16
F our days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi strongly hinted at bringing 99 per cent of products and ser- vices in the 18 per cent or lower brackets, the GST Council on Saturday reduced tax rates on 23 goods and services, includ- ing movie tickets, TV and monitor screens and power banks, and exempted frozen and preserved vegetables from the levy. The reduced rates are like- ly to come into effect from January 1, 2019, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told reporters after the 31st meeting of GST Council here. The annual revenue implication of the rate cuts would be 5,500 crore, he said. Of the 23 goods and ser- vices on which rates have been slashed, tax rate on seven items in the 28 per cent slab has been brought down. With this, only 28 goods are left in the highest 28 per cent tax bracket. The goods on which GST has been lowered to 18 per cent from 28 per cent include pul- leys, transmission shafts and cranks, gear boxes, used tyres, lithium ion batteries, digital cameras, video camera and video game consoles. The 28 per cent slab is now restricted to only luxury and sin goods apart from auto-parts and cement — the tax rate on which could not be cut due to high revenue implication. “Rate rationalisation is an ongoing process. When the original rates were fixed, India had the most irrational taxation rates. Most of these items were charged, along with cascading effect, at 31 per cent. So we had only transiently put them at 28 per cent, because if we had immediately brought it down then the revenue impact would have been there and therefore the social expenditure of cen- tral and State Governments would have suffered. “Therefore we followed a more realistic pragmatic and a prudent policy that as the rev- enues move up and affordabil- ity increases we gradually bring it down. And therefore 28 per cent bracket is already moving towards a sunset, except the luxury and sin items, 3 items which are used by upper income group and only 1 item of common use remains,” Jaitley said T he Delhi Transport Department has approved a recommendation proposed by all three municipal corpo- rations for a hike of one-time parking charges in the nation- al Capital. With the move, car buyers in Delhi will have to pay higher one-time parking charges in 2019. According to the order issued by outgoing Transport Commissioner Varsha Joshi on Friday, the charges will now range between 6,000 and 75,000 which will be applic- able from January 1, 2019. The Transport Department collects the parking charges on behalf of the municipal corpo- rations, which is meant for cre- ating parking infrastructure in the city. The proposal recom- mended by the three corpora- tions regarding the same was pending for quite some time and was cleared by the trans- port commissioner on her last day in office, an official said. According to the order, based on the cost of a vehicle, the one-time parking charge for private cars and SUVs will range between 6,000 and 75,000 — 18 times the exist- ing rate of 4,000. With the order, bus and taxi operators would be hit hard as the annual parking fee for different categories of com- mercial vehicles will rise from the existing 2,500-4,000 to 10,000-25,000. The process of charging the money during vehicle regis- tration is prescribed through a notification of Union Urban Affairs Ministry not by the transport department, Joshi who has taken charge as North Delhi Municipal Corporation’s commissioner told PTI. The Transport Department only acts like the post office in the process, she said. The parking charges mech- anism will be replaced by spot parking fees after new parking regulations are notified by the Delhi Government, she said. “Till then this mechanism will be applicable. So we fol- lowed an Urban Affairs Ministry notification and issued these orders,” she added. New Delhi: Only one out of 39 locations through which the Ganga flows had clean water in the post-monsoon period this year, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has said in its latest study. As many as 37 of the 41 locations through which the Ganga flows reported moder- ate to severe water pollution in the pre-monsoon period this year, according to the “Biological Water Quality Assessment of the River Ganga (2017-18)” report that was recently made public by the CPCB in compliance with a Supreme Court direc- tion. T alks about formation of a third front of non-BJP and non-Congress parties in the country are now renewed with Telangana Chief Minister and Telangana Rashtriya Samiti (TRS) head K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) scheduled to meet Odisha Chief Minister and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) supremo Naveen Patnaik on Sunday. Sources said K Chandrasekhar Rao would meet Patnaik at the latter’s res- idence here and is likely to spend the night at the Naveen Niwas before leaving for Kolkata on Monday to meet West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress head Mamata Banerjee, who has been advocating for such a third front. Naveen Patnaik, it may be noted, has always harped on the BJD’s stand of equidis- tance from the BJP and the Congress. K Chandrasekhar Rao and Mamata Banerjee are also of the same view as far as their parties are concerned. A s a cold wave continued gripping most parts of the State, Phulbani in Kandhamal district recorded the lowest of 7 degree Celsius while the temperature plummeted below 12 degree in ten other districts. While Daringibadi shiv- ered at 8.5 degree, the mini- mum temperature recorded in Bhubaneswar was 13 degree. The Regional Office of Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) forecast that night temperature is like- ly to fall further by 2 to 3 degrees at several places in the next three to four days. Special Relief Commissioner Bishnupada Sethi has alerted all district Collectors to take necessary action to deal with the cold wave situation. “Necessary advisory with Dos and Don’ts to protect human beings and livestock from cold wave may be wide- ly circulated,” said Sethi. T he BJP, the Congress and the Navnirman Kruhak Sanghathan (NKS) on Saturday pooh-poohed the State Government’s Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation (KALIA) scheme stating separately that the scheme would not help farmers get rid of loan burden and resolve their hardships. Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan took to the Twitter and mentioned that farmers have suffered a lot during the 19 years of the BJD Government due to lack of irri- gation facilities, cold storages and Government support. “The BJD Government has failed in creating 35% irrigation facility as promised by it. There are only five cold storages operating in the State. Average income of an Odia farmer is mere Rs 1,407. State produced only 2.68 lakh metric tonne of potato in 2017-18 against targe of 11.25 lakh MT. Financial backbone of farmers have bro- ken during the last 19 years. The KALIA Scheme is a smoke screen,” said Pradhan. Similarly, All India Congress Committee spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi here accused the Naveen Patnaik Government of shedding crocodile tears on issues concerning to the inter- est of the people and hypocrit- ically announcing KALIA Sheme for farmers after 18 years just ahead of the elections. “The BJD Government here had been sleeping for the last 18 years and now, as elec- tions are round the corner, it woke up all of a sudden and is coming out with schemes for farmers and has named it after Lord Jagannath,” he said. Referring to KALIA Scheme, he said, “Isn’t the name an insult to the Lord? What made the Gvernment name the scheme like that? It seems, Odisha CM has been infected by PM Modi’s jumla politics,” Singhvi quipped, adding that those who sleep for years and wake up just a few months ahead of elections will get befitting reply from people. The NKS, which is spear- heading the ongoing farmers’ agitation, dubbed the scheme as old wine in a new bottle. “KALIA scheme is like old dress in new packing and an attempt of the State Government to woo the farm- ers. The State Government is trying to avoid the basic issues of the farmers including price, pension and farm loan waiver,” alleged NKS coordinator Askhya Kumar. But Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment Minister Pradeep Maharathy refuted charges and said, “Nearly 92 per cent farmers in the State will benefit from the scheme. It is a historic decision taken by CM Naveen Patnaik.” A ll India Congress Committee spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi on Saturday took jibes at the Narendra Modi-led NDA Government over the Rafale fighter jet deal and also accused the Naveen Patnaik Government of supporting the Modi regime. “The Rafale deal is a saga of multi-crore conflict of inter- est and quid pro quo. If the Government has nothing to hide in the contract, then it should agree to a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe,” Singhvi told a Press conference here. He alleged that two days before the then French President signed the deal with PM Modi for delivery of 36 Rafale aircrafts in 2016, a com- pany owned by a busi- nessman in India, received offset contracts of 1 lakh crore in the deal. Singhvi alleged that he had broken the estab- lished legal norms of purchasing Defence equipment by the country. Due to the deal, the country suffered a loss of Rs. 42, 000 crore for which Modi is responsible, he said. Had the 108 planes been managured in India, 1.2 lakh people would have got jobs, including 40, 000 from Odisha, he added. “This Government talks of having an imaginary chest of 56 inches but their actions speak differently. They have not been able to spend Rs 28,446 crore of Defence budget by as much as 13 per cent,” he said. He alleged that the Government misled the Supreme Court by presenting “one-sided, half-baked” infor- mation on “an unsigned affi- davit” which was not available for scrutiny. Stating that the Supreme Court, in its verdict, accepted that it is not technically suited to examine such issues, Singhvi said, “A Joint Parliamentary Committee is the only forum that should probe the entire corruption in the Rafale deal, find out and decide who are the persons accused and then the process of law must be set in motion,” said Singhvi. “If Modi and his Government have committed no corruption, I challenge him today on behalf of the Indian National Congress to sub- mit to a JPC probe which will examine the noting on the file, examine and question the Prime Minister and all the Defence Ministry Officials” he said. The Congress leader alleged that Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is providing support to Modi Government despite the fact that the Prime Minister didn’t give time to meet the delegates of the Odisha Legislative Assembly to listen their demand to hike minimum sup- port price of the paddy. “Despite such a humilia- tion, all BJD MPs walked out of the Parliament during no con- fidence motion against the NDA Government and, this way, they supported the BJP,” alleged Singhvi.

ˆ#$% ˙& ’( ) ˙& ˘ ˘ ˘ ˆ€¦ · income of an Odia farmer is mere Rs 1,407. State produced only 2.68 lakh metric tonne of potato in 2017-18 against targe of 11.25 lakh MT

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Page 1: ˆ#$% ˙& ’( ) ˙& ˘ ˘ ˘ ˆ€¦ · income of an Odia farmer is mere Rs 1,407. State produced only 2.68 lakh metric tonne of potato in 2017-18 against targe of 11.25 lakh MT

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Four days after PrimeMinister Narendra Modi

strongly hinted at bringing 99per cent of products and ser-vices in the 18 per cent or lowerbrackets, the GST Council onSaturday reduced tax rates on23 goods and services, includ-ing movie tickets, TV andmonitor screens and powerbanks, and exempted frozenand preserved vegetables fromthe levy.

The reduced rates are like-ly to come into effect fromJanuary 1, 2019, FinanceMinister Arun Jaitley toldreporters after the 31st meetingof GST Council here. Theannual revenue implication ofthe rate cuts would be �5,500crore, he said.

Of the 23 goods and ser-vices on which rates have beenslashed, tax rate on seven itemsin the 28 per cent slab has beenbrought down. With this, only28 goods are left in the highest28 per cent tax bracket.

The goods on which GSThas been lowered to 18 per centfrom 28 per cent include pul-leys, transmission shafts and

cranks, gear boxes, used tyres,lithium ion batteries, digitalcameras, video camera andvideo game consoles.

The 28 per cent slab is nowrestricted to only luxury andsin goods apart from auto-partsand cement — the tax rate onwhich could not be cut due tohigh revenue implication.

“Rate rationalisation is anongoing process. When theoriginal rates were fixed, Indiahad the most irrational taxationrates.

Most of these items werecharged, along with cascadingeffect, at 31 per cent. So we hadonly transiently put them at 28per cent, because if we hadimmediately brought it down

then the revenue impact wouldhave been there and thereforethe social expenditure of cen-tral and State Governmentswould have suffered.

“Therefore we followed amore realistic pragmatic and aprudent policy that as the rev-enues move up and affordabil-

ity increases we gradually bringit down. And therefore 28 percent bracket is already movingtowards a sunset, except theluxury and sin items, 3 itemswhich are used by upperincome group and only 1 itemof common use remains,”Jaitley said

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The Delhi TransportDepartment has approved

a recommendation proposedby all three municipal corpo-rations for a hike of one-timeparking charges in the nation-al Capital. With the move, carbuyers in Delhi will have to payhigher one-time parkingcharges in 2019.

According to the orderissued by outgoing TransportCommissioner Varsha Joshion Friday, the charges willnow range between �6,000 and�75,000 which will be applic-able from January 1, 2019.

The Transport Departmentcollects the parking charges onbehalf of the municipal corpo-rations, which is meant for cre-ating parking infrastructure inthe city. The proposal recom-mended by the three corpora-tions regarding the same waspending for quite some timeand was cleared by the trans-

port commissioner on her lastday in office, an official said.

According to the order,based on the cost of a vehicle,the one-time parking charge forprivate cars and SUVs willrange between �6,000 and�75,000 — 18 times the exist-ing rate of �4,000.

With the order, bus andtaxi operators would be hithard as the annual parking feefor different categories of com-mercial vehicles will rise fromthe existing �2,500-�4,000 to�10,000-�25,000.

The process of charging themoney during vehicle regis-tration is prescribed through anotification of Union UrbanAffairs Ministry not by thetransport department, Joshiwho has taken charge as NorthDelhi Municipal Corporation’scommissioner told PTI.

The Transport Departmentonly acts like the post office inthe process, she said.

The parking charges mech-anism will be replaced by spotparking fees after new parking regulations arenotified by the DelhiGovernment, she said.

“Till then this mechanismwill be applicable. So we fol-lowed an Urban AffairsMinistry notification andissued these orders,” she added.

New Delhi: Only one out of 39locations through which theGanga flows had clean water inthe post-monsoon period thisyear, the Central PollutionControl Board (CPCB) hassaid in its latest study.

As many as 37 of the 41locations through which theGanga flows reported moder-ate to severe water pollution inthe pre-monsoon period thisyear, according to the“Biological Water QualityAssessment of the River Ganga (2017-18)” reportthat was recently made publicby the CPCB in compliancewith a Supreme Court direc-tion.

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Talks about formation of athird front of non-BJP and

non-Congress parties in thecountry are now renewed withTelangana Chief Minister andTelangana Rashtriya Samiti(TRS) head K ChandrasekharRao (KCR) scheduled to meetOdisha Chief Minister andBiju Janata Dal (BJD) supremoNaveen Patnaik on Sunday.

Sources said KChandrasekhar Rao wouldmeet Patnaik at the latter’s res-idence here and is likely tospend the night at the NaveenNiwas before leaving forKolkata on Monday to meetWest Bengal Chief Ministerand Trinamool Congress headMamata Banerjee, who hasbeen advocating for such athird front.

Naveen Patnaik, it may benoted, has always harped onthe BJD’s stand of equidis-tance from the BJP and theCongress. K ChandrasekharRao and Mamata Banerjee arealso of the same view as far astheir parties are concerned.

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As a cold wave continuedgripping most parts of the

State, Phulbani in Kandhamaldistrict recorded the lowest of7 degree Celsius while thetemperature plummeted below12 degree in ten other districts.

While Daringibadi shiv-ered at 8.5 degree, the mini-mum temperature recorded inBhubaneswar was 13 degree.

The Regional Office ofIndian MeteorologicalDepartment (IMD) forecastthat night temperature is like-ly to fall further by 2 to 3degrees at several places in thenext three to four days.

Special ReliefCommissioner BishnupadaSethi has alerted all districtCollectors to take necessaryaction to deal with the coldwave situation.

“Necessary advisory withDos and Don’ts to protecthuman beings and livestockfrom cold wave may be wide-ly circulated,” said Sethi.

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The BJP, the Congress and theNavnirman Kruhak

Sanghathan (NKS) on Saturdaypooh-poohed the StateGovernment’s KrushakAssistance for Livelihood andIncome Augmentation (KALIA)scheme stating separately thatthe scheme would not helpfarmers get rid of loan burdenand resolve their hardships.

Union MinisterDharmendra Pradhan took tothe Twitter and mentionedthat farmers have suffered a lotduring the 19 years of the BJDGovernment due to lack of irri-gation facilities, cold storagesand Government support.

“The BJD Government hasfailed in creating 35% irrigationfacility as promised by it. Thereare only five cold storagesoperating in the State. Averageincome of an Odia farmer ismere Rs 1,407. State producedonly 2.68 lakh metric tonne of

potato in 2017-18 against targeof 11.25 lakh MT. Financialbackbone of farmers have bro-ken during the last 19 years.The KALIA Scheme is a smokescreen,” said Pradhan.

Similarly, All IndiaCongress Committeespokesperson Abhishek ManuSinghvi here accused theNaveen Patnaik Government ofshedding crocodile tears onissues concerning to the inter-est of the people and hypocrit-ically announcing KALIASheme for farmers after 18years just ahead of the elections.

“The BJD Governmenthere had been sleeping for thelast 18 years and now, as elec-tions are round the corner, itwoke up all of a sudden and iscoming out with schemes forfarmers and has named it afterLord Jagannath,” he said.

Referring to KALIAScheme, he said, “Isn’t thename an insult to the Lord?What made the Gvernment

name the scheme like that? Itseems, Odisha CM has beeninfected by PM Modi’s jumlapolitics,” Singhvi quipped,adding that those who sleep foryears and wake up just a fewmonths ahead of elections willget befitting reply from people.

The NKS, which is spear-heading the ongoing farmers’agitation, dubbed the schemeas old wine in a new bottle.

“KALIA scheme is like olddress in new packing and anattempt of the StateGovernment to woo the farm-ers. The State Government istrying to avoid the basic issuesof the farmers including price,pension and farm loan waiver,”alleged NKS coordinatorAskhya Kumar. But Agricultureand Farmers’ EmpowermentMinister Pradeep Maharathyrefuted charges and said,“Nearly 92 per cent farmers inthe State will benefit from thescheme. It is a historic decisiontaken by CM Naveen Patnaik.”

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All India CongressCommittee spokesperson

Abhishek Manu Singhvi onSaturday took jibes at theNarendra Modi-led NDAGovernment over the Rafalefighter jet deal and also accusedthe Naveen PatnaikGovernment of supporting theModi regime.

“The Rafale deal is a sagaof multi-crore conflict of inter-est and quid pro quo. If theGovernment has nothing tohide in the contract, then itshould agree to a JointParliamentary Committeeprobe,” Singhvi told a Pressconference here.

He alleged that twodays before the thenFrench President signedthe deal with PM Modifor delivery of 36 Rafaleaircrafts in 2016, a com-pany owned by a busi-nessman in India,received offset contractsof 1 lakh crore in the deal.

Singhvi alleged thathe had broken the estab-lished legal norms ofpurchasing Defenceequipment by the country. Dueto the deal, the country suffereda loss of Rs. 42, 000 crore forwhich Modi is responsible, hesaid. Had the 108 planes beenmanagured in India, 1.2 lakhpeople would have got jobs,including 40, 000 from Odisha,he added.

“This Government talksof having an imaginary chest of56 inches but their actionsspeak differently. They have not

been able to spend Rs 28,446crore of Defence budget by asmuch as 13 per cent,” he said.

He alleged that theGovernment misled theSupreme Court by presenting“one-sided, half-baked” infor-mation on “an unsigned affi-davit” which was not availablefor scrutiny.

Stating that the SupremeCourt, in its verdict, acceptedthat it is not technically suited

to examine such issues, Singhvisaid, “A Joint ParliamentaryCommittee is the only forumthat should probe the entirecorruption in the Rafale deal,find out and decide who are thepersons accused and then theprocess of law must be set inmotion,” said Singhvi.

“If Modi and hisGovernment have committedno corruption, I challenge himtoday on behalf of the Indian

National Congress to sub-mit to a JPC probe whichwill examine the notingon the file, examine andquestion the PrimeMinister and all theDefence MinistryOfficials” he said.

The Congress leaderalleged that ChiefMinister Naveen Patnaikis providing support toModi Governmentdespite the fact that the

Prime Minister didn’t give time to meet the delegates ofthe Odisha LegislativeAssembly to listen theirdemand to hike minimum sup-port price of the paddy.

“Despite such a humilia-tion, all BJD MPs walked out ofthe Parliament during no con-fidence motion against theNDA Government and, thisway, they supported the BJP,”alleged Singhvi.

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Page 2: ˆ#$% ˙& ’( ) ˙& ˘ ˘ ˘ ˆ€¦ · income of an Odia farmer is mere Rs 1,407. State produced only 2.68 lakh metric tonne of potato in 2017-18 against targe of 11.25 lakh MT

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From fantastic to dense,crackling to insipid,grounded to OTT —

Zero is a film that swingsincredibly before gettingcompletely spaced out toqualify being called one fromMars. Quite a journey fromMeerut to Mumbai, you wouldsay. But it is King Khan, nolonger king, returning to thescreen after virtually two longyears of absence, so the upsand downs were expected.

Whatever you might sayabout this film having a ratherambitious premise, there is nodenying the fact that the VFXused to show SRK as a char-foota is picture perfect. Butwhy SRK, the bauna calledBauaa so frequently strips intohis kachha-baniyaan isbewildering, as is the dilutedclimax which takes him all theway from his humble abode inIndia’s small town to no less aplanet than Mars, rocketedinto outer space by his wheel-

chair-bound, cerebral palsyhit girlfriend Afiya Yousufzai(brilliantly played by AnushkaSharma) whom he ditches forsuperstar Katrina Kaiferroneously called BabitaKumari! Who can call Katrina,especially when she comeslaced with a sizzling star’sdemeanour who thinks she istoo fair to need make-up orlong clothes for that matter, becalled Babita Kumari of all thenames?

But that’s just one of themany quirky faultlines in thisfilm that was otherwise so fullof potential, especially withSRK out to cash in on his god-gifted dimples, his sense ofhumour and his seethingrepartee, powered by his angstat being born several inchesshorter than what is perceivednormal.

You settle down andchuckle along with all of SRK’sjokes and mannerisms whichhe has thrown at you for morethan a decade beforeveteranising himself intoBollywood irrelevance.

Thanks to all the SRK witand his power to empowereven the most insipid of films,

the first half passes off in anenjoyable jiffy, what withmost of his leading ladies(Juhi, Kairshma, Kajol, Srideviand Alia) making a cameo intrying to applaud his magic ofplucking stars from the skieson a count of 9 to zero.

But him reaching Americato get back to Afiya and thenshe hating him enough topack him off in a rocket to aplace as far away as her hurtcould push him, Mars thesecond half of the film whichgets caught in lack of gravityissues. Both director AnandRai and SRK try hard but failto stop the script from hurtlinginto insanity and disbelief —and finally Mars as theaudience ring their hands infrustration of a good film andeffort having lost the plot.

But SRK is fantastic as adwarf. Anushka excels withher disability too and Katrinasizzles as she is meant to. Butsomewhere between thesethree superstars making theirpresence felt, the story sadlycurls up like a dog battling cold— despite the familiar funnyone liners and the familiar witrounds you expect of SRK.

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It was by accident. I came to Mumbaito become a model but someone asked meto appear for a TV show audition whichI went for and got selected. This is how Igot Tumhari Disha.�How did you come up with yourYouTube channel?

I came up with my YouTube channel(SIT) because I wanted to leave give upacting and do something else. My husbandand I were not getting time to spend witheach other and our daughter. We wantedto do something which would give us moretime for her and give us satisfaction in ourwork lives. We were feeling stagnated inTV with playing same kind of roles,doing same acting and getting the samekind of work hours. Therefore, we decidedto make content for our channel. Initially,it started on a trial basis but our first videowent viral. This encouraged to continue,it has been three years now.�Are you more popular for your webseries than TV?

Yes. But more than the popularity it isthe kind of love and quality of appreciationI am getting which is wonderful. While Iwas working in TV, I got fewer peoplewalking up to me and telling me that theyreally liked my work. Now, many walks upto me and tell me that I am doing a greatwork. It feels amazing.�How has your life changed afterbecoming a YouTuber?

My life has changed in many ways.First, I don’t have to worry aboutsomebody calling me with a good role.It is the biggest thing because being acontent creator I do the kind of work thatI enjoy. Second, I am my own boss. I havemy working hours under my control.Third, the contentment and worksatisfaction is far more immensehere because I am doing what I love.�How was your experienceworking in TV?

It was amazing. When I startedworking on TV, I had no idea ofhow to act. I have learnt acting fromTV and the popularity that I have, Igained from TV. YouTube has onlyincreased it. But I have many people whostill watch my TV shows and I getmessages and mails from them that theylove my work. It was definitely a learningexperience.�Can you share some anecdotes?

The first time I faced camera was fora telefilm which was directed by myhusband. It was there where I met himfor the first time. At that time, I had noidea of what a close-up or a master shotwas. I was told to look at my co-actorfor a close-up shot. When we went forthe shot, the co-actor is usually notthere for it, it’s just you who has look

like you are looking at him. When I wasasked to do it, I was actually searching forhim in the crowd and I thought ye kahachala gaya. I didn’t realise that I amsupposed to give act like I was looking athim just for the camera. Starting from thereand now creating my videos, I have comea long way.�What is yourw o r k i n gschedule?

