˘ˇ ˆ˘ · 3 ˚ & ˜ ˚˜ " ˙ ... Chandan Kumar Sinha said, “Police forces from the Ichargah, Chandil and Nimdih thana area have rushed to the spot. We are trying to find out

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In what threatened to bringBengal’s health services to a

standstill, hundreds of seniorGovernment doctors on Fridaystarted tendering mass resig-nations in support of theirjunior colleagues even as theIndian Medical Association(IMA), in solidarity with theprotesting doctors, has calledfor a countrywide strike onJune 17.

Doctors in Kolkata, whohave been on strike for the lastfour days over the assault oftheir colleague, on Friday setsix conditions, including ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee’sunconditional apology, to with-draw their protest. “We wantunconditional apology of ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee forthe manner in which she hadaddressed us at the SSKMHospital yesterday. She shouldnot have said what she had,” aspokesperson of the jointforum of junior doctors, DrArindam Dutta, said.

Meanwhile in an attemptto solve the impasse, five seniordoctors met Mamata on Fridayevening. The physicians saidMamata has invited the juniordoctors to the State Secretariaton Saturday for a discussionover the issue. However, thejunior medicos turned downMamata’s offer.

The protesting doctors inBengal are demanding “ade-quate infrastructure and pro-tection against ‘hooligans’ onhospital premises.”

The apex body of doctorsin the country also renewed itsdemand for a Central law tocheck violence against health-care workers in hospitals andsaid that the law should providea minimum sentence of seven-year jail to violators.

The IMA has also decidedto continue their protest onSaturday and Sunday con-demning the continued suf-fering of the resident doctorsand repeated occurrence ofharassments. These protestswill include wearing blackbadges, dharnas, peace march-es. IMA has requested the sup-port from all associations of the fraternity to join theprotest.

“IMA condemns the recentincident of violence againstDr Paribaha Mukherjee, whowas brutally attacked by a vio-lent mob at NRS MedicalCollege, Kolkata, and demandsan exemplary action by theState Government. All the legit-imate demands of the residentdoctors in West Bengal shouldbe accepted unconditionally,”

RV Asokan, Secretary Generalof IMA, said.

The IMA called for a“nationwide withdrawal ofnon-essential services in allhealthcare institutions” onMonday. All non-essential ser-vices including OPDs will bewithdrawn for 24 hours from6 am, while emergency andcausality services will contin-ue to function.

Meanwhile in Kolkata,more than 1,000 doctors of theRG Kar Medical College put intheir papers. A letter signed by126 doctors and addressed tothe Director of MedicalEducation said, “We the fol-lowing doctors of RG KarMedical College have so farbeen trying our level best torun the hospital servicessmoothly. You are aware thatthe present situation is not idealfor patient care services. Inresponse to the prevailing sit-uation as we are unable to pro-vide services, the followingdoctors would like to resignfrom our duty.”

Following the suit, about100 senior doctors, includingspecialists from thePostgraduate SSKM Hospital,tendered their resignation,Health Ministry sources saidadding about 175 senior doc-tors of NRS Medical Collegeand Hospital, the epicentre ofthe agitation, too resigned.

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At least five security per-sonnel were martyred on

Friday in an attack by the CPI-Maoist on a patrol party atKhukru block under Tiruldihpolice station in SeraikelaKharsawan district ofJharkhand, police said. Theattack, which comes days aheadof Prime Minister NarendraModi’s visit to Ranchi, was thefourth one since the Lok Sabhaelection results on May 23.

According to eyewitnesses,at least 15 bike-borne Naxalsattacked the police party whileit was patrolling in the vicini-ty of a weekly-haat known asKhukru haat. The rebels,sources said, stabbed thepolicemen with knives and

took away their guns.Additional Director

General of Police (ADG)Operations, ML Meena said theincident occurred around 6.30pm on Friday. The rebels, hesaid, attacked the policemenand escaped with three INSASrifles and two pistols. Therewere five policemen and a dri-ver in the patrolling team.While all the policemen in theteam were killed in the attack,the driver escaped unscathed,Meena said.

“The rebels escaped onbikes and took away arms fromthe policemen. They were notin their CPI-Maoist uniforms,”Meena said.

S eraike la-K hars awanSuperintendent of PoliceChandan Kumar Sinha said,“Police forces from theIchargah, Chandil and Nimdihthana area have rushed to thespot. We are trying to find outwhether a sixth cop too hasbeen killed.”

According to data with the

Ministry of Home Affairs(MHA), at least 18 of 24 dis-tricts in Jharkhand are LeftWing Extremism-affected. Inthe past one month, at least 20soldiers have sustained injuriesin attacks by the CPI-Maoist inJharkhand. The State, howev-er, has upped the ante andintensified its combing opera-tions against the rebels lately.

An official said two of thecops martyred were sub-inspectors and the rest threewere constables. According tosources, the time the rebelsattacked the police party, thevenue of the weekly haat wasabuzz with people.

“The rebels had firstattacked the cops with knivesand subsequently killed themafter chasing them down in thecrowded weekly haat. Theattackers fled the scene after fir-ing in the air,” said an eyewit-ness. Eyewitnesses said that therebels had fled towards Tamar,which was about 10 km fromKhukru.

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Former Delhi Metro chief ESreedharan, known as

Metro Man, has written toPrime Minister Narendra Modiurging him “not to agree” withthe Delhi Government’s pro-posal for giving women com-muters’ free rides.

In his letter to the PrimeMinister on June 10, a copy ofwhich was accessed by ThePioneer, Sreedharan wrote,“One shareholder cannot takea unilateral decision to giveconcession to one section ofcommunity and push DelhiMetro into inefficiency andbankruptcy.” Sreedharan,presently a Principal Adviser tothe Delhi Metro and LucknowMetro Rail Corporation(LMRC), sought PM Modi’s“personal intervention” in thematter.

“If the Delhi Governmentis so keen to help lady com-muters, I would suggest theDelhi Government can paydirectly to the lady commutersthe cost of their travel ratherthan make travel free on theMetro,” Sreedharan said in theletter.

Delhi Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal recentlyannounced its decision to allow

free rides to women passengerson DTC buses and Metrotrains. Once implemented byAugust-September, the schemewould put an additional burdenof around �700-800 crore in thecurrent financial year. TheDelhi Government and Centreare equal partners in the DelhiMetro.

“When the first section ofthe Delhi Metro was to beopened in 2002, I had taken a

firm and conscious decisionthat no one would be given anytravel concession on DelhiMetro. This stand was taken tomaximise revenues so thatMetro fares could be kept lowso as to be affordable to ordi-nary citizens and at the sametime Metro would make suffi-cient operational surpluses topay back the loans taken fromJapan InternationalCooperation Agency (JICA),”Sreedharan wrote.

Reacting on theSreedharan’s letter, AAP MLASaurabh Bhardwaj said, “Wethank Sreedharanji for hisresponse and suggestion on thefree ride scheme for womanand girls. The scheme is gettingboth positive and negative sug-gestions but I would like toinform Sreedharanji that withthis scheme Metro station andits efficiency will not beharmed”.

“The Government hasboth idea and money to imple-ment the scheme. Further, asper your suggestion if theGovernment will depositmoney in all women’s account,we won’t be able to identifywho is spending on travelling in Metro as peo-ple can use the money for anypurpose.

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In the wake of protests by themedical fraternity in support

of agitating doctors in Kolkata,Union Health Minister HarshVardhan on Friday urged WestBengal Chief Minister MamataBanerjee not to make this sen-sitive matter a “prestige issue”and to ensure an “amicableend” to the stir. In a letter toMamata, the Union Ministerurged her to provide a secureworking environment for doc-tors.

He also appealed to the agi-tating doctors, particularly inWest Bengal, to hold symbol-ic protests and resume work sothat patients do not suffer.“Strike is certainly not the bestway to protest. Patients shouldnot be deprived of immediateand emergency healthcare facil-

ities,” he said.“It is a matter of concern

that the agitation of the doctorsin West Bengal is not headingtowards resolution but seems tobe getting aggravated. Bettercommunication with the doc-tors and a compassionateapproach to take care of thegenuine problems being facedby them in day-to-day func-tioning would definitely behelpful in tiding over the cri-sis which has been created,”Vardhan said in his letter toMamata.

“Despite getting beaten upso badly, doctors have onlyasked her (Mamata Banerjee)

to provide them adequate secu-rity and also demanded actionagainst the perpetrators of theviolence as per the law. Butinstead of doing that, shewarned them and gave an ulti-matum which angered doctorsacross the country and theyproceeded on strike,” he said.

“So if the chief ministeracts in a sensitive manner insuch a grave scenario, patientsacross the country will not suf-fer. I plead to the West Bengalchief minister to not makethis an issue of prestige,” headded.

Vardhan also supportedthe medical fraternity’s demandfor a Central law to check vio-lence against health care work-ers in hospitals and said suchcrimes should be made non-bailable. “Govt must pass a lawto make any attack on doctorsa non-bailable offence withmin 12-year jail. DraconianClinical Establishment Act thattreats doctors as criminals mustbe withdrawn (sic),” Vardhantweeted.

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In what her critics called a bidto play to the Hindu Bengali

gallery, Chief Minister MamataBanerjee on Friday said thatthose who chose to live inBengal would have to speakBengali. Vowing not to letBengalis become homeless inBengal, the Chief Minister said,“Though the BJP is trying toturn Bengal into a Gujarat, Iwill not allow them to do that.”

Addressing a meeting atKanchrapara, the home groundof senior BJP leader Mukul Royand his son Subhrasnghu anMLA who was recentlyexpelled from the TMC,Mamata said the BJP is tryingto “reproduce the Gujaratmodel in Bengal by targetingthe minorities and theBengalis,” vowing “I will not letthat happen.”

Promising not to allowBengalis to become foreignersin their own homeland, shesaid, “I will never allowBengalis to become homeless inBengal,” reminding those “whowant to live in this State willhave to speak in Bengal as wedo when we go to other States.”

Attacking the BJP forinjecting alien culture in theState, she said, “When we go toPunjab, we speak in Punjabi,when we go to Delhi, we speakin Hindi and even if I do notknow Tamil I try to speak a word or two inTamil whenever I go to TamilNadu,” she said adding, “Ifyou are in Bengal, you have tospeak Bengali. We have tobring Bengali forward as alanguage.”

Mamata’s statement comesagainst the backdrop of herparty TMC losing a largeground to the surging BJP in apolarised atmosphere in theLok Sabha elections.

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Prime Minister NarendraModi on Friday lashed out

at countries “sponsoring, aid-ing and funding” terrorismand told top leaders at theShanghai CooperationOrganisation (SCO) Summitthat such states must be heldaccountable, in a veiled refer-ence to Pakistan whose premierImran Khan was among theaudience. “Countries sponsor-ing, aiding and funding ter-rorism must be held account-able,” he said.

Addressing the SCOSummit here, Modi also calledfor a global conference to com-bat the scourge of terrorism. Hehighlighted the spirit and idealsof the SCO to strengthen coop-eration in the fight against ter-rorism. India advocates a ter-rorism-free society, he said.

“During my visit to SriLanka last Sunday, I visited theSt Anthony’s church, where Iwitnessed the ugly face of ter-

rorism which claims the lives ofinnocents anywhere,” Modisaid, referring to one of the sitesof the devastating EasterSunday attacks that killed 258people in Sri Lanka.

According to the BishkekDeclaration, the member statesstressed that acts of terrorismand extremism cannot be jus-tified. “They note that inter-fering in other countries’domestic affairs under the pre-text of fighting terrorism andextremism as well as usingterrorist, extremist and radicalgroups to achieve one’s ownmercenary ends is unaccept-able,” it said.

The Declaration added,“The member states condemnterrorism in all its forms andmanifestations.

They call on the interna-tional community to promoteglobal cooperation in combat-ting terrorism with the centralrole of the UN by fully imple-menting corresponding UNSCresolutions and the UN GlobalCounter-Terrorism Strategy incompliance with the UNCharter and the principles ofinternational law withoutpoliticisation and double stan-dards and with respect for thesovereignty and independenceof all countries.”

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Chhattisgarh Chief MinisterBhupesh Baghel on Friday

instructed authorities to with-draw a sedition case slappedagainst the man fromRajanandgaon who was arrest-ed for reportedly spreading a fakevideo message on power cuts.

“Freedom of speech is thebasic right provided to thepeople. Such things (slapping ofsedition case)happened dur-ing the previ-ous regime butwe are strongsupporters offreedom ofspeech,” theChief Minister said in a pressstatement.

He also appealed people tobe moderate while expressingthemselves on critical publicissues. Chief Minister has alsoasked officials to ensure suchcases do not happen again.

Notably, Chhattisgarh StatePower Company had regis-tered a FIR at Kotwali policestation, Rajnandgaon againstthe person under section 124 Aof the IPC (Sedition) and 505(1)(b) (with intent to incite, orwhich is likely to incite) onWednesday.

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Karnataka Chief MinisterHD Kumaraswamy on

Friday inducted two indepen-dent MLAs to his Cabinet in amove to douse the rebellionwhich has threatened the yearold JD(S) –Congress collationGovernment in the State. ARShankar and H Nagesh weresworn in as cabinet-rankMinisters by GovernorVajubhai Vala who adminis-tered them the oath of officeand secrecy at a ceremony at theRaj Bhavan. These two inde-pendent MLAs had threatenedto join BJP and Kumaraswamy’smove is politically seen as tostop them from joining BJPwhich has 104 MLAs in its kitty.

The MLAs were inducted,one each from the JD(S) andCongress quota. Shankar hasreportedly been asked to mergehis outfit KarnatakaPragnyavantha Janatha Party(KPJP) with the Congress Partyimmediately. Former ChiefMinister and chairman of coor-dination committee of the coali-tion Government Siddaramaiahwas man behind this move tosave the coalition Governmentled by HD Kumaraswamy.

This is the second cabinetexpansion since the two partiesstitched up an alliance to formthe Government after a frac-

tured mandate in the LegislativeAssembly election held lastyear.

Shankar was a Minister inJune 2018, during the initialdays of the Government. Hewas dropped months later inDecember for refusing tobecome an associate member ofthe Congress. Following this, hewas seen in the BJP and is nowback with the Congress.

When Shankar was movingtowards the BJP, he had writtento the Governor withdrawingsupport to the Government.Since the BJP was unable toform the Government, bothShankar and Nagesh once againsupported the coalition.

Shankar had defeated for-mer Assembly Speaker KBKoliwad of the Congress fromthe Ranebennur constituency.Nagesh, meanwhile, is a formerCongress member fromMulbagal constituency. He wasa member of the Congressparty and also an aspirant forthe ticket from the seat.However, the Congress decid-ed to give the ticket to MLA GManjunath. He was, however,defeated in the recent polls.

Post Lok Sabha drubbingby the BJP, both Congress andthe JD(S) are struggling tokeep their flock together andthe sword of un certainty ishanging on them threatening

the very existence of theGovernment. In the Lok Sabhaelections both JD(S) andCongress lost miserably to theModi wave and won just oneseat each in the 28 parliamen-tary constituencies. BJP won 25and a BJP supported indepen-dent candidate Sumalatha fromMandya won to create historyin the state. The expansion, ear-lier scheduled on June 12, waspostponed owing to the three-day state mourning followingthe death of actor and writerGirish Karnad on Monday.

As anticipated the coalitionGovernment opted to inductthe two independents instead ofseveral disgruntled elementsfrom with the parties to ensurethe BJP is unable to increase itsnumbers in the lower house ofthe State legislature and chal-lenge the ruling alliance whichhas a slender majority. Theinduction of the two indepen-dents will take the total strengthof the coalition to 119, includ-ing the speaker, in the 224-seatlower house compared withthe BJP’s 105. The absence ofmany leaders from Congressand the JD(S) were conspicuousand led to further politicaldebate.

