16
E xit polls may have predict- ed an Aam Aadmi Party’s sweep in the Delhi Assembly poll, but empathetic claims by top BJP leadership of a “lotus” bloom has injected an element of interest in the counting pro- ceedings on Tuesday. The pro-AAP camp will take heart from the fact that many of the exit polls have given it 60 plus seats in the House of 70. The India Today- Axis My India poll, which hit the bull’s eye on more than one occasion in the recent past, has gone to the extent of predict- ing 68 seats for the AAP in the best possible scenario. However, both Home Minister Amit Shah and State BJP president Manoj Tiwari don’t agree to the exit polls’ pre- dictions. They have stuck their necks out and claimed that the BJP will get between 45 and 48 seats and comfortably form a Government. The Delhi BJP unit is also reported to have ordered a 47 kg laddoo, hoping they will get no less than 47 seats, sources said. While a few politicians accept defeat till the last vote is counted, questions are doing the rounds: Why would Amit Shah of all the persons would put his prestige on stake if he believed in the findings of the exit polls? The skeptics are counting on claims of “late” evening surge of voters to trash the exit polls, saying they captured the voting trend up to only till 3 pm. However, such surge in voting is a universal trend in India and there is no empirical evidence to suggest that even if voters turnout in large number in the evening they would en mass vote for any political party only. Delhi BJP leaders and their poll managers say Delhiites voted in two phases: The first being between 8 am and 3 pm when the AAP had a clear lead. However, thereafter, BJP’s vot- ers started pouring in, they claimed. Neelkant Bakshi, the political adviser to Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari, post- ed a series of tweets with names of the Assembly con- stituencies where according to him the BJP will win. The BJP is also claiming that the entire AAP leadership is unusually quiet after the polling, which is an indication that the party has not got the desired result. The BJP leaders also claimed that the five per cent decline in the voting com- pared to the 2015 poll is also a cause of worry for the AAP as they feel that AAP voters did not come out to vote. In 2015, the polling percentage stood at 67.17 while the overall poll per- centage in 2020 is 62.59. Late surge, EVM tamper- ing, silent voters — these are some of the theories doing the rounds on the eve of the count- ing of votes. For good mea- sures, they have kept interest alive in the counting. A n unspecified number of Indians, who were among 3,711 passengers and crew members on board a cruise ship quarantined off Japan due to diagnosis of coronavirus cases, have sent an SOS video message to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to rescue them as soon as possible. “Please somehow save us as soon as possible. What’s the point if something happens (to us)...I want to request the Government of India and Prime Minister (Narendra) Modiji, please segregate us and bring us back home safe- ly,” said Indian crew member, identified as Binay Kumar Sarkar. Quoting Sarkar, on board Diamond Princess, NDTV news channel said there are 160 Indian crew members and eight Indian passengers on the ship. Sarkar, in a video recorded from the ship, appealed to the Indian Government and the UN to segregate the Indians on board on urgent basis. “None of them have been checked (for coronavirus),” Sarkar, a chef from Bengal, said in Hindi. He was flanked by five of his Indian colleagues who were wearing masks. Around 60 people tested positive of the virus on Monday, taking the total num- ber of those infected on the cruise ship Diamond Princess — which had arrived at the Japanese coast early last week and was quarantined after a passenger who de-boarded last month in Hong Kong was found to be the carrier of the novel virus on the ship — to 130. Authorities had initially tested nearly 300 people when the ship arrived at the Japanese coast. Indian Embassy in Tokyo on Monday tweeted the infor- mation about the Indians on the ship. “Many Indian crew & some Indian passengers are on board the cruise ship Diamond Princess quarantined off Japan due to Coronavirus (nCoV),” it tweeted, without giving a spe- cific number of Indians on the ship. “In this context, for any query please contact First Secretary (Consular) @IndianEmbTokyo at [email protected] @CPVIndia @MEAIndia @PMOIndia,” it said. Those on the ship have been asked to wear masks and allowed limited access to the open decks as they are advised to remain in the cabins most of the times to contain the spread of the virus, according to media reports. According to an AFP report, people on board the ship are facing difficulty due to the quarantine measures, par- ticularly those in windowless interior cabins and others who require medication for various chronic conditions. The Japanese Health Ministry said on Monday that around 600 people on board urgently needed medication, and around half received sup- plies over the weekend, it said. Meanwhile, the operator of the ship on Monday vowed to refund all 2,666 passengers due to the onboard outbreak of the new coronavirus. Carnival Japan Inc, the Japanese branch of Princess Cruise Lines Ltd, which operates the ship, said refunds will be offered via travel agencies through which the passengers made their bookings. The company will addi- tionally cover all costs incurred by those quarantined aboard the ship since last Tuesday, when passengers were origi- nally scheduled to disembark at Yokohama. T he Government and the Congress on Monday sparred in Parliament over the Supreme Court ruling that States are not bound to provide quota in appointments and promotions. As tempers began to fray and Opposition and treasury benches clashed with each other, the Government informed the Lok Sabha that it was not a party to the case, but insisted the issue was being dis- cussed at the “highest level”. The BJP ally Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) sought that the reservation for SCs/STs should be put in the 9th schedule so that none could make any change in it and another ally Apna Dal also asked Government to ensure that reservation continues irre- spective of SC ruling. The Janata Dal (U) reject- ed Opposition’s charge of BJP being anti-reservation saying it was the Modi Government which brought an ordinance to neutralise the SC ruling on SC/ST Atrocities Act. The Opposition parties demanded that the Centre file a review petition before the apex court. After the Opposition accused the Centre of failing to defend the reservation system, Social Justice Minister Thawarchand Gehlot told the Lok Sabha that the Modi Government was not a party to the case, which is about a 2012 decision of the previous Congress Government in Uttarakhand, and asserted that the Central Government is “committed” and “dedicated” to reservation for SCs, STs and OBCs. The Congress hit back at Gehlot and accused him of misleading the Lok Sabha. The party also decided to move a privilege motion against him. Outside Parliament, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said it was in the DNA of the BJP and the RSS to try and erase reservations. He asserted that his party will not allow doing away with quota. M uch to the relief of the health authorities here, the first patient in the country to be affected by the deadly coronavirus is recovering well and her samples that were sent to the Kerala unit of National Institute of Virology (NIV) have tested negative. Health officials are await- ing test reports from NIV, Pune. At present, the medical student, who recently returned from Wuhan in China, is being treated at the Thrissur Medical College in an isolation ward after testing positive for the coronavirus on January 30. Her condition was “stable”, they said. In Kerala as of now, 34 peo- ple are in isolation wards across various hospitals in the State. “The blood test result of the first patient from Thrissur, from the National Institute of Virology (NIV) testing centre at Alappuzha, shows a negative result. But we need confirmation from the NIV at Pune,” said a senior medical officer from the Kerala Government. After the first positive case was reported from Thrissur, two other Keralite students from Wuhan had tested posi- tive in Alappuzha and Kasaragod districts. “A total of 3,252 are still under observation across the State, of which 3,218 are under home quarantine,” said a release issued by the Health Department which has sent at least 345 samples for testing at the NIV Pune and so far 326 results have returned negative. With various fake news on coronavirus doing the rounds, Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar on Monday said “fear psychosis” is being created over the pathogen and dismissed the suggestion that migratory birds could be the reason behind its spread. C hief Minister Hemant Soren, along with agricul- ture Minister Badal, on Monday reviewed the progress of various ongoing farmers welfare schemes most of which were initiated by former Chief Minister Raghubar Das. Badal talking to The Pioneer after assessing various farmers’ welfare schemes said, “The previous Govt had launched various farmers’ wel- fare schemes. The schemes that are use- ful will continue, but the schemes that are useless and causes unwanted burden on state exchequer will be stopped.” Continued on Page 4 C hief Minister Hemant Soren on Monday chaired a series of marathon review meetings of 15 departments at a go and gave several important directives to the officials at the meetings. The CM, while reviewing the works of various departments said that in the name of distributing machines, motor and big projects there will not be wastage of money; only such works will be done that can bring happiness in the house of poor. The CM said that the review meetings have revealed that there are a large number of vacancies in all departments. “Development is affected due to these vacancies. How will work be done with the help of so many vacancies? Employing youth in a fixed time frame will be the biggest priority for all depts,” he said. He said that players should have given priority in the recruitment of sports teachers in schools. Special drive will be run by making necessary rules for employment of best players at national level and state level. He said that the offices of Block and Circle, including Employment offices should be cleaned and strengthened throughout the State. Soren said during the review that the campaign to eradicate malnutrition from the State will be carried out in the next 4 years. He said that the government will make effective efforts to improve on anemia and other parameters as well. Directing the early completion of vacancies and promotions in the field of higher and technical education, the girls should be encouraged along with scholarships in higher and technical education. “Nurses passing from nurs- ing college should be appoint- ed in State government hospi- tals. Also, the same centers of skill development should be run which can provide employ- ment. Review the centers where under-employment is taking place. Work should be done to improve the conditions of farmers and increase yields from agriculture. Work should be done on the interests of the farmer,” said the CM directing that the rural haats should be strengthened for the sale of agricultural products. The review meetings of the CM included School Education and Literacy depart- ment; Higher, Technical and Skill Development, Excise and Prohibition, ST, SC and Backward classes welfare, Transport, Minority Welfare and Registration, Women and Child Development and Social Security, Health, Medical Education and Family Welfare, Disaster Management, Labour, Employment and Training. Continued on Page 4