There wasa time when Iwas doingthree shows atthe same time,I was doingB a n d h i n i ,Naaginn (2007)and I washosting a one-hour live show. I

used to do 7 O’clock shift for Bandhini andthen I used to go for the live show and thenI used to do night shifts for Naaginn. It wasa crazy time for me and I used to sleep inmy car during the short breaks that I had.�How do you balance your work andpersonal life?

My husband and I used to have thosehectic working schedules so we wereused to it. We used to cherish whatevertime we got with each other. When I usedto pack up early I used to visit him on hisset or he used to come on my set. We usedto steal some moments together. Wheneverthe show went off-air we had a long breakand in those breaks we used to spend timetogether. We used to take offs from ourschedule and plan trips outside Mumbaito spend some quality time together.�What is your take on shows that shutdown abruptly?

I don’t think I am the right personto comment on it but I feel that

when a show is created there aretoo many viewpoints on it. If oneperson’s judgment is followed,probably the show would do alittle better but unfortunately,no matter how novel theconcept is, it doesn’t matterbecause after the first week oftelecast it all depends on TRPs.We should give a little moretime to a show to sink in withthe audience before turn theshow into something else. Wekeep anticipating what the

audience wants to see andthis is a wrong point ofview. A show is a creativeprocess and there has to becreative l iberties that

should be taken and let theshow live its life but there is

so much money involved in itand at the end of the day

everyone wants to make a profitout of it.�One change you would like to seein the industry?

That the scripts should bedelivered on time to the actors sothat they get a little time to preparefor the role and then the wholecreative process will be moresatisfying.�Are you planning on some morefrequent episodes for your channeland any upcoming projects?

We upload a video ever yThursday at 2:30 pm. We have beendoing this for the last three years and

will continue uploading them everyweek. I am looking for films now and

also we are planning to do some web-series for our channel. We are planningto launch a few other channels as well.

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They are truly unbeatablein the real sense. With the

loss of a team member Vikas,t hat d i s s o lve d t he V-Unb e at able g roup, OmPrakash Chouhan decided topay a tribute to him with theformation of the dance groupagain which is well known allover the world.

“At the age of 13, I quitschool and came to Mumbaifrom Nepal a l l a lone inpursuit of a better life. I wasworking in a sung lassmanufacturing company, Imet a bunch of dancers whoused to practise in the parknear my factory and thattriggered my dancing dream.We practiced the stunts andB-boying and performed atvarious places. My friend,Vikas, was like a brother tome who filled the vacuumwhenever I used to miss myparents,” Prakash says.

During a practise session,Vikas met with an accidentwhile doing a stunt.

“In his X-ray report, hisneck was cracked. Many quitthe group. When he wasreferred to another hospital,the doctors told us for theoperation and will be costly aswell. Some gave �500 each forhis surgery and I took somemoney from my office andgave it to Vikas’ parents. Hissurgery was successful butafter one month in hospital,he succumbed to his injuries,”Prakash recalls

Chouhan was blamed anda case was filed against him.“It was an accident. I wasscared but never gave up.Vikas’ parents came to myrescue,” Prakash says.

It was Vikas’ wish to makehis parents proud by takingthem to big stage whichPrakash take it for ward.“Vikas used to tell his parentsthat one day we will performthe world over. His dreambecame my dream. Threemonths before the auditionsfor of D ance P lu s , 20teammates from the previousgroup came back and stoodby me. We not only gotselected in Dance Plus but arealso popular worldwide. Wegot Vikas’ parents on thes tage and dedicated thep er for mance to Vi kas ,”Chouhan says.

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Good news for wildlifelovers as two black tiger

cubs were born at theNandankanan Zoological Park(NZP) here on Saturday.

Royal Bengal TigressRenuka delivered the cubs.Both the tigress and her new-borns were kept under CCTVsurveillance, the NZP author-ities said.

The first cub was born at

3.40 am and the second one inthe afternoon. However, thegenders of the newborns wereyet to be ascertained.

Notably, the Nandankananauthorities had made arrange-ments for mating betweentigress Renuka and tiger Samratin the enclosure for increasingthe zoo’s tiger population.

With birth of the new cubs,the big cat population in thezoo rose to 28, including ninewhite and four black.

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Seven more labourers fromOdisha, who were held cap-

tive at a brick kiln in AndhraPradesh, have been rescued andbrought back here. A team offour officials of the OdishaLabour Department rescuedthe labourers in Vizianagaramon Friday.

Among the labourers, five

are from Sundargarh districtand two from Bargarh dis-trict. Notably earlier, fivelabourers had managed toescape after a brick kiln ownerallegedly threw acid at one ofthem and chopped off the fin-gers of another.

According to reports, 12labourers from Odisha hadbeen engaged at the brick kilnin Vizianagaram. They were

allegedly not paid after work-ing for two months. Whenthey asked for their wages, theowner allegedly poured acid onone of them and chopped offthe finger of another labourer.

Though five of them,including the acid attack vic-tim, managed to escape andreach Sundargarh, the sevenothers had been held captive bythe kiln owner.

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The Bhitarkanika NationalPark in Kendrapara district

will remain closed for visitorsfrom January 6 to 14 as cen-suses of migratory birds andsaltwater crocodiles would beconducted at the wildlife sanc-tuary during these nine days,forest official sources said.

The bird count would beheld in water bodies ofSatabhaya, Raipatia, MathaAdia, Gupti Ghat, Hansila Ghatand the wide wetland of light-house along with theBhitarkanika National Park.Sources said a total of 12 teamswould work for the purpose.

The crocodile censuswould be conducted simulta-neously in the sanctuary. Eightteams under the supervision ofsaltwater crocodile expert DrSudhakar Kar would carry outthe census.

The officials to be partici-pating in the teams for bird andcrocodile censuses would beimparted training on January 5,sources said.

BHUBANESWAR: It seems theBiju Patnaik InternationalAirport here is fast turning intoa safe haven for gold smugglers.Though there have been a num-ber of seizures, still efforts arebeing made to smuggle the yel-low metal. In a glaring example,

officials of the Customs AirIntelligence Unit seized goldworth over Rs 8 lakh from a pas-senger at the airport on Saturday.

The market value of theseized gold weighing 254.47grams has been estimatedabout Rs 8, 20,156, said

Customs officials.The accused passenger was

detained after customs officialsfound his activities suspicious.He had arrived by an Air Indiaflight A1-399 from Bangkok.

According to reports, theaccused had concealed the gold

in his rectum in form of powderwrapped in black tape and poly-thene like capsules. “After open-ing the suspected items in whichgold was mixed in powder form,treatment of the brown paste inlaboratory resulted in gold,” theofficials said. PNS

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Awell-known builder of thecity, who allegedly had

faced a bullet attack about tendays back, was arrested bypolice on Saturday, along withfour other associates, alleged-ly for conspiring a firing onhimself in a bid to trap one ofhis business rivals.

Police after forwarding thebusinessman in his bullet attackincident have decided to openanother such case, whichoccurred during 2013 againstthe same businessman.

Sources said on December11, 2018, one Anmol Singh, abuilder and a known busi-nessman of the city, had lodgeda complaint in BrahamaniTarang police station, allegingthat while coming towardsRourkela on SH 10, two mis-creants had suddenly openedfire at him and his men, on the

outskirts of Rourkela city. The police had registered a

case under Section 307 andArms Act and had stated inves-tigation in to the matter.

During investigation, itcame to light that Anmol had business rivalry over finan-cial issues with another busi-nessman of Rourkela city,police said.

Anmol reportedly hadhired two persons, identified asSapan, alias Sajan Tiwari, andDilu, alias Dilsad Khan andpaid Rs 70,000 cash to attackhis rival businessman, but theywere not successful in theirattempt, police added.

Sources said after failing intheir attempt, Anmol alongwith Sajan and Dilsad hadmade a conspiracy to attack ontheir own vehicle so that thebusinessman in rivalry withAnmol would come under thetrap of police.

Accordingly, Sajan andDilshad had hired two persons,identified as Shibu Bisoi andSajan Mustaqu Alam for exe-cuting the second plan.

Accordingly, when Anmoland his associates were return-ing on SH 10, these two per-sons had opened firing at thevehicle, particularly afterAnmol and his men gettingdown from the vehicle.

The bullet marks on thevehicle were produced in thepolice station, as the evidenceof firing, sources added.

Police also had recoveredtwo nine mm bore pistols, fourrounds of live ammunitions,cash worth Rs 70,000, oneHundai Creta vehicle, oneMaruti Baleno, one TVSApachi motorcycle and alsoone white coloured ToyataInnova (with bullet marks onbody) from the arrested per-sons. Senior police officials ofthe district like DIG (WR)Kavita Jalan and SP RourkelaUma Shankar Dash briefedthe media and described thedetails of the crime.

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Chief Minister NaveenPatnaik on Saturday said

that more big and foreignindustrial houses are coming tothe State for investment. HisGovernment has chalked outplans to provide jobs to six lakhyouths in Government andother sectors within five years.

He was addressing a meet-ing after inaugurating the 2ndKalinganagar Mahostav. Healso laid foundation-stone fora park at Kalinganagar.

Patnaik stated that hisGovernment’s scheme ofKALIA (Krushak Assistancefor Livelihood & IncomeAugmentation) to providefinancial, livelihood, cultivationsupport along with insurancesupport to farmers and share-croppers would hugely help thefarming community.

The KALIA scheme wouldbenefit around 40 lakh farmers,he added.

The meeting was alsoaddressed by Jajpur MLAPranab Kishore Das, Bari MLADebashis Nayak and SukindaMLA Pritiranjan Ghadai.

����� +1&+�:���'

Students of the College ofVeterinary Science and

Animal Husbandry under theOUAT called off their three-day-long strike on Saturday.The strike was continuing witha demand for appointment ofa regular Dean of the college.

It is to be mentioned thatan interim Dean has been

appointed by the Chancellor ofthe university since July 2018.In a written letter to the Vice-Chancellor, the students’ calledoff their strike to bring back a conducive atmos-phere for teaching-learning environment.

The college will resume itsroutine academic, examina-tion, research and treatmentactivities from Monday.

����� +1&+�:���'

ACBI court here on Saturdayconvicted a Khadi and

Village Industries (KVIC)Clerk in a bribery case and sen-tenced him to undergo one-year rigorous imprisonment.

Special CBI Judge LokanathMohapatra found KVIC UpperDivision Clerk Bibhisana Nayakguilty in the case. The court alsoimposed a penalty of Rs 5,000on the convict. Nayak haddemanded Rs 5,000 bribe fromone Nilakantha Mansingh ofChhatrapada in Begunia blockto process his loan file and to get

the loan sanctioned underPrime Minister EmploymentGeneration Programme(PMEGP).

On the basis of the com-plaint of the Mansingh, a casewas registered with CBI,Bhubaneswar on August 4,2013. Accordingly, a trap waslaid and Nayak was caughtred-handed while acceptingthe bribe.

The CBI court pronouncedthe verdict after recordingstatements of 11 witnesses andexamining 80 documents. CBIPublic Prosecutor RajeswarHota was conducting the case.

����� ,�6��!:61"&'

The body of a youth, BabuliMallick, of Baulanga village

in the Kujang area, who died inTamil Nadu three days ago,reached his village on Friday.

Reports said Mallick whileworking in Tamil Nadu wasstaying with friends in a rentalhouse there.

On Tuesday wee hours, hewas found dead in mysteriouscircumstances. Police seizedthe body for postmortem andthen handed it over to thedeceased’s friends, who broughtthe body from Tamil Nadu.

Mallick’s family had earli-er lodged an FIR at the Kujangpolice station suspecting thecircumstances of his death.Meanwhile, the Tamil Nadupolice have registered anunnatural death case and areinvestigating the case.

The postmortem report isyet awaited, informed thedeceased’s friends ChandanMallick and Sachitra Mallick.

����� +1&+�:���'

The State Government hasdecided to set up a “High

Performance Sports Academy”here comprising nine centres indifferent sports. Steps are beingexpedited to start operation ofthe proposed centres from thecoming financial year.

Chief Secretary AP Padhistated this while inauguratingthe Odisha Forest Sports Meet-2018 at the Kalinga Stadiumhere on Saturday morning.

“Bhubaneswar has beendesignated as sports capital bythe State and the Governmentis committed to promote var-ious types of sports from grampanchyat to international levelevents as sports and games pro-motes team spirit and healthycompetitiveness and increases

health consciousness.” he said.Speaking about the sports

meet, Principal ChiefConservator of Forests andHoFF Dr Debabrata Swain said400 participants selected fromfour zonal meets held in Angul,Brahmapur, Sambalpur andKoraput during November2017 and November 2018 are

now participating in the two-day State-level meet. Fromamong the winners, partici-pants would selected for theforth coming AIFSM sched-uled to be held at Rayapur inJanuary 2019.

Forest and EnvironmentAdditional Chief SecretarySuresh Mohapatra was present.

����� +1&+�:���'

Hundreds of Samajwadi Partyworkers holding lanterns

and candles staged a demon-stration in front of the OdishaElectricity RegulatoryCommission (OERC) here,pressing for fulfilment ofvarious demands includingstopping of hike in powertariff for 2019-20, free elec-tricity for farmers and aninquiry into Cesu tender.

The activists shoutedslogans like, ‘no power cut’,‘stop power tariff hike’ ,‘reduce transmission loss tobelow 20 per cent, ‘probeCesu tender’ and ‘ensure

CAG audit in power companies’during the demonstration.

Later, workers led by SPState president Rabi Behera metOERC Chairman UN Beheraand submitted a memoran-dum in favor of their demands.

The memorandum, amongother demands, mentioned thattransmission loss in the State stillstands at 37 per cent for whichDiscoms are losing around Rs3,000 crore annually which theywant to pass on to 77 lakh con-

sumers. Hence, the Gridco hassubmitted an application to hikepower tariff from present Rs 2.50per unit to Rs 3.26 per unit,which is arbitrary and irrational.Besides, it sought free electrici-ty for farmers and 50% rebate forBPL families.

“The discoms should bedirected to reduce transmissionloss so that there will be nopower tariff hike from thecoming financial,” read thememorandum. Among, others,

party secretarySudarshan Pradhan,youth leaders NSambit Das and PradipMishra, women lead-ers Rita Pattnaik andSabiri Behera, farmerleaders Bijay Beheraand Guna Samantarayand student leaderRajyapriya Das werepresent.

����� +1��'�/

Afarmer allegedly attemptedsuicide in Sabrang Bada

Gopalsahi of the district onSaturday.

Harmohan Barik wasadmitted to the DistrictHeadquarters Hospital. Thedoctor treating him said hiscondition was stable.

“A farmer from Sabrangwas admitted to the hospital.He had consumed poison andis under treatment currently.His condition is stable now,” thedoctor said.

Sources said Harmohanhad gone to the nearby coop-erative society to sell his paddy.However, the rice millersreturned the paddy citing thatthe paddy did not meet the FairAverage Quality (FAQ) norms.Distressed over not being ableto sell the paddy, he reported-ly attempted suicide by con-suming poison.

“The officials and agentsaccepted the quality of paddybut the millers did not procure.The paddy bags are lying on theroad,” Harmohan alleged.

����� +�'!"���

Prime Minister NarendraModi is scheduled to visit

Baripada on January 5 next.Though the deatails of his tourare yet to be known, he isexpected to address a hugegathering here.

With a view to making thePM’s visit a grand success, ameeting of BJP office-bearerswas held here on Saturdaybeing presided over by BJPState president Basant Panda

and attended by other partyleaders including ManmohanSamal, Pratap Sarangi, BishnuSethy, Rajkishore Das and thedistrict presidents of Bhadrak,Baleswar, Mayurbhanj andKeonjhar.

Hundreds of party workersfrom 28 Assembly constituen-cies spread over these five dis-tricts assembled for thispreparatory meeting.

People here expect somespecial New Year package fromthe PM for this part of Odisha.

����� /1A'�1�

In a crackdown on illegaldrugs trade, excise officials

arrested two persons and seized295 grams of brown sugarfrom their possession in thewee hours of Saturday.

The arrestees were identified as Rabindra Pradhanof Mathasahi and KrushnaChandra Palei ofRadhamohanpur area under the Khordha Townpolice station.

On a tipoff, a joint team ofCuttack flying squad andKhordha Excise Department

conducted simultaneous raidsat Pradhan and Palei’s residenceand seized a combined 295grams of brown sugar from

their possession.“The rate of the brown

sugar would be somewherearound Rs 29.50 lakh in the

international market, informedExcise Department DeputySuperintendent Shantanu Das.

Earlier on December 14, ateam of Khordha Excise andCentral Intelligence officialshad seized 76 grams brown sugar worth Rs 8 lakhfrom house of one SarojiniSahu house at Bhaliabadi areanear the New Bus Stand inKhordha.

Sources said Sarojini Sahuis the mother-in-law ofKrushna Chandra Palei whowas arrested on the day.Further police investigationinto the case is underway.

����� +1&+�:���'

ABangalore-bound IndiGoflight from Kolkata was

diverted to Bhubaneswar aftera 32-year-old passenger wastaken ill pn Saturday.

The IndiGo 6E 822 flightthat had departed from theKolkata airport at 10.10 amlanded at the Biju PatnaikInternational Airport here at11.15 am. Soon after the land-

ing, the airport officials anddoctors on duty provided allnecessary assistance to the pas-senger, Rajkumar Karmakarof Malda in West Bengal.

Later, he was rushed to theCapital Hospital here, wheredoctors declared him dead.“The heart beat of the passen-ger had stopped while his bodywas cold and pupil not react-ing to light exposure,” said adoctor.

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Congress leader Srikant Jenaon Saturday urged farmers

to drive out the Naveen PatnaikGovernment in the 2019 elec-tions in case it doesn’t waive farmloans fully and procure paddy atminimum support price (MSP)of Rs 2,900 per quintal.

Jena said this whileaddressing a massive rally heldin front of the Raj Bhawan bythe Samajika Nyaya Abhiyan.

“The Chief Minister saidthe State would be bankrupt iffarm loans are waived. Whilethe State has been over-bur-dened with loans during theNaveen Patnaik Government’s18 years rule, Patnaik’s state-ment clearly indicates that hisGovernment is anti-farmer,”alleged Jena.

Jena alleged that theGovernment has given relax-ation of Rs 50,000 crore to min-ing owners and waived mini-mum dues of Rs 1,000 for 10 topminers each. Jena said he wouldbe involved in the SamajikaNyaya Abhiyan meetings in vil-lages and make people knowabout the “wealthy animals”and their pets’. He demandedthat the State Government pro-vide monthly financial supportof Rs 3,000 to each unemployedyouth till he/she gets employed.

Alleging that the NarendraModi Government at theCentre has betrayed farmers,the Congress leader said votershave given befitting reply inthree States, Rajasthan, MadhyaPradesh and Chhattisgarh.

The meeting was presidedover by Abhiyan connvenor

Akshay Kumar Mallick.Former Union leader KanhuCharnan Lenka, noted envi-ronmentalist PrafullaSamantara and two other con-

venors, former MLA KrushnaChandra Sagrai and DebiPrasad Prusti shared the dais.

Among others, formerMLA Kulamani Rout, Gagan

Jena, Manindra Samal, BishnuCharan Mohanty, GeetanjaliMahant, Sandhya Mohapatra,Janaki Mallick amdMahammad Alli spoke.

����� +1&+�:���'

After a long gap, the weeklyPatha Utsav will feature

regularly on Sunday morningfrom December 23 on Janpathhere.

The theme for this Sundaywill be Christmas as the festivemood has already started tosettle down in the minds ofpeople. There would be otherattractions like BSF Band, par-ticipation of young Ollywoodartists, decorations on stage andalong Janpath with Santa and

Christmas trees and other reg-ular features.

Famous playback singerMd Aziz, who has also recorded many Odia hits,would be given a musical trib-ute by singers of theAmakalakar Parivar during thePatha Utsav.

Ollywood artists Swaraj,Sanmeera, Aseema and Arpitawould join the street festival,which had started as Raahgirion January 17, 2016 as anevent to promote non-motorised transport and also to

promote healthy lifestyle,sports, cycling, skating, yoga,Zumba dancing and sheer plea-sure of walking along Janpath,one of the busiest roads in thecity. The event started with achanged local Odia name PathaUtsav on November 27, 2016.

The weekend street fest isorganised by the BDA in col-laboration with theBhubaneswar MunicipalCorporation, Odisha Tourism,Commissionerate police andBhubaneswar Smart CityLimited.

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Rabiratna Das, former hon-orary secretary of Indian

Red Cross Society, Odisha Statebranch passed away onDecember 13 after prolongedillness. He took over the reinsof the State branch on July 15,2000, when the branch was indire straits and relinquished theoffice on March 2, 2009 on hisown volition.

It was an honour andproud privilege to associateourselves with him, as lifemembers, in all sorts ofhumanitarian activities carriedout by the Red Cross during hisstint. Late Das was a formermember of the IndianAdministrative Service andheld many important posi-tions in the Government.

Many of us now appreciateand feel that he was the rightchoice because of his immense

contribution to the organiza-tion. Life members wereimpressed and overwhelmedby his humbleness, devotion,honesty, simplicity in attireand informal behaviour, calm-ness in adverse situations, lead-ership quality and far sighted-ness. He did not believe indeceit and showiness.

The word ‘I’ did not existin his dictionary or day to dayin deliberations. For every suc-cess or achievement he wouldsay it belongs to all. His codeword was ‘we’. In our long asso-ciation, we had never foundhim getting angry with anyone.These were his greatest virtues.

Very few people possesssuch qualities. He never cor-nered the honours or glorybestowed on the State branchas the best performing branchin the country in field of mem-bership drive, blood donationand humanitarian service suc-cessively by the national head-quarters of the Indian RedCross Society, the President of

India and the StateGovernment to himself thoughhis leadership ensured suchaccolades. On the contrary, hewould share it with all mem-bers and office staff for collec-tive efforts.

His tireless and fruitfuleffort to financially stabilize theState branch is a legend in itself.Many national societies likeGerman Red Cross, AmericanRed Cross and Spanish RedCross partnered with the Statebranch during his tenure and

the most important of themwas the funding by the GermanRed Cross through KFW fordisaster mitigation programme,building of cyclone sheltersand empowerment of people incyclone prone areas.

The formation of ‘RedRibbon’ clubs under the aegis ofYouth Red Cross, awarenessprogrammes against AIDS,organization of mega blooddonation camp at Bhubaneswarin 2002, health camps in remoteand Maoist areas in Deogarh,Angul, Khordha, Rayagada,Gajapati and Nuapada districtsetc., and animal health campalongside a health camp atHaluapali in Sunabeda junglearea of Nuapada district on theeve of World Health Day, 2008are a few to name.

In reality, he gave amomentum to the blood dona-tion programme which tookblood collection several notch-es higher. Humanitarian ser-vices including relief work dur-ing natural calamities were

carried out with full commit-ment.

The project ‘To ReachUnreached’ funded by EmpressShoken Fund was launchedduring 2008 in health sector inDasapalla area of Nayagarhdistrict was his parting gift. Healso started the Adopted Villageconcept in Red Cross Statebranch. His achievements aretoo many to chronicle.

The tranquility and peace-ful environment and cama-raderie of the time will neverreturn. He gave a life andmeaning to Red Cross activi-ties. In short, the period wasthe ‘Golden Era’ in the historyof the State branch unlikely tobe emulated.

In his passing away, theRed Cross Society has lost afriend, philosopher and guideand the loss is genuine. Wemourn his loss, a jewel, so dearto all of us.

(The writers are life mem-bers of Indian Red Cross Society)

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The BJP Kishan Morcha burnt effi-gies of Chief Minister Naveen

Patnaik along with effigies of BJDMinister Surjya Narayan Patro and localMLA and Mines Minister PrafullaMallick in front of Mandis at BhubanNAC and Bhusal, protesting againstpaddy procurement irregularities.Morcha’s Loksabha Pravari ErDebashisha Hota led the agitators atboth places.

“Today, farmers at both the Mandiscomplained that officials are forciblycutting 4 kg paddy per quintal.

