-puter system and asserted thatthis was being done to prevent“any unauthorised use of thesepowers”. In a clarificatorystatement, the Home Ministrysaid adequate safeguards areprovided in the IT Act, 2000and similar provisions andprocedures already exist in theTelegraph Act along with“identical safeguards”.

The new Home Ministryorder, issued on late Thursdaynight, “does not confer any newpowers” to any security or lawenforcement agency, the UnionHome Ministry said in a state-ment as the Opposition termedthe move an assault on funda-mental rights and joined handsagainst it. The order wasbrought out by the ‘cyber andinformation security’ divisionof the ministry under theauthority of Home Secretary

Rajiv Gauba. Therefore, it said,the latest order has been issued“in accordance with rulesframed in year 2009 and invogue since then and no newpowers have been conferred toany of the security or lawenforcement agencies”. Thenotification, it said, has beenissued to notify the ISPs (inter-net service providers), TSPs(telecommunications serviceproviders), and intermediariesamong others to codify theexisting orders. The Ministrystatement also said the newnotification had three benefits.It is aimed at ensuring that anyinterception, monitoring ordecryption of any informationthrough any computer resourceis done in accordance with dueprocess of law. The latest orderwill also ensure that provisionsof law relating to lawful inter-ception or monitoring of com-puter resource are followed.

From Page 1In his reference to

Tulsiram’s 72-year-old motherNarmadabai who currentlylives in Ujjain in MadhyaPradesh, the Judge said: “I feelsorry for Narmada Bai”.

Sohrabuddin was alleged-ly killed in a fake encounter on26 November, 2005, whileTulsiram too was eliminate insimilar fashion on 28December, 2006. And sinceKausar Bi was a witness to theabduction of Sohrabuddin andpossibly Tulsiram, she wasallegedly raped and murdered.

The Prosecution’s case wasthat Sohrabuddin had connec-tions with Lashkar-e-Taiba andwas conspiring to assassinate an“important political leader”,presumably then chief ministerand current Prime MinisterNarendra Modi.

Initially, there were in all 38accused in the case. Of them,16 were discharged before thetrial --- 15 by the special CBIcourt and one by the BombayHigh Court. The accused dis-charged in the case include:BJP’s current national Presidentand then Gujarat Minister ofState for Home Amit Shah,Rajasthan Home Minister

Gulab Chandra Kataria andhigh-profile Deputy InspectorGeneral DG Vanzara, whoheaded the Anti-TerrorismSquad (ATS) and known forseveral encounters,Superintendent of PoliceDinesh MN andSuperintendent of PoliceRajkumar Pandian.

The 22 accused who wereacquitted in the case on Fridaycomprised: 21 serving andretired police personnel fromGujarat, Rajasthan and AndhraPradesh, who had been charge-sheeted for conspiracy, murderand other charges. The 22acquitted accused are M LParmar, Raman Patel,Balkrishna Choubey,Narayansing Dhabi, JethusinghSolanki, Naresh Chauhan,Vinod Limbachiya, AjayKumar Parmar, KanjibhaiKutchi, Shantaram Sharma,Ashish Pandya, Kiran SinghChauhan, Karan SinghSishodia, Vijaykumar Rathod(all Gujarat Police), ShyamSingh Charan, Abdul Rehman,Narayan Singh Chauhan,Yudhveer Singh Chauhan,Kartar Singh Jat, HimanshuSingh Rajawat, (all RajasthanPolice) and GhattamaneniShriniwas Rao (AndhraPradesh police). The acquittedaccused included two Deputy

Superintendents of Police,Senior Inspectors, Inspector,Sub-Inspectors, Assistant Sub-Inspectors, Head Constablesand Constables of Gujarat andRajasthan and one police func-tionary from Andhra Pradesh.

Apart from the botched upinvestigations, another key fac-tor that led to the acquittal ofall the 22 accused in the casewas the fact that 92 of the total210 witnesses examined turnedhostile during the trial.

The 210 witnesses wereamong the 700-odd witnessesthat the CBI had listed forexamination. One of the criti-cisms that the CBI andProsecution faced from thosefollowing the case was that theydid not produce many of theimportant witnesses for exam-ination. On the part, the Judgeobserved that the main foun-dation of the Prosecution waskey eyewitnesses, its case weak-ened as most of them turnedhostile. The Judge noted thatthough the CBI did workedhard to establish its case, itfailed to do so, as three key wit-nesses in the cases had turnedhostile. “The governmentmachinery (CBI) and the pros-ecution put in a lot of effort,210 witnesses were brought butsatisfactory evidence didn’tcome and witnesses turned

hostile. It is no fault of the pros-ecutor if the witnesses don’tspeak,” Judge Sharma noted.

“Going by the evidence onrecord, the court could notconclude that the presentaccused persons could be ques-tioned, or, held accountable forthose deaths,” the Judge said.

Picking holes in theProsecution’s evidence, JudgeSharma said that theProsecution failed to establishthat the accused were the“authors” of Sohrabuddin’sencounter. “Sohrabuddin dieddue to bullet injuries which issubstantiated by the post-mortem report but whetherthese accused were authors ofthe said crime could not besubstantiated. There is cir-cumstantial evidence but thereis no substantial evidence...Thenexus (of the accused) with thekilling was not established,” theJudge said. The Judge alsonoted that the Prosecution hadfailed to establish that Tulsiramhad been abducted fromAhmedbad as had been statedby it. “The Police Sub-Inspector(Ashish Pandya) sustained bul-let wounds...There is a ballisticopinion. There is also evidenceof GRP and train guard. But,the theory that he was abduct-ed from Ahmedabad cannot beaccepted”.

From Page 1The AIMO survey found

that there has been a 43 percent job loss in the trader’s seg-ment over the last four years.Traders are closing down dueto stiff competition from e-commerce sales and this willalso result in loss of revenue inrental income by MiddleIncome families, the surveypointed out.

According toRaghunathan, the surveyshowed that most Governmentschemes such as Make In India,Digital India, Skill India andStart up India have not been ofmuch use to Traders thoughthe Micro and Small Industriesand medium scale industrieswere happier with DigitalIndia Initiatives .

A counter check with

Coimbatore and TirupurDistricts Micro and CottageEntrepreneurs Association(COTMA) substantiated thefindings of the AIMO.Viswanathan Sudarshan, gen-eral secretary COTMA, saidthe entire micro, small and cot-tage industrial units in the twodistricts are facing the worstcrisis. S Ravikumat, president,COTMA, said Goods andServices Tax (GST) remainedthe villain for small, microand cottage industries. “Thetwo districts together employed3,50,000 workers in a regularbasis. But because of the 18 percent GST and the rigid rules,we are facing one of the worstcrisis. More than 50,000 peoplehave lost their jobs as manyunits downed the shutters,”said Ravikumar.

Sudarshan had somethingshocking to tell. “The unitsmanufacturing pumps andgrinders the mainstay of theCoimbatore and Tirupur hubare closing down because of theissues related to GST. It is nomore profitable to run indus-trial units,” he said. BothSudarshan and Ravikumar saidloans under the Mudra schemeeluded the units for reasonsknown only to the bankers.

Raghunathan said all unitswith a turnover of Rs twocrore should be exempted fromGST and all other kind oftaxes in order to restore themto their health. He also saidthough the survey results werereleased on December 15, tilldate nobody from the UnionGovernment has contacted theAIMO.

From Page 1However with the Friday’s

order the future of the Yatraonce again slipped back to therealms of uncertainty at least tillthe winter vacations as it couldbe taken up only after theNew Year when the Courtwould reopen.

The saffron leadership saidit was considering to move theSupreme Court. Friday sawthe Government being repre-sented by senior counsel andCongress leader AbhishekManu Singhvi apart from StateAdvocate General KishoreDutta whereas the BJP was rep-resented by SK Kapoor.

During the argument theGovernment iterated the factsthat it had cited on Thursdaysaying intelligence reports hadexpressed apprehensions ofbreach of communal harmonyin the State if the Yatras wereallowed to happen.

“The party will take a deci-sion after considering the order.We do not rule out anything,”BJP leader JayprakashMajumdar said when asked tocomment whether his partywould move the Apex Courtagainst the order.

Students of Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology demonstrating during their nation-wide agitation demanding hike in the fellowship of research scholars, inBhopal on Friday Pioneer photo

All Sohrabuddin...

STAFF REPORTER n NEW DELHI

The Delhi police on Fridayhas busted a gang of thieves

and has recovered 55 stolenbatteries of cars from theirpossession. The accused havebeen identified as Sehzad (28),Gul Mohmmad (31), both res-idents of Joshi Colony in IPExtension, Delhi, and Zuber(22), resident of Alvi Nagar inGhaziabad (Uttar Pradesh).

According to Dr G RamGopal Naik, DeputyCommissioner of Police(DCP), Crime Branch, in thewake of rise in the incidents oftheft of batteries of cars inSouth Delhi, the Special TaskForce was assigned the task ofidentifying and nabbing theculprits involved in such crim-inal activities. “Based on theinformation collected from theplace of occurrence and vic-tims, sources were deployed totrace the accused and a manhunt was launched to nab theculprits behind these crimes.Specific inputs were receivedregarding the accused comingto steal battery in a car at NewFriends colony. A trap waslaid and all the three accusedwere apprehended,” said theDCP. “During interrogation,the accused persons disclosedthat all recovered stolen bat-teries have stolen by themfrom south Delhi area. Theaccused further disclosed thatthey take only 30 seconds tosteal a battery from one car,”said the DCP.

Explaining their modusoperandi, the DCP said that the trio used to reach at the targeted place in Ford Figo car, one of them used to takehis position on the driver’s seat while the secondperson used to pretend as thesecurity guard and used towalk on the road with a wood-en log and the third personused to stole the batteries fromthe cars very quickly,” the DCPsaid. “With their arrest policehave solved 11 cases of batterytheft in city. The Gang hasstolen more than 5000 batter-ies in last 15 months. Thepolice have recovered 55 bat-teries and a Figo car fromtheir possession. Further inves-tigation is in progress,” theDCP added.

Gang of carbattery liftersbusted, 3 held

Sweeping snoopingenrages Parliament

HC on... 43% job loss intrader’s sector...

STAFF REPORTER n NOIDA

In yet another crackdown, theNoida Police has arrested

125 people from a fake callcentre allegedly involved inextorting money from US cit-izens after threatening themwith arrest for having discrep-ancies in their social securitynumber.

According to a seniorpolice official, the raids wereconducted on Thursday nightat call centre in Noida sector-63. “The police arrested oper-ators and callers, includingwomen, besides seizing sever-al computer systems and cashfrom the call centre,” a seniorpolice official said.

Gautam Buddh NagarSuperintendent of Police(SSP)Ajay Pal Sharma said atotal of 126 people were arrest-ed, 312 computer systemsseized and cash worth over `20lakh recovered from the scene.

Explaining their modusoperandi the SSP said that theworkers at the fake call centrewould call up US citizens andintimidate them saying therewere problems with their socialsecurity number, a nine-digitidentification number issued tothe US citizens, and tell themto pay penalty to get it fixed orface arrest.

“The caller used to ask vic-tims to pay up to `3,500 andtransfer it through target pur-chasing of “playstore cards” inthe US which the call centreowners would get en-cashedwith the help of their aidesabroad,” said the SSP.

“During initial investiga-tion it was revealed that the call

centre used to make `50,000every night on an average byduping gullible Americans,”said the SSP adding that thecall centre owners have beenoperating the centre from dif-ferent places in the nationalCapital Region for last threeyears.

“The initial investigationhas also revealed that the callcentre owners also had part-ners in the US, Dubai andChina. The 125 arrestedincluded three key personswho were running the centrehere but the mastermind issomeone else and we are prob-ing the case to reach them,”SSP Sharma said.

They also used Truecaller,a global mobile app, to find thenames of the people theywould call up and addressthem by their full names, say-ing they are from the SocialSecurity Department, leavinglittle chance for the panic-

stricken people to doubt thecredentials of the callers,speaking in English with anAmerican accent.

A case has been registeredagainst the arrested persons atthe Phase 3 police stationunder Indian Penal Code sec-tions 308 (extortion), 420(cheating) and under variousrelevant sections of theInformation Technology Act.

Over the past few months,about a dozen fake call centreshave been busted in Noida andscores of people arrested forduping foreigners, includingAmericans and Canadians,officials said. This was thebiggest raid by the Noida policeso far, in which they arrestedlargest number of call centreemployees duping the USnationals, though the SpecialTask Force had earlier arrest-ed over 300 such peopleinvolved in running the rack-et to dupe US nationals.

Fake call centre busted in Noida, 125 heldArrested wereextorting moneyfrom US citizens

STAFF REPORTER n NEW DELHI

Sushil Kumar Sharma themain protagonist of the con-

spiracy and the subsequentbrutal murder of his wife NainaSahni got the respite of his lifeas he was set free by the DelhiHigh Court on Friday. Sharmathe former president of DelhiYouth Congress was convictedfor the murder of his wifeNaina Sahni in 1995. Known as‘Tandoor Murder’, NainaSahni’s murder had evokedsharp reactions across thecountry, as Sharma had got thebody of his wife chopped intopieces and tried to burn in theTandoor of Baghia restaurantwhich he owned.

A bench of JusticesSiddharth Mridul and SangitaDhingra Sehgal passed theorder of Sharma’s ‘forthwith’release, serving life sentenceSharma now 56, has alreadyundergone over two decades ofincarceration in the case.

It may be recalled thatSharma had shot dead his wifein 1995, objecting to her allegedrelationship with a male friend.He had then chopped her bodyinto pieces and attempted toburn it in a restaurant oven. Itis one of the landmark cases inIndia in which DNA evidenceand a second autopsy wereused to establish the guilt of theaccused.

The high court set asideand quashed the recommen-dations of the sentence reviewboard (SRB) which had reject-ed Sharma’s representation forpre-mature release. It also setaside the “non-speaking affir-mation” of SRB’s recommen-dations by the LieutenantGovernor, who is the compe-tent authority. “We according-ly direct that the state shallrelease Sushil Sharma forth-with,” the bench said. Thecourt had earlier issued noticeto the Delhi Government andsought its stand on Sharma’splea seeking release from cus-tody on the grounds that he hasbeen jailed for over twodecades, including the periodof remission, and his continuedincarceration was illegal.

Sharma in prisonsince 1995 set tobe freed

PNS n CHANDIGARH

Trashing as ‘political the-atrics’ the SAD president

Sukhbir Badal’s comments onthe loan waiver announced bythe Congress in Punjab andother states, Chief MinisterCapt Amarinder Singh onFriday urged the Akali leaderto give up such theatrics if hewanted his party to remain aserious contender in the polit-ical arena.

Lashing out at the Sukhbirfor his continued efforts toexploit the sentiments of thefarmers to whom the formerregime had failed to delivereven an iota of benefits, CaptAmarinder said that the formerDeputy Chief Minister wastrying to mislead the farming

community in a desperate bidto wean it away from theCongress.

Capt Amarinder pointedout that Congress presidentRahul Gandhi had alreadypromised waiver of loans forthe beleaguered farmers acrossthe country if the party waselected to power in the forth-coming elections.

“It is evident that the SAD-BJP combine is scared out oftheir wits by the Congressleadership’s promise and theirtrack record of delivering ontheir poll promises in all thestates in which the party hadbeen elected to power,” he said.

Chief Minister ridiculedSukhbir’s “blatant” attempts todivert public attention from theerstwhile Akali-BJP regime’s

failure on all counts. “For 10 years, the Badals did

not take cognizance of the farm-ers’ plight, and are now sheddingcrocodile tears for them,” headded.

Countering Sukhbir’s base-less allegation with hard factsand figures, Capt Amarinderpointed out that his govern-ment had delivered on itspromise of loan waiver despitesevere financial constraints andfiscal mess it had inheritedfrom the Badal regime. “Notjust the farmers of Punjab butthose of the entire nation haveappreciated PunjabGovernment’s initiative, whichhas been replicated now by thenewly installed Congressregime in three other states,” headded.

Stop political theatrics onloan waiver: Capt to Sukhbir

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Amidst the rift between theNDA partners BJP and

LJP, Union Minister Ram VilasPaswan on Friday met FinanceMinister Arun Jaitley for thesecond consecutive day to sortout their difference on a host ofissue flagged by Paswan’s son,Chirag paswan, who heads theParliamentary board of the LJP.

While Chirag said thattalks were on and that issueslike sharing of seats may be set-tled, BJP sources said that LJPmay be offered six seats, asmany as it had won in 2014,and the BJP and its another allyJanata Dal (United) will contest17 seats each.

Another theory doing therounds within the NDA is thatPaswan may be pacified withfive seats in Bihar and one inUttar Pradesh. Sources in theBJP said a final arrangement onseats would be formalised aftera meeting of the BJP and LJPleaders with Bihar ChiefMinister Nitish Kumar, whoreached Delhi on Fridayevening.

After the meeting withJaitley, LJP ParliamentaryChirag expressed hopes thattalks would move in the rightdirection. “Talks are going on.An announcement will bemade at an appropriate time.We have put our points beforethe BJP leadership and theimportant thing is that we arebeing heard. Hope everythingwill be fine,” he told media.

His uncle, Ram ChandraPaswan, who also attended themeeting said that the LJPwould remain part of NationalDemocratic Alliance (NDA).

“We are and will remain in theNDA. Seat sharing will beannounced this week. We havestronghold in a specific areahence that has to be respected.We are a small party. We needadequate time for preparation.That’s why we wanted the issueto be resolved at the earliest,”Ram Chandra Paswan saidbriefing the media.

Shah had earlierannounced that his party andthe JD(U) will be contestingequal number of seats in thepolitically crucial state wherethe BJP-led NDA had won 31seats in 2014.

The deployment of Jaitley,an old Bihar hand in the partywith friendly relations withleaders of different parties,underscores the importancethe BJP has attached to con-tinuing its alliance withPaswan’s party, which enjoysstrong influence among Dalits.

Top BJP leaders, includingAmit Shah and Jaitley, had

held an hour-long meetingwith Ram Vilas Paswan and hisson on Thursday to resolvedtheir differences. .