According to BJP insidersthey are not in a hurry to desta-bilise the Government andexpecting to fall on its own.

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Two local Lashkar-e-Tayyeba(LeT) terrorists were

gunned down by the joint teamof security forces in Awantiporatehsil of South Kashmir'sPulwama district on Fridaymorning.

The operation waslaunched in the area after receiv-ing credible inputs about thepresence of terrorists in the area.

Police spokesman said,"during the search operation,the hiding terrorists fired on thesearch party. The fire was retal-iated leading to an encounter. Inthe ensuing encounter, 02 ter-rorists were killed and the bod-ies were retrieved from the site

of encounter". Police spokesman said, "the

killed terrorists have been iden-tified as Irfan Ahmad Degu@Abu Zarar of Naina LitterPulwama and Tasaduk AminShah of Kadlabal Pampore".

He said, "as per policerecords both the terroristswere affiliated with proscribedterror outfit LeT and werewanted by law for their com-plicity in terror crimes includ-ing attack on security estab-lishments and civilian atroci-ties".

According to police records,Irfan was part of groupsinvolved in planning & execut-ing series of terror attacks in thearea and many other civilian

atrocities. He was involved incase FIR No 35 of 2018 per-taining to attack on securityforces in Ellahibagh Pulwama inwhich one jawan had attainedmartyrdom.

Tasaduk as per the policerecords was involved in CaseFIR No 27/2019 of PS PanthaChowk pertaining to killing ofcivilian. Several terror crimecases were registered againstthem.

Incriminating materialsincluding arms & ammunitionwere recovered from the site ofencounter. All these materialshave been taken into caserecords for further investigationand to probe their complicity inother terror crimes.

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Nine more children died onFriday in Bihar's

Muzaffarpur district, which isreeling under an outbreak ofbrain fever, taking the toll to 63this month, with officials main-taining the death were due tohypoglycemia.

All the victims have fallen prey to hypoglycemia, a condition caused by a verylow level of blood sugar and electrolyte imbalance, theysaid.

The 63 children died intwo hospitals of Muzaffarpur,one of which was visited bystate Health Minister MangalPandey during the day.

A statement issued byMuzaffarpur district adminis-tration said that till 6 pm onFriday, six children died in thestate-run Sri Krishna MedicalCollege and Hospital(SKMCH) while three died atKejriwal hospital, which isoperated by a trust.

Since June 1, 178 and 72children were admitted inSKMCH and Kejriwal hospitalrespectively with suspectedcases of Acute EncephalitisSyndrome (AES) but most ofthem were found to be victimsof hypoglycemia.

Nine children undergoingtreatment at SKMCH are seri-ous, the release said, addingthat five children are critical inKejriwal hospital.

The health minister whoheld a meeting with doctorsand officials at the SKMCHsaid six more ambulances willbe available there from Fridayand a 100-bed new ward will bemade operational soon.

The Kejriwal Hospital'smanagement also agreed toincrease the number of beds ifthe need arises, he said.

Pandey said creatingawareness among the people isneeded to prevent the out-break of the disease.

Chief Minister NitishKumar has already directed theofficials concerned to ensurethat preventive measures weretaken in the affected districts,though deaths have so far beenreported from Muzaffarpuronly.

Health Department'sPrincipal Secretary SanjayKumar had earlier said the dis-ease has affected 222 blocks of12 districts especiallyMuzaffarpur, Vaishali, Sheoharand East Champaran. A CentralGovernment team of expertshad visited Muzaffarpur onWednesday. PTI

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Mumbai: The CBI andMaharashtra CID told theBombay High Court on Fridaythat it had, to some extent,established commonalitybetween the killings of ratio-nalist Narendra Dabholkar andactivist Govind Pansare.

A division bench ofJustices S C Dharmadhikariand Gautam Patel was told thatin the Dabholkar case all theaccused have been arrestedbut the weapon used in thecrime is yet to be recovered.

The CBI informed thecourt that an operation will becarried out within a month tosearch and retrieve four coun-try-made pistols, which wereallegedly dismantled andthrown by the accused into acreek in adjoining Thane dis-

trict."We are awaiting necessary

permissions from governmentagencies to undertake theoperation," CBI counsel AnilSingh told the court.

The bench then noted thatthe operation should not bedelayed and should be carriedout before onset of monsoon.

CID counsel AshokMundargi told the court that inthe Pansare case the mainconspirators have been arrest-ed and efforts are on to nab theassailants.

The bench then asked ifinvestigations carried out so farhad pointed out to any com-monalities between the twocrimes.

"Yes, to some extent com-monality is established

between the two crimes,"Mundargi said.

The bench, however, notedthat there was something lack-ing in the probe in the Pansarecase.

"We feel like there is somespark missing in this case. It isnot the case that the shooterswill never be arrested. Theywill be nabbed one day. But itshould have been done bynow," the court said.

"It is the credibility of theprobe agency that is at stake.It is a case where eminent per-sons like Dabholkar andPansare have been killed," itadded. The court said thegovernment has to provide allassistance and guidance tothe probe agencies in suchcases. PTI

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The Ministry of EarthSciences on Saturday said

that cyclonic storm ' Vayu' islikely to recurve and hit theKutch coast of Gujarat. "Vayuis likely to recurve on June 16and hit Kutch between June17-18," M Rajeevan, Secretaryof the Ministry of Earth

Sciences said.However, the intensity of

the cyclone is likely to getreduced, Rajeevan said, addingthat it may hit the coast as acyclonic storm or a deepdepression. He said the Gujaratgovernment has been alertedabout the possible recurvatureof the cyclonic storm.

Cyclone Vayu was to hitthe Gujarat coast on Thursday,but it changed its course overOman on the intervening nightof Wednesday and Thursday.

According to the IndiaMeteorological Department(IMD), the southwest mon-soon will further delay inMumbai and Goa due to Vayu.Meanwhile, the ClimatePrediction Centre of the USNational Weather Service onFriday said the location andstrength of the Madden-JulianOscillation (MJO) wave mayplay an important role in thedevelopment of monsoon overIndia during the next severalweeks.

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Union Minority AffairsMinister Mukhtar Abbas

Naqvi on Friday hit out at theCongress for raising doubts overthe use of EVMs in the Lok Sabhapolls, saying the Opposition partyis showing arrogance instead ofintrospecting the defeat in the elec-tions.

The 'EVM vilaap mandli' hasbecome active again and while ear-lier they demanded tallying ofVVPAT slips with EVM count,they are now looking for newexcuses after there was no mis-match, the affairs minister said.

The Congress is showing arro-gance of a "feudal mindset",instead of introspecting the defeatin the Lok Sabha election and hon-ouring people's mandate, he toldreporters here.

The Congress will continue

with its arrogance and negativityuntil it realises the ground reali-ty, he said.

The grand old party hasbecome a "brand new flop show"due to its "negative and frustrat-ed politics", he claimed.

If the Congress does not shunits "feudal politics", the party willface extinction, Naqvi said. Hisremarks came days after UPAchairperson Sonia Gandhi, appar-ently hinting at electronic votingmachines (EVMs), claimed "manytypes of doubts" have emerged inthe past few years over the coun-try's electoral processes.

"There is a saying that there isno smoke without fire," she said inRaebareli on Wednesday.

Opposition parties, includingthe Congress, have alleged thatEVMS can be tampered with, giv-ing the ruling BJP the advantagein an election.

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The IAF has, so far, carriedout more than 200 sorties

in the search and rescue oper-ation to locate the AN-32plane that went missing onJune 3, finally spotting thewreckage on Tuesday thisweek. A 15-member team,comprising mountaineers ofthe IAF and Special Forcescommandoes, were air-dropped near the crash site inArunachal Pradesh, onWednesday and they reachedthe crash site and are makingall-out efforts to bring themortal remains of the 13 pas-sengers to Jorhat in Assam.

However, inclement weath-er and rugged terrain is ham-pering the operation as themortal remains and the flightdata recorder or the black boxhave to be ferried in heli-copters in stages. "The weath-er continues to be marginal and

is likely to affect the pace ofrecovery operations. The recov-ery team is braving the treach-erous terrain and inclementweather in order to bring backthe mortal remains as soon aspossible," the IAF said in thelatest update on Friday.

Eight helicopters havebeen deployed for the salvageoperation, the IAF said addingaround 200 sorties were car-ried out so far towards the AN-32 search and recovery oper-ations. The next of kin of allpersonnel on board wereinformed of the crash and thesubsequent search operationsundertaken by the IAF.Concerned family membershave been apprised of theprogress of the recovery oper-ations as well and IAF officialsare in regular touch with them.The IAF and all its personnelstand with the families in thishour of grief, the statementsaid. The IAF on Thursday

had said all 13 people onboard the aircraft have died.

The Russian-origin AN-32aircraft was going from Jorhatin Assam to Mechukaadvanced landing ground nearthe border with China on June3 when it lost contact aroundhalf-an-hour after taking off.The wreckage of the planewas found at an altitude of12,000 feet near Mechuka aftereight days of massive searchoperation.

The effort included SU-30fighter jets, P-8 I long rangereconnaissance aircraft of theNavy and MI-17 and advancedlight helicopters. The searchwas spread over 1,000 sq kmsof terrain marked by densejungles and steep hills and it isfeared the plane hit one of thehills and crashed. However, theanalysis of the black box orflight data recorder and thecourt of inquiry will find thecause of the mishap.

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New Delhi: That the elderlybecome a burden in most house-holds is not new, but a recent sur-vey revealed that 35 per cent ofthe caregivers — be it sons ordaughters-in-law, "never" felthappy looking after the elderly.

According to the report,"Elder Abuse in India: Role ofFamily in Caregiving: Challenges& Responses" by charitable organ-isation HelpAge India, released onthe eve of 'World Elder AbuseAwareness Day' on Friday, 29 percent respondents admitted theywould prefer that senior citizensin the family be put in old agehomes.

A quarter of the respondentsalso blamed fatigue and frustra-tion for their aggression towardselders.

"While 35 per cent of thecaregivers never felt happy look-ing after the elderly, 25 per centcaregivers felt fatigue and frus-tration that resulted in aggressivebehaviour towards the oldermembers of the family," the

report noted.With a sample size of 2090

caregivers, mainly involving son,daughter-in-law, daughter, andson-in-law, the 20 city reportidentifies the top forms of abuseas disrespect, neglect and verbalabuse.

The report focuses on thegeneration aged 30 - 50 years, cov-ering Tier 1 and 2 cities.

"What is amazing is thatdespite the abuse elders might faceat home, at the hands of theiradult children, they choose toremain within the family ambit.Their solution is always sensitizetheir children, their primary care-givers, and not move away fromthe family," Mathew Cherian,HelpAge India, CEO, said.

A total of 29 per cent care-givers in the family felt the "bur-den of caregiving of an elder wasModerate to Severe", while 15 percent felt a "Severe burden of care-giving". Despite the burdenfelt, up to 32 per cent adult care-givers fulfilled their duties of

extending physical care to elder-ly for Activities of Daily Living(ADL) such as help, assistance inchanging clothes, walking, eating,bathing, and toileting.

The report also found that42.5 per cent caregivers paid forthe medical bills, and 57 per centof the times monetary help for anelder's personal habits came fromthe son against 23 per cent fromthe daughter-in-law.

On an average, a familyspends Rs 4125 looking after theelderly as 78.1 per cent caregiversfelt that no policy or measureswere adopted by their employersto help them ease the burden ofcaregiving regarding elderly athome, it noted.

"It is therefore important tolook into space of the caregiver.

To understand the burden ofelder care and the challenges facedby them. For only if we are ableto understand, can we alsoempower and encourage them tolook after their elderly parents,"Cherian said. PTI

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The Bombay High Court onFriday granted bail to four

right-wing Hindu activists andaccused in the 2006 Malegaonbomb blast case, seven yearsafter they were arrested in thecase.

The four accused — DhanSingh, Lokesh Sharma,Manohar Narwaria andRajendra Chaudhary — hadmoved the Bombay High Courtin 2016, after a special NIAcourt had rejected their bailplea.

Granting bail to the fouraccused, a HC division bench ofJustices Indrajit Mahanty and

AM Badar ruled the fouraccused should furnish Rs50,000 bail bond each and twosureties of same amount to getthe bail. They ordered the fouraccused to remain present dur-ing the trial court until theywere exempted.

"The petitions are allowed.The applicants shall be releasedon cash bail of �50,000. Theyshall attend the special court oneach day during the trial andshall not tamper with evidenceor contact witnesses," the judgessaid.

In the triple blasts thatrocked Bada Kabarasthan,Mushawra Chowk andHamidiya Masjid at the power-

loom town of Malegaon innorth Maharashtra onSeptember 8, 2006, 37 peoplewere killed and 150 othersinjured.

The four accused hadmoved the high court after theNIA court had rejected theirbail plea on June 6, 2016 on theground that the evidence col-lected by the NIA prima facieshowed that the four accusedalong with the abscondingaccused had prepared andplanted bombs at three places inMalegaon on September 8,2006.

“At this stage it appears tome that prima facie the evidencecollected by NIA show that the

accused along with abscondingaccused prepared bombs andplanted it...... Bearing in mindthe nature of the crime and thecharges levelled against theaccused persons, they do notdeserve bail”, the NIA courtjudge had said in his June 6,2016 order, rejecting the bailplea by the four accused.

Nine accused were initial-ly tried for their alleged involve-ment in the 2006 Malegaontriple blasts. Of them, one of theaccused Shabbir Ahmed died in2015 during the pendency of thecase before the special court,resulting in the abatement of thecharges against him.

A special NIA court had on

April 25, 2016 dropped thecharges against the eightMuslim accused in the 2006triple Malegaon blasts case,after taking cognizance of thesubmission made by the NIAthat there was no evidence toprosecute the accused in thecase.

The eight accused, whowere discharged from the 2006Malegaon triple blasts case,were: Noor-Ul-HoodaSamshudoha Ansari, RaeesAhmed, Dr Salman Farsi, DrFaroqh Maghdumi,Mohammed Ali, MohammedZahid alias Zahid Ali, AsifBashir Khan alias Junaid andAbrar Ahmed Saeed.

Thiruvananthapuram: TheLeft Government in Kerala onFriday asked a state-run akade-mi to review its decision hon-ouring a cartoon depictingBishop Franco Mullakal as arooster and alluding to thecharge of rape against him.

Cultural Affairs Minister AK Balan told the StateAssembly that the Governmentis of the opinion that the car-toon has "hurt" the sentimentsof the Christian community.

"The Government hasalready taken a stand that theakademi should review itsdecision," Balan said.

The cartoon titled'Viswasam Rakshathi' (protec-tion of faith) by K K Subhashof Chengalam and selected bythe Kerala LalithakalaAkademi for this years award,had appeared in a Malayalammagazine last year afterMullakal was accused of rapeby a nun.

Showing Mullakal as arooster, it also has a pinkcoloured lingerie in the crosier(staff), carried by a bishop asa symbol of the pastoral office,while a group of nuns is shownfleeing.

Replying to a submissionby opposition leader RameshChennithala seeking reviewof the award, Balan said"Akademi is an autonomouscultural organisation underthe state government. But thegovernment does not interferein its internal matters such asthe awards and all.

However, this cartoon hashurt the sentiments of a sectionof believers," Balan said.

He said the cartoon wasintended against BishopMullakal and not against thecommunity. The cartoonincludes certain religious sym-bols. We welcome the standand suggestions of theOpposition. PTI

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Mumbai: Congress generalsecretary in- charge ofMaharashtra MallikarjunKharge Friday said he hasexhorted the state unit to putup a united face to take on theruling BJP-Shiv Sena in theupcoming assembly polls.

Talking to reporters here,Kharge expressed confidencethat Congress legislators willeffectively counter the BJP-Sena government on variousissues of public interest duringthe monsoon session of thestate legislature beginning

Monday.Earlier in the day, the

Congress announced severalchanges in its legislative wing.