ˆ ˙ ˝ !#˝ $$ $ ˆ...top BJP leadership of a “lotus” ... Sarkar. Quoting Sarkar, on board Diamond Princess, NDTV ... launched various farmers’ wel-fare schemes. The schemes

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Page 1: ˆ ˙ ˝ !#˝ $$ $ ˆ...top BJP leadership of a “lotus” ... Sarkar. Quoting Sarkar, on board Diamond Princess, NDTV ... launched various farmers’ wel-fare schemes. The schemes

�������������� ��������

Exit polls may have predict-ed an Aam Aadmi Party’s

sweep in the Delhi Assemblypoll, but empathetic claims bytop BJP leadership of a “lotus”bloom has injected an elementof interest in the counting pro-ceedings on Tuesday.

The pro-AAP camp willtake heart from the fact thatmany of the exit polls havegiven it 60 plus seats in theHouse of 70. The India Today-Axis My India poll, which hitthe bull’s eye on more than oneoccasion in the recent past, hasgone to the extent of predict-ing 68 seats for the AAP in thebest possible scenario.

However, both Home

Minister Amit Shah and StateBJP president Manoj Tiwaridon’t agree to the exit polls’ pre-dictions. They have stuck theirnecks out and claimed that theBJP will get between 45 and 48seats and comfortably form aGovernment. The Delhi BJPunit is also reported to haveordered a 47 kg laddoo, hopingthey will get no less than 47seats, sources said.

While a few politiciansaccept defeat till the last vote iscounted, questions are doingthe rounds: Why would AmitShah of all the persons wouldput his prestige on stake if hebelieved in the findings of theexit polls?

The skeptics are countingon claims of “late” evening

surge of voters to trash the exitpolls, saying they captured thevoting trend up to only till 3pm. However, such surge invoting is a universal trend inIndia and there is no empiricalevidence to suggest that even ifvoters turnout in large numberin the evening they would enmass vote for any politicalparty only.

Delhi BJP leaders and theirpoll managers say Delhiitesvoted in two phases: The firstbeing between 8 am and 3 pmwhen the AAP had a clear lead.However, thereafter, BJP’s vot-ers started pouring in, theyclaimed. Neelkant Bakshi, thepolitical adviser to Delhi BJPpresident Manoj Tiwari, post-ed a series of tweets with

names of the Assembly con-stituencies where according tohim the BJP will win.

The BJP is also claimingthat the entire AAP leadershipis unusually quiet after thepolling, which is an indicationthat the party has not got thedesired result.

The BJP leaders alsoclaimed that the five per centdecline in the voting com-pared to the 2015 poll is also a

cause of worry for the AAP asthey feel that AAP voters didnot come out to vote. In 2015,the polling percentage stood at67.17 while the overall poll per-centage in 2020 is 62.59.

Late surge, EVM tamper-ing, silent voters — these aresome of the theories doing therounds on the eve of the count-ing of votes. For good mea-sures, they have kept interestalive in the counting.

���� �� �

An unspecified number ofIndians, who were among

3,711 passengers and crewmembers on board a cruiseship quarantined off Japan dueto diagnosis of coronaviruscases, have sent an SOS videomessage to Prime MinisterNarendra Modi to rescue themas soon as possible.