Expressing his discomfortwithin the ruling allianceChirag Paswan had earlierwritten a letter to Jaitley askinghim to explain what benefitsdemonetisation brought to thecountry. He had also tweetedthat a delay in seat-sharingannouncement may harm theruling alliance and simultane-ously praised Congress chiefRahul Gandhi over his featwinning three Hindi heart-land States from BJP.

In the last Lok Sabha polls,the BJP had contested from 30seats and won 22, while the LJPwon six seats and the RashtriyaLok Samta Party (RLSP), whichis now a part of mahagath-bandhan (grand alliance) inBihar, bagged three. In 2014,the JD(U) had contested on itsown and could win only twoseats.

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Parliament proceedings wereagain disrupted on Friday as

AIADMK, TDP and Congressmembers protested over vari-ous issues and the two Houseswere adjourned for the daywithout transacting any sub-stantial business. This was the8th consecutive day of disrup-tion of proceedings in theParliament. Both the houseswould now meet on December27 as there would be no sessionon December 24 andDecember 26 in view ofChristmas.

Lok Sabha proceedingswere adjourned for the dayaround 12.15 pm as AIADMK,TDP and Congress membersprotested over various issues.

As soon as the Zero Hourbegan in the lower house, theytrooped into the Well, display-ing placards and shouting slo-gans. Members from theAIADMK protested againstproposed construction of a damacross Cauvery river and theyalso shouted slogans in Tamil.

While TDP memberssought to raise issues related toAndhra Pradesh, those fromthe Congress demanded a JointParliamentary Committee(JPC) probe into the Rafaledeal. As the ruckus continued,the House was adjourned forthe day. Earlier, the proceedingswere adjourned till noon fol-lowing protests.

When the House met forthe day, there were no protestsby Congress members whohad been persistently attackingthe Government on the Rafalejet deal and demanding a JPCprobe into the issue.

As soon as the House tookup question hour, AIADMKmembers rushed to the Wellholding placards and raisingslogans opposing constructionof a dam over Cauvery.

They were joined by mem-bers from the Telugu DesamParty who were demandingvarious sops for AndhraPradesh. Some of the AamAadmi Party members alsojoined AIADMK and TDP.They were holding placardsdenouncing sealing, apparent-ly in Delhi.

As Minister Sripad Naikwas answering a question on

the Ayush Ministry, somemembers in the Well hurledtorn pieces of paper on thetable where the Lok Sabha sec-retariat officials sit during pro-ceedings. At this, SpeakerMahajan adjourned proceed-ings till noon. But the Housewas adjourned for the daysoon after it reassembled again.

Similar scenes were wit-nessed in Rajya Sabha. TheRajya Sabha was initiallyadjourned till 2.30 pm as twoTamil parties — the AIADMKand DMK — continued theirprotest over the Cauvery issue,while the Opposition Congressand treasury benches sparredover the Rafale jet deal.

Soon after listed papersand reports were tabled,AIADMK and DMK mem-bers trooped into the well of theHouse. Members of AAP werealso seen in the well carryingplacards, demanding an end tothe sealing drive in the nation-al capital. Meanwhile, Naiduasked senior Congress leaderAnand Sharma to put forwardhis views. Sharma also said thathis party was ready to discussthe issue of purchase of Rafalejets from French companyDassault but the Governmentshould agree for a probe intothe deal by a JPC.

Parliamentary AffairsMinister Vijay Goel said thegovernment is ready to discussall issues including Rafale butthe “Opposition is runningaway”. The Chairman lateradjourned the House till 2.30pm. When the House recon-vened, Leader of theOpposition Ghulam Nabi Azadraised the issue of President’sRule in Jammu and Kashmirand Government’s move toallow 10 agencies to interceptinformation on computers.Not happy with Government’sresponse on snooping issue,opposition shouted slogans,leading to the adjournment ofthe house for the day.

Meanwhile, the Speakeron Friday said self-discipline isexpected from representativesof people and asserted it isresponsibility of all to ensurethat the House functions.Mahajan chaired the LokSabha’s Rules Committee whichdeliberated upon smooth func-tioning of the House.

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Much to the delight ofmusic lovers, over 30 dis-

ciples of Sarod Maestro UstadAmjad Ali Khan have cometogether to perform at a three-day musical extravaganzawhich kicked off on Friday atthe Indira Gandhi NationalCentre for Arts (IGNCA) here.

The musical event is part ofthe series of Deeksha: GuruShishya Parampara, kicked offby the IGNCA in associationwith Sarod Ghar, where the dis-ciple of Padma VibhushanAmjad Ali Khan are perform-ing to enthral the audience byplaying their musical compo-sitions on different musicalinstruments like the Sarod,Sitar, Guitar and Violin. Theevent is the first of its kindbeing held in the country,

bringing together the maestroand their disciples.

On the first day, artistsGurudev Singh Namdhari(Sarod), Srinjoy Mukherjee(Sarod), Sunando Mukherjeeand Pratap Kumar (Sarodduet), Sachin Patvardhan(Guitar) and Bishwajit RoyChaudhary (Sarod) left theaudience, who braved the chillyweather, mesmerised.

On the last day of theevent, Ustad Amjad Ali Khanalong with his disciples will beplaying Sarod. SachchidanandJoshi, Member Secretary,IGNCA said, “We will be orga-nizing such theme based pro-gramms at regular intervalswhich will be based on greatartistes like the renownedSarod Maestro Ustad AmjadAli Khan.”

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The Public AccountsCommittee of Rajya Sabha

has come down hard on theTourism Ministry for its over-seas offices saying they havebeen involved in malpractices.

It pointed out that theIndian Tourism Office (ITO)Beijing procured goods andservices worth �7.17 cr ingross violation of generalfinancial rules while ITOLondon failed to follow trans-parent procurement processresulting in award of contractand payments to the tune of

�97.44 lakh for the same tonon-existent firms.

Similarly, it pointed outanomalies in the tourism officesin Tokyo where lack of moni-toring led to losses of at least�62.18 lakh and a loss of �62.18lakh at the ITO in South Koreafor procedural lapses.

“The scale of malpracticesin the ITOs indicates con-nivance of the officials ofMinistry and, therefore, desirethat the independent inquiryinto the same may be con-ducted and those responsiblebe brought to book,” the com-mittee led by Mallikarjun

Kharge said.It further said the ministry

of tourism had failed to mon-itor the ITOs adequately andsuggested that a robust mech-anism for the same be devel-oped to keep a check on suchanomalies.

“Regular monitoringincluding periodical inspec-tions by the Ministry will actas a deterrent for unscrupulouselements,” it said.

India has several tourismoffices abroad which are pri-marily responsible for pro-moting the country abroad asa tourist destination.

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The number of days whenpollution level in the city

was in the ‘poor’, ‘very poor’ or‘severe’ category is down to 191this year from 199 last year, theLok Sabha was told on Friday.

Minister of State for theEnvironment Ministry MaheshSharma, in a written reply, saidthat the number of days whenpollution level was ‘good’, ‘sat-isfactory’ or ‘moderate’ in thecity this year — up toDecember 16 — was 159 as

compared to 151 last year dur-ing the corresponding period.

He further said that themeasures taken or being takenby the government to controlthe increasing pollution leveland improve the air qualityinter alia include notificationof the Graded Response ActionPlan for different levels of airpollution in Delhi and NCR.

The notification ofNational Ambient Air QualityStandards, setting up of mon-itoring network for assessmentof ambient air quality, intro-

duction of cleaner and alternatefuels like gaseous — CNG,LPG, among others — ethanolblending and launching ofNational Air Quality indexwere also among measuresimplemented or in the processof getting implemented.

The Government has alsonotified a ComprehensiveAction Plan (CAP) identifyingtimelines and implementingagency for actions identifiedfor prevention, control andmitigation of air pollution inDelhi and NCR, he said.

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Chief ElectionCommissioner (CEC)

Sunil Arora has batted forequal constitutional protectionto all members of the ElectionCommission with regard totheir removal. The CEC said he“fully endorses” a recommen-dation of the Law Commissionto extend constitutional pro-tection, on the line of ChiefElection Commissioner. In itsreport on electoral reformssubmitted in March, 2015, theLaw Commission had pro-posed extending constitution-al protection to the two ECs.

“I endorse it. I fully endorseit,” Arora told PTI in responseto a question. He said it was upto the Government to decideon the issue.

The President appoints theChief Election Commissionerand Election Commissionersafter the Law Ministry initiatesthe file for their appointment.

A Chief ElectionCommissioner can be removedfrom the office only throughimpeachment by Parliament.The President can remove theECs based on the recommen-dation of the CEC.

The EC had been pushingto extend constitutional pro-tection to the election com-

missioners. The Law Ministry has

maintained that the grantingequal protection to the two ECsneeded amendment toConstitution for which politi-cal unanimity was required.

The EC is a permanentConstitutional body which wasestablished in accordance withthe Constitution on January 25,1950. Originally, the EC hadonly a Chief ElectionCommissioner. It currentlyconsists of Chief ElectionCommissioner and twoElection Commissioners.

For the first time, twoadditional Commissionerswere appointed on October16, 1989 but they had a veryshort tenure, till January 1,1990.

Later, on October 1, 1993two additional ElectionCommissioners were appoint-ed. The concept of multi-mem-ber Commission has been inoperation since then, with deci-sion-making power by major-ity vote.

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In yet another steptowards improving ties,

External Affairs MinisterSushma Swaraj and herChinese counterpart WangYi on Friday held extensivetalks under a newly estab-lished framework andagreed on “ten pillars” ofcooperation to enhancecultural and people-to-people exchanges.

Wang, who arrivedhere early on Friday morn-ing, said he had a “verysuccessful” meeting withSushma under the ‘HighLevel Mechanism on Culturaland People-to-PeopleExchanges’ that was decidedupon during the Wuhan sum-mit between Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and PresidentXi Jinping.

“India-China relationshave reached a new historicalstage,” he said at the inaugural

session of 3rd India-ChinaHigh Level Media Forum.

Sushma, in her remarks,said she was satisfied with theoutcome of her two-hour dia-logue with Wang during whichthey discussed ways to expandcultural and people-to-peopleties. She said India and Chinahave agreed on ‘10 pillars’ of

cooperation to enhancecultural and people-to-people exchanges.

The 10 pillars arecultural exchange, coop-eration in films and tele-vision, cooperation inmuseum administration,cooperation sports,exchanges betweenyouths, cooperation ontourism, exchangesbetween states and cities,cooperation in tradition-al medicine, cooperationin yoga and cooperationin education.

Bilateral cooperationhas improved signifi-

cantly after the WuhanSummit, Swaraj said, notingthat the militaries of two coun-tries were also enhancing coop-eration.

Wang described the newmechanism for cultural andpeople-to-people exchanges asa “major initiative” in the his-tory of India-China ties.

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The Ministry of Agricultureon Friday claimed that

wheat has been planted in253.52 lakh hectare so far in theongoing rabi season, slightlylower than the previous year.Besides wheat, sowing of otherrabi crops such as rice, pulses,coarse cereals and oilseeds alsolagged.

Rabi crops’ sowing beginsfrom October and harvestingfrom March. Wheat is themain crop of this season.

According to the latestsowing data released by theministry, wheat acreage wasmarginally lower at 253.52 lakhhectare so far in the rabi sea-son of 2018-19 crop year (July-June), compared with 257.47lakh hectare in the same peri-od last season.

Wheat was sown in 84.08lakh hectare in Uttar Pradesh,47.94 lakh hectare in MadhyaPradesh, 34.69 lakh hectare in

Punjab, 24.04 lakh hectare inHaryana and 24.61 lakh hectarein Rajasthan so far this rabi sea-son.

Pulses such as gram andgreen gram (moong) was alsosown in lesser area at 136.25lakh hectare so far in the rabiseason, compared with 143.40lakh hectare in the year-ago.

Oilseeds area remained flatat 72.53 lakh hectare as against72.94 lakh hectare, while that of coarsecereals area was down at 40.26lakh hectare as compared with48.72 lakh hectare in the saidperiod.

Rice area remained lowerat 9.98 lakh hectare so far thisrabi season, from 14.58 lakhhectare in the same period cor-responding year.

Total area sown under allrabi crops remained lower at512.53 lakh hectare so far asagainst 537.12 lakh hectare inthe year-ago, the ministry datashowed.

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In a move to protect cable TVconsumers’ interest, the

Telecom Regulatory Authorityof India (TRAI) has capped�500 as installation and acti-vation charges for cable andDTH services.

The amount of �350 will becharged as an installationcharge while �150 as an acti-vation charge under the newtariff regime beginning fromDecember 29.

The authority also direct-ed local cable operators andMultiple System Operators(MSOs) not to compel anysubscriber to buy or take onrent the Set Top Box (STB)from him alone.

“If a consumer manages tofind a set-top-box or equip-ment that works with a partic-ular cable or Direct To Home(DTH) service, then he or sheshould be allowed to use the

same by the DTH or cableoperator”, TRAI said in itsorder.

At present, DTH operatorscharge around �1,200 per con-nection while cable TV net-work charge between �800 and

�900 per connection, which isconsidered non-refundable.

The equipment costincurred by a DTH operator fora new connection is around�2,200 for a standard-definitionsubscriber and around �2,500

for a high-definition subscriber.In the case of cable TV STB, thecost of new connection isbetween �900 and �1100 perconnection depending on thearea.

Under the new tariff rules,

cable TV consumers will haveto shell out more fromDecember 29. According tocable operators, a consumerwill have to pay to chooseindividual channels, which theywant to watch. Consumer willneed to pay individually foreach channel. Under the newtariff regime, a cable TV con-sumer’s monthly bill will go upto �400 or �450 per month. Ifhe or she is opting for premi-um bouquets, the bill will beover �600-700 per month.

Presently, there are 30 crorehouseholds in the country.Nearly 19 crore householdshave TV connections. It isestimated that at least 10 crorehave connections providedthrough cable TV network.

Currently, consumers paya monthly bill of �250-350 fora cable TV connection, whichincludes sports and regionalchannels depending on thelocalities.

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Union HRD MinisterPrakash Javadekar on

Friday ruled out replacing cut-offs with an entrance exami-nation for admission to DelhiUniversity undergraduatecourses.

The DU admission com-mittee was working out ondetails of the entrance basedsystem and the issue was to bediscussed in the next meetingof the panel which has educa-tion experts, college principalsand faculty as members. Theissue was deliberated upon lastyear as well by the panel but aconsensus could not bereached.

“For 2019-20 there will beno entrance test in DU andadmissions will be conductedon basis of class 12 marks,”Javadekar told reporters.

DU currently conductscomputer based entrance testfor nine undergraduate andpostgraduate programmeswhile admissions to a majori-ty of undergraduate courses aredetermined through the aspi-rant’s scores in class 12 exams.

DU’s first attempt atswitching to an entrance-basedadmission system in 2017 hadhit a roadblock after objectionfrom different student groups.

The run-up to the Lok Sabhaelections in 2019 has begun. Aquestion that is being increas-ingly asked at this stage is:What will be the electoral

impact of a ramping up of the Ram tem-ple issue? The answer is that it will havesome impact — mainly in the form of ral-lying the faithful — but not a determin-ing one. More, its impact is likely to declineprogressively with time.

India is now in the grip of a marketeconomy and a consumer culture spreadby advertising. Asked what they want themost, an overwhelming majority ofrespondents would mention a consumeritem they had been lusting after, a goodmeal at a classy restaurant, a vacation inan enchanting place or something elserelated to consumption. A very small num-ber of people — if any at all — is likely tosay spontaneously that it is the Rammandir at Ayodhya. This does not meanthat they have stopped venerating Ram ordo not want a temple for his worship inAyodhya but that it is not at the top of theirpriorities. It is fine if the temple is built,but quotidian life would hardly be derailedif it is not.

This is nothing surprising. Generallyspeaking, the rise of capitalism — and theconsequent emphasis on economic activ-ity and individual consumption — leadsto a waning of the authority of religion.British history provides an example. RHTawney writes in Religion and the Rise ofCapitalism which remains the definingwork in the subject despite the decades:“When the age of reformation begins [inthe 16th century], economics is still abranch of ethics, and ethics of theology;all human activities are treated as fallingwithin a single scheme, whose characteris determined by the spiritual destiny ofmankind; the appeal of theorists is to nat-ural law, not to utility; the legitimacy ofeconomic transaction is tried by reference,less to the movements of the market, thanto the moral standards derived from thetraditional teachings of the ChristianChurch; the Church itself is a societywielding theoretical, and, sometimes prac-tical, authority in social affairs.”

All this had changed dramatically bythe middle of the 17th century, thanks tothe reformation which split Christendombetween the Roman Catholic and the var-ious denominations of the Protestantfaith, and undermined the Church’sauthority. It led to the secularisation of theState and the attribution of the latter’s legit-imacy to social contract and not the divineright of kings. According to Tawney, theconflict between the new social and eco-nomic forces demanding the recognitionof their legitimacy and the traditional doc-trines of the Church, was suspended by atruce. Under the latter, politics, business

and spiritual exercises, eachassumed a “separate and inde-pendent vitality” and obeyedits own laws. The social func-tions matured within theChurch and long identifiedwith it, were “transferred to theState”, which in turn was“idolised as the dispenser ofprosperity and the guardian ofcivilisation.” Religion took “asits province the individualsoul”, while economic ambi-tions claimed the domain “ofthe intercourse of man with hisfellows in the activities of busi-ness and affairs of society.”Peace was assured providedeach kept to its territory.

While the intervention ofhuman will set limits to theworking of historical deter-minism, economic develop-ment does have its owndynamics that produces socialand cultural consequences.Hence, it is legitimate to drawa parallel, albeit in very broadstrokes, between the conse-quences of the rise of capital-ism in the West and of thesame process in India, where itis causing a decline in religios-ity and an increase in secular-isation.

One can contend that theappeal of neither the Ramtemple nor militant Hindutvahas declined. Witness the hugenumber of people that thetemple movement attracts. Theargument does not hold.According to Erich Fromm inFear of Freedom, the search forsecurity is the most powerfulfactor drawing people to mil-

itant mass movements. Anincreasing feeling of insecuri-ty haunts one as one grows upfrom infancy and becomes anindividual, increasingly awareof the myriad dangers anduncertainties that life holds.