It said senior legislatorBalasaheb Thorat, an arch-rival of Radhakrishna VikhePatil, has been appointed theCongress Legislature Party(CLP) leader.

Vikhe Patil, a seniorCongress leader, quit the postof CLP after his son Sujayjoined the BJP and successful-ly contested the Lok Sabha elec-tion from Ahmednagar.

Vijay Waddetiwar, deputyleader of the Congress in theAssembly, has been elevated asthe group leader.

"We have named BalasahebThorat as the CLP leader andappointed floor leaders in bothhouses as well as whips. Weexpect them to be united andwork with consensus," he said.

"In our party all are effi-cient, but only a few will haveto be chosen for various jobs.We hope they will highlightpeople's issues in the legisla-ture," Kharge said. PTI

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chhattisgarh 03RAIPUR | SATURDAY | JUNE 15, 2019

District unit of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led by party corporators on Friday laid a siege to office of the Raipur Municipal Corporation on variouspublic-interest related issues, including the scarcity of drinking water in the capital city.

A delegation of state unit of Indian Medical Association (IMA) under the leadership of its state president Dr Anil Jain, general secre-tary Dr Asha Jain and chairman hospital board Dr Rakesh Gupta went to district collectorate to hand over a memorandum to districtcollector in protest against attack on doctors at Kolkata’s NRS Medical College and Hospital, which triggered a nationwide protest.

STAFF REPORTER n RAIPUR

Chhattisgarh ranked first inthe country in construction

of roads under Pradhan MantriGram Sadak Yojana-2 (PMGSY-2). The state topped in imple-mentation of the project by com-pleting 89% of the set construc-tion target.

Panchayat and RuralDevelopment Minister T.S.Singhdeo expressed delight overthe achievement of the state andlauded officials, employees andstaff engaged in the constructionwork under the PMGSY.

According to informationfrom official sources, a study inthe project review committeemeeting held recently at national

capital revealed that the state ofChhattisgarh was well ahead inimplementation of the projectsand work completion.

The states which followed it

at second, third and fourth posi-tions were Tamilnadu-80%,Kerala-72% and Madhya Pradesh69% respectively.

Chief Executive Officer of

Chhattisgarh Rural RoadDevelopment Authority(CRRDA) Alok Katiyar informedthat proposals of 2,249 kms ofroads were approved by the

union ministry of rural develop-ment out of which constructionwork of 2014 kms was completed.This amounted to be 89% of thetarget length given and was bestperformance all over the country.

Katiyar further informed thatpathways which have higher traf-fic volume were earmarked forlaying a web of roads in rurallocales under the PMGSY-2scheme.

“As the state has performedoutstandingly in PMGSY-2scheme, we will be benefitted inPMGSY-3 scheme and will getsanctioned of our proposalssoon. The step will enhance thetraffic density in rural areas andtraffic will be facilitated,” he fur-ther added.

Chhattisgarh ranked first inimplementation of PMGSY-2 STAFF REPORTER n KANKER

Security forces gunned downtwo Naxals in an encounter

with Maoists in the insur-gency-hit Kanker district, apolice officer said on Friday.

The gun battle took placeon the intervening night ofThursday and Friday in thejungles between Malepara andMurnar villages in Tadokipolice station area, 200 kmfrom Raipur, the senior officersaid.

A team of the police’sDistrict Reserve Guard wasout on an anti-Naxal opera-tion when the encounterbroke out, state DirectorGeneral of Police (anti-Naxaloperations) Girdhari Nayaksaid.

When the patrolling team wascordoning off the forest, a group ofarmed ultras opened fire on them,

the DGP said.After the guns fell silent, the

bodies of two unidentified Naxals

were recovered from the spot.Besides, two SLR rifles, a .303 rifleand a .315 rifle were also recov-ered, the officer added.

Two Naxals killed,guns recovered


Amid allegations andcounter allegations on

skywalk, Chief MinisterBhupesh Baghel on Friday saidhe was neither opposing norsupporting the sky walk proj-ect initiated by the previousBJP government.

He said his governmentwas just taking suggestionsfrom people about the possibleusages of the structure.

Baghel was talking to asection of media persons hereat Swami Vivekanand Airport,Mana before proceeding tonational capital for participat-ing in a meeting of Niti Ayog.

Commenting on statementof former minister and BJP

leader Rajesh Munat, Baghelsaid would any of the BJPleader dare to stand on sky-walk for an hour during after-

noon hours. The CM furtherclaimed that there were irregu-larities in the process of con-struction of skywalk.

Notable, Munat address-ing a press conference onThursday declared that theBJP would hit the streets ifpublic money was wasted justfor the sake of politics.

Munat further urged theCongress government not topoliticise the public-utilityrelated developments, whichshould be seen in positivenote.

He suggested that if “gov-ernment takes initiative to dosome technical changes in theproject, BJP will support themove.”

Neither supporting, noropposing skywalk; onlytaking suggestions: Baghel


Doctors at Medical CollegeHospital and the All India

Institute of Medical Sciences(AIIMS) in Raipur joined nation-wide protest over Kolkata hospi-tal violence on Friday, giving theagitation a huge impetus andbringing health services in thehospitals of the capital city to astalemate.

The junior doctors and med-ical students too joined theprotest and boycotted the OutPatients Wards (OPDs), raisingslogans to express solidarity withtheir protesting colleagues inKolkata.

Several patients and theirfamilies were seen standing out-side the Medical College Hospitaland AIIMS in Raipur on Fridaymorning, waiting for the doctorsto help them. Some said theyhave been told by the doctors togo somewhere else.

Meanwhile, a group of doc-tors under the banner of stateunit of Indian Medical

Association (IMA) and leader-ship of their state president DrAnil Jain, general secretary DrAsha Jain and Chairman HospitalBoard, Dr Rakesh Gupta later inthe evening handed over a mem-orandum to district collector,Raipur which was addressed toPrime Minister Narendra Modi.

IMA in its memorandumstrongly condemned the brutal

violence at the NRS medical col-lege and announced that “theentire medical fraternity hasexpressed solidarity to the seri-ously injured doctors”.

IMA stated that “the organisa-tion is ready for an agitation to pressfor strong legislation and strictaction against hospital violence”.

In the memorandum the doc-tors stated “It has been observed

that the increase in violence willadversely affect the public healthat large. Not only the patientsundergoing the treatment in theinstitution facing violence will bedirectly affected but also there area lot of indirect consequences.Institutions will be reluctant totake up complicated and riskypatients which will affect publichealth at large. Threat of violence

increases the stress levels of healthcare workers. Sound judgmentregarding patient care will becompromised in such situations.”

As a part of protest, medicalstudents and junior doctors inMedical College Hospital as wellas at All India Institute of MedicalSciences (AIMMS) were on strikeand the Out Patients Departments(OPDs) were closed down.

Doctors protest in Raipur over Kolkata hospital violence


State Congress on Friday wel-comed Chief Minister Bhupesh

Baghel’s decision to remove seditioncharges against a man who allegedlyspread fake news that the power cutbeing witnessed in the state was adeliberate ploy to benefit invertersellers.

In a statement Congress’s stategeneral secretary and chairman ofcommunication wing Shailesh NitinTrivedi said with the opposition ofthe BJP on the issue the real face ofthe party has come to fore and itproves that it too was involved infake propaganda to malign theimage of the state government andthe power company of the state.

Regarding removal of seditioncharges, the Congress leader saidCongress was always against thesection 124-A and had alwaysopposed violation of democraticrights of a person. Anyone can raisevoice against the government andthey have freedom of expression, hesaid.

The decision of the ChiefMinister to withdraw the charges ofsedition proves his kind hearted-ness while on the other hand it alsoproves that the entire episode was awell hatched conspiracy of the BJP.In a well planned way the video wasprepared which was baseless andhad only intention of defaming thestate government as well as thepower company, he added.

Congress welcomesremoval of sedition case

MSP of ` 109for Chironji seedshell announcedRAIPUR: In a bid to provide betterprice to forest produce of tribals andforest dwellers, Chhattisgarh govern-ment on Friday declared minimum sup-port price of ` 109 for Chironji seedshell.

Forest Minister Mohammad Akbarsaid the state government was commit-ted to provide adequate and reasonableprice for minor forest produce so thatthe tribal forest dwellers could earntheir livelihood and the standard oftheir lives is upgraded.

Under the minimum support pricescheme of the Union government, thestate government has taken the decisionregarding Chironji seed shell, Akbarsaid.

Managing Director ChhattisgarhState Minor forest produce CooperativeFederation Rakesh Chaturvedi instruct-ed the concerned officials to providenecessary amount to the cooperativesocieties timely so that the tribal andforest dwellers are benefitted.

Raigarh copcommitssuicideRAIGARH: A policeconstable allegedly com-mitted suicide by con-suming poison while onduty in Raigarh district,police said on Friday.

Constable Ajay Gupta(26) allegedly consumedpesticide at Gharghorapolice station, a localpolice official informed.

His colleagues tookhim to a local communityhealth centre where hewas declared `broughtdead’.

Gupta hailed fromCharmar village of thesame area and was postedat Gharghoda for the pastfour months. No suicidenote was recovered fromthe spot. Further probewas on.

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Punjab’s Power Departmentis virtually lying powerless

with both the Chief MinisterCapt Amarinder Singh and hisMinister Navjot Singh Sidhuadamant on their stand.

Just over a week after theDepartment was handed overto Sidhu after Capt Amarinderdivested him of LocalGovernment for being a “non-performer minister”, the for-mer cricketer has refused totake charge, and the ChiefMinister too is not budgingfrom his stand, even with theadvent of grueling summersand the crucial paddy seasonwhich requires certain signif-icant decisions by the PowerDepartment.

The Chief Minister, underthe circumstances, is likely totake a “powerful stand” oftaking over the charge of theDepartment, and head meet-ings till the time Sidhu doesnot assume the charge asPower Minister. In fact, as perthe laid rules, the ChiefMinister can take charge of aDepartment till the time thesaid Minister does not assumethe office.

Sources informed ThePioneer that the ChiefMinister’s Office would lookafter the Department, andhold departmental meetingswith the officers, and as andwhen some decision making isrequired, the Chief Ministerwould chip in.

As the paddy sowing sea-son has started from June 13,

the State Government is com-mitted to provide power sup-ply to the farmers. At thesame time, the Governmentalso has to ensure availabilityof sufficient power in thestate’s urban areas as the mer-cury is rising every passingday.

It has been learnt thatCapt Amarinder may con-vene a meeting of the Power

Department officials, includ-ing the state’s power utilities,to review the power situationin the State.

Sidhu has been sticking onhis stand even after the partyhigh command has asked himto continue his work for theparty. It has been learnt thateven as the party chief RahulGandhi had given Sidhu apatient hearing, that too at a

time when he was not meetingwith any one and in fact noteven giving appointment tothe Chief Minister, he hasasked Sidhu to take over thecharge of the Department.

Despite that, Sidhu hasrefused to take charge of thenew portfolio allotted to himafter recently-concluded LokSabha elections. In fact, thestate party leadership was noteven making any efforts toappease Sidhu, or making anyeffort to get in touch with him.

To resolve the issuebetween Sidhu and CaptAmarinder, the party highcommand has assigned theresponsibility to senior partyleader Ahmed Patel, who hasreportedly talked to the ChiefMinister already.

Sidhu’s portfolios were

changed hours after his “rebel-lious” decision to stay awayfrom the Cabinet meeting,first after the 2019 generalelections, while holding asimultaneous press confer-ence to underscore hisachievements as the LocalBodies Minister.

The action against Sidhucame just about a fortnightafter Capt Amarinder square-ly blamed “the non-perform-ing” Local Bodies Ministerfor the Congress’ “not-so-good” performance in thestate’s urban pockets.

Sidhu claimed that theCongress has fared well in theurban areas winning 63 per-cent of the total urban andsemi-urban areas, winning 34out of 54 seats. He had point-ed that in the purely urban

assembly segments, Congresswon 64 percent by winning 16out of 25 seats, while in therural areas, the party bagged35 out of 63 seats, making it 55percent.

All along been claiming tohave “changed” the workingand condition of the LocalBodies Department which waswithout any funds and work inhis two-year tenure, Sidhuhad defended himself bymaintaining that the ChiefMinister had made himMinister in-charge of two dis-tricts — Amritsar and TarnTaran — and the two werewon by the Congress.

As Sidhu’s absence fromthe first Cabinet meeting afterelections failed to go downwell with his several Cabinetcolleagues who described it as

an act of “disobedience” and“disrespect” to the ChiefMinister, Sidhu argued thathad there been any agendarelating to his Department, “Iwould be the first one to go”.

Indicating that the ChiefMinister has a lack of trust inhim, Sidhu had asked whyshould he attend the meeting“when there is a trust deficit inme”.

“My seat in the Cabinet isfew inches away...On can betoo far while sitting close nextto each other, while a motherand his son can be so closedespite they being across theseven seas,” Sidhu had said inan indirect indication towardsCapt Amarinder expressinghis distrust against the formercricketer several times “pub-licly”.

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Haryana Chief MinisterManohar Lal on Friday

announced to transfer moreworks to the Zila Parishadsin the state.

Now, the Zila Parishadwould be able to undertakeworks under the MahatmaGandhi Nat iona l Rura lEmployment Guarante eS cheme (MGNREGS) ,Prad han Mant r i AwasYojana (PMAY) andInteg rate d Watershe dManagement Programme(IWMP).

Manohar Lal was pre-siding over the meeting ofschemes of Developmentand Panchayats and RuralDevelopment Departmenthere . Development andPanchayats Minister OPDhankar, MLAs namelyGian Chand Gupta and

Latika Sharma, senior offi-cers, chairman and vice-chairman of Zila Parishads,a l l Addit iona l DeputyCommissioners, all ChiefExecutive Officer (CEO) ofZila Parishad were presentin the meeting.

The Chief Minister alsoannounced that CEO ZilaParishad would have inde-pendent charge and no ADCwould be given the charge ofCEO Zila Parishad.

He also directed that oneJunior Engineer (JE) eitherfrom the Rural DevelopmentD epar t ment or Publ icHe a lt h Engineer ingD ep ar t ment or ot herDepartment be given inde-pendent charge in Z i laParishads in each district tocarr y out developmentworks.

The Chief Minister saidthat the present State

Government has taken sev-eral steps to bring about arevolutionary change in theadministrative system ofPRIs and Rural Developmentso as to give pace to thedevelopment works at thegrass root level. Still moreneeds to be done in thisdirection, he added.

He hoped that the peopleof the State would give fullmandate to the present StateGovernment in the upcom-ing Vidhan Sabha electionsin the State and give us anopportunity to serve themfor second consecutive term.

He said that several newinitiatives would be taken onthe occasion of Haryana Dayon November 1.

The State Government hasenvisioned a number of ini-tiatives to be implementedincluding the social auditsystem to bring about trans-parency in the execution ofworks at the grass root level.The village level committeescomprising ex-servicemen,retired teachers and engi-neers should be constitutedwhich would not only mon-itor the progress of develop-ment works but also ensuretransparenc y. TheC ommittee would a lsoensure that the quality mate-

rial is used in the develop-ment works, Manohar Lalsaid.

He also said that the pub-lic assets should be in thesafer hands and for this weneed to work as theirtrustees.

The Chief Minister urgedthat besides the funds pro-vided by the StateGovernment , the Z i laPar ishads should makeefforts to generate their ownresources.

He said that earlier, thebudget of Zila Parishads usedto be only Rs one to twocrore whereas, the presentState Government hasincreased the same to Rs 20to 25 crore. We wanted tofurther increase the budget ofZila Parishads, he added.

With a view to ensure theactive participation of PRIsin the development processof the State, Inter DistrictCouncil (IDC) has been con-stituted on the pattern ofInter State C ounci l constituted at the NationalLevel, he said

In the previous meetingof IDC held on January 3, theChief Minister hadannounced to hand over sev-eral development works andscheme to the Zila Parishads.