“Please somehow save usas soon as possible. What’s thepoint if something happens (tous)...I want to request theGovernment of India andPrime Minister (Narendra)Modiji, please segregate usand bring us back home safe-ly,” said Indian crew member,identified as Binay KumarSarkar.

Quoting Sarkar, on boardDiamond Princess, NDTVnews channel said there are 160Indian crew members and eightIndian passengers on the ship.Sarkar, in a video recordedfrom the ship, appealed to theIndian Government and theUN to segregate the Indians onboard on urgent basis.

“None of them have been

checked (for coronavirus),”Sarkar, a chef from Bengal, saidin Hindi. He was flanked byfive of his Indian colleagueswho were wearing masks.

Around 60 people testedpositive of the virus onMonday, taking the total num-ber of those infected on thecruise ship Diamond Princess— which had arrived at theJapanese coast early last weekand was quarantined after apassenger who de-boarded lastmonth in Hong Kong wasfound to be the carrier of thenovel virus on the ship — to130. Authorities had initiallytested nearly 300 people whenthe ship arrived at the Japanesecoast.

Indian Embassy in Tokyoon Monday tweeted the infor-mation about the Indians onthe ship.

“Many Indian crew &some Indian passengers are onboard the cruise ship DiamondPrincess quarantined off Japandue to Coronavirus (nCoV),” ittweeted, without giving a spe-cific number of Indians on theship.

“In this context, for any

query please contact FirstSecretary (Consular)@IndianEmbTokyo [email protected]@CPVIndia @MEAIndia@PMOIndia,” it said.

Those on the ship havebeen asked to wear masks andallowed limited access to theopen decks as they are advisedto remain in the cabins most ofthe times to contain the spread

of the virus, according to mediareports.

According to an AFPreport, people on board theship are facing difficulty due tothe quarantine measures, par-ticularly those in windowlessinterior cabins and others whorequire medication for variouschronic conditions.

The Japanese HealthMinistry said on Monday thataround 600 people on boardurgently needed medication,and around half received sup-plies over the weekend, itsaid.

Meanwhile, the operator ofthe ship on Monday vowed torefund all 2,666 passengersdue to the onboard outbreak ofthe new coronavirus. CarnivalJapan Inc, the Japanese branchof Princess Cruise Lines Ltd,which operates the ship, saidrefunds will be offered viatravel agencies through whichthe passengers made theirbookings.

The company will addi-tionally cover all costs incurredby those quarantined aboardthe ship since last Tuesday,when passengers were origi-nally scheduled to disembark atYokohama.

���� ��������

The Government and theCongress on Monday

sparred in Parliament over theSupreme Court ruling thatStates are not bound to providequota in appointments andpromotions.

As tempers began to frayand Opposition and treasurybenches clashed with eachother, the Governmentinformed the Lok Sabha that itwas not a party to the case, butinsisted the issue was being dis-cussed at the “highest level”.

The BJP ally Lok JanshaktiParty (LJP) sought that thereservation for SCs/STs shouldbe put in the 9th schedule sothat none could make anychange in it and another allyApna Dal also askedGovernment to ensure thatreservation continues irre-spective of SC ruling.

The Janata Dal (U) reject-ed Opposition’s charge of BJPbeing anti-reservation saying itwas the Modi Governmentwhich brought an ordinance toneutralise the SC ruling onSC/ST Atrocities Act. The

Opposition parties demandedthat the Centre file a reviewpetition before the apex court.

After the Oppositionaccused the Centre of failing todefend the reservation system,Social Justice MinisterThawarchand Gehlot told theLok Sabha that the ModiGovernment was not a party tothe case, which is about a 2012decision of the previous

Congress Government inUttarakhand, and asserted thatthe Central Government is“committed” and “dedicated” toreservation for SCs, STs andOBCs.

The Congress hit back atGehlot and accused him ofmisleading the Lok Sabha.

The party also decided tomove a privilege motionagainst him. OutsideParliament, Congress leaderRahul Gandhi said it was in theDNA of the BJP and the RSS totry and erase reservations.

He asserted that his partywill not allow doing away withquota.

��������������� ������������������� ������������������� ������������������������������ ����� ��������

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Much to the relief of thehealth authorities here,

the first patient in the countryto be affected by the deadlycoronavirus is recovering welland her samples that were sentto the Kerala unit of NationalInstitute of Virology (NIV)have tested negative.

Health officials are await-ing test reports from NIV,Pune. At present, the medicalstudent, who recently returnedfrom Wuhan in China, is beingtreated at the Thrissur MedicalCollege in an isolation wardafter testing positive for thecoronavirus on January 30.

Her condition was “stable”,they said.

In Kerala as of now, 34 peo-ple are in isolation wards acrossvarious hospitals in the State.

“The blood test result ofthe first patient from Thrissur,from the National Institute ofVirology (NIV) testing centreat Alappuzha, shows a negativeresult.

But we need confirmationfrom the NIV at Pune,” said asenior medical officer fromthe Kerala Government.

After the first positive casewas reported from Thrissur,two other Keralite studentsfrom Wuhan had tested posi-tive in Alappuzha and

Kasaragod districts.“A total of 3,252 are still

under observation across theState, of which 3,218 are underhome quarantine,” said arelease issued by the HealthDepartment which has sent atleast 345 samples for testing atthe NIV Pune and so far 326results have returned negative.

With various fake newson coronavirus doing therounds, Union EnvironmentMinister Prakash Javadekar onMonday said “fear psychosis” isbeing created over thepathogen and dismissed thesuggestion that migratory birdscould be the reason behind itsspread.

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Chief Minister HemantSoren, along with agricul-

ture Minister Badal, onMonday reviewed the progressof various ongoing farmerswelfare schemes most of whichwere initiated by former ChiefMinister Raghubar Das.

Badal talking to ThePioneer after assessing variousfarmers’ welfare schemes said,“The previous Govt hadlaunched various farmers’ wel-fare schemes.

The schemes that are use-ful will continue, but theschemes that are useless andcauses unwanted burden onstate exchequer will be stopped.”