BJP Kishan Morcha dis-trict general secretary ArjunMishra, VidhansabhaPravari Kalandi Behera,Mandal presidents AshokMajhi and Satya Jena,Mandal general secretariesBasant Dehury, Ajay Sahooand Upendra Sahoo, KishanMorcha leaders KrushnaMallick, Gauranga Behera,Astira Behera, ChetanaBehera, Sudipta Behera and RakeshSahoo immediately rushed to theMandis and gheraoed the paddy loadedtrucks. Hundreds of local farmers were

involved,” told Hota.He alleged that CM Patnaik is

shedding crocodile tears for farmers.While farmers are harassed by the offi-

cials on different counts at the mandis,nothing is done to address the issue.This has exposed the double standardsof the State Government, Hota added.

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The Xavier School ofSustainability (XSoS) host-

ed the third edition ofChildren’s EnvironmentCongress on Friday.

The theme for this year’sOrissa Environment Congress(OEC) was ‘Environment andGandhi’ to celebrate the 150thbirth anniversary of MahatmaGandhi. The event at the XSoSis a part of the OEC whosemain objective is to create aplatform for children to imag-ine, believe and achievethrough expert talks, activities

and competitions to appreciateenvironment and Gandhi.

The event witnessed chil-dren from various schools inand around Khordha partici-pating in various events likeessay writing, drawing, debateand singing.

Winners of each competi-tion were awarded in the vale-dictory function.

The event was a joint col-laboration between withHuman DevelopmentFoundation-Centre forDevelopment Action andResearch (HDFcDAR), Centrefor Environment andDevelopment (CED), RegionalCentre for DevelopmentCooperation (RCDC),Regional Museum of Natural

History (RMNH)Bhubaneswar and XavierSchool of Sustainability (XSoS).

Former RTI CommissionerOdisha Prof Radhamohan, for-

mer Indian AmbassadorAbasara Beuria, and former Director, HigherEducation Dr Seba Mahapatrajoined as guests.

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Following a State wide cele-brations of ‘Krushi Odisha

2019’, Puri MLA and RevenueMinister Mahaeswar Mohantyinaugurated a function here onSaturday. The event was held inassociation with theConference of Commerce andIndustry (CII).

Agriculture AdditionalSecretary Manmath Pani,Director S Chandrasekhar Rao,besides Puri Collector JyotiPrakash Das, were presentamong others and deliveredtheir addresses on differentaspects in agriculture to meeta target of doubling income of

farmers. A chariot would movein the State to spearhead theprogramme of the StateGovernment.

In his address, Minister

Mohanty stressed on use of lat-est technology in the fields. Hewanted the farmers to focus ondiversified farming to doubletheir income.

In Kharif and Rabi season,farmers will be given Rs 5,000and Rs 10,000 respectivelyfrom the Government as assis-tance, Mohanty declared.

Puri Collector Das saidthe function is only aimed toaware the farmers on multiplefarming, apart from paddy, togrow the profit of farmers.

Agriculture AdditionalSecretary Pani said all sorts ofassistances would be providedto boost the income from agri-culture. Agriculture DeputySecretary Rao elaborated theprogrammes for farmers fromthe State Government. SuparnaNanda of the CII coordinatedthe programme.

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The District CongressCommittee (DCC),

Ganjam held its executivemeeting here on Friday underthe chairmanship of itspresident Dr TrinathBehera.

The party leaders dis-cussed various problems ofthe district and decidedmeasures as to how theparty would perform betterin coming elections.

They decided to go topeople and make themaware of the BJDGovernment’s negligencetowards Ganjam districtand hooliganism being

resorted to by BJD workers. Leaders also discussed

about the scheduled visit ofPCC president NiranjanPatnaik to the district inJanuary.

The DCC sent greetings toAICC president Rahul Gandhifor overwhelming performanceof the Congress in Rajasthan,

Chhattisgarh and MadhyaPradesh elections.

Among others, DCC work-ing president Pitabasa Panda,Dipak Patnaik, Santosh Nayak, Ganjak prabhariSubhendu Mohanty andDistrict Mahila Congress pres-ident Swarupa Tripathy werepresent.

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CM Naveen Patnaikon Friday inaugurat-

ed a three-day martyrKarunakar deathanniversary programmeat the Kolabira field here.

Patnaik hailed therole of Gond tribals intheir freedom struggleagainst the Britishers. Hesaid that Gond tribalsare the most courageousand have culturally richtraditions.

Assuring to deviseways and means forupliftment of Kolabira fort,Patnaik said that necessaryaction will be taken in thisregard soon. He further

declared that a memorial forthe martyrs will be construct-ed at a cost of Rs 50 lakh.

The Chief Minister also

inaugurated six projects built atRs 11.82 crore and laid foun-dation of 14 other projectsthrough videoconferencing.

SSD MinisterRamesh ChandraMaghi, BargarhMP Dr PravasSingh, WODCC h a i r m a nKishore KumarMohanty, formerBrajrajnagar MLAAnup Kumar Sai,Pradesh GondSamaj presidentMahendra Naikwere also present.

P r a d e s hC o n g r e s sCommittee work-ing president and

Jharsuguda MLA Naba KishoreDas with party workers hadwelcomed the Chief Minister atthe VSS Airport.

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The mercury dipped to zerodegrees Celsius in Karnal

on Saturday as the cold wavesweeping most parts ofHaryana and Punjab for over aweek continued unabated.

The minimum tempera-tures in the two states were sev-eral notches below the normal.

Karnal in Haryana record-ed a low of zero degreesCelsius, seven degrees belowthe normal and the lowest inthe two States, a MeteorologicalDepartment official said.

Among other places inHaryana, Hisar, Ambala andNarnaul shivered at 2.7, 4.6 and2 degrees Celsius respectively,up to five degrees below thenormal. Rohtak, Bhiwani andSirsa recorded minimum tem-peratures of 3.8, 5.5 and 3.8degrees Celsius respectively.

In Punjab, Adampur con-tinued to be the coldest placein the state for the second con-secutive day at 0.2 degrees

Celsius. Amritsar, Ludhiana,Patiala, Pathankot, Halwaraand Bathinda also braved icytemperatures at 2.2, 1.4, 4.7, 3.1,2.2 and 2.4 degrees Celsiusrespectively.

Chandigarh, the joint cap-ital of Haryana and Punjab,recorded a minimum temper-ature of 4.6 degrees Celsius. Fogreduced visibility at severalplaces in the two States.

COLD WAVE GRIPSPARTS OF HIMACHAL

Shimla: Tribal district Lahauland Spiti’s administrative cen-tre Keylong continued to be thecoldest place in HimachalPradesh with a minimum tem-perature of minus 8.8 degreesCelsius, the Meteorological(MeT) Department said onSaturday.

Cold wave conditions alsogripped other parts of the state,causing the mercury to dipbelow the freezing point inManali, Solan, Kalpa, Seobagh,Bhuntar and Sundernagar aswell, the Met Centre DirectorManmohan Singh said.

The lowest temperature inthe state was recorded in Keylongat minus 8.8 degrees Celsiusbetween 5.30 pm on Friday and8.30 am on Saturday, he said.Both Manali and Seobaghrecorded a minimum tempera-ture of minus 1.6 degrees Celsiusduring the period.

The minimum temperaturein Kalpa was minus 3 degreesCelsius, minus 1.1 degreesCelsius in Bhuntar, minus 0.8degrees Celsius in Sundernagarand minus 0.5 degrees Celsius inSolan. However, the minimumtemperature in Shimla was 6.7degrees Celsius during the peri-od. Kufri recorded a low of 5.3degrees Celsius and the mini-mum temperature in Chail was5.8 degree Celsius. PNS

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New Delhi: A Delhi-basedwildlife body on Saturday res-cued a white-throated king-fisher caught in a rat glue trapin Delhi Cantt.

According to Wildlife SOS,a concerned passer-by spottedthe kingfisher near a dumpster,inextricably stuck to a rat gluetrap. The wildlife body wascontacted and a two-memberteam later rescued the bird andprovided treatment.

It took over two hours tofree the bird and safely removedthe deadly glue from its beakand feathers, it said. Glue trapdevices consist of pieces ofcardboard, fibreboard, or plas-tic, coated with a sticky adhesivedesigned to ensnare any smallanimal who wanders across orlands on its surface. PTI

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Page 5: ˆ#$% ˙& ’( ) ˙& ˘ ˘ ˘ ˆ€¦ · income of an Odia farmer is mere Rs 1,407. State produced only 2.68 lakh metric tonne of potato in 2017-18 against targe of 11.25 lakh MT

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Sounding a note of cautionabout encroachment of

defence land, Defence MinisterNirmala Sitharaman said hereon Saturday rapid urbanisationis taking place in the countryand critical assets of defenceestates have to be protected.

Asserting that urbanisa-tion is spreading at a “very fast”rate in cities, she said defenceestates need to be “more cau-tiously protected” against anykind of encroachment. In heraddress at the Raksha MantriAwards for Excellence 2018hosted by the DirectorateGeneral of Defence Estate(DGDE), she also pitched for“greater coordination” betweencantonment and municipalauthorities to ensure no part ofdefence lands are lost toencroachments.

The categories in whichthese awards have been givenare very critical to transformIndia to a civic-conscious, wel-fare-conscious, and public-conscious country, the DefenceMinister said.

“Defence estates role isvery important, and as impor-

tant as the guarding of the bor-ders of this sovereign country.And, I say with so much of seri-ousness, several lakhs of acreagefall under your (DGDE) con-trol. In particular areas of can-tonments, over 20 lakh citizensdepend on it,” she said.

The Minister said the areamanaged by the DGDE may belocated in far, interior areas ofthe country, but it is veryimportant to spread defenceassets, which are “critical foremergency (situation), and crit-ical for protection of the coun-try, and critical to house oursoldiers.”

Sitharaman said earlier thisyear elected representativesfrom various cantonmentboards had met her and dis-cussed the issue of roads andaccess to certain areas. “Intowns and cities, where urban-

isation is creeping in at a veryfast (rate), pressure is comingfrom places closer to wheredefence estates are located...Weprobably lose a lot more spacefor want of greater coordina-tion between local authoritiesand the DGDA,” she said.

The Minister said after anykind of encroachment, itbecomes everybody’s tiringbusiness as to how to removeit. “So, I strongly appeal to all,to have greater coordinationwith municipal and canton-ment authorities, to ensure wedo not lose, inch by inch, whatis otherwise defence estate,”Sitharaman said.

Among the various cate-gories of awards which werehanded out by the UnionMinister at a ceremony, DelhiCantonment won it in theSwachh cantonment segment.

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In an effort to have moreintense relations with coun-

tries in the Indian Oceanregion, India on Saturday inau-gurated an Information FusionCentre — Indian Ocean Region(IFC-IOR) which will workclosely with countries in theregion and will be manned bythe Indian Navy. The centre atGurugram is a step to consol-idate the regional efforts withfriendly nations to keep theglobal commons “open andaccessible for all.”

“The need for IFC-IORstems from importance of theIOR for world trade and secu-rity. All stakeholders are equalin this maritime security andsafety milestone,” DefenceMinister Nirmala Sitharamansaid at the inauguration.

The IFC has been estab-lished at the Navy'sInformation Management andAnalysis Centre (IMAC) atGurugram which is the single

point centre interlinking all thecoastal radar chains to gener-ate a seamless real-time pictureof the nearly 7,500-km longcoastline.

The IFC aims to bring var-ious countries in the region andpool in best practices to joint-ly monitor the vast IRO whichis increasingly becoming thetheatre for contention betweengreat powers apart from

increase in natural disastersand trans-national threats likepiracy, terrorism and traffick-ing.

According to Navy offi-cials, all countries that havealready signed White ShippingInformation Exchange agree-ments with us, about 21 ofthem, are IFC partners and canpost International LiaisonOfficers (ILO) at the centre.Atleast 10 countries, includingUS, France, Italy and Japan,have expressed in posting theirofficers. “It is for equals, it is forpartners,” Sitharaman stated.

The centre will be trackingand monitoring 75,000 to 1.5lakh shipping traffic in the IORin real time round the clock. Tobegin with, the ILOs will havea virtual presence at the centre.In the near future, Navy is look-ing to host additionalInternational Liaison Officersadjacent to the IFC-IOR forwhich creation of infrastructureand manpower is being workedout.

“The expertise of the resi-dent ILOs would be utilisedtowards sharing of real timeinformation with partners aswell as for generating timelyand adequate response todeveloping situations,” theNavy said.

The resident ILOs wouldcollate information from theirallocated areas of responsibil-ity and contribute towardsdevelopment of a commonoperational picture that wouldthen be shared with partnercountries. “The ILOs wouldalso interact with their nation-al maritime security agenciesand solicit response to devel-oping maritime scenarios in theIOR,” the statement added.

Indian Navy is mandatedto conclude white shippinginformation exchange agree-ments with 36 countries andthree multi-national constructs,the first of which India joinedearlier this month in Italy, theTrans Regional MaritimeNetwork (T-RMN).

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At a time when theOpposition parties are up

in arms against the BJP-ledGovernment for giving snoop-ing powers to investigatingagencies, an RTI reply from2013 has surfaced to reveal thataround 9,000 phones and 500email accounts were intercept-ed every month by theCongress-led UPAGovernment at the time.

The BJP that has been atpains to clarify that its orderwas not new but only a con-tinuation of the UPA’s 2009decision lost no time in mak-ing a strong counter on thebasis of the RTI, filed by oneProsenjit Mondal. Theresponse to him was given bythe Ministry of Home Affairs(MHA) on August 6, 2013.

Information andBroadcasting MinisterRajyavardhan Rathore onSaturday said the UPA dispen-sation also carried out a simi-lar exercise and asked theCongress not to be “hypocrit-ical” about steps taken toensure national security.

The RTI reply stated, “Onan average, between 7,500 to9,000 orders for interception oftelephones and 300 to 500orders for interception ofemails are issued by CentralGovernment per month whereas.”

The reply also disclosed thelist of 10 Central and Stateagencies that are authorised forlawful interception, which

include Intelligence Bureau(IB), Narcotics Control Bureau,Enforcement Directorate,Central Board of Direct Taxes(CBDT), Directorate ofRevenue Intelligence (DRI),Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI), National InvestigationAgency, Cabinet Secretariat(RAW) and the Commissionerof Police, Delhi.

Citing the 2013 RTI reply,when the Congress-led UPAwas in power, Rathore said asmany as 9,000 phones and 500emails were tapped monthlyduring the UPA-2, a referenceto the alliance second term inoffice during 2009-14.

The Government has

maintained the notification onsurveillance is a reiteration ofthe order that was amended bythe UPA Government in 2008,when A Raja was the Ministerof communication and infor-mation technology and ShivrajPatil was the Home Minister.

The Government’s move toauthorise 10 agencies to inter-cept any information on com-puters has prompted an outcryfrom Opposition parties, evenas its top Ministers, includingFinance Minister Arun Jaitley,said it has been done in linewith rules framed by the UPA.

The decision to interceptanybody’s computer can beinvoked only in matters ofnational integrity and security,public order and friendly rela-tions with other countries, LawMinister Ravi Shankar Prasadhas said. The earlier mecha-nism was not defined and it hasnow been made robust andaccountable, he claimed.

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Following the Delhi HighCourt order in the National

Herald case, the BJP onSaturday launched a directattack on the Gandhi familysaying the matter is a case of“massive irregularity and scamto appropriate public premises”by them and dared Congresspresident Rahul to provideanswer as how �5000 croreproperty was allegedly usurpedby them for a paltry �50 lakh.

Addressing a Press confer-ence here Law Minister andsenior BJP leader Ravi ShankarPrasad sought to ask Rahul torespond to the court verdict“exposing their corruption”rather than asking too manyquestions on the Rafale fight-er jet deal.

The Delhi High Court dis-missed plea of AssociatedJournals Ltd, publisher ofNational Herald, which haschallenged Centre’s order end-ing its 56-year-old lease askingit to vacate the premises at ITO,New Delhi. The Centre hadissued a notice to AJL on thegrounds that “no Press hasbeen functioning in the saidpremise for the last 10 years”. Italso alleged “misuse” of thepremises; and transfer of sharesof AJL to ‘Young India’ withoutpermission of the lessor whichis in ‘violation of a clause in alease deed’.

Charging the family ofSonia and Rahul with evolvinga new business model whereYoung India with control ofRahul, Sonia and Motilal Voraacquires massive �5,000 croreproperty by paying off only �50lakh, Prasad said a similarmodel was also perfected by

Robert Vadra, the brother-in-law of Congress president .

To buttress his point theUnion Minister quoted theDelhi High Court judgment.“The court is conscious of thefact that Young India compa-ny is a charitable company butthe modus operandi to acquire99 per cent of the AJL sharesspeaks volume. The manner inwhich it has been done is alsoquestionable.”

He said the massive irreg-ularity and scam to appropri-ate public premises by the fam-

ily of Sonia and Rahul has alsobeen found to be questionableby the court, he said.

Pointing to what hedescribed as double-facedstand of the Congress , the BJPleader said when it comes tosaving income tax the partyclaims that publication ofHerald is stopped from 2008but in the face of evictionfrom the Herald house it saysit is publishing weekly paperfrom 2017.

Prasad said Herald prop-erty in Delhi worth �5,000crore by a conservative estimateis but one of the many premis-es run in the name of the samepublication across the country.

Prasad pointed out that acriminal case has also beenfiled in the matter and Rahuland Sonia were given bail in thecase.

The Modi Governmentwould not allow loot of publicmoney, as was sought to bedone in this case, Prasadalleged.

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Aday after the Delhi HighCourt verdict against

Associated Journals Ltd (AJL),publisher of the NationalHerald newspaper to vacant itsheadquarters, Herald House,in the national Capital with-in two weeks, the Congress onSaturday said it will appealagainst the order even as itexuded confidence that theywill get full justice in theSupreme Court.

Congress leader AbhishekManu Singhvi said the courtfindings are not final and theparty is within its right toappeal against it.

The Delhi High Court onFriday ordered AssociatedJournals Ltd (AJL), publisherof Congress mouth piece theNational Herald, to vacatewithin two weeks its premis-es here, holding there was nomala fide in the Centre’s evic-tion order.

Earlier, Congress leaderJaiveer Shergill said, “TheHigh Court order has come. Itis a legal case and theCongress and other partiesinvolved in the case have aconstitutional right to appeal,which we will exercise. Wehave a very strong case in AJLand there is nothing illegal oragainst the law in the case and

we are confident of gettingcomplete justice in the high-er court.”

“The court’s findings andobservationare not final. Theparties have all rights to appealagainst the court findings.The final finding is of theSupreme Court of India. Weare confident that since wehave a strong case and on thebasis of facts and evidence, thefinal victory will be of theAJL,” he added.

The Centre and Land andDevelopment Office (L&DO)have said in their order that noPress has been functioning on the premisesfor at least past 10 years andit was being used only forcommercial purposes in vio-lation of the lease deed. AJLhad denied the allegations inthe petition filed in the HighCourt.

After the Delhi HighCourt order, the Ministry ofHousing and Urban Affairsissued an statement sayingthat it was also observed that instead of usingthe land given to AJL forPress purpose, they are earn-ing a “huge sum of money byrenting out almost the entirebuilding except one floorwhich has negated the pur-pose for which the land wasoriginally allotted”.

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BJP president Amit Shah onSaturday appointed former

Union Minister Rajiv PratapRudy as a national spokesper-son of the party. The BJP saidin a statement that hisappointment will take placewith immediate effect.

A Lok Sabha MP fromBihar who had defeated RJDpresident Lalu Prasad’s wifeRabri Devi in 2014 generalelections, Rudy has held organ-isational responsibilities in thepast as well and was also a gen-eral secretary, a key position.

“My thanks to PrimeMinister Narendra Modi &BJP president Amit Shah. I lookforward to responsibility asthe national spokesperson totake forward the achievementsof the Government under theleadership of the PrimeMinister,” Rudy said in a tweet.

The Rajput leader was aMinister in the first BJP-ledNDA Government under AtalBihari Vajpayee and was alsoentrusted with the responsi-bility of the newly-created min-istry of Skill Development andEntrepreneurship in the Modidispensation. However, he waslater dropped in a Cabinetreshuffle.

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"�!����--��� ��# ��� �����������(�������������������New Delhi: The BJP onSaturday announced that itwill move to Vacation Bench ofthe Supreme Court against theCalcutta High Court verdict onFriday asking the party to deferits three “Save Democracy”

yatras in the State.A division Bench of the

Calcutta high court on Fridayquashed a single bench orderthat had allowed BJP’s ‘rathyatras’ in West Bengal andasked it to hear the case afresh

to consider intelligence inputs. The BJP filed a plea after it

received the green signal froma single-judge Bench of thesame court on Thursday.

The BJP ‘yatras’ areplanned to be launched from

three different locations in theState before converging inKolkata. The administrationhad earlier denied permissionfor the political rallies, sayingthey could trigger communalclashes in the State. PNS

Page 6: ˆ#$% ˙& ’( ) ˙& ˘ ˘ ˘ ˆ€¦ · income of an Odia farmer is mere Rs 1,407. State produced only 2.68 lakh metric tonne of potato in 2017-18 against targe of 11.25 lakh MT

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Finance Minister Arun JaitleySaturday expressed confi-

dence of meeting the fiscaldeficit target of 3.3 per cent ofGDP for the current fiscaldespite revenue loss due toreduction in GST rates.

The GST Council, headedby the Finance Minister, in its31st meeting on Saturdaydecided to cut rates on 23commonly used goods andservices, which will lead to an annual revenue loss of�5,500 crore.

“At the stage, when we arelooking at the (revenue) target,indirect tax is little behind thescheduled direct tax, the directtax is ahead of schedule. Ournon-tax revenue also seems tobe moving ahead fairly well. Atthe moment, the Government

is quite optimistic that we willbe able to meet fiscal deficit tar-get,” he said after the GSTCouncil meeting here.

The Government has bud-geted to contain fiscal deficit at3.3 per cent of the GDP in thecurrent fiscal, lower than 3.5per cent in 2017-18.

As per the latest data, thefiscal deficit in the April-October period stood at 103.9per cent of budget estimates.

Dispelling fears of a majorimpact on revenue collection,Revenue Secretary AjayBhushan Pandey said that theloss of �5,500 crore is for theentire fiscal, so for the threemonths it would be one-fourthof this.

This shortfall would bemore than met by measures toimprove tax compliancethrough various means, headded.

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GDP numbers are mislead-ing, RBI’s autonomy is in

extreme danger and demon-etisation is the biggest bankingscam, former finance ministerYashwant Sinha claims in hisnew book.

He also says that PrimeMinister Narendra Modi’s ideaof self-employment is a “dis-traction from the more seriousissue of unemployment andunderemployment”.

Sinha, who has been quitevocal about the Government’spolicies since the past couple ofyears, quit the BJP in April.Party leaders have been dis-missing his allegations on sev-eral issues with BJP chief AmitShah once asking if peopleshould believe the ministers orthose “who did not get jobs”.

According to Sinha, Modi

blew a golden opportunity tosend the economy soaring tonew heights.

“He could have fixed theUPA’s legacy issues and funda-mentally raised India from apoor country to a middle-income country, but he squan-dered the chance,” he says,adding his book demonstrateshow “Modi unmade India”.

Though the book “IndiaUnmade: How the ModiGovernment Broke theEconomy” is a critique of theNDA Government’s economicmanagement, Sinha says hehas not always been a critic ofModi.

“Nor do I have a personalvendetta against him for notappointing me Minister or giv-ing me some other post, assome people incorrectly spec-ulate… In fact, the truth is thatI recognised his mettle early on

and was one of the first seniorBharatiya Janata Party (BJP)leaders to say he should bemade the party’s PrimeMinisterial candidate in the2014 elections,” he claims.

He has been severely crit-ical of Modi on demonetisa-tion, jobs, GDP figures andMake in India among otherspolicies and programmes.

“The Modi Government’slasting legacy will be the cata-strophe that was the demon-etisation of high-denomina-tion currency on November 8,2016,” he argues.

“Demonetisation was awhimsical decision that servedno purpose of governance. It did,however, provide Modi with apopulist campaign plank of hav-ing taken tough decisions to nabthe corrupt rich. His decisionpaid a rich electoral dividend inUttar Pradesh in 2017.

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Finance CommissionChairman NK Singh

Saturday sounded a note ofcaution against fiscal slippage,saying it would adverselyimpact the country’s macro-economic stability as well asinvestment climate.

The remarks come in thebackdrop of several states,including Madhya Pradesh andRajasthan, which witnessed achange of Government,announcing farm loan waivers.