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Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)leader and Sunam MLA

Aman Arora has written anoth-er letter to Punjab ChiefMinister Capt AmarinderSingh urging him for roll backof all subsequent hikes in thepower tariff affected during histenure.

Arora also demandedscrapping of power purchaseagreements (PPAs) entered intobetween the previous SAD-BJPGovernment and three privatethermal power plants underwhich the state was bound tocough up a whopping amountof Rs 2800 crore annually tothese private players even ifthey did not produce a singleunit of power, stating that theagreement was set to drain outPunjab's resources up to Rs70,000 crores in next 25 yearsunder the agreement.

Stressing the urgent needfor nailing down the officialmafia calling the shots underthe nose of the sleepy dispen-sation, AAP leader, in the let-ter on Friday, urged the CM to

deliver on his pre-electionpromise to provide power atcheaper and affordable rates toall sections of society, be itdomestic, commercial orindustrial, et al.

He urged the CM to comeout clean on as to what washolding his government toscrap, review or renegotiate theanti-state and anti-people con-tract terms with the privatepower companies, whichwould, surely than not, bringhuge relief to power consumersin the state.

AAP would be left with nochoice but to mount a state-wide stir to stop the open‘loot’ of the people of Punjab ifno action was taken in the mat-ter, the letter stated.

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Chandigarh: Aam AadmiParty (AAP) MLAs fromPunjab on Friday met officialsof the Union Ministry ofExternal Affairs, urging themto ensure the safe return oftwo Punjabi women "trapped"in Australia and Kuwait.

Legislators Kultar SinghSandhwan and Jai KishanSingh Rori met UnderSecretary GD Pande andother officials in New Delhi,urging them to facilitate theirrelease and safe return.

They said that young boys

and girls of the State were opt-ing for greener pastures on theforeign shores due to wrongpolicies of the state and Uniongovernments. They said thatunscrupulous travel agentswere running the nefarioustrade in the state.

Sandhwan demanded thegovernment should have zerotolerance when it came to act-ing against travel agents whowere managing their businessby fraudulently arranging fakevisas to trap innocent youth.

PNS

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From Page 1The case was registered after a video

surfaced saying an inverter company hadgiven funds to the state government tosnap power supply for 10-15 minutes afterevery two hours so as to increase its salein the state.

Later on, police had nabbed MangelalAgrawal (53) a resident of village Musraunder Dongargarh police station. Thevideo clip and the mobile phone used werealso seized.

Meanwhile, BJP and Congress havereacted sharply over the entire episode. BJP

state president Vikram Usendi while con-demning the ruling Congress governmentclaimed that the state government inplace of improving the power scenario inthe state was trying to censure people com-menting and writing on the issue.

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Dubai: The US military onFriday released a video showingIran's Revolutionary Guardremoving an unexploded limpetmine from one of the oil tankerstargeted near the Strait ofHormuz.

The US Navy rushed toassist the stricken vessels in theGulf of Oman off the coast ofIran, including one that was setablaze on Thursday by an explo-sion. The ships' operators offeredno immediate explanation onwho or what caused the damageagainst the Norwegian-ownedMT Front Altair and theJapanese-owned KokukaCourageous.

Each was loaded with petro-leum products, and the FrontAltair burned for hours, sendingup a column of thick, blacksmoke. Iran has denied beinginvolved in the attack, calling itan "unfounded claim" in the US'"Iranophobic campaign."However, Iran previously usedmines against oil tankers in1987 and 1988 in the "TankerWar," when the U.S. Navy escort-ed ships through the region.

The black-and-whitefootage, as well as still pho-tographs released by the U.S.Military's Central Command,appeared to show the limpetmine on the KokukaCourageous. A RevolutionaryGuard patrol boat pulled along-side the ship and removed themine, Central Command

spokesman Capt. Bill Urbansaid.

"The US and the interna-tional community stand ready todefend our interests, includingthe freedom of navigation,"Urban said. "The United Stateshas no interest in engaging in anew conflict in the Middle East.However, we will defend ourinterests." Iran earlier deniedinvolvement via a statementfrom its mission to the UnitedNations. "The US economic warand terrorism against the Iranianpeople as well as its massive mil-itary presence in the regionhave been and continue to be themain sources of insecurity andinstability in the wider PersianGulf region and the most sig-nificant threat to its peace andsecurity," the statement said.

The suspected attacksoccurred at dawn Thursdayabout 40 kilometers (25 miles)off the southern coast of Iran.The Front Altair, loaded with theflammable hydrocarbon mixturenaphtha from the United ArabEmirates, radioed for help as itcaught fire. A short time later,the Kokuka Courageous, loadedwith methanol from SaudiArabia and Qatar, also called forhelp.The US Navy sent adestroyer, the USS Bainbridge, toassist, said Cmdr. Joshua Frey, a5th Fleet spokesman. Hedescribed the ships as being hitin a "reported attack," withoutelaborating. AP

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Dubai: Iran dismissed as "base-less" on Friday US accusations itexecuted twin attacks that lefttwo tankers ablaze in the Gulf ofOman, raising fears of conflictin the strategically vital water-way.

China called for all sides to"resolve the conflict throughdialogue" as oil prices jumped,while the European Union andthe United Nations called forrestraint.

Secretary of State MikePompeo warned Washingtonwould defend its regional inter-ests after US Central Commandblamed Iranian forces for theattacks — the second in a monthin the strategic shipping lane.

CENTCOM released grainyblack-and-white video it saidshowed crew members of anIranian patrol boat removing an"unexploded limpet mine" fromthe hull of Japanese-ownedtanker Kokuka Courageous.

No proxy group could beresponsible, Pompeo said. ButForeign Minister MohammadJavad Zarif tweeted that the UShad "immediately jumped tomake allegations against Iranwithout a shred of factual or cir-cumstantial evidence". AFP

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Bishkek: Iranian PresidentHassan Rouhani said on Fridaythe United States present aserious threat to global andregional stability as tensionssoar in the Gulf.

"The US government overthe last two years, violating allthe international structuresand rules and using its eco-nomic, financial and militaryresources, has taken an aggres-sive approach and presents aserious risk to stability in theregion and the world," Rouhani

said, in translated comments.He was speaking at a meet-

ing in Bishkek of the ShanghaiCooperation Organisation -- aEurasian security alliance thatincludes China, India andRussia.

Rouhani criticised the USfor withdrawing from the 2015nuclear deal with Iran, sayingWashington is forcing otherparties and countries to breacha UN Security Council resolu-tion on normalising trade con-tacts with Tehran. AFP

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They could be rebels but they choseto be who they are, not ashamedor diffident or overtly proud, buthonest and true to their grain. Andin a country inured to a democ-

racy that is now governed by militarists, theyembody a new kind of nationalism and peo-ple’s power that’s subtly changing the socio-economic narrative of Thailand, demolish-ing every known stereotype and forcing a pol-icy change. You could call them social entre-preneurs, who are rescuing vulnerable com-munities, redrawing the Thai identity beyondthe sex-tourism gaze, lending voices to realissues and solving them in their micro-envi-rons. These little dots of resistance to statusquo may not qualify as protests or politicalmovements but are more collective impactsof individual efforts that can no longer bebrushed under the carpet. There’s an old Thaiproverb, “The best time to plant a tree was20 years ago. The second best time is now.”And this second best time is being spearhead-ed by the country’s globalised youth, who areback to reclaim their destiny on homeground, one that is buried in the legends ofSiam. And they are talking in a language thateverybody understands — tourism.

Beginning as a marine biologist, SirachaiShin Arunrugstichai had a passion for pho-tography and hoped to be a journalist cov-ering stories like protests, religious events andpolitics in Thailand. But lost in a crowd, heapplied his newly-acquired skill set to some-thing that his years as a deep sea diver hadtaught him, the need to conserve marine habi-tats which Thailand was fast losing to over-tourism and the beach economy. His photostories on what once was and what it hasbecome are telling reminders of humandepredations of natural resources that couldspell doom for Thailand’s tourism sector,which constitutes 20 per cent of the nation’sGDP. His work on Maya Bay, the sharks ofthe Andamans Sea, the plight of waternomads, the reappearance and disappearanceof fish, restoration and regrowth of corals andmangroves has gone a long way in influenc-ing tourism policy and getting a global audi-ence. Thanks to him, the authorities havebravely shut down the fragile Maya Bay forfour years, crumbling as it was under theweight of 5,000 footfalls when it is equippedto handle only 170 visitors at a time. As thesharks are slowly making their way back tothe waters there, Shin asserts he isn’t againsttourism as such but over-exploitation. Heargues if there is no sustainable managementmodule, then there would be no tourist econ-omy or marine resources left for livelihoodor humanity. “With our dependency on richresources of the surrounding two seas, themarine and coastal ecosystems of Thailandhave borne the cost. In accommodating masstourism, which does not exactly serve the pur-pose of conservation of resources, andunable to prevent continuous degradationthroughout the years, we need to change now.Some specks of islands have completely

changed in five years and I document thechanges to build a consciousness.” Shin nowworks closely with the Tourism Authority ofThailand, which for the first time is regulat-ing the beach economy with permits, grad-ed arrivals and limiting stay periods on thecountry’s pristine stretches. Shin’s narrative-driven photo stories are now what he callsLego blocks that make for a larger story ofexploitation and a new-age colonisation bygreed. Even the Western tourists, who onceturned Thailand’s sylvan beaches into anindulgent and hedonistic hideaway, are nowbeing forced to reshape their ideas of the per-missive and expansive Orient.

Then there is Lee Ayu Chuepa, who hasturned Thailand coffee, traditionally very bit-ter and had with condensed milk, into a spe-cialty brew with applied research and his UStraining on growing and roasting tech-niques. Born to the Akha hill tribe, the tra-ditional growers of coffee, he wasn’t reallycommitted to it till he completed university,worked for an NGO and learnt how curat-ing specialty coffees could lead to high eco-nomic worth. So he turned agriculturists intoagri-preneurs and made coffee, a crop he hadgrown up with, as a tool of community devel-opment. Having experienced the creaturecomforts that he obtained through a Westernknowledge system, he realised they wouldhave no meaning in a resource-scarce ordepleted world. “Look at what our conve-niences and aspirations have given us. Wechased gains but look where it has landed us,a plastic sea, no water and poverty of our peo-ple,” says Lee, highlighting the growing Thaiconsciousness to save neighbourhoods, cul-ture, communities and people without sub-jecting themselves to the approbation of oth-ers. Today Lee’s Akha Ama Coffee is both a

national and international brand, with a chainof boutique cafes in Chiang Mai and othercities. Lee’s social enterprise is based on smartlogic and the right market linkages. His farm-ers follow sustainable cropping methods,adapt them to customise the coffee toflavour profiles in demand, rotate other cropslike avocado in lean times and directly sellto the buyer networks, primarily the tourismindustry. So all boutique hotels in Thailandpick up curated batches of Akha Ama cof-fee from the farmers themselves. Not onlythat, Lee emphasises on creating a bio-diver-sity rich plantation that is complete with liv-ing organisms, birds and honey bees, allow-ing natural processes like pollination toimprove the ecosystem for his coffee. He evenconsults R&D and knowhow specialists ongrowing best coffee varietals and ensures azero-waste model where leftovers of a har-vest are used as fertilisers, manure and evenbody scrubs for the cosmetic industry.

He has made every young person of thecommunity a stakeholder in the coffeeenterprise so that each knows how to pre-sent his/her products and where to sell. Inshort, the growers collectively dictate themarket than the latter forcing them into astraitjacket. “We need to start a movementin our agriculture sector,” he says, his ideaalready cascading into local fruit buffets atevery tourist hotspot, allied products at everyshopping hub, plantation tourism and moreimportantly international branding of localfruits. The much sought after Durian is aSoutheast Asian favourite but the Thais havemarketed a superior variety that sells at$10,000 a kg! “The dream may not be asbeautiful as you imagined, so I am motivat-ed by new dreams. I have followed theancient wisdom of banana leaves from our

people. This is not a textbook project. Morethan money, social values matter,” Lee tellsus, summing up the resurgent face of Thaientrepreneurship from the hinterland.

But in Bangkok itself, the luxuriant worldcity that’s ever ready to serve your every crav-ing, its repressed underbelly has found a voicein Somsak Boonkam. He has been inspiredby India’s Dharavi to conceive his own slumtourism project at Klongtoey and transformthe community that the city hides under itsflyways. “We are using our backward clustersas a powerful communication tool. We arenot denying but owning up to the reality andhelping tourists get a rounded perspective ofthis city that I was born in and not see itthrough borrowed lenses,” he tells us. He isn’tlooking for sympathy or empathy but is pool-ing limited resources of small host commu-nities and sharpening their collective com-petitive advantage in the booming touristeconomy. He keeps it real, training commu-nities to design travel packages based on localcarrying capacity, skilling local youth as savvytour guides, empowering women to set upcraft and cuisine classes, forming collabora-tive clusters of communities which canshare limited resources and offer homestayfacilities. And he uses social media to mar-ket his tours to keep a steady flow of visitors.

His beehive approach has helped indi-vidual tour operators from getting wiped outin a highly competitive tourism market anddeveloped a system of affordable tourism seenfrom an insider’s perspective of Bangkok, tak-ing you to unknown sights and experiences.Financial sustainability is on the top ofSomsak’s agenda, so he allows local hosts tokeep 70 per cent of the tourism revenue anddiverts five per cent for public projects suchas education and waste management.Through his module, Somsak has been ableto restore pride among local communitieswho tend to become subservient and face-less employees of the large hospitality indus-try in a global tourist destination likeBangkok or set up formulaic home-unit mas-sage parlours. But with the slum redevelop-ment project, locals are for the first timebecoming an equal stakeholder and ownerof the throbbing tourist economy. With 36million tourists coming into Thailand andBangkok being its catchment area, locals con-tinue to be excluded from a lion’s share ofprofits although they lend their resources, cul-ture, heritage and skill sets to define the Thaiexperience for the world. Somsak is contin-uously upgrading his tourist packages and cre-ating specialist groups of tour guides, trans-port operators, pricing experts and hosts. Hehas even created a system of an elected bodyto manage the community development fundthat comes from tourism and allocate it foraddressing the most pressing need of the com-munity that he might have overlooked him-self. That could be something as basic as cre-ating a playground for children of the hostcommunity. This has encouraged a democ-ratic participation in everyday lives amonglocals outside the semi-dictatorial governancestructure at the central level. Somsak believesthat tourism can be a sustainable businessonly if it enhances and does not replace localbusinesses and jobs. Thailand’s young brigadeare applying the rules of Muay Thai andchampioning their own causes that are set-ting off a slow revolution of ideas and inde-pendence. Despite the obstacles.

(The writer is Associate Editor, ThePioneer)

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Sir — At a time when someChief Ministers of non-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)States are interested only inlocking horns with the Centrerather than concentrate on goodgovernance in their respectiveStates, the bonhomie betweenAndhra Pradesh Chief MinisterYS Jaganmohan Reddy andPrime Minister Narendra Modiis noteworthy.

The two belong to differentparties having different ideolo-gies and principles but settingaside all differences, they haveshown respect for each otherand good mutual understanding.Even though the YSR CongressParty is not part of the NDA, theway Jagan went to meet Modiimmediately after the electionresults were announced andrequested help for his State iscommendable.

Modi was also given a warmreception by Jagan during hisTirumala visit. Only time willtell if Jagan’s party will be partof the NDA, but what really mat-ters is the way in which the ChiefMinister of a state is ready toshake hands with the Centre

keeping in mind only growth,welfare, progress, developmentand prosperity of the people.

It is for this reason thatJagan can be regarded a modelChief Minister. There are somewho have time only to fight andcombat with the Centre becauseof ego and ideological differences.There are some who are mere

opportunists, who start spittingvenom at the Centre when thingsdon’t go their way. Jagan hasshown that he is a leader who isready to carve a niche of himselfin the political world. His goal isto work for the betterment of hisState and its people.

