16
I ndia’s largest public sector bank, State Bank of India (SBI), leads the list of banks who have written off huge loans of big borrowers, most- ly during the last three years. As per an RTI query, the SBI wrote off 76,600 crore of bad loans of 220 defaulters, who owed more than 100 crore each as on March 31, 2019. The RTI query gave the list of scheduled commercial banks with break up of loan waiver in two categories — 100 crore and more, and 500 crore and more. The total comes to a staggering 2.75 lakh crore. The Reserve Bank of India provided this information to CNN-News18 in response to a RTI query that also revealed that 37,700 crore waiver belonged to just 33 borrowers, with loans of 500 crore and more. The RTI response also showed that the debtors who were given loans of 500 crore and more defaulted on 67,600 crore of loans. Ironically, while banks go to any extent to recover small loans from farmers, forcing them to even commit suicide, they have been found to be extra generous in dealing with big time borrowers and cor- porates. The waiver has impact- ed the books of these banks and affected their lending capacity, which, in turn, impacted the credit offtake and led to liq- uidity crisis in the system. According to the RTI response, the RBI enlisted 980 borrowers whose debt of more than 100 cr each was written off by the banks. The SBI topped the list with 220 such accounts. The average write-off stood at 348 crore. The waiver has brought down the gross NPA from the peak of 11.5 per cent in March 2018 to 9.3 per cent in March 2019. The rate of accretion of fresh NPAs came down to 3.7 per cent in March 2019 com- pared with 7.4 per cent the pre- vious fiscal. The bad debts have impacted the corporate lending and virtually led to the collapse of Yes Bank and Punjab National Banks, clearly show- ing that the crisis has hit both the private sector and public sector banks. The menace refused to end as was shown in the result of the Indusind Bank on Thursday for the second quar- ter. The shares of the bank col- lapsed even though year-on- year the consolidated profit was 52 per cent more. But it was the higher provisioning that spooked the market reflecting the investors sensitivity on the nature of lending. P akistan on Thursday said no date has been fixed so far for the inauguration of the much-awaited Kartarpur cor- ridor, even as it assured that it will be open “on time” on the occasion of the 550th birth anniversary of Sikh faith founder Guru Nanak Dev on November 12. The statement came nearly a month after a senior official heading the cor- ridor project announced that Pakistan will allow Indian Sikh pilgrims to visit the holy Kartarpur Sahib from November 9. Addressing a weekly press briefing here, Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Faisal said, “Work on the Karatarpur corridor will be completed on time as committed by the Prime Minister (Imran Khan). It will be inaugurated on time, but I can’t give any date for its opening as no date has been fixed so far.” He assured that the corri- dor will be open on the occa- sion of the 550th birth anniver- sary of the Sikh spiritual leader on November 12. The proposed corridor will connect Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur with Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Gurdaspur district of Punjab and facilitate visa-free movement of Indian pilgrims, who will have to just obtain a permit to visit Kartarpur Sahib, which was established in 1522 by Guru Nanak Dev. Pakistan is building the corridor from the Indian bor- der to the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, while the other part from Dera Baba Nanak in Punjab’s Gurdaspur district up to the border will be constructed by India. On September 16, during a maiden visit of Pakistani and foreign journalists to the pro- posed Kartarpur Corridor in Narowal, some 125 km from Lahore, the project director, Atif Majid, said 86 per cent of the work on the corridor has been completed and it will be opened to pilgrims on November 9. The Foreign Office spokesman said former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been formally invit- ed for the inaugural ceremony. He also said Pakistan will con- tinue to highlight the plight of Kashmiris at world forums. Last week, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had said that Manmohan will be part of an all-party jatha through the Kartarpur Corridor, which will be opened next month, to the Darbar Sahib gurdwara in Pakistan to mark the 550th birth anniver- sary of Guru Nanak. However, the Chief Minister made it clear that neither he nor the former Prime Minister would be participating in any event organised by Pakistan to mark the formal inauguration of the corridor on November 9. W ith an eye to Maharashtra and Haryana Assembly elections, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday constituted a Coordination Committee headed by her close aide Ahmed Patel and consist- ing of senior party leaders Jairam Ramesh, Anand Sharma, Madhusudan Mistry, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Manik Tagore. Patel has convened its first meeting on Friday to strategise coordination of the party activ- ities for the Maharashtra and Haryana polls. A senior AICC leader said Patel has been assigned the new responsibility considering his acceptance among all the party leaders, old and young, and also within the Opposition leaders. The Congress and the NCP are alliance partners on equal number of seats in Maharashtra and the NCP is headed by Sharad Pawar, who enjoys a good rapport with Patel. While Scindia headed the Screening Committee for Maharashtra, the onus is now on Patel to keep intact the flock till the end of elections. The overarching Patel-ed committee has been mandated to monitor the election coor- dination committee, Pradesh election committee, campaign committee, publicity and pub- lication committee, media and communications committee, transport and accommodation committee, protocol committee and discipline committee till the end of the polls in both the crucial States. The first task on Thursday what the committee did was to give green signal to the party’s manifesto for Haryana which will be released on Friday. Sources said the manifesto focuses on addressing the issue being faced by the farmers, poor, women and youngsters. U ndeterred by the denial of permission by the Centre to attend a summit on envi- ronment in Denmark, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will address C-40 summit through video conferencing. According to a statement from Chief Minister’s Office (CMO), Kejriwal will address the climate summit on solu- tions to tackle air pollution. “He has accepted the request of the summit organis- ers to deliver his address through video conferencing in session titled — breathe deeply, city solutions for clean air. The CM will also address a joint Press conference through video conferencing with mayors of six major world cities,” said a statement from the CMO. As per the schedule shared by the Delhi Government, Mark Watts, Executive Director of C-40, will start the summit at 8.30 am Copenhagen local time — 12 noon IST. After which there will be Press conferences of Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, Eric Garcetti, Mayor of Los Angeles, Frank Jensen, Lord Mayor of Copenhagen, Arvind Kejriwal (on video conferencing), Ada Colau, Mayor of Barcelona, Ted Wheeler, Mayor of Portland and Jorge Muñoz Wells, Mayor of Lima. Kejriwal is likely to share his experiences on how Delhi has been successful in reducing air pollution by 25 percent in past five years. “The CM is also likely to share the experience of how Delhi became the first city in the world to successfully implement the odd-even experiment for restricting the vehicular traffic on the roads, which led to a reduction in air pollution in Delhi,” the Delhi Government said in a state- ment. T he the Economic Offence Wing of the Delhi Police on Thursday arrested former Ranbaxy and Fortis Healthcare promoter Shivinder Mohan Singh and three others in an alleged fraud case of disbursal of loans and causing loss to Religare Finvest Limited (RFL) to the tune of 2,397 crore. Kavi Arora (48), Sunil Godhwani (58) and Anil Saxena (51) too were arrested for allegedly diverting money and investing in other compa- nies. A lookout circular has been issued for Shivinder’s brother Malvinder Singh. According to OP Mishra, Additional Commissioner of Police, EOW, “A complaint was filed by Manpreet Singh Suri of Religare Finvest Limited (RFL) against Malvinder, Shivinder, Sunil Godhwani and others alleging that loans were taken by Singh while managing that firm but the money was invest- ed in other companies”. “The complainant said the persons put RFL in poor finan- cial condition by way of dis- bursing loans to companies having no financial standing and controlled by the alleged persons,” said Mishra. T he Enforcement Directorate approached the Delhi High Court on Thursday seeking cancellation of anticipatory bail granted to former Finance Minister P Chidambaram and his son Karti in the Aircel- Maxis case, claiming that there is likelihood of tampering with the evidence. The plea has been listed for hearing before Justice Suresh Kait on Friday. The ED has challenged the September 5 order of the spe- cial court granting relief to Chidambaram and his son. Chidambaram is lodged in jail after being arrested by the CBI on August 21 in the INX Media corruption case. The trial court had also granted anticipatory bail to the father-son duo in the Aircel Maxis case filed by CBI. A s India pulls out all stops to roll out a grand welcome to Chinese President Xi Jinping in this ancient seaside temple town, China has said the two countries pose no threat to each other and greater coop- eration between the two Asian giants would inject positive energy in ensuring peace and stability in the region and beyond. In an exclusive interview to PTI, Chinese Ambassador Sun Weidong said a “new set of consensus” including “guiding principles” on the develop- ment direction of India-China ties are expected to emerge from the two-day informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Xi beginning Friday. The envoy said as the largest developing countries and emerging economies of the world, China and India have a responsibility to inject positive energy into a “complicated world”. “We believe that the Summit will take bilateral rela- tions to a higher level and have a major and positive impact on regional and world peace, sta- bility and development,” Sun said. B ungalow number 11-A on Balwant Rai Mehta Lane in Lutyens’ Delhi resembles a rav- aged structure. Forced to leave the official accommodation, former parliamentarian from Bihar Rajesh Ranjan, alias Pappu Yadav, chose to take away the doors and windows of the house besides razing the “illegal” structure erected to house people coming to meet him from his constituency. Yadav’s OSD Ajay Kumar alleged that the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) dismantled the structure, but the latter said the bungalow is still with the former MP, who has not handed over it to the Estate Department despite repeated reminders. Electrical equipment, floor tiles, lawns, paint, bathrooms, windows, brickwork, tempo- rary structures and the walls were damaged. The office located at the entry point of the gate was also found damaged along with doors and win- dows. The furniture was also found in ruined condition. The bungalow was used by the people coming from his constituency Madhepura for various works in Delhi. Yadav was running “Subhash Chandra Bose Sewa Ashram” from his residence. The sewa ashram had capacity to accom- modate 400 people at a time. He had put a banner carrying a slogan “Logon ka ghar sabka ghar”. Yadav is currently in Bihar to help flood-hit victims in Patna. According to Yadav’s OSD, bungalow will be hand- ed over to CPWD after his arrival. On the other hand, offi- cials of the CPWD said that they have already given a report to the Lok Sabha Secretariat about the bungalow’s condi- tion. Yadav is currently the pres- ident of Jan Adhikar Party. He had lost the Lok Sabha elec- tions in May. His wife Ranjeeta Ranjan, who was allotted bun- galow at 7 Balwant Rai Mehta Lane, too lost Lok Sabha polls. She had also been given notices to vacate her accommodation. The Estate Department under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) has recently forcefully evicted three other ex-MPs while giv- ing a 3-day notice to three oth- ers to vacate their Government accommodations. With many ex-MPs yet to vacate their accommodation, newly elected MPs were forced to stay in var- ious State bhavans or guests houses. The Ministry has also served notices on the squatters is in he process to forcefully evict the occupants from bun- galow or flat number 185 at South Avenue; flat 185 at North Avenue and 11 Mahadev Road. Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Government has geared up for the upcoming Investors’ summit –‘Magnificent MP’ scheduled on October 17 and 18 in Indore. As many as 600 dignitaries including 124 major industry delegates including Kumar Manglam Birla, Adi Godrej, Tata group directors and others are expected to attend the mega summit. The State government has also extended invitation to Reliance chairman Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani chair- man of Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group. Chief Minister Kamal Nath had engaged in preparations of the big summit soon after assum- ing office as the CM last year in December. His participation in the World Economic Forum meet at Davos was also seen as a part of these preparations. Besides, the CM had several rounds of discussions with the leading corporates in Mumbai during his visit to the commer- cial capital of the country in last few months. Besides, there are several corporations which already have started investments in MP and also have been invit- ed in the mega summit which seeks to showcase state’s poten- tial in key sectors including – Tourism, Agriculture, Horticulture, Food Processing, IT, Pharmaceuticals and others. “We are also onto new sectors including storage batteries, date centres for IT companies and sec- tors like renewable energy where we are doing well in last decade or so and wish to take it forward in future,” Chief Secretary SR Mohanty had said. While taking stock of the preparations in Indore on Wednesday, the Chief Secretary Mohanty claimed that the Chief Minister is of the view that a single policy can’t satiate the needs of different sectors so sep- arate policies have been formu- lated for each sector and these policies would be unveiled at the summit. He also added that the state government instead of focussing on the outcomes of the previous summits is focussing on the pre- sent summit. We don’t wish to drag the event unnecessarily so the event would be of one –day as most major industry delegates normally return in a single day, said the senior officer. SR RNI Regn. No. MPENG/2004/13703, Regd. No. L-2/BPLON/41/2006-2008

˙ ˇ˝ ˛ ˚ ˇ ˘ ˇ ˆ ˆ - The Pioneer · Singh has been formally invit-ed for the inaugural ceremony. He also said Pakistan will con-tinue to highlight the plight of Kashmiris

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Page 1: ˙ ˇ˝ ˛ ˚ ˇ ˘ ˇ ˆ ˆ - The Pioneer · Singh has been formally invit-ed for the inaugural ceremony. He also said Pakistan will con-tinue to highlight the plight of Kashmiris

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India’s largest public sectorbank, State Bank of India

(SBI), leads the list of bankswho have written off hugeloans of big borrowers, most-ly during the last three years. Asper an RTI query, the SBIwrote off �76,600 crore of badloans of 220 defaulters, whoowed more than �100 croreeach as on March 31, 2019.

The RTI query gave the listof scheduled commercial bankswith break up of loan waiver intwo categories — �100 croreand more, and �500 crore andmore. The total comes to astaggering �2.75 lakh crore.

The Reserve Bank of Indiaprovided this information toCNN-News18 in response to aRTI query that also revealedthat �37,700 crore waiverbelonged to just 33 borrowers,with loans of �500 crore andmore. The RTI response alsoshowed that the debtors whowere given loans of �500 croreand more defaulted on �67,600crore of loans.

Ironically, while banks goto any extent to recover smallloans from farmers, forcingthem to even commit suicide,they have been found to beextra generous in dealing with

big time borrowers and cor-porates. The waiver has impact-ed the books of these banks andaffected their lending capacity,which, in turn, impacted thecredit offtake and led to liq-

uidity crisis in the system.According to the RTI

response, the RBI enlisted 980borrowers whose debt of morethan �100 cr each was writtenoff by the banks. The SBI

topped the list with 220 suchaccounts. The average write-offstood at �348 crore.

The waiver has broughtdown the gross NPA from thepeak of 11.5 per cent in March2018 to 9.3 per cent in March2019. The rate of accretion offresh NPAs came down to 3.7per cent in March 2019 com-pared with 7.4 per cent the pre-vious fiscal.

The bad debts haveimpacted the corporate lendingand virtually led to the collapseof Yes Bank and PunjabNational Banks, clearly show-ing that the crisis has hit boththe private sector and publicsector banks.

The menace refused to endas was shown in the result ofthe Indusind Bank onThursday for the second quar-ter. The shares of the bank col-lapsed even though year-on-year the consolidated profit was52 per cent more. But it was thehigher provisioning thatspooked the market reflectingthe investors sensitivity on thenature of lending.

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Pakistan on Thursday said nodate has been fixed so far

for the inauguration of themuch-awaited Kartarpur cor-ridor, even as it assured that itwill be open “on time” on theoccasion of the 550th birthanniversary of Sikh faithfounder Guru Nanak Dev onNovember 12. The statementcame nearly a month after asenior official heading the cor-ridor project announced thatPakistan will allow Indian Sikhpilgrims to visit the holyKartarpur Sahib fromNovember 9.

Addressing a weekly pressbriefing here, Foreign Officespokesman Mohammad Faisalsaid, “Work on the Karatarpurcorridor will be completed ontime as committed by thePrime Minister (Imran Khan).It will be inaugurated on time,but I can’t give any date for itsopening as no date has beenfixed so far.”

He assured that the corri-dor will be open on the occa-sion of the 550th birth anniver-sary of the Sikh spiritual leaderon November 12.

The proposed corridor will

connect Darbar Sahib inKartarpur with Dera BabaNanak shrine in Gurdaspurdistrict of Punjab and facilitatevisa-free movement of Indianpilgrims, who will have to justobtain a permit to visitKartarpur Sahib, which wasestablished in 1522 by GuruNanak Dev.

Pakistan is building thecorridor from the Indian bor-der to the Gurdwara DarbarSahib in Kartarpur, while theother part from Dera BabaNanak in Punjab’s Gurdaspurdistrict up to the border will beconstructed by India.

On September 16, during amaiden visit of Pakistani andforeign journalists to the pro-posed Kartarpur Corridor inNarowal, some 125 km fromLahore, the project director,Atif Majid, said 86 per cent ofthe work on the corridor hasbeen completed and it will be

opened to pilgrims onNovember 9.

The Foreign Officespokesman said former IndianPrime Minister ManmohanSingh has been formally invit-ed for the inaugural ceremony.He also said Pakistan will con-tinue to highlight the plight ofKashmiris at world forums.

Last week, Punjab ChiefMinister Amarinder Singh hadsaid that Manmohan will bepart of an all-party jathathrough the KartarpurCorridor, which will be openednext month, to the DarbarSahib gurdwara in Pakistan tomark the 550th birth anniver-sary of Guru Nanak. However,the Chief Minister made itclear that neither he nor theformer Prime Minister wouldbe participating in any eventorganised by Pakistan to markthe formal inauguration of thecorridor on November 9.

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With an eye to Maharashtraand Haryana Assembly

elections, Congress presidentSonia Gandhi on Thursdayconstituted a CoordinationCommittee headed by her closeaide Ahmed Patel and consist-ing of senior party leadersJairam Ramesh, AnandSharma, Madhusudan Mistry,Jyotiraditya Scindia and ManikTagore.

Patel has convened its firstmeeting on Friday to strategisecoordination of the party activ-ities for the Maharashtra andHaryana polls.

A senior AICC leader saidPatel has been assigned the newresponsibility considering hisacceptance among all the partyleaders, old and young, andalso within the Oppositionleaders.

The Congress and the NCPare alliance partners on equalnumber of seats in Maharashtraand the NCP is headed bySharad Pawar, who enjoys agood rapport with Patel. WhileScindia headed the ScreeningCommittee for Maharashtra,the onus is now on Patel tokeep intact the flock till the endof elections.

The overarching Patel-edcommittee has been mandatedto monitor the election coor-dination committee, Pradeshelection committee, campaigncommittee, publicity and pub-lication committee, media andcommunications committee,transport and accommodationcommittee, protocol committeeand discipline committee tillthe end of the polls in both thecrucial States.

The first task on Thursdaywhat the committee did was togive green signal to the party’smanifesto for Haryana whichwill be released on Friday.Sources said the manifestofocuses on addressing the issuebeing faced by the farmers,poor, women and youngsters.

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Undeterred by the denial ofpermission by the Centre

to attend a summit on envi-ronment in Denmark, DelhiChief Minister Arvind Kejriwalwill address C-40 summitthrough video conferencing.

According to a statementfrom Chief Minister’s Office(CMO), Kejriwal will addressthe climate summit on solu-tions to tackle air pollution.

“He has accepted therequest of the summit organis-ers to deliver his addressthrough video conferencing insession titled — breathe deeply,city solutions for clean air. TheCM will also address a jointPress conference through videoconferencing with mayors ofsix major world cities,” said astatement from the CMO.

As per the schedule sharedby the Delhi Government,Mark Watts, Executive Directorof C-40, will start the summitat 8.30 am Copenhagen localtime — 12 noon IST.

After which there will bePress conferences of Mayor ofParis, Anne Hidalgo, EricGarcetti, Mayor of Los Angeles,Frank Jensen, Lord Mayor of

Copenhagen, Arvind Kejriwal(on video conferencing), AdaColau, Mayor of Barcelona,Ted Wheeler, Mayor ofPortland and Jorge MuñozWells, Mayor of Lima.

Kejriwal is likely to sharehis experiences on how Delhihas been successful in reducingair pollution by 25 percent inpast five years.

“The CM is also likely toshare the experience of howDelhi became the first city inthe world to successfullyimplement the odd-evenexperiment for restricting thevehicular traffic on the roads,which led to a reduction in airpollution in Delhi,” the DelhiGovernment said in a state-ment.

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The the Economic OffenceWing of the Delhi Police on

Thursday arrested formerRanbaxy and Fortis Healthcarepromoter Shivinder MohanSingh and three others in analleged fraud case of disbursalof loans and causing loss toReligare Finvest Limited (RFL)to the tune of �2,397 crore.

Kavi Arora (48), SunilGodhwani (58) and AnilSaxena (51) too were arrestedfor allegedly diverting moneyand investing in other compa-nies.

A lookout circular has beenissued for Shivinder’s brotherMalvinder Singh.

According to OP Mishra,Additional Commissioner ofPolice, EOW, “A complaint wasfiled by Manpreet Singh Suri ofReligare Finvest Limited (RFL)against Malvinder, Shivinder,Sunil Godhwani and othersalleging that loans were takenby Singh while managing thatfirm but the money was invest-ed in other companies”.

“The complainant said thepersons put RFL in poor finan-cial condition by way of dis-bursing loans to companieshaving no financial standingand controlled by the allegedpersons,” said Mishra.

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The Enforcement Directorateapproached the Delhi High

Court on Thursday seekingcancellation of anticipatory bailgranted to former FinanceMinister P Chidambaram andhis son Karti in the Aircel-Maxis case, claiming that thereis likelihood of tampering withthe evidence. The plea hasbeen listed for hearing beforeJustice Suresh Kait on Friday.

The ED has challenged theSeptember 5 order of the spe-cial court granting relief toChidambaram and his son.Chidambaram is lodged in jailafter being arrested by the CBIon August 21 in the INX Mediacorruption case.

The trial court had alsogranted anticipatory bail tothe father-son duo in the AircelMaxis case filed by CBI.

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As India pulls out all stops toroll out a grand welcome to

Chinese President Xi Jinping inthis ancient seaside templetown, China has said the twocountries pose no threat toeach other and greater coop-eration between the two Asiangiants would inject positiveenergy in ensuring peace andstability in the region andbeyond.

In an exclusive interview toPTI, Chinese Ambassador SunWeidong said a “new set ofconsensus” including “guidingprinciples” on the develop-ment direction of India-Chinaties are expected to emergefrom the two-day informalsummit between PrimeMinister Narendra Modi and

Xi beginning Friday.The envoy said as the

largest developing countriesand emerging economies of theworld, China and India have aresponsibility to inject positiveenergy into a “complicatedworld”.

“We believe that theSummit will take bilateral rela-tions to a higher level and havea major and positive impact onregional and world peace, sta-bility and development,” Sunsaid.

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Bungalow number 11-A onBalwant Rai Mehta Lane in

Lutyens’ Delhi resembles a rav-aged structure. Forced to leavethe official accommodation,former parliamentarian fromBihar Rajesh Ranjan, aliasPappu Yadav, chose to takeaway the doors and windows ofthe house besides razing the“illegal” structure erected tohouse people coming to meethim from his constituency.

Yadav’s OSD Ajay Kumaralleged that the Central PublicWorks Department (CPWD)dismantled the structure, butthe latter said the bungalow isstill with the former MP, whohas not handed over it to theEstate Department despiterepeated reminders.

Electrical equipment, floortiles, lawns, paint, bathrooms,windows, brickwork, tempo-rary structures and the wallswere damaged. The officelocated at the entry point of thegate was also found damagedalong with doors and win-dows. The furniture was alsofound in ruined condition.

The bungalow was used bythe people coming from his

constituency Madhepura forvarious works in Delhi. Yadavwas running “SubhashChandra Bose Sewa Ashram”from his residence. The sewa

ashram had capacity to accom-modate 400 people at a time.He had put a banner carryinga slogan “Logon ka ghar sabkaghar”.

Yadav is currently in Biharto help flood-hit victims inPatna. According to Yadav’sOSD, bungalow will be hand-ed over to CPWD after his

arrival. On the other hand, offi-cials of the CPWD said thatthey have already given a reportto the Lok Sabha Secretariatabout the bungalow’s condi-tion.

Yadav is currently the pres-ident of Jan Adhikar Party. Hehad lost the Lok Sabha elec-tions in May. His wife RanjeetaRanjan, who was allotted bun-galow at 7 Balwant Rai MehtaLane, too lost Lok Sabha polls.She had also been given noticesto vacate her accommodation.

The Estate Departmentunder the Ministry of Housingand Urban Affairs (MoHUA)has recently forcefully evictedthree other ex-MPs while giv-ing a 3-day notice to three oth-ers to vacate their Governmentaccommodations. With manyex-MPs yet to vacate theiraccommodation, newly electedMPs were forced to stay in var-ious State bhavans or guestshouses.

The Ministry has alsoserved notices on the squattersis in he process to forcefullyevict the occupants from bun-galow or flat number 185 atSouth Avenue; flat 185 at NorthAvenue and 11 Mahadev Road.

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Bhopal: Madhya PradeshGovernment has geared up forthe upcoming Investors’ summit–‘Magnificent MP’ scheduledon October 17 and 18 in Indore.

As many as 600 dignitariesincluding 124 major industrydelegates including KumarManglam Birla, Adi Godrej,Tata group directors and othersare expected to attend the megasummit. The State governmenthas also extended invitation toReliance chairman MukeshAmbani and Anil Ambani chair-man of Anil Dhirubhai AmbaniGroup.

Chief Minister Kamal Nathhad engaged in preparations ofthe big summit soon after assum-ing office as the CM last year inDecember. His participation inthe World Economic Forummeet at Davos was also seen as apart of these preparations.Besides, the CM had severalrounds of discussions with theleading corporates in Mumbaiduring his visit to the commer-cial capital of the country in lastfew months. Besides, there areseveral corporations whichalready have started investmentsin MP and also have been invit-

ed in the mega summit whichseeks to showcase state’s poten-tial in key sectors including –Tourism, Agriculture,Horticulture, Food Processing,IT, Pharmaceuticals and others.“We are also onto new sectorsincluding storage batteries, datecentres for IT companies and sec-tors like renewable energy wherewe are doing well in last decadeor so and wish to take it forwardin future,” Chief Secretary SRMohanty had said. While takingstock of the preparations inIndore on Wednesday, the ChiefSecretary Mohanty claimed thatthe Chief Minister is of the viewthat a single policy can’t satiate theneeds of different sectors so sep-arate policies have been formu-lated for each sector and thesepolicies would be unveiled at thesummit.

He also added that the stategovernment instead of focussingon the outcomes of the previoussummits is focussing on the pre-sent summit. We don’t wish todrag the event unnecessarily sothe event would be of one –dayas most major industry delegatesnormally return in a single day,said the senior officer. SR

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Page 2: ˙ ˇ˝ ˛ ˚ ˇ ˘ ˇ ˆ ˆ - The Pioneer · Singh has been formally invit-ed for the inaugural ceremony. He also said Pakistan will con-tinue to highlight the plight of Kashmiris

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Governor Lalji Tandon has said thatit is challenging to work for the

development of handicrafts and hand-

loom sector in the fast changing eraof globalisation. He said that bydeveloping India’s ancient handicraftsand handloom system, we can createmore and more employment oppor-

tunities. The Governor was addressing

the three-tier Panchayati Raj trainingprogramme organised by BRAmbedkar University of Social

Sciences at Hindi Bhavan onThursday.