The ideal way of overcom-ing this is by relating sponta-neously with the world“through love and work, in thegenuine expression of one’semotional, sensuous and intel-lectual capacities.” Most peo-ple are unable to do this. Theyovercome their feeling of inse-curity through a masochisticsurrender to a superior entity— for example, an individualor an organisation — andderiving a sense of securityfrom the process. One can alsodo so by resorting to sadism,the essence of which lies inobtaining a feeling of powerand security by exercisingtotal control over the mind orbody of another individual, orthe destiny of an organisation,completely subordinatinghis/her or it to one’s will.

Fromm writes, “Both ten-dencies are the outcomes ofone basic need, springingfrom the inability to bear theisolation and weakness ofone’s self .” In The TrueBeliever: Thoughts on theNature of Mass Movements,Eric Hoffer identifies animpulse similar to masochis-tic submission when he says,“A rising mass movementattracts and holds a followingnot by its doctrine andpromises but from the refuge

it offers from the anxieties,barrenness and meaningless-ness of an individual exis-tence. It cures the poignantlyfrustrated not by conferringon them an absolute truth orby remedying the difficultiesand abuses which made theirlives miserable but by freeingthem from their ineffectualselves — and it does so byenfolding and absorbing theminto a close-knit and exultantcorporate whole.”

Hinduism may well be acommon bond among thosewanting a Ram temple inAyodhya but does not by itselfexplain why multitudes jointhe movement for its con-struction. Besides, a vast mul-titude of Hindus is indifferentto it; some are opposedbecause they feel it may leadto communal tension andignite violence, the fear ofwhich has been aggravated bythe emergence of murderouslynch mobs. While they aretargeting Muslims, manyHindus fear that they them-selves may be set upon in thefuture by such mobs ongrounds of caste, region orlanguage.

If the temple issue attracts,it also repels. It polarises anddivides. By no means neitherdid the issue determine theoutcome of the recentAssembly elections, nor will itbe so in the Lok Sabha elec-tions.

(The writer is ConsultantEditor, The Pioneer, and anauthor)

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Sir — This refers to the editor-ial, “A demon called waiver”(December 21). After the newlyinstalled Congress Governmentsin Madhya Pradesh andChhattisgarh waived farm loans,it is amusing to find the BJPGovernment in Gujaratannouncing a �650 crore waiv-er of power tariff for householdsin rural areas. Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, too, rushed toannounce that his Governmentis working on bringing 99 percent of items in the sub-18 percent GST slab, something thatthe Opposition, particularly theCongress, had been insistingall along.

We can expect many suchsops from the BJP before the2019 general election. However,the poor farmers are well awareof how the Modi Governmentignored them. They cannot becarried away or hoodwinked bysuch gimmicks at the tail end ofthe BJP regime. With all deter-mination, they are waiting toteach the ruling dispensation alesson with their ballot power.

Shalini GeraldChennai

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Sir — It was shocking to learn thatthe Centre is yet to release TamilNadu’s due share of �1,000 crorefrom the State Disaster ReliefFund to carry out relief andrestoration work after cycloneGaja ravaged the coastal districtsof the State. The cyclone result-ed in extensively damaging the

State’s fertile delta region. The Centre’s denial of funds

shows its priority towards the suf-ferings of the people who are yetto even get proper accommoda-tion for their survival.

Most families lost their bread-winners in the cyclone. TheGovernment should consider thatthe people of the State, particu-larly in the coastal areas, are in

desperate situation. It must pro-vide them the financial support.

Mohd UsmaniMumbai

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Sir — This refers to the editor-ial, “A demon called waiver”(December 21). India is sleep-

walking through the farmer’sdistress by being oblivious totheir issues and leveraging farmloan waivers that are ‘poisonedchalice’ for them. Loan waiversare pernicious for the economyand will make farmers lethargic.

The Government mustinvest in harnessing cutting edgetechnology like big data, geospa-tial analytics, data analytics andmachine learning so that thefarmers can enhance agricultur-al productivity.

Gourang NaryaniUjjain

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Sir — This refers to the editor-ial, “A demon called waiver”(December 21). The agenda ofloan waivers in no way bodeswell for the economy. More loanwaivers will only add to the fis-cal burden of the economy andslow down growth in the longrun. In the pursuit of power, thecountry’s economic develop-ment should not be sacrificed.

ShivanshVia email

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Greater financial inclusiveness is agateway for balanced developmentand a cohesive society. With billionsof people already using mobilephones, the means to introduce

them to formal financial services already exists.The mobile telephony system has enabled con-tact with villages that remained far away frombanks and unreachable by road. It has also trans-formed businesses and family life besides bring-ing more people into the financial mainstream.

In India, an expansive network of mom-and-pop stores, tailors, pharmacies and telco boothshas been extending customers similar servicesas that of banks. This includes paying the util-ity bills electronically, sending money backhome, mobile phone top-ups, paying televisionand Wi-Fi bills and purchasing travel tickets —all of this is done without the hassle of open-ing a bank account.

In most villages, shopkeepers help customerstransact these services using their mobilephones. This has made these services accessi-ble to low-income families, who have to strug-gle with technology. Money can now be trans-ferred quickly, efficiently and securely with afraction of cost incurred with other channels.People in far-flung villages are now able toreceive social benefits, buy ration and make pay-ments using their Aadhaar card. This hashelped save the recipients several hours of com-mute and wait time.

As a platform, the mobile has a unique setof capabilities that can overcome the challengesposed by the payments landscape. Mobile plat-form combines digital identity, value andauthentication to create low-cost access tofinancial services. Take for instance, OTP-basedauthentication for Aadhaar-linked accountsand biometric authentication for processingtransactions. Mobile finance offers at least threemajor advantages over traditional financial mod-els. First, digital transactions are essentially free.In-person services and cash transactions accountfor a majority of routine banking expenses. Butmobile finance clients keep their money in dig-ital form. This is why they can send and receivemoney often, even with distant counter parties,without incurring transaction costs from theirbanks or mobile service providers.

Second, mobile communication generatescopious amounts of data which banks and otherproviders can use to develop more profitableservices. It even acts as a substitute for tradi-tional credit scores (which can be hard for thosewithout formal records or financial histories toobtain).

Third, mobile platforms link banks to theirclients in real time. This means that banks caninstantly re-lay account information or sendreminders; and clients can quickly sign up forservices on their own.

Mobile operators know how much consumersare spending on air time and are also able to inferother relevant information. If the customer is aregular user of a mobile money transfer service,the operators may also be able to assess his/herdisposable income. They team up with banks,financial tech (fintech) companies and data ana-lytics specialists to use this data to build finan-

cial profiles and offer credit to thosewho otherwise lack proof to re-payloan. On-time payment of bills canattest the financial discipline of the con-sumer.

For the micro-finance industry,such systems represent an importantopportunity as they enable borrowersto apply for, receive and re-pay loanson their mobile phones using a net-work of local agents. But this doesn’tmean mobile is a magic device thatcan provide algorithms for all credit-related issues. A majority of the population still doesn’t use smart-phones and there are many who useit very frugally.

The proportion of the Indianpopulation that has access to financialinstitution accounts via mobile phonesor the internet to transact digital pay-ments still remains significantly loweras compared with other developingeconomies, particularly sub-SaharanAfrica. In Kenya, 79.0 per cent ofadults made digital payments in 2017,and in South Africa 60.1 per cent,compared to 28.7 per cent in India(World Bank 2018).

While digital technology is open-ing new channels for delivering finan-cial services, other challenges also per-sist. Sparse population, inconsistentnetwork coverage, lack of trust orinsufficient capital for building newbusiness models can stand in the wayof success, particularly in connectingremote or undeserved communities.The aversion of the ‘other India’ to dig-

ital finance has more to do with theirdisinclination to everything that hasmore to do with technology. Thisstems from a lack of trust in and com-fort to use technology. Women oftenface additional barriers: Limited accessto mobile phones, low literacy level,less confidence in using technologyand restrictions on travel or socialinteraction.

For India to attain mobile money,as has been the case in Kenya,providers will need a more liberalstance from the Central Bank (ReserveBank of India) whose stiff legal andregulatory framework has constrainedthe expansion of mobile money. It isunderstandable that in a vast countrylike India with such a diverse andremotely dispersed population, mostof which is poor and illiterate, the cen-tral banker has to tread the terraincautiously.

Security of consumers must be thetopmost priority and concern.Although we must continue to makethe case for responsible digital financebeing good business, we know that isn’tenough. Independent and well-resourced regulators, consumer groups,and other organisations are critical toensure that the consumer protectionsafforded by the law and regulator areactually followed and enforced. Thenew customer base build-up by the JanDhan Yojana has its own peculiarfragilities and vulnerabilities.Regulators must live up to trust.

We must remember that the ‘tech-

nological’ layer is another tool — ameans to an end — and not a solutionin itself. In certain conditions, it hap-pens to be the most powerful tool andcertainly enables services to be deliv-ered efficiently at a scale with greatbenefits. But it has to do with how weare using it and how we are definingthe outcomes.

The unfulfilled promise of pasttechnologies rarely piques the mostoptimist advocates of cutting edge,who believe that their favourite newtool is genuinely different from oth-ers that came before. We must not for-get that we are working with a con-stituency which is both politically andsocially mute. Building inclusive dig-ital economies requires the collectiveaction of Governments, industry,financiers and civil society. Beforespeeding ahead, we need to buildinfrastructure, align policies and cre-ate the tools that can enable the poorto comfortably board the digital train.

As Ghanaian diplomat KofiAnnan had said: “In managing, pro-moting and protecting the Internet’spresence in our lives, we need to beno less creative than those who invent-ed it. Clearly, there is a need for gov-ernance but that does not necessari-ly mean that it has to be done in thetraditional way, for something that isso very different.”

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

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In the last decade or so, many coun-tries in Europe, South America,Canada and various states in the US

have either legalised or decriminalisedmarijuana/cannabis. The degrees ofdecriminalisation and legalisation inthese countries vary but recent lawspassed in these regions have receiveda lot of media attention. In some ofthese countries, the legalisation and/ordecriminalisation process began by firstallowing the drug to be used for med-icinal purposes — especially after var-ious recent studies concluded thatcannabis was helpful in the treatmentof epilepsy and multiple sclerosis. DrTori Rodriguez, in her essay, NeurologyAdvisor, cited at least eight such stud-ies in the US alone.

However, the recent decriminali-sation/legalisation process is largely

believed to be influenced by one of theearliest legislative experiments in thiscontext in the Netherlands. In 1972, theDutch Government divided contra-band drugs into two categories: Theharmful and the less harmful. Cannabiswas slotted in the ‘less harmful’ cate-gory and its recreational use wasdecriminalised. In 1975, ‘licensed cof-fee shops’ were allowed to sell it.

A July 2013 report by the GlobalDrug Policy Programme states that thepolicy aided the Dutch Government toutilise funds in curbing sale and usageof more harmful drugs like heroin. Thisled to fewer people using needles and,therefore, contracting deadly diseasessuch as HIV/AIDS. The Netherlandsnow has one of the lowest numbers ofdrug-related offenders. Almost threedecades after the Dutch experiment,cannabis has either been legalised,decriminalised or allowed for medic-inal use in over 30 countries. At themoment, Portugal has the most liber-al laws in this context. According to aDecember 5, 2017, article in TheGuardian, the Portuguese policy hadyielded some of the best results in the

continent. The old fear that liberal leg-islation towards intoxicants, especial-ly cannabis, would see societies plungeinto drug-crazed anarchy have with-ered away.

Even though there are more coun-tries where recreational cannabis usageis decriminalised, rather than outrightlegalised, many believe the next step islegalisation — something which, invarying degrees, is already a reality insome countries. Those who are predict-ing the drug’s gradual legalisationsuggest that Governments, which areslowly moving towards this, are alsoeyeing the potential of gaining hugerevenues through taxation.

Interestingly, this model of legal-ising the once-banned intoxicants togain a windfall of tax revenues is overa 100 years old. The model is about lim-iting the large amount of manpowerand funds that the state has to gener-ate to maintain bans on intoxicants, andinstead legalise their sale and usage sothat they could be formally taxed andbetter monitored and controlled.

In an essay in Psychology Today, DrJann Gumbiner wrote that when the

British completely took over India, theyfound that millions of Indians of allfaiths used cannabis as a recreationaldrug. After failing to curb its usage, theBritish commissioned a large-scalestudy on the effects of the drug on theusers’ mind and body. This producedthe 1894 Indian Hemp DrugsCommission Report.

The findings of the report influ-enced the legalisation of cannabis inBritish India. The drug’s productionand sales were heavily taxed and theusers could only buy it from licensedshops, thus eliminating undocument-ed middlemen. The British did thesame with alcohol. They were not onlyable to generate huge revenues throughtaxation of both the intoxicants, but alsomonitor their usage more closely andkeep their use ‘to acceptable levels’.

When the British left the regionafter the creation of India and Pakistanin August 1947, the two new countriesadopted the British laws related tointoxicants. Almost 29 years before theNetherlands’ initial foray into allowingthe sale of cannabis at coffee shops, and70 years before the drug’s legalisation

in Canada and Paraguay, it was alreadylegal in India and Pakistan.

In the late 1970s, American cultur-al anthropologist, Richard Kurin, vis-ited Pakistan and conducted a study ofvillage life in the country’s PunjabProvince. This resulted in his essay, ‘Aview from the Countryside’ (AsianSurvey, August 1985). In it, Kurin men-tioned ‘licensed hashish shops’ whichwere allowed to sell a certain amountof cannabis to the villagers. These shopsseemed to be located only in villagesand towns and not in major cities. Legalcannabis outlets could also be found invarious towns of Khyber Pakhtunkhwaand interior Sindh.

Across the border in India,cannabis remained legal till 1985(before being criminalised through thatyear’s Narcotic Drugs and PsychotropicSubstances Act). According to a 2018report published by Seedo’s CannabisPrice Index, both India and Pakistanfeature in the top 10 list of countrieswhere cannabis usage is the highest.

Recently with the possibility of a‘sin tax’ on cigarettes and a strugglingeconomy, some experts have advised

that Pakistan’s laws, banning the sale ofalcoholic beverages to Muslims andcannabis, should be altered so that rev-enues can be generated by ‘sin taxing’them as well. They believe that the bansfailed to work and have, in fact,encouraged the creation of mafia,consumption of tainted intoxicants andcorruption. The Sindh Governmentreceived over three billion rupees in2015 in duties from ‘licensed wineshops’ which, according to a 1979Ordinance, are allowed to sell liquor tonon-Muslims. Before a ban wasimposed on the sale of alcoholic bev-erages in April 1977, the federalGovernment was earning huge rev-enues by taxing alcohol and cannabis.

Those advocating a modificationof laws against alcohol and cannabisclaim that altering such laws will helpthe Government in generating largesums of taxation money. They say thiswill also help in putting additional effortand funds in curbing more harmfuldrugs such as heroin and neutralisecorruption and mafia related to boot-legging and drug peddling.

(Courtesy: Dawn)

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The debate on the caste ofLord Hanuman continued

with the latest entrant in therow being Religious AffairsMinister Chaudhary LaxmiNarain, who termed the PawanPutra as a Jat.

Earlier, Lord Hanumanwas dubbed as a Dalit by ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath at anelection rally in Rajasthanwhile BJP MLC Bukkal Nawabhad added some extra spice bysaying that Bajrangbali was aMuslim.

“There is no iota of doubtthat Lord Hanuman was a Jatbecause Jats are descendants ofthe Ape God,” Chaudhary tolda select group of reporters inLucknow on Friday.

The Minister’s argumentwas vague but interesting.Chaudhary said that Jats hada penchant to interfere inany issue.

“If injustice is being done to

any person, a Jat will definitelyintervene, irrespective of hisbeing acquainted with the victim.This happened in Ramayana.Ravana kidnapped Sita and Ramkilled Ravana. Hanuman did notknow Ram and Ravan but heburnt Lanka because injusticewas done to Mata Sita,” he said.

“We Jats are powerful asLord Hanuman and revereHim as our Lord. So, I can saywith certainty that Hanumanwas a Jat,” he said.

Incidentally, a day earlierBJP lawmaker Bukkal Nawabhad claimed that Hanuman wasa Muslim. He had said thatMuslims had names likeRehman, Ramzan, Farman,Zishan, Qurban and in this wayphonetically Hanuman soundsmore Muslim than Hindu.

The controversy waskicked off by CMYogi, who, inan election rally in Alwar(Rajasthan), said thatHanuman was a forest dweller,deprived and a Dalit.

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Culling of birds has beenordered in four villages in

Munger district as outbreak ofbird flu has been confirmed inthose areas, a senior StateGovernment official said onFriday.

Divisional Commissioner,Munger, Pankaj Kumar Palsaid though bird flu has beenconfirmed in some areas ofMunger district but so far therewere no case of avian influen-

za afflicting any human being.Following reports of birds

dying in some villages underGhoraho Panchayat, sampleswere sent to a medical lab inKolkata for tests whereinstrains of the H5N1 virus wereconfirmed, he said.

“Culling of birds has, there-fore, been ordered in four vil-lages falling under the pan-chayat Chakhand, Amaiya,Belsira and Aphroj. A Centralteam has reached the villageswith the necessary parapher-nalia. Besides, those in thepoultry business are beingcompensated,” Pal said.

“Although no humans haveso far been found to be afflict-ed by the virus, antiviral drugTamiflu is being made availablein the affected region as a pre-cautionary measure. An advi-sory has also been issued ask-ing the people to avoid cominginto contact with any migra-tory wild birds or consumptionof their meat,” theCommissioner added.

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Two Junior CommissionedOfficers (JCOs) were killed

in a suspected sniper rifleattack from Pakistani troopsalong the Line of Control innorth Kashmir’s Kupwara dis-trict on Friday. The Armybegan a massive combing oper-ation in the area suspecting theattack was a cover to facilitateinfiltration in the restive region.