Continued on Page 4

%��/�����*����)��������&�� �����&�����������������*����� -�������$&���������$�����/���� ��� �%�������!�� ��������������-� ����%���"�*����������0���#������!��������%����������*��� �!�*�&����������*��������'�(��!�$��1�����*�����������(��*�&�����2*�����%���"��������.����(����#���� �������""������� ��&��������&������(�������� �&������������'��������� ��� �����������

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Chief Minister HemantSoren on Monday chaired

a series of marathon reviewmeetings of 15 departments ata go and gave several importantdirectives to the officials at themeetings. The CM, whilereviewing the works of variousdepartments said that in thename of distributing machines,motor and big projects therewill not be wastage of money;only such works will be donethat can bring happiness in thehouse of poor. The CM saidthat the review meetings have

revealed that there are a largenumber of vacancies in alldepartments. “Development isaffected due to these vacancies.How will work be done withthe help of so many vacancies?Employing youth in a fixedtime frame will be the biggestpriority for all depts,” he said.

He said that players shouldhave given priority in therecruitment of sports teachersin schools. Special drive will berun by making necessary rulesfor employment of best playersat national level and state level.He said that the offices ofBlock and Circle, includingEmployment offices should becleaned and strengthenedthroughout the State.

Soren said during thereview that the campaign toeradicate malnutrition fromthe State will be carried out inthe next 4 years. He said thatthe government will make

effective efforts to improve onanemia and other parametersas well. Directing the earlycompletion of vacancies andpromotions in the field ofhigher and technical education,the girls should be encouraged

along with scholarships inhigher and technical education.

“Nurses passing from nurs-ing college should be appoint-ed in State government hospi-tals. Also, the same centers ofskill development should be

run which can provide employ-ment. Review the centers whereunder-employment is takingplace. Work should be done toimprove the conditions offarmers and increase yieldsfrom agriculture. Work shouldbe done on the interests of thefarmer,” said the CM directingthat the rural haats should bestrengthened for the sale ofagricultural products.

The review meetings ofthe CM included SchoolEducation and Literacy depart-ment; Higher, Technical andSkill Development, Excise andProhibition, ST, SC andBackward classes welfare,Transport, Minority Welfareand Registration, Women andChild Development and SocialSecurity, Health, MedicalEducation and Family Welfare,Disaster Management, Labour,Employment and Training.

Continued on Page 4

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Page 2: ˆ ˙ ˝ !#˝ $$ $ ˆ...top BJP leadership of a “lotus” ... Sarkar. Quoting Sarkar, on board Diamond Princess, NDTV ... launched various farmers’ wel-fare schemes. The schemes

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When I took the charge ofCMD of the company in

2012, then implementing anysuch initiative seemed a distantdream. The production of thecompany for years was stagnantat 48 MT and inventory wasabout 16 MT (about 33percent of annual production).Many ongoing projects had anacute shortage of land aslandowners were not givingphysical possession of theirland to CCL.

We had our back againstthe wall, but these are the con-ditions which inspire a personto function at his best. Now thesame company with the sameset of employees has reached arecord production of 68.74MT and we are one of thelargest contributors to theJharkhand State exchequer.

The transition did not hap-pen overnight but was possiblebecause of Kayakalp model ofgovernance which lays empha-sis on transparent, bold, ethi-cal and philanthropic approach.It has led to large scale organi-zational transformations.Wehave settled long pending com-plex issues and have receivedenvironmental as well asforestry clearances, we havealso taken physical possessionof land and have opened green-field projects.

All these accomplishmentswould have been negated if wedidn’t fulfill our debt to society.Our priority is inclusive growthand the objective is- Overalldevelopment of villagers, poorand labourers.

CCL has implementedmany schemes in skill devel-opment, education, sports,health and drinking water forthe well-being of people ofJharkhand.

One person who hasinspired me is SwamiVivekanand and I oftenremember a quote of him” Ifthe poor boy cannot come toeducation, education must goto him”.

In a country like Indiaquality education is a privilegewhich is available to a few andI consider myself fortunatethat I got an opportunity fordecent education. I wantedCCL to provide the sameopportunity to every child inthe country.One of the initia-tives which is close to my heartis Kayakalp Public School. Theschool is for the oppressed, des-titute and the children of beg-gars who don’t have access toeducation.

These children come fromdifferent slums of the city likeJaganathpur, Hatma. The inten-tion was that we should leaveno stone unturned in provid-ing the students with the best

infrastructure and amenities.With this understanding theschool was set up in an area of3.5 acres in Bukru Village inRanchi-Patratu Highway in2018. We recognized the hard-ships that these childrenencounter in their day-to-daylives. Hence the aim was tomake education a gratifyingexperience. Keeping this inmind bus facilities are availablewhich pick and drop the stu-dents from their homes.

Atthe time of admission,we provide four pairs of uni-forms to the students. The stu-dents are given mid-day mealand routine health checkupsare carried by a team of spe-cialised doctors from CCLGandhi Nagar Hospital. In theworld that we live today com-munication is an integral ingre-dient of career development,hence the medium of teachingis English.

The desire is toturnRanchiinto a city with no childbeggars in it. We have informedthe authorities and requestedthe public that if they noticeany child beggar in any part ofthe city kindly inform our rep-resentative and we will arrangefor their education in thisschool. The aim is to transformthe lives of these kids so theyplay an effective part in nationbuilding.

Transparency is paramountand to assure that a three-member committee has beenconstituted to evaluate the stu-dents before acceptance. This isperhaps the only school in thecity where the criteria forentrance is that the studentshould belong to downtroddensection of society.We startedwith thirty students and todaythere are fifty-five students inthe school from classes nurseryto two. We are hopeful to raisethis number manifold.

There is a sense of con-tentment when we notice thetransformation in these kids.The children who could notspeak a line in Hindi are nowcompetent to take pledges andrecite poems in English.One

student states he aspires tobecome a doctor.

Before admission in theschool he used to beg and thefuture for him meant a day ofsurvival with the meagrealms.There are many such sto-ries in this school which com-pels a person to believe in thecapability of education in trans-forming society.

When these students willreach seventh grade, they cantry to qualify for Sports acad-emy run by CCL.The teachersin this school are the familymembers of CCL employees.They don’t accept any remu-neration for their work.

We are a country that dis-covered zero. Strangely zero hasno relevance of its own, butwhen we add a prefix to it, thevalue increases manifolds.Same is the situation with thesechildren, perhaps if they werenot admitted to this school oftheir dreams and story wouldhave been different but now,they have a mission in mind toaccomplish.

There are apprehensions inthe minds of people that beinga coal mining company why isthis focus on education.

I believe that we producecoal to illuminate the future ofour children.

Company is committed tofulfilling the vision of ourHonorable Prime Minister i.e.”Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas,Sabka Vishwas”.