Tandon said that the PanchayatRaj system has always been the axisof rural development.

The handicrafts and handlooms ofour country have been recognisedworldwide, but mechanisation era inthe last few years has influenced thedevelopment of these arts.

In the ancient times, throughthese arts more people used to getemployment opportunities in their vil-lage itself.

The Governor said that constantefforts are also necessary for the

prosperity of tribal culture of thecountry.

Vice Chancellor of BR AmbedkarUniversity of Social Sciences ProfessorAsha Shukla said that the Universityis constantly working on the dreamsand ideals of Ambedkar.

She said that arrangement hasbeen made to impart training toPanchayat representatives to createmaximum employment opportunitiesin rural areas.

The University is also runningawareness programmes for the devel-opment of handicrafts and hand-loom.

Professor Shukla informed thattraining will be imparted to artisansand Panchayat representatives ofRaisen, Sehore and Bhopal district inthe training programme.

She said that the University hasadopted 12 villages near Mhow wherepublic awareness campaign has beenlaunched for social development ofthese villages.

Director Sathiya Welfare SocietySmriti Shukla and HandicraftsDevelopment Corporation represen-tative Mahesh Gulati also addressedthe programme.

Bhopal: Bajaria police havebooked two miscreants forattacking three persons withsharp-edged weapon at SemraGate in the night onWednesday; two victims sus-tained injuries, attacked wasfuelled over old enmity saidpolice.

The victims Vinod KumarJoshi his son Deepak andbrother were attacked by themiscreants identif ied asDheeraj Ahirwar and his aide.

SHO Bajaria SudeshTiwari said that the accusedhad served jail in a case inwhich the victim Vinod wit-nessed against him and tosettle score victim wasattacked. The investigation ison and other reason of attackwould be also investigated.

One of the attackers hasbeen identified while otherwho holds crime record isknown as Motu and his detailsare searched, he added.

The victim came to attack

Vinod but Ravi and Deepak ina bid to save Vinod wereattacked and sustainedinjuries. The two were rushedto Hamidia hospital wheretheir condition is reportedlystable. Their statementsregarding attack have beenrecorded.

After the preliminaryinvestigation the police haveregistered a case under sec-tions 452, 307 and 34 of theIPC and have started furtherinvestigation.

Vinod works in a templeand lives near Semra Gatearea. The attackers enteredthe house and attacked Vinodand to save him Ravi andDeepak came who wereattacked with sharp edgedweapons injuring in stomachand other body parts. In theattack Vinod escaped unhurt.

Police have raided fewplaces in the night but accusedmanaged to remain absconding. SR

������� ���� ��� �45�+>

Majhgava, Umaria, group of girlsmarked a pad party where they

talked about menstruation andimportance of pads.

Last week, a similar pad partywas organised in village Khedi andAmli Faliya, of Jhabua, where groupof adolescents who have group calledas Mahi Toli, did pad party andopenly talked about menstrualhygiene issues and the challengesthey face when it comes to menstrualhygiene.

This was facilitated by NGOVasudha Sansthan, which is workingwith UNICEF on providing space toadolescents to share and express theiropinions.

Similarly in Harda, group ofyoung girl’s gift each other sanitarypad on their birthdays and do padparty.

Bharti, young person fromHarda shares, we used to use clothand now we gift each other sanitarypads and use that, so that we canpractice better hygienic methods.

We also share short movies inour pad party to bust myths andsuperstitions.

We started this year and halfback and are supported by

changeloomers who are part of ini-tiative of Synergy Sanasthan and

UNICEF. This effort is by adolescents and

young girls to talk about an issuewhich is normally not talked open-ly in rural parts of the State, sharesGayatri Parihar, of Vasudha Sansthan. As per NFHS in MadhyaPradesh only 37.6 % of women inbetween age of 15-24 years usehygienic method during their men-strual periods. In rural parts usageof hygiene methods is only around26.4 % and need to spread awarenessis more here.'Improved knowledgeon Menstrual Hygiene Managementand practices during menstruationhas a direct impact on adolescentgirls and women’s health and as suchincreased awareness on essentialmenstrual hygiene products is crit-ical to enable adolescent girls toadapt effective Menstrual Hygienepractices' Michael Juma, Chief,UNICEF, Madhya Pradesh.

Recently UNICEF also engagedsocial media influencers to spreadawareness and talk about the issue ofmensuration in the State andMadhya Pradesh State now has StateRoad map on menstrual hygienemanagement which has been puttogether by the State Governmentwith support of UNICEF and WaterAid.

Bhopal: Under the popularmuseum series ‘Exhibit of theMonth’ of Indira GandhiRashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya,a traditional object is dis-played in the appearance for awhole month. The exhibit forthe month of October, 2019 -“Charkha: Hand operatedSpinning Wheel’ from Jhajjar,Haryana, is on display in theindoor exhibition building –Veethi Sankul.

The 'exhibit of the month'has been inaugurated byPadmashri Vijay DuttShridhar, (Director of MadhavRao Sapre Sangrahalaya,Bhopal). Prof Sarit KumarChaudhuri (Director, IGRMS),and renowned people presenton this occasion. This exhibitof the month has been curet-ted by Garima Anand Dubey,

(Museum Associate).On this occasion, Garima

Anand told that, Charkha orspinning wheel which is ahand operated device used forspinning thread from fibres. Itwas fundamental to the cottontextile industry prior to indus-trial revolution. In Indian con-text Charkha or Chakra is notmerely a tool but is also a sym-bol of the Independencemovement of India. MahatmaGandhi brought the charkhainto wider use. He hoped thatCharkha would be an effectivetool for the people of India tobe the self sufficient and inde-pendent and therefore he usedCharkha as a symbol of IndianIndependence movement.

This Museum has a goodcollection of various types ofspinning wheels from various

parts of the country in its col-lection present exhibit collect-ed from Bharpai Devi ofJhajjar, Haryana is one of themwhich she kept with her formore than 70 years. Displayingthis charkha as exhibit of themonth is not simply a cus-tomary practice but also ahumble tribute to Father ofNation on his 150th birthanniversary and salute to mil-lions of his followers who stillbelieve in his ideology andcherish the memories like this.

On this occasion, audienceobserved the book entitled‘Vishwavandhya Gandhi’ abook centered on the 150thbirth anniversary of Father ofthe Nation, Mahatma Gandhi,edited by Padmashri VijayDutt Shridhar. SR

������� ���� ��� �45�+>

A44-year-old man wasassaulted and robbed of

gold chain and finger ring atknife-point at 74 bungalowarea under TT Nagar policestation area on Wednesday; vic-tim sustained injuries in theattack.

According to the policevictim Virendra Rai was talk-ing over mobile phone at 74bungalow area when two scoot-er borne miscreants came androbbed of his gold chain and agold finger ring. The victimwas attacked when he opposedproviding valuables and latermanaged to reach hospital andpolice were informed.

In his complaint victimstated that he was talking overmobile phone after meetingperson he came to meet near 74bungalow when he was talkingtwo miscreants came over ascooter and tried to snatch gold

chain and gold finger ring buthe opposed after which theyattacked him with a sharpedged weapon injuring himnear his ear and escaped thespot.

The victim was not able toprovide details of the miscre-ants. After preliminary inves-tigation, the police have regis-tered a case under section 392of the IPC against the uniden-tified miscreants.

After the police receivedinformation the check post andon duty police personnel werealerted but miscreants remaineduntraceable. The victim is a res-ident of Ashoka Garden anddeals in bus travel.

Loss is the robbery isclaimed to be worth Rs 50000by the victim. The victim wasdischarged after providingtreatment. Police have startedinvestigation and would checkthe CCTV footages of the cam-eras installed in the area.

������� ���� ��� �45�+>

The prestigious VanamaliKatha Samman, Vanamali

Katha Critics Award andVanamali Literary MagazineAward have been announcedby Vanmali Srijan Peeth.

This year, popular story-teller Priyamvand will be con-ferred with the NationalVanamali Katha Samman, theVanamali Katha Samman willbe given to the narratorRanendra and BhagwandasMorwal, the Vanamali YuvaKatha Samman will be given tothe young storytellers ManojPandey, Tarun Bhatnagar andGaurav Solanki.

Senior critic Vinod Shahiwill be given the Vanmali KathaCriticism Award and the youngcritic Rahul Singh will be giventhe Vanmali Katha YoungCriticism Award while thedecision has been made togive the magazine'Contemporary IndianLiterature' published byVanamali literary magazineSaman Sahitya Akademi. Thisyear, Kiran Singh and UpasanaChaubey are being honoredwith Vanmali DistinguishedNarrative Award.

This year's Vanamaliawardees were selected by afive-member committee head-ed by Santosh Choubey, com-prising Mukesh Verma,Liladhar Mandloi, BalramGumasta, Mahendra Gagan.

It is worth mentioning thatthese awards were establishedin 1993 in the memory of thestory writer Jagannath PrasadChaubey 'Vanamali'. So farthis award has been presentedby Shashank, Swayamprakash,Asghar Wajahat, Uday Prakash,Maitreyi Pushpa, Satish Jaiswal,

Mamta Kalia, ManzoorEhtesham, Chitra Mudgal,Prabhu Joshi, Malati Joshi,Tejinder, Mukesh Verma andManoj Rupra, Anand Harshul,Kailash Contemporary / youngstorytellers like Banwasi,Pankaj Subir, Mohammad Arif,Pankaj Mitra, ManishaKulshrestha, Alpana Mishrahave been provided. RohiniAgarwal, Jayaprakash, VinodTiwari and Vanmali Kathamagazine Samman to RameshUpadhyay, Hari Bhatnagar havebeen awarded with VanamaliKatha Criticism Award.

All the above awards willbe presented on November 10during Tagore InternationalLiterature and Arts Festival'Vishwa Rang'. The "VishwaRang" Tagore InternationalLiterature and Arts Festival,from November 7 to November10 will be organized byVanmali Shirwan Peeth andRabindranath TagoreUniversity. This Vishwa Rang,organized in about 60 ses-sions, will be a unique platformfor many subjects, which willbe held in the intimate associ-ation of Bharat Ratna ShriPranab Mukherjee, formerPresident of India and morethan 500 scholars from Indiaand abroad.

������� ���� ��� �45�+>

You are called to love oneself,others and God to estab-

lished God’s Kingdom on Earth,said Fr Denny VC, the mainPreacher.

Three days Retreat andPrayer for the Catholics held atAssumption Church, AreraColony. It was an annual retreatfor all the Catholics ofArchdiocese of Bhopal to renewthemselves in order to grow inspiritual maturity.

Leo Cornelio, theArchbishop of Bhopal inaugu-rated the retreat with con-cele-brated Holy Mass. He asked thepeople to make use of this gold-en opportunity to bring downGod’s abundant blessings in thelife of individuals, society and inthe diocese to renew the com-mitment we made during ourBaptism.

Fr Denny VC and team ledthe people to know oneself,others and God, sacraments,spirituality and sins to revive thebond of healthy relationshipwith one another.

The main theme of theretreat was to renew the life ofChristians to be rooted in thelove of Christ.

The preacher asked the peo-ple to leave the life of sinfulnessto come closer to God to receivethe eternal reward.

We are created in His imageto fulfill the Lord's mission toinclude all the neighbors in theboundary wall of love, he added.

The main attraction of theretreat was praise and worship,Adoration of the BlessedSacrament, confession andsolemn Holy Mass.

Three days retreat for thelaity was concluded with anoint-ing the people on October 8 at

Assumption Church, Bhopal.Archbishop Leo Cornelio appre-ciated the people coming togeth-er in large number to pray andto listen the Word of God.

He asked the people not tolook for favours for becomingChristians but ready to suffer forChrist as Jesus emptied himselfto die for the salvation of thepeople.

Fr Mathew VC thanked thepeople behind the success of theretreat specially Fr Denny VC,Fr Joby VC and his team and themembers of the organizingteam.

Three days retreat was wellattended nearly by 2000 peoplecame from different parts of thediocese besides large number ofsisters and fathers. Finally, allwent back home with a com-mitment to love one another andto promote the joy of beingloved.

������� ���� ��� �45�+>

A19-year-old girl was sexu-ally exploited for the past

two years on the promise ofmarriage at Barkheda Pathaniarea; Govindpura police haveregistered case and startedinvestigation.

According to the police, thevictim was sexually assaultedby the accused DevendraSingh for the past two years andduring the period assured herof marriage and continued tosexually exploit her. Based onthe complaint, the police haveregistered a case under sections376 and 506 of the IPC.

The victim came into con-tact with the accused around

two years ago at a marriagefunction and gradually devel-oped relationship with her.The accused lured her of mar-riage. The victim was accom-panied by the accused to hishouse where she was sexuallyassaulted and the exploitationcontinued for the next twoyears. The Victim claimed thatshe was assured by the accusedbut even after several requestsaccused failed to accept.

The situation turned worsefor the victim as when shepressed for marriage, theaccused threatened her of lifeand escaped. The victiminformed her family andapproached Govindpura policeand lodged a complaint onWednesday. The accused wasnabbed and has been sentunder judicial custody.

The victim works as adomestic while the details ofthe accused are yet to be inves-tigated. The victim lives withher grandfather after the deathof her parents.She left studiesafter class 5 and used to live athome. Later due to poor finan-cial conditions she started towork as domestic help.

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Page 3: ˙ ˇ˝ ˛ ˚ ˇ ˘ ˇ ˆ ˆ - The Pioneer · Singh has been formally invit-ed for the inaugural ceremony. He also said Pakistan will con-tinue to highlight the plight of Kashmiris

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An exhibition of designerdresses, kurtis, saris and

other accessories on displaywooed the shopaholics of thecity. Karwachauth and Diwalilifestyle exhibition began hereat Hotel Sayaji from Thursdaythat will conclude on Saturday.

The two day exhibitioncum sale Midas Touch is allabout the designer dresses,kurtis, saris, clutches and acces-sories.

This exhibition is an offer-ing to fashion lovers who arepassionate to wear somethingbeautiful, exclusive and uniquethis festive season. This is alsoan attempt to get the vibrantcolours and Indian couture onthe same stage.

The exhibition cum saleshowcase a magnificent mix ofcontemporary fashion and morefrom across the State. The exhi-bition cum sale was a fusion ofvarious styles of MadhyaPradesh. Some stalls displaybagh print while some show-cased chanderi and maheshwariwith a western twist. The exhi-bition cum sale give shoppersample choice of accessories,clutches and Indian wear suchas saris, dresses and kurtis.

Besides, the exhibition cumsale aims to capture not onlythe young crowd but also midaged and aged ladies to be inthe league of latest trends pre-vailing.

This exhibition covers allthe accessories, fashion trendsand other lifestyle essentialsthat are must in this festive sea-son.

The exquisite variety offabrics and colours, uniquepattern creations and trendsetting pieces with attentiondown to the minutest detail, isthe highlight of the exhibition.It displays a colourful range ofdesigner Kurtis, SalwarKameez, Suits, Handbags andother elegant accessories, thatare sure to what the appetite fordesigner wear.

������� ���� ��� �45�+>

While reviewing the prepa-rations for the

Magnificent MP Summit to beorganised in Indore, the ChiefMinister Kamal Nath directedthat investment along withdevelopment done in varioussectors in the State should bepresented in a better mannerduring the summit. Kamal Nathsaid that it is our goal to enhancethe investors’ confidence in theState through this event.

The Chief Minister, KamalNath mentioned that theMagnificent Madhya Pradesh isan important opportunity for usfor the progress of the state withthe new investment and to pro-vide employment to our youth.He stated that our efforts shouldnot be limited just to the paper

work. Better preparationsshould be made to bring realinvestment in the state.

Kamal Nath gathered infor-mation about the progress of theongoing preparations so far forthe Magnificent MP Summitand investors, who would beattending the summit. He alsoheld discussions at length onvarious sessions being orga-nized during the event.

The Principal Secretary,Industry Rajesh Rajoura,Principal Secretary PublicRelations Sanjay Shukla,Managing Director MadhyaPradesh State IndustriesDevelopment CorporationVinod Porwal, CommissionerPublic Relations P Narhari andSenior Officials concerned werepresent at the meeting.

����� -�=5!<

On the occasion of com-pleting 60 years of Indo-

German co-operation, onceagain painting and neighbour-hood competitions have beenorganised for the students ofIndore as part of the environ-ment sustenance awarenessprogramme.

In the first stage of com-petition over 1,800 studentsparticipated at The EmeraldHeights International School.Out of all these participants thebest 50 were selected for thesecond level of competitionheld at The Holkar Stadium inIndore on Thursday.Participating students tried todepict and showcase variousinnovative ideas on energy andenvironment conservation.These students from variousschools of Indore had tried tostrengthen diplomatic rela-tionship between India andGermany on the occasion of 60

years presence of Indo-GermanDevelopment Co-operation(GIZ) in India.

Senior Project Coordinatorof GIZ (Energy Efficiency,Nitin Jain appreciated theefforts of the participatingschools and their students. He

also suggested other cities andstates to follow the steps under-taken by Indore City towardssustainable development. Theeminent jury members con-sisting of Pankaj Agrawal,Govind Joshi, Rakesh Jain,Rajiv Sharma, Ashok Gupta

and Nitin Jain also praised theefforts of participating stu-dents.

Senior artist from IndorePankaj Agrawal expressed con-fidence of Indore winningnumber one position inSwachh Bharat Abhiyan for the

fourth time in a row.Ex-Secretary of BCCI,

Sanjay Jagdale, felicitated thestudents by giving them‘Certificates of Merit’ andmementos and praised theirefforts. Rohit Pandit, CAO ofMPCA also graced the occa-sion. Nitin Jain expressed hisgratitude for the efforts put inby BMZ, The Emerald HeightsInternational School andMadhya Pradesh CricketAssociation.

Project Coordinator AnilSharma from GIZ mentionedthat three best students fromboth the competitions wouldbe given awards by PMNarender Modi and seniorpolitical leaders in a functionto be organized in Delhi in themonth of November 2019.

Project Coordinator, GIZRavindra Kumar, RohanPunekar of MPCA,Consultants Vinay Kumar andJasmeet Kakkar also gracedthe occasion.

������� ���� ��� �45�+>

Picture expressions basedon patriotic songs during

the freedom movement arebeing displayed at MadhyaPradesh Tribal Museum.

The group painting exhi-bition 'Suraj' is being put upat exhibit ion gal ler y ‘Likhandra’.

There are 37 paintings ondisplay in the 'Likhandra'gallery of the museum, whichhave been painted by 7painters on canvas withimages of freedom carved infolk songs.

In these paintings, thefolk expressions of freedomstruggles are displayed.

While Surendra Sahu hasexpressed in his pictures theattitude of respect for Gandhiprevailing in Korku songbased folk, his pictures have

shown Gandhi calling forfreedom across the country.

Roshni Vyam has depict-ed the public anger in theGond style against the Britishin his paintings.

Saroj Kumar Jha hasexpressed very closely andbeautifully the social unity,confidence and struggleagainst the British duringthe Nimadi song-based inde-pendence in Madhubanistyle.

Bhi l painter ShantaBhuria has shown the strug-gle between people andBritish officers in his paint-ings.

Mankiya Bapu Vayda hasshown Gandhiwith the truthand non-violence while spin-ning the spinning wheel, onthe other hand, the Britishhave depicted the picture ofmodern weapons of the time.

The Gond painterVenkataraman Singh Shyamhas expressed the kings in hispaintings defending his king-dom and Sanatan Swai in theOriya Patta style introducedGandhiji to the folk throughthe path of truth-non-vio-lence and discussed the can-vas through his portrait. Butit is reflected.

These paintings have theheart of the common people,who are giving energy to therevolutionaries standing inthe front row with innovativeuses of their songs, stories.

In these paintings, thepainters have etched the hopeof India in the grip of Britishrule, in which the courage ofthe folk and the non-violenceof Mahatma Gandhi are seenthrough the medium of thepicture.

������� ���� ��� �45�+>

The players of the State gavebrilliant performance at

the IV SNBP Championship ofAll India Hockey TournamentUnder-16 Boys. The team wonthe championship bringinglaurels to the State.

The players of MadhyaPradesh Hockey Academyteam won the championshipplaying finals. On Thursday,after reaching the city stadium,the team players met DirectorSports and Youth Welfare SLThoussen.

On winning the title of theChampions in the tournament,the sports director Thoussenexpressed delight. Expressinghis contentment, Thoussencongratulated the players andencouraged them. He gotacquainted with each playerand got information abouttheir performance and pattingthem on the back encouragedthem to perform in similar

events. Sports Director Thoussen

was happy to be honored withthe Player of the Tournamentfor Academy Player PriyeshDhuphe and the Best ForwardAward to Ali Ahmed and saidthat we are proud of our play-ers, who have made MadhyaPradesh proud.

Chief Instructor of HockeyAcademy, Rajinder Singh,Assistant Instructors LokendraSharma and Mangal Ved werealso present on the occasion.

It is noteworthy that thefourth SNBP played in Punefrom October 1 to 7. In thefinal match of All IndiaHockey Tournament (Under-16 Boys), the players ofMadhya Pradesh HockeyAcademy performed brilliant-ly and defeated SGPC(Shiromani GurdwaraManager CommitteeAmritsar) 8-2 and madeMadhya Pradesh proud bywinning the winner.

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Residence of an MANIT pro-fessor was targeted by mis-

creants and valuables worth�90,000 were burgled onThursday; Kamla Nagar policehave started investigation.

Police said that the victimPradeep Jain had gone to meethis relatives and when hereturned on Thursday valuableswere found burgled.

The victim in her com-plaint stated that he along withfamily had gone to meet his rel-atives and when he returneddoor was found open and locksbroken. On entering the housevictim found that the valuableswere targeted by the miscreants.

Victim approached policeand lodged a complaint. Basedon the complaint after the pre-liminary investigation the

police have registered a caseunder sections 457 and 380 ofthe IPC and have started furtherinvestigation.

The victim works withMANIT as faculty memberand lives inside MANITpremises in house provided byMANIT. The other residentsexpressed ignorance over theburglary.

After checking the valu-ables victim found that Rs50000 and gold and silver jew-elry were burgled. The total lossin the burglary is around�90,000 claimed the victim.

Police suspects that theburglars were aware regardingthe whereabouts of the familyand committed the burglarywhen the family was away. Thedomestic help and securityguard of the locality would bequestioned.

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The Gwalior police havebooked 150 activists of

Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP)and Bajrang Dal on charges ofopening fire during ShastraPuja and a procession duringthe Vijayadashmi celebrationson Tuesday.

On Dussehra, ShastraPujan and Chal Samaroh (pro-cession) was organised at aschool in Nadigate area in thecity in the presence of hundredsof workers of VHP and BajrangDal. Heavy police force wasdeployed there to keep thingsin check.

Constable Rajveer Rathoreand his colleagues fromInderganj police station weredeployed at the site and laterclaimed that the workers ofVHP-Bajrang Dal started cel-ebratory fire despite the factthey tried stopping them.Afterwards the procession wastaken out, said the cops.

The VHP-Bajrang Dalworkers reportedly fired half adozen shots in the air during

the function.The said incident however

came to the fore after a videoof the said incident went viralon social media. Amid growingresentment among the publicover the incident, Jhansi Roadpolice station booked 150unknown persons over theincident on Thursday.

Addl Superintendent ofPolice Satendra Singh said thatthe event organisers have beennamed in the case and 150unknown persons named inthe FIR would identified on thebasis of the video footage of theincident.

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Urban Development andHousing Minister

Jaivardhan Singh held a dis-cussion on Bhoj and IndoreMetro Rail with ManagingDirector of Delhi Metro RailCorporation (DMRC) ManguSingh. Mangu Singh shared hisexperiences of Delhi Metroduring the meeting.

Minister Singh told Singhthat he give the guidance to theteam of Bhoj and Indore MetroRail on the basis of his experi-ences of Delhi Metro, so thatthe project could be complet-ed on time.

He said that Dr. Singh isexpected to cooperate in mak-ing DPR for the next phase ofthe project.

Singh directed the offi-cials to visit Delhi for the detailstudy regarding the DelhiMetro and complete the metrorail project within the timelimit by keeping in constantcontact with Singh.

DMRC Managing Director

Mangu Singh gave informationregarding time-bound processof Delhi Metro, organizationsetup, tender process etc.

He said that Delhi Metroteam will extend total supportin DPR and other works.

Singh observed the Bhojand Indore Metro Rail projectseriously and held a discussionwith the officials on variouspoints.

Principal Secretary UrbanDevelopment and HousingSanjay Dubey, AdditionalCommissioner Swatantra Singhand other officers were presentin the meeting.

������� ���� ��� �45�+>

A20-year-old girl died whileseven persons were injured

in a massive head-on collisionbetween two cars near JagranLakecity University underRatibad police station in theafternoon on Thursday.

The head-on collisionproved fatal for PriyaShrivastava while seven pas-sengers sustained injuries. Theinjured were rushed to Bansalhospital and are undergoingtreatment at the hospital.

The In-charge of Ratibadpolice station JP Tripathi saidthat in the two cars 5 and 3 pas-sengers were travelling. Thepassengers are students ofJagran Lakecity University andExcellence College. The detailsare yet to be ascertained. At themoment one casualty has beenconfirmed while the remainingpassengers have been admittedat Bansal hospital.

The body was sent for thepost mortem after the prelim-

inary investigation. The policehave registered a case undersection 304 A of the IPC andhave started investigation.

One of the cars was dam-aged severely which suggestthat the cars were moving withvery high speed while other carturned turtle near pond. Policesaid that the reason of the acci-dent would be investigated.The deceased was a student ofExcellence College.

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Minister for AnimalHusbandry, Fisheries

Welfare and FisheriesDevelopment Lakhan SinghYadav reviewed the depart-mental schemes at theMantralya today. He directedthat top priority should begiven to the modern GaushalaNirman Yojana.

Yadav asked to pay specialattention to the work of improv-ing the breed of milching ani-mals to increase milk produc-tion.

The Animal HusbandryMinister advised to grow greenfodder on pasture land to over-come the problem of greenfodder for animals.

Additional Chief SecretaryManoj Shrivastava informedthat rapid work is being done inthe state towards constructionof state-of-the-art cowshedsand implementation of depart-mental schemes. He gave point-wise information of budget andother requirements. Shrivastavainformed that proposals forconstruction of cows in templesare under consideration.