Singh expressed appre-hension that some states are notaccording priority to fiscal dis-cipline, which was not the caseearlier.

He also emphasised onstrengthening the Centre-staterelationship through institu-tional mechanisms.

Addressing the ‘SkochSummit’ here, he said theGovernment should look atways to further accelerate the

reforms process pertaining tothe factors of production —labour, land, capital.

Speaking at the event,Bibek Debroy, Chairman,Economic Advisory Council tothe Prime Minister, said thereis a need to re-examine all insti-tutional structures to push thecountry’s growth.

He said India’s per capitaincome is approaching the$2,000 mark and it wouldincrease further, but there willstill be challenges.

“Yes, India’s per capitaincome will go up, yes Indiawill be transformed by 2030 or2040, but all said and doneIndia will still remain relative-ly poor,” he said.

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Public sector NLC India LtdSaturday said a 100-MW

unit of its Thermal PowerStation-I in Tamil Nadu hasbeen retired as part of itsplanned phase-out process.

The station’s generatingcapacity stands reduced to 500MW, NLC India Ltd said in aBSE filing. “Further phasingout activities of TPS-I units willbe scheduled in line with direc-tives Central Pollution ControlBoard,” it added.

The 600-MW ThermalPower Station-I (TPS-I) is a vin-tage plant, which has been inservice for more than 50 years.“A new plant, Neyveli NewThermal Power Project(NNTPP) of capacity 1000 MW(2x500MW) is under imple-mentation as the replacementplant for this TPS-1.

“The commissioningactivities of NNTPP are infinal stages of completion,” thecompany added.

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Home-grown auto major TataMotors Saturday launched six

new passenger vehicle dealershipsin Rajasthan in a single day as partof its aggressive network expansionplans.

Of the six dealerships, threehave come up in the capital cityJaipur, while one each in Udaipur,Bikaner and Ganganagar, TataMotors said in a release.

The addition of new outletstakes the total number of touchpoints to 325 pan-India and 34 inRajasthan, it added.

The expansion of the outlets isalso a part of the Tata Motors’ Turnaround 2.0 strategy,which is aimed at delivering “con-sistent, competitive and cash accre-

tive growth”.“We at Tata Motors are working

with our network partners to offerour customers a solid product mixand a delightful showroom experi-ence.

As part of our Turnaround 2.0journey, we are concentrating onoptimising various business leversand strengthening our sales net-work, in order to enhance perfor-mance and profitability,” saidMayank Pareek, president for pas-senger vehicles business unit, TataMotors

The company continues toenhance and expand its network tocater to its evolving customers withhigh expectations, he added.

All the six new dealerships put together will add up to a robust network of a total of 34 sales

touch points in the state, the releasestated.

The Mumbai-headquarted auto maker’s November salesdeclined 3.8 per cent to 50,470 unitsas compared to 52,464 units in theperiod year-ago.

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Indian Institute of Foreign Trade(IIFT), under the commerce min-

istry, Saturday said it has completedplacements for its 2017-19 batch withan average compensation of �20lakh per annum.

The placement this year has wit-nessed participation from a largenumber of companies from diversesectors, IIFT said in a statement.

“The batch of 2017-19 consti-tuting 279 students was placed across98 companies with 32 new recruitersparticipating in the placement drive,”it said.

“IIFT was the first B-School inthe country to complete 100 per centplacements for the graduating batchof its flagship MBA (InternationalBusiness) programme,” it added.

Major recruiters included Airtel,Amazon, Axis Bank, Bajaj Auto,Britannia, GE, Godrej, GoldmanSachs, HP, ICICI, ITC, JPMC,KPMG, Maersk Line, Marico,

Piramal, Royal Enfield, Shell, TataSteel, Tata Motors, WiproTechnologies and Yes Bank.

In the finance domain, Citibank,CRISIL, HSBC, ICICI Bank, L&T,Rivigo, and Tresvista FinancialServices offered roles across financial operations, investmentbanking, credit risk analysis andcorporate finance.

IIFT Director Manoj Pant said,“The quality of our students, the aca-demic rigour and the premium weplace on cultivating relationshipswith our recruiters are the reasonsbehind this continued success.”

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Five countries — Australia,Canada, Japan, New

Zealand, and the UK — havejoined the US in accusingChina of stealing trade secretsof major companies around theworld through its support of ahacker group known asAdvanced Persistent Threat10, or APT 10, a media reportsaid.

The official statementsfrom the five countries are onthe supposed involvement ofthe Chinese Ministry of StateSecurity (MSS) in supportingthe activity of APT10, CNET’ssister site ZDNet reported onFriday.

The German Governmentalso issued a warning onThursday to local companiesabout the possibility of theirCloud providers having beenhacked, the report said.

The warning came after the US Justice Departmentcharged the two Chinesenationals on Thursday of con-spiring “to commit computerintrusions against dozens of

companies in the United Statesand the world” for economicespionage.

China on Friday stronglydenied the cyber attack chargesby the US and its allies, accus-ing Washington of making“unfounded” allegations thatthe Chinese Government wasbehind global hacking.

Foreign Ministryspokesperson Hua Chunyingasked the US to withdraw theaccusations “as soon as possi-ble” and not to prosecute sus-pected Chinese hackers, Zhu

Hua and Zhang Shilong, Efenews reported.

Hua said China lodged aformal protest with the US andthat Beijing “will take the nec-essary measures” to safeguardits own cybersecurity andinterests.

The US Government ear-lier called on China “to actresponsibly” in cyberspace afterdetecting an alleged broadcyberattack campaign againstintellectual property and “sen-sitive” trade data in the US,Europe and Asia.

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The Executive Engineer, EastBldg Maint. Civil Divn. (M-221),Public Works Department,Level-2, Delhi Sachivalaya, NewDelhi-2 invites on behalf of thePresident of India, OnlinePercentage Rate tender throughe-Procurement from approvedand eligible registered con-tractors of CPWD for the fol-lowing:-

Name of Work: Construction of 36Nos. Aam Aadmi Mohalla Clinic(Primary Health Centre) at variousplaces under East BuildingMaintenance Division (M-221)Delhi Sachivalaya, New Delhi(Civil & Electrical).

NIT No. 09/SE/(East) M/2018-19Tender ID: 2018_PWD_163978_1Estimated Cost:- Rs. 6,48,37,205/-Earnest Money:- Rs. 12,96,744 /-Period of Completion: 120 Days

Last date and time of OnlineSubmission of Tender upto 3:00PM on 11.01.2019. Furtherdetails can be seen at https://govt-procurement.delhi.gov.in

DIP/Shabdarth/2536/18-19

INVITING e-TENDER

The Executive Engineer (E) PWDDHC & ND/CENTRAL, Groundfloor MSO Bldg, New Delhi onbehalf of President of India invitesONLINE item rate bids from theapproved and eligible contrac-tors registered with CPWD inappropriate composite category orthose of appropriates list of MES,BSNL, Railway and other stateGovt. Department dealing withbuildings and Roads and otherexperienced non registered con-tractors, who satisfy the criteria ofexecution of similar works,Provided they meet EligibilityCriteria, as stipulated in the NIT:-for the following work (s) whichshall be received by E-Tendering:-

i) N/W:- RMO Specialized Electrical& Mechanical Services of Tis HazariCourt, Delhi. (SH:- Routine mainte-nance & operation of ElectricalInstallation and allied services etc).

NIT No: 200/EE(E)/PWD DHC &ND/Central/2018-19Estimated Cost: Rs. 2480992/-Earnest Money: Rs. 49620/- & peri-od of completion*Twelve Months,Last Date and time submission ofTender upto 3:00 PM on 04-01-2019The tender forms and other detailscan be obtained from the website:

http://govtprocurement.delhi.gov.inatTender I.D.NO.2018_PWD_163844 _1

ii) N/W:- MOEI & Fans and RMO AirConditioner equipments, drinkingwater supply pump set installed atBungalow of senior officers &Ministers residence, Tilak Marg,Rouse Avenue, Darya Ganj,Chanakya Puri & nearby areas,New Delhi. (SH:- RepairingElectrical accessories at aboveresidences due to change of ten-ancy & as and when requiredbasis).

NIT No: 201/EE(E)/PWD DHC &ND/Central/2018-19Estimated Cost:- Rs. 850604/-Earnest Money:- Rs. 17012/- & peri-od of completion*Six Months, LastDate and time submission of Tenderupto 3:00 PM on 04-01-2019The tender forms and other detailscan be obtained from the website:

http://govtprocurement.delhi.gov.inatTender I.D.NO.2018_PWD_163604 _1

DIP/Shabdarth/2535/18-19

NOTICE INVITING e-TENDERS

Page 7: ˆ#$% ˙& ’( ) ˙& ˘ ˘ ˘ ˆ€¦ · income of an Odia farmer is mere Rs 1,407. State produced only 2.68 lakh metric tonne of potato in 2017-18 against targe of 11.25 lakh MT

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The US Government begana Christmas shutdown

early on Saturday, afterCongress adjourned withoutpassing a federal spending Billor addressing President DonaldTrump’s demand for money tobuild a border wall.

Operations for several keyagencies ceased at 12:01 amSaturday (0501 GMT), despitelast-ditch talks that continuedon Capitol Hill between WhiteHouse officials and congres-sional leaders in both parties.

While most critical securi-ty functions remain opera-tional, the effects of the budgetwrangling and uncertainty havecast an air of chaos over thecapital, which is also reelingfrom Defense Secretary JimMattis’s resignation announce-ment on Thursday.

The uncertainty pushedWall Street into a third straightrout on Friday, to end its worstweek since late 2008 at the startof the global financial crisis.

“President Trump threw atemper tantrum and convincedHouse Republicans to pushour nation into a destructiveTrump Shutdown,” ChuckSchumer, the top oppositionDemocrat in the Senate, andhis House counterpart, fellowDemocrat Nancy Pelosi, said ina joint statement.

Trump has dug in on hisdemand for USD 5 billion forconstruction of a wall to curbillegal immigration on the USborder with Mexico.Democrats are staunchly

opposed, and the absence of anelusive deal means federalfunds for dozens of agencieslapsed at midnight Friday.

The House ofRepresentatives and the Senateare due back in session atnoon on Saturday but itremains unclear how long theshutdown — the third thisyear — will last. Trumpexpressed hope late Fridaynight that it “will not last long,”after earlier saying he wasready for just that.

His own Republican partystill controls both the Houseand Senate, but that will changein January when the Housecomes under Democratic con-trol.

For now, 800,000 federalemployees will be either fur-loughed or forced to workwithout pay in the run-up tothe Christmas holiday.

“The failure to fund thegovernment’s operation isshameful, unacceptable, and acompletely avoidable waste of

taxpayer dollars,” David Cox,national president of theAmerican Federation ofGovernment Employees, saidin a statement.

“This is a dereliction ofduty by Congress and the pres-ident.” But the prospect of alarge portion of governmentworkers going without pay-checks was not enough to spurlawmakers or the president toaction.

The House ofRepresentatives adjourned justbefore 7:00 pm Friday, with nomoves taken to avert a shut-down, and the Senate closed upshop an hour later.

About three-quarters ofthe government, including themilitary and the Department ofHealth and Human Services, isfully funded until the end ofSeptember 2019, leaving 25per cent unfunded as ofSaturday.

Most NASA employees willbe sent home, as willCommerce Department work-

ers and many at theDepartments of HomelandSecurity, Justice, Agricultureand State. National parks willremain open, but most parkstaff will stay home whileWashington is unable toaccomplish one of its mostbasic tasks -- keeping the gov-ernment up and running.

“It’s up to the Democratswhether or not we have a shut-down tonight,” Trump saidearlier Friday, blaming hispolitical opponents for the cri-sis.

“I hope we don’t,” the pres-ident added, but “we’re totallyprepared for a very long shut-down.” Senators told reportersthat congressional leaders fromboth parties were negotiatingbehind the scenes with WhiteHouse officials including VicePresident Mike Pence, Trump’sson-in-law Jared Kushner, andincoming chief of staff MickMulvaney.

The power trio shuttledfrom one side of the Capitol tothe other, seeking a break-through with Republicans andDemocrats.

It did not come on Friday.Should they eventually

strike a deal, it could swiftlyclear Congress and reach thepresident’s desk, said SenateRepublican Bob Corker.

One focus of discussionwas the USD1.6 billion in bor-der security funding that was apart of pending Senate legisla-tion, number two SenateRepublican John Cornyn toldAFP.

But conservatives in the

House would likely balk atthat figure.

“There’s no agreement,”congressman Mark Meadows,chairman of the HouseFreedom Caucus of ultra-con-servatives, told reporters as heleft a closed-door meeting onthe Capitol’s Senate side.

“There’s a whole lot ofnumbers being thrownaround,” but a maximum USD1.6 billion for border security“is not acceptable.”

Trump reversed courseThursday and rejected a mea-sure that had unanimouslypassed the Senate and wasunder House consideration.

It would have extendedgovernment funding untilFebruary 8, but contained nomoney for a border wall, a petproject Trump has fought forsince his presidential cam-paign.

Democrats painted Trumpas the Grinch who stole theyear-end deal.

With lawmakers likeMeadows and prominent con-servative commentatorsdemanding that the presidentstick to his campaign promis-es, Trump would not budge onhis wall.

The House swiftly passed abill that fulfilled the presi-dent’s demands. It includedUSD 5.7 billion in wall fund-ing, and USD 7.8 billion in dis-aster relief. But it stalled at thefirst hurdle in the Senate.

Trump was scheduled to flyto Florida Friday for hisChristmas break, but he post-poned the trip.

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Protests this week in Sudanover the rising cost of bread

have claimed 22 lives, SudaneseOpposition leader Sadiq al-Mahdi said on Saturday,although officials gave a lowerdeath toll.

A Government decision toraise the price of a loaf of breadfrom one Sudanese pound tothree (from about two to six UScents) sparked demonstrationsacross the country onWednesday.

The protests first eruptedin the eastern city of Atbarabefore spreading to Al-Qadarif,also in eastern Sudan, andthen to the Capital Khartoumand twin city Omdurman andother areas.

Two demonstrators werekilled in Atbara and six othersin Al-Qadarif, officials said onThursday, as protesters torchedoffices of the ruling NationalCongress Party of PresidentOmar al-Bashir.

But according to Mahdi“22 people were martyred andseveral others wounded”.

Speaking to reporters inOmdurman, on the west bankof the Nile, Mahdi said theprotest movement “is legal andwas launched because of thedeteriorating situation inSudan”.

He said that demonstra-tions will continue to rockSudan. Governmentspokesman Bashar Jumaa onFriday warned that authorities“will not be lenient” with thosewho set state buildings on fireor cause other damage to pub-lic property.

It was Mahdi’s first newsconference since he returned toSudan on Wednesday afteralmost a year in exile.

A fixture of Sudanese pol-itics since the 1960s, Mahdi wasprime minister from 1966 to1967 and again from 1986 to1989.

His government was thelast one to be democraticallyelected in Sudan, before it wastoppled by a 1989 couplaunched by Bashir.

Since then Mahdi’s UmmaParty has acted as Sudan’s mainopposition group and has reg-

ularly campaigned against thepolicies of Bashir’s govern-ment.

Sudan has been facing amounting economic crisis overthe past year.

The cost of some com-modities has more than dou-bled, inflation is running atclose to 70 percent and thepound has plunged in value.

Shortages have beenreported for the past threeweeks across several cities,including Khartoum.

Protests broke out inJanuary over the rising cost offood, but they were soonbrought under control withthe arrest of opposition leadersand activists.

Also on Saturday, Sudan’snational news agency SUNAreported that Bashir appointeda senior officer from the pow-erful National Intelligence andSecurity Services (NISS) asgovernor of Al-Qadarif.

Mubarak MohammedShamat will replace MirghaniSaleh who was killed in a heli-copter crash on December 9,SUNA said.

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French “yellow vests” turnedout in small numbers for a

sixth Saturday of nationwidedemonstrations, with one per-son killed in a road accident,the tenth death since theprotests began last month.

In Paris, the scene of vio-lent clashes in previous demon-strations, traffic was normal inthe morning and most shops,except for some luxury bou-tiques, were open for businessin the busy weekend beforeChristmas.

David Delbruyere was oneof about 20 protesters near theArc de Triomphe, the fifthtime he has come to the Frenchcapital to join a demonstration.And he wasn’t discouraged bythe small turnout so far.

“I think it’s going to hap-pen,” the 48-year-old said.Some 200 people gathered fora demonstration in Paris’tourist area of Monmartre andthe Sacre Coeur basilica.

In all, around 800 “yellowvests” showed up for smalldemonstrations around theFrench capital, police said atmid-day. Authorities were alsostationed at the Palace ofVersailles outside Paris whichhas been closed to visitors over

fears of unrest.A Facebook event organ-

ised by “yellow vest” leader EricDrouet listed 1,400 people asplanned “participants” in theVersailles demonstration witha further 8,000 people sayingthey were “interested”.

Overnight in Perpignan insouthern France a driver waskilled when his car collidedwith a truck stopped at a road-block set up by “yellow vest”protesters at the entrance to anautoroute, prosecutor Jean-Jacques Fagni told AFP.

There have now been 10deaths related to the protests

since they began on November17. Around 50 “yellow vests”briefly blocked trucks near theborder between France andSpain before gendarmesstepped in.

Blockades were also report-ed in northern France near theborder with Belgium.

Further demonstrationswere planned for Saturday inLyon, Toulouse, Orleans andBrittany. The number of pro-testers has however fallen sig-nificantly since last week, whenPresident Emmanuel Macron,a pro-business centrist, gave into some of their demands.

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Two people have been arrest-ed over the “criminal use”

of drones that broughtLondon’s Gatwick Airport, theUK’s second busiest, to a stand-still, leaving tens of thousandsof passengers stranded ahead ofthe busy holiday season.

Sussex Police confirmedthat they arrested a man andwoman on Friday night afterraids were carried out in thearea around Gatwick Airport inthe south of England.

As part of our ongoing

investigations into the criminaluse of drones which has severe-ly disrupted flights in and outof Gatwick Airport, SussexPolice made two arrests,” PoliceSuperintendent James Collis ofSussex Police said.

“Our investigations are stillongoing, and our activities atthe airport continue to buildresilience to detect and mitigatefurther incursions from dronesby deploying a range of tactics,”he said. He called on the pub-lic around the airport to remainvigilant and contact the policeif they believe they have any

information that can help withtheir investigations.

According to some reports,a cyclist was spotted by a mem-ber of the public hurriedlypacking away two drones intoa bag before the arrests weremade. Gatwick Airport said onSaturday that it was open forflights but urged passengers tocheck with their airline beforetravelling.

“Our runway is open andwe aim to run a full schedule— 757 flights scheduled today,carrying 124,484 passengers,” aspokesperson said.

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Iran said on Saturday the USpresence in Syria had been

“wrong and illogical” from thestart, in its first official reactionto President Donald Trump’sdecision to withdraw troops.

“The presence of Americanforces was from the very start,in principle, a wrong and illog-ical move and a primary causeof instability and insecurity inthe region,” said foreign min-istry spokesman BahramGhasemi on his Telegramchannel. Trump vowedThursday that the United Stateswould no longer be the “police-man of the Middle East” as heordered troops back from Syria.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guardshave a contingent of comman-ders and advisers deployed inSyria in support of PresidentBashar al-Assad, and have fer-ried weapons and thousands ofmilitia fighters to the frontlinesfrom various countries.

The United States current-ly has around 2,000 forcesdeployed in Syria in two areasalong the Iraqi border thatwas partly aimed at keepingIranian forces in check.

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An explosives-packed vehi-cle detonated at a military

checkpoint near Somalia’s pres-idential palace, killing at least16 people and wounding morethan 20 others, police said.

The al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab extremist group, whichoften targets Mogadishu,claimed responsibility for theattack.

Those killed include threestaffers from the London-basedUniversal TV station, includingprominent journalist AwilDahir Salad, said police Capt.Mohamed Hussein, who gavethe toll of dead and wounded.

The bomber targeted thecheckpoint near the rearentrance of the heavily fortifiedpalace, Hussein said. A law-maker and a deputy mayor ofMogadishu were among thosewounded, he said.

Soldiers also were amongthe dead, Col. AhmedMohamud said.

The blast and a second,smaller one nearby appeared totarget those heading to work onwhat was a business day in theHorn of Africa nation.

A plume of smoke roseover the capital as ambulances

rushed to the scene. “At first Isaw a vehicle driving to and fro,then we tried to stop peoplewalking here and there, andthen in the blink of an eye thevehicle exploded, causinghavoc,” traffic police officerMohamed Harun told TheAssociated Press.

Al-Shabab, the most activeIslamic extremist group in sub-Saharan Africa, was pushed outof Mogadishu years ago butcontinues to control large partsof rural southern and centralSomalia.

The US military, whichpartners with Somali forces anda 20,000-strong African Unionpeacekeeping mission, hasgreatly increased airstrikesagainst al-Shabab under theTrump administration. At least47 U.S. Strikes have been car-ried out this year.

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Sri Lankan Prime MinisterRanil Wickremesinghe has

acknowledged that there aresome differences of opinionwith President MaithripalaSirisena on the ministerialappointments, but he is confi-dent that the issues will beresolved.

President Sirisena onThursday named a 30-memberCabinet while reportedly reject-ing some of Prime MinisterWickremesinghe’s nomineesand retained control over thesecurity forces and police, indi-cating that the power tusslebetween them is far from over.

Wickremesinghe on Fridayslammed media, saying somehad reported a “fake list” claim-ing they were nominated forministry portfolios but hadnot been approved by thePresident, Colombo Gazettereported.

He said that some mediahad claimed that Sri LankaFreedom Party (SLFP) memberWijith Wijayamuni Zoysa wasin the list of MPs nominated forministerial posts.

The Prime Minister, how-ever, insisted that Zoysa wasnot on the list.Wickremesinghe said that

some media were attempting tomislead the public and actionmust be taken against them.

He called for a debate nextmonth on media which werereporting false information.

The Prime Minister saidthat while there were some dif-ferences of opinion with thePresident on the Ministerialappointments, he was confi-dent the issues will be resolved.

He said he will make astatement in the House onhow the Cabinet was appoint-ed. The new Cabinet wasappointed after an unexpecteddelay of three days sinceWickremesinghe was swornin as Prime Minister onDecember 16 following weeksof political crisis that led toGovernment dysfunction.

The Cabinet formation wasdelayed as Sirisena reportedlydid not agree with some nom-inees from the list submitted byWickremsinghe.

Sirisena, who holds theDefence and MahaweliDevelopment andEnvironment Ministry portfo-lios, has retained his controlover the police, which is inves-tigating an alleged plot to killhim. The plot widened thegulf between Sirisena andWickremesinghe.

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Virat Kohli might have comeunder sharp criticism fromvarious quarters for his on-field

aggressive behaviour but formerAustralia spinner Brad Hogg onSaturday defended the India captain,saying the visiting team derives ener-gy from him.

"Virat Kohli is the energy of thisIndian team. He is their clear leaderand they feed off him. You just see himon the field - his athleticism is dif-ferent and he expects that from theIndian team," Hogg said.

"And what he expects from theteam, he does as well, so it is not as ifhe is telling the team what to do with-out leading from the front. He is actu-ally leading from the front and ask-ing his teammates to follow him," headded.

Talking about Kohli's batting,Hogg said: "As a batsman too, Kohliis on a different level to anyone else.Perhaps only Usman Khawaja cameclose, that too in the second inningswhere he batted with a lot of compo-sure," said 47-year-old Hogg whoplayed seven Tests between1996 to2008.

"But even then, they don't havesomeone on the same level as Kohli.He is a different batsman to everybody

else - he finds boundaries and rotatesstrike, and turns momentum of thegame at will," he added.

Hogg said India would need tofind balance going into the third Testto put Australia under pressure. Hesaid both the teams might look to playa pace-bowling all-round at the MCG.

The four-match Test series isnow levelled at 1-1, with India win-ning in Adelaide and Australia draw-ing level in Perth.

Hogg said he hopes to see a closecontest in the remaining two Tests.

"I only really want a close series.We have had two close Test matches,and that's what we want. We wantAustralia tested on their home soil andthey have been tested a couple of timespreviously by Indian teams cominghere," said the left-arm spinner.