The Ministry of Coal, GoIis constantly supporting CoalIndia and its subsidiaries in ful-filling the energy aspirations ofthe country.

One school will not erad-icate the plague of child beg-ging entirely, but we believethat this is a modest step in theright direction. Opening ofthis school was a memorableachievement for the companybut the proudest occasion willbe when there will be no childbeggar left in the city to edu-cate.

The writer is Chairmancum Managing Director ofCentral Coalfields Limited

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In move to improve healthscenario in the district,

Health Minister Banna Guptais on meeting spree these days.After inspecting MGM medicalCollege and Hospital, he con-vened a meeting with thesenior district officials of EastSinghbhum at Circuit House.East Singhbhum deputy com-missioner Ravi Shankar Shuklawas present at the meeting.

The Minister assured theofficials that he would takesteps that the shortcomings atthe hospital are fulfilled. Hesaid that he would regularlyMGM Hospital and take care ofimprovement initiatives.

Gupta apprised the officialsabout State Government’s workplans, vision, its expectationsfrom bureaucrats and otherofficials and priorities set by theGovernment in different areasof public service.

Gupta said the govern-ment officials were represen-tatives of the State Governmentand hence he would work withthem as their colleagues. Heurged them to ensure the suc-cess of various governmentschemes by reaching out to thepeople and informing them

about their benefits. He said theofficials should live up to theexpectations of the people byworking in tandem with thegovernment. He said new workethics and traditions should befounded. The Government isputting in sincere efforts toensure success of developmentand welfare schemes throughSarkar Apke Dwar programme,he said.

The minister said basiccivic amenities should be pro-vided to all citizens without fail.He said efforts were on toimprove healthcare facilitiesat MGM Hospital. The gov-ernment is doing every bit toprovide best possible healthcareamenities to people at MGMHospital, he said. Gupta said ateam would soon be set upunder the leadership of EastSinghbhum DC to improvehealthcare services at MGMHospital. The MGM authoritieshave started process of re-ten-dering for selecting a newagency for housekeeping and

cleanliness work at the hospi-tal.

“We have also started ten-der process for selection of anew agency for cleanliness andhousekeeping at the hospitalpremises and the new agencywould be selected soon. Thecontract for the existing agencywhich has failed to mend itsways despite repeated warningswill be terminated soon afterthe new agency is finalized,”said an official.

MGM Medical College andHospital is a government hos-pital with the facility of 540beds. Everyday around 1000patients come here for treat-ment.

It may be mentioned thatState Government governedMahatma Gandhi MemorialMedical College and Hospital,is an Indian medical schoolestablished in 1964. It is situ-ated in the outskirts ofJamshedpur near Dimna. Thecollege's hospital is located inSakchi.

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The use of State Emblem ofIndia by IAS officers under

the control of the JharkhandGovernment and by officers ofthe State AdministrativeServices is not in ‘accordancewith the rules’ framed by theCentral Government for theuse of State Emblem of India.

Joint secretary departmentof Home, Prisons and DisasterManagement JharkhandGovernment AK Singh in a let-ter has clearly mentioned thatuse of State Emblem of India byIAS officers under the controlof the Jharkhand Governmentand also by officers of stateadministrative services is not inaccordance with the rules ofState Emblem of India.

The joint secretary letter isaddressed to Additional ChiefSecretary, Food, Civic Suppliesand Consumer Affairs depart-ment, but was meant forSecretary Women and ChildDevelopment and Social Welfaredepartment Amitabh Kaushal,who was then Secretary, Food,Civic Supplies and ConsumerAffairs department .

This letter reads that thensecretary food civil supplies &consumer affairs had written aletter in this regard of use ofState Emblem Of India by IASofficers under the control ofJharkhand government on22.11.2019 to department ofHome, Prisons & DisasterManagement to clarify the

stand of the Government on itsuse by those who are doing it.

The joint secretary letterreads that this letter dated22.11.2019 was sent to Lawdepartment for comments,which in its comment hasdescribed the use of it not inaccordance with the rules of theState Emblem of India.

The Pioneer spoke toSecretary Women and ChildDevelopment and SocialWelfare department AmitabhKaushal on Sunday to know asto what all this is about to whichKaushal said, “I had written aletter to department of Homeon 22.11.2019 requesting themto clear the stand of the gov-ernment on the use of stateEmblem Of India by IAS offi-cers under the control of theJharkhand Government.”

Kaushal said joint secretaryHome’s letter addressed to himhas communicated to him thecomment of the Law depart-ment, which says that any useof State Emblem Of India byIAS officers under control ofJharkhand Govt or officers ofthe state AdministrativeServices is not in accordancewith the rules framed for theState Emblem Of India.

He contented there shouldnot be any such use of the StateEmblem of India who are notany authority under the rules ofit to use and those who do useit are doing it against the wordand spirit of the rules regulatedfor the State Emblem of India.

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First Inter Plant ISO Audit atBokaro Steel Plant con-

cluded in BSL's OperationsDivision (Coke Oven to CRMand Subsidiary Department)here on February 08.

At the conclusion of the inter-plant audit, a meeting was

held under the chairmanship ofExecutive Director(Operations) Atanu Bhowmik,in which the Chief GeneralManager of the plant, resourcepersons of various departmentsand other officials were present.The meeting was attended byGeneral Manager (BE)

Anupama Tiwari, GeneralManager (BE) B.

Banerjee, General Manager(BE) of Bhilai Steel Plant asAuditor, MK Dubey, GeneralManager (RMHP) of DurgapurSteel PlantS. Ghosh, DeputyGeneral Manager ( SET)Bokaro Sub Center D. Shawand Renu Bansal were also pre-sent.

At the meeting, the audi-tors discussed the major pointsrelated to the audit in detail andgave suggestions for improve-ment. While expressing grati-tude to the auditors, Bhowmickexpressed his commitment toimplement their suggestions.

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ATrainees Athletic Meet wasorganised by Human

Resource DevelopmentDepartment of BSL. The chiefguest at the programme wasExecutive Director (Personneland Administration) of BSL,Mukul Prasad.

He was accompanied byChief General Manager (HumanResource Development) VSPopli, General Manager (HumanResource Development) NeetaBa, Manager (Human ResourceDevelopment) Rajendra Kumarand a large number of other per-sonnel and trainees of HumanResource DevelopmentDepartment.