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Page 4: ˙ ˇ˝ ˛ ˚ ˇ ˘ ˇ ˆ ˆ - The Pioneer · Singh has been formally invit-ed for the inaugural ceremony. He also said Pakistan will con-tinue to highlight the plight of Kashmiris

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Claiming to be carrying for-ward their political legacy,

10 members of the famoustroika of Lals of Haryana pol-itics -- Devi Lal, Bansi Lal andBhajan Lal -- are in the poll frayfrom different parties or asIndependents amid declining

influence of these clans over thelast five years.

While two members of theChautala family (ChaudharyDevi Lal) are Jannayak JanataParty (JJP) candidates, oneeach is contesting on ticketsfrom Indian National Lok Dal(INLD) and the BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP), while one iscontesting as an Independent.Five from the other two fami-lies are fighting on Congresstickets.

Following the 10-year ruleof the Congress underBhupinder Singh Hooda and

the emergence of BJP as amajor player in 2014 Assemblyelections and 2019 Lok Sabhaelections, the influence of thethree families has been con-fined to their pocket boroughsnow.

For decades, Haryana pol-itics was synonymous with thefascinating power struggle

among three Lals --Devi Lal, Bansi Laland Bhajan Lal.However, the youngergeneration of the Lalclans, who are in thefray for the 90Assembly seats inHaryana, are upagainst not just eachother, but a new chal-lenge the Modi factor.

Most of the BJPcandidates inHaryana are not well-known faces but arein contention due tothe popularity ofPrime Minister

Narendra Modi. On the otherhand, the dynasts are seekingvotes in the names of theirgreat-grandfathers, grandfa-thers and fathers. BJP has takenon the dynastic politics in theState.

Former Deputy PrimeMinister Devi Lal's numerousgrandsons, great grandsonsand other family members arealso in politics, such as AdityaDevi Lal, Dushyant Chautalaand his brother DigvijayChautala as well as their cousinArjun Chautala.

Five members of the fam-

ily of Devi Lal are in the pollfray this time. The youngest toenter the poll fray is 31-year-old Dushyant Chautala, formerHisar MP who is contesting onJJP ticket, a breakaway of theINLD which witnessed spilt in2018 following a feud in theChautala clan, from UchanaKalan against sitting MLAPrem Lata, wife of formerUnion minister ChaudharyBirender Singh.

Dushyant's mother NainaChautala is contesting fromBadhra constituency on JJPticket. In 2014 assembly elec-tions, Naina, wife of Ajay SinghChautala, had won fromDabwali seat on INLD ticket.INLD leader and sitting MLAAbhay Singh Chautala is in thefray from Ellanabad again.Ajay and Abhay are sons of for-mer chief minister Om PrakashChautala and grandsons ofDevi Lal. Aditya SinghChautala, son of JagdishChautala who is one of the foursons of Devi Lal, is fightingfrom Dabwali assembly con-stituency on BJP ticket.

Ranjit Singh Chautala, 73,son of Devi Lal, has entered theelectoral fray from Rania asIndependent after failing tosecure ticket from theCongress.

Devi Lal who was deputyPrime Minister of India in1989–91 in the governments ofPrime Minister VP Singh andPrime Minister ChandraShekhar, had served as ChiefMinister of Haryana twice,first in 1977–79 and then in

1987–89. Devi Lal also comesfrom a prolific political dynastyof Haryana as his elder broth-er Sahib Ram Sihag was thefirst politician from the fami-ly who became Congress MLAfrom Hisar in 1938 and 1947.

This clan, once dominantat the State level and now indecline due to divisions andinternal family squabbling inthe large clan, is struggling torevive their statewide holdwhile still retaining some pock-ets of influence in Hisar andSirsa area. The INLD foundedby Devi Lal, split in 2018 aftera bitter power struggle betweenhis two grandsons AjayChautala and Abhay Chautala.The feud saw Ajay Chautalaand his sons Dushyant andDigvijay being expelled fromthe party by Om PrakashChautala.

Three family members offormer Chief Minister BansiLal are in the poll fray this timeas Congress nominees from

three separate seats in Bhiwanidistrict. His son 75-year-oldRanbir Singh Mahendra is con-testing from Badhra seat onCongress ticket.

Mahendra, who is a formerpresident of the Board ofControl for Cricket in India(BCCI), is facing JJP nomineeNaina Chautala as his mainrival. Bansi Lal's daughter-inlaw Kiran Chaudhary, who issenior Congress leader, hasfiled her nomination fromTosham seat. Chaudhary is thewife of Surender Singh, whodied in helicopter crash in2005. The Congress has alsofielded Somvir Singh, son-in-law of Bansi Lal, from Loharuseat.

Bansi Lal served three sep-arate terms as Chief Minister ofHaryana from 1968–75,1985–87, and 1996–99. Lalwas considered a close confi-dante of former Prime MinisterIndira Gandhi and her sonSanjay Gandhi during the

Emergency era of 1975-1977.

He also served asthe Defence Ministerfrom December 1975to March 1977, andhad a brief stint as aMinister withoutPortfolio in the Uniongovernment in 1975.He also held theRailways and Transportportfolios. He set upHaryana Vikas Partyafter parting ways withthe Indian NationalCongress in 1996.

Bhajan Lal, who was thelongest-serving Chief Ministerof Haryana, handed over hispolitical legacy to his sonKuldeep Bishnoi, who is seek-ing re-nomination from theirtraditional Adampur Assemblysegment. His elder sonChander Mohan has beenfielded by the Congress fromthe Panchkula Assembly seat.Chander Mohan is a four-timeMLA from Kalka seat and for-mer deputy chief minister ofHaryana.

Bhajan Lal was firstbecame the Chief Minister in1979, again in 1982 and onceagain in 1991. He also servedas Union Agricultural Minister,Environments & Forest port-folios during Rajiv Gandhi’sadministration. After IndiraGandhi came to power inJanuary 1980, Bhajan Lal wasJanata Party's CM in Haryana;he immediately defected witha huge chunk of Janata Party'sMLAs to Congress and con-

tinued as CM. This brazen actmade him notorious as anexemplar of ‘Aaya Ram GayaRam’ culture in which oppor-tunist politicians show no loy-alty. He consolidated non-Jatvote in his Jat-dominated state,and was the last non-Jat CM ofthe 20th century. Full 18 yearswere to pass before BJP'sManohar Lal Khattar becameHaryana's first non-Jat CM of21st century in 2014.

Dr Anand Kumar,Associated Professor, Instituteof Integrated and HonoursStudies, KurukshetraUniversity said that the threeLals of Haryana, Bansi Lal,Bhajan Lal and Devi Lal, ruledthe state for nearly threedecades. Three-time chief min-ister Bansi Lal ruled for 13years. Former deputy PrimeMinister Devi Lal’s two termsas CM lasted four-and-a-halfyears. Two-term CM BhajanLal, a non-Jat leader, who madeheadlines in 1980 when he asCM of the Janata Party gov-ernment walked over to theCongress along with his cabi-net, ruled the state for 11 years.

He further said, “Duringthe first 33 years after Haryanawas carved out of Punjab in1966, its three Lals ruled for 28years. From 1968-99, BansiLal was known to be tough andefficient while Devi Lal, whowas rustic but awe-inspiringand Bhajan Lal, who almostalways had his way; became thechief ministers of Haryana.The three Lals were never greatadherents of principled politics.

Rather, they were well-versedwith the Haryana model ofrough and ready politics.”

“The charisma of the threeLals has diminished and thingshave come to such a pass thatthe three families could find itdifficult to save their ownbackyard from the BJP thistime,” he said, adding todaytheir clans fight their toughestbattle for survival with theassembly elections in October.The rise of the BJP after its firstsolo victory in the 2014 assem-bly elections and the win in all10 Lok Sabha constituencies inthe State this May show justhow the descendants of thethree families have beenpushed to the margins.

Kumar further the namesof these leaders continue tohave their sway on particularsections of the electorate, whichhas been providing poll lever-age to their progeny as well.Despite putting Prem Lata,wife of former Union Ministerand Rajaya Sabha memberBirender Singh from UchanaKalan in Jind district, the BJPcontinued to target dynasticpolitics in the State. The BJP’snarrative seems to be working,which has weakened the polit-ical power of the three Lal fam-ilies. To counter the BJP’s nar-rative, political parties need tochange their tact. Though for-mer CMs enjoyed respect andinfluence in their respectivesegments, their legacy can berevived by highlighting theirideals instead of projecting thefaces of their families, he added.

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ASSEMBLY

POLL

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Haryana Chief MinisterManohar Lal Khattar on

Thursday lashed out at theCongress over its dynastic pol-itics. "What else would be a bet-ter example of dynasty in theCongress than this...when pres-ident left his post, he had tofind a new president and couldnot find anyone outside theGandhi family and finallySonia Gandhi was given thereins of the party," Khattarsaid.

Slamming the previousCongress Government in thestate from 2004 to 2014, he saidjobs were sold in previousGovernments, due to which theconfidence of the youth waslow. "But after the formation ofour Government, the sameyouth are moving towards thecoaching centre and library,"Khattar said who is contestingthe polls from the KarnalAssembly segment.

Khattar claimed thatCongress will be reduced tofour seats in the Assemblyelections.

He reminded the tenure ofCongress and the INLD by stat-ing how the non-BJPGovernments during the last 48years gave jobs to the youththrough favouritism, spread-ing corruption in the State.

Khattar said that he himselfhas held rallies for 25 assemblyconstituencies so far whileCongress leaders are yet to start

electioneering. The ChiefMinister said that Congress hasreplaced its president before thestart of political war in theState. He accused the CongressParty of selling tickets in croresof rupees as its former presi-dent Ashok Tanwar revealedrecently.

The Chief Minister in hisaddress appealed to the peopleto vote only after analysing thetenure of previous govern-ments and the tenure of thepresent BJP Government.

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Attacking former ChiefMinister Bhupinder Singh

Hooda who has been appoint-ed as legislative party chief andOpposition leader in theAssembly by the Congress,former Haryana Congress chiefAshok Tanwar on Thursdaysaid the party in Haryana hasturned into "Hooda Congress"as those who worked againstthe party's interests in the lastfive years have been givenprominence over those whoslogged to strengthen the party.

He said that Congress hasbeen going through “an exis-tential crisis, not because of itspolitical opponents but becauseof serious internal contradic-tions” Tanwar also claimedthat the ticket distribution inthe party was faulty and that ithad ignored its workers whoworked for over a decade andgiven to those who gave moneyin crores during the ticket dis-

tribution. "There were hugeirregularities in ticket distrib-ution. As per information,around 22 tickets were sold incrores of rupees in Haryana,"Tanwar alleged, adding that hewill not spell out any detailsright now but if needed he willgive adequate proof to thepeople. Congress will not wina single seat from all the 90Assembly Constituencies ofthe State, he added.

Tanwar said that he hadresigned from the party afternewly formed election com-mittee had refused to allotticket to a candidate backed by him.

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To boost skill development at the dis-trict level, the Ministry of Skill

Development and Entrepreneurship(MSDE) has signed a contract with theIndian Institute of Management (IIM)Bangalore for introducing a two-year fel-lowship programme Mahatma GandhiNational Fellowship (MGNF) programme.

The contract was signed in the pres-ence of R Subrahmanyam, secretary,Department of Higher Education,Ministr y of Human ResourceDevelopment, KP Krishnan, secretary,Ministry of Skill Development andEntrepreneurship, G Raghuram, Director,IIM, Bangalore, Junaid Ahmad, CountryDirector, World Bank, and officials fromthe Ministry of Skill Development andEntrepreneurship. This programme willbenefit candidates in various Indianstates including Uttarakhand.

Designed under Skills Acquisitionand Knowledge Awareness for LivelihoodPromotion (SANKALP) the fellowshipaims to address the challenge of non-availability of personnel for implemen-tation of various programmes at nation-al, state and district levels.

The MGNF programme has an in-built component of on-ground practicalexperience with the district administra-tion. Launched on a pilot basis in 75 dis-tricts across Uttarakhand, Gujarat,Karnataka, Meghalaya, Rajasthan andUttar Pradesh, eligible fellows for the pro-gramme have to be in 21-30 years age-group, have a graduation degree from arecognised university and be citizens of

India. Proficiency in official language ofstate of fieldwork will be mandatory.

Commenting on the partnership,Krishnan said, “A dearth of individualswho can implement and manage skilldevelopment programmes at the grassroots level is a deficit we seek to addresswith this fellowship programme with IIMBangalore. MGNF seeks to create acadre of young individuals and trainthem in a blended academic programmethat provides both academic inputs anda component of field immersion at thedistrict level. Besides allowing for an

immersive experience to fellows underthe programme, MGNF will also be anattractive proposition for those whowish to eke a career in public policy. Itis only fitting that we have launched thisprogramme on the 150th birth centenaryof Gandhi ji who was strong believer indecentralised planning.”

In the course of their training, fellowswill work under the close supervision ofstate skill development missions (SSDM)and will spend time and effort in under-standing skilling challenges and gaps inthe district. They are expected to enrichskilling programmes by bringing in freshthinking to local planning, execution,community interaction and outcomemanagement. Fellows will receive astipend of Rs 50,000 in the first year andRs 60,000 in the second year. On com-pletion of their engagement, they will beawarded a Certificate in Public Policy andManagement from IIM Bangalore.

The IIM Bangalore director GRaghuram said, ““The MGNF pro-gramme is aimed at identifying and train-ing a group of young, committed anddynamic individuals, who will leveragethe IIMB ecosystem in management,entrepreneurship and public policy andwork with the district administration instrengthening the process of skilling tocreate a vibrant local district economy. Itsunique design will allow the Fellows totake academic learning at IIM Bangaloreand use it in the field under faculty men-torship with the goal of understandingchallenges and barriers that the districtecosystem faces in fostering growth anddevelopment.”

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Palamu administration onThursday arranged a more

than one hour session formedia persons of Daltonganjwith regard to a few stock intrade complaints of votingbut votes going other wayleading to a sense of anger,agony and frustration which avoter develops after comingout of the booth cursing oneand all.

The session discussed thisat length. The issue was thatone in a hundred voters comescomplaining that he cast hisvote for ‘X’ candidate but itdid not go to X account. Thevoter feels cheated.

He begins to talk badthings about control unit, bal-lot unit and VVPAT and if notcontented even with this heraises accusing fingers at thepresiding officer and his teamof polling officials and thenfinally the district electionofficer for the mess he faced.

The master trainerParshuram Tiwar y aGovernment school teacherwho held this session with themedia persons here said, “Thepolling team is bound toacknowledge this complaint inall seriousness.

The complaining voter isnot to be shooed away. He isto be heard and assured to

retain his confidence and trustin voting.” Tiwar y saidElection Commission of Indiahas given the opportunity ofTest Vote.

A complaining voter isfree to avail of this Test Voteand the polling team is to pro-vide this opportunity with nogrudge or grin on face. Buthere Tiwary dropping a wordof caution to such complain-ing voter said, “The com-plaint of vote cast going otherway must be very genuine.

The complaint should notbe any fictitious or manufac-tured at all as otherwise inTest Vote the verity of the firstvote cast will appear and ifcomplaint found bogus thenin that event the complainingvoter is to face legal musicwhich is 6 months imprison-ment, 1,000 rupees penalty orboth of these together.”

To a query of a scribe thatEVMs go non functional rightat the start of voting and vot-ing gets delayed by 2 hours ormore then in that condition

what measures are availablefor the voters of that particu-lar booth where the EVM hasso gone non functional towhich Tiwary said, “Nonfunctional EVMs or VVPATare to be replaced and timeconsumed in it is to be replen-ished.”

Reminded that EVMs areput to mock polling at thevery start and minimum of 50mock votes for a panel of 16candidates are required thenin case of replacement ofEVMs etc such 50 mock votesis again essential to whichTiwary said, “ No.

The number of mockvotes has been drasticallyscaled down say 16 or 17only and this is to save timefor the replaced EVMs tostart poll business.”

DC Palamu ShantanuKumar Agrahari in his briefinteraction with media per-sons said this is no trainingbut in fact awareness forscribes as they will find itmore convenient to tell themasses about the functioningof the EVMs.

Agrahari said ECI isreported to have felt sad whenmedia persons highlightedthe non functional EVMs ofonly 4 booths across the coun-try in this LS election whilemore than one lakh boothsfunctioned too good and well.

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At least five policemen,including officer in-charge

of a police station , were injuredwhen a mob of about 60 to 70peoples attacked Nagar Untaripolice station during immer-sion of Goddesses Durga stat-ue on Wednesday night. Policearrested 21 people, including aJAP jwan and a CRPF person-nel in the connection.

The incident happened ataround 10.30 pm onWednesday night when policetook into custody one youthafter his quarrel with a wineshop owner.

Giving details about theincident, Banshidhar NagarSDPO Neeraj Kumar said, “Ata liquor shop situated atChechariya village, someyouths were quarreling with theshopkeeper in drunken condi-tion. Police were on patrollingduty reached there to solve thematter and took a youth in cus-tody." “During interrogation,he stated his name Sonu Kumara JAP jwan presently posted ashouse guard of WaterResources MinisterRamchandra Sahis in Ranchi.

To protest the custody ofJAP jawan around 60 to 70 peo-ples who were participating ingoddesses Durga idol immer-sion procession entered thepolice station and started forc-ing him to leave the Sonu.

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The idea was to rekindleromance in marriage on a

train journey through thedeserts of Rajasthan but theIndian Railways plan for a spe-cial “Karwa Chauth” train ser-vice came a cropper with onlytwo couples signing up, sourcessaid. The result: the MajesticRajasthan Deluxe, which waslaunched to provide a “dreamholiday” to couples for a five-day tour of the State, standscancelled, officials said.

They said only two couplesbooked tickets on the trainwhich has 78 seats.

Only married couples wereallowed on the train, whichcame with special touches like

a shower cubicle and a footmassage, although the IRCTChad made special arrangements for children, theofficials said.

The train, part of theIRCTC promotional offers, wasto depart from the Safdarjungstation in Delhi on October 14and visit historical sites inRajasthan like Jaisalmer Fort,Patwon ki Haveli, Gadisar Lake,Mehrangarh Fort, JaswantThada, Amber Fort and CityPalace till October 18.

“Only two couples havebooked tickets on it so it is asgood as cancelled. We cannotrun a train like this withoutoccupancy,” an official said.

In its promotional message,the IRCTC said, “This KarwaChauth, give your wife a spe-cial gift which she will remem-ber for ages.”

Officials said the lowturnout could be because of thehigh fares — �1,02,960 per cou-ple in AC-I and �90,090 percouple in AC 2 Tier.

Facilities included a per-sonal digital locker, shower

cubicle, foot massage and aseating area with single-seatersofas. Passengers were assuredfree insurance worth �10 lakheach.

The source said the fares ofthe two couples will be refund-ed. The festival of KarwaChauth, in which a wife faststhrough the day till moonrisefor her husband’s long life,falls on October 17.

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Page 5: ˙ ˇ˝ ˛ ˚ ˇ ˘ ˇ ˆ ˆ - The Pioneer · Singh has been formally invit-ed for the inaugural ceremony. He also said Pakistan will con-tinue to highlight the plight of Kashmiris

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The BJP on Thursday hit outat the Congress over its

"shameful shenanigans" anddemanded an explanation afterBritish Labour Party leaderJeremy Corbyn said he dis-cussed the human rights situ-ation in Kashmir with "UK rep-resentatives from the IndianCongress Party".

"A very productive meetingwith UK representatives fromthe Indian Congress Partywhere we discussed the humanrights situation in Kashmir.There must be a de-escalationand an end to the cycle of vio-lence and fear which hasplagued the region for so long,"Corbyn tweeted.

The BJP slammed theCongress, which had notoffered any comment as a rowerupted following Corbyn's

tweet.The Labour Party leader,

whose stand on Kashmir hasnot gone down well with theIndian Government, alsotweeted a picture of the meeting.The picture includedKamal Dhaliwal, who heads theoverseas Congress in the UK.

"Appalling! Congress owesit to the people of India toexplain what its leaders aretelling foreign leaders aboutIndia. India will give a befittingreply to Congress for theseshameful henanigans!" the BJPsaid in a tweet.

The saffron party's foreignaffairs department in-chargeVijay Chauthaiwale said, "This is Congress seekingadvice from the UK LabourLeader — they might as well goto their masters directly inPakistan."

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On the eve of ChinesePresident Xi Jinping’s visit,

the Congress on Thursdayasked why does Prime MinisterNarendra Modi not say thatIndia is watching the muzzlingof pro-democracy movementin Hong Kong when Xi says heis watching Kashmir.

Congress slammed theModi government for failingto stop China from targetingIndia's internal matters. "XiJingping says he is watchingKashmir. But why does notModi government issue astatement that India too iswatching pro-democracyprotests muzzled in HongKong. The government mustsay we are are watchinghuman rights violations inXinjiang and the continuedoppression in Tibet as along

South China Sea," Congressspokesperson Manish Tewarisaid.

The former Union minis-ter also dared India to askChina about Aksai Chin whichhas been "illegally ceded" byPakistan to the country, whenit keeps raising the issue of PoKand talks about taking it back.Tewari asked why India doesnot raise the issue of humanrights violations in Xinjiang theway China keeps raising theKashmir issue.

"All are blow hards inNDA/BJP talk about takingPoK & Gilgit-Baltistan backfrom Pak but none of themhave gumption to say that wewill take Askai Chin back fromthe Chinese that was illegallyceded to it by Pakistan in 1963.Will @PMOIndia raise returnof Askai Chin with Xi," theCongress leader tweeted.

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Hitting out at RSS ChiefMohan Bhagwat for his

comments that the word"lynching" was "alien" to theIndian tradition, the CPI onThursday said mob lynching isa reality and has become a "newnormal".

"RSS, instead of condemn-ing the mob lynching, gives aspin saying that lynching isalien concept and a conspira-cy to tarnish Hindu culture.Mob lynching is a reality andhas become a new normal. Thecountry knows who are thelynchers," said CPI generalsecretary D Raja in a statement.

The Left party leader wasreacting to the RSS Chief 'scomments that that the word"lynching" was "alien" to theIndian tradition. In his Dussehraaddress in Nagpur, Bhagwathad said isolated incidents ofsocial violence should not belabelled with foreign words, likelynching, to defame the country.

Touching on various aspectsof Bhagwat's speech, Rajaaccused RSS-BJP "trampled"upon every right of the peoplewon through relentless struggles.The Left party appealed to all theleft, democratic, secular forces to"strike together, while marchingseparately" and raise their voic-es against the shutdown inJammu & Kashmir.

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BJP working president JP Naddahas been brought under 'Z' cat-

egory security and he will be guard-ed by the commandos of the CentralReserve Police Force (CRPF) roundthe clock, officials said on Thursday.

BJP president Amit Shah who isalso union home minister is alreadyunder 'Z' plus security cover with asmany as 50 security SWAT (SpecialWeapons and Tactics) teams posi-tioning around his new residence6A, Krishna Menon Marg, wherelate prime minister Atal BihariVajpayee earlier lived.

The decision to extend 'Z' cat-egory security to Nadda has beentaken by the Union Home Ministryafter reviewing the increased threatperception to him following hisappointment as BJP working presi-dent.

The BJP working president hasbeen accorded with the 'Z' categorysecurity in an all India basis, a homeministry official said.

A total of 35 commandos of theCRPF will guard Nadda on a rota-tional basis and at any given time,eight to nine commandos will givehim proximate security. Naddawill be given the 'Z' category pro-tection wherever he travels withinthe country.

In addition to the proximatesecurity, CRPF personnel will also beposted to guard Nadda's residencehere, another official said.

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The prevalence of blindness in India hascome down by around 47 per cent since

2007, according to the National Blindness andVisually Impaired Survey (2019) released onThursday, indicating that the country is closeto achieving the WHO's goal of reducing itto 0.3 per cent of the total population by 2020.

However, the data reflects that reductionrate has surpassed the target of 25 set by theWHO. The WHO Global Action Plan forUniversal Eye Health (2014-19) aims toreduce the prevalence of avoidable visualimpairment by 25 per cent by 2019 from thebaseline levels of 2010.

In absolute numbers, people sufferingfrom blindness have reduced from 12 millionin 2006-07 to 4.8 million in 2019. However,cataract still remains to be the most commoncause of blindness (66.2 per cent) followed bycorneal blindness (7.4 per cent). Besides this,the proportion of blindness due to compli-cations of cataract surgery (7.2 per cent) hasalso increased, said the survey which wasreleased by Union Health Minister Dr HarshVardhan.

"The prevalence of blindness in India hascome down by around 47 per cent since thelast survey conducted in 2006-2007 and thefindings of the current survey are for blind-ness as defined to be vision of less than 3/60in the better eye," Vardhan said adding thecountry is close to achieving the WHO's goalof reducing it to 0.3 per cent by 2020.

The current survey was conducted overa period between 2015 and 2018 by DrRajendra Prasad Centre for OphthalmicSciences of the AIIMS in collaboration withthe Union Health ministry, covering 93,000people aged 50 years using Rapid Assessmentof Avoidable Blindness (RAAB) method in31 districts of 24 states and Union Territories.The aim of the survey was to know the exactnumber of people who suffer from blindnessand causes that lead to the condition.

India changed its over four-decade-olddefinition of blindness in 2017, bringing it inline with the WHO criteria.

According to the new definition, a per-son who is unable to count fingers from a dis-

tance of three metres would be considered"blind" as against the earlier stipulation of sixmetres, which was adopted in 1976.

The aim of revising the definition is alsoto be able to generate data which can be com-pared with global estimates and achieve theWHO goal of reducing the blindness preva-lence in India to 0.3 per cent of the total pop-ulation by 2020.

The previous survey was done in 2006-07, and showed blindness prevalence of about1 per cent in country's population.

"Even though the definition of blindnesswas changed recently and we made use of thenew definition to calculate the numbers, thereis still a significant improvement in the num-bers. If you look at the 50 plus population,3.6 per cent people were found to be blindduring the earlier survey and now the num-ber has come down to 1.99 per cent," saidprincipal investigator of survey, Dr ParveenVashist, professor, RP Centre, AIIMS.

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India on Thursday said itwas "deeply concerned" over

the "unilateral military offen-sive" by Turkey in northeasternSyria and asserted that the action can underminestability in the region as well as the fight against terror-ism.

On Wednesday, Turkishjets and artillery targetedKurdish-controlled areas inSyria, forcing thousands ofcivilians to flee their homes.

Reacting to the develop-ment, Ministry of ExternalAffairs said-"We are deeplyconcerned at the unilateralmilitary offensive by Turkey innortheast Syria."