"It will be interesting to see howIndia will balance their team goinginto the MCG Test. Both teams might

look to play the extra bowler by pick-ing the all-rounder and added to theirbowling depth."

Hogg heaped praise on Indianpacers and said it would be a hugeopportunity for the visitors against a'relatively weak' Australian side.

"India have to be proud with theway their pacers have bowled in bothTests. They have been aggressive andwon the first Test, and it was veryimportant because it gave them ener-gy and belief," he said.

"This is a huge opportunity forIndia because of the relative weaknessof the Australian team. So that addspressure and it plays on back of theirminds. Perth tested this bowlingattack's character and they showedtrue fight, but didn't score enoughruns."

India also faced flak for not play-ing a spinner at the Perth pitch whereNathan Lyon scalped eight wickets,despite the wicket favouring the pac-ers.

Hogg backed the decision sayingin absence of injured RavichandranAshwin, India simply couldn't playRavindra Jadeja or Kuldeep Yadav fora lack of aid from the pace-friendlypitch.

"See, Ashwin wasn't fit and yes,they did have Jadeja and Kuldeep. Iwould have loved to see Kuldeep bowlon that track, but even Nathan Lyondidn't get too much turn," he said.

"As for Jadeja, he would have beenspinning into a long left-handedAustralian line-up so India probablyhad that point at the back of theirmind. I suspect India might havemade the right decision but it camedown to the first hour on day one," heopined.

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Gearing up for the NewZealand tour, Indian

women's ODI captain MithaliRaj on Saturday stressed on theneed to bring focus back oncricket after hogging the lime-light for the wrong reasons fol-lowing a controversial ending totheir World T20 campaign.

"The way things panned outwas obviously not in a very goodtaste. It affected everybody in adifferent level, in a differentway," Mithali said during a pro-motional event.

"Now I am sure things aresettled and we should give morespotlight on the sport, on theplayers and in the team."

Mithali said she and herfamily had to endure a lot ofstress after her controversialouster from the team.

"I can only say that the lastfew days were very stressful forme and my parents. And alsofor people around me, espe-cially the way it panned out,"she said.

"It definitely did putwomen's cricket in the spotlightwhich was not needed. Whenyou talk about non cricketingissues and not the team thefocus goes away from the sport.

"Now that we have a tour(vs New Zealand), it's timethat we move forward. Lookforward and be more positivegoing forward."

The rift between T20 cap-tain Harmanpreet Kaur andODI captain Mithali was out inthe open and the team wassharply divided into camps.

Asked if she would go alongwell with Harmanpreet, Mithalisaid: "We will see. When the 15

individual players come togeth-er with the support staff, it's ahuge and big family.

"And usually in a familythere will always be a differenceof opinion. Everybody will nothave the same kind of per-spective. There will be issuesand it does happen."

"These issues are secondaryto us... Not even secondarythese things do not even comein the list of priority. But whenwe take on the field, we areambassadors of the sport. Onthe field, we are one unit, wecome as a team. We are there togive our best and perform as aunit," she said.

Mithali said she is alsolooking forward to workingwith newly-appointed coachW V Raman.

"It's very early to commenton him. I had met him brieflyat the National CricketAcademy. We have to supporthim and look forward to builda team."

India are scheduled to playfive ODIs and three T20Is in thetour beginning on January 24.

"We last toured there in2007. Only Jhulan and I fromthe current team were part ofthe last tour. For many in theteam it will be a first tour. It willbe challenging. We should givemore importance on the prepa-ration. The priority will be togetting the team together," shesaid.

"The upcoming tour will beimportant. It's part of the ICCChampionship one dayers andthere's a point system in place.It's important for India to gar-ner as many points as it willhelp us in 2021 World Cup,"Mithali said.

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India's fourth Test against Australia atSydney, starting January 3, 2019, will

be the team's last assignment for sixmonths and the BCCI is likely to pre-pare a road map for the longest formatspecialists.

There is a possibility that some ofthe senior India players may playagainst England Lions (A team) whenthey tour India for a full-fledged seriesin end January-February.

Once India finish their Testengagements against Australia, they willnext play the five-day format in July,2019 against the West Indies in a two-Test series as part of the World TestChampionship.

However, a few like CheteshwarPujara and Ajinkya Rahane mighthave precious little to do once the RanjiTrophy ends in the last week of January.

"The fast bowlers workload man-agement is a different issue but in caseof some of the Test specialists, we mightplay them against England Lions.England Lions are coming for a fullseries where they will play four dayTests as well as List A and T20 match-es," a BCCI source privy to the devel-opment said on Saturday.

It is learnt that the selectors mightlook at Pujara, Rahane and Prithvi

Shaw (expected to be fully fit by then)to play the longer format matches.

As of now, Pujara is expected tofeature in the Ranji Trophy quarter-finals, starting January 15, as Saurashtraare currently on top of their group with25 points.

In case of Mumbai, the chances ofqualification are bleak as they have onlyeight points from five games. Rahane,who is not a part of India's limited oversscheme of things will next play theMushtaq Ali Trophy followed by IPL for

Rajasthan Royals.Once Saurashtra's Ranji engage-

ments finish, Pujara will have nothingto do as he has not been picked by anyIPL franchise. There is the Mushtaq AliTrophy but with the IPL auctions over,it will not hold the same kind of impor-tance like last edition.

It's not that Pujara will need toprove anything to anyone but there isa school of thought that serious matchtime won't do any harm to him or forthat matter Rahane.

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Mumbai opener Jay Bistarediscovered his form with a

splendid century to lay a solidfoundation with his partnerVikrant Auti before Saurashtrafought back on day one of theirElite Group A match on Saturday.

Bista slammed 127 off just 150balls studded with 21 hits to thefence and also put on 174 runswith fellow-opener Auti (57)before the visiting team's bowlers,led by left arm spinnerDharmendrasinh Jadeja (3 for89), triggered a collapse postlunch taken with the hosts at acommanding 122 for no loss.

The hosts were left reeling at232 for five before captain SiddeshLad, with a responsible 84 in 115balls with 12 fours and a six, andall rounder Shivam Dube (34)stemmed the rot with an unfin-ished partnership of 102 for thesixth wicket that helped Mumbaiend the day at a healthier-looking

334 for five.At Raipur hosts Chhattisgarh

bundled out Maharashtra for239 on the opening day oftheir Ranji Trophy game.For the visitors, RahulTripahi top scored with102. In their first innings,Chhattisgarh were teeter-ing at 23/3, still 216 runsbehind.

At Nagpur, riding on openerKathan Patel's 105, Gujarat scored263 for 6 against regaining cham-pions Vidarbha. At close of play,wicket-keeper Dhruv Raval (69not out) was holding fort with

Karan Patel (27 not out).At Shimoga, Karnataka ended

the first day at 208/9 withSiddharth K V top scoring with 69against Railways.

��� �6��������� �������� ��Centuries by captainAkshdeep Nath and Priyam Garghelped Uttar Pradesh dominatethe opening day of their Group Cencounter against Tripura.

At stumps, Uttar Pradeshwere 257 for 4 with Garg and

Rinku Singh batting on 113and 13 respectively.

Nath and right-handbatsman Garg anchoredthe Uttar Pradesh innings

with a 201 runs partnership.Nath's 106 off 216 balls was

studded with 12 boundaries andtwo sixes while Garg, who wasunbeaten at 113, hit 12 fours andone maximum before the captainwas trapped leg before by a RanaDutta delivery in the 75th over.

For Tripura, Dutta and

Saurabh Das both picked twowickets each with the formeremerging as the more economical.

� ������ ������������ � � ��� BCCI's North Zonecurator Sunil Chauhan overwa-tered the Feroz Shah Kotla pitchand then, breaching protocol, leftthe venue before the start ofDelhi-Madhya Pradesh RanjiTrophy match Saturday, his indis-cretion leading to a delay of twoand half hours.

Despite perfect weather con-ditions, the match began in thesecond session.

While the hosts reduced MPto 132 for nine courtesy left-armspinner Vikas Mishra's 6/41 in 18overs, the delay in proceedingscould land the Himachal Pradeshcurator in trouble.

Off-spinner Shivam Sharmagot 3/48 on a pitch where the ballkept low, but there was some turnon offer, with the odd ball takingoff from the spot.

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Motivated by a no-ball decision against histeam, fast bowler Keemo Paul took 5-15 as

West Indies won the Twenty20 series againstBangladesh 2-1 after a bad-tempered 50-run winin the third match on Saturday.

Put into bat, opener Evin Lewis smashed a36-ball 89, with six fours and eight sixes, to helpWest Indies pile up 190 before being bowled outin 19.2 overs.

Paul, along with left-arm spinner FabianAllen (2-19), then helped to dismiss Bangladeshfor 140 in 17 overs.

Bangladesh made a rapid start, thanks toLiton Das, despite opener Tamim Iqbal being runout for 8.

Das helped Bangladesh to go past 50 in justfour overs before he was caught off pacer OshaneThomas but the delivery was judged to be a no-ball.

West Indies captain Carlos Brathwaite andhis players protested the decision - with Thomas'foot shown to be on the line - and the game wasstopped for around 10 minutes with no reviewallowed. Match referee Jeff Crowe intervened, thedecision stood and play resumed.

The dispute fueled West Indies to such anextent that the tourists hit back with three wick-ets for one run in nine balls with Allen and Paulat the fore.

From 56-1 before the no-ball dispute,Bangladesh was 66-4.

Paul then ran though the Bangladesh bat-

ting lineup, varying his pace well to leaveBangladesh 96-8 and became only the secondWest Indies bowler to take five-for in T20 crick-et after former skipper Darren Sammy (5-26)against Zimbabwe in 2010.

Mehidy Hasan (19) and Abu Hider (22 notout) took Bangladesh past 100 runs.

Earlier, Bangladesh's bowlers bowled well todeny West Indies reaching the 200-run mark asthe hosts sought a tour sweep against Windies.

Evin Lewis launched West Indies in aggres-sive style and the visitors racked up 88 runs inthe first powerplay with the loss of Shai Hope.

In the third over of the innings, Lewissmashed Hider for 27 runs including four sixes.

Bangladesh came back strongly through off-spinner Mahmudullah (3-18) who bowledLewis, leaving West Indies at 122-3 and spark-ing the collapse with Shakib (3-37) and Rahman(3-33) causing problems for West Indies.

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Former Test cricketersMitchell Johnson and

Michael Vaughan have slammedthe ICC for giving an 'average'rating to the Perth Stadiumpitch, which hosted India's sec-ond Test against Australia.

Match referee RanjanMadugalle on Friday rated thepitch at Perth Stadium as 'aver-

age', the lowest pass mark pro-vided by the ICC when theyassess the pitch and outfield ofTest grounds.

"Nothing wrong with it. Itwas exciting to watch a contestbetween bat and ball for achange and not these dull flattracks being served up con-stantly. I'd actually be interest-ed in knowing what a good pitchis? Hope for another exciting test

at the MCG," Johnson wrote onhis twitter handle.

Vaughan also took toTwitter to criticise ICC's deci-sion.

"And they wonder why TestMatch cricket is struggling .. Wasa tremendously exciting pitchwhich had a bit for everyone ..Should be more like this IMO..."

The ICC's rating is pre-sumably due to the uneven

bounce that became moreprevalent later in the match.

However, Johnson dis-agreed.

"Inconsistent bounce use tohappen a lot, the pitch is sup-posed to deteriorate. Is it any dif-ferent to a pitch that spins ametre or more & stays low?," hewrote.

The Perth pitch saw somesharp bounce with one

Mohammed Shami delivery hit-ting Australian opener AaronFinch's right glove, forcing himto retire hurt.

At the start of the year, theICC introduced a disciplinarysystem in a bid to improve thestandard of pitches around theworld and can provide six rat-ings - very good, good, average,below average, poor and unfit -when rating Test venues.

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To most of us in Delhi, the Yamuna isnot more than mere abstraction.Either politicised imagery of foamand muck or a banal montage ofblack water seen through the count-

less trains crossing it daily, the Yamuna is forthe most a metaphor for much of Delhi.Unlike other great riverine cities of the sub-continent, unlike Agra, Kanpur, Prayagraj,Varanasi, and Kolkata, Delhi seems to haveonly a strictly functional relationship with itsriver: It draws water from and expels wasteback into it, but there exists no close, affectivetie between the Yamuna and the crores of citi-zens whose life it so critically supports.

This isn’t as surprising as it is often madeout to be though. Unlike most other riverinecities, it is entirely possible to live fully in Delhiand yet never have the occasion to come acrossit. The city has not grown out from the river, itsdevelopment has never been centrifugal to anyone key site along its banks. Delhi has the envi-able past of having had many iterations ofurbanisation in often incompatible directions.Of these many cities which have been regardedDelhi over the past millennium and a half, onlytwo — Ferozabad and Shahjahanabad — can beproperly considered riverine. Shahjahanabad,the historical city we are most familiar with asOld Delhi, was also built with its regal back tothe river, with Chandni Chowk and the greatJama and Fatehpuri masjids being the key sitesof sociality much more than any of the ghats.New Delhi, arguably the centre of the city as weknow it today, was built by the British on a van-tage of the Ridge, Delhi’s other primary geo-graphical feature. The Yamuna exists only on theperipheries of this city, part ornament, partmalarial threat, and — a little downstream —simply sewage disposal channel.

Is it surprising, then, that the typicalDilliwaalah has no space for the Yamuna in hisself-image as a citizen of Delhi? The Metro sys-tem, Raisina and India Gate, various roads andflyovers, Connaught Place, even smog, these sig-nifiers stand in for Delhi. These and similarmotifs are what most Dilliwaalahs lay claim toand identify with as constitutive of their mentaland emotional make-up with reference to theircity. The Yamuna is more often than not just anabstraction, something they hear and listenabout but can hardly be bothered to care for.

More than lack of funding, much more thanlack of policy, this pervasive lack of public inter-est seems crucially responsible for thedeplorable state of the Yamuna in Delhi. Theriver and its floodplains hold immense possibili-ties of radically inclusive and sustainable regen-eration for the city. However, since the Yamunais just an abstracted metaphor for mostDilliwaalahs and they have no idea of what it’sactually like and what happens around and in it,the debate on how best these resources can beused remains restricted to a closed circuit ofbureaucrats, planners, jurists, and environmen-talists. The public is simply not involved.

Take farming, for instance. How many of usin Delhi know that there is a lot of agriculturalactivity happening in the city? Farming has nospace in our collective imagination of a city, a so-called modern, world class city. For most of us,farming happens out there in the villages, out-side city boundaries. It is supposed to be ananomaly in an urban environment, just as cowsand hens and other kinds of livestock are seen asaberrations not belonging in a city. Yet, howmany of us know that farming has been an inte-gral part of Delhi for centuries now? Of themany millions who daily cross the Yamuna, howmany have registered the presence of scatteredfarming communities along its much-malignedbanks? We tend to think of such agrarian liveli-hoods as unhygienic violations of the urbanimaginaries we aspire for and seek to materialise,but how many of us have bothered to examinetheir relation to our city and to its making?

Organised under the cooperative movement,farming on the Yamuna’s floodplains was givenlegal sanction via registered leases as far back as1949. At the time, soon after the shortages ofWorld War II and the ravages of Partition,putting the floodplains immediately adjacent tothe urban limits of the city to agricultural usewas considered an expedient avenue for self-employment, a pertinent contribution to Delhi’sfood security, and a source of steady revenue forthe Government. Revenue records and mapsestablish the long-standing presence of agrariancommunities along the Yamuna’s floodplains inthis region, so in taking this decision the DelhiImprovement Trust (DIT), precursor to theDelhi Development Authority (DDA), was onlyreverting to a tradition which Delhi’s tryst withBritish imperial modernity had ruptured. Eventhough Delhi was the National Capital and anexponentially growing city, agriculture was stillconsidered integral to its social and economicfabric. This has been the reality of our city, thisits actual, corporeal experience. Yet, we stillinsist on seeing our habitat through the grid andframe of idealised urban imaginaries whichpenalise such forms of urban life and livelihoodsimply because they no longer seem to fit in.

Such has been the fate of farming communi-ties along the 22-km urban stretch of the Yamunain Delhi, from Wazirabad to Okhla. The courtsare told by the DDA that the leases were notrenewed after 1967, so farmers are necessarilyencroachers on public land. Why, though, werethe leases not renewed? What plans did the DDAhave for the floodplains and for the Yamuna?

Over the past three decades, as Delhi wit-nessed massive structural transformations, theYamuna and its floodplains have been sites offierce contestations amongst the DDA, the judi-ciary, and environment activists. Much has beenresearched and written about the waves of brutaldemolition which swept the floodplains clean ofmany bastis, often in violation of rehabilitationand compensation policies. Even as the riverturned black and became a weary icon of Delhi’sapathy towards itself, the poor and the disadvan-

taged metamorphosed into convenient scape-goats for pollution. Being visibly present on thefloodplains, they were assigned a lion’s share ofblame for degrading the river’s ecosystem.Farmers, being peripherally part of these bastis,too were considered criminal offenders; that theycontinued to farm on public land to which theylegally had no right counteracted the fact thatthey also continued to deposit land rent to theDDA. Consequently, successive bureaucratic andjudicial regimes have found them unnecessaryeyesores, and have maligned them for not onlyencroaching upon public land but also pollutingthe river by practising agriculture along it.

But what must be practised along a river ifnot agriculture? Which uses must a river’sfloodplains, in close human contact, be putto? What suits a riverine ecosystem, exposedfor millennia to human touch, better than sea-sonal farming? Jogging tracks, tourist gazebos,and ornamental ponds, if the DDA is to bebelieved; biological parks and wetlands, as perenvironmentalists. However, thinking thus,both assume that the Yamuna’s floodplainshave been empty land, tabula rasa awaitingthe master stroke of visionary experts.

There is, first, the logic of capital, seeing theriver and its floodplains in terms of their dualpotential as sources of revenue-oriented recre-ation on one hand and sites for supposedly iconicpublic infrastructure on the other. This logic,informing policies across generations of the DDA’stechnocracy, has sought to make the floodplainsamenable for so-called development. The GoldenJubilee Park and Akshardham Mandir are primeexamples of this, as are the CommonwealthGames Village, Millennium Bus Depot, a numberof Delhi Metro installations, and even the DelhiSecretariat. Built in violation of zoning and envi-ronmental laws, these and similar establishmentshave been accepted as fait accompli.

Secondly, there is the rhetoric of revival, see-ing all human contact as polluting and seekingto restore the river and its banks to some halcy-on, pre-human bio-diverse heaven.Environmental activists of this ilk argue, rightly,that the Yamuna has reached its present degrad-ed condition only due to the unchecked interfer-ence of all of us, as a city. They appeal to thejudiciary to enforce basic minimum standardsupon the state, to monitor the augmentation ofour sewage treatment capacity and check theflow of untreated waste water into the river. Thefloodplains, they feel, are best suited for biodi-versity reserves and ecological parks, nurturedcarefully and closely to reflect the wealth of localflora and fauna being lost to urbanisation.

Both these stakeholders, vocal and powerful,ignore the basic reality of the river in pressingthese solutions: That it is not empty land, that ithas been home to farming communities formore than seven decades now, and that people’slives and livelihoods must be prioritised asmuch as any ideal imaginaries of what citiesshould look and feel like. Consider Bela Estate, asmall stretch of the floodplains from Loha Pul to

Rajghat Power Plant. From January 2010 toJanuary 2017, the DDA undertook as many as 25demolition drives to free public land from farm-ers. The Golden Jubilee Park is located here, muchof compensatory afforestation happens here; thisis the site of Phase 1 of the DDA’s YamunaRiverfront Development Project. Even as farmers’fields and hutments are regularly bulldozed, thereseems to be no question of dismantling, say, thedefunct Rajghat Power Plant, or shifting out theDelhi Secretariat, or evicting the Delhi Metro. Allof these public installations have been built onfloodplains in violation of the law by thoseappointed to implement it, yet the larger publicand judicial discourse on saving, reviving, clean-ing, and developing the Yamuna seems to revolveonly on the apparently wilful occupation by anunscrupulous few. Not only does this convenientlygloss over the complex history of riverine farmingand its completely legal precedents in Delhi, italso negates the possibility of involving all stake-holders in fruitfully co-creating a viable solutionfor the deep, dark mess the Yamuna is today.

We must ask new and different questions ifwe are to productively imagine a sustainablefuture for the Yamuna and its floodplains. Wemust acknowledge that what we think our citiesshould be like is often divorced from what theyactually are. This is not as much compromisingfrom cherished ideals as examining these idealson the sound basis of ground realities. Howmuch, for instance, do a few hundred individu-als reduced to the brink of desperate poverty byceaseless demolition pollute an entire river? Istheir presence responsible for our failure toclean up the 22 major storm water drains dis-charging millions of gallons of untreated domes-tic and industrial waste in the Yamuna? Is fur-ther concretisation and landscaping likely toaugment ground water recharge over and abovewhat currently happens naturally in farmlands?

At a time when rooftop farming and urbanfarming have become international trends, wedon’t have to look elsewhere for inspiration. Wesimply need to remember that agriculture isalready an integral part of Delhi and has con-tributed to its environment and economy forgenerations now. If we expect the state and judi-ciary to prioritise livelihood over law in exempt-ing merchants and markets from sealing, thenwe can surely move to accept farming as an eco-logically inventive and socially profitable use ofthe Yamuna’s floodplains. The nature and termsof agrarian activity come later, what should begrown and how; what is needed first is to recog-nise the very real threat to an entire way of lifewhich has been integral to Delhi. As a city, werecently showed ourselves capable of comingtogether to assert our inalienable right to deter-mine its future in the avenues of Sarojini Nagar.We can do something similar for the Yamunaand its farmers, only if we come forward andacknowledge their contribution to the city.

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Mahatma Gandhi famouslysaid, “You must be thechange you want to see inthe world,” which emphasis-es how initiating personal

change is the first step towards drivingchange in the society. It suggests that yourresponsibilities begin and end with yourown behaviour. In a country like India, itis an acceptable practice to criticise theGovernment for not implementing citizen-centric policies that enhance the quality ofliving. Road safety is one such area whereaccidents are often blamed on bad roads,poor safety infrastructure and ignorance ofGovernment officials. However, despite themany traffic rules and agencies responsi-ble for setting and maintaining standardsand enforcement, infringements are beingcommitted every day by commuters andpedestrians themselves. The share of fatalroad accidents has increased phenomenal-ly as Indian commuters give more impor-tance to high speed and aggressive drivingthan ensuring safe access for all.

Delhi, along with the National CapitalRegion, accounts for majority of the unsaferoad practices in the country. Issues relat-ed to the safety of road users in Delhi,which already suffer from engineeringfaults, are compounded by speed and thebehaviour of “unruly drivers.” The biggestexample of rules being flouted is the men-ace of underage driving. In Delhi, it’s almostbecome a matter of pride to handover keysto your underage children. According toSection 180 of the Motor Vehicles Act,owners of the vehicles driven by minors —parents in most cases — are punishable bylaw with up to a three-month jail term, ora heavy fine, or both. Many lives aredestroyed by underage drivers going for ajoyride in the vehicles of their parents orolder relatives. Commoners are aware ofmany unlicensed drivers going for the shortdrive — but often overlook the nature ofthe risks and the consequences to theseyoungsters. While parents should famil-iarise themselves with the risks associatedwith underage driving, ignorance andpride often take centre stage, leading totragic accidents which can destroy familiesin a matter of minutes.

Delhi’s other favourite pastime isdrunk driving or ‘car-o-bar’. Driving underthe influence of alcohol or drugs, can leadto a fine or a prison term of up to sixmonths. Despite these rules and regula-

tions, as of October 2018 (Delhi Policerecords), a staggering number of 35,598people were caught drunk driving, as com-pared to 27,672 last year. Despite a varietyof methods, from educating people to leg-islative changes, the problem of drunk dri-ving persists. There seems to be a generalattitude of apathy when it comes to drivingafter drinking in India and the problemseems to be worse when it comes to young,urban professionals, especially men.

Jaywalking, another ‘trend’, has resulted intragic consequences for both the pedestri-ans as well as the drivers. It’s a conditionengrained in the ethos of the capital cityof India, maybe even an urban cultural dis-order that lurks within us all. While we cancomplain about lack of amenities such assubways, footpaths and footbridges, the sadreality is that we believe it’s safer to jaywalkthan to march on to a zebra crossing at atraffic signal. This is despite Section 28 of

the Delhi Police Act, empowering the policeto formulate new rules to curb jaywalking.