Sources said that one offi-cer died in a military hospitalin Kupwara while his colleaguewas airlifted to Srinagar’s92Base Hospital where he suc-cumbed to injuries.

Officials confirmed thatceasefire violation by Pakistani

troops was observed inJamgund area in Kupwara dis-trict after 11 am on Friday. Twojunior officers of the 2/8 GRRegiment were guarding theLoC when they came underfire. They were immediatelyevacuated to Drugmulla hos-pital where one of them suc-cumbed. They said the attackmight have been carried withsnipe rifles. This year Pakistanitroops inflicted heavy casual-ties on the Indian Army alongthe vast stretch of LoC inJammu & Kashmir.

The slain JCOs were iden-tified as Subidar GamarThapa (42) and SubidarRaman Thapa.

Senior Superintendent of

Police (SSP), KupwaraAmbarkar Shriram Dinkar alsoconfirmed the deaths.

Sources said that the Armylaunched an operation in thearea to track down suspectedinfiltrators. They said thePakistan army might have pro-vided covering fire to infiltratorsthat resulted in the casualties.

Usually the infiltrationcomes to a halt during peakwinter months due to block-age of mountain passes afterheavy snowfall. However,despite a cold wave in theregion at the beginning ofChillai Kalan, 40-day spell ofharshest winter in the region,less snowfall has not depletedchances of infiltration.

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The Central Government’sdecision to put on surveil-

lance and intercept “any infor-mation” on computers, receivedflak from Bengal ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee whoon Friday came down heavilyon the BJP Government for“demolishing all the democra-tic institutions one by one.”

Attacking the Centre forauthoritising ten Central agen-cies to put about 20 institutionsand organsations under sur-veillance, Mamata said, “suchkind of situation can be under-stood when there is an emer-gency like situation. But how isit that the Government will

interfere in every matter.”This order of “blanket sur-

veillance must at once be with-drawn or we will continue toagitate against it,” Mamata saidadding the order is likely totake the revered pillars of theIndian democracy like the judi-ciary and the media under its

wing “which means that they(BJP) want to hit at the veryfoundation of democracy inIndia.”

She said, “If it is for nation-al security, then only for thatpurpose Central Governmentalready has the machinery.But, why all commoners will beaffected?”

Attacking the Governmentfor not concentrating on thereal issues like farmers’ suicide,unemployment, inflation cor-ruption, Mamata said, “Insteadof tackling the real issues theyare trying to throttle the peo-ple’s voices. Today they are issu-ing these surveillance orders.

Tomorrow they will usethese orders to keep a tab on

the church, the media,Ramakrishna Mission, judi-ciary and what not. In fact, theywill try to control the life ofevery individual. Our data willbe out in public domainthrough this order. This cannotbe tolerated.”

Attacking the Governmentfor its faulty economic policies,she said, “GST and demoneti-sation had rendered thousandsof people jobless and ruined theIndian economy. Wonderingwhy the Government was nottrying to correct its mistakesand attacking the people whowere raising questions, she saidthe people were watching everymove of this Government.

“They are always after thepeople who are questioningthem. They are threatening

these people with Central agen-cies. But this will not be allowed

to continue for long. The peo-ple are watching everything

and they will give them a befit-ting reply.”

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Senior Congress leaderAbhishek Manu Singhvi on

Friday condemned the Centre’smove to authorise 10 Centralagencies to intercept “any infor-mation” on computers and indi-cated that the party may movecourt against the MHA order.

This is a direct attack onprivacy of the people, he saidadding that since indepen-dence, the country has never

seen such an attempt to infil-trate into people’s privacy.

“We condemn this move tosnoop on people of this coun-try. We will oppose it and ifneeded we will fight it in the

court also,” Singhvi told a pressconference here.

“The BJP Government isconverting India into a sur-veillance state through theorder. It is the ultimate assaulton fundamental rights and theright to privacy,” he said.

The order authorises 10Central agencies such as theIntelligence Bureau, the CBIand the EnforcementDirectorate to intercept, mon-itor, and decrypt “any infor-

mation generated, transmit-ted, received or stored in anycomputer”.

Singhvi, while speaking onthe Rafale fight jet issue, saidthe BJP has misled the SupremeCourt and only a JointParliamentary Committee(JPC) can expose the web of liesof the BJP.

“Why is the BJP afraid toconduct a JPC into the issue?Are they afraid that they mightbe caught?,” he asked.

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Just after Congress leaderVeerappa Moily called Air

chief a liar, another seniorCongress leader and formerFinance Minister PChidambaram in a damagecontrol mode asked the forcesto stay away from the contro-versial Rafale deal. In a Pressconference on Friday inBengaluru, he requested theIndian Army and Air Force torefrain from indulging in theongoing debate over the Rafalefighter jet deal.

He said, “We are not ques-tioning the Air Force chief, weare humbly requesting theArmy and Air Force to stay outRafale debate. If Air chief real-ly wants to comment, then heshould ask the Governmentwhy it is only buying 36 aircraftwhen there is a requirement of126 aircraft.”

Chidambaram attackedBJP for not agreeing for a JPCprobe. “Rafale deal is alreadybeing discussed in theParliament and we weren’t sat-

isfied with the Governmentresponse and asked for JPC.Now, why is the BJP fightingshy of a JPC if everything isabove board?” he said.

He said, “Rafale willremain our issue in the forth-coming Lok Sabha elections asdefence deal worth �60,000crore that will leave the coun-

try with only 36 aircraft asagainst 126 contracted forunder the UPA cannot gounchallenged.”

Continuing his tiradeagainst the Centre for enteringinto an entirely new deal withFrance, the Congress leaderasked why a deal, that was 95per cent finalised, had to be

scrapped rather than beingsealed by the NDAGovernment. “From 95 percent, the Government shouldhave taken it to 100 per cent.Instead of that why did theycancel an old deal and enteredinto a new agreement theneven if they signed a newagreement then why buyingonly 36,” he asked.

“The only pending issuebetween HAL and Dassaultwas that who will guarantee theperformance of the aircraftthat were supposed to be builtin Bengaluru. Dassault’s posi-tion was we can only guaran-tee the 36 aircraft, not theremaining 108 that are to bebuilt in Bengaluru. However,HAL was of the view that if it'syour technology and our fac-tory then we should guaranteeit together. I think it was a fairdemand,” he added.

On the apex court’s decisionon Rafale deal he said nobodyfrom the Congress party wentto the Supreme Court as wehave said that it is not for thecourt to decide. For every mat-

ter, apex court is not a solution.Chidambaram also

slammed Defence MinisterNirmala Sitharaman for stat-ing that the Rafale deal wasretained at 20 per cent lowerprices. “If prices were loweraccording to you (DefenceMinister) then buy theremaining 90, why are you notcontracting for 126? Let it bemanufactured either in Parisor wherever because you can-not put the country’s securi-ty at stake.”

On December 14, theSupreme Court had dismissedpetitions seeking a probe intothe deal, saying it did not findany substantial material onrecord to show that this is acase of commercial favouritismto any party by theGovernment of India.

Later, the Centre soughturgent correction in the word-ing of a particular paragraph inthe order “in the interests ofjustice and in the facts and cir-cumstances of the case”, whilenoting that “the observations inthe judgment have resulted in

a controversy”.On the other hand, while

addressing the media onThursday Air Chief Marshal BSDhanoa said, “The SupremeCourt has given a very finejudgment and I am not goingto comment on it. It has alsosaid that this plane is badlyneeded. Rafale is always a needfor the Air Force. It (fighterjets) took a long time to come.Others have upgraded theirsquadron. Also, very fine com-ments are given by the FinanceMinister (Arun Jaitley) andour Defence Minister (NirmalaSitharaman).”

Chidambaram’s commentscome after Air Chief MarshalBS Dhanoa recent commentswhere he said Rafale jets werea necessity, adding that all ofIndia’s adversaries had alreadyupgraded their systems.

“Rafale is always a need forthe Air Force. It (fighter jets)took a long time to come.Others have upgraded theirsquadron,” he had said onWednesday. French companyDassault.

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Senior Congress leader MVeerappa Moily on Friday

said if his party was voted topower in the next Lok Sabhapolls, Hindustan AeronauticsLimited would be accommo-dated as an offset partner andAnil Ambani’s Reliance Defenceeased out of the Rafale deal.

Moily, who ruled outscrapping the Rafale deal if hisparty was voted to power, toldreporters, “When ourGovernment comes, we will goback to the HAL as an offsetpartner...definitely we are com-mitted to it”.

“We believe in Rafale jet...itis good...it cannot be can-celled...it is our own baby, weonly had finalised it with theHAL,” he said.

Addressing a Press confer-ence here on his party’s standon the defence deal, the formerUnion Minister said his partywas only opposed to “unlawfulgains” by somebody under theguise of the defence deal andnot the fighter jet.

Asked if Reliance would beout of the ambit of the Rafaleframework as an offset partner,he shot back, “how that com-pany can be in..?”

To a question on approach-ing the Supreme Court sincethe Congress has alleged thatthe court was fed “false infor-mation” by the Government,Moily said constituting a JointParliamentary Committee(JPC) was their demand.

“The Congress is very clearthat only a Joint ParliamentaryCommittee will be competent togo into the Rafale deal...we arenot going to Supreme Court...wedid not petition the court in thepast too,” he said, adding onlyParliament would be the appro-

priate forum for the scrutiny.Recalling the Congress-

led Governments constitutingand facing JPCs in the past,Moily said the BJPGovernment wanted to hidethe truth.

“They know that they haveeverything to hide and nothingto disclose,” he alleged.

On Prime MinisterNarendra Modi accusing theCongress of threatening everyinstitution in India, Moily saidit was a “big joke”.

It is only the BJP-ledGovernment that hasdestroyed the institutions, beit the CBI or the planningcommission, he said.

On the BJP’s demand for adebate in Parliament whichthey said was more powerfulthan a JPC probe, the Congressleader said the saffron party didnot know the basic features ofparliamentary procedures.

“A JPC can investigate thematter. The discussions hadalready been done on the deal.What more discussion wouldthey like?” he said.

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Senior Congress leader andformer Union Minister

Jaipal Reddy has accusedManohar Parrikar of trying to“blackmail” Prime MinisterNarendra Modi through theRafale deal to retain his chairas the Goa Chief Minister.

Reddy was addressing theparty’s concluding function of‘Jan Akrosh’ Rally at Margaotown Thursday.

The Congress has beenholding ‘Jan Akrosh’ ralliesacross Goa demanding“resumption” of governance inthe State, claiming Parrikar’shealth has affected the func-tioning of the administration.

Reacting to Reddy’s state-ment, the BJP said theCongress was trying in vain toraise the Rafale issue despite itbeing cleared by the SupremeCourt.

The Supreme Court onDecember 14 gave theNarendra Modi Government a

clean chit on the procurementof 36 Rafale fighter jets fromFrance and dismissed all peti-tions seeking a direction to theCentral Bureau of Investigationto register an FIR for allegedirregularities in the deal.

The apex court had said

there was no occasion to doubtthe decision-making processin the multi-billion dollarRafale deal.

The former Informationand Broadcasting ministerdemanded Parrikar’s resigna-tion and said he was “sticking”to the Chief Minister’s chair“like a leech”.

“He talks of morality, whatmorality is there of ManoharParrikar sticking to the chairlike a leech,” Reddy said in thepresence of Congress leaders,including State chief GirishChodankar, former Goa chiefministers Digambar Kamat,Ravi Naik, Francisco Sardinha,and others.

“I know he is in a positionto blackmail PM NarendraModi... Is he blackmailing PMto keep him in the chair asChief Minister? We need tothink about it,” he added.

Before assuming charge asGoa Chief Minister, Parrikarwas Defence Minister in theModi Cabinet.

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Congress leader SharmisthaMukherjee on Friday said

the BJP started a campaign tomislead the people by wrong-ly interpreting the SupremeCourt verdict on Rafale deal.

The Congress is contem-plating to lodge complaintagainst the CentralGovernment for allegedly mis-leading and misinforming theapex court, on the basis ofwhich judgment was formed,Mukherjee said here.

“The Rafale deal probedoesn’t come under thepurview of the Supreme Court.Only a Joint ParliamentaryCommittee can summon thePrime Minister and others toquestion about Rafale deal. So,a JPC must be formed,” she tolda news conference.

Mukherjee, also daughterof former President PranabMukherjee, said the Congressalso started a counter campaignto contest the claim of the BJP

that the Supreme Court gavethem clean chit on the issue.

The Congress leader saidthe court in its verdict cited areport submitted by theComptroller and AuditorGeneral (CAG) to the PublicAccounts Committee (PAC),but no such report was given tothe panel headed by Congressleader Mallikarjun Kharge.

The Central Governmenthas filed an affidavit with theSupreme Court saying theCAG report’s mention was a“typographical error”,Mukherjee said.

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An uppercap on air-

fares in eachsector is theneed of thehour to dis-courage preda-tory pricingways of air-lines, aParliamentarypanel said on Friday.

The Department-relatedParliamentary StandingCommittee on Transport,Tourism and Culture askedthe Civil Aviation Ministry tomake concerted efforts consis-tently to “prevail upon differ-ent airlines not only to makeavailable more and more low-fare bucket seats, but also tokeep the airfares at minimumaffordable level for the benefitof common man”.

There have been concerns invarious quarters about high air-fares even as the ministry hasbeen maintaining that air ticketprices are neither controlled norapproved by the Government.

“The committee stronglyfeels that an upper cap of air-fare in each sector is the needof the hour to discourage theairlines from predatory pricingof air tickets,” the panel said inits report tabled in Parliament.

According to the commit-tee, the ministry has takenrefuge in global practices in fix-

ing the luggage charges anduncontrolled airfares, whichis a faulty premise.

“... The Indian conditionsand need of the people shouldbe given due considerationwhile regulating the airfaresand luggage charges.

“The committee recom-mends that the Ministry ofCivil Aviation and DGCAshould come forward to regu-late baggage charges and air-fares in such a way to facilitateand benefit the air passen-gers,” the report said.

Further, the panel reiterat-ed its earlier recommendationthat the airlines must berestricted to charging not morethat 50 per cent of the base fareas cancellation charges.

Regarding instances of dis-courteous and aggressivebehaviour of airlines staff, thecommittee said it “desires thatthe ministry shall ensure thatstrictest possible action is takenagainst unruly staff and heavypenalties imposed on them”.

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Giving a further fillip toIndia’s energy conserva-

tion efforts, Ministry of Powerhas launched the ECO NiwasSamhita 2018, an EnergyConservation Building Codefor Residential Buildings(ECBC-R). TheCode waslaunched on the occasion ofNational Energy ConservationDay 2018 in the presence ofChief Guest Sumitra Mahajan,Speaker, Lok Sabha and RKSingh, Minister of State (IC) forPower and New & RenewableEnergy.

The implementation ofthis Codeis willgive a fillip toenergy efficiency in residentialsector. It aims to benefit theoccupants and the environ-ment by promoting energyefficiency in design and con-struction of homes, apart-ments and townships.

This Code has been pre-pared after extensive consul-tations with all stakeholders,consisting of architects &experts including buildingmaterial suppliers and devel-opers.

The parameters listed inthe Code have been devel-oped based on large numberof parameters using climateand energy related data.Init ia l ly, Par t-I of theCodehas been launchedwhich prescribes minimumstandards for building enve-lope designswith the pur-pose of designing energyef f ic ient res identia l buildings.

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Mother Dairy Fruit &Vegetable Pvt. Ltd., on

Friday launched its Organicrange of fresh fruits and veg-etables and other kitchen ingre-dients under its horticulturebrand Safal. The new range ofproducts — labelled as ’SafalOrganic’ — would be madeavailable in select 100 Safalbooths across Delhi NCR,alongwith Safal’s existing rangeof edibles.

’Safal Organic’ will offerfresh fruit and vegetables suchas apple, pomegranate,mausambi, lemon, potato,tomato, onion, ginger, garlicetc. The fresh organic pro-duce is being sourced fromfarmers with certified organicfarms across the states ofMaharashtra, HimachalPradesh, Sikkim, Madhya

Pradesh and Uttarakhand.Apart from the fresh F&V,Safal is also introducing a widerange of organic kitchen ingre-dients namely pulses, rice,spices, millets, dry fruits, wheatflour, besan, sugar, salt and flat-tened rice flakes (poha), in bio-degradable and recyclablepackaging options.

Safal’s newly establishedorganic supply has been set upas per the mandate of NationalProgramme for OrganicProduction (NPOP),Government of India and italso conforms to the ’JaivikBharat’ initiative of FSSAI. For’Safal Organic’ farms withNPOP certification are select-ed and duly audited by MotherDairy experts. The harvestedproduce is also subjected tostringent testing for 127 pesti-cidal residues by accreditedlabs.

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Ten days after being sealedby the Delhi Government,

steel pickling units haveresumed normal operationsin Wazirpur industrial area,blatantly violating the orders ofNational Green Tribunal(NGT) and Supreme Court ofIndia. The team from All IndiaLokadhikar Sangathan, which

inspected the Wazirpur indus-trial area in the night thisweek, found many steel pick-ling units operational.Moreover, most of the unitshave illegally restored elec-tricity and water lines whichwere disconnected during thesealing drive by DelhiGovernment authorities. Thisamounts to theft of water andelectricity.

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Japanese prosecutors re-arrested former Nissan boss

Carlos Ghosn over fresh alle-gations on Friday, apparentlydashing his hopes of beinghome for Christmas in the lat-est twist to a rollercoaster saga.

The case of the once-revered 64-year-old tycoon hasgripped Japan and the businessworld since he was arrested ashe stepped off his private jet atTokyo’s Haneda Airport onNovember 19.

He had appeared set forrelease Friday after a court sur-prisingly rejected the prosecu-tors’ demand to extend his deten-tion for further questioning.

But instead of being freedon bail, Ghosn was arrestedFriday over separate allega-tions of financial wrongdoing.

“The accused was respon-sible for managing Nissan’s over-all operations and for dutifullyfulfilling his role as CEO not tocause damage to Nissan and itssubsidiaries... But he took actionthat betrayed his role and causedfinancial damage to Nissan,”prosecutors alleged.