Turkey's actions can under-mine stability in the region andthe fight against terrorism, itsaid.

The action also has thepotential for causing humani-tarian and civilian distress, theMEA said in a statement.

"We call upon Turkey toexercise restraint and respectthe sovereignty and territorialintegrity of Syria. We urge the peaceful settlement ofall issues through dialogue anddiscussion," the MEA said.

New Delhi: The Indian mis-sion in Kuwait is working tofacilitate the return of an Indianwoman "trapped" there becauseof placement agents and hassafely accommodated her at afemale shelter home.

This assurance was givenby External Affairs Minister SJaishankar in response to a callfor help on Twitter."

@DrSJaishankar Hon'blesir, look into the matter of RAJIjohn Stephen female trapped inKuwait, she belongs toGurdaspur (Punjab) because ofagents, she (was) molestedthere. Her family approachedme. Hope and wish for actionto bring her back home," theTwitter user said.

Raji John has been safelyaccommodated in the femaleshelter by the Indian Embassyin Kuwait, Jaishankar said.

"We are working with thelocal authorities to facilitate herreturn home," he said.

In another call for help, aperson requested Jaishankarto facilitate the return of themortal remains of Indianwoman killed in an accident inPhuket. PTI

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The Congress on Thursdayhit back accusing the BJP of

making "malicious statements"to distract people from its fail-ures, after the saffron partyasked it to explain BritishLabour Party leader JeremyCorbyn's tweet that he dis-cussed human rights situationin Kashmir with "UK repre-sentatives from the IndianCongress Party".

The UK unit of the IndianOverseas Congress claimed ithad met Corbyn to condemnthe Kashmir resolution passedby his party and reiterate tothem that Jammu and Kashmiris an internal matter and

no intervention will beaccepted. "Our meeting withJeremy Corbyn was held tocondemn the Kashmir resolu-tion passed by his Party and toreiterate that J&K is an internalmatter and outside interventionwill not be accepted. BJP'smalicious statements are anoth-er attempt to distract peoplefrom their failures," the IndianOverseas Congress said in a

tweet.The Congress also tweeted

that the BJP has failed toanswer questions on econom-ic slowdown, unemploymentand banking crisis and isresorting to spreading liesinstead. "The BJP has failed toanswer a single question on theeconomic slowdown, risingunemployment, banking crisisand even the irregularities inthe Rafale deal. Therefore theyhave to resort to spreading liesto evade the truth. They can'thide behind their propagandaanymore," the Congress tweeted.

Following his meeting,Corbyn had tweeted: "A veryproductive meeting with UKrepresentatives from the IndianCongress Party where we dis-cussed the human rights situ-ation in Kashmir. There mustbe a de-escalation and an endto the cycle of violence and fearwhich has plagued the regionfor so long,"

The Labour Party leader,whose stand on Kashmir hasnot gone down well with theIndian government, also tweet-ed a picture of the meeting.Thepicture included KamalDhaliwal, who heads the overseas Congress in the UK.

Corbyn has been underpressure from Indian diasporagroups in Britain since theLabour Party passed a resolution against the IndianGovernment's August 5 decision to revoke Article 370to withdraw the special statusaccorded to the State of Jammu& Kashmir, perceived as anti-India with its call for international intervention inthe region.

New Delhi: The SupremeCourt has sought responsefrom DMRC on a reportby Environment PollutionControl Authority (EPCA)which has flagged the issueof "last mile connectivity"and lack of adequate park-ing for taxis, auto-rick-shaws and cycle-rickshawsat metro stations.

A bench of JusticesArun Mishra and DeepakGupta has issued notice toDMRC on EPCA's reportwhich also said that lackof demarcated parking fortaxis, three-wheelers andcycle-rickshaws at placeslike metro stations andinter state bus terminals.

The report, which wasfiled in the top court, saidthat last mile connectivi-ty is a "critical agenda" forDelhi as connectivity, par-ticularly from metro sta-tions and other multi-transport points, wouldgreatly reduce the need forprivate transport in city. PTI

New Delhi: Taking seriousnote of the delay in communi-cation to medical studentsfrom foreign countries as wellas from the Northeast regard-ing admissions to governmentuniversities, he has directed theCentre to be informed aboutthe State before August 15,every year, giving them time tojoin. .

The higher court notedthat the last admission date inthe first year of courses isAugust 31, while (MEA) hasintimidated students from I ran, Bhutan and Nepal on theiradmissions on the eleventhhour, on August 30, whichresulted in the denial of seatsfor them.

A bench of justices LNageshwara Rao and HemantGupta, which allowed the stu-dents from foreign countriesand the north-eastern states totake admission in the MBBScourses, said that a similar situation arose even last yearand the court had to come tothe rescue of students.

"In a similar situation thatarose last year, we had tocome to the rescue of the stu-

dents who were intimatedabout their admission in them e d i c a lcolleges at the eleventh hour.To avoid inconvenience beingcaused to the students whoare sponsored by other coun-tries & the State Governmentsand the Union Territories inwhose favour seats are allo-cated, we direct theGovernment of India to inti-mate the concerned authori-ties of the State Governments,the Union Territories andother countries about theapproval of admissions tocandidates whose names aresponsored, at least 15 daysbefore the last date of admis-sion," the bench said.

The bench was hearing aplea of students includingthose from foreign countriesand north-eastern states, whowere granted admission fromthe central pool in theGovernment colleges but dueto delayed communication bythe MEA, the last date ofadmission had already passedas they reported to the colleges onSeptember 1 & 2. PTI

New Delhi: Records of notesheets on awarding president'smedals to police officers are nota privileged communicationbetween the prime ministerand the president havingimmunity from disclosureunder Article 74(2) of theConstitution, the CentralInformation Commission hastold the home ministry.

The Commission, thehighest adjudicating body inRTI matters, was hearing apetition of activist NutanThakur, who had sought copiesof records, including the notesheet and the communicationsin cases — when President'sPolice Medals forDistinguished Service wereawarded and when they wererejected in spite of clearancefrom state governments.

The Union home ministryhad denied the note sheet stat-ing that the same cannot beprovided because it containsexchanges of advice and opin-ion between the prime minis-ter and the president, which areprivileged under Article 74(2)of the Constitution.

Thakur strongly refutedthe claims, saying no provisionunder the 2005 RTI Actrestricts a public authorityfrom disclosure of communi-cation between the prime min-ister and the president underArticle 74(2).

She said denial of infor-mation under the RTI Act cantake place only under its pro-visions.

Citing the Supreme Court

judgments in S P Gupta and SR Bommai cases which hadexamined and interpretedArticle 74(2), ChiefInformation CommissionerSudhir Bhargava noted that thedisclosure of the note sheet isnot barred by Article 74(2)."

The Commissionobserves that the informa-tion sought for, namely a copyof the note sheet and com-munications of various officesof the Ministry of HomeAffairs related to cases inwhich PPMDS were grant-ed/not granted by MHA forthe period since January 01,2010 till date is not barred byArticle 74(2) of theConstitution of India," hesaid.

Bhargava directed the homeministry to decide on disclosureor withholding of informationon the basis of applicability ofexemption clauses of in Section8(1) of the RTI Act. PTI

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Fast growing diabetes is leading to blind-ness and visual impairment due to poor

blood sugar control among patients.According to the diabetes and diabeticretinopathy survey by the AIIMS conduct-ed between 2015 to 2019, one in eight per-sons above 50 years in India is a diabetic.

One in every 46 diabetics is blind andone in seven diabetics has some form ofimpairment in their vision due to high bloodsugar levels

Of 56, 771 persons over 50 years of ageassessed in 21 districts, up to 11.8 per cent(6,717) were found to be diabetic. Of these,144 persons were blind and 923 personswere visually impaired.

"Prevalence of blindness among dia-betics was 2.1 per cent and visual impair-ment was 13.7 per cent," states the report.

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Page 6: ˙ ˇ˝ ˛ ˚ ˇ ˘ ˇ ˆ ˆ - The Pioneer · Singh has been formally invit-ed for the inaugural ceremony. He also said Pakistan will con-tinue to highlight the plight of Kashmiris

It is not uncommon to notice thedeath of irony in international diplo-macy. Most countries, which are ina position to influence internation-al or regional orders, have skeletons

in their own cupboards but they desist frompeeping into their own closet. Instead, theylook at those of others. The US’ intoleranceover human rights elsewhere is noticeable,except when it comes to its role in the larg-er West Asian region.

Last month, when a US drone strikereportedly killed numerous farmers in theKhogyani district of Nangarhar provincein Afghanistan, it hardly grabbed interna-tional attention. This international impuni-ty complex — a default appendage of beinga major power — is fast catching up withChina, too. India’s international positionas a benign and reluctant regional majorpower and its grey ground between a mid-dle and major power provide appositegrounds to whet its impunity complex forChina. What fuels the Chinese statebehaviour with India is its sense of mili-tary superiority, emanating from its his-torical upper hand in the 1962 war, its giantleap in technology, manufacturing-ledexports and defence sector. The resultantasymmetry in bilateral relations betweenthe two is structural in nature, which callsfor India to strengthen its key areas liketrade, defence and most importantly (asrecent events have shown), internation-al diplomacy.

As China consolidates its seat on theglobal high table, irony is being strangledeven tighter each day, particularly on issuesof human rights, sovereignty and territor-ial control. Most prominent examples areChina’s repression of the Uighur Muslimsin Xinjiang, its dominance in the SouthChina Sea, sensitivity over Tibet and themost recent unrest in Hong Kong. Further,its attempt to raise the Kashmir issue at theUnited Nations (UN) and the open supportit provides to Pakistan on issues like cross-border terrorism, Nuclear Suppliers Group,UN expansion, the Financial Action TaskForce (FATF) and listing of terrorists in theUN do not augur well for bilateral relationswith India.

On October 4, Chinese Ambassador toIslamabad, Yao Jing, raked up the Kashmirissue again and said, “We are also workingfor the Kashmiris to help them get theirfundamental rights and justice. Thereshould be a justified solution to the issueof Kashmir and China will stand byPakistan for regional peace and stability.”This statement is overridden with impuni-ty complex for, if one were to replace“Kashmiris” with “Uighurs”, it would bereflective of China’s own domestic situa-tion, which is only worse.

Yao’s statement, coming just before theChinese Premier’s visit to Mamallapuram inSouth India, cannot be read without context.This is part of the broader Chinese strate-

gy that precedes most State vis-its to India and is carried out inadvance to strengthen groundsof negotiations during the visit.

The delay in confirmingXi’s informal visit to India wasa subtle pressure tactic thatfinds resemblance in the lastinformal visit by Xi to India in2018, which, too, was confirmedonly in the last five days.Another common streak thatprecedes China’s State-level vis-its to India is the latter’s unto-ward yet shy nature of beingdirectly hostile. In 2014, Chinesesoldiers intruded into Indian ter-ritory in Chumar area of Ladakhwhile President Xi was in thecountry on a three-day visit. Theincursion by the People’sLiberation Army (PLA) hap-pened even as Modi and Xi metin New Delhi.

Recent satellite images haveconfirmed claims of road con-struction by China at Bishing vil-lage in Upper Siang district ofArunachal Pradesh, days beforethe scheduled visit.

Additionally, Chinese “civil-ian” protests in the Demchoksector on the occasion of theDalai Lama’s birthday, ChineseForeign Minister China WangYi’s mention of the Kashmirissue at the UN and the scufflebetween Indian and Chinese sol-diers on the bank of the PangongTso lake in eastern Ladakh inSeptember, all send out wrongsignals to New Delhi for a res-olution to outstanding disputes

on border and for the larger goalof establishing bonhomie inbilateral relations.

Furthermore, Xi’s meetingwith Pakistan Prime MinisterImran Khan on October 8 andhis reiteration of Beijing’sstrong support to Islamabad onthe issue of Kashmir —splashed across Chinese media— belies any semblance ofchange of heart on the part ofChina in dealing with India.This was very well sensed fromChinese Foreign Ministryspokesman Geng Shuang’srecent statement where he tac-itly said that the Kashmir issueshould be resolved bilaterally.When compared with China’searlier actions where it raisedthe Kashmir issue in the UNand also called a closed-doorUNSC meet, Geng’s statementlooks facile and does contradictChina’s intentions.

India has rightly drawn theline with an official statementstating, “It is not for other coun-tries to comment on the inter-nal affairs of India.” A diplomat-ically careful and nuancednation would not have allowedsuch media coverage, even ifsuch assurances were given toPakistan in a bilateral conversa-tion. The intent behind lettingout such hostile news coverageon the eve of a supposed “reset”is as much a direct communica-tion for New Delhi as it isreflective of Beijing’s stand on aninternal matter of India.

As opposed to what Beijingclaims vis-à-vis its stand onKashmir, there is a lack of con-sistency in China’s Kashmirstand. India, on the other hand,has done well to be consistentin its stand on internal mattersof other states, irrespective ofthe issue, avoiding any impuni-ty complex. As recent Chinesebehaviour has shown, largerinternational role and respon-sibility necessitates revisionistattitudes in state behaviour.This may not be a bad cue forIndia to take from Beijing tostrengthen its pursuit of playinga larger global role.

Nevertheless, Xi’s visit toIndia provides an opportunityfor both countries to strength-en mechanisms to prevent oppo-sition from turning into openhostility between the two. Assuch, the visit would be as muchan opportunity as a challenge.China would be aware that itsshedding of reluctance in oppos-ing India in international foraand its outright support toPakistan are bound to meetwith India’s new-found realismin conducting inter-state rela-tions. While Chinese Statebehaviour is known for idealismwithin and calculated realismoutside, India has moved recent-ly to address some of the lack ofrealistic assessments in dealingwith China. The Chinese wouldbe cognisant that their owndiplomatic transition from latentto blatant vis-à-vis India has had

the latter take a few reciprocalsteps in the recent past, primar-ily in strengthening defence andpreparedness near the Line ofActual Control (LAC).

The ongoing war exerciseby the Indian Army, ‘HimVijay’, in Arunachal Pradesh atan altitude of 14,000 and 100km from the LAC, its IntegratedBattle Groups and raising theQuad group to Ministerial levelrecently in New York are con-crete steps that can strengthengrounds and provide strongcounter-optics to China.

The unique thing aboutIndian diplomacy is thatdespite infusing incrementalrealism in its engagementwith China, there is a gooddeal of idealism that persistsfrom the past to instill a senseof balance. Informal summitsare frameworks on the ideal-ist line. If the Wuhan informalsummit in 2018 between thetwo countries was successfulin cooling tempers post-Doklam and fostering engage-ment, the Mamallapuramsummit provides anotheropportunity to bring a balanceto both sides’ realistic scoresabove the other.

Xi’s visit should be used byIndia to convey to China inclear terms that it shoulddecouple its India policy fromits sympathies for Islamabad.

(The writer is ResearchFellow, Indian Council of World Affairs)

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Modi-Xi expectations”(October 10). Though a bitdelayed, the informal summitbetween Chinese President XiJinping and Prime MinisterNarendra Modi is finally on. Theatmosphere, however, is not soideal as both nations remain farapart on core issues. If India isgrappling with terrorism andeconomic crisis, China has sov-ereignty and trade issues to con-tend with. Xi may also not be asassertive as he was during the firstinformal summit at Wuhan, givenChina’s debilitating trade warwith the US and its dilemma overHong Kong’s future.

For India, however, the bug-bear has been Pakistan and itssurreptitious behaviour. Beijing’sunstinted support to Pakistanon the Kashmir issue has stressedrelations between New Delhi andBeijing. Clearly, it cannot have itboth ways — supporting Pakistandespite it being a state sponsor ofterrorism and at the same timetrying to explore India’s vastmarkets. It has to take a call.

Srishti Mathur Ujjain

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Sir — This refers to the editor-ial, “We will speak” (October 9).It is heartening to know that theBihar Police has ordered the clo-sure of a sedition case filedagainst 49 noted personalities,who had written a letter toPrime Minister Narendra Modi,raising concern over the grow-

ing incidents of mob lynching inthe country. That Chief JudicialMagistrate Surya Kant Tiwariaccepted the complaint bySudhir Kumar Ojha, aMuzaffarpur-based advocate,without having checked theveracity of the legal charges, isindeed perplexing.

In times when even notedpersonalities are slapped withFIRs for raising genuine con-

cerns about secularism, one canonly understand the plight of thecommon man, who raiseshis/her finger against the estab-lishment on issues that matter.

The strength of a democra-cy is assessed by how freely itscitizens can express their viewsor thoughts. Healthy criticismmust always be welcomed.

Bidyut Kumar ChatterjeeFaridabad

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Welcoming the Rafale”(October 9). With the advent oftechnology, there has been a par-adigm shift in the way wars arefought. It is, therefore, essentialthat India, too, remains preparedfor any eventuality. With nationsrising to the occasion to equipthemselves with the latest tech-nology, India, too, must procurestate-of-the-art arms and ammu-nition to ensure decisive results inthe battlefield.

The purchase of Rafale jetswill come as a shot in the arm ofthe Indian Air Force. But what isworrisome is the IAF’s depletingsquadron strength. As many as 26fighter planes have gone down,killing 12 pilots and other crewmembers. As it is we have analarming shortage of fighters.The Rafale jets could not havecome at a more opportune timeand are just the first step in solv-ing the issue at hand. We mustimprove our fleet.

Bal GovindNoida

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When Reema turned 14, her motherdecided to get her married. The teenag-er was then studying in Class VIII at the

Kalli Paschim upper primary school in Lucknowdistrict, Uttar Pradesh (UP), but her mother wasconfident that her dutiful daughter would hon-our her wishes. She was right and Reema did notreject the proposal.

If this story sounds all too familiar, it isbecause a majority of young girls in UP and manyother States face the same fate. UP is among the13 States where over 80 per cent of child mar-riages take place in rural India, according to arecent study by the National Commission forProtection of Child Rights (NCPCR) and YoungLives. The National Family Health Survey(NFHS-4) found that 21 per cent of the 8.5 crorechildren in UP still fall prey to child marriage.

In fact, one in every five girls in UP is a childbride and every 10th underage pregnancy is fromthere. Out of the 44.67 lakh teenage pregnanciesreported annually from India, over four lakhcases are from UP alone (NFHS-4).

But Reema was about to script a change inher story thanks to Meena Manch, a club for ado-lescent girls in UP Government schools. Not onlyhad the youngster learnt about the pitfalls of earlymarriage through the club, she also knew the eco-nomic reasons behind her mother’s decision. So,along with a few members of the club, she per-suaded her mother and her prospective in-lawsto allow her to continue her studies after mar-riage. They also agreed not to force her into liv-ing with her husband until she turned 18.

The initial concept of using “Meena” — anine-year-old fictional girl who overcame allobstacles to go to school and illustrate the neces-sity of education for girls — was developed byUNICEF. Created to change perceptions thathamper the survival, protection and developmentof girls, the initiative, developed as part of theInternational Year of the Girl Child in the 1990s,was adapted under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan(SSA), the Government’s flagship education pro-gramme.

The innovative Meena club was formed tomotivate girls to continue their education anddevelop leadership and life skills with the helpof a series of Meena story books, flip charts andactivity sheets. Each club, comprising 20 girls inthe age group of 11-14 years, discusses the sto-ries. Meena Cabinets, comprising two childrenfrom Classes III, IV and V, help to resolve issuesclub members may have with the aid of theSugamkarta — a female teacher from the schoolwho acts as the facilitator.

At present, over 36,000 such clubs exist inupper primary schools in UP but soon, all upperprimary schools in the State will have them. Thiswas announced by the UP education departmentrecently.

This is not surprising, considering theimpact the manch is having. Thirty-year-oldAnju’s experience is a prime example of thechange effected by members of the MeenaManch. When she stopped Rani, her 13-year-olddaughter from going to school, the girl’s class-mates marched to her house and demanded toknow why she had dropped out. “Why isn’t Ranicoming to school? Don’t you know how happyshe was there? We won’t leave until you give us

a written promise that you will sendRani to school from tomorrow.”

The group of diminutive girls, allmembers of the club, didn’t stop there.For the next two hours, they explainedto Anju how important it was for Ranito continue her education.

The turning point came when oneof them asked the mother whether shewanted Rani to be like her and not beable to write her own name. This iswhen Anju put her thumb impressionon the letter the girls had brought,promising to send her daughter back toschool. The girls of Meena Manch hadscored again.

In fact, teachers of the upper pri-mary school in Sarojini Nagar,Lucknow district, have no qualms inadmitting that their club memberswere the driving force in bringing backdropouts, both girls and boys. “Eversince Meena Manch was formed, wedon’t have to worry about children notcoming to school. The members, springinto action as soon as they learn aboutany missing student,” says Aarti, asenior teacher and a manch facilitator.

Thirteen-year-old Shanno Sharmasays elders in her village Parsauli,Kanpur Dehat district, know she is amember of the club. “Our group is well-known because we have managed tostop marriages where dowry wasdemanded”, she says.

Shama Awasthi, another member

of the same group, reveals that after oneboy of her village was almost beaten upby club members for eve-teasing, therest of the boys fell in line.

Even Meena Ki Duniya, the radioprogramme introduced in UP in 2010,has increased the levels of awarenessand knowledge among children andteachers on issues related to educationof girls, child rights, adolescent healthand hygiene, life skills, the perils of childmarriage and gender roles.

The 15-minute programme,designed by Sesame India is broadcastthrough All India Radio (AIR) inschools across UP six days a week.

Students tune into radio sets pro-vided by the Government in the after-noons, Monday through Saturday. Thebroadcast fee for the programme isborne by the UP Government and eachepisode has a story, a song and a gamedesigned to entertain schoolchildrenwhile encouraging them to think.

The International Day of the GirlChild, celebrated every year on October11, has become a good platform to turnthe spotlight on the manch engender-ing schoolchildren and teachers.Government school teachers have alsobeen trained on how to use MeenaRadio as a teaching aid.

With the education departmentissuing a directive to schools to enablestudents to listen to the radio at the pre-scribed time, Meena has become a pop-

ular character among school children.One of the critical objectives of the

radio programme, a partnershipbetween UNICEF, the UP Governmentand AIR, is to focus on motivating chil-dren between the ages of 11 and 14 tocontinue their education. Studies haveshown that children in this age groupare prone to drop out of school. Anassessment report found that in UP, thedropout rate in primary school is 20 percent and rises by about 10 per cent inupper primary school.

This is where the club and radioprogrammes are making a difference,especially since more girls drop out ofschool than boys. Since the programmeis in Hindi, the messages are easy tounderstand and reach the students,community and parents they are meantto target.

More importantly, with many of thegirls already a part of the MeenaManch, they identify and want to be liketheir role model Meena, a confident andeducated girl.

While Archana wants to be a policeofficer, Manju wants to become a doc-tor, Muskan aspires to be an educationofficial, Rukmini, a social worker andFrancy, a journalist. And like Meena,they are no longer afraid to be seen andheard. Ordinary girls in rural areas aredaring to dream and are on the thresh-old of making their dreams come true.

(The writer is a senior journalist)

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Mental health is a state ofemotional, psychologicaland social well-being in

which the individual realises his/herown abilities, copes with the stress-es of life, works productively andpossesses the ability to contribute tosociety. It is an integral part of healthand not just the absence of mentalillness. Mental well-being can beaffected by a number of factors andevery person is vulnerable to prob-lems, irrespective of age, gender,socio-economic status and ethnicbackground.

Every fourth person in theworld suffers from some mental orneurological disorder, which leads toa poor quality of life, decreased pro-

ductivity and lower earning poten-tial.

Around 450 million peopleacross the globe currently sufferfrom some kind of disorder, makingit one of the leading causes of ill-health and disability worldwide.

According to the World HealthOrganisation (WHO), 6.5 per centof Indians suffer from some form ofserious illness like schizophrenia,with an equal distribution amongrural and urban populations. TheNational Mental Health Survey(NMHS) concludes that 10.6 percent people in India suffer fromcommon disorders like depression,anxiety and substance abuse.

About 56 million people in thecountry suffer from depression andits severe form may lead to suicide,a major cause of death in the agegroup of 15-39 years. Suicide deathsin India have drastically increasedsince 1990 and around 230,314were recorded in 2016. Incidents ofstudent taking their lives are also onthe rise and close to 26,000 studentsdied between 2014 and 2016.

Given the continued trend, Indiawon’t be able to achieve theSustainable Development Goal(SDGs) of the United Nations toreduce the global suicide rate by one-third by the year 2030.

According to the NMHS,approximately 150 million Indiansneed professional care but only asmall proportion of them is able toaccess mental health services. Nearlytwo-thirds of people with knowndisorders never seek professionalhelp, resulting in a huge treatmentgap.

This could be because of sever-al reasons such as stigma associat-ed with mental illnesses, lack ofawareness, lack of resources, poorinfrastructure and apathy on the partof policy makers to counter theseproblems.

In fact, stigma is a significanthindering factor in Indian societyand prevents patients from reachinghealth facilities, resulting in neglectin the care of the mentally ill. It hasbeen found that the attitude of doc-tors, other than psychiatrists and

other healthcare professionals, con-tributes to the stigma due to theirlimited knowledge and awarenessabout psychiatry and mental healthproblems. In many cases people arenot even ready to acknowledgethese problems.

Because of stigma, mental illnessis often discounted and the affectedperson is discouraged from seekingtreatment. S/he is often advised to bestrong and snap out of the condition.People in need of help should beencouraged to seek expert adviceand those undergoing treatmentshould be urged to regularly visittheir psychiatrist and comply withthe instructions.

The mental health workforce inIndia is extremely low consideringthe prevalence of disorders — thereare 0.3 psychiatrists, 0.12 nurses, 0.07psychologists and 0.07 social work-ers for 100,000 people. The availableprofessional manpower is much lessthan the laid down WHO standards.

Stigma and inadequate man-power, combined with lack of ade-quate infrastructure for mental

healthcare, worsen the situation.The solution lies in training

other healthcare professionals inmental health and utilising their ser-vices to treat common disorderswhich could be easily treatable bygeneral healthcare providers.

Integration of mental healthwith the general health services is theobjective of the National MentalHealth Programme (NMHP)launched in 1982.

The District Mental HealthProgramme, started in 1996 underthe NMHP, had aimed at the inte-gration of psychiatry services withgeneral health services as one of itskey goals.

However, it has largely remaineda psychiatrist-oriented programmeand the desirable transfer and inte-gration of care from psychiatrists togeneral medical practitioners has notbeen achieved. Treatment and cureare of utmost importance and ignor-ing or neglecting disorders canescalate the issue pretty exponential-ly.