M Pradyu Kannur

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Lessons from Kathua” (June12). It is really sad that incidentsof child abuse, rape, assault onwomen and children are on therise all over the country.Thousands of rape cases are

pending in our courts and victimshave been awaiting justice yearstogether. The Kathua case mustserve as a template for other suchpending cases: Solid investigationand timely delivery of justice.Surely, there is no guarantee ofpreventive and proactive mea-sures to contain such nefariousincidents but expeditious justicecan be dispensed only by increas-ing the number of fast-trackcourts.

Nimai Charan SwainBhubaneswar

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Sir — According to historians,Sonora Smart Dodd came upwith the idea of honouring andcelebrating her father when shewas listening to a sermon in thechurch on mother’s day in 1909.Ever since Father’s Day celebra-tions have gained momentum allover the world. Fathers guide uswith their simple, logical andpractical thinking, which makesthem our role models and heroes.

Jubel D’CruzMumbai

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June 23 is the International Day for Widows. Eventoday, they are perceived as being a burden onsociety and inauspicious to the family. They still

have to contend with the “triple burden” in the formof stigma associated with their status, severe con-straints on access to resources and sexual vulnera-bility. Gender disparities make them one of the mostmarginalised and vulnerable communities in India.This is in stark contrast to their male counterpartswho are not subjected to similar socio-economicexclusion within households. In India, much of thestruggles and multiple vulnerabilities of widows con-tinue because of welfare-driven Government poli-cies. The absence of a rights-based approach inGovernment programmes makes them dependenton doles or pensions. There are about 44 millionwidows in our country. With the joint family struc-ture collapsing, many leave their homes voluntar-ily while some are thrown out by family members.They all gravitate to pilgrim cities like Vrindavan.

The temple town of Vrindavan in UttarPradesh is barely three hours from the national cap-ital New Delhi and is known as a magnet for wid-ows. Although they congregate from all over thecountry, the highest number flocks from WestBengal to worship Lord Krishna. Here, widows aredependent on charity and literally sing for their sup-per while seeking solace in religion. Just like 55-year-old Rupa Dasi, a widow living in Vrindavan for over15 years. She goes to the Bhajan Ashrams to chantprayers and gets 100 grams of rice and 50 grams ofpulses worth �4. Since she does not have the req-uisite documents, she does not have a ration orAntyodaya card. Nor does she get old age or widow’spension. Dasi represents a stream of widows typi-cal of Vrindavan — preferring to spend their timein prayer and living on charity.

But charity does not have to be the first and onlyoption as widows in Rajasthan have shown.Married at 19, Mankanwar became a widow afterseven years of marriage. Uneducated and a moth-er of two, she was thrown out by her in-laws, whohounded her to give up her share in the family prop-erty. But she didn’t give up. She sought help fromthe Ekal Nari Shakti Sangathan (ENSS), an organ-isation that works for single women in several States,including Rajasthan. The collective provided herlegal support to get control of her share in the fam-ily property.

However, Mankanwar also realised that sheneeded to be economically independent. Whilehelping ENSS in finding ways to empower othersingle women get their entitlements, she and theorganisation homed in on the livelihood optionoffered by the Government’s MGNREGA pro-gramme. But since job cards were traditionallymade in the name of the family, ENSS found a largenumber of its widow members being deprived ofemployment after the death of their husbands. Aftera vociferous campaign by ENSS and its membersfor individual ones, separate job cards in their nameswere issued. The Rajasthan Government issuedorders in 2009 that a widow and her children shouldbe considered an independent family unit. It man-dated that a separate job card be given to the widow,irrespective of whether she lived with her parentsor in-laws, and that no supporting documents orration cards should be called for to make the sep-arate job card.

This resulted in a 10-15 per cent increase in sep-

arate job cards for widows, leading to aboost in employment of widows underMGNREGA. Records show that 69 percent of Rajasthan’s 95 lakh job cards arenow being utilised by women, much high-er than the national average of 49 per centwomen benefiting from MGNREGA. TheENSS also suggested that certain cate-gories of work, which do not involve heavymanual labour like watering of plants andmonitoring of sites, should be identifiedand reserved for older widows to enabletheir inclusion within MGNREGA.Consequently, MGNREGA supervisorswere asked to allot less physically stren-uous work to older people at their work-sites.

The Rajasthan ENSS model hasshown that when widows are organisedand are part of a collective, they are lesslikely to be cheated or harassed. This iswhy ENSS was able to successfully lobbyfor an increase in the Government grantgiven to widows at the time of their daugh-ters’ marriage and an extension of thewidow Palanhar scheme for their chil-dren’s education up to the age of 18 as wellas an increase in education allowance. TheState widow pension amount was alsoincreased and preference was given towidows in Government jobs.

But for widows not a part of such col-lectives, life has not been so smooth. A2014 UN Women study on the pro-grammes and policies for widows in India,Nepal and Sri Lanka found that most poli-cies for them lack a rights-based approachand are designed with assumptions andconditions rooted in patriarchy.Government welfare programmes treatwidows as a homogenous group. But thesituation of widows varies considerably,depending on age, societal norms, theirgeographical location, educational levelsand also on who their husbands were.

Social norms around widowhood furthercomplicate their access to basic servicesand welfare schemes, meaning that link-ing them to entitlement would need moreefforts by the Government as well as bycivil society organisations.

Fortunately, India now enumerateswidows in its population census. However,there is a paucity of analytical data — bothquantitative and qualitative — on sever-al aspects such as access to healthcare,inheritance, property ownership, pover-ty levels and crime against widows. Thereis particular dearth of studies that couldelaborate on issues of women belongingto minority groups, those residing in con-flict affected areas and widows residing inremote locations.

A lack of integrated services and com-plex procedures are significant chal-lenges for widows. In India, severalGovernment Ministries implementschemes for widows but there is no con-vergence of services. Further, poor coor-dination and implementation of otherprogrammes for destitute women has ledto the exclusion of particularly margin-alised and illiterate widows. Proceduresand documents required to accessGovernment benefits still remain com-plex. A lack of education as well as finan-cial illiteracy adds to the problems ofaccess for widows. On the part of theGovernment, weak monitoring andreporting systems further add to gaps inimplementation.

The best way to tackle these issueswould be to have a single-window sys-tem to converge services of differentdepartments to facilitate widows’ entitle-ments for shelter, pension, health andfood among other things. TheGovernment/local bodies should be pro-active as well as flexible in implementingthe existing policies and programmes;

providing necessary documents requiredby widows to access all their entitlements,especially pensions.

Giving them a life of dignity is pos-sible if a needs assessment is regularlyconducted for skill and job developmentthat is age-appropriate and in keepingwith the educational level of the widows.If Livelihood Mission and the SkillDevelopment Mission in India as well ascivil society organisations engaged in pro-viding skill training for emerging job mar-kets keep in mind the needs of widows,it can change their lives. The best way toboost their self-esteem and confidence isby helping them move up the economicladder.

A good example already exists in ourneighbouring country Nepal. TheGovernment’s policy there of giving landon lease to groups of widows to build shel-ter homes or chhaharis has helped in theirempowerment. These chhaharis provideskill training, economic and emotionalsupport to help widows become financial-ly independent.

In August 2017, the Supreme Courtconstituted an expert committee on thestatus of widows to suggest how the livesof 44 million of them could be bettered.The committee, comprising severalNGOs like Jagori, Guild of Service,HelpageIndia and Sulabh International,submitted its report to the apex courtwithin three months. The findings andrecommendations by the committeewere similar to those in the UN womenreport. The court directed theGovernment to implement the recommendations. However, even afteralmost two years, no action has beentaken yet. How many more years willwidows have to wait for their right tolive a life of dignity?

(The writer is a senior journalist)

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Healthy women provide thefoundation for a healthy India.To make universal healthcare

a tangible milestone in the country’sdevelopment journey, women’s health-care requirements need to be account-ed for. A key period of health risk inmost women’s lives is pregnancy. AndGovernment-sponsored maternalhealth programmes have been insti-tuted to provide safety and security topregnant women. However, the keymaternal benefit programme of thecountry, the Pradhan Mantri MatritvaVandana Yojana (PMMVY), whichpromises �5,000 to pregnant women,suffers from critical drawbacks in bothdesign and implementation. It isexclusionary by the eligibility criteria

and impedes universal access to thescheme through an ill-designed enrol-ment procedure.

Under PMMVY, pregnant andlactating women are provided �5,000in three instalments. The gapingloophole in the eligibility criteria is thatbenefits are only provided for the birthof the first child. In a country with aTotal Fertility Rate (TFR) of 2.33, thepolicy of restricting the scheme to justthe first child is impractical to say theleast and exclusionary when seen intotality.

In fact, the earlier form of thematernity benefit programme, theIndira Gandhi Matritva Sahyog Yojana(IGMSY), allowed women to accessdisbursement for two live births. Theeligibility criteria have consciouslybeen curtailed in the present scheme.Moreover, it makes no attempt toaccommodate miscarriage or infantmortality. If an eight-month pregnantwoman, who has already accessed thescheme, loses her child, she is not eli-gible for the second or third instalmentfor her next pregnancy.

If a woman loses her child with-in the first 28 days, then, too, she is

deemed ineligible for future pregnan-cies. A NITI Aayog report on IGMSYstated that about 12 per cent of thebeneficiaries under the scheme mis-carried. The same 12 per cent wouldbe ineligible under the present scheme.

By August 2018, only 52 per centof the beneficiary enrolment target(of August 2018) had been met. Asevident, even for women who man-age to comply with these stringenteligibility criteria, there are inherentroadblocks in the enrolment processthat prevent them from accessing thescheme.

This is because one of the crit-

ical documents required for thescheme, apart from the woman’sAadhaar card and bank documents,is the Aadhaar card of her husband.Inclusion of the husband’s Aadhaarcard is problematic as it hindersfinancial autonomy of the woman.It also makes her decisions abouther own reproductive health depen-dent on her husband’s presence orconsent.

This provision ignores the socio-economic realities of rural India.Chanchal Devi, a 21-year-old pregnantwoman in Uttar Pradesh’s Ballia dis-trict, could not access the scheme

because her husband works at con-struction sites in Delhi during the win-ter months. She had to run a house-hold with her in-laws, hence all of herhusband’s income was dedicated to themaintenance of the household, includ-ing daily food and emergency provi-sions. She had no money to take careof her during pregnancy and could notenroll under the scheme.

Her neighbours faced similarproblems in accessing the schemeand, hence, abandoned hope for anyGovernment maternity benefits.Seasonal migration is a well-recog-nised phenomenon in India. About92 per cent, ie 12.6 million, makes upthe majority of short-term ruralmigrants (NSSO 2007-08). Wives ofthese men, who become first-timemothers, would face significant hur-dles in enrolling under the scheme.

What’s surprising and even con-tradictory is that the principle ofwomen’s financial autonomy hasbeen kept in mind in the case ofother Government programmes.Take for example, the much-laudedUjjwala scheme, where LPG connec-tions are provided to BPL households

with only the woman’s Aadhaar andbank account required for registra-tion. Other State-level maternitybenefit programmes like TamilNadu’s Dr Muthulakshmi MaternityBenefit scheme and Odisha’sMAMTA scheme only require thewoman’s Aadhaar card and bankaccount details for disbursement.

In the future, while enrolmentnumbers can still be manipulated toachieve the set targets, the schemestill does not recognise the principleof female financial autonomy orpractical concerns of migration.While PMMVY developed from afunctioning maternity benefit pro-gramme, it does not exhibit any signsof a new and improved version. It isdesired that schemes impacting avulnerable section of the populationlike pregnant women should bepiloted in the first stage to remove orrectify the loopholes. Social sectorschemes when rolled out withoutadequate research do serve the causeof a Government’s achievement butnot one of a universal healthy India.

(The writer is with SwanitiInitiative)

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The Indian r up e e onFriday fell by another

30 paise to close at 69.80against the US currency asstrengthening greenback andrising crude oil prices keptinvestors cautious.

Besides, weak Asian cur-rencies and an intense sell-offin domestic equities also putpressure on the domestic currency.

On weekly basis, therupee saw a fall of 34 paise.

At the interbank foreignexchange (forex) market, thedomestic currency openedhigher at 69.55 per dollar, butlost ground during the dayand fell to 69.85. The rupeefinally settled at 69.80, down30 paise over its previousclose.

The rupee had settled at69.50 against the US dollarThursday.

“The rupee weakened fora second day against US dol-lar, taking cues from the otherAsian currencies,” said V KSharma, Head-PCG & CapitalMarket Strategy, HDFCSecurities.

Brent crude futures, theglobal oil benchmark, climbed0.11 per cent to $61.38 perbarrel.

The dollar index, whichgauges the greenback’s

strength against a basket of sixcurrencies, rose 0.10 per centto 97.11.

Meanwhile, the 10-yeargovernment bond yield was at6.92 per cent on Friday.

Sharma further said thatthe important event to watchout for the next week is USFederal Open MarketCommittee (FOMC) meet-ing, scheduled on June 18 and 19.

“Though Fed interest rateprobability don’t expect anychange in the June meeting,pricing a cut in July meet,” hesaid.

Foreign institutionalinvestors (FIIs) remained netsellers in the capital markets,pulling out �238.64 croreFriday, provisional datashowed.

Benchmark indices set-tled for the day in the negativeterritory. The BSE Sensexclosed at 39,452.07, down by289.29 points, or 0.73 percent. The wider NSE Niftytumbled 90.75 points, or 0.76per cent, to finish at 11,823.30.

Meanwhile, FinancialBenchmark India Private Ltd(FBIL) set the reference ratefor the rupee/dollar at 69.3579and for rupee/euro at 78.3740.The reference rate forrupee/British pound was fixedat 88.0207 and for rupee/100Japanese yen at 64.03.

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The BSE Sensex stayed onthe back foot for the third

straight session Friday asinvestors dialled down equityexposure amid high valua-tions and a fresh spell ofuncertainty in the global markets.

After a subdued opening,the benchmark faced suddenselling pressure in the lasthalf-hour of trade to close at39,452.07, down by 289.29points, or 0.73 per cent.

During the week, theSensex fell 163.83 points or0.41 per cent, while the Niftylost 47.35 points or 0.39 per cent.

Only five of the 30 Sensexstocks finished with gainsFriday. These were L&T,Vedanta, Sun Pharma,PowerGrid and TCS, whichrose up to 0.80 per cent.

Top losers includedIndusInd Bank, Bharti Airtel,Tata Motors, Axis Bank, KotakBank, Bajaj Auto, Yes Bank,HCL Tech, HUL and HeroMotoCorp, falling up to 4.36per cent.

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Wholesale price-basedinflation hit a 22-month

low of 2.45 per cent in Mayhelped by falling prices of foodarticles, fuel and power items,and this in turn may promptthe Reserve Bank to go foranother cut in key interestrates in the current fiscal.

The Wholesale Price Index(WPI)-based inflation was at3.07 per cent in April this year.It was 4.78 per cent in May2018.

Inflation in food articlesbasket was 6.99 per cent InMay, 2019, down from 7.37 percent in April, official datareleased Friday said.

However, onion pricesspiked during the month withinflation at 15.89 per cent, asagainst (-) 3.43 per cent inApril. Inflation in pulses con-tinued in double digit for fourconsecutive months at 18.36per cent in May, up from 14.32per cent in the previous month.

WPI inflation in May is thelowest in 22 months, sinceJuly 2017, when it was at 1.88per cent.

India Ratings & ResearchPrincipal Economist SunilKumar Sinha said the coreinflation at 1.2 per cent is 29months low in May 2019. “Thisis clearly an indication of weak-ening of demand impulse in theeconomy. Dwindling auto andFMCG sales growth has been

pointing towards this for pastseveral months.”