Chief Guest Mukul Prasad,while appreciating the HumanResource Development

Department for this event, saidthat sports was important andgave a message to the traineesto participate in this program.About 80 HRD trainees partic-ipated in this athletic meetincluding MTT, preferred OTT,OTT and ATT. In this meet,recreational sports like 50 meterrace, 100 meter race, 400 meterrelay race, shot put, tug-of-war,discus-throw, musical chair etc.were organised. At the conclu-sion of the meet, the first, sec-ond and third winners of eachgame were awarded by Popli.

The program was con-ducted by the Manager(Human ResourceDevelopment) Rajendra Kumarand the vote of thanks wasmade by General Manager(Human ResourceDevelopment) Neeta Ba.

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Confederation of IndianIndustry (CII )IWN

Jharkhand along with TataSteel jointly conducted a plantvisit for working women fromdifferent companies. The fol-lowing companies participatedin this plant visit: TataCummins Pvt. Ltd., WabcoIndia Ltd, JCAPCPL, CaparoEngineering (I) Ltd., RSBTransmission (I) Ltd, TataMotors Ltd

The IWN Best PracticeSharing was organised bySwastika Basu, chief enterpriserisk management, Tata Steelalong with the HR and corpo-rate communication team.Basu made the presentation onD& I initiatives in Tata Steel.She also shared diversity relat-ed policies like maternity leaveand child care leave, menstru-al leave etc. Mosiac team shareddetails on Five Pillars toincrease diversity.

CII IWN Jharkhand chair-woman Happy Mukherjee,general manager, purchasedepartment, Tata CumminsPvt. Ltd. extended a warm

welcome to all the participantsand said it is a wonderful prac-tice to increase the womenempowerment among theindustries.

The objective of this eventwas to promote sharing ofIndustry Best Practices andshowcase the work done intheir industry for creating amore Gender Inclusive Work

Environment & understandoperating conditions of femalesacross industries

Other lady officers fromTata Steel present during themeeting were: Neena Bahadur,head HRM - performancemanagement, DivyangnaSingh, manager, HR D&I,Rashee, senior manager,Productivity Services.

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Ahead of Matric,Intermediate Examination

and Under Graduate (B.A,B.Sc., B.Com) Semester-Vexaminations (2017-20),Section 144 will be applicablein the radius of 500 yards of allexamination centres underChas subdivision.

Sub-Divisional OfficerChas Shashi Prakash Singhhas issued an order to imple-ment Section 144 of the Codeof Criminal Procedure. Thisprohibition will be effectivefrom 08:00 AM on 11 Februarytill 04:00 PM on 28 February,the order stated.

The prohibition will beeffective across 22 centers forMatriculation examination and14 for IntermediateExamination centers from 11 to28 February while for BA, B Scand B Com exam the prohibi-tion will be effective from 11February to 19 February in the500-meter radius across RVSCollege Chas, Visthapit CollegeBalidih, SS College Chas, AL-

Habib B Ed College Boakroand ARS B Ed College Bokaro,said Singh.

“Under Section 144 of theprohibition, gathering of five ormore than 5 people, travellingor crowding is completely pro-hibited. Display of any type offirearms or traditional weaponslike lathi-spear, farsa, sword,bows-arrows including othersare also completely forbidden,”added SDO.

Strict action will be takenagainst the violators under theprovisions of the Act., thoughsection 144 of the prohibitionwill not apply on the person onexamination duty, examiners,appointed police officers andmagistrates, he said.

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Seven students of DPSBokaro cleared the 2nd level

and qualified for final of ScienceMaths Talent Examination forthe session 2019-20. SMTE isconducted by DPS Society inAssociation with ScienceOlympiad Foundation. Resultof the exam was declaredMonday, informed AS GangwarPrincipal, DPS Bokaro.

The students who clearedthis prestigious exam areAnamika (AIR-14), AdvayKumar (AIR-51), SomnathRoy (AIR-67), Krrish Chanchal(AIR-77), Khushi Bharti (AIR-98), Anubhav Gupta (AIR -104), Kumar Ankesh(AIR-118). More than 21,000 stu-dents from across the countrytook the exam and only 120students were selected for thefinal stage in the country outof which 7 students are fromDPS Bokaro.

Congratulating the studentsGangwar said, Excellence is an attitude, keep up the goodwork.

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Central Institute of PlasticsEngineering and

Technology (CIPET), Ranchi,in association with MSME-Development Institute, Ranchi,Ministry of Micro, Small andMedium Enterprises,Government of India organiseda one-day technical seminar on‘Business Opportunities inRecycling of Plastic Waste’ on– February 08.

The objective of this pro-gramme to provide informa-tion to the entrepreneurs aboutthe latest technology of recy-cling plastic waste and toincrease the knowledge abouteffective means and relatedissues of plastic waste man-agement. Also, the latest envi-ronmental regulations and reg-ulations related to the man-agement of plastic waste of theGovernment of India were alsomade available. More than 150entrepreneurs participated inthe program and got informa-tion.

The programme was inau-gurated by Secretary,Industries, Praveen KumarToppo, by lighting the lamp.AK Rao, Director and Head,CIPET, Ranchi gave a wel-come address and apprised allthe attendees about the CIPETand its purpose. Gaurav,Assistant Director, MSME-Development Institute, Ranchi,explained the plans of MSMEsand made the MSME entre-

preneurs aware of variousfinancial assistance available bythe government. Subsequently,Shri Arun Kumar, Director,Higher Technical Educationand Skill Development,Government of Jharkhand stat-ed in his address that newentrepreneurs should comeforward and set up enterpris-es related to recycling of plas-tic waste to improve their wellbeing and society.Toppo said inhis inaugural address that thereare many myths and confusionsrelated to recycling of plasticwaste, about which the correctinformation is not availablewith the people. This seminaris a unique effort in itself,which will enable the public toget the right information andenterprising people in the man-agement of plastic waste willcome forward and make thesociety free of plastic waste.Industry Secretary Unveiledand announced the com-mencement of the seminar.He appreciated the efforts ofCIPET, Ranchi and wished abright future for MSME entre-preneurs.

Dr. Sameer Joshi, who

came from Plast IndiaFoundation, Mumbai, gave avery interesting presentationabout creating new products byrecycling plastic waste andintroduced the participants tothe comparative scenarios ofancient times and new timessociety.