There is much to be achieved

and progress needs to be made inalmost all aspects of the mentalhealth framework. Adaptation oftherapeutic techniques to Indiansub-cultures, temperament and cog-nitive biases needs to be addressedto stay ahead of the challenges pro-fessionals are currently facing. Policymakers should promote availabilityof and access to cost-effective treat-ment of common disorders at theprimary health care level.

An environment needs to be cre-ated which promotes healthy livingand encourages people to adopt anactive lifestyle. Mental health promo-tion will now receive more focus,with its inclusion in the SDGs thatneed to be addressed through com-prehensive strategies for promo-tion, prevention, treatment andrecovery in a whole-of-Governmentapproach.

Introduction of the MentalHealthcare Act, 2017 protects therights of and enables citizens todecide the ways they wish to be treat-ed if they fall prey to a mental illness.The Act promises to provide men-

tal healthcare and services and toprotect, promote, and fulfil therights of such persons during deliv-ery of mental healthcare and ser-vices. However, the Act remainssilent on the services provided in thecommunity.

Suicide prevention, which wasthe theme of this World MentalHealth Day, is highly relevant in viewof the fact that close to 800,000 peo-ple kill themselves every year acrossthe globe and 17 per cent of thesedeaths are in India. One person com-mits suicide every 40 seconds andbehind every death there are 20 sui-cide attempts.

Suicides are preventable andmuch can be done to prevent themat the individual, community andnational level. It is time for us tospread awareness about mental dis-orders, their management and pre-vention. It is time also to reflectupon some of the challenges we faceas a society in India.

(The writer is professor at theHamdard Institute of Medical

Sciences and Research)

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Page 8: ˙ ˇ˝ ˛ ˚ ˇ ˘ ˇ ˆ ˆ - The Pioneer · Singh has been formally invit-ed for the inaugural ceremony. He also said Pakistan will con-tinue to highlight the plight of Kashmiris

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The gruesome murder of a schoolteacher, his wife and minor son in

Murshidabad acquired political overtoneson Thursday with the BJP and WestBengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar hit-ting out at the Mamata BanerjeeGovernment over the killings, and the RSSclaiming the teacher was its supporter.

Dhankhar said the incident “puthumanity to shame”, and castigated theState machinery for alleged lack ofresponse.

The governor told PTI he has alsosought a report from the State government“on an urgent basis” on the incident thathas sent shock waves across the country.

The State’s ruling Trinamool Congresshit back, accusing Dhankar of “speakingselectively” and acting in a manner thatdoes not “behove a governor”.

“The incident puts humanity to shame.A teacher, his pregnant wife, and son arekilled in a barbaric manner.No responsefrom the state machinery. This cannot becountenanced,” the governor said.

Bandhu Prakash Pal, the 35-year-oldteacher, his pregnant wife Beauty and 8-year-old son Angan were found lying inpools of blood in their house at Jiaganj inMurshidabad district on Tuesday whenDurga Puja festivities were on.

The three were killed by unidentifiedmiscreants, police had said on Wednesday.

According to police, it has comeacross a page of a diary which suggested“likely strained relations” between the vic-tim couple.

“The investigation is on. We are look-ing into all the angles. But we have no cluewhether he is a member or supporter ofany organisation or political outfit,” asenior police official told PTI, adding threepeople have been detained for question-ing.

Reacting sharply to the governor’sstatement, senior TMC leader Tapas Royaccused Dhankar of “speaking selective-ly” on incidents of violence in the State.

“When a TMC worker is killed inPaskura in East Midnapore, he doesn’tmake a statement. He assumed officerecently and has already started speakingselectively. This doesn’t behove a governor,”he said.

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Taking cognizance of the murder ofan alleged RSS worker and his wife

and son at Jiaganj in Murshidabad dis-trict the National Commission forWomen has reportedly written to theState Government seeking report on thematter.

An annoyed NCW chairpersonRekha Sharma earlier said that she waswriting letters to Chief Minister MamataBanerjee and State Director General of Police regarding the “horriblecrime” as “nothing has been done by authorities to stop such inci-dents.”

A 35-year-old school teacher BondhuPaul, his wife Beauty and an eight-year-old son Arya were found dead on VijayaDushmi Day inside their house at Jiaganjin Murshidabad some 250 km north ofKolkata.

Soon the RSS claimed that Paul wasone of their workers who had joinedtheorganisation about a year ago.

All the three victims wererepeated-ly stabbed, sources said. Soon after themurder was discovered State BJP leaderssaid “this is the way how the ruling party

Trinamool Congress has been trying to stop our politicaladvance. But they will not be able to stopus.”

Though the police had not been ableto arrest anyone in connectionwith themurder inside sources said they were“looking into all theangles,” includingcross-border planning. An official also said that they were also“analysing the family angle” because“there was sometension between thecouple.”

The district police had recovered adiary from the house which containedsome jaw-dropping clues, sources said.“We are weighing every angle and willsoon be able to catch the culprits,” an officialsaid.

Meanwhile senior BJP leader SambitPatra questioned the law and order situ-ation of Bengal and tweeted “this (inci-dent) has shaken my conscience..a RSSworker Bandhu Prakash Pal, his eightmonths pregnant wife and his kid were brutally slaughtered in WestBengal’s

Murshidabad Not a word by the lib-erals. Not a letter by 59 liberals toMamataNauseating Selectivism.”

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After the Pujas it is carnivaltime in the City of Joy.

Come Friday, Kolkata will cel-ebrate yet another DurgaCarnival a la Rio. A brainchild of Chief Minister MamataBanerjee the festivities willtake place at historic Red Roadwith an Independence Daylike procession of about 80idols from top Durga Pujapandals and along with aminiature of the Themes uponwhich they were organised.

The two giant standsshaped and designed after ter-racotta work of ancientBishnupur temples has beenerected on two sides of thebroad street to accommodateabout 15,000 spectators includ-ing 1,500 foreign dignitaries

and media personnel, sourcessaid.

Organised by the StateInformation and CultureDepartment, the event is beingheld for the fourth consecutiveyear and will highlight Bengal’s

traditional folk culture.Though sitting arrange-

ments for 15,000 people hasbeen made a number of giantLED screens have been erect-ed to accommodate about onelakh visitors who are likely to

come to witness the grand fes-tivities.

The Puja committees willcarry tableaux of their respec-tive Themes to Red Roadshowcasing Bengal’s creativityto the whole world. The ChiefMinister has already gone onrecord saying “going by thecrowd it draws Durga Puja isthe biggest carnival on earth,”drawing several crore people ina matter of 3-4 days.

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Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister MamataBanerjee is likely to take a call on whether the arterial Tallah Bridge in the city would be demolishedor strengthened for the time being following rec-ommendations of a team of experts to rebuild thestructure, a senior official said.

The report submitted to State chief secretaryRajiva Sinha by the Mumbai-based team onWednesday recommended demolition and recon-struction of the 57-year-old bridge, reaffirming anearlier report submitted by consultancy firm RITES.

“The Mumbai-based firm has submitted its reportand recommendations on the Tallah bridge and theChief Minister will hold discussions on the fate ofthe bridge on October 12. She will take a call on thebest possible option,” the officer said.

Secretariat sources said that discussions were heldby the chief secretary with other senior officials andpolice officers about the options of building a new bridge or strengthening the existing one.

PTI

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The BJP leadership in West Bengalhas sought reports from its

district units and State level leaderson the party’s mass outreach pro-gramme especially on the contentiousissues of the National Register ofCitizens and the Citizenship(Amendment) Bill during the DurgaPuja festival.

According to State BJP sources,the party had asked its leaders andcadres to enhance outreach forspreading the party’s ideology andpolicies by using the platform of thefestival.

The saffron party this time hadset up more than 10,000 stalls outside

puja pandals to display books on itsideology and makingpeople aware of the NRC and theCAB.

“We have sought detailed reportsfrom all the districts and state levelleaders about how the festival wasutilised to increase the party’s massconnect. We are hopeful of getting afull report by early next week,” BJPstate general secretary PratapBanerjee told PTI.

A senior BJP leader on conditionof anonymity said, the inputs onissues such as the NRC and the CABwere necessary as the proposedimplementation of the NRC in WestBengal has created panic among themasses.

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The Jammu & Kashmiradministration on

Thursday reportedly releasedthree politicians who wereunder detention since August 5.

According to mediareports, Shoib Lone, formerMLA and Congress leader,Yawar Mir, former PDP MLAand Noor Mohammad ofNational Conference werereleased by the State adminis-tration.

According to officialsources, the State administra-tion has started an elaborateexercise to review detention ofpoliticians in the State andafter reviewing individual casesthey are expected to releasemore leaders in the days tocome.

In another related devel-

opment, J&K HomeDepartment late Wednesdayevening issued a fresh orderinviting tourists to visit theState as it has withdrawn itsprevious order, restricting stayof pilgrims/tourists, issued onAugust 2.

The order issued by thePrincipal Secretary, HomeShaleen Kabra stated, “theSecurity Advisory requestingtourists visiting J&k to curtailtheir stay in the Kashmirvalley, issued on Aug 2nd, ishereby withdrawn. The

tourists desirous of undertak-ing visit to the State shall beprovided all necessary assis-tance and logistical support”.

Meanwhile, situationremained peaceful in differentparts of Kashmir valley onThursday. The degree collegesthrown open by the Stateauthorities on Wednesdayremained open with scantystudent population.

Local hoteliers, trans-porters, tour operators and allothers dependent on tourismindustry are all looking forwardto welcome fresh arrival oftourists in Kashmir valley inthe coming days.

The biggest concern, how-ever, remained absence of com-munication services and con-tinued shut down during peakbusiness hours in Kashmir valley.

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At least two civil-ians received

injuries in heavy mor-tar shelling by thePakistan Army alongthe Line of Control inPoonch late Thursdayevening.

In response, theIndian Army is retal-iating strongly andeffectively. The line of controlhad earlier witnessed heavyexchange of mortar shelling lateWednesday evening in whichthe Pakistan Army may havesuffered fatal injuries.

According to groundreports, “The Pakistan Armyviolated ceasefire agreementon Thursday by resorting toheavy mortar shelling on the

civilian areas of Kari Karmara,Shahpur, Qasba and Kerni inPoonch. Large number of localresidents, could not step out oftheir houses due to heavyshelling in the forward area.

In the heavy exchange, twocivilians identified as 75 yearold Noor Husaain of Karmaraand 35 year old Shamim Akhtaof Shahpur received injuries.

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As many as 1,382 candidateshave filed their nomina-

tions for the BlockDevelopment Council polls,beginning October 24, inJammu & Kashmir.

Chief Electoral Officer,Shailendra Kumar said, “a totalnumber of 1382 candidateshave filed their nominationpapers in 22 districts of theState for 310 BDCs for whichthe elections will be held onOctober 24”.

He said elaborate securityarrangements have been madeto ensure peaceful conduct ofthe polls.

Out of 1382 candidates,751 filed nomination papers inJammu, 515 in Kashmir and116 in Ladakh.

According to officialsources , “the frontier districtof Kupwara in North Kashmirtopped the list with maximum

number of candidates comingforward to contest the BDCpolls.

A total number of 131candidates filed their nomi-nation papers in Kupwara followed by Baramulla wherepoll authorities received 110nominations”.

In Jammu division, thehighest number of nominationswere received in Jammu districtwhere 105 candidates are in thefray.

In Ladakh division too,Kargil district outnumberedLeh in terms on total nomina-tions. Official sources said, 68candidates joined the electoralcontest in Kargil district, while48 candidates filed their papersin Leh.

Meanwhile, a day after theState Unit of the congress partydecided to boycott the BDCpolls, the State BJP Chief,Ravinder Raina, Thursdayalleged that Congress party is

carrying forward nothing butthe agenda of Pakistan throughits BDC poll boycott call.

Raina, also said that regis-tration of Congress party becancelled with immediate effectfor its repeated acts to weakenthe institutions of democracy.

Ravinder Raina, allegedthat Congress party does everything here, which isrequired as per the destructiveforeign policy of rogue state ofPakistan.

He said that Pakistan wantsthe election to be boycottedhere, which is being imple-mented by Congress partyalong with NC and PDP inIndia.

He said that the Congressparty has carried forward theagenda put forth by Hurriyat,separatists, and the enemies ofthe Nation, through its actionsand hence proved itself to be atraitor by bringing bad name tothe Nation.

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With its decision to boycottthe Block Development

Council (BDC) elections inJammu & Kashmir, theCongress party has placed itselfin an unenviable position ofbeing on the right side of theseparatists.

For over 30 years since theongoing separatists violencestarted in the State, the separatists have been askingpeople and the political parties to boycott what they call“the Indian electoralprocess”.

Ironically, the Congressparty that fought for the coun-try’s independence andanchored itself firmly for over65 years through the length and breadth of India isnow seen to shift its politicaltrack.

“Since its establishmentthe Congress has been seen asthe only political party that hadroots and supportfrom Kashmir toKanyakumari.

“As fate would have it, theparty now decides to boycottelection in J&K,” said AliMuhammad, 75, who is stillcalled ‘Ali Congressi’ in hisnative village in NorthKashmir.

G.A. Mir, President of thestate Congress has said that theparty cannot fight the BDCelection as its leaders belong-ing to the valley are still underdetention.

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Congress leader RahulGandhi, who had been

abroad for few days, onThursday appeared before amagisterial court here andpleaded not guilty in a crimi-nal defamation case filedagainst him for his “why do allthieves share Modi surname”remarks.

Gandhi appeared beforethe court of Chief JudicialMagistrate BH Kapadia and

pleaded not guilty when askedby the court whether he acceptsthe charges, levelled againsthim by BJP legislator from Surat-West, PurneshModi.

After Gandhi’s plea wasrecorded, his lawyers moved anapplication seeking permanentexemption from personalappearance. When Modi’slawyers raised objection to theexemption plea, the court saidit will decide on the plea onDecember 10.

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Samajwadi Party chief AkhileshYadav slammed the ruling BJP in

Uttar Pradesh on Thursday, sayingthere is not “Ram Raj” but “NathuramRaj” in the state, a day after he visit-ed the family of a youth killed in apolice encounter over alleged illegalsand mining.

“Besides mob lynching, now thereis also police lynching which can beseen here,” the SP chief told newsper-sons.

Police said Pushpendra Yadavwas killed in an encounter on Sundayafter he opened fire on a patrol team.But his family members have allegedthat he was killed in a staged gunfightafter he refused to pay bribe to thepolice station in-charge and threat-ened to expose him.

The initial statements of JhansiSSP and the SHO on the encounterwere inconsistent.

The SP chief visited PushpendraYadav’s family on Wednesday andassured them help.

On Thursday, he said, “There aremany loopholes in the police story.”

Akhilesh Yadav said he has “notrust” in the police and the adminis-tration. “Which Ram Raj is going onin UP? This is not Ram Raj butNathuram Raj. With mob lynching,police lynching have also started in

the state,” he said at a press conference.Jhansi Senior Superintendent of

Police O P Singh had told reporterson the night of the encounter that theSHO was returning alone in his pri-vate vehicle from vacation when theexchange of fire took place, but theStation House Officer involved said hewas on patrol duty with two consta-bles.

Police have also claimedPushpendra Yadav, who ran a sandmining business, was shot dead afterhe opened fire on the police officerwho had seized his truck a few daysearlier.

Pushpendra Yadav’s family allegedthat the area police officer in-charge,Dharmendra Chauhan, was demand-ing Rs 1.5- lakh bribe to release histruck.

“I want justice. My husband...Hehad given money earlier but was askedfor more. When he did not give it myhusband was shot dead. I want jus-

tice,” his wife Shivangi said, sobbingbefore visiting mediapersons.

They had married just threemonths ago.

“We demand a probe by a sittinghigh court judge. It’s not an encounterbut a murder,” Akhilesh Yadav said.

“Not much should be expectedfrom the police force of a State where the Chief Minister open-ly asks them to ‘thok dalo’ (shoot)those taking law in their own hands,”he said.

“The BJP Government of the Stateis equally responsible for the killingalong with the local administration.The Government has forgotten that itis the image of the administrationwhich creates the right image of theGovernment,” Akhilesh Yadav said,adding the deceased’s brother, a CISF jawan inDelhi, has also been made an accusedin the case and was on duty that night.

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The indefinite strike by unionsof Telangana State Road

Transport Corporation (TSRTC)continued for the sixth day onThursday with the agitatingemployees staging protests acrossthe State.

With nearly 48,000 employeesboycotting their duties and state-run buses staying off roads,theRTC said alternative arrangementswere made to run bus servicesfrom its own fleet.

Around 11,000 vehiclesincluding buses were being oper-ated.

In a related development, thevacation bench of the TelanganaHigh Court posted to October 15the hearing on a petition that

sought to declare the strike as“illegal.”

The Government also sub-mitted before the court a reportinforming it aboutthe alternative arrangementstaken.

However, the court asked thegovernment and TSRTC to file adetailed report before it by October15.

On Sunday, the court haddirected the Government to sub-mit a report by today, on the alternative arrangements made inview of the ongoing strike, besidesordering issuance of notices to twounions of RTC.

The RTC unions through theircounsels submitted that as per lawthey had given strike notices to theGovernment.

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BJP State president SatishPoonia on Thursday

demanded that the CongressGovernment should expediteassessment of crop loss damagedue to heavy rainfall inRajasthan “Crops were dam-aged due to heavy rainfall inseveral districts of the state. Ivisited many districts wherecrops have been damaged and farmers are in distress and theGovernment should expedite

the assessment work so thatfarmers can get compensation,”Poonia told reportershere. He also called forGovernor Kalraj Mishra’s inter-vention in the matter. “Ourdelegation is meeting the gov-ernor today to demand hisintervention. The Governmenthad asked the officials to pre-pare the girdawari (harvestinspection) report by October 15 but the assessmentwork is going on very slow,” hesaid.

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Page 9: ˙ ˇ˝ ˛ ˚ ˇ ˘ ˇ ˆ ˆ - The Pioneer · Singh has been formally invit-ed for the inaugural ceremony. He also said Pakistan will con-tinue to highlight the plight of Kashmiris

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From traditional welcome toglimpses of South Indian art

forms and decorative arches,Chinese President Xi Jinpingwill be treated to a grandreception as he lands here onFriday for the second informalsummit with Prime MinisterNarendra Modi at the nearbyancient coastal town ofMamallapuram.

The seaside town near hereis swarming with police andSpecial Protection Group personnel and the officialmachinery is fully equipped forthe summit.

Bulletproof makeshiftstructures have been put nearthe shore temple for the twoleaders to hold talks.

Top police and

Government officials complet-ed assessing the security pre-paredness and fine tunedarrangements related to ameni-ties for the leaders both hereand at Mamallapuram.

Chief Minister KPalaniswami inspected thearrangements at the coastaltown this evening.

Entry to the group ofancient monuments have beenblocked and barricades havecome up around them.

A grand ornamental archto welcome the two leaders hasbeen prominently put up at theentrance to Mamallapuramfrom the East Coast Road.

Traditional arches madeof banana trees and sugarcanehave been put in front of theITC Grand Chola Hotel whereXi Jinping is scheduled to stay.

On his arrival, Xi will bewelcomed by traditionalpeformances including ‘tappu’folk drum art display at the air-port by about 500 artistes.

Also, a string of other cul-tural events have been lined upincluding Bharatanatyam andKathakali peformances.

Apart from the culturalprogrammes on schedule at theShore temple on Fridayevening, makeshift platformshave come up in several loca-tions including here andMamallapuram for brief, cul-tural shows. According to thetentative schedule made avail-able to the media, the foreignguest is scheduled to arrive at2.10 pm and he is set to exit theairport through the fifth VVIPgate and proceed to the near-by hotel.

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Large-scale rebellion is notnew to Maharashtra during

the elections. With the possi-bility of the saffron alliancereturning to power in the Statebeing strong, the ruling BJPand Shiv Sena are facing themaximum brunt of rebels inthe State Assembly polls,scheduled for October 11.

Two days ahead of thewithdrawal of nominations,chief minister DevendraFadnavis had last week sent outstern message to message torebels to opt to opt out of thefray and said that there wouldbe no place for rebels in theBJP-led “Maha-Yuti” (grandalliance). On his party, ShivSena president UddhavThackeray — at his annualDussehra rally — subsequent-ly apologised to those partyworkers who have been deniedtickets, in an effort to defuserebellion within the party ranksover the distribution of tickets.

Both Fadnavis and Uddhavhave not succeeded in reiningin the rebels. There are an esti-mated 45 to 50 BJP-Sena rebels

spread over 288 Assembly con-stituencies in the State.Though there are a very fewrebels contesting against theirparty’s official candidates, themaximum rebellions have hap-pened within the saffronalliance. In essence, there aremany instances where the BJPcandidates are contestingagainst the Shiv Sena’s officialcandidates or the vice versa.

Of the total 288, the BJP iscontesting 150 seats, while theShiv Sena has fielded candi-dates in 124 constituencies.Their allies are contesting theremaining 14 seats.

For instance in Vidarbharegion, Shiv Sena’s SantoshDawale is contesting as arebel against BJP ministerMadan Yerawar in Yavatmalconstituency, while local BJP

leader Sanjay Deshmukhis taking on Sena minis-ter Sanjay Minister inDigras constituency.Sena’s former ministerAshok Shinde is contest-ing as a rebel againstBJP’s sitting MLA SamirKurniwar. In Ramtek,Shiv Sena’s former MLA

Ashsish Jaiswal is making mat-ters difficult for the BJP’s BJP’ssitting MLA MalinkarjunReddy.

In north Maharashtra, ShivSena’s rebel Vilas Shinde is tak-ing Seema Hire in Nashik(west) constituency, whileSena’s Jalgaon district presidentChandrakant Patil is contestingas a rebel against senior BJPleader Eknath Khadse’s daugh-ter Rohini Khadse inMuktainagar constituency. Inthe neighbouring Jalgaon(rural) constituency, Sena’sminister of state Gulabrao Patilis facing a BJP rebel GulabraoPatil. There are two BJP rebelsin Sakri and Shirpur in Dhuledistrict.

There are rebels in Vasmat,Aurangabad (west), Nanded(south), Osmamabad ande a

few other constituencies inMarthwada.

In Mumbai, Shiv Sena’sRajul Patel has rebelled againstBJP’s official candidate BharatiLaveka in Versova constituen-cy, while Shiv Sena’s sittingMLA Trupti Sawant hasrebelled against Sena’s officialnominee and Mumbai MayorVishwqanath Mahadeshwar inBandra (east). In Andheri(east), BJP man Murji Patel hasrebelled against shiv Sena’sofficial candidate RameshLatke.

In Konkan region, the shivSena is contesting officiallyagainst BJP’s Nitesh Rane, sonof former chief ministerNarayan Rane. BJP’s sittingMLA Manda Mhatre, is takingon a rebel in Shiv Sena citychief Vijay Mane, in Bela con-stituency. BJP’s GanpatGaikwad is facing seriousthreat to his candidature fromSena leader Dhananjay Bodarein Kalyan (east). JP legislatorfrom Chinchwad LaxmanJagtap is fighting out againstSena rebel Rahul Kalate. InSawantwadi, BJP’s Rajan Telihas turned a rebel.

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Mumbai: Congress leaderRahul Gandhi will campaign inthe city on Sunday for theMaharashtra Assembly elec-tions.

It will be his first campaignevent in the State ahead of theOctober 21 elections.

Mumbai Congress chiefEknath Gaikwad said Gandhiwill address a rally at Dharavi

here on Sunday evening.Gaikwad’s daughter and

Congress secretary VarshaGaikwad is seeking re-elec-tion for a fourth term fromDharavi.

During Rahul Gandhi’stenure as party chief, VarshaGaikwad was AICC secretaryfor Gujarat and MadhyaPradesh Assembly polls. PTI

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Asserting that the BJP-ShivSena alliance will return to

power in Maharashtra with an“unprecedented” mandate,Chief Minister DevendraFadnavis on Thursday saidhis Government worked forthe weaker sections of thesociety and tried to transformtheir lives.

He also criticised theopposition Congress and NCPfor “not doing anything”except giving “false and mis-leading” promises during the15 years of their rule before theBJP-Sena Government cameto power in 2014.

As part of the electioncampaign, Fadnavis addressedpublic rallies at differentplaces in Solapur district onThursday.

While addressing a rally atMangalwedha, he said,“Congress and NCP did not

do anything for 15 years exceptgiving false and misleadingpromises.

But after our Governmentcame to power five years back,we worked for the poor, down-trodden, tribals, minorities,farmers, OBCs and women,and tried to bring about a transformation (intheir lives).”

The BJP-Shiv SenaGovernment stood behind thefarmers in the last five yearsand gave the biggest farmloan waiver, which benefited50 lakh farmers.

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Amravati: Electioneering forthe eight Assembly seats inMaharashtra’s Amravati willgain momentum from Fridaywhen BJP president Amit Shahand Shiv Sena chief UddhavThackeray will address separaterallies in the district located inVidarbha region. Shah willaddress a public gathering inMelghat constituency, a tribalbelt where the BJP has fieldedRamesh Mavaskar, a freshfresh, in place of sitting MLAPrabhudas Bhilavekar. PTI

Mumbai: The BJP onThursday expelled four rebelswho are contesting against theofficial nominees of the BJP-Shiv Sena alliancein theOctober 21 assembly elections.

A BJP release said CharanWaghmare (Tumsar-Bhandaradistrict), Geeta Jain (Mira-Bhayandar, Thane district),Balasaheb Ohwal (Pimpri-Chinchwad) andDilipDeshmukh (Ahmedpur-Latur district) have beenexpelled from the party. PTI

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Disgruntled JD(U) leaderAjay Alok on Thursday

said he was prepared to resignfrom the primary member-ship of the party, if it sodesired.

His reaction comes a dayafter a party communicationinformed media outlets thatAlok had ceased to be a partyspokesman and his utterancesmust be taken as his “person-al opinion” and not the “officialline” of the party.

Several media outlets hadbeen airing Alok’s views, whichwere causing embarassment tothe JD(U). Alok has of late beenadopting a stance in line withBJP hardliners.

The party communicationwas issued by JD(U)spokesman Rajiv RanjanPrasad on Wednesday shortlyafter Alok had come out witha tweet in which he ended upberating the JD(U) while stress-ing the need for the NDAremaining intact.

“For the BJP it is not of

great consequence to remain inpower in Bihar. But, thisalliance must remain intact inthe interests of Bihar and inview of the JD(U) proclaimingto be the big brother in thecoalition, the onus is on us,”Alok had tweeted.

He was reacting to therecent acrimony witnessedbetween the coalition partnerswhich was followed by leadersof the saffron party skippingthe Dussehra festivities orga-nized at the Gandhi Maidanwhere the Chief Ministershared the dais with oppositionleaders like state Congresspresident Madan Mohan Jha.