They alleged he transferredpersonal losses worth some1.85 billion yen ($16.6 million)sustained in the 2008 financialcrisis to Nissan.

He also stands accused ofwiring some $14.7 millionfrom Nissan funds to anothercompany for his own benefit.

According to public broad-caster NHK, Ghosn denies thislatest set of allegations.

The Franco-Brazilian-Lebanese businessman hasalready been formally chargedwith under-reporting hisincome by tens of millions ofdollars over several years andfaces a second batch of allega-tions that this continued forthree further years.

On Thursday a courtrefused to extend his detentionover the second set of allega-tions, reportedly because theywere too similar to the first set.

But this fresh arrest givesprosecutors 48 hours to questionhim on the new matter. UnderJapanese law, they can thenapply for a fresh extension of 10days, plus a further 10 days, toinvestigate the new claims.

His right-hand man, GregKelly, who faces the same ini-tial charge, was not rearrestedon Friday and his lawyer hasrequested bail, according to acourt statement.

Since his stunning arrestlast month, the once jet-settingexecutive has languished in atiny cell in a detention centrein northern Tokyo, where hehas complained about the coldand the rice-based menu.

His lengthy detention — inJapan, suspects can be “re-arrested” several times over dif-ferent allegations — hassparked criticism, especiallyfrom abroad.

“The Japanese penal sys-tem has been revealed to thewider world. It is not neces-sarily Japan’s best side and thisis not good for business,” Tokyolawyer Lionel Vincent told

AFP.Ghosn has an unusually

high profile for a foreign exec-utive in Japan and was credit-ed with turning around thestruggling car giant Nissanand forging a three-wayalliance with French manufac-turer Renault and fellowJapanese firm MitsubishiMotors.

He was seen as the glueholding together the fractiousalliance and his arrest hasexposed major rifts betweenNissan — which makes themost money — and Renault,the dominant shareholder.

Both Nissan andMitsubishi Motors promptlysacked Ghosn as chairman fol-lowing his arrest, on the basisof a months-long internalNissan investigation.

Renault has been muchmore cautious, keeping him onas chairman and CEO andappointing Thierry Bollore asinterim boss.

According to a source closeto the investigation, Nissanwould seek to bar Ghosn fromtheir premises if he were to bereleased.

In addition to chargesagainst Ghosn and Kelly, pros-ecutors have also indictedNissan, as the company sub-mitted the official documentsthat allegedly under-reportedhis income.

The firm declined to com-ment on the latest twist butadded: “Nissan’s own investi-gation is ongoing, and its scopecontinues to broaden.”

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The corporate affairs min-istry on Thursday moved

the National Company LawTribunal (NCLT) seeking toreopen the books of IL&FSGroup and its subsidiaries forthe past five years underSection 130 of the CompaniesAct, to ascertain financial mis-management.

This is the first time thatGovernment has invoked thepowers under Section 130 0fthe new Companies Act of2013 to reopen ledgers of acompany.

The Government wants tocheck the balance-sheets ofcrippled group and the two list-ed subsidiaries — ITNL andIL&FS Financial Services forthe past years and the movecomes after the Serious FraudInvestigation Office (SFIO) hasfound shocking details of cor-ruption, personal enrichmentand other non-transparentdeals.

The court, however,refused to pass an immediateorder saying it has to seek theviews of the relevant statutorybodies and regulators such asthe Reserve Bank, the marketswatchdog Sebi and the IncomeTax Department, before takinga call on the petition.

The two-member benchof judges VP Singh andRavikumar Duraisamy said

they will issue the notices todayand will hear the matter whenthe court reopens on January 1,2019.

The ministry also submit-ted a report on the views of theInstitute of CharteredAccountants on the IL&FSGroup’s accounts, which wereaudited by Deloitte, EY affili-ate SRBC and KPMG affiliateBSR.

The move comes after anSFIO probe has found seriousmismanagement of accountsand fraudulent transactionsacross the group by the pastmanagement.

The SFIO probe hasuncovered serious wrongdoingby the past management of theembattled group, with instancesof income misreporting, dubi-ous transactions, conflicts ofinterest deals, ever-greeningof loans and personal enrich-ment by some key employees.

The ministry had submit-ted the SFIO interim report tothe NCLT on December 3.

The Government plea alsowants NCLT to appoint anindependent chartered accoun-tant to restate the accounts andrevise the balance-sheets ofIL&FS, IL&FS FinancialServices and IL&FSTransportation Network andwants three months to do thejob. The group owes over�94,000 crore to lenders, most-ly banks.

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Sebi has slapped a total fineof �15 lakh on five compa-

nies for non-submission ofaudit reports regarding divi-dend payments and transfer oftheir securities by ShareproServices.

The companies also failedto change Sharepro Services astheir Registrar and TransferAgent (RTA) as was directed bythe regulator.

Sharepro Services operat-ed as RTA for the five compa-nies — Naisargik Agritech,Platinum Corporation, SheetalBio-Agro Tech, Anand Credit

and Well Pack Papers.In March 2016, Sebi direct-

ed the firms to conduct a thor-ough audit of Sharepro regard-ing dividends paid and trans-fer of securities.

Besides, the companieswere directed to switch overtheir activities related to a RTA“either in-house or throughanother RTA registered withthe markets regulator”.

After finding that the com-panies have not complied withthe directions, Sebi has finedthem �3 lakh each.

In five separate but sim-ilarly-worded orders, Sebisaid the companies failed tocomply with the directionsby not submitting auditreports in respect of therecords and systems ofSharepro apart from notshifting the operations relat-ed to RTA.

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President Donald Trump’sdemand for border wall

funds hurled the federalGovernment closer to a shut-down as House Republicansapproved a package with his$5.7 billion request that isalmost certain to be rejected bythe Senate.

The White House saidTrump will not travel to Floridaon Friday for the Christmasholiday if the government isshutting down. More than800,000 federal workers will befacing furloughs or forced towork without pay if a resolutionis not reached before fundingexpires at midnight Friday.

The shutdown crisis couldbe one of the final acts of theHouse GOP majority beforerelinquishing control toDemocrats in January.Congress had been on track tofund the government butlurched Thursday whenTrump, after a rare lashingfrom conservative supporters,

declared he would not sign abill without the funding.Conservatives want to keepfighting. They warn that “cav-ing” on Trump’s repeated wallpromises could hurt his 2020re-election chances, and otherRepublicans’ as well.

The House voted largelyalong party lines, 217-185,after GOP leaders framed thevote as a slap-back to NancyPelosi, who is poised to becomeHouse speaker on Jan. 3 andwho had warned Trump in atelevised Oval Office meetinglast week that he wouldn’t havethe votes for the wall.

“Now we find compro-mise,” House Majority LeaderKevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said.“We have time right now to getit done.” The government fund-ing package, which includesnearly USD 8 billion in disas-ter aid for coastal hurricanesand California wildfires, nowgoes to the Senate, where itsprospects are grim amid strongopposition from Democrats.Sixty votes are needed to

approve the bill there.Senate Majority Leader

Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.,warned senators they may needto return to Washington for anoontime vote Friday.

Many senators already lefttown for the holidays. TheSenate approved a bipartisanbill late Wednesday to keep thegovernment temporarily fund-ed, with border security moneyat current levels, USD 1.3 bil-lion, and no money for the wall.The House had been expectedto vote on it Thursday.

The most likely possibilityFriday is that the Senate stripsthe border wall out of the billbut keeps the disaster fundsand sends it back to the House.House lawmakers said theywere being told to stay in townfor more possible votes.

With Pelosi’s backing, theSenate-passed bill likely hasenough support for Houseapproval with votes mostlyfrom Democratic lawmakers,who are still the minority, andsome Republicans.

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US President Donald Trumphas decided to pull a sig-

nificant number of troops fromAfghanistan, a US official toldAFP on Thursday, with theAfghan presidency brushing offconcerns the drawdown wouldaffect security.

Reports suggested as manyas half of the 14,000 troops inthe war-torn country could beleaving.

The surprise move stunnedand dismayed foreign diplo-mats and officials in Kabul whoare involved in an intensifyingpush to end the 17-year conflictwith the Taliban, which alreadycontrols vast amounts of terri-tory and is causing “unsus-tainable” Afghan troop casual-ties.

“If you’re the Taliban,Christmas has come early,” asenior foreign official in theAfghan capital told AFP on thecondition of anonymity.

“Would you be thinking ofa ceasefire if your main oppo-

nent has just withdrawn halftheir troops?”

Taliban spokesmanZabiullah Mujahid would notcomment about the troopwithdrawal when contacted byAFP. But a senior Taliban com-mander welcomed the deci-sion.

“Frankly speaking weweren’t expecting that immediate US response,” theofficial told AFP from anunknown location in northwestPakistan.

“We are more than happy,they realised the truth. We areexpecting more good news.”

It is not clear if US peaceenvoy Zalmay Khalilzad or theAfghan government had beenwarned of Trump’s plans inadvance.

But a spokesman forAfghan President Ashraf Ghanidownplayed the effect of anypullout.

“If they withdraw fromAfghanistan it will not have asecurity impact because in thelast four and half years the

Afghans have been in full con-trol,” presidential spokesmanHaroon Chakhansuri said viasocial media.

US-led NATO combattroops withdrew fromAfghanistan at the end of 2014,handing responsibility forsecuring the country to localforces. Trump’s decision appar-ently came Tuesday asKhalilzad met with the Talibanin Abu Dhabi, part of efforts tobring the militants to the nego-tiating table with the Afghangovernment.

They discussed issues ranging from the group’s longstanding demand for apullout of foreign troops, therelease of prisoners includingAnas Haqqani, son of theHaqqani network’s founder,and a ceasefire, Khalilzad toldAfghan media in Kabul onThursday.

“That decision has beenmade. There will be a signifi-cant withdrawal,” the Americanofficial told AFP on conditionof anonymity.

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The US has told all itsregional partners, including

Pakistan, that state support forterrorist proxies will not be tol-erated, the Pentagon has said,expressing concern over thefree movement of some mili-tant groups in Pakistan that arepresenting security challengesfor Afghanistan.

The Pentagon, in its semi-annual Afghan report tothe US Congress that covers theperiod of June to November 2018, said onThursday that Taliban and the Haqqani Network retainfreedom of movement inPakistan.

The Pentagon’s remarks came amidst reports that President Donald Trump is planning towithdraw US troops fromAfghanistan.

In the report, the Pentagonsaid that Afghanistan faces acontinuing threat from an

externally supported insur-gency and the highest region-al concentration of terroristgroups in the world.

“In this reporting period,the US continued to call onregional partners to reinforce our messages thatstate support for terrorist prox-ies will not be tolerated, thatcross-border cooperationbetween Afghanistan andPakistan is essential, and thatthe Taliban cannot achieve itsobjectives through continuedmilitary conflict,” the Pentagonsaid.

“Although Pakistani mili-tary operations have disruptedsome militant sanctuaries, cer-tain groups — such as theTaliban and the HaqqaniNetwork — retain freedom ofmovement in Pakistan.

The United States contin-ues to convey to all levels ofPakistani leadership the impor-tance of taking action againstall terrorist and militantgroups,” it said.

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Thirteen miners died and 10were injured after a fire

caused by burning methaneerupted in a black coal mine inthe east of the Czech Republic,a spokesman said on Friday.

“In total we have 13 deadminers, 11 Polish and twoCzech,” Ivo Celechovsky,spokesman for the OKD min-ing company, told AFP.

The accident occurred at adepth of 880 metres (yards) atthe CSM mine in the city ofKarvina, about 300 kilometres(200 miles) east of Prague, onThursday afternoon.

Rescuers found five deadminers on Thursday andreported eight missing.

All of them were alsofound dead.

Celechovsky said the firewas still burning, with rescuers

building barriers to stop itfrom spreading.

He added they would workthere at least until Sunday.

Nada Chattova, a spokes-woman for the hospital in thenearby city of Ostrava, said twomen had been treated at itsburn centre.

“One was brought in by ahelicopter, he is still in a critical condition. The otherone is in a stable condition andhis life is not in danger,” shetold AFP.

One miner with a lighterinjury was taken to a hospitalin Karvina and seven weretreated on the spot, also withlighter injuries, Czech media

said.“The blast at the CSM

mine is a huge tragedy,” tweet-ed Czech Prime MinisterAndrej Babis, who will travel tothe site on Friday morningalong with his Polish counter-part Mateusz Morawiecki.

The prime ministers talkedon the phone after the accident,Morawiecki said in a tweet,adding that Polish rescuershad also been sent to the mine.

Celechovsky said onThursday the dead Polish min-ers were from the Poland-based Alpex mining company.

“We’re one big family, it’s aterrible tragedy,” a Czech minertold the local Polar TV.

“I was supposed to bethere, I work with these teamsevery day. They sent me towork somewhere else today,”said a Polish miner.

“I feel like crying,” he toldPolar TV.

OKD, which runs themine, is controlled by theCzech state and expects toextract about five milliontonnes of coal this year.

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The Trump administration’sspecial envoy for North

Korea on Friday expressedoptimism about the diplomat-ic push to resolve the nuclearcrisis, a day after the Northissued a surprisingly bluntstatement saying it will neverdisarm unless the US removeswhat it calls a nuclear threat.Stephen Biegun said ahead ofa meeting with South Koreanofficials that the allies are com-mitted to ending seven decadesof hostility and creating a “new,brighter future for all of theKorean people.”

He did not directly addressthe North Korean statement,which jarred with Seoul’s rosierpresentation of the NorthKorean position and couldpotentially rattle the fragilediplomacy betweenWashington, Seoul andPyongyang to defuse a nuclearcrisis that last year had manyfearing war.

Biegun’s comments echoedthose of US Secretary of State

Mike Pompeo, who told aKansas radio station thatWashington and Pyongyangwere still working through theexecution of North Koreanleader Kim Jong Un’s “com-mitment to denuclearise.”

“We are hopeful that in thenew year President Trump andChairman Kim will get togeth-er not too long after the first ofthe year and make even furtherprogress on taking this threatto the United States away fromus,” Pompeo said.

Upon his arrival in SouthKorean on Wednesday, Biegunsaid Washington was reviewingeasing travel restrictions onNorth Korea to facilitatehumanitarian shipments tohelp resolve the impasse innuclear negotiations.

The North has yet to respond to Biegun’s com-ments.

Thursday’s statement wasthe North’s latest display of dis-pleasure over a deepeningimpasse in negotiations withthe United States as they strug-gle over the sequencing of thedenuclearisation thatWashington wants and theremoval of international sanc-tions desired by Pyongyang.

It also raises credibilityproblems for the liberal SouthKorean government, which hasclaimed that Kim is genuinelyinterested in negotiating awayhis nuclear weapons.

The comments may also beseen as proof of what outsideskeptics have long said: thatKim will never voluntarily

relinquish an arsenal he sees asa stronger guarantee of survivalthan whatever security assur-ances the United States mightprovide.

The statement suggestsNorth Korea will eventuallydemand the United States with-draw or significantly reduce the28,500 American troops sta-tioned in South Korea, a majorsticking point in any disarma-ment deal.

Kim and Trump met June12 in Singapore where theyagreed on a vague goal for the“complete denuclearisation” ofthe Korean Peninsula withoutdescribing when and how itwould occur.

The leaders are trying toarrange another meeting forearly next year.

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Former Australia batsman MichaelHussey on Friday said that con-ditions for the third Test in

Melbourne will be a lot differentfrom those in Perth and India shouldconsider drafting in all-rounderHardik Pandya to bring balance totheir attack.

The third Test begins inMelbourne on December 26 and theMCG pitch has come under sharpfocus after it hosted a drab drawagainst England during last year'sAshes and the ground received awarning from the ICC.

"Conditions in Perth were quiteunique and in Melbourne conditionswill be totally different. I thought theIndian fast bowling unit has bowledbeautifully in this series. They bowleda lot of overs in Adelaide and Perth inhot conditions, but had to work hard(for Australian wickets).

"He (Pandya) is a bit like MitchellMarsh, when he is in form. You get anextra bowling option that can take alittle load away from the pacers par-ticularly as the four-match serieswears on. So this (bowling all-rounder) is something for both sidesto look at," Hussey said.

Hussey said bowlers of both sideshave really worked hard so far in thisseries and a lot will depend on how thetwo attacks recover.

India used a four-bowler attack inboth the Adelaide and Perth Tests.While they won the first Test by 31runs with a well-balanced bowlingunit, including a spinner, the four-pacer plan backfired in Perth asAustralia levelled the series with a 146-run win.

Hussey said that India missedRavichandran Ashwin in Perth whileNathan Lyon bowled his side to vic-tory, but also added that the four-pacerstrategy was not totally wrong giventhe state of the pitch pre-match.Instead, he credited Australia for

making good use of bestbatting conditions on dayone.

"Looking at the con-ditions, you cannot real-ly say anything against it(four pacers). At the start,you just thought therewas plenty in it for thepacers and there werelots of cracks. I just thinkit was a good toss to winand in the first innings,on day one, the pitchplayed at its best andenabled Australia to get adecent first innings score. Then, wesaw that the score came down as thematch went on.

"So it was not necessarily what

India did wrong. It wasjust good quality Testcricket in difficult con-ditions. India certainlymissed Ashwin (as thegame went on) and thisis something for them tolook into. Lyon is a qual-ity bowler and hebowled from one end,allowing Tim Paine torotate his pacers fromthe other end. Indiacould have done that aswell," Hussey said.

The 43-year-oldHussey, who played 79 Tests between2005 and 2013 with 6235 runs to hiskitty, also said that Indian batting isimbalanced with too many tail-enders,

and the poor form of their openers isstarting to show in contrast withwhat the Australian openers were ableto achieve.

He said if the if poor starts of theopeners continue, then CheteshwarPujara and Ajinkya Rahane need totake on more responsibility to balancethe reliance on Virat Kohli.

"Day one was the easiest time tobat but the Australian openers did agreat job. And they were under pres-sure as well. Certainly with AaronFinch, there was a lot of talk whetherhe should be opening and I thoughthe played brilliantly. Australia gettingoff to that 100-run opening partner-ship certainly did put them in the boxseat and a strong position to win thegame.