He also said that fuel,roads, clothes and variouseveryday use items can bemanufactured through plasticwaste. Subsequently, Imtiaz Alifrom Sarthak Plastic CollectionCenter, Bhopal gave a presen-tation about plans to improvethe lives of plastic waste pick-ers.After lunch, Parthasarathy,Managing Director, e-Campus,Bangalore, made a presentationon e-waste recycling throughvideo conferencing via Skype.Mr. Sion Manna of RajuBosano Extrusion PrivateLimited, Kolkata gave his pre-sentation on the topic "WoodPlastic Composite: A RecentTrend".

The officials of RBI / PNB/ SBI apprised the participantsabout the various financialsupport available for the plas-tic waste recycling business.

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In a big relief to students, theState Government today

issued a directive asking pub-lic as well as private schools notto debar any student fromappearing in matriculation,intermediate of any other classexamination for non-paymentof fees.

Chief Minister HemantSoren while holding the reviewmeeting of Department ofSchool Education and Literacyat the Project Bhavan onMonday issued the instruc-tion that for the upcoming10th, 12th or any class annualexamination to be held next,the school management,

whether run by Coal India, beit a government school or a pri-vate school, will not depriveany student from taking theexam due to lack of fees. TheChief Minister also directed theEducation Department toimplement the directiveprominently.

The State Governmentdirective will bring relief tosuch student,s who have notpaid their fees and their exam-inations is to start soon. Thematriculation and intermediate(XII) examination ofJharkhand Academic Councilis to start from February 11.

As many as 3,87,021 stu-dents will take the class Xexam across 940 centres while

2.38.363 students will appearfor the class XII boards in 470centres. Similarly, the Class Xand XII examination beingconducted by CBSE too is starton February 15.

Apart from Class X and XIIexamination, the final exami-nation at different schools toois commencing either this weekor next week.

Meanwhile, students havewelcomed the decision of StateGovernment.

A Class IX student of DAVHehal requesting anonymitysaid, “The decision is going tobenefit many students whohave not paid their fees andtheir examination is to com-mence this week.”

Meanwhile at the reviewmeeting which was attended byChief Minister Soren and edu-cation minister Jagarnath Mahto

it was also decided that depart-ment will look into the demandsof para teachers. Mahto said,“The Govet will look into thedemands of para teachers.

The teachers associationand government officials willsit and discuss so that an ami-cable solution is reached.”Sources said that the parateacher’s body created muchproblem for Raghubar Dasgovernment when it was inpower. Months before last yearAssembly election, the state BJPheadquarters at Harmu wasvirtually under siege, as over1,500 para-teachers demandedthe state government quit dilly-dallying on their pay hike andact on its earlier promise.

Jharkhand has around67,000 para-teachers, consid-ered to be the backbone of ruralprimary education, but paid a

fraction of the salaries that gov-ernment teachers get.

Mahto also said that thestate government will also lookproblems created due merger ofgovernment schools and ifneeded it will withdraw earli-er government decisions.

The Raghubar DasGovernment in 2018 had takena decision to merge schoolswith low enrolment an exerciseundertaken by Rajasthan andJharkhand in the country withthe support of the UnionGovernment and NITI(National Institution forTransforming India) Aayog.In two phases the Jharkhandgovernment merged 1200 and4600 schools, but brakes wereapplied in third phase of merg-er of 6466 schools due toprotest of opposition as wellruling parties.

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To promote the art and cul-ture of Jharkhand, the

Department of Tourism, Art,Culture, Sports and YouthAffairs in collaboration withNav Pratibha Sansthan, Ranchipresented a drama ‘Mai Mati’on February 10 at SushilaPalace in Ranchi.

The chief guest for theoccasion was MLA MathuraPrasad Mahto. AssistantDirector Art and CultureDepartment Vijay Paswan,Food Safety Commissionmember Hardhar Mahto,Padma Shri recipients MukundNayak and Madhi MansuriHasmukh were also present onthe occasion with others.

The main focus of thedrama was to give a message

that State can protect Jul JungleZameen only by following thefootsteps of the brave sons ofState.

The artist through thedrama also tried to give a mes-sage on how the sons of soilfought to protect Jul JungleZameen and also against themighty Mughals and British.

In the drama, the saga ofThakur Vishwanath Shahdeowas also staged in a simplifiedway. It also urged the audienceto beware of trouble makers inthe State.

Neha Navneeta did justiceto her character along withVinod Mahto and JaideepSahay who demonstratedsuperb acting skills asEnglishmen. Actor SanjayNayak who portrayed the roleof a soldier urged the people to

fight for their rights.The Chief Guest for the

occasion MLA Mathura PrasadMahto praised the perfor-mances of the artists and saidthat Jharkhand is a rich centreof art and culture and both artand artists need to be pre-served.

Member of Food SafetyCommission said thatJharkhand is identified withculture and the people in therural areas have managed topreserve it.

Assistant Director of Artand Culture Department VijayPaswan said that the govern-ment is committed to preserv-ing and promoting the cultureof Jharkhand. WriterBhuneshwar Anuj alsoappraised the audience aboutthe history of Jharkhand.

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The State BJP will stronglyoppose the State

Government alleged attempt toclose down the MukhyamantriKrishi Aashirwad Yojana(MMKAY). State BJPspokesperson, Pratul Shahdeosaid, “The State Government isshutting down various welfareschemes initiated by previousgovernment to hide its failures.”He said the JMM CongressGovernment came to power bypromising 150 per cent profiton the cost price of the produceand loan waiver of farmers, butwe have reports that StateGovernment is planning toclose down Krishi AshirvadYojana, a welfare scheme thatwould make farmers debt-freeand self-reliant.

It seems that by closingsuch welfare schemesGovernment has made up itsmind to sacrifice the farmers.He further said that 35 lakhfarmers were getting directbenefit from Krishi Aashirwad

Yojana and they were becom-ing self-reliant instead ofdebtors. The BJP governmentaimed to make them fully self-reliant in the next five yearsthrough this scheme. The clo-sure of this scheme will forcethe farmers to once again fallunder the grip of the Mahajans,if something like this happensin the future, the BJP will takethe road for the rights of thefarmers.

Talking to journalists,Shahdeo said that while the

Raghubar government hadspent most of the budget onpublic welfare schemes, on theother hand Hemant Soren con-tinued to appear in DelhiDurbar during the most impor-tant months of revenue collec-tion, so that the revenue col-lection target has laggedbehind.