This delayed and less thannormal monsoon could aggra-vate the food inflation furtherin the coming months lest thegovernment monitors the situ-ation proactively, checks spec-ulative activities and inter-venes in the market to stabiliseprices, he added.

“India Ratings believesthere is still a scope of one morerate cut in FY’20. However,besides being dependent ondata it will also take into con-sideration fiscal policy stance ofthe government,” Sinha said.

Vegetables inflation easedto 33.15 per cent in May, downfrom 40.65 per cent in the pre-vious month. Inflation in pota-to was (-) 23.36 per cent, against(-) 17.15 per cent in April.

Inflation in ‘fuel andpower’ category cooled to 0.98per cent, from 3.84 per cent lastmonth on account of softeningof global crude oil prices.

Manufactured items toosaw decline in prices with infla-tion at 1.28 per cent in May,against 1.72 per cent in April.

WPI inflation data forMarch has been revised down-wards to 3.10 per cent fromprovisional 3.18 per cent.

Data released earlier thisweek showed retail inflationspiked to a 7-month high of3.05 per cent in May, on cost-lier vegetables, and protein-richitems.

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Shares of grounded JetAirways continued the

downward trend, plungingnearly 12 per cent on Friday,after stock exchanges, earlierthis week, decided to imposerestrictions on its stock tradingfrom June 28.

The scrip tanked 10.77 percent to close at �82.05 on theBSE. Intra-day, the airline’sstock tumbled 13.37 per cent totouch its multi-year low at Rs79.65.

On the NSE, shares plum-meted 11.80 per cent to closeat �81.05.

In terms of traded volume,19.47 lakh shares were tradedon the BSE, while over 1 croreshares were traded on the NSE.

The shares had crackednearly 18 per cent on Thursdayalso. The scrip has been fallingfor 10 consecutive days, tum-bling 45.60 per cent.

Stock exchanges willimpose restrictions on tradingin Jet Airways shares fromJune 28 as part of preventivesurveillance measures to curbexcessive volatility, according toa circular.

The cash-starved airlinesuspended operations in Apriland lenders are working onways for its revival.

There are restrictions intrading of shares that are underTrade for Trade Segment.

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Shares of Reliance Capitaland Rel iance Home

Finance fell for a third con-secutive day Friday, with theformer plunging up to 9.3 percent after PwC resigned asthe statutory auditor of bothcompanies.

Shares of Reliance Capitaltanked 9.30 per cent to closeat Rs 76.55 on the BSE. Intra-day, the scrip dropped 13.15per cent to hit a 52-week lowof Rs 73.30.

Reliance Home Financeshares fell 4.01 per cent toclose at Rs 14.35. During theday, it plunged 7.35 per centto a one-year low of Rs 13.85.

On Wednesday, shares ofboth firms tumbled up to 7per cent and the followingday the scrips saw a declineof up to 12.3 per cent.

Regulator Sebi andMinistry of Corporate Affairsare looking into the suddenresignation of PwC as audi-tor of both firms and have

asked the stock exchanges tocollect all necessary infor-mation including tradedetails and statements madeby the three entities.

The developmentassumes significance in thewake of the auditors’ rolecoming under scanner ofmultiple agencies in casesinvolving various corporatehouses, including listed com-panies.

The regulator, the min-istry and the exchanges mayalso seek additional detailsfrom the auditor and twocompanies, if required, saidsenior officials.

Anil Ambani- ledReliance Capital and RelianceHome Finance Wednesdaysaid Price Waterhouse & CoChartered Accountants(PwC) has resigned as statu-tory auditor of both compa-nies.

The companies said theydid “not agree with the rea-sons given by PwC” for itsresignation.

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Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) issupportingCentral Jail, Varanasi to build capacity of prisoners

to adopt entrepreneurship as a way of livelihood. In Central Jailprisoners are imparted various skills which helps them to producevariety of goods including food/bakery items, handicrafts etc.Underthe initiative, SIDBI has recently supported in setting up a mar-ket outlet for displaying and selling products made in the jail.

This will not only provide additional income to prisoners butbuild their capacity in learning nuances of marketing productsincluding revisits/reshape/reposition as per demand of customers.

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With an aim to speed upacceptance and adoption

of digital payments in India,Mastercard and Payswiff havesigned a strategic alliance topromote low-cost paymentsacceptance solutions beyondthe top eight cities in the coun-try. Payswiff ’s SET, a mobileapplication is at the core of thisalliance. It allows individualsand business owners to acceptpayments using more than 60payment options, includingcredit cards and debit cards, e-wallets, e-payment links, UPI,Bharat QR, multi-bank EMI, etc.

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India’s service sector exportsrose by 2.8 per cent to $18.06

billion in the first month of thecurrent fiscal, RBI data showedFriday.

The services receipt orexports during April 2018stood at $17.56 billion.

Services payments orimports in April 2019 were at$11.4 billion, up by 4.6 per centfrom $10.92 billion in the samemonth of 2018-19, according tothe RBI data on India’s inter-national trade in services forApril 2019.

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Venezuelan shopkeeperManuel Saavedra says new

US sanctions are stranglinghim — and lots of other every-day people.

A video game store ownerin Caracas, Saavedra has beenforced to raise prices as prod-ucts became harder to importfrom May 15, when the USTransportation Departmentsuspended passenger and cargoservices between the US andVenezuela.

Washington has imposedthat and other punishment inhopes of undermining PresidentNicolas Maduro and helpingopposition leader Juan Guaido,who is recognized as interimpresident by more than 50 coun-tries, force him from power.

But Saavedra says thosenew sanctions hurt averagecitizens more than they do theMaduro regime.

“They’re suffocating us,ordinary citizens,” he said.

“I don’t know how long itwill last. In any country (sanc-tions) affect everyone (but)less so those in government.”Air courier companiesincreased their charges from

$3.50 to $4.50 per pound fol-lowing the latest US sanctionswhile maritime shipments wentfrom $8 to $10 per cubic meter,says Saavedra.

Packages can no longer besent directly from the US andmust now first pass throughPanama or the DominicanRepublic in order to circum-vent the sanctions.

“That pushes up the costsand means that you sell less,”Saavedra told AFP.

It’s one of a number ofextra hassles facing ordinaryVenezuelans as a consequenceof US sanctions, such as fuelshortages and sky-high air-fares. Even before that latestembargo, Venezuela’s cripplingeconomic crisis weighed heav-ily on its businesses and citizens.

Five years of recession andinflation which theInternational Monetary Fundsays will reach a staggering 10million percent this year havetaken their toll.

The United Nations says aquarter of the 30-million-strong population is in need ofhumanitarian aid and 3.3 mil-lion people have fled the coun-try since the end of 2015.

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Government think tankNITI Aayog’s proposal to

decontrol foodstuffs, includingedible oils, oilseeds, fertilisersand seeds of agricultural prod-ucts from the EssentialCommodities Act (ECA), 1955has irked several Ministries,including Agriculture,Petroleum, and Chemicals andFertilisers. Prime MinisterNarendra Modi is expected todiscuss the issue at the NITIAayog meeting on Saturday.

The ECA gives consumersprotection against irrationalspikes in prices of essentialcommodities. The Governmentinvokes the Act to ensure adequate supplies by crackingdown on hoarders and black-marketeers of such

commodities. According to officials, if

control is removed, there wouldbe no control or check over saleof spurious seeds, drugs, petro-leum products and fertilisers orhoardings in the case of suddenprice rise. On the other hand,NITI Aayog has sought classi-fications of controlled com-modities and de-controlledcommodities. The Aayog saidthat control can be placed onlyin case of war, for safe opera-tion of defence forces, extraor-dinary instances related nation-al security or in times ofnational disaster or inordinateprice rises or inordinate supplydeficiencies.

NITI Aayog says the Act isnot in tune with present times.“It made sense at a time when

the transport infrastructureacross the country was poorand markets not integrated. Soa production shock in onepart of the country could leadto hoarding and black market-ing. That’s not the case any-more. Shortages in one part ofthe country can be counteredif there is ample supply some-where else,” said officials.

“The periodic requirementor removal of licensing etcdissuades the trade from build-ing any long term relationship,domestic or international andkeeps the agricultural market-ing chain opportunities innature, unorganized in func-tioning and unplanned in itsgrowth. The controls so placedalso tend to impose unwar-ranted diktats on cultiva-tion/production and disallowsbuilding the capacity to accessnew markets for aproposgrowth that the agriculturalvalue system possesses. The ecosystem remains limited in itsmarket range, market accessand cannot even conceive or

properly monetising its output,”the NITI Aayog said in its let-ter to the agriculture ministry.

“In the context of ongoingliberalization of Indian econo-my and in order to facilitatefree flow of market forces, therationalizing and progressivedismantling of the system ofcontrol and restriction in theagricultural economy is war-ranted for the overall benefit ofboth farmers and consumers,”it added.

The ECA was enacted wayback in 1955. It has since beenused by the Government toregulate the production, supplyand distribution of a whole hostof commodities it declares‘essential’in order to make themavailable to consumers at fairprices.The list of items underthe Act include drugs, fertilis-ers, pulses and edible oils, andpetroleum and petroleumproducts. The Centre caninclude new commodities asand when the need arises andtake them off the list once thesituation improves.

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BJP vice-president and for-mer Madhya Pradesh Chief

Minister Shivraj SinghChouhan on Friday announcedthat the mammoth member-ship drive of the party wouldcommence from July 6, thebirth anniversary of BharatiyaJana Sangh’s founder SyamaPrasad Mukherjee.

Even as the membershipdrive would go cross-country,the BJP leader said some Stateswould come in for special focus. This includesWest Bengal, Tamil Nadu,Ponducherry, Odisha,Telangana, Andhra Pradesh,Sikkim and Jammu & Kashmir.There would be booth-levelfocus in all the States.

Addressing a Press confer-ence a day after he was put in-charge of the membership drive,Chouhan said the party has topass many milestones and inthis endeavour it would like toadd 20 per cent more- 2.20crore-members this time round.

“But this target is theminimum required, weare aiming at muchbigger target,” he said.

The membershipdrive that BJP startedlast time in 2015 hadculminated with the party turn-ing the largest political party inthe world with a membershipof over 11 crore.

Choudhan saidMukherjee’s birthday, July 6,was the most auspicious day tostart the membership drivecampaign and party has alreadydrafted in-charge and deputy-in-charge from each State toassist the drive and their nameswould be out by Friday night.

He said a detailed previewof the task would be done onJune 17 when party presidentAmit Shah too would attendthe discussions. On June 26, theState in-charge and deputy in-charge of each state for themembership task would meethere for further deliberations.

The BJP leader said thoughPrime Minister’s popularity

coupled with thesharp strategy ofShah led BJP to anstupendous victoryin the Lok Sabhapoll, the hard worldof workers at all

level from booth to State-levelcontributed to this great suc-cess. He said there was need tostrengthen party organisationfrom the lowest level to thehighest tier.

He said membership isalways at the core of party’sexpansion plan. He said alongwith BJP’s slogan ‘sabka Saath Sabka Vikas’ would go organisation’s other ‘mantra’ “Sarvsparshi BJP andsarvayapi BJP”.

Chouhan said after theLok Sabha polls, the BJP hasidentified “weak booths” anddecided to deploy party work-ers for special membership dri-ves in all such booths. He saidmembership drive would be bymissed-call but this time partywould also get forms filled bythe new members.

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Taking suo motu cognisanceof an incident in which a

journalist was allegedly beatenup by police in Uttar Pradesh’sShamli district, the PressCouncil of India has set up afact-finding committee andsought a reply from the StateGovernment, among others.

The fact-finding commit-tee, comprising JaishankarGupta and Uttam ChandraSharma, Members, PressCouncil of India, will visitShamli on Saturday to ascertainthe details of the incident.

The Press Council of India(PCI) has taken suo motu cog-nisance of the alleged attack onAmit Sharma of News 24 channel, at Shamli, a PCI state-ment said.

It has sought reply fromthe chief secretary, directorgeneral of police, the UttarPradesh Government, and theSenior Superintendent ofPolice, GRP, Shamli. The coun-cil expresses concern over suchincident, which tends toundermine the freedom ofpress, the statement said.

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Six Governors and four ChiefMinisters met Home

Minister Amit Shah on Fridayand discussed with him various issues concerning theirrespective States.

Talking to reporters afterthe meeting Andhra PradeshChief Minister YS JaganmohanReddy said “we are trying toconvince for the need for spe-cial category status” and willdiscuss Saturday’s NITI Aayogmeeting with all Chief Ministers.

Jagan said he requestedShah to “soften PM’s heart” onthe issue of granting special

category status to the �2.58lakh crore debt-ridden state.Asked if the post of deputyspeaker in Lok Sabha wasoffered to YSRCP, he said,“Please don’t speculate on allthese things. First of all, thereis no offer... We have not askedand we have not spoken. Andneither any such proposal hascome from any quarter. As ofnow, there is no conversation ortalk on that.”

Assam Chief MinisterSarbananda Sonowal met theHome Minister s also DefenceMinister Rajnath Singh anddiscussed with them various

issues concerning the state.During the 15-minute meetingwith the home minister, theChief Minister briefed himabout the prevailing situation inAssam, where the final list ofthe National Register ofCitizens (NRC) will be pub-lished on July 31.

“It was a courtesy call andI have congratulated him onbehalf of the people for beingchosen as the home minister ofthe country. I have also briefedhim about the prevailing lawand order situation in Assam,”he told reporters after themeeting with Shah. Sonowal is

also believed to have discussedwith Shah about the situationwhich may arise after the pub-lication of the final list of theNRC. During his meeting withthe Defence Minister, the Chief Minister discussed with him certain issues con-cerning Assam.

The Governors who metthe Home minister were UttarPradesh’s Ram Naik, Haryana’sSatyadev Narayan Arya, Goa’sMridula Sinha, Assam’s JagdishMukhi, Meghalaya’s TathagataRoy and Sikkim’s GangaPrasad. Among the chiefministers who met Shah wereGoa’s Pramod Sawanta andSikkim’s Prem Singh Tamang.

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The Information andBroadcasting Ministry has

directed all satellite TV chan-nels to display the casting,credits and titles of Hindi andregional language serials inthe respective languages also.The Government said this is topromote Indian languages,enhance outreach and benefitTV viewers of the country.

It has come to the notice ofthe Ministry of Informationand Broadcasting that severalHindi and regional languageTV channels display the cast-

ing, credits, titles of Hindi andregional language TV serialsonly in English, an officialstatement said.

This practice tends todeprive people versed withHindi and regional languagesof the valuable informationabout casting of TV serials orprogrammes, it said.

“With a view to enhanceoutreach and benefit TV view-ers of the country, the ministryhas advised all private satelliteTV channels to consider dis-playing the casting, credits,titles of Hindi and Regional lan-guages TV serials in the respec-

tive languages also,” the state-ment said. “Today we are issu-ing an order to all TV channelsthat whatever the serials theybroadcast or whatever the pro-grammes they conduct at theend or beginning titles are givenand many times the titles are inEnglish. To promote Indianlanguages, we have asked chan-nels to give those titles in thelanguage in which the broadcastis made,” I&B Minister PrakashJavadekar said.

In addition to that lan-guage, if they want to give titlesin English also, they are free todo so, he said.

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New Delhi: The Supreme Courton Friday refused to entertain aplea which sought quashing ofthe answer keys of some ques-tions in the NEET(UG)-2019examination saying that anexpert body has duly applied itsmind and revised answers were issued.

The top court, however,allowed the four Hyderabadbased students who have challenged the answer keys, toapproach the high court for the relief.

It said that courts are notexperts in each and every sub-ject and time has come when theinterference in this arena shouldbe stopped.

A vacation bench of Justices

Ajay Rastogi and Surya Kantallowed the four medical aspi-rants to withdraw their plea andgranted them liberty to approachthe high court with their griev-ances.