"Both the Indian openers are fineplayers, but they are obviously not get-ting going. Sometimes it happensand things are not just going yourway," he said.

Asked if India were relying toomuch on the performance of Kohli,Hussey said, "Kohli is the best playerin the world, so India do rely on himand that is not wrong. For Australia,when Steve Smith and David Warnerwere playing, there was a heavyreliance (on them).

"For India, Pujara was outstand-ing in Adelaide, and Rahane is look-ing good in patches. You always relyon your best batsmen, but in this sec-ond Test, with that extra fast bowlerthe Indian tail was too long and itupset the batting balance," he said.

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Ambati Rayudu's sudden retirementfrom first-class cricket before the

start of the Ranji season would leavehim short of match practice ahead oftwin ODI series against Australia andNew Zealand but the Hyderabad crick-eter is unfazed.

Rayudu plays only one format forIndia and his decision to quit RanjiTrophy and play ODIs and IPL raiseda few eyebrows but the Hyderabadright-hander called it his method ofmanaging the workload.

"I mean...The only thought processwas to preserve my body as far as pos-sible. I am 33. I have had surgery to myknee in the past. I really wanted to makeefficient use of my body in terms of theamount of cricket I play," Rayudu said.

When asked that his decisionwould lead to reduced match practicenow that he will get into the Australiaseries having not played a single matchfor two months, Rayudu couldn't comeup with a convincing reply.

"No, I mean definitely match prac-tice is important. Anyway red ball crick-

et and white ball cricket there is a hugeamount of difference. You can com-pensate by practicing and playing othergames," he said.

However he didn't elaborate the"other game" part as Mushtaq AliTrophy (T20) will happen only after hefinishes ODI legs of Australia andNew Zealand.

While skipper Virat Kohli hasmade it clear that the team managementis looking at Rayudu as a No 4 optiongoing into the World Cup, the playerhimself doesn't have any choices or pref-erences.

"I am basically not looking at anynumber as such. I am preparing for theseries coming up in Australia. I am notreally thinking too far beyond. As faras my training is concerned, I just lookat my game and look at where I canimprove and go about it," Rayudu said.

Asked how challenging it waspreparing for the ODI series inAustralia, the Hyderabad cricketer saidpreparations are going on well for thetour.

"International cricket in itself is achallenge... So, all I can say is that I am

preparing for the upcoming series inAustralia the way I should. All I can sayis I am preparing well..," he added.

Rayudu, who returned to thenational team after a good run for titlewinners Chennai Super Kings in the IPLlast year during which he scored over600 runs, said he M S Dhoni trusted himand he wanted to repay the faith in himand was happy to make most of theopportunities.

"Definitely... Dhoni bhai trustedme and I always wanted to repay thefaith he had in me. I worked on my gameand I am happy that I could make mostof the opportunities I got," he added.

Asked if playing aggressively helpedturn things around during his stint forCSK, he said as he got backing from thepeople the job became easier.

"I mean playing aggressively and

playing aggressively with confidence isan entirely different thing. Wheneveryou have the belief, you can go out thereand express yourself. Once people backyou, the job becomes easier.

Meanwhile, medium-pacer MohitSharma, who was picked by CSK in theDecember 18 auction for �5 crore saidhe was delighted to be back at the fran-chise and added "it is always good toreturn home."

"Always feels good to be back. Likeyou go to office and return home everyday, it is good to return to CSK. Thebond and the culture that CSK hasdeveloped, you don't get it so easily any-where else. It's a family atmosphere.

"I played elsewhere for 3 years, butthis was always said about me - "MohitSharma, CSK player". I love that, the feel-ing is really good," he added.

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Former Australia captain Steve Smith onFriday said he is desperate to recover lost

ground ahead of next year's World Cup by com-peting in the IPL after being left so deflated bythe ball-tampering scandal that getting out ofbed became a struggle.

Smith and former vice-captain DavidWarner were handed year-long internationalbans for their role in the ball-tampering scan-dal in South Africa in March which forced areview of Australia's cricket culture.

"Now the way the One Day game is playedit's almost like an extended T20. So I think T20cricket is a good way to prepare and the IPL isone of the best tournaments around the world,"Smith said in his first press conference after thetearful breakdown following the return fromSouth Africa.

While serving his ban, Smith has partici-pated in several T20 competitions, including inCanada and the Caribbean, in a bid to get playtime. The IPL is scheduled to be held in April-May followed by the World Cup in Englandstarting May 30.

The 29-year-old plays for Rajasthan Royalsin the IPL. Although Smith stepped down fromcaptaincy in the wake of the ball-tamperingscandal, he continues to be a part of the fran-chise.

"I was playing in the Bangladesh League, butI don't know what is happening there at themoment. After that I have the Pakistan Leagueand then the IPL, which I think is adequatepreparation for the World Cup, if I'm selected,"Smith said.

Asked about the nine months since thescandal, Smith said it was a difficult period buthe has learnt to deal with it.

"I've had my ups and downs. There havebeen some dark days where I haven't wantedto get out of bed and things like that. But I'vehad a close group of people around me to helpme know that it's OK," Smith said.

"These ninth months have been a big learn-ing curve for me, having a year out of the gamehas given me a time to mentally refresh and getmyself in a good headspace to go again," headded.

On what transpired in the dressing roomduring the infamous Newlands Test, Smith saidit was a failure of leadership on his part.

"In the room I walked past something andhad the opportunity to stop it and I didn't doit. It went out and happened on the field," herecalled.

"I had the opportunity to stop it rather thansay I didn't want to know anything about it. Thatwas my failure of leadership for that and I havetaken responsibility for that," he said.

Smith was also asked about his thoughts onthe ongoing India-Australia series. The batsmansaid it hasn't been easy to watch from the side-lines.

"...Particularly when the boys haven'tplayed their best in a couple of games. It's beenhard watching and knowing that I can't go outand help them. But I was really proud of the waythe boys played last week in Perth," he said refer-ring to the second Test which Australia won by146 runs to draw level in the four-match series.

"...I think Tim Paine's leadership has beenexceptional since taking over as captain. He hasobviously been faced with difficult circum-stances to begin with but he has done a terrif-ic job," he added.

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Mithali Raj and Harmanpreet Kaur were onFriday retained as captains for the Indian

women's ODI and T20 team respectively whileout-of-form Veda Krishnamurthy was droppedfrom both the squads picked for the NewZealand tour beginning next month.

India will play three ODIs in New Zealandbeginning January 24 as part of the ICCWomen's Championship before playing threeT20 Internationals.

The New Zealand tour will be the team's firstassignment after the controversial exit from theWorld T20 last month when they lost toEngland in the semi-finals. The 15-membersquad for ODIs and T20s was announced a dayafter WV Raman was appointed as the headcoach.

Gary Kirsten was ahead of Raman in thepecking order but the former India men's coachwas not ready to give up on his role with RoyalChallengers Bangalore in the IPL.

The BCCI had invited fresh applicationsafter Ramesh Powar's term ended on November30, following the World T20 loss in which he andHarmanpreet had collectively decided to dropsenior player Mithali for the all-important semi-final, triggering a massive controversy.

The women's team stood divided withHarmanpreet and her T20 deputy SmritiMandhana backing Powar for an extension whileMithali was against such a move. However, bothHarmanpreet and Mithali had agreed on sort-ing out their differences going forward.

While Mithali turned up for the selectioncommittee meeting here on Friday,Harmanpreet, who is playing the Women's BigBash in Australia, joined via Skype. Selectionpanel chief Hemlata Kala announced the squadsin the presence of BCCI CEO Rahul Johri andacting secretary Amitabh Choudhary.

Veda was dropped from both the teams fol-lowing her lean run, Hemlata said. MonaMeshram replaced Veda in the ODI squad whiletwo changes were made in the squad that wentto the West Indies for the World T20.

Shikha Pandey replaced injured pacer PoojaVastrakar in the T20 squad while uncapped PriyaPunia was picked in place of Veda.ODI Squad: Mithali Raj (captain), Poonam Raut,Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues,Harmanpreet Kaur, Deepti Sharma, TanyaBhatia, Mona Meshram, Ekta Bist, Mansi Joshi,Dayalan Hemlatha, Poonam Yadav, RajeshwariGayakwad, Jhulan Goswami, Shikha Pandey.T20 Squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (captain),Smriti Mandhana (vc), Mithali Raj, DeeptiSharma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Anuja Patil,Dayalan Hemlatha, Mansi Joshi, Shikha Pandey,Tanya Bhatia , Poonam Yadav, Ekta Bist, RadhaYadav, Arundhati Reddy, Priya Punia.

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Viv Richards is happy that the current Indian team has comea long way in terms of aggressive attitude from the teams

that he played against and credit should go to skipper Virat Kohlifor infusing positive attitude.

"India were not like this years back (70's, 80's and 90's). Butit's nice to have someone like Virat. I love it (aggression), whynot? They now love to give it back. That's what cricket is all about.I love Virat's captaincy," Richards said during a promotional event.

While there has been criticism for Kohli's aggressive brandof captaincy, Richards finds nothing wrong.

"He competes hard. He expects results. A lot of people havesaid he's too aggressive... I don't think so. When you have a guywho can lead from the front, it can only rub off on the individ-uals who are following him. As you can see, the Indian team todayis the team to beat in world cricket."

Shifting focus to the ongoing India's Test series Down Under,Richards agreed to the euphoria that Kohli's men have the bestchance to beat Australia for the first time.

"It's going to be a great series in Australia. Aussies have foughtback well after India won the opening Test in Adelaide. Eventhough this Indian team is the number one, you should neverunderestimate Australia. They are fighters.

"With the series one-all now, it would be a very good one.But I would say India have the perfect chance to win a series inAustralia under the aggressive captaincy of Kohli."

Asked about the plus point of India team, he said: "I remem-ber the days when we came here for the first time in 1970s, theyhad the best spinners in the world. And now they have a greatpace attack as well. I think that's the plus point."

For Richards, Sunil Gavaskar is the 'Godfather' of Indian bat-ting. The bulk of Gavaskar's 34 Test hundreds have come againstthe fearsome West Indies pace attack of 70's and early 80's.

"I would say this for sure that he's the godfather of Indianbatsmanship. He is not playing anymore. He's still in my opin-ion what he would have achieved in the past would have passeddown the mantle to Sachin and now we see Virat. India shouldbe very proud to have so many talented people, who are up therein world cricket."

Delving on the plight of West Indies cricket, Richards hopedthey were half as good as Indians. "We have gone through a badphase, but in sport you should say never say never. So long webelieve that we are going to turn it around at some phase, it'sjust a matter of time. It may be taking longer than normal. Butat some point, we will be back at our best again," he concluded.

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The momentum is defi-nitely on Australia's side

after the series-levelling winin the second Test in Perth,but former captain SouravGanguly on Friday said Indiacan still win the four-matchrubber.

India suffered a 146-rundrubbing at the hands ofAustralia in the second Test.The four-match series is nowlevel at 1-1 ahead of theBoxing Day Test inMelbourne.

"India can still win, itdepends on how they play. Allin the playing eleven have to

take up responsibility.Everybody has to play well,"Ganguly said during a pro-motional programme.

India's batting, except forthe duo of Virat Kohli andCheteshwar Pujara, havecome a cropper and Gangulyurged the middle-order totake up more responsibility.

While interacting withthe students, Ganguly wasasked what was the differencebetween now and his child-hood days and the cricketer-turned-administrator said:"When I was a child, myfather used to earn, I wouldspend a good time. Now I'veto earn."

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More and more researchshows that prolonged peri-ods of sitting is bad for yourhealth. From increasingyour risk of cancer and

obesity to wreaking havoc on on your mus-culoskeletal system, sitting can certainly bedeemed a health risk.

You never realize just how much youmove your neck and shoulders until they’reinjured—and then you feel every singleshift and twist. These aches and pains maycome from placing your keyboard orcomputer monitor too far away on yourdesk, causing you to jut your neck andshoulders forward, throwing them out ofalignment with the spine and straining themuscles and soft tissue.

We need to teach team members howto setup their physical work environmentto reduce fatigue and increase productiv-ity. We need to teach them that their bod-ies are designed to move. And we need toteach and encourage them to take strate-gic stretch/exercise breaks.

It might sound counter-intuitive, butexercise can actually give you more ener-gy and less fatigue in the long run. If youaren’t moving around, your body doesn’tneed to use many resources to create ener-gy, so energy production is low and you feeltired, fatigued, and unmotivated.

Once you start moving around, espe-cially doing an extended period of exercisefor 15 minutes or more, your body revs upits energy production to meet this increaseddemand.

If you’ve ever experienced “runner’shigh,” you know the incredible energy-boosting benefits of this exercise. The feel-ing comes from your body’s release of agroup of hormones called endorphins,which are known to cause a sense of eupho-ria. Running also helps increase energy bymoving blood and oxygen throughout thebody.

Not an avid runner? No biggie. Thebest way to start is just that: start. Work intoit slowly and opt for softer surfaces liketrails, tracks, treadmills, or grass instead ofpavement and cement, as the latter two canbe tough on your knees, ankles, and shin.

When you’re sluggish and tired, youmight feel like you have to muster up theenergy to head outside for a walk or hopon a treadmill, but even 10 to 15 minutesof moving can increase your body’s ener-gy drastically. Outside walks tend to leadto greater energy, as the changing environ-ment may help you leave your day behind(stresses) and focus on walking.

Keep your heart rate in check whilewalking to ensure you aren’t going to getfatigued from the exercise and negate theimmediate energy boost. And, if you can’tget outside or it’s simply too hot or cold, atreadmill will work just fine.

There’s no easier or more relaxing wayto muster up energy than stretching, espe-cially if you’re trapped in an office for themajority of the day. Like walking, just 10

to 15 minutes of stretching can work won-ders for your stress and energy levels.

Start with large muscle groups first, likestretching your back and legs, and thenwork on smaller parts of your body likearms, neck, feet, and hands. You don’t haveto master any particular kind of stretch, justfind some movements that don’t create toomuch discomfort, hold it for 15 to 20 sec-onds, and then move to the next body part.Go through all your stretches for as longas time allows even five minutes willincrease energy levels and lead to betterfocus throughout the day.

Since ancient times, yoga has been asource of relaxation and energy, as well asa means of relieving stress. While it mightnot build significant muscle mass, like otherexercises, yoga can strengthen your bodyand teach it to be flexible, which will yieldnumerous benefits. Yoga releases a greatamount of stored energy in your musclesand joints by opening up your hips andshoulders in ways you normally don’t do.It also requires you to focus, which will leadto a more relaxed state, with more restoredenergy.

Yoga comes in many different forms,but for beginners, a basic Hatha-style classwill offer a great tutorial at a slower paceto help you work on getting comfortablewith breathing and positioning work.While hot yoga is a great workout, it’s veryintense and may lead to a large loss of ener-gy, temporarily.

Those who work in offices often do a

great deal of typing. This places strain onthe wrists that could lead to carpal tunnelsyndrome and elbow pain over the longterm. Wrist stretches are an excellentexercise to avoid these problems. Thestretch is performed by sitting in the chairand holding one arm out in front with thepalm of the hand facing away. Use theopposite hand to pull back on the fingersuntil the stretch is felt in the wrist. Repeatfive times on each wrist, followed by wristcircles to keep everything flexible.

Boxing classes have been gaining pop-ularity worldwide and are now considereda mainstream form of exercise. Boxingworks your anaerobic and aerobic systems,but also lets you hit things, which is a totalstress reliever. Hitting a heavy bag, spar-ring with a partner, or simply shadow box-ing with the mirror by yourself offersnumerous neurological benefits. Not a badway to release any internal anger or angstand boost energy levels after a hard day ofwork or school

Over time, being stuck sitting in a bentposition on a daily basis—from your deskat work to your couch at home It mightseem strange to consider strength traininga means of boosting energy, however it cando the trick if you do it properly. Heavyweight training, or even power lifting, maycause immediate fatigue, but the energyboost will likely come several hours later.

If you’re seeking more instant grati-fication, try strength training at a low tomoderate intensity, using weights thatcause you to fail in the 15 to 20 repe-tition range. While this may not be theoptimal rep range for muscle growthor strength, it’s a good range toincrease blood flow and get your ener-gy production up. No gym? Noproblem: Keep a set of dumbbells inyour office and crank out somequick reps on your lunch break orbetween meetings.

Shortens your hip flexors, agroup of muscles located atthe front of your hips, caus-ing pain. Tight hip flex-ors also contributeto lower backs o r e n e s s ,a n o t h e rcommonc o m -plaint.

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Ahint of traditional Baulmusic, originally per-formed by the mysticsfrom West Bengal andBangladesh is com-

bined with a bit of contemporaryAustralian Jazz, Rock and Westernproduction aesthetics. The resul-tant fusion sometimes has a whole-ness that’s difficult to believe. Andthat is what makes The Three Seasstand out.

Often we hear of people com-ing together from various parts ofone country to form a collabora-tion but this band has stretchedfurther and features people fromdifferent countries and origins tocreate one spectacle. The band,currently on its six-city India tour,is a book of many stories andformed by numerous cultures.

It’s artistic director MattKeegan’s sixth visit to India the firstbeing in 2009 when he found thecountry’s culture to be full ofcolours and variations. He was par-ticularly attracted to the music that“revives traditions in every man-ner.” He narrates, “The mother ofone of my friends in schoolbelonged to Kolkata, West Bengal.She invited me to India and I vis-ited the countryside ofSantiniketan where I met themusicians that today are a part ofthis team.” When he met them herealised that this could be thebeginning of a band that couldcombine various traditions andarts creating some really good and

soulful music.There is singer Raju Baul who

brings in the nomadic tribal cul-ture of Bauls and is known for hismastery of khamak and itsrhythms. Darjeeling-born singer ofNepalese origin, Deo AshishMothey can produce intricate riffsin Himalayan style through instru-ments like the dotora and the esraj.Gaurab Chatterjee, the fourthband member is a drummer fromKolkata and Matt describes him asthe “crazy one” as he creates allsorts of “Bengali percussion beatsand amusement on the stage”through dubki (hand drum). Thefifth is Australian double-bassistSteve Elphick, the master of jazzand fusion, who is responsible for“uplifting the musical alchemy” ofThe Three Seas.