Once considered to be afavourite of Chief MinisterNitish Kumar because of thecombativeness he brought onthe table at on-screen debates,Alok seems to have fallen outof favour with Kumar, whoalso heads the JD(U).

However, stung by therelease issued by Rajiv RanjanPrasad, Alok again took to themicro-blogging site to statethat he has felt slighted.

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Aday after he ridiculedRahul Gandhi “for having

gone on a holiday to Bangkok”fearing the Congress’ defeat inthe State Assemblypolls, Maharashtra ChiefMinister Devendra Fadnavislikened NCP chief SharadPawar to Asrani’s character asa jailer in film “Sholay” andsaid the latter in reality was leftwith no supporters behindhim.

Addressing an electionrally at Phalton in Satara dis-trict of western Maharashtra,Fadnavis took a dig at Pawar bysaying: “Sharad Pawar’s con-dition is like that of Jailer infilm ‘Sholay’.. Aadhe ider jaon,

Aade Uder jao, baki merepeche aao. Like in the film,there is no one behind Pawar”.

Alluding to veteranCongress leader Sushil KumarShinde’s comment that “we(Congress and NCP) are tired.Both the parties need tomerge”, Fadnavissaid: “Shinde understands as

to what is in store for theCongress-NCP in the elec-tions.

The two parties will findthemselves such a pitiable sit-uation after the Assembly polls that both the parities will nothave enough numbers to stakeclaim for the post of theOpposition leader in the StateAssembly”.

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Infiltrators will be made toleave the country and the

National Register of Citizens(NRC) will be implemented forthe purpose, Union HomeMinister Amit Shah said onThursday.

The BJP chief made theannouncement at a campaignrally here for the October 21Maharashtra Assembly elec-tions.

“Before we come to ask forvotes in 2024 (General elec-tions), let me assure you thatthe BJP Government will makesure every infiltrator is thrownout of the country,” Shah said.

“We will throw out every-one residing illegally in ourcountry. Congress and NCPhave opposed NRC as such res-idents form a vote bank forthese opposition parties,” Shahsaid.

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Page 10: ˙ ˇ˝ ˛ ˚ ˇ ˘ ˇ ˆ ˆ - The Pioneer · Singh has been formally invit-ed for the inaugural ceremony. He also said Pakistan will con-tinue to highlight the plight of Kashmiris

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Union Finance MinisterNirmala Sitaraman on

Thursday assured the accountholders of the crisis-hit PMCBank that she would speak tothe RBI Governor ShaktikantaDas once again, convey their“sense of urgency and distress”and request the latter to “expe-dite” grant of permission forwithdrawal of money deposit-ed by them in the bank.

After scores of affectedaccount holders of PMC Bankstaged a protest a protest infront of the State BJP head-quarters in Mumbai, Sitaraman— who was in Mumbai to cam-paign for the State Assemblypolls, delayed her interactionwith the media, spoke to a del-egation of protesters andassured them that she wouldtake up their issue with theGovernor

Talking to media personslater her meeting with theTMC Bank’s account holders’delegations, Sitaraman said: “ Ihave been talking to the RBIGovernor. On my return toDelhi, I shall once again talk tohim (RBI?governor) thisevening and convey the senseof urgency and distress that theclients of PMC have expressedbefore me and I shall requesthim to expedite the clearing ofor giving permission for with-drawal of their monies whichare deposited”.

It may be recalled that onSeptember 24 placed Punjab &Maharashtra Cooperative(PMC) Bank Ltd under regu-latory restrictions, thus barringthe bank from carrying outroutine and major financial

transactions, including with-drawal of cash exceeding�1,000 by each of the deposi-tors, for a period of six months.The RBI subsequently raisedthe cash withdrawal limit to�10,000 per account and has

now scaled up the withdrawallimit to �25,000 per account.

The RBI had said that thedirections imposing majorrestrictions on the PMC Bankhad been "necessitated" becauseof account of "major financial

irregularities, failure of internalcontrol and systems of thebank and wrong/under-report-ing of its exposures under var-ious Off-site Surveillancereports to RBI that came to theReserve Bank’s notice recently".

Sitaraman, who was greet-ed by angry protesters on herarrival at the BJP headquarters,explained that the Financeministry had nothing to dowith the RBI’s decision toimpose regulatory instructionson the PMC Bank.

“Multi state cooperativebanks like the PMC Bank areregulated by RBI. But ruralcooperative banks’ registrationis done by the rural develop-ment ministry but they are reg-ulated by the RBI. Similarly theurban cooperative banks areregistered by the urban devel-opment ministry but are regu-lated by RBI,” she said.

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Mumbai: Union FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharamanon Thursday said the govern-ment is giving sector-specificsolutions to fight the slowdownin economic growth.

She, however, parried aspecific question on whetherthe government accepts if thecountry is in the midst of aneconomic slowdown.

India’s GDP expansion hasslowed to a six-year low of fiveper cent for the June quarter.This has led to a rash of down-

ward revisions in expectations,including from the RBI whichnow expects GDP growth tocome down to 6.1 per cent inFY20.

The Government has takena slew of measures, including amassive cut in corporate taxesto revive economic growth,even at the cost of sacrificingrevenues.

Hinting at other measureslike steps to improve exports,easing credit, making moremoney available by early repay-

ments to vendors and front-loading of banks recapitalisa-tion, Sitharaman said the gov-ernment has been working on sector-specificmeasures.

“We are giving relief to allsectors who need help,”Sitharaman said.

Her comments came hoursafter global ratings agencyMoody’s Investors Servicesharply cut its FY20 GDPgrowth forecast for India to 5.8. PTI

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With the Goods andServices Tax (GST) col-

lections dropping sharply to a19-month low in September,the government has constitut-ed a committee of officers tosuggest measures to augmentcollections, expand the taxbase and check evasion.

The panel comprising ofstate-level GST commissionersand centre government officialshas been asked to suggesturgent measures to arrest thefall in tax revenues and suggeststeps to be taken to improverevenue collection.

“The committee shouldconsider a wide range ofreforms so that a comprehen-sive list of suggestions mayemerge,” an official order said.

It has been asked to con-sider a wide range of reformsso that a comprehensive list ofsuggestions may emerge. Thepanel has been asked to lookinto “systemic changes in GSTincluding checks and balancesto prevent misuse.” Also, ithas been tasked to suggestmeasures to improve voluntarycompliance as well as policymeasures and changes in lawneeded.

Its key mandate is to sug-gest “measures for expansion oftax base” and make recom-mendations on “improvedcompliance monitoring andanti-evasion measures usingbetter data analytics,” the order

said.GST collections dropped

sharply to a 19-month low ofRs 91,916 crore in September,mirroring a widening slow-down in the economy triggeredby shrinking consumerdemand. This was the secondstraight month of decline inGST collections, which fromJuly 1, 2017, amalgamated 17different central and statelevies, including excise duty,service tax and VAT.

The fall in tax collections isseen as a reflection of economicactivity and a decline in col-lections indicated a downturn.

India’s GDP growth slowedto more than six-year low of 5per cent in April-June, prompt-ing the government to take anarray of steps to boost the econ-omy, including the steepestcut in corporate tax rate which would cost Rs 1.45lakh crore.

The panel constituted onThursday comprises state GSTcommissioners of Maharashtra,Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh,West Bengal and Punjabbesides central governmentofficials including PrincipalCommissioner of GST andJoint Secretary (Revenue).

States have been asked togive suggestions in writing aswell as join the panel.

“The Committee may co-opt or seek assistance fromsuch officers from Centre/Stateas may be deemed necessary,”the order said.

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Moody’s Investors Serviceon Thursday slashed its

2019-20 GDP growth forecastfor India to 5.8 per cent from6.2 per cent earlier, saying theeconomy was experiencing apronounced slowdown whichis partly related to long-lastingfactors.

The projection is lowerthan 6.1 per cent that theReserve Bank of India (RBI)had forecast just last week.

Moody’s attributed thedeceleration to an investment-led slowdown that has broad-ened into consumption, drivenby financial stress among ruralhouseholds and weak job cre-ation.

“The drivers of the decel-eration are multiple, mainlydomestic and in part long-last-ing,” Moody’s said in a report.

It expected the growth topick up to 6.6 per cent in 2020-21 and to around 7 per centover the medium term.

“Although we expect amoderate pick-up in real GDPgrowth and inflation in the nexttwo years, we have reviseddown our projections for both.Compared with two years ago,the probability of sustainedreal GDP growth at or above 8per cent has significantlydiminished,” it said.

Last month, the AsianDevelopment Bank and theOrganisation of EconomicCooperation and Developmentlowered 2019-20 growth fore-cast for India by 50 basis pointsand 1.3 percentage points to 6.5per cent and 5.9 per cent,respectively.

Last week, the RBI alsoslashed its growth projectionfor the economy to 6.1 per centfrom an earlier estimate of 6.9per cent.

Rating agency Standard &Poor’s has also lowered itsIndia growth forecast to 6.3 percent from 7.1 per cent.

In June, Fitch cut India’sgrowth forecast for the current

fiscal for a second time in a rowto 6.6 per cent. It had earlier inMarch lowered the growthestimate for 2019-20 to 6.8 percent, from 7 per cent project-ed earlier, on weak momentumof the economy.

Moody’s said the drivers ofthe deceleration are multiple,mainly domestic and in partlong-lasting.

“What was an investment-led slowdown has broadenedinto consumption, driven byfinancial stress among ruralhouseholds and weak job cre-ation,” it said adding a creditcrunch among non-bankfinancial institutions (NBFIs),major providers of retail loansin recent years, has com-pounded the problem.

“While we expect a mod-erate pick-up in real GDPgrowth and inflation over thenext two years supported bymonetary and fiscal stimulus,we have revised down our pro-jections for both. We forecastreal GDP

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Asharp drop in demandacross consumption seg-

ments pulled down corporaterevenue, excluding that ofbanking, financial services,insurance and oil companies,by 3 per cent in the secondquarter of FY20, according toa Crisil Research estimate.

It’s first time in 14 quartersthat revenues have declined. Inthe previous four quarters,between Q2FY19 and Q1FY20,aggregate revenue had grown11-12 per cent on average.

The estimate is based on ananalysis of 430 companies,which account for 65 per centof the market capitalisation,excluding financial servicesand oil firms, of the NationalStock Exchange.

Says Prasad Koparkar,Senior Director, CrisilResearch, “Automobiles, one of

the key sectors driven by con-sumption spending, continuesto reel under demand slow-down. Aggregate revenue oflisted automobile players isestimated to have dropped 25per cent in the second quarter.

“In a rub-off, revenue ofautomotive component makersis estimated to have fallen 14-16 per cent amid productioncuts. As for FMCG, weakenedrural consumption and a highbase are expected to havecaused moderation in growthto 6-7 per cent compared with8.7 per cent in the previous fourquarters.

Brokerages also outlinedweak corporate earnings forQ2.

Reliance Securities alsosaid the September quarterwas marked by weak operatingtrends discernible in slowdownin revenue growth across sec-tors.

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Shares of telecom compa-nies on Thursday rose up to

6 per cent in the wake ofReliance Jio deciding to levycall connect charges on cus-tomers, a move that is likely tobe followed by rivals.

Bharti Airtel shares jumped7.19 per cent to touch a 52-weekhigh of �385 apiece on theNSE. It closed 4.35 per cent upat �375.05. Similar trends werewitnessed on the BSE too. Duringthe day, the scrip rallied 6.65 percent to hit a 52-week high of Rs384.85 apiece. After sheddingsome gains, the stock settled 5.05per cent higher at �377.40.

Vodafone Idea closed 5.82per cent higher at �6.18 on theBSE and 5.13 per cent up at�6.15 on the NSE.

Unlisted Reliance JioInfocomm is part of RelianceIndustries, whose shares gained2.76 per cent to settle at

�1,362.40 on the BSE. On theNSE, the scrip went up 2.67 percent to close at �1,360.15.

According to a KotakInstitutional Equities researchreport, Bharti Airtel andVodafone Idea can take this asan opportunity to becomemore competitive. The reportnoted that Jio’s move woulddilute the pricing architecture,one of the most critical changesJio brought to the industry.

“If Jio gets �15 ARPU(Average Revenue Per User)uplift, we believe Airtel andVodafone Idea could see a Rs8-odd and �6-odd ARPUuplift, respectively, as well,”the report said.

In a research note, UBSsaid it remains to be seenwhether Bharti and VodafoneIdea would follow Jio in intro-ducing similar charges for offnet calls, “although we seehigh chance that they follow Jio”.

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Apple on Thursday removedan app criticised by China

for allowing protestors in HongKong to track police, as Beijingsteps up pressure on foreigncompanies deemed to be providing support to the pro-democracy movement.

The tech giant’s pulling ofHKmap.Live was blasted asbowing to China and comes ashigh-profile brands, includingthe NBA and its HoustonRockets franchise, come underpressure from communistauthorities over perceived sup-port for democracy demonstrations in the financial hub.

Chinese state media thisweek tore into the app, whichcollates information on policelocations submitted by users,charging that it was helping“rioters”.

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For the first time, formervice president and

Democratic presidential fron-trunner Joe Biden has calledfor President Donald Trump’simpeachment, saying theWhite House occupant is a“threat to American democ-racy” and has “violated” hisoath of office.

His party has launched animpeachment enquiry overclaims that Trump pressuredUkraine’s PresidentVolodymyr Zelensky in a July25 phone call to look into whatthe US leader said were cor-rupt business deals involvingBiden.

Democrats say that Trumptried to coerce Zelensky byholding back US military aidto Ukraine. Trump has deniedwrongdoing and has dismissed

the probe as a “witch hunt”.Speaking at an election

rally in New Hampshire onWednesday, Biden, 76, said,“No President in Americanhistory ever dared engage insuch unimaginable behaviour.With his words and with hisactions, President Trump hasindicted himself. By obstruct-ing justice and refusing tocomply with the congression-al inquiry, he has already con-victed himself.”

“In full view of theAmerican people, Trump hasviolated his oath of office,betrayed this nation, and com-mitted impeachable acts.

To preserve ourConstitution, our democracy,and our basic integrity, heshould be impeached,” saidBiden as for the first time hepublicly supportedDemocratic leaders in the

House of Representatives toimpeach Trump.

“And that is not onlybecause of what he has done.The answer to whether he hascommitted acts sufficient towarrant impeachment is obvi-ous,” he said.

“We see it in Trump’s ownwords. We see it in the textsfrom the State Departmentofficials that have been madepublic. We see it in his pullingmuch of the United Statesgovernment into his corruptscheme,” Biden said.

“But we must rememberthat impeachment isn’t onlyabout what a president hasdone. It is also about the threata president poses to the nationif allowed to remain in office.One thing about this presidentis absolutely clear - he sees nolimit on his power,” said theformer vice president.

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They’ve skipped the high-profile Sunday TV shows

and avoided driveway chat ses-sions with reporters. Few whoare typically eager to defend thepresident have appeared at allon television this month.

White House officials closeto President Donald Trump arepulling off a disappearing act,remaining largely absent frompublic view — in the middle ofthe storm over impeachment.

“We invited the WhiteHouse on to answer questionson the show this morning,”CNN’s Jake Tapper explained tohis viewers on Sunday’s “Stateof the Union.” ‘’They did notoffer a guest.”

It’s a well-worn strategy inthe Trump White House:Senior officials conveniently

manage to be elsewhere whenmajor controversies engulf thebuilding.

The frequent absences ofJared Kushner, the Republicanpresident’s son-in-law andsenior adviser, and presidentialdaughter Ivanka Trump duringmoments of consequence havelong been a running jokeamong their detractors.

Their detours included atrip to Florida during the par-tial Government shutdown.Plenty of others have jumpedtown during tense moments.

As Trump struggled withmounting Republican defec-tions over his decision todeclare a national emergency topay for the stalled border wall,acting White House chief ofstaff Mick Mulvaney wasn’t atthe Capitol cajoling his formercolleagues or in the West Wing

making calls. Instead, he was inLas Vegas for an annual friendsand family getaway.

More recently, embattlednational security adviser JohnBolton scheduled a trip toMongolia while Trump becamethe first sitting U.S. President toset foot in North Korea, a ges-ture that didn’t sit well withBolton, who would leave theadministration a few monthslater.

Indeed, knowing “when tobe out of town” was one of thetop nuggets of advice thatKevin Hassett, the president’sformer top economic adviser,said he’d received from a pre-decessor and had to offer hissuccessor.

The White House did notrespond to questions aboutthe tactic Wednesday. But evenwhen they’re in Washington,

many of the White House’smost visible officials have beenstaying out of public view, let-ting the president’s indignantTwitter feed and his frequentcommentary drive the publicconversation.

That includes White Housespokesman Hogan Gidley, afrequent guest on Fox Newsshows and the gaggles withreporters that often follow onthe White House driveway. White House counselorKellyanne Conway, an aggres-sive defender of the president,has not made an appearance onthe driveway since a highlycontentious Sept. 27 gaggle inwhich she berated reportersand dismissed a question aboutwhether the

The White House wasorganising an impeachment war room.

Seoul: North Korea threatenedagain on Thursday to resumenuclear and long-range missiletests, accusing the US of hav-ing instigated some membersof the UN Security Council tocondemn its weapons tests.

The warning byPyongyang’s Foreign Ministryfollowed the weekend break-down of North Korea-USnuclear negotiations inSweden, the first such talksbetween the countries in morethan seven months.

North Korea said the talkscollapsed because the US did-n’t have any new proposals,and whether it maintains aself-imposed moratorium onmajor weapons tests was up toWashington.

Some observers say NorthKorea’s threat may be a tacticto pressure the US into mak-ing concessions as a restart ofnuclear and long-range missiletests would likely derail nego-tiations, deepen its interna-tional isolation and further

dim prospects for rebuildingits moribund economy.

A ministry statement tookissue with condemnationTuesday by the Europeanmembers of the UN SecurityCouncil of North Korea’srecent ballistic missile andother weapons tests, includingits first underwater-launchedmissile launch in three yearson October 2. North Koreasaid those tests were of the self-defense nature.

North Korea also accusedthe US of being behind theEuropean condemnation of itsweapons tests after having“begged for working-levelNorth Korea-US talks” inSweden.

On Tuesday, the UNcouncil discussed the North’slatest underwater-launchedmissile test and its Europeanmembers urged Pyongyang toabandon all weapons of massdestruction and engage in“meaningful negotiations”with the US. AFP

Washington: Two notoriousIslamic State jihadists dubbed“The Beatles” who were held bySyrian Kurds are now in UScustody and have been movedout of the country, PresidentDonald Trump said on earlyThursday.

Turkey has launched anassault on the Syrian Kurdishforces —with which the USpartnered to combat IslamicState militants —sparking fearsthat the offensive could lead tocaptured fighters they heldescaping and reconstitutingthe group.

“In case the Kurds orTurkey lose control, the UnitedStates has already taken the 2ISIS militants tied to behead-ings in Syria, known as theBeetles, out of that country and

into a secure location con-trolled by the US,” Trumptweeted.

“They are the worst of theworst!”

The pair were part of anextremely violent all-Britishfour-man cell that kidnappedand tortured foreigners, includ-ing journalists, at the height ofthe Islamic State group’s powerin Syria and Iraq.

A US defense official hadearlier confirmed they hadtaken custody of two “high-value” IS individuals from theKurdish-led Syrian DemocraticForces (SDF) that held thecaptured jihadists.

“They have been movedout of Syria and are in a securelocation,” the official said, with-out identifying where. AFP

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Turkish President RecepTayyip Erdogan warned

the EU on Thursday thatAnkara would allow millions ofrefugees to head to Europe ifthe bloc criticised Turkey’smilitary offensive in Syria.

“Hey EU, wake up. I say it

again: if you try to frame ouroperation there as an invasion,our task is simple: we willopen the doors and send 3.6million migrants to you,”Erdogan said in a speech to hisparty.

Turkey launched an oper-ation into Syrian territory onWednesday, aimed at combat-

ing Kurdish militants tied toinsurgents in its own territory.

Erdogan said 109 “terror-ists” had been killed so far inthe operation, which wouldsoon cover ground fromManbij in northern Syria to theIraqi border some 350 kilome-tres (220 miles) east.

“God willing, we will crush

these snakes’ heads quickly,” hesaid.

“What we are trying to dois prevent the establishment ofa terrorist State on our south-ern border. This cannot hap-pen,” Turkey currently hosts 3.6million refugees from the eight-year conflict in Syria -- thehighest number in the world.

Under a 2016 agreementwith the EU, Turkey agreed toprevent refugees from leavingtowards Europe in exchange forsix billion euros and visa-freetravel for its citizens, but hasfrequently criticised the lack ofassistance from Brussels.

“You have never been sin-cere,” Erdogan said, addressing

the EU.“Now they say they will

withhold three billion eurosfrom us. Have you ever keptany promise you gave us so far?No.”

One aim of the militaryoperation is to establish a “safezone” in which at least one mil-lion Syrian refugees can be

repatriated, after the long-termpresence of refugees became anincreasingly political liability.

“For those who want toreturn to their country butdon’t have a home left anymore,we plan to build settlements forone million people, with inter-national financing,” Erdogansaid.

He also sought to assuageconcerns regarding IslamicState prisoners currently heldby Kurdish forces.

“Those that need to be keptin jail we will keep in jail. Wewill return foreigners to theirhome countries if they acceptthem back,” he said.

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Beirut: Turkey’s president saysthat there have been 109 “ter-rorists killed” — a reference toSyrian Kurdish fighters — sinceAnkara launched an offensiveinto Syria the previous day.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan didnot elaborate and the reports onthe ground did not indicateanything remotely close to sucha large number of casualties.

Erdogan also warned theEuropean Union not to callAnkara’s incursion into Syriaan ‘invasion,’ and renewedhis threat of letting Syrianrefugees flood Europe.

AP

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Abipartisan group of USsenators said on

Wednesday they have agreedon far-reaching sanctions to beslapped on NATO ally Turkeyif its forces do not withdrawfrom neighbouring Syria.

Republican SenatorLindsey Graham said he andDemocrat Chris Van Hollenare introducing legislation thatwould freeze all US assets ofTurkey’s political leadership -- including President RecepTayyip Erdogan, his vice pres-ident and the defense minister.

It would also impose sanc-

tions on entities that do busi-ness with Turkey’s military, orwith oil and gas companiesthat service its armed forces.

Graham and several otherUS lawmakers are furious overPresident Donald Trump’s sud-den military withdrawal frompositions in northern Syria,blasting the move as a betray-al of Kurdish forces who foryears have helped fight Islamicmilitants, and as an effectivegreen light for Turkey tolaunch its long-planned offen-sive.

“While the Administrationrefuses to act against Turkey, Iexpect strong bipartisan sup-

port” for the measure, Grahamsaid on Twitter.

Sanctions would be leviedimmediately upon enactmentof the bill, which requires apresidential signature.

It would remain in effectunless the administrationcertifies to Congress thatTurkey is not operating aloneand has withdrawn its forcesfrom areas occupied duringoperations that beganWednesday.

“These sanctions will haveimmediate, far-reaching con-sequences for Erdogan and hismilitary,” Van Hollen said onTwitter.

Moscow: Russian ForeignMinister Sergei Lavrov saidon Thursday that Ankara andDamascus should discuss theissue of Kurdish forces innortheastern Syria directly,calling Turkey’s cross-borderassault a product of US policies.

“We will strive for thenecessity of dialogue betweenTurkey and Syria,” he said.

Turkey has “legitimate con-cerns about the safety of itsborders” but had not been ableto properly raise them withDamascus as this was “madedifficult by the actions of theAmericans and the coalition”east of the Euphrates river, he

said.“We have warned for many

years about the danger of theexperiment that the Americanswere staging there in an effortto pit the Kurds against Arabtribes,” Lavrov told journalists.

“We warned against play-ing the Kurdish card because itcan end badly,” he said.

Kurdish forces controllingparts of north Syria said theyrepulsed Turkish ground attackson Wednesday and Thursday,but the Turkish defence min-istry insisted its “OperationPeace Spring” would go aheadto curb the power of Kurdishinsurgents. AFP

Washington: US PresidentDonald Trump has said that hehoped Turkey would “act ratio-nally” as the country launchedan operation to invade theKurdish-controlled North Syria.

Warning of actions againstTurkey’s economy, Trump saidthat he would consider movestougher than sanctions ifAnkara does not do the oper-ations in northern Syria in ashumane a way as possible.

“I will wipe out (Turkey’s)his economy if that happens,”Trump told reporters at theWhite House when asked if heis concerned that the TurkishPresident Recep TayyipErdogan will try to wipe out theKurds.

Turkey has launched abroad assault on Kurdish-con-trolled areas in northeasternSyria, with intensive bombard-ment paving the way for aground offensive.

The operation was possibleafter the White Houseannounced on late Sunday thatTurkey would soon carry out amilitary operation in northernSyria and that US troops will nolonger be “in the immediatearea”. Trump said he hopedTurkey President Erdoganwould act rationally in terms ofthe operation in northern Syria.

PTI

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Ukrainian PresidentVolodymyr Zelensky

denied on Thursday thatDonald Trump tried to black-mail him by withholding mil-itary aid to Kiev in a phonecall between the two leaders.

“There was no blackmail,”the comedian-turned-politi-cian told a news conference. Atranscript of the phone con-versation showed Trumpasked Zelensky to investigatehis political rival Joe Biden.

The US president’s requestthat Zelensky probe the activ-ities of Joe Biden’s son Hunterhas sparked an impeachmentprobe in the US, with theDemocrats looking intowhether Trump used adelayed aid package as lever-age.

Trump wanted Kiev toinvestigate Hunter Biden’sactivities in Ukrainian gasfirm Burisma.

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Page 12: ˙ ˇ˝ ˛ ˚ ˇ ˘ ˇ ˆ ˆ - The Pioneer · Singh has been formally invit-ed for the inaugural ceremony. He also said Pakistan will con-tinue to highlight the plight of Kashmiris

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Six-time champion M C MaryKom (51kg) on Thursday sur-

passed herself as the most success-ful boxer in the Women’s WorldChampionship history by securingan unprecedented eighth medalbefore three of her compatriots alsoentered the semifinals here.

The debutant duo of sixthseed Manju Rani (48kg) andJamuna Boro (54kg) along with lastedition's bronze-medallist andthird seed Lovlina Borgohain(69kg) made the medal roundsalong side Mary Kom to ensurethat India equalled their last edi-tion's performance in terms ofnumber of medals won.

The third-seeded Mary Komdefeated a spirited rival inColombia’s Valencia Victoria,fetching a unanimous 5-0 verdictto make the last-four stage.