At the outset, senior advo-cate Abhishek Manu Singhvi,appearing for the students, saidthat wrong answer key weregiven by the National TestingAgency which conducted theexam on May 5.

He said the five questions

having four marks each hadmore than one correct answersor had an answer which was different from answer key issuedby the NTA.

“All multiple choice answerscannot be scrutinized by the thiscourt. We are not experts. Wethink somewhere some line needs to be drawn,” thebench said.

It said that interfering withthe answer key would mean thatSupreme Court has become anappellate body above the NTA.

The bench said that after theanswer keys were issued to thequestions asked in the May 5examination, several studentshad made representation aboutthe correct answers and subse-

quently revised answer key were issued.

“We see, an expert body hasapplied its mind and revisedanswer key was issued. In somecases, the answers were corrected. There does not seemsto be a case of mala fide intent,”it said.

Singhvi said that studentscareer will be affected if theanswers key were not correctedand suggested that an expertbody should be constitutedwhich shall look into the correctanswer keys as the counsellingis yet to start from June 19.

“Now a days, there is toomuch interference going on inthis arena which is creating lotof problem,” the bench said. PTI

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The EnforcementDirectorate (ED) has filed

a case of money laundering inan alleged ponzi scheme in thegarb of Islamic banking inKarnataka, involving the firmIMA Jewels, which dupedthousands of Muslim investorsof an estimated over �1,500 crore during the lastover one decade.

The ED has taken cogni-sance of the complaints regis-tered by the Karnataka policeand the subsequent creation ofa special investigation team(SIT) to probe the alleged fraudby the dubious firm IMAJewels led by MohammedMansoor Khan.

ED’s zonal office inBengaluru filed anEnforcement Case InformationReport (ECIR), FIR in policeparlance under the criminalcharge of Prevention of MoneyLaundering Act (PMLA).

The Central agency is nowgathering documents related tothe case and will summon theaccused persons after scruti-nizing the gathered materials inconnection with the probe bythe State police.

The cheated investors ofthe ponzi scheme filed as manyas 26,000 complaints with thepolice against the ‘I MonetaryAdvisory (IMA) jewels’ storeafter an audio clip surfacedwith a person namedMohammed Mansoor Khan,

alleged to be its founder andmanaging director, heard say-ing he is going to commit sui-cide as he was fed up with cor-ruption.

Khan had also alleged theShivajinagar Congress MLARoshan Baig took �400 crorefrom him and was not return-ing it. However, Baig rub-bished the charge, alleging thathis political adversaries hadorchestrated the “series ofevents” to tarnish his character.

The investors of the ponzischeme are mainly vendors,small businessmen and frommiddle and lower middle class,essentially of the MuslimCommunity.

Khan is suspected to havefled to Dubai earlier thismonth.

Taking advantage of theIslamic postulation againstearning interest, Khan hadreportedly turned the investorsinto shareholders of his busi-ness and promised distributingthe profit from his earnings andin the process packaging thedubious scheme as an accept-ed Islamic system.

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Joe Root struck twice against the WestIndies as England kept the Caribbean

side in check in their World Cup clashon Friday.

England pacemen Chris Woakesand Jofra Archer kept things tight earlyon, restricting Jason Holder's side to justeight runs off the first five overs inSouthampton.

Opener Chris Gayle then found hisrange, smashing Archer for two straightfours, but in the next over he sliced downto third man off Woakes, only for asprawling Mark Wood to put down thechance after seemingly having the ballunder control.

The left-handed Gayle, who has pre-viously indicated this will be his lastWorld Cup, has now overtaken VivRichards as the leading scorer in one-dayinternationals between England andthe West Indies.

But England ensured they did notpay too heavily for their miss, with JonnyBairstow making no mistake on thesquare leg boundary after Gayle did notquite get hold of a Liam Plunkett shortdelivery.

Two balls later West Indies were indeep trouble at 55-3 when Shai Hope wastrapped in front of the wicket by Wood.

Nicholas Pooran and ShimronHetmyer combined to put on 89 runs forthe fourth wicket before Test captainRoot struck, catching Hetmyer off his

own bowling for 39.Root, only an occasional bowler,

then struck again in his next over whenWest Indies captain Jason Holder (nine)could only pop the ball up for anothercaught and bowled immediately after asix over long-off.

Andre Russell battered two sixes offleg spinner Adil Rashid in three balls, butthen did not quite get hold of a Woodshort ball and was caught by Woakes at

deep midwicket.When Pooran was caught behind for

63 by Jos Buttler off Archer, West Indieswere 202-7 in the 40th over.

Earlier, Jason Roy, who scored a cen-tury in England's win againstBangladesh, pulled up with an injury andhad to leave the field.

It was announced he would not fieldfor the rest of the innings, suffering withtightness to his left hamstring and

therefore cannot bat higher than num-ber seven.

Three of the previous four match-es at the World Cup in England andWales have been wrecked by rain, withteams forced to share a point apiece.

England have two wins and onedefeat while the West Indies have a win,a defeat and a no result so far.

All 10 teams play each other in theround-robin phase to determine the foursemi-finalists.

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So, it's finally India-Pakistan, theICC's biggest moment plannedfor this Sunday at Manchester,

the platinum-ticket event which noone wants to miss, apparently not eventhe rain!

On the weather chart, the precip-itation is slated to rise to an alarming60 per cent with at least one and a halfhour of rain predicted on match day,June 16. Otherwise, it is to be a cloudyday with spotty showers on a humid-ity level of 75 per cent, meaningPakistani pace battery Amir after hisfifer burst against Australia will be rar-ing to go.

All fingers, thus, are crossed andprayers in place that the skies give thisblockbuster safe passage. A day-and-a-half before the match it rained theentire morning with the sun decidingto come out only towards the after-noon, giving huge sighs of relief, tillthe next cloud came to cover up thesunshine moment.

The India-Pakistan tie has drawnfans from all over the world, includ-ing both sides of the border, America,

Canada, Australia and the Middle Eastto name a few regions. "We are hereall the way from Bahrain for thismatch and we will lose Rs 1 lakh inmatch ticket money if the match getsimpacted by the rain," said VK Georgewho just checked into Manchester onMonday.

Rain has been unreasonablyintense this season, so much so thatlocals call it unprecedented. But if onewere to check the rain records ofEngland, June has always been itswettest summer month, raising manyeyebrows on the scheduling of theCup in this month. "Barring lastyear, for five summers, June hasrained like never before and this Juneis no different so I don't know whyICC or anyone else should be so sur-prised," said James Barry, a Nott whofeels cloud seeding like China did dur-ing the Olympics could keep some ofthe rain at bay.

Besides disrupting player readi-ness for the match, a downpour playshavoc on the points table too. Asmany as seven teams, including India,have lost a point to rain, Lanka beingthe most unlucky one to have lost two.

India was on a winning spree, havingdefeated South Africa and Australiaon the trot, before being put on holdby the weather at Trent Bridge.

"It is frustrating to wait in thedressing room on a rainy day. It's achallenge for the players and the sup-port staff to switch down but not real-ly switch off, because the matchcould start at any time, so they haveto be prepared in the back of themind. At the same time, not think toomuch about the game and keepyourself a little busy, reading, somemusic, or chatting with friends. Butwe deal with it all the time," India'sfielding coach R Sridhar said atTrent Bridge.

Asked by a journalist if ICCshould be discouraged from holdinga World Cup in a country which hasso much rain, New Zealand coachGary Stead said: "I don't think so. Ifyou took the UK summer from lastyear, then I'm not sure it did rain atall from the sound of things. It's a bitof bad luck really. It can rain any-where in the world. My first tour wasin Dubai and it rained there in thedesert and I never thought it was

going to rain there either," he added.Rain downtime management has

also been a challenge for the teams."The first thing we're going to do ishave a couple of days off. We don'tplay again for about six days now andit's important that you manage yourbreaks. It's quite ironic. Our last fourtrainings have all been indoors. It'sjust what we have to deal with. We tryto pride ourselves on our adaptabil-ity," Stead said.

The other challenge becomes thechange of strategy and tactics for anunder the weather game. "If thematch is short, the planning has to bechanged. With the weather overcastlike that, every team would want towin the toss and bowl first," Pakistancaptain Sarfaraz Ahmad said beforethe match against Australia.

But as West Indies head coachFloyd Relfer concluded: "It's England.90 per cent rain. Nothing we can doabout it. So just take the one pointand look forward to the other games."

Hopefully, Virat Kohli on June 16would not be forced to talk on hind-sight about the weather and yetanother point lost.

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After two washed out games, SriLanka will be desperate to come outall guns blazing but defending

champion Australia's depth will be hard tobeat when the two sides clash in a WorldCup fixture here on Saturday.

Sri Lanka have not played a match atthe World Cup since June 4, forced to split

points with Bangladesh and Pakistan fol-lowing two washed out games.

The island nation, who won the tour-nament back in 1996, stands fifth with justone win — against minnows Afghanistanin a rain-hit match — from four games.

Defending champions Australia, on theother hand, have been simply unstoppablewith their loss against India being the onlyblemish in an otherwise professional per-

formance so far in the tournament.The five-time winners are placed sec-

ond with three wins from four games.With two fifties and a hundred, David

Warner has been simply outstanding,helping Australia post 300-plus scores in thelast two matches.

The opener hasn’t yet looked hisdestructive best but the 107 off 111 ballsagainst Pakistan will ease his mind. The

knock was his first century since makinga comeback after the ball-tampering scan-dal and he would look to play with morefreedom now.

Skipper Aaron Finch too has two fiftiesto show in the last four innings. He andWarner gave Australia a rampaging startagainst Pakistan in their last match and theduo will back themselves for an encoreagainst Sri Lanka.

However, Australia have looked vulner-able against quality pace bowling — theywere reduced to 79 for five by West Indies.

Their middle order is brittle andsquandered superb starts against Pakistanand India. Sri Lanka will look to exploitthese weaknesses on Saturday.

Sri Lanka will hope that fast bowlerNuwan Pradeep, who had injured himselfahead of the Bristol game, returns Saturdayto strengthen the bowling attack.

Veteran pacer Lasith Malinga, who hadto fly home following the demise of moth-er-in-law, is also likely to play Saturday andthe onus would be on the pace duo to getwickets.

In the batting department, the DimuthKarunaratne-led side has failed to last thefull 50 overs against New Zealand andAfghanistan.

They lost five wickets for 14 runsagainst New Zealand and then sevenwickets for 36 runs against Afghanistan.

The former champions will have to

address their batting woes before they takeon the likes of Mitchell Starc and PatCummins, both of whom have taken ninewickets each so far.

C��Australia: Aaron Finch (capt), DavidWarner, Usman Khawaja, Steve Smith,Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, AlexCarey (wkt), Nathan Coulter-Nile, PatCummins, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa,Jason Behrendorff, Nathan Lyon, ShaunMarsh, Kane Richardson.Sri Lanka: Dimuth Karunaratne (capt),Dhananjaya de Silva, Nuwan Pradeep,Avishka Fernando, Suranga Lakmal, LasithMalinga, Angelo Mathews, Kusal Mendis,Jeevan Mendis, Kusal Perera, ThisaraPerera, Milinda Siriwardana, LahiruThirimanne, Isuru Udana, JeffreyVandersay.

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�Is Stonis fully fit?He won't be available today. He has-

n't bowled yet in his recovery over the lastcouple of days. So having four daysbetween this game and the next game, Ithink that will be the ideal time to testhim out and assess him. But I think overthe next five, six days, there will be a callmade on that, just based on what he canand can't do. �Sri Lanka have not played any gamefor the last few days. Do you think it’san advantage for your team?

It’s not ideal, is it, when rain plays abig part in a tournament like this. I thinkSri Lanka have been unlucky with a cou-ple of games they have had watched out.You look down their side, and there's alot of experience there. There's a lot ofworld-class players. You can never takeany team in this competition lightly, butI think the fact that we've been playingconsistently, basically every three days forthe last two weeks, has been — has beenreally positive that we're in cricket modeat the moment. �Going off last game, would you bemore confident or less confident goingfour quicks again?

Like I said it's really tough at aground like Taunton being so small. Ithought that the wicket would actuallyspin a little bit as the game went on, butit didn't. So that was probably tougher ata ground like Taunton. I think here at TheOval, you see one that there’s a lot biggerside so you can play a little bit more defen-sive with your fifth bowler, as opposed tohaving to try and attack with him. Andthat's what the four quicks allows you todo. It gives you an opportunity to attackfrom one end while being defensive at theother. It's just that, so small, Taunton, thatit's tough to even be defensive as a spin-ner there.�The team’s fielding looks a lot sharp-er now. Can you take us through theamount of work put it?

I think having Smith and Warner,back in the ring there, that creates a hugeamount of presence. They are both — orDave, in particular, is so quick. Hemightn't have the best arm at the momentbut he's so quick to the ball that you can'trun. Maxwell, we know how good he canbe. He's up there with the best in theworld when he's hitting the stumps likehe did the other day, at a crucial time. Allour quick bowlers are really good. All ourspinners are good. Zams has really safehands. So it gives you an opportunity thatyou can keep the guys in; the fast guys,the guys who anticipate the play, you cankeep them in the circle for longer. Butwhen you have got confidence in every-one, anyone can field all around thegrounds. That's been a big change is to getthem world-class fielders staying in thering for longer.�You want to build towards your bestcricket in World Cup. When do youwant to see the batting lineup click?

Every game would be nice. Obviouslyit's tough. You are coming up against dif-ferent opposition all the time and Italked about it in terms of changing yourpreparation, and adapting game by gamebecause you don't get into a original manyagainst the same team like you do forthree and a half years in between WorldCup. To come up against different oppo-sition, you're facing different challengesall the time. So it would be nice for ourbatting to just keep improving. I don'tthink we've gone anywhere near our best,which is still a good thing; that we've gotsix points on the board while not playinganywhere near our best cricket, which isa real positive. But as long as we'reimproving, and continue to go up and notgo backwards, I think that's the key.

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Aaron Finch's captaincy has earnedhim the praise of Michael Vaughan,

who hailed Finch's tactical nous, follow-ing Australia's 41-run victory againstPakistan. Vaughan hailed Finch's shrewdand brave decision-making, and calledhim the best captain at the World Cup2019 so far. "I have to say Aaron Finch,so far in this tournament, has been thebest captain tactically," Vaughan told theBBC. "I think he manoeuvred his teamagainst the West Indies well to win thatgame. And just over the last hour (againstPakistan), when it started to get a little bitpanicky for Australia, he manoeuvred hisbowling attack, knowing that he had toget these overs of spin [in]." Vaughan,who had led England to a historic Ashestriumph in 2005 also praised Finch's rota-tion of bowlers. "He left one [over of spin]late because he wanted to go for the glorywith [Pat] Cummins and Starc, and it paidoff. That's what you have to do as a cap-tain," he said. "He got a lot of things rightin the field, in terms of squeezing at theright time, putting the catchers in at theright time and then spreading them outwhen a partnership started to develop. Ithought he was outstanding as a captain.”Vaughan also believed that the defendingchampions would be among the final fourremaining teams in the competition. "Ican't see how they won't be in the semi-finals," he said. "Can they win the WorldCup playing to the standard they playedtoday? I don't think so. But do they haveenough in the locker to improve and winwhen it really matters? Absolutely." ��

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David Warner has overcomethe challenges of reintegrat-

ing himself into the Australianteam and with the explosive open-er nearing his best, he could wellend up as top scorer in thisWorld Cup, feels assistant coachRicky Ponting.

After struggling for rhythm inearly matches, Warner came closeto his damaging best in a match-winning knock of 107 off 111 ballsagainst Pakistan on Wednesday inhis fourth game back in Australiancolours.

The 32-year-old right-hand-ed batsman sat out for one year,serving a ban imposed by the ICCon ball tampering charges inSouth Africa last year. He cameout of that ban on March 29, alongwith his former captain SteveSmith.