While the saxophonist Mattintroduces all the four members ofthe band, we wonder, how do suchdiverse musicians and their instru-ments make one music together?He answers that we really have tounderstand our differences andcombine them into one. “There arethree things. Even if we are differ-ent, there is something that isalways similar. The first thing thatwe need to do is find that one sim-ilar thing and start from there.Second, lies in the intention of themusician. Each musician has to feelit and say that he wants to workand make it happen. Third of all,to fall in love with the idea. Weneed to find what works and spot

differences among us. If Jazz is alittle improvised, Baul is more tra-ditional. Then there is Nepalimusic which is also different fromBengali. But its idea is new and rev-olutionary, but hard. We just needto flow in and strategise. Everyoneshould be open to the process,” hesays.

So how has the band evolvedover the course of 10 years now?

Matt believes that it has comea long way after overcoming manychallenges. He says, “It has devel-oped in many ways and hasmatured. When we first met, wedidn’t know how to do it. We triedand even though all the things did-n’t work out, some of them did. Butnot everything can go in placewhen you have just begun, right?”

It was only when they startedrealising that in order to combinesuch diversities it was essential tounderstand that they are diverse,that the music fell in place. “Thisband is a result of the spirit of indi-vidual musicians working as ateam and it has taken a longtime.”

He says that one of the majorchallenges was communicationbecause of language barriers.Initially, they usually never under-stood each others’ concepts andperspectives. “We are also fromvery different parts of the worldand speak different languages. Wehad to work on what the other per-son is saying. We have to get anunderstanding of how we function

at individual levels. Now that weare more like friends, we laugh atthe times when we struggled tounderstand each other.” He saysthat it was really “tricky” as it cre-ated confusion because “you thinkthat he is talking about somethingbut the other person is thinkingabout something else. However,differences could be confusingbut also funny and interesting. Itgets boring otherwise.”

He recalls his first albumHaveli that was shot in Rajasthan,India, that marked their first bond-ing.

Matt says that music hasbecome much more accessiblethan it ever was. It is easier to gethold of favourite tracks and musi-cians. And with the growing acces-sibility, there are also many moreopportunities for musicians. “Youcan always showcase it on a plat-form where people can easilyaccess it. There are more ways tofind music and connect with a larg-er audience. This is one way inwhich music industry has reallyevolved. It has made things easierto some extent. It’s still hardthough because now there is a lotto explore.”

The world has become flatter,thanks to social media. And asmore and more people find onlineplatforms, we question, was iteasier for people earlier to show-case their talents when there wereno such platforms and a lesser levelof competition? “In some ways, it

is easier for the talented people tocome up but it also enables the lesstalented ones,” Matt points out andadds, “The flowers still bloom buttake a lot of time and now theproblem is that they can also givepeople false hopes.”

He believes that people todaytry to imitate established artists butthat doesn’t always work. “Theythink that maybe ‘I can do it too,’but maybe they cannot because it’sreally hard to get noticed for yourwork when everyone is coming upwith similar elements. But all youneed is persistence because the tra-ditional pathways have changed.”

The band has already madeKochi, Delhi and Mumbai grooveto its tunes and they tell us thateven though they keep the same setand sequence of the music to bepresented, they find different con-nections everywhere. The reasonis regional influence. He believesthat this always draws one in. It’sdifferent at different places becauseof their vibe and it’s not as they tryto make it different but it justcomes naturally.

“We play the same set, differ-ent jokes though,” laughs Matt.

He says that they try to find acommonality by making the audi-ence laugh about cricket matchesbetween Australia and Indiabecause “we need to make someconnections outside of music tooright?”

(They will be performing inKolkata, Kalimpong and Siliguri now.)

Do you think the comman-der feels a sense of remorsefor the decisions he makes

as a powerful man in Gilead? Yes, in a certain way... his posi-

tion is very fundamentalist positionat that, is to redress the moral decayin the world as he sees it...it’s aboutresetting that compass and in doingso he is very much aware there canbe painful sacrifices.

I think what's interesting is thatthe Commander, albeit fleetingly, ishighly aware and conscious of themoral implications connected to thedecisions he makes for the good ofGilead. He understands the dilem-ma and that there is collateraldamage. That's what makes him awonderful human but, he doesn'tspend too much time dwelling onthat because the bigger picture is themoral decay that needs to beaddressed. And that's what I loveabout him...that he's dark, creepyand complicated, but in his worldand in his mind, it's all about thebetterment of mankind. Also, he’slanded in a position and placethat’s impossible to back of.

Did you know The Handmaid’sTale book before and did youthink that the show could be a suc-cess like this?

I knew that I would be in a verytalented company coupled withthe brilliant narrative of the book,but I wasn’t prepared for the incred-ible response.

I knew of Margaret Atwood'swork, and the book, but I had notread it until after speaking to BruceMiller. After I read it, I thought itmay be tough to adapt to televisionas the book is told in the first per-son, and it would be interesting tosee how a show could connect an

audience to Offered in the way thebook does. In the book, there's wonderfulmoments of what's all very muchinner thoughts. There’s a jugglingact with all of those thoughts, someof those thoughts carry over two orthree pages, and it’s so deliciouslybalanced that I thought, “Well,how do you do that in film or tele-vision, with the editing, and the cut-ting, how do you succeed?” That’sthe genius of Bruce and his fellowwriters and Lizzie Moss. They suc-ceeded in really connecting theaudience to that first-person voice,through voice-over, the cinematog-raphy and of course from an aston-ishing performance by Lizzie.

Did you ever think the showwould become something that iswatched as a comment on the realworld? Did you ever feel the showhad that kind of power? I think the show always had thatpower since it was written over 30years ago. This extraordinary pieceof feminist literature had its fan basethen, but TV has given it an enor-mous reach. We got pretty lucky onconverging with the current polit-ical climate, which has shown a lotof parallels with the show, and it’srelevance has been very powerful.

You have to do some horriblethings in the show. How do youget into the mindset of theCommander? I am genuinely affected by some ofthe things we have to do while act-ing, primarily the ceremony scene.It’s abhorrent and brutal... but it’sin the book and what’s in the bookare the keys to the Commander’smindset. I feel he’s genuinely con-flicted, but power has a way of cor-rupting. Its turned the commanderinto a patriarchal predator.

The Handmaid’s Tale is a showwith a lot of high-poweredfemales involved in the cre-ation and production. Also, ingeneral, women are getting alot more roles and positionsin film and television. As amale actor, how do you feelabout this? Well, I love it. I have two sis-ters that are directors, one’s indocumentary, one’s in film.My mother was a writer anda painter, so I've been sur-rounded by dynamic womensince childhood and femalevoices in arts. I have my wife,my two children, the threemost important females(and people) in my life. So I

think it's just and right. It is soimportant that we are finally hav-ing this conversation about theimbalance. But we've still got a longway to go. I've worked with numer-ous female directors andwriters...not enough...and I've beenthe second lead to many femaleleads. I feel like I've participated inmy short journey, in my career,with a good balance in that regard.But it's a long, long way to go, forsure.

Your character has changed interms of age from the bookto the show. Do you thinkthat adds an extra layer tothe character? Yes, definitely. Seasontwo is about birth and somuch is about fertility inGilead. TheCommander wouldenjoy a job promotionshould they have achild, as well as bask-ing in the social glory.Gilead stands andsurvives on collect-ing fertile women.And so the idea thattwo prime membersand architects of

Gilead in their prime

could be barren is powerful. To beof a fertile age and be unable tohave children adds a layer of com-plexity.

I always seem to be surprisedwhen I see moments that theCommander shows affection andlove for Serena. What are yourthoughts on that? I like that you’re surprised and lovethe idea that Fred still shows loveand affection for Serena andalthough that love has diminishedthere is still moments of reflectionand tenderness towards her. Itmakes for a more complex rela-tionship. He invariably showsaffection after being brutal orneeding her help. In season two,their union becomes quite strongagain.

Do you think Serena’s giving uppower for affection? Or do youthink the Commander’s takingher power because he’s not thatoriginal or not that visionary, andshe’s really the one with all thevisions? Gilead (and what it stands for) hastaken her power and voice, andFred stood by while it happened.I think it’s right to say that Fred issomewhat insecure about Serena

being a true visionary, but it wasthis visionary he fell in love with.I think it’s more to do with her hav-ing a voice at a time where he’s nowbeen given a new position. He isnow the Commander. Adding tothat, I think Gilead in giving greatpower to Fred, has produced inhim a sense of almost patriarchalinvincibility that he’s not preparedto relinquish in any way to Serena.

It’s really easy to connect with thefemale characters in the showbecause we want better for them,with the Commander being theantagonist, is there any possibleconnection the viewer can havewith your character? It’s much the same in the series too,l ike in the book for Fred.Connecting to him without gleam-ing his back story or inner worldis tough, he’s also the face of theregime, the face of what there is toresist and fight against, so havingtoo much connection with himisn’t going to help the journey ofthe protagonists. But having saidthat my job is to find that connec-tion for an audience through mak-ing him human. Making him fal-lible and aware of those fallibilities,making him cognizant to the fall-out on people from the decisionshe makes for the good of Gilead.So that, I hope, makes him human.And in that regard, you can feelthere's some connection.

Is it a fun set to work on? It is very concentrated, but it is fun.We all get along and have fun offcamera or you'd never make itthrough a season.

(The Handmaid’s Tale season2 airs every Monday at 10 pm onAXN.)

Indian singer Shaan, whose forthcom-ing music video is titled It’s Natural,says one needs to be original — as also

adapt to change — to make a mark in theindustry.

“My forthcoming video, It’s Natural,coming out during Christmas. The wayI look at it, singers need to be original tobe able to make a mark in the industry,”Shantanu Mukherjee aka Shaan said.

The Woh Pehli Baar singer, who hasbeen judging reality shows, mentionedthat singers like Jonita Gandhi andArmaan Mallik are doing really very well.

He also spoke about YouTube talenthunt ARRived which he is co-judgingwith A.R. Rahman. The show is all aboutfinding original voices and the finaleaired yesterday.

Shaan, who has been singing andcomposing for a long time, appreciatedthe digital platform as one can reach outto a larger audience. He has his ownYouTube channel and Surilee was his firstsingle on it.

“Yes it has been a very long time andchange is inevitable. I am happy to be apart of all the changes,” the passionatecomposer, who may not have manyBollywood releases but is quite activewith his singles, said.

He has lent his voice to all the bigstars of Bollywood like Shahrukh Khan,Aamir Khan, Ranbir Kapoor, AbhishekBacchan and many more.

Talking about competition in today,he jokingly said that the songs are goodbut it is just that he is not singing those.It would have been great had he donethem, he added.

Shaan’s grandfather Jahar Mukherjeewas a lyricist and his father ManasMukherjee a music director.

“My father was a composer, mygrandfather was a prolific classical singer.Hopefully, my children will be singing,then it will be this four generationof singers,” the soulful singer said.

However, he won’t encouragehis son Shubh Mukherjee totake to singing as a profession atthe moment.

“When inspiration comesin and I know that my boyscould contribute in the best oftheir capacity to a song, thenI’ll definitely want to workwith them. At the moment,they are still in school and Iwant them to focus on learningmusic and, at the same time,building their personalities andbalancing that between studies andsports as well,” said the fitness enthu-siast.

“I don’t want them to get stuck in theprofession of singing or working. Iwouldn’t want them (to get) into profes-sional singing too early. I'd like them togrow as individuals and then enter thefield,” added he, who had sung a song inAjay Devgn-starrer Himmatwala with hissons apart from other projects.

“I started singing almost at the ageof four but won’t encourage my son tosing professionally at the moment. He isin his teens. His voice is changing, so heis learning classical music,” the dotingfather said.

Shubh Mukherjee has lent his voiceto a song in the YRF web series Sex Chatwith Pappu and Papa and also to theHindi version of the title track of Disney’sDuck Tales.

His elder son Sohum Mukherjee isgood with music production and ismore into electronic music thanBollywood music, Shaan revealed.

Soaking in the city’s hockey frenzy,the singer revealed, “I have a hockey con-nection too. The school that I had stud-ied in, St. Stanislaus High School, hasproduced many hockey players likeViren Rasquinha, among others.”

During his gig, he also attempted theJai Hind, Hind India hockey anthemcomposed by A.R. Rahman, along withhis other hits like Tanha dil, Mai aisa

kyun hu and All is well.The audience was

also treated by his hitOdiya song Seiborosa sei raate monepore (Do youremember that rainynight), that he sangaround 15 years ago.

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Christian Bale had a choice tomake. He’d been hemmingand hawing about Adam

McKay’s very unconventionalproposition that he play DickCheney in a biopic about the formervice president of the United States,and his deadline to decide was com-ing up.

“I thought it was going to beimpossible. I also didn’t want to dothat much work,” Bale said recent-ly in Beverly Hills. “I just thought,‘this is going to be a lot of work!’Like, ‘Do you realise how difficultthis is going to be? I don’t really wantto do that.’”

But he started researchingCheney and doing some early make-up tests and realised he’d becomeobsessed. Suddenly seeing his namenext to Cheney’s didn’t seem “socompletely crazy.” He had to say yes.

Besides, he laughed, “There’salways attraction, I feel like, inending a career in one go.”

So Bale and, eventually, his fre-quent co-star Amy Adams, decidedto do the impossible and become theenigmatic Dick and Lynne Cheneyfor McKay’s Vice. The chargedpolemic, which arrives in theatersChristmas day, follows the Cheneysfrom their inauspicious origins toWashington D.C., where DickCheney would become one of themost powerful and influential fig-ures in the country.

To Bale, Cheney was someonewho thrived on serving someone, beit Donald Rumsfeld or George W.Bush, but that his first loyalty wasto his wife. The film posits aShakespearean power dynamicwhere Lynne is pulling stringsbehind the scenes.

“Lynne was the ambition and

the driving force,” Bale said. “Timesbeing as they were Lynne was notable to achieve all these goals thatshe wished she could achieve her-self. She needed a man to do thatand so Dick became that vesselthrough which she achieved herown ambitions.”

Adams became fascinated byher character’s intelligence andrealised she needed to stop think-ing of her as merely “Dick’s wife.”

“My daughter asked me what Iwas going to play, and I told her. Shesaid, ‘Why are you always playing awife and a girlfriend?’ And I realisedthat even I had assigned her a posi-tion in relationship to Dick Cheneyand it changed the way that I viewher,” Adams said. “I felt, ‘I’m play-ing Lynne Cheney. She’s married toDick, but has her own identity.’”

Neither met their real-life sub-ject, who they would be portrayingover the course of four decades. Balewanted to but was “warned awayfrom trying to do that. It’s one ofthose deals where they say if youbump into somebody, well good,chat all you want, but if you reachout to somebody, it’s a different legalthing that happens with that,” hesaid.

But they had a lot of resourcesto help, including first-handaccounts from people who knewthem, and the internet. Bale’s phoneis still full of videos and photos ofCheney, right alongside those of hiswife and kids.

“I haven’t been able to get rid ofit yet,” said Bale, laughing that he’sbecome fond of the memories.

Of course, learning about Dickand Lynne Cheney is one thing, butBale and Adams would also have tolook like them as well for Vice towork. For Bale, that meant yetanother significant physical trans-formation that involved wearingfake teeth, gaining some 40 pounds,adding “a couple of inches” to hisneck and spending about four hoursin the make-up chair every day.

“It helps me get into character,but it doesn’t help me live a long life.Really. I’ve really got to stop doingit at some point,” Bale said.

He used to laugh at people whowould just opt for an easy fat suit,instead of doing the work, until herealised that Gary Oldman haddone just that for his Oscar-winningWinston Churchill transformationfor Darkest Hour. But at that pointhe had already gained 25 poundsand decided he might as well justkeep going. Adams, too, had gainedsome weight.

“I found it helpful for just thegravitas that Lynne had,” Adamssaid. “She felt very earthy to me.”

One thing Adams struggledwith was the long hours in themake-up chair. “One day I was sotired I felt like I was on a boat. I wassitting there, we were working lateinto the night and I said, ‘I don’tknow how you do it, Christian. Ireally have so much admiration for

you,’ and he said, ‘I don’t think aboutit,’” she said. “It’s exactly what I need-ed to hear in that moment.”

Although the film itself may bepolitical, both Bale and Adamswould rather stay out of comment-ing on or making judgments abouttheir characters and their politics.

“I didn’t approach this with myown opinions. I don’t typically headinto any character I approach byjudging them,” Adams said. “Thatkind of shuts me down in creatingthe character.” Bale added, “If you’rewatching us on the screen and youknow Amy’s political stance onwhat Lynne was saying and howmuch I disagree or agree with... itreally ruins the whole point.”

And perhaps the story is morecomplicated than party lines. Balesaid, when you remove the “enor-mously horrific things,” like the IraqWar and enhanced interrogation,you are, “Kind of left with a lovestory.”

“You get this incredibly devot-ed man who recognizes that hewould not have been the person hebecame were it not for his wife. Youget a man who contrary to the timesand what was popular with his party,without any hesitation, embracedhis daughter Mary when she cameout. He didn’t give a damn what any-body else thought. But I think alsothat is largely a part of what makesthis story, and any story interesting,”Bale said. “There is this desire sooften to make everyone into super-heroes, to be all villain or all heroand nobody is ... So it’s trying to findthat balance but hopefully notputting anything of myself into it.”

“Does that make sense?” Baleadded, “Or does it sound really pre-tentious?” {��

Actress Ratna PathakShah, who plays aschool principal in theforthcoming Netflixoriginal Selection Day,

has looked at the education systemcritically and says it has been usedto maintain the power equation insociety.

“Education is a very potentforce that gives you power. In ourcountry, for centuries we believedthat education should be kept forthe personal purview of a few. Theshastra attitude, where we havetreated education as a sign ofpower, knowledge as a sign ofpower that we all want to hold onto... and that is how the caste sys-tem in our country has survived forages. Education has been used tomaintain the power equation insociety,” said Ratna.