������*������������� �����Most of these problems can be attributedto a general lack of awareness on theharmful effects of unsafe road practices.For example, parents/guardians often failto comprehend the grave consequences ofallowing their underage kids to drive; and

when caught in the act, a few phone callseasily resolve conflicts. Instead of educat-ing children about following traffic rulesand holding human life in highest regard,they set the wrong example by flouting thelaw themselves. There is an urgent needto highlight how road accidents causesevere collateral damage — lives and liveli-hoods are lost in an instant causing a life-time of guilt, pain and trauma. The aimshould be to develop a culture of road safe-

ty by understanding how each one of usis a driver of change rather than passingon the baton. A ‘safety culture’ covers val-ues, actions and behaviours that show acommitment to safety over other interestsor demands. While there is general recog-nition of road traffic injuries and fatali-ties, little is known about the link betweenroad traffic injuries and economic growth.Looking at the bigger picture, one mustalso consider the economic advantages ofpreventing road accidents.

A World Bank study, funded byBloomberg Philanthropies, found thatreducing road traffic deaths and injuriescould result in substantial long-termincome gains for low — and middle —income countries. In addition to theGDP gains from preventing death andinjury, road safety interventions improvewelfare benefits to the society. Hence,reducing road traffic injuries would notonly mean a victory to the transport sec-tor, but a significant milestone for devel-opment with benefits for public health,wellbeing and economic growth.

��*�������*����������*����Concerted actions and collaborationbetween public, private entities can go along way in changing mentalities and indiagnosing road safety challenges thatdeliver measurable outcomes. Usingcombined expertise and resources, part-nerships are essential for educating dri-vers and road users by engaging commu-nities, the Government, businesses andthe civil society. A recent campaign byRadio City in Delhi called #MeraGhaataaddressed each of these issues at lengthand strives to spread awareness about theimportance of following road safetymeasures. The campaign included sever-al activities such as educating com-muters, disseminating information onthe various dos and don’ts for road safe-ty to bring about a behavioural changeamong the masses towards adoptingroad safety practices in daily life. This isa different yet novel way to create aware-ness among the public about the need todrive safely and responsibly. India is arapidly developing into one of the largesteconomies in the world; if we just takecharge of resolving social issues like theseat an individual level, economic and soci-etal progress won’t be far behind.

The issues surrounding theusage of Aadhaar Card havebeen contentious ever since

its inception in 2009. TheGovernment of India’s flagshipscheme was supposed to be a toolfor eliminating duplicity and plug-ging leakages. However, many alsosee it as a means of creating a “sur-veillance state” through profiling ofits citizens by effectively “intrud-ing into their privacy”.

In November 2012, a formerKarnataka High Court Judge KSPuttaswamy, and a lawyer, ParveshKhanna, filed a Public InterestLitigation (PIL) against theGovernment in the Supreme Courtof India. They contended that theUnique Identification Authority ofIndia (UIDAI) was proceeding withthis scheme solely on the basis of anexecutive order without any legisla-tive backing. Collecting biometricdata of citizens in such a waywould clearly be a violation of pri-vacy under Article 21 of theConstitution. It is against this back-drop that the Aadhaar (TargetedDelivery of Financial and OtherSubsidies, benefits and services) Actof 2016 was passed in theParliament as a Money Bill.

However, a thorough reading ofthe act and examination of the man-ner in which the Governments atthe Centre and in various States areimplementing the scheme, one willhave to come to the conclusion thatthere are a lot of things to worryabout, not necessarily limiting toissues of privacy alone.

On September 26, 2018, aConstitution bench of the SupremeCourt, led by the Chief Justice ofIndia, upheld the validity ofAadhaar by a 4:1 majority but withcertain caveats. In this context, it ispertinent to analyse the future ofthis scheme vis-a-vis the con-tentious points relating to privacy,data protection, mandatory usageand the constitutional issue ofbeing passed as a money bill.

First and foremost, the verdictdeclares Aadhaar to be constitution-ally valid as it passes the triple testlaid down in the Puttaswamy judg-ment (Right to Privacy verdict).Firstly it is backed by the Aadhaar

Act, secondly it has a legitimateState interest of ensuring social ben-efit schemes to reach the deservingpoor and finally it passes the test ofproportionality (wherein the poten-tial threats to privacy are balancedby the benefits of the Act).

To lessen the fear of acting as a“surveillance state”, the court hasordered deletion of authenticationlogs after six months instead of thefive years requirement under theexisting regulations.

With regards to mandatoryusage, the 2017 amendment of thePrevention of Money LaunderingAct Rules which made linking ofbank accounts and all other finan-cial instruments with Aadhaarmandatory has been done awaywith as it does not stand the pro-portionality requirement of thetriple test. Aadhaar’s role in educa-tion and admissions have alsobeen restricted while its mandato-ry usage for linking with PAN, ITReturns and certain social securi-ty schemes has been advocated.

As far as privacy and data theftare concerned, the court has struckdown the section which stated thatUIDAI alone could file a complaintin case of data theft thereby open-ing the doors for citizens to filecomplaints. The court also made itclear that Aadhaar can be used onlyby the Government and not by anyprivate parties or individuals to seekauthentication.

The only part of the judgmentwhich according to many constitu-tional experts remained uncon-vincing was that of upholding thevalidity of the Aadhaar act beingpassed as a money bill.The rulingclears the ambiguity over severalaspects of Aadhaar and at the sametime strikes a delicate balance

between the social welfare obliga-tions of the State and the citizens’concerns over issues of privacy.

But all is not well that ends well.Some lingering issues remain out ofwhich a few take the form of dailypublic discourse on Aadhaar.

The biggest impedimentremains the technical problemsoccurring during authentication.This has resulted in exclusion of thebeneficiaries from social securityschemes. The number of peoplebeing excluded is increasing day byday. It should be noted that absolutefaith on the biometric system canonly be logical if the operators whotake the biometrics do it in themost meticulous manner by col-lecting 10 fingerprints as per ISOstandards at the time of enrollment.Apart from these, there are a fewsimple but critical techniques rec-ommended in a report from a com-mittee on UIDAI’s Design Standardfor Biometrics to reduce authenti-cation errors. Besides these, mostof the Aadhaar authentication cen-tres use only the fingerprintauthentication and not the irisscan authentication. While irisscan is a more reliable mode ofauthentication, the higher costs ofinstallation and calibration mayhave deterred it. India’s use of bio-metric authentication on such amassive scale for social securityschemes may be considered asunique. In many other countriesacross the globe, biometric authen-tication is used only in that coun-try’s passport or for authenticationwhile crossing borders.

While some privacy issues havebeen undoubtedly answered bynot allowing private companies toallow for authentication, severalfintech companies may be a direct

casualty of this as Aadhaar was ofa substantial support to them. Itneeds to be noted that frauds andimpersonations are very high inthis sector. Start ups in the digitalpayments sector see Aadhaar as alow cost foolproof mechanism forauthentication rather than the tra-ditional methods which may be

riskier. Customers may face pecu-liar challenges to access credit likedelay in instant approval of loansand increase in accessing thecost of credit. Also, the court hasmandated private companies notto collect and authenticate data,but what about the data alreadycollected before the verdict? The

Government has already initiat-ed some actions, but furtherdetails are awaited.

The biggest threat that is beingheard frequently is the chance thatpeople in government have got toprofile citizens by integrating theinformation collected throughseeding the Aadhaar number from

various databases. While vociferouscritics of Aadhaar term this as ameans for acting as a “surveillancestate”, it still needs to be analysedas to how this can harm any citi-zen. Recently, TRAI chief RSSharma has given his Aadhaarnumber in an open challengethrown at critics on how theycould do any harm to him.

While hackers could get someof his basic details like address,bank account etc, they could notpenetrate further as most of the ser-vices we use today have properauthentication features throughOTPs. And as far as theGovernment is concerned, we needto remember that data profilinginformation that is speculated to beaccessed through Aadhaar cananyhow be accessed through thoserespective individual departmentswhere the information is given. Itis only that data which is speculat-ed to have integrated here and theprofile of the citizen is generated.Please note that one is still not sureif such data profiling can be gen-erated. And even if it can be, canit be treated as potentially threat-ening? We do not know. Time alonewill answer this question. But in theinterest of the scheme to work forthe benefit of the citizens, it wouldbe better to come up with a prop-er clarification in this regard.

Data protection that too in thepresent day internet world is likepandora’s box by itself and Aadhaaris only a part of it. TheGovernment should be credited forconstituting Justice BN Srikrishnaled a committee to frame a draftlaw on data protection. It’s reportcan be considered as a startingpoint for further deliberations onthis contentious topic. The longterm benefits of Aadhaar are plen-ty and the Supreme Court judg-ment did indeed clear most of theambiguities. However, theGovernment does need to go theextra mile in clearing the techni-cal glitches and further suspicionsof the people to ensure smooth andunhindered usage.

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Exploring and masteringthe art of lovemaking hascaptured human imagi-

nation across civilisationssince times immemorial. At itsbest, lovemaking is a delicatecraft involving finesse andimmaculate understanding inorder to be the greatly pleasur-able and mutually satisfyingexperience that it is meant tobe. In these times of instantmessaging and dating applica-tions, one would like toassume that love and lovemak-ing expertise have grown pro-portionately. However,London-based mythologist,Kama Sutra expert and story-teller Seema Anand disabusesher readers of this assumptionearly on in her compact intro-duction to The Arts ofSeduction. It helps that Anandis also a recognised authorityon the Kama Sutra and haslectured widely on lesser-known aspects of subjects asvaried as Eastern Erotology,Tantric philosophy, theMahavidyas, Mahabharata andBhagavad Gita, among othersubjects. The author-bio alsoinforms the readers of Anand’swork on the revival and repro-duction of oral literature fromIndia being associated with theUNESCO project forEndangered Oral Traditions.In the introduction, Anandlaments how sex is reduced tomerely ‘an act of instant grati-fication’ and ‘overrated sensa-tions’, sans the magic of linger-ing pleasure to be followed byhappiness and a greater senseof stability, security andbelonging. While underscoringonce again the importance ofIndian erotic texts and manu-als including the Kama Sutra,Anand points out thatVatsyayan was way ahead ofhis times, propounding andexplicating women’s ability to

have for pleasure independentof that of man.

While justifying the needto re-introduce the KamaSutra to a twenty-first centuryaudience, Anand also empha-sises that the language ofKama Sutra is distinctive interms of its “refinement, beau-ty and nuanced pleasure” asopposed to the “crudely misog-ynistic and downright abusivevocabulary” that seems todefine sexuality, sexual prac-tices and especially referencesto female genitalia in urbanslang discourse. Anand’s com-prehensive research is evidentin her comparison of Indianand Chinese erotic treatises,

which differ in terms of theirfocus: While the former dealswith foreplay and seduction,the latter concentrate on themechanics of the actual sexu-al act. Anand’s convincingtheories regarding the arts ofseduction include:Comparing male and femaledesires to fire and waterrespectively, the purpose ofall the rules and rituals of theKama Sutra as bridgesbetween the two sexes, andsuggesting the pivotal roleplayed by Rati after Kamabecame ananga or formless,burnt to ashes by Lord Shiva.In twenty-two chapters, sheoffers numerous carefully

selected, best techniques oflove and sex, “something foreveryone” as she says, aestheti-cally discussing and unravel-ling secrets. The Kama Sutraabounds in references andmaterials which have becomeobscured by the ages and out-moded in these times, thearchaic language being anotherhurdle too steep for a twenty-first century novice to access.Anand wants to “make theidea of seduction part ofeveryday life”, “a state of mind”as Vatsyayan states, as opposedto the intensely pejorative andconspiratorial tones attributedto seduction now-a-days: thisalso in the wake of a globalcampaign like #metoo, amarked rise in cases of “hon-eytrapping”, understanding“consent”, and recognition of“marital rape”.

The chapters are titledcrisply and at times innova-tively, such as: “SecretLanguage of Lovers”, “The Artof the Curved Finger”, “Paanand the Arts of Seduction” toname a few. The first chaptertitled “The Art of Perfuming”plunges the reader into theheart of the matter by talkingabout what could be called thefirst step towards making thefirst move, i.e. through fra-grance. Anand explains how asdescribed in the Kamasutra,“Perfume was a way of life.Clothes, bedrooms, bath water— everything was perfumed.”Each chapter is a mixture ofselections and details from theKama Sutra and related sto-ries, and ends with a sectiontitled “My Advice” whereAnand doles out practical sug-gestions. The chapter on“Lovers’ Quarrels” is particu-larly illuminating: It emphasis-es the importance laid by theKama Sutra on lovers’ quarrelsin strengthening relationships

and increasing passion, espe-cially for couples who share adeep love and trust to “keeptheir love alive and healthy”.After describing the technical-ities of such quarrels from theKama Sutra, Anand sums it upby adding her advice for therespective sexes to becomeadept in the art of quarrellingand appeasement withoutburning any bridges. “SecretLanguage of Lovers” givinginsights into how lovers had tofind codes to communicate inscenarios where the kind ofprivacy granted by text mes-sages was simply unthinkable:lovers had to find codes tocommunicate while theymoved about with families, inthe market place, in crowdedareas and so on. The chapterson “Erotic Nerves” and “ThePhases of the Moon” drawupon ancient scientific knowl-edge and a deep understand-ing of the human anatomy tomake the best of differenttimes to enhance pleasure andfulfilment throughout themonth. “Paan and the Arts ofSeduction” reveals how thepaan has been the mode ofsecret “language of lovers forover 2000 years”! The givingand taking of the Paan by bothmen and women in variouscombinations relayed differentmeanings to their lovers andalso acted as an aphrodisiac.

The last few chapters delvedeeper into the precise sci-ences of lovemaking, “Sex andFood”, “Therapeutic Sex”,“Gems and Precious Stones”deal respectively with food,health enhancing aspects oflovemaking and gemologycombined with astrology,making optimum use of allbranches of human knowledgefor the purpose of both deriv-ing and providing pleasure toone’s beloved.

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You know you have a goodbook in hand when you areafraid of reading morethan a few pages each day,lest it finishes too soon!

After all, good wine and good booksare best enjoyed at leisure. Each letterof Written in History is of criticalvalue not just as a historical docu-ment but also as a means of humanis-ing these otherwise larger-than-lifepersonages. One realises that certainhuman emotions have (un)surpris-ingly remained unchanged from thetime of Octavius Caesar (a contem-porary of Christ) to that of FridaKahlo (d.1944). Each letter is aunique treasure trove. For aninstance, one of the most unexpectedletters was that by Bonaparte.Napoleon’s letter to his newly-weddedwife is over brimming with youthfulardour, reckless passion and sexualinnuendos that one would hardlyassociate with the French dictator:

Your letters are the joy of my days,and my days of happiness are not many

It makes you realise that theshrewd statesman is also an ardentlover. The anxieties, frustrations, inse-curities and passions articulated bythese letter-writers makes them thatmuch easier to identify (and, in mostcases, sympathise) with.

In this day and age, it is rather dif-ficult, for some, to grasp the conceptthat a letter might have held greatcharm beyond its functionality. Letterswere not just a necessity in a worldwhere people across social classes,relied solely on them to bear tidings —good or bad — to friends and family,they were also a marker of a person’s

education and taste. Writing a goodletter was a cultivated art whichformed an important part of the self-fashioning of society’s elites, inparticular. In the days before theadvent of the World Wide Web, lettershad the power to make or break fortunes — sometimes literally so. For instance, Elizabeth I, the futureTudor monarch, escaped execution as a result of the extremely well-cratedletter that she wrote to her half-sisterMary, the Queen of England. A tour de force in diplomacy.

Letters are usually seen as a ratherpersonal form of expression but theyhave always been able to carry newswhich is of a decidedly public or polit-ical nature. The flexibility of the epis-tolary form is abundantly clear whenone looks at the topics covered inWritten in History: Love, War,Friendship and Family, to list a few.Many a wars in the history of theworld have begun, and yet manyavoided because of contents of certainletters. It is indeed a timeless form ofwriting and one has to give credit tothe editor for bringing such exception-ally wonderful and diverse range ofletters to the reading public. The intro-ductory note appended to each piece isextremely pertinent and concise, andenables one to contextualise her read-ing. One only wishes that some ofthese letters were a little longer.

TS Eliot’s rather sanctimoniousadvice to George Orwell in 1944, iscontained in a letter that the readermust not miss. The former was, by thistime, an established writer and alsoworked as an editor at Faber andFaber, where Orwell submitted his

manuscript for publication. In this let-ter Eliot rejects Orwell’s now-renowned 1984 by stating that:

…we have no conviction…that thisis the right point of view from which tocriticise the current political situation atthe present time

Clearly, failure must never beallowed to mar one’s self-esteem.Indeed, even the very best writers have had to face rejections in life. This one though has been preserved,much to the embarrassment of Eliotadmirers, for posterity.

However, the most moving letterhas to be Vilma Grunwald’s letter toher husband Kurt Grunwald, momentsbefore her death at Auschwitz. AsMontefiore’s note tells the readers, shechose to die with her son who, becauseof his limp, was immediately con-demned to the gas chambers. Vilmadisplayed exemplary courage andmaternal love through this decision.

The letter is all the more preciousbecause very few letters of the inmatesof the camps have survived from theHolocaust. While a chilling reminderof the horrors of human history, this letter also gives us hope that even at its worst moments, humanityhas the potential to redeem itselfthrough courage, love and self-sacri-fice. Vilma writes:

Take care of the little golden boyand don’t spoil him too much with yourlove…I will be thinking of you andMisa. Have a fabulous life, we mustboard the trucks.

Some of the letters in this book —it is just a privilege to read.

This is a book that I would recom-mend to readers of all kinds becausethere is something for everyone here:from the history aficionado to the stu-dent of literature, to the curious read-er. Nothing reveals a person’s natureand emotions like a letter.

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The past has revealed to me howthe future is built and preoccupationwith the future tends to sweep every-thing else aside.

— Pierre Teilhard de Chardinin Letters from a Traveller

In my almost two years of stay inDelhi, I have developed a fad for

Shankar Market in Connaughtplace. The reasons are not legion buta single one that binds me to thatmarket. It has a book shop with itsuniqueness. One can find rare andvery old books not available in otherbook shops. On my third or fourthvisit, two things happened. One Imet a Sardar Ji, aging seventy or so.Curiosity brought me closer to himas on my earlier forays, I hardly sawanyone except a man, incharge ofthe book store, lackadaisical enoughto generate any interest in a visitor.To my question as to number of vis-itors and books sold, his gaze comesas a befitting reply. Turning toSardar Ji, my efforts to engage himin some conversation yielded a tinyoutput. He told me he lived in Noidaand was a regular visitor to this bookshop. He admitted he liked to inter-act with the man present in the shopand particularly the smell of oldbooks attracted him. I asked himabout the future of books, oldbooks in particular. His otherwisethoughtful face became a bit moregrimed as he uttered, “It is not aboutbooks. The power of contemplation.The power of collective contem-plation is dying; it will vanish soon.”Good enough, I chose to buy a bookof an author I have never heard of.It is: Letters from a Traveller(1962edition) by Pierre Teilhard deChardin. Chardin was a leadingpaleontologist and a wide traveler.He exhibited keen interest in gen-eral problems of evolution of humanbeings and societies. In this book,he describes his experiences of histravels to China, South Africa,Rome and America but also devotesabout ten pages to India (undivid-ed) where he travelled during 1935to 1936. One of his remarks needsa look: “The people (in CentralIndia) are very gentle. In Lahore andCalcutta, I saw something of theHindu upper classes (highlycivilised)... As individuals, Indiansare charming, but taken as a wholethe country seems to be just as inca-pable of self-government as Chinaor Malaya.”

The story harped on from time

to time and from time immemori-al. History bears it out. This, ofcourse, is in passing.

In my earlier article publishedin this newspaper titled, Gorakhpurwaiting for a new dawn (May 20,2017), I,epitomising my experi-ences of that place, expressed a hopethat things would brighten up intimes to come laying particularstress on Paul Streeten’s economicstipulation that economic growthmust “transform human beings.”My short visit to Gorakhpur inNovember 2018, afforded me withan opportunity to estimate howthings had moved forward.

An airport, a railway station ora bus stand, providing one an entryinto a city acts as the face of thebody. It gives one a sense of what islikely to ensue. During my studentdays, it was common for prospec-tive young boys to hear a sagaciousrefrain from older, married ones —Ghar Dekha Pichchware Se,Mehararu Dekha Sale Se (See ahouse from its backyard, and “wouldbe wife” from “would be brother-in-law”.) Analogous it is to say an air-port, a railway station or a bus sta-tion lets one know the kind of cityone is going to enter. “Fantastic andfabulous.” This was what occurredto me on seeing the condition ofGorakhpur airport. The very per-ception convinces that underdynamic supervision and controlhow the ugliness of past can bewashed out very fast and how new-ness can help in disinfecting thepast. My enthusiasm has acquiredthe freshness it has always aspiredfor. At this time of the year, winterhad just started setting in and thelooming shadows of the eveningwere gaining in strength. Winds hadbeen smooth and so were move-ments inside the airport. New bag-gage handling system was workingexcellently and baggage came in notime and no long waiting wasinvolved as in the past. Airport staffwithout losing their radiance werequick to help and a serene atmos-phere assured me of an invadingchange. It took me about fifteenminutes to be out on the road to bewelcome by relatives. A logicaltime at any airport.

Outside scene did not bemusebut there was a justification. My rel-atives told me crossing a distance ofone kilometre near Mohaddipur,near which new AIIMS campus atKunraghat is coming up, would take

almost an hour and advised that Ishould take a longer bypass route(Deoria bypass): almost five timeslonger than the usual Mohaddipurroute. With hardly any choices onthe table, we moved along thelonger route. The excitement in thecar was more about the incomingAIIMS campus and the “bigchanges” Gorakhpur was witness-ing. The longer route irked none. Adelay of forty five minutes is hard-ly a price for serene grandeur like-ly to emerge in near future. Thebypass i. e the highway, was verywide and clean; easy and fast move-ment of vehicles was visible. The dri-ver driving the car took pride inclaiming he could now drive car ata speed of more than hundredkilometre per hour. “GorakhpurDilli ban ker rahega,” (Gorakhpurwill become Delhi), his visionaryqualities were remarkable. He hard-ly knew road congestion in Delhi.Nor did he knew traffic wildnessamong people crowding the roads.This time I found traffic on themove and not constant. Perhapsgone are the days to come face toface with hideously overloaded lor-ries always running the risk ofoverturn. In my childhood, suchoverturns were matter of routine,easily absorbed by public.

Next day, I undertook a two-hour long journey towards Padri

Bazar and the construction workslike road widening and sanitationwere in full swing. Illegal occupa-tion of Government land by resi-dents using it for construction ofillegally covered portions of hous-es were earmarked for demolition orhad already been demolished. OldGorakhpur i.e Sumer Sagar,Golghar, Dharamshala Bazar, AliNagar, Betiahata, Daudpur, GhoshCompany, etc, are areas which arereally hard nut to crack. Manyinhabitants have both houses andbusinesses there. These cannot beseparated out. There is hardly anyspace, congestion is startling defy-ing any solution. Still, identificationof illegally occupied land, especial-ly for boundaries of houses, is seento have been done and with possi-ble demolition of these in future, oldcity may emerge more specious. Asfor affected people, to the extant Icould gather, there were no demurnor any agitation against any demo-lition. Rather people realised it wasbad on their part to illegally grabGovernment land. Change in theirattitude was noteworthy and wel-come. It speaks volumes of firmleadership and close monitoring.

My acquaintances with whom Ihad detailed conversation aboutthe way city was moving were can-did with their expression: “Yes,things are improving fast; medical

facilities have improved and quali-ty of services delivered is nearingexcellence.” A maid living in villagePipiganj but working in Gorakhpurhad this to say, “Now electricitycomes 18 to 20 hours a day in thevillage and in my house, there is alatrine.” Her face exudes genuinegesture. She knows she is beingcared and looked after. Her worldhas started growing and expanding.It will never be as gloomy as it usedto be.