Rani stunned top seed and lastedition's bronze-medallist KimHyang Mi of South Korea 4-1,while Boro, an Assam Riflesemployee, got the better of

Germany’s Ursula Gottlob by asimilar margin after drainingshowdowns.

Borgohain, on the other hand,pulled off a facile 4-1 triumph overPoland's sixth-seeded KarolinaKoszewska.

“I am very happy to havesecured a medal but I would belooking to make it better by reach-ing the finals," the 36-year-oldMary Kom said after the bout.

“It was a good bout for me andI will now try to improve on thisperformance in the semifinals,” sheadded.

Awaiting Mary Kom in thesemifinals on Saturday, after arest day on Friday, is second-seeded Turk Busenaz Cakiroglu,who is the reigning EuropeanChampionships and EuropeanGames gold-medallist. Cakirogludefeated China's Cai Zongju in herquarterfinal bout.

For Rani, her next opponent isgoing to be Thailand's ChuthamatRaksat, who upstaged fifth seedYuliyanova Asenova. Boro willtake on top seed and former Asian

Games bronze-medallist HuangHsiao-Wen of Chinese Taipei.

Borgohain’s opponent in thesemfinals would be China’s YangLiu, who shocked top seed Chen

Nien-Chin in her quarterfinalclash.

However, two-time bronze-medallist Kavita Chahal (+81kg)bowed out after a 0-5 loss toBelarus’ Katsiaryna Kavaleva.

In a tactful performance, MaryKom waited for her chances anddefended sharply to ensure thatVictoria’s plan to impress thejudges by throwing in more punch-es didn’t yield results.

The Indian’s huge reservoir ofexperience came in handy as sheswung her right arm masterfully toconnect well-placed hooks. Herstraight punches were as effectiveand regularly pierced throughVictoria’s reasonably strongdefence.

With this, Mary Kom betteredher own record as the most suc-cessful boxer in the history of themarquee tournament.

The Manipuri, in terms of

number of medals won, is in factnumero uno cutting across boththe men’s and women’s competi-tions.

Cuban icon Felix Savon is themost successful in the men’s eventwith seven medals — six gold anda silver.

Entering into this edition,Mary Kom had six gold and a sil-ver in her kitty but this is the firsttime, she has secured a worldmedal in the 51kg category. Shehad finished a quarterfinalist inthis division in the past.

The latest achievement hasonly added to her ever-growinglegend.

Besides six world titles, MaryKom’s incredible career is alsostudded with an Olympic bronzemedal (2012), five Asian titles, goldmedals at the Asian Games and theCommonwealth Games, besidesnumerous other international top

finishes. This year alone, she won gold

medals at the India Open inGuwahati and President’s Cup inIndonesia.

She is also a member of theRajya Sabha.

Both Rani and Boro fetchedhard-fought victories, engagedwith strong opponents who hard-ly gave anything away defensively.But the two Indians were remark-ably good in counter-attacks.

“My opponent was ver yaggressive and in the first round,I was quite confused about how tohandle her but eventually I settleddown and it became easier,” Borosaid after her bout.

Later Borgohain had little trou-ble going past Koszewska, whoserather awkward stance compound-ed her problems.

However, three-time Asianmedallist Chahal didn’t seem up toit and produced a rather sloppyshow against a more agileKavaleva, who got the result mere-ly by hitting straight and clean formost part of the bout.

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Opener Mayank Agarwalstamped his authority on astruggling South African

attack with a second successivehundred as India cruised to 273 forthree on the opening day of thesecond Test here.

Play was stopped in the 86thover due to fading light.

The 28-year-old’s rich vein ofform continued as he looked incomplete command for his 108 off195 balls, having made a sublime215 in the series opener inVisakhapatnam last week.

The first day of the secondmatch panned out similar to theway the first Test went as India,leading 1-0 in the series, looked toout-bat the Proteas on a good sur-face.

Along with Cheteshwar Pujara(58), Agarwal added 138 runs forthe second wicket with minimumfuss, despite India losing RohitSharma's (14) wicket in the firsthour itself.

In the final session, skipperVirat Kohli (63 batting off 105balls) was in his element, hittingyet another Test half-century andadding 75 runs for the unbrokenfourth wicket partnership withAjinkya Rahane (18 batting off 70balls). Kohli hit some flowing dri-ves during the final hour and had10 fours to his credit.

The highlight of the day how-ever was Agarwal’s approachagainst both pace and spin, bothof which, he tackled with ease. Hisknock comprised 16 fours and twosixes.

The opener raced to his sec-

ond Test hundred hitting left-arm spinner Keshav Maharajdown the ground for consecutivesixes and then played an intention-al back-cut off Vernon Philanderto complete the coveted mile-stone.

Agarwal’s scoring chart wouldindicate that his innings was a per-fect blend of caution mixed withaggression. He got 74 runs off 18balls in boundaries and theremaining 34 runs came off 177balls.

Among South African pacers,Kagiso Rabada (3/48 in 18.1 overs),hit better lengths during the courseof the day and was easily the mostpotent bowler on view.

Rabada bowled a beautifuldelivery that pitched on length andmoved only a shade to kiss the out-side edge of Rohit’s bat beforegoing into wicketkeeper Quintonde Kock’s gloves.

Rabada was unlucky to missout on a second wicket — of Pujara— when Temba Bavuma, at shortleg, missed a reflex catch. The bats-man was yet to get off the mark atthat stage.

He finally got Pujara, caughtat first slip but not before the IndiaNo.3 had scored his 22nd Test half-century.

During the first hour,Agarwal was all cautiousagainst Philander and Rabadawho bowled a probing firstspell.

He was smart enough towait for the third seamer inrookie Anrich Nortje (0/60 in13 overs) to be introducedinto the attack.

Nortje, with his pace, was

guilty of bowling fuller deliveriesat a drivable length outside the off-stump.

In fact, Dale Steyn’s “use thatshort leg” advice on Twitter, wasmeant for Nortje, advising him toalter the length.

In one of his overs beforelunch, Agarwal hit an off-drive fol-lowed by two cover drives.

In the post lunch session,Nortje tried to hit the back oflength but Agarwal had alreadycompleted his half century andwas well set. The moment Nortjepitched it short, he went back andacross to play a couple of pullshots.

On the other hand, Pujarabegan on a cautious note and itwas only after left-arm spinnerKeshav Maharaj (0/89 in 29 overs)was brought into the attack, theSaurashtra right-hander uppedthe ante.

In his very first over, he usedhis feet to come to the pitch of theball, hitting two elegant on-drives.A third on-drive also came alongthe way off Rabada’s bowling.Watching Pujara use his feetagainst Maharaj, Agarwal got theconfidence in the post-lunch ses-sion in which he got around 50runs.

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For someone who smashed 1000first-class runs in a month’s domes-

tic cricket in 2017, it shouldn’t comeas a surprise that a heavy duty scor-er like Mayank Agarwal knows a thingor two about the art of conversion,feels Cheteshwar Pujara.

Agarwal, a relatively new entrantto the Test arena, has scored his sec-ond Test hundred in as many gamesagainst South Africa, starting with adouble hundred in the series openerin Visakhapatnam.

“He (Agarwal) is an experiencedplayer, who has scored so many first-class runs, which has helped him a lot.And when it comes to being nervousin his 90s, he is someone who is fear-less,” Pujara replied, when askedabout the Karnataka opener showinglittle sign of nerves.

Pujara has seen a lot of Agarwalin the domestic arena and believes it

is the consistent scores in domesticcricket that has made him what he istoday.

“Mayank knows how to convertfifties into big scores and at the same

time, once he goes past hundred, hecan score heavily as we saw in the lastgame,” said Pujara

Pujara himself is someone with apenchant for big knocks. So did he tell

anything to Mayank while their part-nership was on?

“That habit (for big scores) hascome from first class cricket, so I did-n’t have to tell him much. To be hon-est, we were just communicatingwhat their gameplan was.

“If there was an error in his bat-ting, I would just tell him to play closeto his body, when I thought his batwas going away.

Apart from that, he is batting real-ly well and you don’t have to guidehim much.”

Pujara was very happy with thekind of track on offer which has a bitfor everyone and batting first, hethought was a prudent decision.

“It’s a true pitch, where if a fastbowler is bowling well, he can also geta batsman out and if you are batsman,there is value for your shots. Therewas little bit of spin later on. If we haveruns on the board, it won’t be easy tobat in the fourth innings,” he said.

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Kagiso Rabada is slow-ly showing signs of

getting his mojo back asindicated by his spell inthe post lunch session,observed South Africa’sbowling coach VincentBarnes.

Rabada was the onlyProteas bowler, who madesome kind of impact withfigures of 3 for 48 inIndia’s 273 for 3 on thefirst day of the secondTest.

“It was fantastic to seehim bowl, especially, thespell after lunch. I thoughthe bowled well in Vizag(Visakhapatnam) as well.Today, there were a lot ofsigns that he is getting tothe top,” Barnes said at theend of the day’s play.

In fact, patience is thekey for fast bowlers on thistrack as Rabada showed bygetting CheteshwarPujara’s wicket with persis-tence.

“Our focus on this

tour is to bowl to ourstrengths. The plan was tobe patient on a wicketthat was going to give usassistance in the morning,”Barnes said.

“We had to keepbowling in the right areasand they would make mis-takes. Pujara at one stagelooked set and KG(Rabada) bowled in theright area and got thewicket.”

But he did admit thatin the morning sessionwith a bit of luck (Pujarawas dropped on zero),South Africa’s new ballbowlers could have pickedup a couple of more wick-ets.

“When we looked atthe conditions this morn-ing, the window for thefast bowlers was a lotlonger than compared toVisakhapatnam. I thoughtthat we bowled quite wellthis morning. And, with abit of luck, we could havehad a few more wickets,”Barnes said.

���� @A@�+-

The legendary Kapil Devon Thursday heaped

praise on India’s currentpace battery, saying the fastbowlers have changed theface of Indian cricket in thelast four-five years.

Asked whether the cur-rent pace attack is the best,Kapil said, “Do I have to saythat?

“Aisa pace attack humnedekha nahi tha, socha bhinahi tha (we have not seensuch a pace attack and neverthought about it). So onedoes not have to say any-thing and yes without anydoubt, in the last four-five

years the fast bowlers havechanged the face of Indiancricket,” he said.

India currently boast ofa lethal pace attack in JaspritBumrah, Umesh Yadav,

Mohammed Shami, IshantSharma, Deepak Chahar andNavdeep Saini.

In the absence ofBumrah, who has been ruledout of the ongoing Test seriesagainst South Africa , Shamistood up and ran throughthe visiting team's battingline up in the first match inVisakhapatnam.

“No issues about that(not being in the top 10bowlers). How effective he(Shami) has been for theteam is more important. Youhave seen him. Great to seehim doing well and that’s thebottom line,” Kapil said dur-ing a promotional eventhere.

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World champion shuttlerP V Sindhu on

Thursday said she will pickand choose tournaments tostay fit ahead of next year’sTokyo Olympics.

The Olympic qualificationperiod started on April 29with the Badminton WorldFederation (BWF) consideringthe rankings list published onApril 30, 2020, to allocatespots.

Since last year, the BWFhas also made it compulsoryfor the world’s top 15 playersin the singles events and top10 pairs in the doubles disci-plines to play a minimum of

12 out of 15 tournaments ofthe World Tour or face apenalty.

“Since it's the Olympicsyear, each and every tourna-ment is important. You needto be mentally and physicallyfit and maintain your fitnesslevels and give your 100 percent in every tournament,”Sindhu said. “Definitely, I willchoose tournaments since youhave to be injury-free and give100 per cent which is veryimportant...” she added.

The 24-year-oldHyderabad shuttler becamethe first Indian to be crownedworld champion when shedefeated Japan's NozomiOkuhara in August.

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India skipper Virat Kohlion Thursday achieved

another feat when he sur-passed Sourav Ganguly tobecome the second Indiancaptain after Mahendra SinghDhoni to lead the side in 50or more Test matches.TheIndian run-machine was tiedat the second spot with formerskipper Ganguly (49 Tests) inthe list of leading the nation-al side before the start of thesecond Test against SouthAfrica here onThursday.Kohli, whoremained unbeaten on 63 asIndia rode on MayankAgarwal's 108 to post 273/3 atstumps on Day 1, became onlythe second Indian captain tothe landmark of 50 Tests afterDhoni, who had led thenational team 60 times inTests between 2008 and 2014.

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Page 13: ˙ ˇ˝ ˛ ˚ ˇ ˘ ˇ ˆ ˆ - The Pioneer · Singh has been formally invit-ed for the inaugural ceremony. He also said Pakistan will con-tinue to highlight the plight of Kashmiris

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Astrong family unitand support systemis essential when car-ing for a senior lovedone. The senior and

family caregiver both benefitfrom these relationships.However, family caregivers alsoneed breaks in order to take careof aspects of their own lives orsimply a mental rest. Help fromfamily members contributes totheir wellbeing too.

The greatest gifts parentsgive children is nurturing andcaring for them as they grow intoadults. In doing so, parents teachchildren to establish healthyrelationships within the familyunit and beyond, helping chil-dren grow into happy, well-adjusted and successful adults.As life comes full circle, childrenoften have the opportunity toreturn this gift by caring for theirparents as they reach their senioryears.

The senior who needs careoften feels displaced, perhapsinadequate and even resentfulthat they need care. The familycaregiver feels happiness in beingable to help as well as sadness inwatching a parent's healthdecline. Family caregivers oftenfeel taken for granted, unappre-ciated, exhausted with accompa-nying guilt for feeling that way.

Maintaining healthy familyrelationships is critical duringthis time. For the senior, havingother family members visitbreaks the monotony of whatmight otherwise be a mundaneday. Whether visits last a shortperiod of time or perhaps anentire afternoon, time spenttogether can mean the world toa senior. These occasions give thesenior something to look for-ward to which helps increase the

senior's sense of purpose anddecreases feelings of isolation.Family members who live faraway can also contribute bywriting letters, sending picturesand by calling the senior often.These times offer the familymember(s) and senior a chanceto strengthen their own relation-ship, love and respect for oneanother.

The dynamics of any familyare sometimes complicated.Some family members may benegative or abrasive which canbe more harmful than good forthe senior and caregiver alike. Intrying to build healthy relation-ships, plan short visits and eventsthat these personalities may findfun and meaningful. Viewing oldphotographs or playing a simplegame of cards might generatehappy moods and good memo-ries for all.

If family help is unavail-able, the caregiver should seekoutside help. In-home healthcare providers provide respitecare for the family caregiverand supplementary social inter-action with the senior. Thesebreaks from each other offerboth the senior and family care-giver a chance to rejuvenate andappreciate the role each plays inthe other's life; this facilitates acontinued healthy relationship.

Establishing and maintain-ing good work relationships isthe key to a positive workplace.Effective businesses encouragethe development of positive rela-tionships between managers andemployees as well as amongstcoworkers. All businesses canfoster positive workplace rela-tionships by creating a strongmission statement and an upbeatteam-based environment.Strengthen workplace relation-

ships by setting clear expecta-tions, practicing constant com-munication and offering timelyresponses to both positive work-place behavior and employeeissues or concerns

Long term relationshipsrequire care and work to main-tain closeness. Common compo-nents found in successful rela-tionships include: communica-tion, respect, trust, sharing, indi-viduality and self-care. In addi-tion, it is helpful to approach thechallenges and triumphs of life(and the relationship) as a team.Fighting fairly, supporting oneanother and not holding grudgesall help with this goal.

Communication. Listen toyour partner. Avoid blame andjudgment. Do not make assump-tions. Don't let your emotionsdictate your behavior.

A sense of trust is presentwhen each person feels safe to beopen, honest and genuine.Respect helps build this throughnot judging or criticizing theother's opinions, feelings andbeliefs.

When tough times hit, try toremember you're on the sameteam. You either both win orboth lose. Support each otherand work together. Relationshipsare not meant to be a tug of waragainst each other. In fact, youboth should be on the same side

pulling against the world.Deal with problems as they

arise. Conflict is a natural part ofany relationship. Addressing dif-ferences one at a time helps avoidbad feelings spoiling a goodrelationship. Do not holdgrudges; work through the mat-ter and let it go.

Share responsibility anddecision making. Healthy rela-tionships are an equal partner-ship. This applies to the workinvolved as well as the powerdynamics between the couple.

Judging your partner under-mines a relationship. Addressbehavior without criticizing theperson. Know where your part-ner's vulnerable spots are andn-ever use these during conflicts.

Take care of yourself. It isyour responsibility to know whatyou want and determine how toachieve that. Make any requestsof your partner clear and direct.It is not okay to blame someonefor your failure to assert yourself.

Successful relationships takework. They don't happen in avacuum. They occur when thecouples in them take the risk ofsharing what it is that's going onin their hearts and heads.

You can only change your-self, not your partner. If you lovesomeone and think that after awhile he or she will alter behav-iors you find uncomfortable,think again. If you want changes,put them on the table. so yourpartner knows what you need.All arguments stem from ourown fear or pain.

When upset occurs, checkout what's going on inside of yourather than get angry with yourpartner. Truth is that we usual-ly aren't upset for the reasons wethink we are.

Understand that men andwomen are very different. We'renot from Mars or Venus; we'renot even in the same solar sys-tem. Understanding and cele-brating our differences will makeliving together more peaceful,interesting, and fun.

Honor each other in someway every day. Every morningyou have the opportunity tomake your relationship sweeterand deeper by recommitting toyour mate. Feeling respectedand cherished by the one youlove makes life much nicer.

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Can you recall your childhood dayswhen you would stare at the sky, lying

down silently in the lawn, imagining dif-ferent shapes of the clouds or trying tocount the stars? Well, little did we knowthat this would become a muse for adesigner someday. With climate changehaving come into focus, nature hasbecome an inspiration for designers too,as it triggers ideas for some of the mostbeautiful forms of art. So is the case withdesigners Samant Chauhan and RimzimDadu, who showcased their collection atFDCI’s Lotus Make-up India FashionWeek day 1. While the former drew inspi-ration from the Milky Way galaxy, the ideaof movement and fluidity of the oceaninspired the latter.

Samant said that his recent trip to SpitiValley reminded him of The Starry Night,Dutch post-impressionist painter VincentVan Gogh’s masterpiece. His vision wasto translate the famous artwork into hisdesigns, which is clearly evident from hisall-black collection adorned with silverpatches. He said, “When Van Goghmade the painting, perhaps he predictedthat it would be difficult to see the starsin the coming years. We would have totravel 600 km for two days for such a view.It is going to be rare.”

Light music, images of dark midnightblue and purple and the sparkling stars,decorating the sky, on the screen at theback, gave the audience the tranquil vibeof sitting under a starry sky. The design-er, known for his obsession with mono-chromes, usually plays with white but thisis the second time he has tried his handson black. He said, “In the first one, I show-cased how I view black from the prism ofnostalgia. And this collection shows howI see and perceive black now.” It wasimportant for him to showcase his cur-rent definition of black as he said, “a tripto the picturesque valley in HimachalPradesh has changed my definition ofblack.”

In this cut-throat competition, everydesigner wants to come out with the best.They want to lead the market, be it withtheir distinctive colours or designs. ButChauhan is not bothered about this com-petition. He said, “We don’t follow a trendor the forecast. We focus on bringingnewness and freshness in our collection.”

The collection which had 37 looks,ranged from bell sleeved silk embroideredgown with a trail, peplum with embroi-dered trousers, corset with denim andembroidered organza cape, embroideredballoon sleeve jacket style gown and manymore. The fabric “ranged from sheer silk,cotton linen, organza to sheer,” saidChauhan. He added that the embroidery,which was a combination of handmade

and machine, was not woven on the typ-ical tussar silk but into his stapleBhagalpuri.

It was constant in almost all his col-lections, and was too heavy to make wayfor jewelleries. The embroidery gave aglimpse of nature as it had leaves, flow-ers, uncarved branches and silver patch-es all around resembling the stars. Themodels had similar hairstyles — a neatbun tied with a Victorian-style bow.

Another show was of Rimzim, whois known for presenting her styles in aunique manner. Her shows always havean element of surprise, be it using virtu-al reality on the ramp or creating a life-size maze in the show. Even this time, shedid not miss on the surprise element.

We have often seen the ramps dec-orated with trees, flowers, wooden and sil-ver artworks or a play of light and shad-ows for sure. But have you ever seensculpted steel sculptures hanging in midair? This naturally ignited the curiosityamong the audience.

The spirals and movements on thescreen throughout, clearly indicatedtowards her commitment to her experi-mentation. She said, “I am inspired by allkinds of movements, be it frozen in timeor sculpted in a material. They have asense of fluidity and this attracts me themost.”

Rimzim used her signature materi-als like steel wires and metallic cords tocreate structured yet fluid garments.Though the clothes appeared rigid from

far because of the wires butwere actually malleable andsoft to wear.

The collection depictedsculpted fluidity in the formof silhouettes. It ranged fromwhite floral shirts with blackfoil trousers and black beltbag to powder blue Nehrujacket with diamond shirtand white laptop bag towave skirt paired with wave off-shoulder blouse and emeraldbag. The collection was colour-ful as it was intended to give afestive touch. There were jeweltones of gold, bronze, emer-ald and teal.

Even the footwear of themodels were made of steelwires which totallymatched with their outfits.They had straight andsimple hairstyles withglitter all over it to giveit a shine.

The designer alsolaunched her first evermenswear collectionwith metal bomberjackets, texturedNehru and sherwanijackets aiming to filla gap in the pro-gressive menswearfashion genre.

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Aesthetics is a deeply individualistic thing, buteven then there are certain things, cars, build-

ings, watches and gadgets that fit into the pretty orugly categories. You can debate endlessly aboutAdrian van Hooydonk’s new massive snouted BMW4-series coupe, but the Maruti-Suzuki S.Presso isone of those cars that fails the test. Particularly, therear-end, with its articulated shock-absorber, andtyres that seem awfully small and looks horrible.But history has taught us that when people find acar which has a lot of value attached to it, they donot care about its looks. The success of the origi-nal Hyundai Santro being a case in point. This isparticularly true at the entry-level of the market.It is not as if there cannot be attractive small hatch-backs, the Daewoo Matiz was a smart looking carbut its Korean rival smashed it in the sales charts,even Maruti’s A-star, which was an attractive designflopped.

Looks therefore, one can safely assume, is notthe most important thing for entry-level car buy-ers. Practicality is and, frankly, on that front Marutidelivers. The S.Presso is based on Suzuki’s Heartect-K platform, the ‘K’ standing for Japan’s small ‘Kei’cars, which got tax benefits. It has been modifiedto make it slightly longer and wider, but much likethe old WagonR. This is a narrow albeit tall car. Andas a result of that, Maruti’s designers (for this is avehicle like the Vitara Brezza that was designed withIndian designers and engineers at the heart of theprogramme) have effectively made a proper suc-cessor to the old WagonR, since the new third-gen-eration WagonR is bigger and wider than everbefore. So one can say that the new WagonR is actu-ally a Swift in an ugly suit. And like the old WagonR,the S.Presso has oodles of space. Maruti’s design-ers have made a spacious cabin with lots of stor-age cubbyholes and a large boot given the car’s size.The tall-boy stance also makes ingress and egressvery easy although while Maruti claims this to bea five seater but two large guys willtake up all the space at theback. The steering col-umn is not adjustableand the central-mounted instru-ment cluster takesa bit of gettingused to, but theoverall layout ispretty good. Thesteering mount-ed controls are ahuge plus,although the shinyplastic trim on thetop variants reflectsoff the windscreen and if you findyourself driving with the setting sun

behind you, like I did, this is extremely irritating. How does this drive? Well, Maruti’s K10B petrol

engine that does service on several of Maruti’s othersmall cars finds its way onto this one as well, andas far as small, naturally-aspirated engines go, it isthe best in the business. I am not sold on theAutomated Manual Transmission (AMT) on thiscar, or any other for that matter, but with the man-ual gearbox this one is peppy off the line and cango plenty fast, all the while returning great fuel econ-omy.

Now, that ‘tall’ stance makes one assume thatthe shock-absorbers have a lot of travel, whichmeans ride over bad roads and rough surfaces ispretty good. After all, Maruti is marketing this asa ‘mini-SUV’ and it even has a front grille inspiredby the Brezza. But, great ride is compromised bypoor handling, particularly at speed. The S.Presso,as we have stated time and again, rides very high,and after two decades of evaluating cars, one canlook at a car and immediately determine that tak-ing a corder hard on a vehicle is a dangerous propo-sition. I’m not staying it takes corners really badlyas there are several other cars that are as bad but Iwould brake and take a corner at a reasonable speedwith the S.Presso. Modern Marutis have been a hootto drive for the Baleno and the Swift are immensefun around corners and you can really push themthrough sweeping turns. But at city speeds and onIndia’s fairly straight highways, you would not noticea thing.

This is in essence an urban car, spacious andeconomical, perfect for a young couple as long asthey don’t have to look at it and when you are insidethe car you really do not have to look at it. That said,the ‘special edition’ variants where the cars have abit more plastic cladding and contrasting colours,particularly the ‘Energetic’, make it look muchsmarter and considering that most dealer kits makecars look worse, this was a pleasant surprise. It is

a very practical car and while it may notgive you the caffeine shot that

the name promises, it mightjust do that to Maruti-

Suzuki’s moribundsales of late.

Certainly, the joy of reading is adeeply personalised experience,depending on the associative

imagery and perception it creates in themind. But storytelling connects you toothers, the sound and rhythm of wordshelping you construct a picture that youcan share with others and even takesomething from them.

Author Shaguna Gahilote, co-direc-tor of the Kathakar Storytelling Festival,looks at it this way — it is one thing tobe reading a story and another to visu-alise the same story and experience italong with personal references andanecdotes told live. “If you read some-thing and hear the same story in anopen space, you’d feel about it so differ-ently. This festival is all about that andso unique. You will understand what themagic of storytelling is,” she says,adding that listening to the story in thatparticular ambience and absorbing thatvibe makes it worthwhile. “This is alsoa reason why we have chosen an oldvenue this time” — Sunder Nursery, a16th-century heritage park complexadjacent to Humayun’s Tomb.

The festival’s 12th edition this yearhas some new elements. She says, “Wehave added an element of music to sto-rytelling this time, a throwback to thetradition of the bard. Of course, the ideahas originated from Mohit Chauhan,our patron. We have invited a few sto-rytellers who tell stories through music.They have flown from Australia, Swedenand Poland. Then there are enchantingBuddhist monks and a disciple ofTaufiq Qureshi.”