She added, “We have someoneto clean our lavatory, otherwise wehave to do it by ourselves. So wehave controlled and kept a groupof people away from education...but this is practiced in many coun-tries. We are not the first ones, andwe won’t be the last either.”

The acclaimed theatre andfilm veteran said it is important toraise questions on the value of edu-cation.

“Is the system actually provid-ing education to make a goodhuman being out of a child, orpreparing them to become just anemployee? In the show, (my char-acter) Neli Weinberg is question-ing that.”

The story of Selection Dayrevolves around two young boyswho are forced to become crick-eters to fulfill the dream of their

father, who is obsessed with thegame.

Ratna’s character runs a schoolthat is trying to balance children todream and not get forced to get intoa system.

“A lot of young talent of ourcountry, who do not get a chanceto grow up like normal humanbeings, think about SachinTendulkar, who had to grow upfaster when he played internation-al cricket as young as 17 years old.This school of Neli is trying tomake these two budding cricketsgrounded for their holistic devel-opment,” she said.

The mother of two sons —Vivaan Shah and Imaad Shah —said parents being less involved inthe upbringing of children is alsoa negative thing.

She said, “Due to the commer-cialisation of education, parents(have) washed their hands offfrom children, they send them toschool and for various courses forthem to become someone. Kids arelosing their individuality that way.Parents also believe that childrenare living in a state of idiocy andthey should be told how to live life.”

Ratna’s last presence on thedigital platform was in the Netflixoriginal film Love Per Square Foot.She had earlier also talked abouthow digital platform is openingnew gates to better stories as peo-ple are running out of new ideas inmainstream cinema and television.She also expressed her objectionagainst the term ‘OTT,’ abbrevia-tion for ‘Over The Top.’

She said, “It is not an over thetop medium, really. Hopefully,this medium will talk about things

around us, sometimes in an over-the-top manner and sometimes ina realistic manner. It is a mediumthat is offering great possibilities atthe moment to the (entertain-ment) scenario in India. I think wehave run out of story ideas in films,really. Nobody wants to put moneyin experimental stories. Even if theywant, which is very few in number,they play it safe. They want a star,established names, one or twosongs that will help them to pro-mote the content.” She added,“Netflix or platforms of this natureare actually producing a story andputting up a show for what it is.They are telling the story for whatit is, so the audience gets a chanceto see new ideas.”

Ratna is known for her skilledacting on stage and in films likeJaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, Kapoor &Sons, Khoobsurat, Mirch Masala,Lipstick Under my Burkha.

So, what kind of scripts is shelooking forward to these days?

The 55-year-old actress said,“Something that is different fromwhat I have done before. It’s sim-ple. I want to work on content thatreflects contemporary India. Ithink that the time has come to tellour stories with honesty and with-out hiding or pretending and glo-rying over that more than often theHindi cinema and television tendto do.”

Based on Aravind Adiga’s 2016novel, eponymously-named andproduced by Anil Kapoor, SelectionDay also features actors RajeshTailang, Mahesh Manjrekar andShiv Pandit. It will stream onNetflix on December 28.

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It’s the season to be jolly andperhaps also to be married orat least attend one of the many

big fat Indian weddings, gildedwith glitter and set to bhangra,disco and garba tunes to ensureguests dance the night away.

As the string of celebrity wed-dings — Ranveer Singh-DeepikaPadukone, Priyanka Chopra-NickJonas, Isha Ambani-AnandPiramal — grab the headlines, thenot so fancy ones clog up cityroads with elaborate processionsstarring grooms on mares,ensconced inside luxury cars orriding a chariot. And if there’s abaraat, the band and the baajacan’t be too far behind.

“Wedding bands have evolveddramatically. It is no more aPunjabi dhol, two three instru-ments and one or two songs. Nowwe have themes,” said VirenderChawla, managing director of theChawla Band.

“For example, my band com-pany offers 25 themes to cus-tomers to choose from Marwari,Punjabi, Rajasthani, Western...You name it and we will give youthe package accordingly,” saidChawla.

Founded in 1973, ChawlaBand, which claims to haveworked in over 11 lakh weddingsso far, has three branches in thecapital to cater to the baraat, thegroom’s procession which is apart of many north Indian wed-dings.

The Chawla Band has featuredin several Bollywood movies,including Special 26 and therecently released Netflix filmRajma Chawal, and has also beenan official sponsors of the IPLteam Delhi Capitals.

The company also co-spon-sored Veere Di Wedding.According to industry insiders, thestarting price for bands is any-where around �20,000-40,000.The starting package includes aghodi (mare), dhol, lighting and astandard squad of about five bandmembers.

Titarpur in west Delhi, well-known for its Ravana effigies dur-ing Dusshera, is one place to shopfor wedding bands. Both sides ofthe road in the locality, a super-market of sorts wedding bands,glow with colourful fancy hoard-ings of professional bands on hire,all claiming to be more famousthan the next in line.

One such company advertisingits wares is the Sindhi Hira NandGohri Wala, which was estab-lished in 1950 and is famous for its‘white’ and ‘spotless’ mare. Itcharges �25,000 for its basic pack-age but there is no upper limit, saidPankaj Sindhi from the company.

“Now, customers want 100people for the band, a vintagebuggy decked with flowers, fire-crackers, fancy lighting, mashaalsand a hundred other things fordecoration in the baraat. Ofcourse, this all costs more. Theprice is based on customer require-ment,” Sindhi said.

In these days of ostentation

and bling, where weddings areimportant statements of statusand wealth, the cost can hit stratos-pheric heights, the industry insid-ers said.

Chawla Band, which charges�40,000 as its starting package,recently billed a client �11 lakh.

“Money was just not the crite-rion for them. They wanted every-thing to be best in the wedding oftheir only son and we were happyto provide the same,” said PrateekChawla from Chawla Band.

Prateek, the son of MDVirender Chawla, showed videos

from his iPad to show glimpses ofthe lavish procession.

“This could have been done in�6-7 lakh also, but then it was aday when there were many wed-dings. So the cost went up,” Prateeksaid.

With the money going up,band companies, who employ upto 700 people, have had to step uptheir operations.

Both, Pankaj and Prateek, mil-lennials who joined the familybusiness, said being “presentable”is the most important thing in thebusiness these days.

“People now expect bandmembers to be well-dressed withgloves and perfectly polished shoes.Earlier, everything was chalta hai,

but that is just not the case now,”he said, pointing to mannequins inhis showroom wearing tradition-al and fancy dresses.

With teams of 500-700 people(permanent and temporary) this isnot easy, they said.

But the trouble seems to beclearly worth it.

According to Pankaj, peopleare also very choosy about thesongs to played in their wedding.

While tried and tested songslike Mere yaar ki shaadi hai andGhodi pe hoke sawar are never outof demand, new additions have tobe made to the playlist every wed-ding season. So, newer songs likeDil diyan gallan, Bol halke halkeand Rashke qamar are much indemand this year as well.

“We do rehearsals regularlyand try to improve with each andevery song. But then the truth isthat not all the songs can be playedon the band,” he added.

Companies also have to caterto quirky, out-of-the-box demandsfrom clients hoping their baraatsstand out.

“Recently there was this wed-ding where the groom said hedoesn’t want a horse, chariot or avintage car for his baraat. Youknow for what did he settle at last?An auto. So we did decorate oneand he did made it to the weddingvenue on an auto,” Prateek recount-ed.

That said, the fear that thismuch celebrated band, baaja andbaraat culture might not hold thesame relevance in the future is evi-dent.

While Prateek said that therewas no way one can get “rid of itcompletely” with bands synony-mous with weddings in manyparts of the country, Pankaj admit-ted that business could go south.

“I guess the younger genera-tion, people who are more literateand have studied abroad, thinkbaraats are only about showing offand are not so interested any moreunlike before.”

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Embattled Roma travel to Turin onSaturday desperate to bring some

Christmas cheer back to their belea-guered fans in the capital by pulling offan upset against Cristiano Ronaldo'sJuventus.

Unbeaten Italian championsJuventus have had a record-breakingstart to the season since their blockbustersigning of Ronaldo in the close-seasonfor 100 million euros ($117 million).

The 33-year-old has started everyone of Juventus' 16 league games, scor-ing 11 goals, being substituted justonce, in the final ten minutes againstFiorentina this month after he scored thethird goal from the spot.

Massimiliano Allegri's side havedropped just two points at home againstGenoa, and are on course for an eighthconsecutive Scudetto — eight pointsclear of second-placed Napoli, withInter Milan a further six points adrift inthird.

By contrast Roma, after finishingthird last season, are in the doldrums

after the departureof key playersincluding goalkeep-er Alisson and mid-fielders RadjaNainggolan and KevinStrootman.

They are seventh,with just six wins,including last weekend's3-2 success over Genoa,but are 22 points behindJuventus.

A defeat on Saturday would seethem slip 25 points behind before theyhost Sassuolo on December 26 and trav-el to promoted Parma to round off theyear.

Juve travel to Atalanta and hostSampdoria in their final two matchesbefore the three-week winter break.

"It's always a war against Roma,"conceded Brazilian international defend-er Alex Sandro.

"We are prepared and know thatthey are prepared too, so I expect it tobe a great game for players and fans."Juventus clinched their seventh straight

league title last May with a 0-0 drawagainst Roma at the Stadio Olimpico.

Ronaldo will play his first matchagainst Roma for Juventus but the for-mer Manchester United and RealMadrid striker knows the club well.

He has faced them six times — win-ning five — including a memorable

Champions League quarter-final returnleg at Old Trafford in 2007.

United lost at the Stadio Olimpico2-1, but thrashed Roma 7-1 at home.

"When it was 6-0, an opponentbegged me to stop dribbling. Othersthreatened to hurt me," recalled Ronaldo,who scored a double on the night, and

has claimed five goals in five ChampionsLeague games against the Romans.

4��������� ��>�Roma captain Daniele De Rossi

pulled a goal back that night for his sidein Manchester, but the 35-year-old iscurrently one of a number of key play-ers out injured.

Roma's record in Turin is poor, how-ever, having never won in seven previ-ous trips to the Allianz Stadium.

Behind the champions, Napoli willbe pushing to keep pace as they hostSPAL, who are four points clear of therelegation zone, before a tricky trip toInter Milan on Wednesday.

Inter also have a chance to close thegap against bottom club Chievo beforelocking horns with Carlo Ancelotti'ssoutherners.

Fourth-placed AC Milan hostFiorentina after being held to a goallessdraw against Bologna this week, to dropfive points behind their city rivals.

Lazio, in fifth, host Cagliari after los-ing to Atalanta last time out, to stretchtheir winless run to five league games.

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Ole Gunnar Solskjaer told his first official press con-ference as Manchester United's caretaker manag-

er on Friday that he would relish the opportunity to bethe permanent boss.

The 45-year-old Norwegian, said he would be inter-ested in taking the job permanently should the oppor-tunity arise.

"When you get a job like this and they ask you tosign for six months, you say 'yeah'," he said.

"I'm happy to help out and my job now for the nextsix months is to do as well as I can and move the clubforward as well as I can.

"I understand there are so many managers whowould love to be manager of Manchester United and Iam one of them. But it is not something we've talkedabout, they'll do a process now for the next sixmonths."

�� ��������Solskjaer, renowned for his threat off the bench and

still revered by United supporters for scoring the win-ning goal in the 1999 Champions League final, faces adaunting challenge as he replaces Mourinho.

"My job is to help the players, make them grasp theopportunity now because they all want to be part of ManUnited," said Solskjaer.

"I'm going to be here to help them, help the team,that is down to man management. I had the best man-ager as a player and coach to learn how he dealt withplayers and it's about communication. I'll sit down andspeak to the ones not playing, tell them what I expectof them.

"When you're at Man United there are a set ofdemands and one is to be a team player and I don't thinkanyone has been on the bench more than me. That'salways my comeback to players, you might come on andmake an impact."

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An array of top stars, includingOlympic and World Champion

Carolina Marin of Spain, and India's RioOlympics Silver medalist P V Sindhu areall set to slug it out in season 4 of thePremier Badminton League that beginshere on Saturday.

The other top international stars,who will be seen in action in the nine-team PBL featuring 90 players from 17countries in all, which is set to concludein Bengaluru on January 13, are DaneViktor Axelsen, Lee Yong Dae of Koreaand Indians K Srikanth, H S Pranoy andSaina Nehwal.

Pune 7 Aces, spearheaded by Marin,is the new franchise team in the leaguethat will see eight Olympic medalists inaction in five cities, including Pune andAhmedabad, which will be hostingmatches for the first time.

The nine teams Delhi Dashers,Ahmedabad Smash Masters, AwadheWarriors, Bengaluru Raptors, MumbaiRockets, Hyderabad Hunters, ChennaiSmashes, North Eastern Warriors anddebutantes

Pune 7 Aces would be slugging it outfor a total prize fund of �6 crore.

The winners will take home �3 crore,the runners-up �1.5 crore and the 3rd

and 4th pacers �75 lakh each.The inaugural round is being held

here at the NSCI indoor stadi-um in Worli up to December 24while the semi finals and finalwould be held in Bengaluru.

"I will be playing forHyderabad Hunters in PBL4 and I hopeI do well as well as the team," said Sindhu,who bagged her first major women's sin-gles title in the year-ending BWF World

Tour finals earlier this month, on Friday."PBL having the top players in all sea-

sons is not a joke. It's verygood for Indian badminton.This time I am with the (NorthEastern) Warriors. I hope wego all out (for the title)," said

Saina at the pre season media conferencehere.

Marin's clash with Sindhu herewould set the tone for the league.

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Bengal Warriors started their home legwith a bang as they beat Tamil

Thalaivas 27-24 in Vivo Pro KabaddiSeason 6. Incidentally, this was the 500thmatch in the history of Pro KabaddiLeague. Jang Kun Lee was the star of theshow for Bengal Warriors and top scoredwith 12 points. Ran Singh marshaled thedefence for the Warriors and scored 4tackle points. Sukesh Hegde top scored forthe Thalaivas with 9 points and was ablysupported by Ajay Thakur. In the absenceof Manjeet Chhillar, BengalWarriors' defence couldn't con-tain Bengal raiders and scoredjust six tackle points.

Maninder Singh got BengalWarriors to a good start with atwo-point raid in the first minute. ForThalaivas, Sukesh Hegde produced asuper raid in the third minute as they led6-4. Jang Kun Lee also scored with a superraid as Bengal Warriors leveled the matchat 7-7. It was a closely fought first half withboth teams' raiders getting points. For thedefenders, it was a low-scoring affair asonly five tackle points were scored.

Jang Kun Lee scored seven raid

points in the first half for Bengal Warriorswhile Sukesh Hegde got the same forTamil Thalaivas. Bengal Warriors endedthe first half with a super tackle as the

scored was 15-15 at the break.Bengal Warriors defence

got their act together at thestart of the second half andforced a super tackle to avertan all out in the 23rd minute.

Tamil Thalaivas wasted a couple ofopportunities to inflict an all out in thesecond half. Jang Kun Lee completed hissuper 10 in the first half.

With less than five minutes to go,Bengal Warriors held a slender two-pointlead with the score 23-21 in their favour.Bengal Warriors maintained their calmand composure in the final few minutesand won the match 27-24.

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Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's firsttest as Manchester United'scaretaker manager will

come in familiar surroundings asthe Norwegian returns to CardiffCity on Saturday, hoping to farebetter than he did during an ill-fated nine-month spell with theWelsh side in 2014.

Solskjaer's appointment wasdescribed as designed to put asmile back on the face of everyoneat the club after the confronta-tional end to Jose Mourinho's two-and-a-half years in charge.

The new man's first act on hisreturn to the club's Carringtontraining ground was reportedly togift a bar of Norwegian chocolateto the club's long-serving recep-tionist -- a gesture of the humanqualities United know they aregetting.

"The smiling assassin sumshim up," former United midfield-er Darren Fletcher, who playedwith Solskjaer, told the BBC.

"He's a lovely fella but Ole will

let people know if he's nothappy with them."

The best way for himto lighten to mood quick-ly will be with results onthe pitch.

A 3-1 defeat byLiverpool last weekendleft United 19 points off theleague leaders and even 11 pointsadrift of the top four, but Solskjaercan look forward to a relativelyforgiving fixture list over the fes-tive period.

After visiting the Cardiff CityStadium, the Red Devils hostHuddersfield and Bournemouthbefore travelling to Newcastle onJanuary 2.

Solskjaer's presence rekindlesmemories of United's golden age,but also serves as a stark reminderof how far the club has fallen sincethe retirement of Alex Ferguson in2013.

In 11 seasons under Fergusonas a predatory striker, Solskjaerscored 126 goals, including theone that famously won theChampions League final in 1999

as part of a treble of majortrophies.

Yet, doubts remain overwhether Solskjaer's appoint-ment as caretaker boss untilthe end of the season isbased too strongly on sen-timentality than someone

with the right mix of motivation-al and tactical prowess to getUnited not only competing againin the Premier League, but whocan push Paris Saint-Germain ina challenging Champions Leaguelast-16 tie.

His time at Cardiff that result-ed in just three wins in 18 PremierLeague games, relegation andbeing sacked early the next seasonafter a poor start in theChampionship does not offermuch cause for optimism.

But two spells in charge ofMolde in his homeland have beenfar more successful and Solskjaeralso started his managerial careerworking as United's reserve coach,where he oversaw Paul Pogbaamong others.

The French World Cup win-

ner's frosty relationship withMourinho was a major factor inthe Portuguese's failure to build onwinning the League Cup andEuropa League in his first seasonat Old Trafford.

Pogba has started United's lastthree Premier League games onthe bench, but is expected toreturn to the starting XI afterSolskjaer claimed earlier this yearhe would "build the team aroundhim".

Solskjaer must also find theright defence to offer David deGea more protection. TheSpaniard has conceded more goalsin the Premier League this season(29) in 17 games than the wholeof the previous campaign asMourinho persistently changedhis backline to no effect.

In attacking areas, Mourinho'sdismissal could also provide afresh start for Juan Mata andAnthony Martial, while 50 millionsummer recruit Fred, who didn'teven make the bench at Anfieldlast weekend, may now be giventhe chance to flourish.

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