Turning to first paragraph ofthis piece detailing my brief con-versation with Sardar Ji, let usspend some time on “contempla-tion” or more importantly “collec-tive contemplation”. During mystay, one evening, I invited a gen-tleman who had associations as aeditor with local Hindi newspapersa decade back but is leading a quietlife now. He was a frequent visitorto my house during 1978-83 whenmy uncle late Ganesh PrasadSrivastava, a teacher of English inDAV Inter College, Gorakhpur, wasalive and entertained a very limit-ed number of poets for evening ren-dezvous. One was Gauhar Saheb,and the other this gentleman. I toldhim of my desire to host a literarygathering where poets/writers couldexchange literary views and whereI could also share my writings.Knowing that my writings and

books are in English, a sense ofdespondency seemed to have over-taken him. He narrated the sad-dening literary scenario in the cityand lamented lack of serious liter-ary and artistic gatherings. “A fewHindi and Urdu poets are there andoccasionally they meet in anyone’shouse. But certainly there is nonewriting in English. And if you stillwant to go ahead, I am afraid if itcould raise any curiosity. Bekar hai(It is worthless),” he concluded. Mygusto started waning and by thetime the gentleman left, I surren-dered to his arguments. Anymatured society should evolve thepower of contemplation. Thinkingis not only a great job but also moreimportantly a greater art and this artemanates from proper studies andpeaceful atmosphere in collegesand universities. Gorakhpur isrequired to pay due attention to thisart by properly harnessing the edu-cational potential efficiently, eco-nomically and effectively. It is animmutable element vital for “trans-forming human beings”.

Overall, my perception is thatGorakhpur is steadily seeking muchdesired integration: integration (Seethe relevance of the line by PierreTeilhard de Chardincited in thebeginning) in terms of firmness ofpurpose, smoothness, cleanliness,delivery and inclusiveness. Policepersonnel deployed in differentplaces in the city were alert, helpingand strict. I was told by whoever Ihad interacted with and they hadadmitted that, “Crimes have beendecreasing fast and the very thoughtof committing any sort of crimesends chills rushing down the spineof criminals, even hard-core ones.This is most significant achieve-ment.” It is becoming a societywhere the rule of law has startedreigning supreme. Humanitarianismhas no spoilt face any longer and isseen to be sponsoring itself ade-quately. The process of “clean-up”has set in and is becoming morefirm.

Oldness has a charm of its ownin as much as its loss means loss ofidentity and action but Gorakhpurought to turn out to be a picturesqueplace allowing its inhabitants to havetime to ponder and wonder overhigher facets of culture and litera-ture that give qualitative propellantto life of the people. Numbness hasstarted vanishing and a sense ofaccommodation visible. The initi-

ated process of getting rid of themess and gruesomeness, I, likemany of my fellow-travelers, wasprivy to during my childhood andearly adolescence, reflects onGorakhpur’s determination todetach itself from insensitiveness ofthe past. People carry a hope that atransformed Gorakhpur will cer-tainly have “transformed humanbeings” a la Paul Streeten.

The announcement of winnerof Jnanpith award, the highest lit-erary award in India, for 2018 forAmitav Ghosh is yet another feath-er in his cap. In my earlier articlepublished in this newspaper (21October 2018), this is what I wroteabout Amitav Ghosh.

“Amitav Ghosh is a highly ratedwriter. Amtiav Ghosh stands headand shoulders above his peers in asmuch as he shuns literary festivals,never raring to showcase his facebefore a crowd a majority of whichhardly understand what literarybooks are all about. His articulatedviews are well expressed in hisessay Festivals and Freedom. Theessence of this essay is: Books areimportant; not their authors. “Publicspectacles are a sideshow.” Great.The relationship between writers,their books and readers gets evolvednot in such places of public ren-dezvous but in private, in isolationwhere only the book and the read-er exist.

It comes as a great pleasure forall those who believe in the powerof books rather than in the powerof faces of authors illumining liter-ary festivals and elite TV channelsthat highest literary award in Indiaby Bharatiya Jnanpith will be givento Ghosh. All kudos to him.

(The writer was born inGorakhpur in 1960. He did hisMasters in Economics fromGorakhpur University in 1980 andjoined Indian Audit & AccountsService in 1983. Currently he isDirector General in the Office ofComptroller & Auditor General ofIndia. He is a poet writing in Englishwith three poetry collections. His thirdbook Shadows of the Real has beentranslated into Hindi and Russian.Heis literary reviewer and columnist forthe newspapers The Pioneer and TheDaily Star. His fourth book: a semi-autobiographical, literary non-fiction,will be released in March 2019. Theviews expressed in this article are hispersonal views.

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Apermanent solution to the stub-born militancy predicament in

Jammu & Kashmir requires a multi-layered policy-driven initiativebased on the carrot and stickapproach. On the diplomatic front,the opening of the Kartarpur cor-ridor was a welcome sign towardsworking out conflict resolutionmethods but history bears testimo-ny to the fact that we still need tobe vigilant.

The recent attack by terroristson an Army patrolling party killingfour soldiers in Zainapora district ofKashmir has once again exposedour vulnerability and douse rays ofhopes for peace. Earlier attacks byPakistan-backed terrorists inPulwama, Uri and Pathankot havechallenged our security policiesand political will of theGovernment.

The rise in terror attacks in theValley is taking place only with sup-port from locals. It has been noticedthat to strengthen the secessionistmovement, insurgents are recruit-ing and training locals. This strat-egy has made it difficult for securi-ty forces to get reliable informationfrom local sources on terroristoperations.

The hardship that securityforces have to face during and afteranti-terrorist operations is mind-boggling.

There is need to change themindset of All Parties Hurriyat

Conference that Kashmir is an inte-gral part of India and should not getcaught in a nefarious game plan ofPakistan. Some kind of PopularMobilisation Force (against ISIS) asseen in Iraq can be replicated tobuild solid public opinion againstinsurgency in the region.

At the same time, there needs tobe political consensus to stop get-ting involved in either in jingoismor deliberately criticising theGovernment for anti-terrorismoperations for vote politics for thesame of national security.

There has been a section ofstrategists who want India to adopthawkish and surgical tactics and notmerely relying on rhetoric. But whatabout handling terrorists driven byreligious fervour and wrongly moti-vated for harming the country. It ispossible to frame a strategy about ter-rorist attack but there is confusionabout whether such a mechanism issuccessful in dealing with terroristsdriven by religious fundamentalismas religion is becoming the mainmotivating force for terrorism acrossthe globe.

Whether terrorism is unleashedat local, regional national or inter-national level it cannot survive forlong without international supportand collaboration.

Therefore, the intelligence gath-ering should be boosted to getinformation about terrorists' fund-ing, targets, timings and breeding

ground. But the Government alonecannot do much. Individuals andgroups can make a significant con-tribution towards improving thegeneral security environment.

On the other hand, there is aneed for the sophisticated securityprocedures which can go all the wayfrom airport screening to the bor-der area. Some kind of positive pro-grammes which can frustrate ter-rorists can prove effective. There isalso a need to promote open insti-tutions, including political institu-tion to absorb the ethnic, religiousand political pressure and allowthem (the terrorists) to vent theirfeelings in a proper way.

Since the present day terroristsare well organised and more pro-fessional than their counterparts adecade ago, new concepts of safetyand security should take birth. Avigilant and assertive police andparamilitary network should replacethe old one.

Many of the important sugges-tions and recommendations of thevarious committees are not in tunewith the exiting circumstances.There is an apprehension that withthe availability of biological andchemical weapons, terrorists willstart their campaign with renewedvigour.

The States affected by terrorismshould open the avenues for nego-tiated settlement of disputes andexhibit genuine willingness to

resolve long festering problems.This threat can be encountered bytraining and development of a newmechanism bolstered up of a mul-tidimensional and multi-layeredapproach based on checks and bal-ances. There are certain pertinentquestions which need to beanswered immediately:

1) What are the new terroristchallenges across the globe, partic-ularly faced by India?

2) Why terrorists are successfulin their mission?

3) What is the role of religion inmotivating terrorists?

4) How has sophisticated tech-nology helped terrorists achievetheir mission?

5) What are the external link-ages?

6) What are preventive methodsavailable for the redressal of thegrievances of the vulnerable people,thus striking at the roots of the prob-lem? What kind of recent threatsencountered by the representativesof people?

7) What are security constraintsin dealing with the problem of ter-rorism? In this regard a carefulanalysis of the causes of suicidalsquad of terrorism could be greatuse.

8) How India could have avoid-ed Mumbai (26/11) and Hyderabadserial blasts

9) What are legal and constitu-tional provisions available to deal

with terrorists? After carefully examining the

widening gap between the variousgovernments to formulate a com-mon strategy for the suppression ofterrorism, some strategic measuresought to be looked into for formu-lating international strategy tocounter this menace. In this regarda comprehensive coordinationbetween various nations can be ofimmense use.

We need to work on the strate-gic methods which the securityforces and the intelligence agenciesought to be preparing for, toencounter new form of attacks onmarkets, trains, shopping centers,cinema halls, hotels and other pub-lic places. Those who matter inframing and implementing the deci-sions need to realise that the prob-lem in Jammu & Kashmir is multi-dimensional and requires a freshperspective.

Unless we hit at the roots of thedisease it will keep haunting us. Theanti-terrorist campaign should alsocovers following major issues alongwith pure security strategy:

1) Tacit understanding of theregion and its historical importance

2) Chalking out comprehensiveplan by forgetting political and ide-ological differences purely as citizenof India.

3) Developing understandingamong the intrusive members of theregion.

4) Analysing the role played byregional political parties so far andthe possibility of bringing themunder one political umbrella onlyfor the sake of the bright future ofthe region.

5) Developing comprehensionabout the potentialities and imped-iments in the war against terror

6) The environment securityagenda through multiple layers ofsecurity

7) Combating concept of post-truth and ill ideology manufactur-ing agents

8) Obnoxious nexus betweenthe local powerful syndicates, out-siders and drug smugglers.

9) There has been a consider-able gap in reality and projection tothe outside world by building wrongpublic opinion through academicdiscourse and media. We need tocreate counter-narratives by gener-ating true public support.

10) There ought to be highlyclinic and consciously passionateapproach to address the hiddenproblem of the region which isentangled in the game plan spon-sored from across the border andpetty interest of a few players toremain at the helm of affairs.

11) Entire process need toaddress the issue of meritorious pol-icy analysis with objective approachto provide innovative urge to solvethe existing gap between theory andpractice by the regional political par-

ties in the region.12) Streamline the existing web

of formalities involved while gettinga productive suggestion through.

13) Improve security contentsand need by incorporating recentchanges through discourse andargumentation.

14) Seeking multiple optionsand viewpoints in order to help informing an integrated team con-sisting of only meritorious membersfor holistic development of Jammu& Kashmir.

15) Introducing new innovativemechanism in the process of indus-trialisation designed to help localunemployed youth of the regiontowards career goals.

16) More integrated programsand services that provide supple-mental support to both army andlocal police making it more efficientwith present circumstances of deal-ing with the worst form of propa-ganda terror.

17) Growth and enrichment ofthe region, both inside and outsidethrough community developmentexercise.

Since it is the intellectual classwhich provides strategies and newinsight into the framework of poli-cies, a positive role of media can beof great help.

(The writer is a Chandigarh-based professor of political scienceand strategic affairs)

Page 13: ˆ#$% ˙& ’( ) ˙& ˘ ˘ ˘ ˆ€¦ · income of an Odia farmer is mere Rs 1,407. State produced only 2.68 lakh metric tonne of potato in 2017-18 against targe of 11.25 lakh MT

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This could well prove to bethe year that the long-run-ning conflict more famil-

iarly known as the War on Terrorfinally came to an end. And in itsplace emerged a new Cold War,fuelled by Moscow’s innate hos-tility towards the West. Ever since al-Qaeda carried out theSeptember 11 attacks in 2001, the primary military, intelligence-gathering and diplomatic focus of the Western powers has beento counter and destroy Islamist-inspired terror cells. The cam-paign has not been without itscontroversies, not least over themilitary interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But while the political argu-ments over the ethical and moraldimensions of toppling rogueregimes will continue for manyyears to come, we should not losesight of the fact that, in terms ofthe original objectives, the mili-tary-led campaigns againstIslamist groups like al-Qaeda andIslamic State of Iraq and theLevant (Isil) have been a success.

In Afghanistan, where al-Qaeda’s bases were once respon-sible for around 70 per cent ofthe terror threats against the UK,the organisation’s infrastructureand leadership have beendestroyed, with Osama bin Ladenconsigned to a watery grave atthe bottom of the Indian Ocean.

After al-Qaeda came Isil,which has now suffered a similarfate following the establishmentof its self-styled Caliphate innorthern Iraq and Syria in 2014.The military campaign againstIsil attracted less controversy, butit achieved the same objective:the complete destruction of Isil as

a functioning terrorist entity.It would be foolhardy to

write off completely the Islamistthreat. Only recently, Strasbourg’sfamed Christmas market cameunder attack from an Islamist.Yet, compared with the enormityof what we faced in September2001, when our intelligencechiefs admitted they were com-pletely unsighted on the scale ofthe challenge groups like al-

Qaeda posed, we are today in afar better place, one where anIslamist-inspired terrorist attackon the streets of Britain is morelikely to be the exception ratherthan a regular occurrence.

Unfortunately, there will beno opportunity to pause andreflect on a job well done. For,just as the menace of Islamist-inspired extremism appears to beon the wane, so another foe has

emerged to take its place in theform of Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

The most graphic illustrationof the changing face of the threatwe face was the Salisbury nerveagent attack in March. After wespent the better part of twodecades fretting over the possibil-ity of groups like al-Qaeda usingweapons of mass destruction, itfell to a unit from Russia’s GRUmilitary intelligence service to

demonstrate the potency ofemploying such weapons onEuropean soil. Nor can theSalisbury outrage be regarded as aone-off. It needs to be seen withinthe context of the Kremlin’srelentless assault on the West andits allies which began withRussia’s invasion of Georgia in thesummer of 2008 and most recent-ly manifested itself with theRussian navy attacking a flotilla of

Ukrainian naval vessels in the Seaof Azov. Moreover, Russian intim-idation is not confined to the mil-itary sphere. As last week’s reportby the US Senate IntelligenceCommittee reveals, the Russianmilitary employs a wide range ofnon-conventional methods —hybrid warfare, to use the militaryterm — to target its foes.

Senate investigators foundthat Russian interferenceinvolved every social mediaplatform during the 2016 presi-dential election campaign, andwas specifically aimed at sup-pressing black voters, the major-ity of whom support theDemocrats. In addition, theAmericans have uncovered

other evidence of Russian med-dling in their institutions, with aRussian spy recently convictedof trying to infiltrate America’spowerful gun lobby. And if theRussians can do this in America,one of the world’s most securityconscious countries, then it is afair bet that they are doing thesame in Britain. At the veryleast, Russia’s SVR foreign intel-ligence agency will be attempt-ing to rebuild the networks thatwere destroyed in Britain by themass expulsion of its agents thatfollowed the Salisbury attack.

The resurgence of Russianaggression towards the Westhas certainly persuaded ourmilitary and intelligence chiefsto undertake a radical rethinkabout their priorities. Just threeyears ago, when the global cam-paign against Islamist terrorismwas the key goal, only 10 percent of our intelligence-gather-ing resources were directedtowards Russia. Post-Salisbury,that figure has more than dou-bled, and today military andintelligence chiefs are united inviewing Russia as a more sig-nificant threat than Isil.

Moreover, the pressing needfor Britain to upgrade itsdefences to be better prepared todeal with Russia was reflected inDefence Secretary GavinWilliamson’s Commons pledge toringfence £160 million to developinnovative capabilities in newwar-fighting domains like cyber.

This is just as well for, if theKremlin does not change tack,2019 could present all of us witheven greater challenges than wehave faced in 2018.

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While some ambitious lead-ers might pose hurdles inRahul Gandhi’s path toprime ministership, thereare others who are keen

to back him and his big dream. Leaderswho also have their eyes set on the mostcoveted post in India consider Rahul astheir competitor and are consistentlyworking on a strategy to push him to themargins in the grand alliance. However,at the same time, Rahul enjoys the sup-port of regional stalwarts, who don’tdream big are not hesitant in supportinghim as the next Prime Minister.

The DMK’s Stalin has no desire to bea part of the politics of the Centre. Hewants to become the Chief Minister ofTamil Nadu and has hence been support-ive of Rahul’s PM candidature. Withoutthinking about any of the regional stal-warts, Stalin declared that Rahul wouldbecome the PM candidate as he has thecapability to stop the BJP. Even TejashwiYadav has no qualms about backingRahul, neither does Akhilesh Yadav, whohas on several occasions, given statementsin Rahul’s favour. But it should be notedthat this time, Akhilesh has a compulsion— Mayawati. She considers herself as aPM candidate and Akhilesh has to gowith her in Uttar Pradesh. So, Akhileshcan’t declare Rahul as the PM candidateor he would face the wrath of Mayawati.That is why, perhaps, Akhilesh said that adecision will be taken after the results.Sharad Pawar is the only exception; he hasbig ambitions yet he is ready to acceptRahul as his leader. He feels that it is bet-ter to have good relations with Rahul andthe Congress, so if need arises, Rahulmight propose his name for the PM’s post.

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Many leaders of the Congress areputting their weight behind Varun

Gandhi’s entry into the party. Thoughthis is a fact that Rahul and Priyankashare a good relation with him, and thethree meet frequently, Varun is not will-ing to join the Congress solely due to hismother, Maneka Gandhi. It was beingspeculated that Varun might join theCongress in December. It is also beingsaid that this time, he would not fight theLok Sabha Elections on a BJP ticket. Ifthe BJP doesn’t give a ticket to Varun,then it seems highly unlikely thatManeka will continue in the party.

On the other hand, the new MadhyaPradesh CM, Kamal Nath, has shownsympathy towards Sanjay Gandhi, afterwhich people are speculating that hemight be able to coax Varun to join theCongress. When Kamal Nath hadbecome the State party president, he hadput up Sanjay Gandhi’s photo in his

room. When he was elected as leader ofthe CLP, Sanjay Gandhi’s cutouts wereput up in Bhopal along with those ofSonia and Rahul. It is noteworthy thatKamal Nath and Sanjay Gandhi wereclose friends, and Indira Gandhi calledKamal her “third son”. Now, Kamal Nathhas brought Sanjay Gandhi into main-stream politics. The next logical stepwould be Varun’s entry into the Congress.

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Many comparisons are being drawnbetween the CMs of States ruled by

both the BJP and Congress, and oneparameter is their age. The BJP hasmostly put forward new faces, choosing60-plus CMs in very few States. FourCMs of the BJP are under the age of 50— Yogi Adityanath, Devendra Fadnavis,Pema Khandu, and Biplab Kumar Deb —and some others have not crossed 60.Some of them, like Raghubar Das, were60 when they became CM and have nowcrossed that age. Manohar Parrikar andManohar Lal Khattar are exceptions.Shivraj Singh Chouhan continued as CMfor 13 years but didn’t complete 60 years.

On the other hand, despite manyoptions, the Congress preferred its veter-ans. Kamal Nath is 72 years old andAshok Gehlot is 67. Bhupesh Baghel is, ofcourse, younger than these two. Last year,the Congress had won elections in Punjabwhere it had made 76-year-old CaptainAmarinder Singh the CM. In 2016, theparty had won in Puducherry where 71-year-old Velu Narayanasamy is the CM.

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People are now debating whether theBJP will return to its old headquar-

ters, claiming it is only getting bad newsafter moving into the one on DDU Marg.Not only that, party leaders and journal-ists are keeping away as it is not easy toreach there and security is tight.

PM Narendra Modi had inauguratedthe headquarters on February 18, 2018.He had congratulated Amit Shah for get-ting it ready in record time. Soon afterthat, the party moved into the new build-ing, vacating its decades-old HQ at 11,Ashok Road. After moving into the newHQ, the BJP got its first shocker in theform of defeat in byelections of Phulpur

and Gorakhpur — seats that belonged to CM Yogi Adityanath and Deputy CM KP Maurya — in March.

The BJP got its second jolt in May,when it lost the Lok Sabha byelection inKairana, and fell short of majority inKarnataka. Despite that, the BJP formedthe Government in Karnataka but couldnot prove majority and BS Yeddyurappahad to submit his resignation. After that,the Congress and JDS grabbed power inKarnataka. Recently, the Lok Sabhabyelections were held on three seats inKarnataka, but the BJP managed to saveonly one — that of Yeddyurappa. TheCongress snatched the prestigiousBellary seat from the BJP.

In the Assembly Elections of fiveStates, the BJP lost power in MadhyaPradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Rajasthan. InMP and Chhattisgarh, the BJP had beenin power for the past 15 years. InTelangana, the BJP was hopeful of agood show, but the number of its MLAswent down from five to one. The BJPalso suffered personal losses in the formof ex-PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee, AnanthKumar, and MP Bhola Singh.

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As soon as the results of Assemblypolls in five States were out, the

disposition of the NDA’s partners seem-ingly changed. Some of them had beenunhappy for the past few months, butthose who were earlier standing uncon-ditionally with the BJP are also frown-ing. Allies like the Akali Dal, RPI, JDU,and LJP are now trying to positionthemselves. The RLSP has alreadyannounced it will part ways with theBJP. OP Rajbhar is also showing signsof discontent. The Shiv Sena will notleave the bandwagon but will continueits strategy of inflicting maximum harmat the same time. However, soon afterthe results, it was the JDU whichchanged its colour. Chirag Paswan, sonof Ram Vilas Paswan, has also sent outa stern message. The Akali Dal, whichis the oldest ally of the BJP, has advisedthe BJP and the Government to takecare of the minorities as they are feelinginsecure. It seems that the BJP shouldgear up for big jolts from its allies —from Bihar to Uttar Pradesh, andMaharashtra to Assam.

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Page 14: ˆ#$% ˙& ’( ) ˙& ˘ ˘ ˘ ˆ€¦ · income of an Odia farmer is mere Rs 1,407. State produced only 2.68 lakh metric tonne of potato in 2017-18 against targe of 11.25 lakh MT

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It’s a busy time for Santa Claus, but he’smaking time to feed some fish in San

Francisco. The California Academy ofSciences launched its holiday festivi-ties Thursday by having a scubadiver dressed as St.Nick submergeinto a coral reefexhibit whiledozens of chil-dren watchedfrom behind theglass. The “ScubaSanta” show runsthrough ChristmasDay. It takes placeduring the morn-ing feed at thePhilippineCoral Reeftank at the SanFrancisco museum.Volunteer diver GeorgeBell donned his Santa suit,from hat to coal black boots,and scuba gear for a recentfeed and fielded visitors’questions from inside the

tank. The Philippine Coral Reef tank hasthousands of reef fish representing about100 species. People can watch Santa’sappearance online by webcam.

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Russian media say a con-traption presented by

Russian state television as ahigh-tech robot was in fact

a man in a commercial-ly available robot cos-tume. The footage

was shot at a high-techshow in the city ofYaroslavl that openedTuesday, featuring“Boris the Robot.”

Forum organizersused Boris to

enliven theevent, havinghim dance to apop song.But a crew for

Russian state televi-sion apparently thoughtBoris was real, and used

footage of him dancingand speaking as anexample of Russiantechnologicalprowess. OnlineTJournal noted thelack of sensors, human-like movementsand other discrepancies, and revealedthat Boris was in fact a human clad in acostume sold under the name Alyoshaby the Russian company Show Robots.

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Once a month for the last decade,Pepe Casanas, a 78-year-old Cuban

farmer, has hunted down a scorpion tosting himself with, vowing that thevenom wards off his rheumatism pains.His natural remedy is no longer seen asvery unusual here.

Researchers in Cuba have foundthat the venom of the blue scorpion,whose scientific name is Rhopalurusjunceus, endemic to the Caribbeanisland, appears to have anti-inflammato-ry and pain relief properties, and maybe able to delay tumor growth in somecancer patients. While some oncologists

abroad say more research isneeded to be able to prop-

erly back up such aclaim, Cuban pharma-

ceutical firm Labiofam has beenusing scorpion venom since 2011 tomanufacture the homeopathic medicineVidatox. The remedy has proven popu-lar. Labiofam Business Director CarlosAlberto Delgado told Reuters sales wereclimbing 10 percent annually. Vidatoxalready sells in around 15 countriesworldwide and is currently in talks withChina to sell the remedy there. In Cuba,where tens of thousands of patients havebeen treated with Vidatox, each vialcosts under a dollar. On the black mar-ket abroad it can cost hundred timesthat — retailers on Amazon.com areseen selling them for up to $140.