A bunch of professional and pas-sionate raconteurs from all over theworld will also be present. With 17 ses-sions in total post-sunset, the festivalwill also feature morning segments ina string of Delhi schools. “The morn-ing sessions facilitate the participationof children from Delhi’s municipal,

government, private, community andcivil society school. The sessions aredivided in primary and secondary levelwhere children from the age group ofeight years onwards listen to stories,”says she.

There will be a focus on India’s rareart forms and native folktales, who willrub shoulders with those from Romania,Mongolia, Lithuania and the UnitedKingdom. So how did she and Prathana,sister and co-director, first conceptualisethis festival? They started it in 2010when the Right to Education was intro-duced and in every annexure mentionedthat all schools should have a librarywith books and newspapers. “As part ofUNESCO, we had been buildinglibraries in schools for underprivilegedchildren but not many of them wouldpick up the books or read them fond-ly. Someone had to read out the booksto them to help them understand it bet-ter and find it interesting. This realisa-tion hit us.

We brainstormed and came toanother realisation that there was a timewhen no written text was there for peo-ple to experience stories. They onlyheard them. And they travelled fromone person to another and across gen-erations. Even we have only heard so

many stories that were really ancient,”says she. The sisters thought that sucha festival would not just revive ancientfolklores but also preserve them. Thefestival was hence launched under theaegis of UNESCO as part ofGhummakkad Narain, a travelling liter-ature festival in memory of ThakurVishva Narain Singh, the first Brailleeditor in India.

Well, little did they know that start-ing out from a handful of people, about250 of them, they would host a footfallof more than 10,000 people per day dur-ing the three-day event.

This generation’s growing depen-dence on technology and the easyavailability of things in the comfort ofone’s home have changed the idea of sto-rytelling greatly. With digital media andonline content, there has been a declinein people’s physical movement or liveexperiences. However, Shaguna believes,“We don’t do this festival everyday orevery month. Even though you can lis-ten to or watch or read stories sitting in

the comfort of your homes, such thingsare worth experiencing once in a longtime. It’s different. There, you live thestory.”

Over the years, the festival hasdrawn celebrities too, like spiritualspeaker Sadhguru, filmmaker Imtiaz Aliand a few Dastangos. While Imtiaz willbe hosting the closing show, Kissey,Kahani aur Cinema, telling his storiesof filmmaking, this is the first time thefestival will see Buddhist chanting byGrammy awardee monks from theSherabling Monastery, HimachalPradesh. There are other first-timers too— performance of two Polish story-tellers, one of whom, Emilia Raiter, isa renowned harpist and sings Polish bal-lads. Uncle Larry Walsh, an Australianaborigine storyteller, will be travellingwith Ron Murray, a didgeridoo player,to tell tales of the indigenous people.“This will be the first time that anindigenous storyteller will perform inIndia,” says Shaguna when we ask herabout how the team has chosen the sto-

ries, which can also be targeted toinspire the youth and develop theirsocial awareness. She adds, “Every sto-ryteller has a long list of stories to telland they’re usually with a moral, some-thing that relates to the audience.”

UK-based Emily Hennessey willperform Indian folktales of Kali and theMahabharata. “Even though she couldhave told the tales of English epics orculture, we have specifically asked herto narrate Indian folklore. She has per-formed a lot on some aspects andepisodes of Mahabharata even in theUK,” says Shaguna.

Kerala’s traditional Tholpavakoothupuppeteers will enchant the audiencewith their famed shadow theatre basedon the theme of Tamil epic KambaRamayana. Theatre artist DanishHussain will be presenting “a self-directed adaptation” of Qissebazi: AMultilingual Storytelling Orbit.

“We also have actor Manoj Bajpayeeperforming as a storyteller along withMohit,” she adds.

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It was while walking through the cor-ridors of The Imperial hotel that Icame across a small, dark and an

almost secret entrance that teleportedme to Chiang Mai with its Thai sculp-tures. For it was The Spice Routerestaurant, designed to reflect the jour-ney of spices from the Malabar Coast inKerala through Sri Lanka, Malaysia andIndonesia to Thailand and Vietnam,where I was dining. The place is an over-whelming visual depiction of the art andculture that also travelled with thespices through these regions.

Coming to the reason that I washere, the restaurant was celebrating thefirst-ever Asian Market with the aim toexplore the best of South-East Asian cui-sine. This is essentially the food that isfound not in the restaurants but in thehouses of the locals. Chef de CuisineVeena Arora has carefully crafted themenu to delve into the expanse of South-East Asian cuisine.

No sooner had I sat down that thevery first dish was brought to the table.Khao Tang Naa Tang, a crispy rice cake,was served with a creamy and savourydip, made with coconut milk and sprin-kled with corns too. It reminded me ofthe good old sabudana papad (sago pap-padum) as it was super crispy. The driedcrackers are usually paired with shrimpsauce but here, the creamy dip was anexceptional alternative for vegetarianslike me. The dish was accompanied bytheir signature drink — Green Velvet. Itook a sip, smacked my lips and uttered,“Sprite,” for that was the taste that seepedthrough. Though it seemed to be awashin the colour of the bottle that the drinkis packaged in. It was dark green. I couldeasily make out the ingredients —mint, khus syrup, lemonade and Sprite,of course.

Local food culture not only inspiresus in our daily lives but helps us stay con-nected with our roots, believes the chefwho was born and brought up inThailand. Her biggest dream has always

been to expose the Indian palate to thetraditions of her place of birth. WithAsian Market, she is delighted to bringforth the local exotic dishes whichhave not been explored earlier or beena part of the restaurant’s menu, ever.

Chef Veena elaborated, “People inSouth-East Asia, just like Indians, do notsegregate their meals into appetisers ora main course. Everything is eatentogether. Because Thai food is spicy, weneed a soup along with it to balance theflavours as well as snacks to go with themeal.”

Next up was Malaysian assortedvegetables with curry where the gravyhad a hint of sweetness and was filledwith corns, mushrooms and broccoli. Itwas served with jasmine rice and PhakBunk Man-Korn, which is wok friedmorning glory with garlic and chilliesflavoured with Thai soya bean paste. Thestem of morning glory is thick but hol-low inside. This combined a crunchytexture and juiciness at the same time.

And flavouring it with Thai soya beanpaste elevated the taste to the next levelwhile making it super convenient foranyone to cook them.

Chef Veena apprised us, “Morningglory is something that is found in Indiaas well but people are not really awareof it. You can cook it in Thai or Indianstyle. And it hides a secret, that it is full

of iron. People in India think that onlysome leafy veggies such as spinach, let-tuce and fenugreek contain it. Morningglory can be cooked in the exact samemanner just like all of the above. Onecan make pakoras with it too.”

Amidst the endlessly appetisingfare, laughter and conversations, chefVeena also did a live cookout for herspecial — the noodle soup, where sheadded a range of spices — fennel, cin-namon, cardamom, star anise and gin-ger — in the boiling water which madeit seem just right for the approachingwinter. Noodles, roasted garlic, brownshallot, coriander, bean sprouts, soysauce, crushed peanuts and chilli flakessprinkled on the top further enhancedthe taste and made it look appetising.

The expanse of flavours and tex-tures that different regions in South-East Asia have to offer are immense andthis is what the Asian Market attempt-ed to showcase — the diversity inindigenous cuisine.

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THAI WAY OR MY WAY

We all love getting kitchentips as those little tricks

help us become better cooks. Butsometimes we need to introspectand stop doing certain things. It’stime we unlearn and learn.

NOT READING THERECIPE ALL THE WAYTHROUGH

Before you start cooking,make sure you have all theingredients, you think throughthe timing of the steps and lookup for directions that might beconfusing. This way, you don’tfind yourself staring at therecipe in dismay when thewords marinate overnight orchill for at least four hours popup.

USING TOO SMALL A TOOLHave you ever tried blend-

ing dough in a small bowl ortransferring a casserole into atoo-tight baking dish or chop-ping a pound of spinach on atiny cutting board or using aparing knife to dismantle asquash? Well, bigger is betterwhen it comes to kitchen prepa-ration. It means less mess, lessoverflow in the oven and, often,more safety.

WORKING WITH A DULLKNIFE

Sharp knives are safer thandull ones that slip and slide. Ifyou don’t have a knife-sharpen-ing tool, “There are lots ofstores and services that canhelp you out,” says Alison Cayne,founder of Haven’s Kitchencooking school in New YorkCity. “You are not expected toknow how to sharpen yourself.”Many kitchen stores, likeWilliams-Sonoma or Sur laTable, will sharpen knives, andyou can look for other placesonline. You might even be ableto get your knives picked up anddropped off.

OVERCOOKINGRemember to account for

“carry-over cooking” — the fact

that when you take food fromthe heat, it will continue to cook.Carry-over cooking is oftendiscussed with meat, sincemeat’s internal temperature willcontinue to rise even after youpull it from a hot pan. Porkchops can go from just done andjuicy to dry and tough. Butcarry-over cooking also appliesto lots of foods, including bakedgoods and vegetables. Roastedasparagus that comes out of theoven tender can get too softupon sitting, so pull it out a fewminutes before it’s reached thedoneness you are looking for.

CUTTING MEAT BEFOREIT HAD A CHANCE TOREST

Allowing meat and poultryto sit for a while after it isremoved from the stove, grill oroven not only lets it finishcooking but ensures that thejuices stay inside, where theybelong. When meat cooks, itsprotein fibers contract, and ifyou cut into it right away theywon’t have had a chance to relaxand reabsorb the juices. This iswhy you might cut into a steakright off the grill and see it per-fectly cooked to a beautiful rareor medium rare, and then a fewminutes later it seems to havelost its rosy hue, and all its juicesare on the cutting board. Letthick steaks rest 8 to 10 minutesbefore cutting. Big roasts orwhole birds should rest between20 and 30 minutes before carv-ing. This may seem like a longtime, but rest assured the meatwill still be warm.

GETTING DISTRACTEDDana Cowin, editor in chief

of Food and Wine Magazine forover 20 years, and author of“Mastering My Mistakes in theKitchen,” says that after workingwith numerous chefs andexperts, “Here’s what I learnedNOT to do: Don’t get distract-ed. Don’t answer your email,help your kid with homework orcatch up on the news. When

you’re distracted, that’s when thepine nuts burn, the butter black-ens, the caramel hardens, thechicken dries out, the meal getsruined.”

SEASONING THE DISHONLY ONCE

Don’t just salt the onionsyou are sauteing for the sauceand call it a day. Conversely,don’t make the whole saucerecipe and add salt at the end.Add a bit of salt, and adjust otherseasonings as you build thedish, tasting as you go, if possi-ble.

FORGETTING TO SALTTHE COOKING WATER

Add salt to the water —whether for pasta, vegetables,poaching shrimp or chicken —until it actually tastes salty. Yourfood won’t absorb all this salt bya long shot, but it will becomeseasoned and more flavorful.For pasta, grains or some veg-etables like potatoes, this reallymakes a difference, as the starchis absorbing the salted water asit cooks.

SKIMPING ON THE TIME ITTAKES TO FULLY PREHEATYOUR OVEN

The beep indicating youroven has reached the desiredtemperature is probably a bitpremature, says DorieGreenspan, author of the cook-book “Everyday Dorie: TheWay I Cook.” Says Greenspan:“An oven repair person once toldme that when the light on myoven indicated that it hadreached temperature, I shouldwait another 15 minutes beforeputting in whatever I was bak-ing. The oven needs that time tobe truly at temperature, and tobe able to hold its temperaturewhen you open the door. Thisis particularly important withcookies because they bake forsuch a short time.” She adviseskeeping a thermometer in youroven.

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Page 16: ˙ ˇ˝ ˛ ˚ ˇ ˘ ˇ ˆ ˆ - The Pioneer · Singh has been formally invit-ed for the inaugural ceremony. He also said Pakistan will con-tinue to highlight the plight of Kashmiris

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Kenya’s Olympic and worldchampion Eliud Kipchoge

said Thursday he was confidentof busting the mythical two-hour barrier for the marathonthis weekend, an achievementhe ranks with man's first land-ing on the moon.

The 34-year-old will makethe attempt on Saturday inVienna in a huge park wherethe path has been specially pre-pared to make it as even as pos-sible. Two years ago he tried,and failed narrowly, at Monza,Italy

Kipchoge already holdsthe men’s world record for thedistance with a time of 2hr01min 39sec, which he set inthe flat Berlin marathon onSeptember 16, 2018.

But now, on a surface part-ly retarred and prepared withother features such as a bankedcorner that can save time andavoid injury, he is aiming to seta new mark. He will be aidedby pacemakers, who are takingturns to support him.

Because of way the run isbeing set up and paced theInternational Association ofAthletics Federations will not

validate the time as a worldrecord.

“Vienna is (about) runningand making history in thisworld, like the first man to go

to the moon,” Kipchoge toldreporters Thursday at a pressconference in the Austriancapital, adding he wanted toshow that "no human is limit-

ed”.“The course is extremely

good. I'm happy with thecourse,” he said, adding hewas trying to “stay as calm as

possible” for Saturday.The 42.195-kilometre

(26.219-miles) stretch has beenprepared so that it should takehim just about 4.5 secondsmore than a computer-simulat-ed completely flat and straightcourse, according to an analy-sis by sports experts at ViennaUniversity.

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to descend 26 metres in alti-tude down and climb 12metres, the experts said.

Kipchoge attempted thefeat in May 2017 on the MonzaNational Autodrome racingcircuit in Italy, finishing in atime of 2hr 00min 25sec.

He says he is mentallystronger now and he is “confi-dent” that he can get it “the sec-ond time”.

“My training has been thesame, my coach has been thesame, my management, every-thing has been the same. Nowthe thinking is different," hesaid.

“I feel more prepared. I feelmore ready.”

Kipchoge will begin hisrun between 5:00 am (0300GMT) and 9:00 am — theexact time will only be setFriday -- amid favourableweather conditions: very lowwind speed, temperatures of 5to 9 degrees Celsius (41-48Fahrenheit), and no rain,according to organisers.

The founder of the mainsponsors, Ineos, British billion-aire Jim Ratcliffe, is taking apersonal interest in the chal-lenge because he himself com-petes in Ironman triathlons.

The world marathonrecord has, for the past 16years, been contested unique-ly between athletes from Kenyaand Ethiopia. The two nationsare also fierce rivals for dis-tance medals on the track.

Kipchoge's record wasalmost beaten last month in theBerlin marathon by Ethiopia'sKenenisa Bekele, who ran2:01.41, just two seconds shortof the world mark.

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An experimental Germanyteam leaked two second-half goals as a weakened

Argentina side, minus superstarLionel Messi, earned a 2-2 draw ina friendly in Dortmund.

Germany flew into a 2-0 leadthanks to first-half goals by SergeGnabry and Kai Havertz, but LucasAlario turned the game in the sec-ond-half when he came on forArgentina on Wednesday.

The Leverkusen striker pulleda goal back, then set up LucasOcampos for the late equaliseragainst a German team whichincluded four debutants.

Freiburg pair, defender RobinKoch, a late call-up on Monday whowas thrust into a makeshift backthree at the last-minute, and strik-er Luca Waldschmidt started.

Leverkusen forward NadiemAmiri and Schalke midfielder SuatSerdar came on to make their sec-ond-half debuts.

The Germans had already beenforced into a hastily re-arrangeddefence as Koch replaced centre-back Niklas Stark, who pulled outbefore kick-off with a stomachbug.

Despite 13 withdrawals due toeither illness or injury, Germanyimpressed early against anArgentina team missing Messi,Sergio Aguero and Angel di Maria.

With Messi suspended for com-ments made at the Copa America,Juventus' Paulo Dybala partneredLautaro Martinez up front forArgentina.

This match was a repeat of the2014 World Cup final, yet

Argentina's Manchester Uniteddefender Marcos Rojo was the onlysurvivor when the Germans won inRio de Janeiro.

He partnered Manchester Cityveteran Nicolas Otamendi in anArgentina defence which crumbledearly on.

A week after scoring four goalsfor Bayern Munich at Tottenham,Gnabry put Germany ahead on 15

minutes.The winger used his pace when

Atletico Madrid's Angel Correalost possession to get in behind thedefence to stab the ball pastArgentina goalkeeper AugustinMarchesin.

When Rojo then lost the ball toWaldschmidt, Gnabry turnedprovider, using his pace to presentHavertz with a simple tap-in on 22

minutes.Argentina let their frustrations

show as Otamendi and Rodrigo dePaul were booked for clatteringJulian Brandt and Gnabry respec-tively.

It should have been 3-0 whenBrandt just failed to connect witha Niklas Suele header with the goalat his mercy as it stayed 2-0 at thebreak.

However, the South Americanshad the best of the second-half,starting when Argentina coachLionel Scaloni put Alario on forDybala on 62 minutes.

The Leverkusen striker showedhis strength in the air to head pastBarcelona goalkeeper Marc-Andreter Stegen four minutes later.

The visitors equalised whenAlario set up Sevilla's LucasOcampos, a second-half replace-ment for Correa, to blast past terStegen five minutes from time.

The match was preceded by aminute's silence in memory of thetwo people shot dead in theGerman city of Halle earlierWednesday in an anti-Semiticattack.

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Former Indian footballcaptain Bhaichung Bhutia

on Thursday said that the for-ward line of the current teamis heavily dependent on SunilChhetri and the other play-ers need to step up and scoregoals.

Bhuita said that theteam’s defence has alreadyshowed a good account ofitself in the last two WorldCup qualifier matches andthe onus is on the strikers todeliver against Bangladesh onOctober 15 here.

“Our main concern hasbeen defending and if theycan maintain that it's okay.Now this Bangladesh game isgoing to be a big test for thestrikers. It’s not the defencebut the forward line whichwill have to deliver," Bhutiatold PTI in an interview.

“I think against Qatar (inthe drawn match), Indiadefended well. We definitelyrequire more goal-scoringstrikers. We need to improveour striking zone as it's onlySunil who's able to score. Ifhe's not playing or does notscore it becomes very, verydifficult.”

The draw against Qatarin Doha in their last matchgave India their first point inround two of the World Cupqualifiers after they had tast-ed a 1-2 defeat against Omanin their Group E openingclash in Guwahati.

India need to beatBangladesh here to keep theirhopes of qualifying for thenext round alive. Bangladeshare currently ranked 187th,83 places below India.

"The way they haveplayed the last two games, itshould come easy for Indiaand they should win it com-fortably," the former captainsaid.

He also spoke aboutIndia’s spirited display againstQatar, especially by the defen-sive unit led by goalkeeperGurpreet Singh Sandhu whothwarted a barrage of attacksto come out on a clean slate.

“It’s been great and fan-tastic last two matches, one ofthe best that India haveplayed. But it has to go on.You have set a standard nowthat has to be kept. The con-sistency and the performancethe way they played the lasttwo matches has to continue.

“Defensive, formation,discipline and keeping it tightwere the biggest takeways.They played compact foot-ball. Gurpreet is one of thefantastic goalkeepers. I was inthe committee of ArjunaAwards, I knew whatGurpreet has done,”" he saidon Gurpreet who wasbestowed with the ArjunaAward recently.

Talking about centreback Sandesh Jhingan, Bhutiasaid, “He is one player whogives everything on the pitch.That’s been from day onewhen I first saw him as a 17-year-old boy at UnitedSikkim.”

The footballer-turned-Hamro Sikkim Party leader,who is contesting theGangtok bye-elections onOctober 21, also said that theIndian team should playmore often in Kolkata wherethe crowd normally turnsup in large numbers.

“It’s the Mecca of Indianfootball and it's nice andinteresting to play at theSaltlake Stadium. I feel thatIndia should play more oftenin Kolkata,” Bhutia said.

India last played inKolkata on November 16,2011 in a friendly matchagainst Malaysia when theywon 3-2 with Chhetri settingup the win with a brace.

The ticket sales are on ahigh with 34,000 already soldout for the match at Saltlakethat last hosted a marqueegame in the U-17 WorldCup summit clash betweenEngland and Spain inOctober 2017.

“It’s unfortunate that it'ssomehow taken eight yearsfor Kolkata to host an Indiamatch. I'm sure the footballfans in Kolkata will alsoenjoy,” Bhutia said.

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Roger Federer lookedunusually flustered as he

reached the quarter-finals ofthe Shanghai Masters onThursday with victory overBelgium’s David Goffin.

The 13th-seed Goffinsquandered five set points inthe first set before the Swisssuperstar pulled through 7-6 (9/7), 6-4 in just under twohours. The 38-year-old playsGermany’s Alexander Zverevor Andrey Rublev in the lasteight.Third-ranked Federerand Goffin had played one

another 10 times before, withthe Belgian winning onlyonce. But he had the 20-timeGrand Slam winner rattled

and shaking his head in thefirst set.

Federer, regularly sere-naded by chants of “Roger,

Roger, go go go” by local sup-porters, had a rare inelegantmoment in the 12th game,slipping on some of his ownsweat.

The Swiss fell awkward-ly to the court and was thenbroken by Goffin, 14th in theworld.

Federer was 3-1 down inthe first-set tie break andGoffin had another set pointat 6-5, but he put his returnwide as his nerve failed him.

Federer needed no invi-tation to take full advantageand carried that momentuminto the second set.

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Neymar became the youngest play-er to make 100 appearances for

Brazil on Thursday but the Paris Saint-Germain forward had to settle for a1-1 draw as he failed to score in afriendly with Senegal in Singapore.

Roberto Firmino opened thescoring for the Copa America cham-pions with a stunning lob after aCoutinho lay-off in the eighth minute.

As the half progressed, the liveli-er Senegal became, driven on by theircaptain Cheikhou Kouyate.

Famara Diedhiou levelled fromthe penalty spot just before half-timeafter Sadio Mane was dragged downin the area.

Neymar, who was not in the sidethat won the Copa America in June,had a relatively quiet game but wentclose with a 67th minute free-kick.

He then teed up Richarlisonwhose shot from the edge of the boxflashed wide. Ismaila Sarr and Maneboth had chances to snatch the game

for the Lions of Teranga.Although he failed to get on the

scoresheet, it was still a big day for the27-year-old, who became one ofseven Brazilians to reach 100 caps.

He has scored 61 goals for theSelecao, making him the third high-est scorer in the history of his nation-al team.

Neymar is one behind Ronaldobut needs 16 to catch Pele who onlyplayed 92 matches. He has also pro-vided 41 assists.

He won an Olympic gold medalin Rio de Janeiro in 2016 but has expe-rienced many disappointments for hisnational team, particularly at theWorld Cup.

In 2014, in Brazil, a back injuryin the quarter-finals against Colombiaprevented him from being on the fieldfor the 7-1 semi-final thrashing fromGermany.

He scored twice during the tour-nament in Russia four years later, butBrazil were dumped out at the quar-ter-final stage by Belgium.

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New England coach ChrisSilverwood says his priority is to

help Test captain Joe Root as they tar-get a successful Ashes campaign inAustralia in two years’ time.

The 44-year-old was this weekpromoted from fast bowling coach toreplace World Cup-winning headcoach Trevor Bayliss, who steppeddown last month at the end of hiscontract.

Silverwood will take charge of thetour of New Zealand, which includesa five-match Twenty20 series, start-ing on November 1, and two Tests.

“I think (there's a good) relation-ship between myself and the two cap-tains (Root and Eoin Morgan), andI’ve got a strong relationship with allthe players and backroom staff,"Silverwood said at his unveiling pressconference on Thursday.

“I understand how the systemworks, how the team works. That con-tinuity is key.”

Silverwood said improving thefortunes of the Test team underRoot's captaincy would be his top pri-ority.

England won the 50-over WorldCup in July for the first time but failedto wrest back the Ashes fromAustralia, who retained the urn aftera 2-2 draw.

Their next Test tour of Australiais in 2021-22.

“Job number one is helping Joe —we’ve got a lot of support around Joe,but to keep moving forward so thatin two years’ time we can go toAustralia and make a real impact,” hesaid.

England’s aim is to become themost successful team in internation-

al cricket across all formats.Silverwood said the Test team

would have to learn to bat for longperiods, build on their bowling suc-cess and become more consistentaway from home.

Ashley Giles, managing directorof England men’s cricket, explainedwhy he labelled Silverwood "thestandout candidate".

“His character, his values, he’s awinner,”said Giles. "You can onlyprove that in the environment you'rein and he's proven that in the domes-tic game.”

Silverwood, who played six Testsand seven one-day internationals forEngland between 1996 and 2002,coached Essex to the CountyChampionship title in 2017 beforejoining the England set-up.

“The job he did at Essex was fan-tastic and we're still seeing that lega-cy now. I think the sign of a goodcoach is leaving the club better thanyou found it and that seems to be inevidence,” Giles said.

“The relationship, the knowl-edge of what we’re doing — we’ve gotan exceptional bloke who cares deeplyabout what we're doing.”

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American teenager Coco Gauffreached her maiden WTA quarter-

final on Wednesday, assuring herself ofa place in the world top 100 for the firsttime. Gauff, currently ranked at 110, was4-6, 6-4, 2-0 ahead when Ukrainianopponent Kateryna Kozlova retiredfrom their Linz second round clash witha left leg injury.

At 15 years and 214 days, she is theyoungest player to reach the last-eightat a WTA event since January 2005 whenSesil Karatancheva made the quarter-finals at the Gold Coast, aged 15 yearsand 153 days.

“I know her, oh wow," Gauff toldwtatennis.com. “It’s a good accom-plishment, and hopefully I can contin-ue to push that to the semi-finals.

“I guess that I’m used to being theyoungest to do a lot of things, and I hopethat I can continue to do that and enjoymy youth years, because as everyone tells

me, it doesn't last long.” Gauff, who elec-trified Wimbledon by coming throughqualifying on her way to the last-16 andthen made the third round at the USOpen, only secured a place in the maindraw in Austria as a ‘lucky loser' whensixth seed Maria Sakkari withdrew.

She made the most of her lateopportunity by beating Stefanie Voegelein the opening round on Tuesday.

Gauff was 685 in the world at the

start of 2019 and admitted that makingthe top 100 by the end of the season wasone of her major ambitions.

“It’s been a goal of mine. In Januaryof this year, I sent a message to my friendsaying I wanted to finish Top 100, andat the time I was ranked, like, 800, so itwas a far-fetched goal, but I'm glad thatI was able to accomplish it,” she said.

“My other goal was to get in themain draw of two Grand Slams, and thathappened, so I’m glad that I accom-plished everything that I wanted thisyear. “A lot of my points came from theSlams and this tournament really pushedme inside, and it’s crazy because I’m alucky loser... And now that this has hap-pened, I hope to get as high as possible.

“I don’t really think too muchabout ranking, but you have to havesome stepping stones to reach for.”

Gauff will face either top seed KikiBertens of the Netherlands or Belgium’sAlison Van Uytvanck for a place in theLinz semi-finals.

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