Asked if other sides will nowbe more fearful of Warner, includ-ing Sri Lankans whom Australiaface on Saturday, Ponting said: "Ithink they should. You know

with David Warner at his best, ifyou miss your line and lengththen he's going to make you pay.

“Every game is a different setof challenges for every player.Davey capitalised on Pakistannot executing as well as theycould have. We know against SriLanka, they’ll be well-planned.But Warner at his best is difficultto bowl to and I think he was backto somewhere near his best,”Ponting was quoted as saying by'cricket.Com.Au'.

Ponting said the handbrake isoff for a rejuvenated Warner andif “he keeps playing like that(against Pakistan) for the rest ofthe tournament, he's probably

going to be the leading run scor-er” in this World Cup.

The assistant coach, however,conceded that the challenges of

reintegrating himself back into ateam after being out of it for overa year weighed on Warner.

“We'd all seen that he(Warner) probably had not beenbatting as fluently as we're used toseeing. It was more of a mentalthing than anything, he was justholding back a little bit and notplaying with the freedom we'reused to seeing him play with,”Ponting said.

“It was just about being a bitfreer in everything he did. I thinkhe was just trying a bit too hard,making a statement coming backin a World Cup. Wanting to doeverything right and impresseverybody rather than just going

out and hitting the ball and scor-ing runs like we've seen him do for10 years,” he said.

Ponting said Warner in earli-er matches (before the matchagainst Pakistan) seemed a littlebit more worried about getting outthan scoring runs but he was toldby the Australian support staff tojust go out, see the ball and hit theball.

"We said to him after the lastgame, 'mate, just go out and seeball, hit ball.' He got off to a goodstart (against Pakistan) and con-tinued on for 30 or 40 overs,"Ponting, who spoke to Warnerafter Australia's 36-run defeat toIndia on June 9, said.

"You could see by the way hemoved into his shots and pickingup the length early, he hit a lot ofpull shots early in his innings,which is always a good sign forhim.

"He'd taken the handbrake offwhich has allowed himself toplay with a bit more freedom," theformer captain said of Warner'sinnings against Pakistan.

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Eden Hazard said onThursday he wants to

become a ‘Galactico’ at RealMadrid and believes he is join-ing the club at the perfectmoment in his career.

Hazard was unveiled infront of around 50,000 fans at theSantiagio Bernabeu after theBelgian’s long-awaited movefrom Chelsea was confirmed lastweek.

“I’m not a galactico, not yet,but I hope I will be one day,”Hazard said in a press confer-ence afterwards.

“Despite everything I’vedone in the past, it will be likestarting again from zero. I’m nota galactico, I’m Eden Hazard,just a very good player.”

Madrid will pay Chelsea aninitial 100 million euros forHazard, with another 45 milliondue in potential add-ons for the28-year-old, who has signed afive-year contract with his newclub.

Hazard admitted Madridmade a move for him after theWorld Cup last year but insist-ed this was the right time to leaveChelsea.

“I don’t think it is too late, Iam 28 years old, the bestmoment for a player,” Hazardsaid.

“I have had various phasesof my career, at Lille andChelsea, and now I felt the timewas right to join the best club inthe world.”

Madrid struggled withoutCristiano Ronaldo last seasonand Hazard will be tasked withhelping to fill the void.

Despite the arrivals of EderMilitao, Luka Jovic and FerlandMendy this summer, he is thefirst statement signing sinceZinedine Zidane was reappoint-ed in March.

“When you play for a teamlike Real Madrid there is not onesingle star, the team is the star,”Hazard said.

“I have been at Chelsea forseven years, but now I am the

new guy in the team and I willtry to contribute as much as pos-sible.”

Asked if he wanted tobecome the best player in theworld at Real Madrid, Hazardsaid: “I will try but first I will tryto be in the best team in theworld.

“It is a different level. I hada lot of success with Chelsea andI want to win a lot with Madridas well. Just to be here is a newchallenge.”

Hazard admitted Zidanewas also a key factor in his deci-sion.

“Everyone knows Zidanewas my idol growing up,” he said.“That he is the coach has beenan important factor but not theonly one. I already wanted toplay here.

“I was a kid playing footballin the garden with my brotherswhen I began to be a Real

Madrid fan.“Then I went to France,

then to England, but being aReal Madrid player, wearingthis shirt, it is an honour. I can’twait for the season to start.”

The shirt Hazard wore infront of the fans came withouta number and he admitted hehad told Mateo Kovacic atChelsea to ask his fellowCroatian, Luka Modric, aboutthe number 10.

“I have been able to talk toModric through Kovacic and Iwas joking when I asked him tolend me the number 10,” Hazardsaid. “He said no, so I’ll have tofind another number.”

Hazard scored 110 goals inseven seasons at Chelsea andwas named in the PFA PremierLeague team of the year fourtimes.

At the end of the 2014-15season, he was awarded both the

PFA Players' Player of the Yearand the Premier League Playerof the Season.

“In football you can alwaysimprove, you never reach yourlimit,” Hazard said.

“There is always room to dobetter, both individually andcollectively. I am in a goodmoment of my career, but thisteam can allow me to raise thebar even further.”

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Star forward Neymar’s injuryabsence changes nothing

for Brazil at the Copa America,midfielder Casemiro said onThursday, insisting that thehosts must triumph come whatmay.

Neymar will miss theSouth American showpieceafter injuring ankle ligamentslast week in the Selecao’s penul-timate warm-up friendly.

His injury came as theParis Saint-Germain forwardfaced accusations from aBrazilian model that he sexu-ally assaulted her in a hotel inthe French capital.

“Regardless of the compe-tition we’re in, Brazil arefavorites and must win,”Casemiro said ahead of Friday'stournament opener againstBolivia in Sao Paulo.

“Without a doubt, evenwithout Neymar — Brazil’smain star — we’re still verystrong,” the Real Madrid play-

er added.Brazil are aiming for a

ninth Copa America suc-cess and have claimed vic-tory on all four previousoccasions as hosts: in 1919,1922, 1949 and 1989.

But they haven’t lifted thetrophy since 2007 when win-ning for a fourth time in fiveeditions from 1997.

“We cannot hide from thatresponsibility,” said coach Tite.“We knowthat wehave tobuild stepby step forthe title.”

And whilehe admitted that it was a blowto be missing “one of the bestthree in the world,” he said thatthe squad is not thinking aboutNeymar’s absence.

“When it comes to us, wetalk more about Neymar here(in press conferences) thatthere in (training.) We talkabout preparation as a whole,”

Tite told reporters at theMorumbi stadium whereBrazil will play minnowsBolivia.

“We know it’s going to bea tough match, we know howBolivia play,” said Casemiro ofBrazil's first Group A oppo-

nents.“They’re very well orga-

nized, particularly defensively.”Brazil warmed up for the tour-nament with victories last weekover Qatar (2-0), who willmake their Copa Americadebut as invitees on Sunday,and Honduras (7-0).

“The team is very strong.You can see with those sevengoals, the whole team was cel-ebrating together,” said Tite.

His squad are hoping toerase the painful memories oftheir crushing disappointmentfive years ago when hosting theWorld Cup.

A 7-1 semi-final humblingat the hands of Germany putpaid to their hopes of landinga first global crown since 2002.

“We are ready, we showedit in these two (friendly)games, which in my opinionwere the best we’ve playedsince the World Cup” in Russialast year, added Casemiro.

There Brazil lost 2-1 toBelgium in the quarter-finals.

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India outplayed reigning Asian Gameschampion Japan 7-2 to storm into the

summit clash of the FIH Series Finals hock-ey tournament here on Friday, assuringthemselves a place in the year end's Olympicqualifying event.

Returning to the side after a longinjury lay-off, Ramadeep Singh (23rd, 37thminutes) finally got his mojo back with adouble strike, while Harmanpreet Singh(7th), Varun Kumar (14th), Hardik Singh(25th), Gursahibjit Singh (43rd) and VivekSagar Prasad (47) also registered theirname on the scoresheet.

Japan's goals were scored by KenjiKitazato (2nd) and Kota Watanabe (20th).

India will face South Africa in Saturday'sfinal while Japan will square off against USAin the third-fourth place play-off match.

South Africa had earlier defeated USA2-1 in the first semifinal.

For the first time in the tournament, theIndian defence was literally tested as world

No 18 Japan gave a good account of them-selves in patches.

To the dismay of the home crowd, Japantook the lead in the second minute from acounter attack. Kitazato slammed home pastIndian goalkeeper Krishan Bahadur Pathakafter receiving a pass from Kenta Tanakafrom their first attack.

The stunned Indians got their acttogether quickly and created a flurry ofopportunities. India secured back-to-backpenalty corners and Harmanpreet equalisedfrom the second chance.

The Indians kept up the pressure andearned three consecutive short corners inthe 14th minute and this time Varun beatJapan defence with a powerful groundedflick to hand the hosts a 2-1 lead.

But the Japanese caught the Indiandefence off-guard once again in the 20thminute with another fine counter-attackwhen Watanabe scored after being set up byKazuma Murata.

Japan's joy was shortlived as Indiarestored their lead three minutes later

through Ramadeep, who scored his first goalfor the country after returning from a year'sinjury hiatus.

Minutes later, India made the scoreline4-2 when Hardik scored with a slap shotfrom the top of the D.

India secured their sixth short cornersoon but Varun's effort was defended byJapanese goalkeeper Yusuke Takano.

Next it was PR Sreejesh's turn to showhis skills in front of the post when he deniedShota Yamada with a diving save fromJapan's first penalty corner.

After the change of ends, the play wasmostly on the Japan half as India kept upthe pressure to score three more goals.

First Ramandeep scored his second ofthe day in the 37th minute with a reboundfrom a penalty corner and then Gursahibjitand Vivek Sagar Prasad also sounded theboard from field efforts to register anemphatic win for India.

The FIH Series Finals provide two spotsin the Olympic Qualifiers to be held inOctober-November this year.

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Former captain MuhammadYousuf is furious with the

Pakistan Cricket Board for allow-ing families of the players to staywith them ahead of the much-awaited match against India.

Wives and children of thePakistani players have joinedthem in Manchester ahead of theclash against India on Sunday.

"I was part of the 1999, 2003and 2007 World Cups but the

board never allowed players tohave their families with themduring the tournament," Yousufsaid.

"In 1999 we had such a bigteam with so many big namesthat if we had pressurized theboard to give permission to haveour wives and children stay withus in team hotel they wouldhave done so. "But we didn't

because the World Cup is high-pressure event and players needto just be focussed on cricket andreaching the final. That is whathappened in 99' in England,"Yousuf said.

Yousuf, who played 90 Testsand 288 one-day internationals,recalled that the board didn'teven give permission to playersin one-day series or tourna-

ments to have their families staywith them in those days.

"I remember we wereallowed to have our wives andchildren with us only during Testmatches as it made sense as westayed in one city for at least aweek," Yousuf said.The formerPakistan batsman said he could-n't understand the logic behindPCB's decision to allow the wives

and children to join playersbefore the all-important matchagainst India.

"If it was necessar y toappease the players they couldhave been allowed to have theirwives and children at the start ofthe tournament, not at the busi-ness end of the WorldCup."Yousuf said with their fam-ilies around it was a big distrac-tion for the players and withimportant matches coming up hewas worried about the results.

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For some teams,accompanying fami-lies can be a distrac-

tion in a major tourna-ment but not for NewZealand with head crick-et coach Gary Steadencouraging players tospend time with theirloved ones during breaksin the ongoing World Cup.

The Pakistan CricketBoard (PCB) banned fam-ilies of cricketers fromaccompanying them ini-tially but has allowed themsince the game againstAustralia on Wednesday.

However, partnersand families of theAustralian cricket teamhave been kept away.

Table-toppers NewZealand, on the otherhand, have encouragedthe families of the playersto join the team on theirtravels in England andWales.

"I think it's importantthat you manage yourbreaks," Stead said whenasked about families ofplayers travelling with theteam.

The pace duo of TrentBoult and Tim Southeeand opener Martin Guptillhave been bringing theiryoung kids on the flight.

After a washout gameagainst India, the Black

Caps will next play againstSouth Africa on June 19and Stead said the playerscan now take a bit of timeoff with families.

"Whilst we haven'tplayed India, we've stillprepared and everythingyou do in the build-updays is on the assumptionyou'll play a full day ofcricket.

"We travel toBirmingham now but theplayers have the option togo elsewhere with theirfamilies. They have theoption to stay elsewherefor a couple of days andget a bit of down time," headded.

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The bond between M S Dhoni andKarachi-born Mohammad Bashir

aka ‘Chacha Chicago’ blossomed dur-ing the 2011 World Cup semifinalbetween India and Pakistan and it hasonly grown stronger since then.

Such is the bond that Bashir hasflown in to Manchester from Chicago(approximately 6000 kms) for Sunday'shigh-octane Indo-Pak contest withouta match ticket. He knows that Dhoniwill ensure that he is it at the OldTrafford when the first ball is bowled.

"I arrived here yesterday (onThursday) and saw that people are readyto pay as much as 800-900 pounds fora ticket. A return ticket from Chicagocosts the same. Thanks to Dhoni, I don'thave to struggle for a match ticket," the63-year-old, who owns a restaurant inChicago and is an American passportholder, said.

The connection goes back to 2011.Bashir was bowled over by Dhoni'sbenevolence when India's World Cup-winning captain went out of his way toarrange a ticket for him for the marqueeclash in Mohali, a showdown for whichmost fans would pay an arm and a legto watch in person. Eight years later, theheartwarming story of Bashir andDhoni continues. It is not a surprise any-more that Bashir supports Dhoni's teamover the country of his birth whenev-er the two sides clash.

Dhoni might not be easily accessi-ble for even his teammates at times buthas never disappointed Bashir.

"I don't call him as he is so busy. Ikeep in touch only through text mes-sages. Long before I came here, Dhoniassured me of the ticket. He is a greathuman being. I can't think of anyoneelse doing what he has done for me sincethat 2011 game in Mohali.

"Imagine I get the ticket for freewhen most would pay a fortune for it.I have got a surprise gift for him thistime and I hope to give it to him latertoday," said Bashir.

After arriving in Manchester, hechecked into the Pakistan's team hotelwhere he met most of the squad mem-bers including captain Sarfaraz Ahmed,Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Amirand Hassan Ali.

One of his selfies was with ShoaibMalik and Indian tennis star wifeSania Mirza, an Indo-Pak union just likehim and his wife. He checks into theIndian team hotel later on Friday.

His love for his homeland is under-standable but the reason for his affini-ty towards India is his Hyderbadi wife,besides Dhoni of course. His match-dayuniform has both India and Pakistancolours and Bashir calls himself anambassador of peace.

While watching Indo-Pak gamesall-around the World, Bashir has madelifelong Indian friends and one them isthe well-known superfan Sudhir, whomainly relies on funding from cricketersto support the team from stands. In fact,both are staying together in Manchester.

No prizes for guessing that he isbacking India to maintain their unbeat-en run over Pakistan on Sunday.

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Real Madrid confirmedthe signing of Japanese

teenager Takefusa Kubo onFriday.

The 18-year-old joinsfrom FC Tokyo and will playfor Madrid's B team, Castilla,next season.

"Takefusa Kubo will joinCastilla next season," a RealMadrid statement read.

"He is one of the mostpromising young players inworld football, an attackingmidfielder with excellenttechnique and great vision forthe game."

Kubo, who has beendubbed the “Japanese Messi”,made his full internationaldebut against El Salvadorearlier this month and wasalso linked with Barcelona,Paris Saint-Germain andManchester City. Kuboearned his nickname afterjoining Barca's youth acade-my aged 10 but returned toJapan in 2015 as a result ofFIFA sanctions handed to theclub for breaching rules onsigning under-age players.

Barcelona have kept tabson Kubo ever since butMadrid stole a march on theirLa Liga rivals with an offer oftwo million euros ($2.25 mil-lion) a year, according toJapanese media.

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Documents

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