“I put the scorpion where I feelpain,” Casanas said while demonstratinghis homemade pain relief with a scorpi-on that he found under a pile of debrison the patch of land he cultivates inCuba’s western province of Pinar delRio. After squeezing it long enough, itstung him and he winced. “It hurts for awhile, but then it calms and goes and Idon’t have any more pain,” he said.

Casanas, a leathery-skinned formertobacco farmer who now primarilygrows beans for his own consump-tion, said he sometimes keeps ascorpion under his straw hat like alucky charm. It likes the shade andhumidity, he says, so just curlsup and sleeps.

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ALos Angeles restaurantis taking dessert to new

heights of decadence with a $500brownie covered in 24-karat edi-ble gold. Chef Jason Harley,owner of Baby J’s Burgers,said the opulent brownie isserved in a humidor with aMonte Cristo cigar on theside.The brownie is coated in 24-karat gold and features glaze madewith Johnnie Walker Blue Labelscotch whisky. Harley previouslymade headlines in 2016 when hisdoughnut shop, Birdies, came outwith a $100 doughnut similarlycoated in edible gold.

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An apparent Grinch was spot-ted on surveillance video

plowing through a Christmas dis-play outside a suburban

Indianapolis home and tipsare being sought to find theman. WRTV broadcast thevideo recorded Sundaynight by a neighbor’scamera in Greenwood.

The video starts with aman getting out of a black

SUV and then walking up totake a closer look at the frontyard where Casie Arnold saysher family had a 3.7-meter-tall inflatable snowman.The man gets back into the

vehicle, backs up and drivesthrough the family’s yard and

over the decoration.Arnold says they heard a pop

while watching a Christmasmovie. Tire tracks were in theyard. Arnold says she wonders if

the driver was possibly a Grinchwho doesn’t like Christmas.

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The British box office is headingfor its best year in almost fivedecades as cinemas continue to

defy the stay-at-home lure of Netflix.When the final ticket stubs arecounted it is expected that Britishcinemagoers will have attended 176mtimes this year, a number not seensince 1971 when the hits includedDiamonds are Forever, FrenchConnection, Dirty Harry, and Fiddleron the Roof. There is no ChristmasStar Wars blockbuster to turbo-charge the box office in 2018 but filmexperts believe the 1971 mark will bebettered thanks to a slate ofDecember releases featuring thereturn of Mary Poppins, Aquaman,the Transformers spin-off Bumblebeeand an animated Spiderman.

“It will take something reallyunexpected, something pretty incred-ible, not to get to there now,” saidPhil Clapp, the chief executive of theUK Cinema Association. “It lookslike being record admissions, andbox office, for modern times.”According to Clapp, in four of thelast five years December admissionshave been 16m or more. Given cine-

ma admission numbers broke the160m mark at the end of November,that should be enough to hit or break176m. Across the Atlantic, the USbox office is also on for a record yearand could even hit the $12bn markfor the first time.

UK attendance is expected to beup by about 6m on 2017. The rise isbeing attributed to factors includinga much more diverse film slate rang-ing from musicals and superherofilms to animated family fare.

Argentinian auteur LucreciaMartel has revealed she wasapproached by Marvel to

direct the forthcoming Black Widowfilm starring Scarlett Johansson, inwhat would have been a directorialchoice remarkable even by Marvel’sidiosyncratic standards. In com-ments reported by the Pioneer,Martel, director of Zama, La Ciénagaand The Headless Woman, told anaudience at the Mumbai film festivalthat she “received an email fromMarvel for a meeting ... because theywere looking for directors for BlackWidow.” She added that she had tosign a non-disclosure agreementabout her meeting, but that “Marveland other such production housesare trying to involve more femalefilmmakers”.

However, Martel’s distinct lack ofenthusiasm for Marvel’s output mayhave scuppered her chances. Sheadded: “The first thing I asked themwas maybe if they could change thespecial effects because there’s somany laser lights ... I find them hor-

rible. Also the soundtrack of Marvelfilms is quite horrendous. Maybe wedisagree on this, but it’s really hardto watch a Marvel film. It’s painful tothe ears to watch Marvel films.”

In the event, Australian film-maker Cate Shortland (BerlinSyndrome, Lore) was announced asBlack Widow’s director in July.Martel said that despite theirattempts to recruit women directors,Marvel still mistrusted them in cer-tain aspects of production.

Alightsaber described as havingbeen used by Luke Skywalkerin the first Star Wars film has

been withdrawn from sale by aCalifornian auction house after fansraised concerns about its authenticity.The item was due to be sold byProfiles in History in Los Angeles onThursday with an estimated sale priceof up to $200,000 (£160,000).

It was described as having beenone of five lightsabers designed byRoger Christian, the Oscar-winningStar Wars set decorator, and used byMark Hamill in the 1977 film StarWars: Episode IV — A New Hope.

Christian had supplied a letter ofauthenticity to accompany the sale.

“In light of conflicting informa-tion regarding the origin of RogerChristian’s lightsaber, Profiles inHistory has decided to withdraw thepiece from this auction until MrChristian can clear up the inconsis-tencies that have been brought to ourattention,” the chief executive of theauction house, Joe Maddalena, said.Christian did not immediatelyrespond to a request for comment.

Fans of the sci-fi franchise hadquestioned whether the lightsaber was a replica or prototype.

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Ihad to rejig my travel plans lastweek to make a trip to Delhi. Adelegation from my alma mater,Sciences-po Paris, was visiting theCapital and my newly acquired

position as the democratically electedPresident of Sciences po alumni Indiamade me feel somewhat obliged to bethere. In my tiny political capacity, I feltanswerable to the voters — 150 men andwomen, ranging from age 25 to 70, livingacross India, bound together by theirFrench experience.

The amicable French Ambassador toIndia, Alexandre Ziegler, had opened thedoors of his residence to the alumnicommunity to meet the French delega-tion over great wine, tiny hors d’oeuvres,and — predictably — a few speeches. Inher short talk — and with the backdropof violent clashes in Paris that look to bethe worst since 1968 — the charmingProfessor Vanessa Scherrer attempted tostrengthen Franco-Indian ties.

A clever speech by Enrico Letta,Dean of the Paris School of InternationalAffairs at Sciences Po and former PrimeMinister of Italy, suggested that smart-phones have changed politics forever.Indeed, voters get instant news on theirfinger tips, they impulsively share theirpolitical views — woes — wants, or sim-ply ‘thumbs up’, ‘thumbs down’, ‘wow’,‘heart’ policies and their elected repre-sentatives. Our digital hyper connectivitymakes it easy to swiftly move into politi-cal action. To plan a political agitation, asecret midnight rendezvous is replacedby a closed Facebook group event. Door-to-door campaigns have given way to acall to action on Twitter.

And so, a week ago, the Sciences-poalumni in India had voted for theirPresident via a weblink. Last year,President Emmanuel Macron’s electioncampaign had been powered by socialmedia, now much like the protesters whoare on the streets against him.

The ‘yellow vest’ movement startedon November 17, with 282,000 protest-ers, leaving one dead, 409 wounded, and73 in custody. It was initially against a

rise in duties on diesel, widely used byFrench motorists and which has longbeen less heavily taxed than other typesof fuel. Macron had said higher taxes onfossil fuels were needed to fund renew-able energy investments. The protestersadopted the name for their movementafter a social media campaign urgingpeople to take to the streets wearing thehigh-visibility yellow jackets that must becarried in every vehicle in France.

Last weekend, although in smallernumbers, the protesters were still on thestreets. There were slightly more than2,000 in Paris. In Bordeaux, more than4,500 protesters turned up despite show-ers of water cannon from the police todisperse them. A similar number protest-ed in Toulouse. In Nantes, around 1,200protesters were fired by tear gas, as theywere in Avignon and Besançon. Thisweek too the protests have continued.The movement has now expanded overother issues, including calls for higherwages, lower taxes, better pensions, easi-er university entry requirements, and soon. The protesters were frustrated aboutthe overall economic situation in France,especially the economic policies rolledout by Macron who is being perceived asanti-poor and pro-elite.

According to a recent story by The Economist, Macron is looked uponby most French folks as too haughty.In a poll by Ipsos, the approval forMacron by French citizens has slippedanother two points in the last month,to 23 per cent. The proportion of peo-ple who declared themselves “very dis-satisfied” by his leadership jumped bysix points to 45 per cent.

Macron has made some bold policychanges, akin to none that France hasseen in many decades. He has made afew long-needed reforms to make thelabour market more flexible. His educa-tion reforms created smaller classes inpoor areas and greater citizens’ controlover training. The rise in taxes on dieselis to fund renewable energy. Yet he didso without involving the rest. He single-handedly delivered to the French all the

changes that he felt were the best forthem. He did not pause to explainenough. When he slashed taxes onwealth, he did not offer more help for thepoor or sufficiently explain to them whythe old wealth tax was inefficient, incen-tive-sapping, and bad for France in thelong run. Macron forgets that a democ-ratically elected representative is answer-able to each one who casts a vote. Thereis little wrong with his policies, yet plentyat fault with his attitude.

Rolling out change anywhere in theworld, in governance or in business,needs to take the long path of consensus.Drawing up a list of policies (howevergreat) or to-dos, without effective com-munication with the affected group,thrusting the changes upon the group,forcing them to implement and bear theconsequences, fast tracks change but isunsustainable. With such a method, thechanges desired will not last. Moreover,a changemaker’s hasty actions with poorcommunication will always leave somesection of people who will feel leftbehind, uninvolved, deceived. And so,metaphorically speaking — and to DeanLetta’s point — indeed the smartphonehas transformed governance. People canshare grievances quickly about policiesand can organise themselves to proteston the streets. But easy connectivitythese days also makes it easier for politi-cians, such as Macron, to connect muchmore with citizens, empathise, effective-ly communicate with them, receive feed-back, and defend his tough policieswhen required!

This week, Macron turned 41. Hewoke up to probably his worst birthdaygift ever — the streets of Paris litteredwith burned-out cars, smashed glass, andpolice everywhere. We hope that France’sgift to him does not detract him frommaking bold reforms, but instead have amaturing effect on his attitude.

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What is the usual reaction whenthings go wrong? One blamesluck. This is gross ignorance.

Don’t we know what luck, destiny or fateis? This is the accumulated result of deedsdone by us in the past, both good andbad. These come to fruition at theirappointed times. So, when things gowrong, one must blame the self. Yes, it isdifficult to connect a bad happening to aparticular act of ours, but there is onething that we can be sure of — the blamelies with us and no one else. Divineauthorities who oversee this system donot make mistakes; they do not ever pun-ish someone for someone else’s fault.

If we are really to accept the punish-ment and the system under which it ismeted out, we have made progress. Nowwe are ready to ascertain the cause behindand what can be done about it. As statedearlier, it may be difficult to pinpoint thecause but there is one thing that we canbe certain of — we broke some rule of thematerial nature. For example, there is asetback in our health. Then, we in all like-lihood have violated the instructions ofthe Gita, in which it has been stated,“Eating, recreation, activities and sleepshould all be appropriate.”

Once we own the responsibility forwhatever has gone wrong, we are readyfor the next step. The next step is to askourselves, “Why did we not follow theguidelines for good health?” Either wewere not aware of them or we inten-tionally flouted them. If there is lackof awareness, it is time to make our-selves aware of them. If we have beenintentionally disregarding the rules forgood health, then, we need to thinkhard to find its root cause — “What iswrong with us such that we havebecome our own enemies?” Such intro-spection will bring us to the realisationof our faulty natures, which getingrained in us over a long period.

Such faulty nature is the result of fate,which has two sides to it. The first part

brings rewards and punishments due toaccumulated karmas. Examples ofrewards are success in business, landing avery lucrative job, a brilliant scientificdiscovery, etc. Examples of punishmentsare being stricken with a terminal dis-ease, failure in business, losing one’s job,etc. These happen at their appointedtimes, and affect one’s life in a substantialway either in a positive or a negative way.

The other aspect of fate is faults innature. Examples of such faults are:Being lusty in matters of eating, sensu-ous enjoyments, power, fame, etc; beinggreedy; and given to readily gettingangry. Lord Krishna has characterisedthese as gates to hell. (16.21) The fault ofbeing jealous is still worse; one goes tolower species. The egoistic feeling is very

difficult to be rid of, and is a very com-mon defect in nature. Then, there arehabits of getting anxious or fearful help-lessly. They take away peace of mind andare primary causes of painful depressioncommon to modern man. Are we pre-pared to deal with them? Most don’t; onedecides to live with them, because theeffort to be rid of them appears to be toodaunting. Few try but give up, and learnto accept them.

God had foreseen this. Therefore, Hehas given us solutions. As regards thefate due to bad deeds, God promises tohelp in successfully getting out of trou-ble, if one develops God consciousness.(18.58) Details of becoming God con-scious are covered in great detail in theGita. God has solution for faulty naturealso. One needs to surrender to Him.(7.14) Again, one can get the necessaryguidance in the Gita, and can graduallytame/ rectify one’s faulty nature.

The conclusion is: Don’t blame fate;do something about it. God has not madeus helpless. There are always solutions butare we prepared to listen to God and fol-low His instructions?

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There is a very interesting observation in anOrganisation Behaviour text that says — you cantake the man out of the Stone Age, but you cannot

take Stone Age out of the man. To many, this may appeara bit hazy, but for those who have the eye to observe it is arather pithy comment. Going by technological advance-ment, it is true that mankind has come a long way sincethe time of the Stone Age. Those technological advance-ments have been largely effective in changing the lifestyleof human beings and the way they meet the externalenvironmental demands. However, the fact is that wehave hardly changed from within (our internal environ-ment), that is the way we think. So, the assertion thathuman nature has remained fairly stable over all thoseages is quite valid. This is precisely what Philosopher JKrishnamurthy observed some five decades ago. He saidthat technologically, man has advanced incredibly, yet heremains as he has been for thousands of years — fighting,greedy, envious, burdened with great sorrow. His dis-course on existence was based on what he found in theworld — utter chaos, disorder, violence, extreme forms ofbrutality, riots ending up in war. If this does not makesense, let us examine what is happening, whether in themost poor and underdeveloped countries, or the mostrich and highly developed countries. Ethiopia and UnitedStates have been facing indiscriminate violence.Throughout their existence, human beings have been vio-lent. The twenty first century seems to be no better as faras human aggression and meanness is concerned. Why itis so may not be easy to understand because violence andaggression seem to be learnt predispositions. They arelargely acquired rather than innate. Where do we learnthese from? Is it ingrained in the evolutionary cycle whichemphasises struggle for existence, or it is picked up grad-ually as we grow up and develop. The fact is that violenceand aggression do persist. We need to ponder over whywe are so violent. May be, we need to realise that ouraggression is a result of our assumption that our painsand problems arise due to other people and they need tobe punished. Or it can be that we want to corner every-thing for ourselves and sharing of resources is an unac-ceptable proposition. The emotions of fear, hate, and ragetake the better of us. Is there a way out from this Morassthat we are sinking into? There certainly should be a wayfor the sake of larger interests of humanity. And that wayis to create a Psychological Revolution. The technologicalrevolution is not going to change humanity. It seems thatwe have defined change wrongly. If only technologicalchange could bring about the desired transformation inhuman attitude, things would have been much better. Butit has not and most human actions are still driven byenvy, greed, hatred, ego and other such negative attribut-es. The problems in this world are more out of psycholog-ical disorientation rather than any genuine reasons. Thereis need to bring about a psychological reorientation in thebasic thinking process so that rather than being driven bynegativities, human beings are influenced by positivethoughts. Bringing about this psychological change is cer-tainly a Herculean task. It is so because calls for a concert-ed and sustained effort. We must go from a mechanicallife driven by a programmed thought pattern to the psy-chological revolution that brings a responsive and empa-thetic life. And this is possible.

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The basis of Christmas is,of course, the celebrationof the birth of Christ;although in reality saintsare beyond the cycle of

birth and death. At this time of theyear, let us turn our hearts and soulsto the significance of the life andteachings of Christ. Traditionallyspeaking, it is the day when GodPower descended on Earth in humanform to give the first handexperience of “Word” to humanity.To celebrate Jesus Christ’s birthday isa moment of great joy. We singcarols, celebrate, present gifts, andexchange best wishes. Though thetemperature outside shudders us,our hearts are filled with the warmthof love and brotherhood.

Every year, people from acrossthe world get together to celebratethe big day of Christmas! This is afestival of happiness when peoplepresent gifts, especially to childrenwho are given plenty of gifts on thisoccasion. The tradition ofpresenting gifts to children isassociated with Jesus’ birth whenafter his birth; three wise men camefrom the East and presented plentyof gifts to the infant Jesus.

Christmas, is an occasion whenwe must give a thought tounderstand the meaning of ‘Christ’.Jesus Christ, in the Gospel, oftencalled himself the “Child of Man”and “Son of God”. He can beunderstood in this dual context.

According to St John’s teachings,Jesus Christ was the Holy Word, hewas in human form amongst us. Hereached the spiritual heights wherethe soul realises itself as a part ofGod. God Power worked throughhim. God power is called Masterpower and this power grants ussalvation and merges us back intoGod. World can be destroyed, butnot this power. This power, in theinitial Gospel of St John , has beendescribed as:

“In the beginning was the Word,and the Word was with God, and theWord was God. The same was in the

beginning with God. All things weremade by him; and without him wasnot anything made that was made.In him was life; and the life was theblight of men.”

This light was in the form ofJesus and till the time he lived, hewas indeed the light to the world.Because he was in the human form,he was the “Son of Man” but alsobecause he was one with God, andcame as a medium of this power, hewas “Child of God”. In reality, thispower is nothing but the “HolyWord”, or the “Holy Spirit”, asmentioned in the Gospels. In otherreligions, it has also been called askalma, Baang-e-asmani, Sarasha,Lagosa, Shabad, Shruti, Udgati, orNaam. It was with the word that thewhole world was created. It may bedescribed with different names indifferent religions, but it means thesame. It is important that onChristmas, we follow Christ’steachings. Christ, too, like othergreat Saints, emphasised on leadinga pure life. He said:

“Blessed are the pure in heart:for they shall see God.”

— Matthew (King James Version)Ethical life includes non

violence, truthfulness, purity,humility, selfless service and love forall. Christ was a living example of allof these. Being one with the Father,Christ embodied all virtues. He wasan epitome of love, forgiveness andhumility. He represented fullflowering of God’s love in the world.Indeed, if forgiveness can be definedas the perfume that flowers breathewhen they are trampled upon, thenhe was a veritable garden of divinefragrance. His love encompassed all,and he embraced all. Humility washis adornment. Like one the greatestUrdu Poets of past century has said:

“Humility and love are thepriceless gifts of God-realisation;

Humility is the be-all, and love isthe end-all of the spiritual path.”

— Sant Darshan Singh Ji MaharajIt is love which opens our hearts

to share in the suffering and joys of

others. And it is humility whichinspires us to reach out to the lowlyand the poor, the forsaken and theforgotten. It is not the magnitude ofour acts of loving-kindness thatultimately matters. It is the sinceritywith which they are offered.

Whenever we celebrate birthdaysof the Great Masters, we must try tofollow their teachings/ keep theircommandments. What did theypreach? What did they explain? OnChristmas, when a lot of peoplethroughout the world celebrate JesusChrist’s birthday, it is important topresent a gift to our own selves —the gift to practice Jesus’ teachings.His teachings were teachings of love.His teachings taught us that we canbe one with God. It is important thatwe must not stop only at the outerrituals. We must focus at thefoundation, called the esoteric sideof the religion. We must feed thesoul so that it travels within andrises above body consciousness to beone with God.

As we celebrate Christmas, let usdo so in its true spirit. If we butdevelop the eyes to see, we will findthat each day is filled with theopportunities to express love andcompassion, and to perform acts ofkindness which can bring joy tothose around us. Each day is filledwith opportunities to spread thefragrance of forgiveness and applythe balm of soothing words. If webuild our lives where there are noouter disturbances so that life isfilled with virtues and we areconnected with God from within, wewill speedily reach our destination.

Those who are rich may possesseverything, but if they lack love, theyare poor and destitute. So to givelove consciously is not only apanacea for the hardships, thetorments of modern life, it is anenriching experience for the giveralso. It enriches the giver as well asthe receiver; we all grow. So let’scelebrate this Christmas with its truespirit of love, humility andforgiveness. Merry Christmas!

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It comes out the previous issue that‘Mind’ leads the Karmic journeyrunning through successive lives.

Mind gets going on the promptings ofKarmic accruals from the past, whichhas in store destiny pointers in seedform. They induce the mind to carryforward its agenda to its logical end bypreparing the ground suited for the pur-pose. Remember, seed cannot breedunless it gets a congenial ground.Invariably, ignorant minds get carriedaway with the indwelling tendencies ofthe mind, and themselves prepare theground necessary for their fruition.

This is not to suggest that mind ismandated to just blindly follow thedictates of destiny pointers. It doesalso act on feed drawn from environ-mental influences. Mind also respondsto fresh educative inputs. We, thusenjoy the scope to redefine the thoughtprocess, which may lead us to a mean-ingful life ahead.

Remember, mind, on the strength ofits indwelling faculty of discriminateintelligence is empowered to reflect uponall that is fed from within or beyond.Applying which, it could dispassionatelyarrive at the right judgment. Accordingly,mind can consciously try to make

amends in the thought process. It maynot be out of mention here that destinyindicators come into effect through cor-responding thought trends they excite.But when mind can absorb educativeinputs fed into it, could very well modifythe Karmic influences carried over fromthe past. So, at the end of the day, it is allabout watching the thought trends ofmind, and then making necessaryamends to combat negative destinypointers. Following which, the indwellingpotential bloom out in full.

Conceptually, the above discussionraises the hope to checkmate at least thenegative callings of Karmic accruals. It is,however, easier said than done. Tounderstand how and why, a look into theconstruct of mind becomes imperative.There are four constituents of Mind:Citta, Buddhi, Ahamkara, and Manasa.Citta, apart from animating other con-stituents of mind, grants the power ofknowing. Inherent in Citta is Buddhi —the faculty of discriminate intelligence —which analyses, evaluates, and dispas-sionately arrives at the right judgment.Ahamkara brings in the sense of ‘I’which enjoins upon us the capacity towilfully make choices and commit to atask undertaken. Manasa acts from the

front with multiple functionalities inapparent terms. First, it is supposed togather outer field data, relay it to Buddhifor due diligence and then respond orreact as directed by the latter. Second, itbrings forth the callings of Karmic ten-dencies into active play. But, if so direct-ed by Ahamkara not to invoke Buddhi, itcould also react and respond on instinc-tive judgment as well.

Invariably, with mind mired in self-delusion, Ahamkara identifies itself withthe body-mind organism and indwellingtendencies, as if that would be one’s iden-tity. Acting on the same premise, oftenAhamkara does also take seeming realitieson face value, not feeling the necessity toinvoke Buddhi for due diligence, and withobvious consequences. And, the truth oflife is that seldom do people remain con-scious about looking within to identifylimiting tendencies for necessary correc-tion. And when something happens toone’s detriment causing pains and suffer-ings, one takes refuse in destiny.

Having said that let me make it clearthat the powers of mind are immense,applying which, one can very well tran-scend one’s limitations. It is believed thatwe hardly use five to seven per cent ofthe faculties of our mind. We can verywell expand it further through conscious

efforts. But even if we are able to judi-ciously apply what is already available, atleast, we could successfully ensure asmooth run of life. But our fracturedmind does not let us put in our qualita-tive best towards the tasks in hand, andnaturally to one’s detriment. For, invari-ably, our minds, unmindfully and ran-domly keep running monkey like fromone thought to the other, coming as theymay attending to unfulfilled desires, thechallenges faced with, tempting glare andglitters of the seeming world.

Einstein is believed to have used 10per cent of his faculties of mind to provea legend. Here, it is worth quoting a say-ing of Swami Vivekananda: “You do notfail in life simply because your destinywould be so scripted. You fail, becauseyou have not strived enough to unfoldthe immense power within.” To sum up,we become subject to limitations exer-cised by our Karmic accruals, simplybecause we fail to address the vagaries ofmind. The issue continues.

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