He said that the HemantGovernment, which came topower by making big promis-es and announcements, is nowready to make excuses and the

Hemant government does nothave the ability to make itspromise reality and misleadingthe people that treasury isempty.

Addressing the press per-sons, Shahdeo said thatHemant government is can-celing the tenders of the previ-ous government and is exam-ining the tenders held in thelast five years. The BJP has noobjection to this inquiry as theBJP has zero tolerance on cor-ruption. But the Hemant gov-ernment should also add its last14 months tenure to this inves-tigation to prove its earliertenure fair.

Expressing concern overthe huge increase in Naxaliteattacks, Shahdeo said that thestate is again in the grip ofextremism once the Hemantgovernment is formed. In thelast one and a half months,there have been dozens ofNaxalite incidents in the state.Media in-charge ShivpujanPathak was also present on theoccasion.

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Doctors’ Wives’ Associationcelebrated Vasant celebra-

tions here on October 08. Onthe occasion ChairpersonVinita Sharan introduced thenew team of 2020. The newteam members are: Co chair-person- Jhooma Sarkar andRashmi Sinha, President-Manju Khaitan, Vice President-Kamlesh Middha, BinduPrasad, Seema Maheswari,Secretary- Deepa Chauhan,Joint secretary- Pallavi Sharan,Anju Singh, Treasurer-Rukshana Bano and Joint trea-surer- Supriya Thakur, AshaSharma.

The welcome speech wasdelivered by President ManjuKhaitan. Secretary DeepaChauhan started the pro-gramme by informing aboutfuture projects. Dr PriyankaMitra and Debasmita Basu

began the programme withSaraswati Vandana. The mem-bers enjoyed games housie andsnacks. A talk was also organ-ised by Investment consultantPraveen Murarka. Memberspresent were- President- ManjuKhaitan and Secretary- DeepaChauhan, Vinita Sharan ,Jhooma Sarkar, Dr KumkumVidyarthi, Neeta Sahay,Rukhsana Bano, Renu Tiwary,Shobha kumar, Rekha mishra,Supriya Thakur, RinkuChoudhury, Dr Shiksha lal,Shalini Gupta, SeemaMaheswari, Sunita Sharan,Bibha Singh, ShreelaChoudhry, Rinku Benerji, SufiaAli, Asha Srivastava, UshaPandey, Pallavi Sharan, SumanJha, Debjani Sanyal ,NanditaGupta, Vandana Sinha, ArtiSinha, Pushp Lata, Anju Singh,Shipra Sharan, Sweta Ranjan,Tabassum Hasan and MinaxiBajaj.

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The annual matriculationand intermediate exami-

nation conducted by theJharkhand Academic Council(JAC) will commence fromFebruary 11 across the State.

On the first day, in the firstsitting class X exams will com-mence with the subjects com-merce, home science from 9:45am to 1 pm while IIT, ITS,HEL, MAE, SEC, RET, BAWand TAT will take place from9:45 am to 12:30 pm. In the sec-ond sitting, the intermediateexams will take place from 2pm to 5:15 pm with vocation-al subjects like I.A, I.Sc and I.Com.

As many as 3,87,021 stu-dents will take the class Xexam across 940 centres while2.38.363 students will appearfor the class XII boards in 470centres. The first 15 minutes

are given by the board forreading the question paper.The practical exams were con-ducted from January 27 toFebruary 8.

“As compared to last year,for both class X and class XIIboards approximately 40,000students are less in number thisyear.

This is primarily becauseboard exams were conductedfor class IX and class XI andthose who did not clear theexams were denied promo-tion.

The council has been con-ducting board exams for classIX and class XI since 2019,” saidJAC Chairman, Dr ArvindPrasad Kumar

The council has also intro-duced helpline numbers for thestudents to help them dealwith stress and anxiety and alsoto take tips related to the examsfrom experts. The helplinenumbers are 7485093436,7485293440, and 7485093433while the toll free number is18003456523. Students cancontact on these numbers on all

working days between 9 am to6pm.

“Board exams are primar-ily held to ensure that studentsare serious towards their edu-cation.

However, the certificatesawarded to the examinees arenot life changing certificates.Parents need to encourage thechildren and not put unduepressure on them to scorewell,” added the official.

The council is also all nec-essary steps to ensure thatmalpractice free examinationsare conducted and CCTV cam-eras have been fitted across allthe centres for surveillance.

To avoid any errors whilemarking the answer sheets,the teachers who will be eval-uating have also been trainedwith techniques to minimiseerrors, step marking, propertotaling and cross checkingpapers.

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Ateam of activists, writers andjournalists have indicated that

the friction between Gurjarat basedSatipati cult now active in several vil-lages across the State and the villagersled to the killing of Burugulikera vil-lage in West Singhbhum few weeksago.

In an attempt to understand therole of Pathalgadi movement in theChaibasa massacre, a fact-findingteam comprising activists, writers andjournalists visited Burugulikera vil-lage as most of local media reportedthat the beheading of seven people inBurugulikera village of Gudri blockin West Singhbhum district ofJharkhand on January 22 andJanuary, was due to Pathalgadi move-

ment.The team had representatives

of Adivasi Adhikar Manch,National Alliance of People’sMovement (NAPM), MarxistCoordination Committee, UlgulanSena and Jharkhand JanadhikarMahasabhha.

Addressing a press meet onMonday in the State Capital one ofthe team member, Aloka Kujur saidthat initial media reports indicatedthat the pro-pathalgadi faction of thevillage had murdered members of theanti-pathalgadi faction for opposingtheir movement. Speaking on reasonof the killing, Kujur said that the fact-finding team found that more thanhalf of the total number of familiesof the village was followers of the AC(ante-Christ) known as Satipati cult.

“The cult was led by RanasiBudh and a few others, accused ofkilling James Budh and six others ofthe village. The cult, active since thepast year in the village, asked peopleto submit their Government’s IdentityCards,” she added.

“More than half of the familiessubmitted the documents, whileJames and others did not.

The documents were not force-fully taken but people were some-times told that they would not beconsidered Adivasis or be expelledfrom the village if they did not sub-mit. People were asked to submittheir khatiyan (land documents) toowhich many did not. James Budh,

upmukhiya of the GramPanchayat, used to get benefits ofGovernment schemes and object-

ed to the call for giving up schemes.Ranasi Budh’s wife Mukta Horo wasthe ex-Mukhiya and they also usedto get benefits of schemes.

The Satipati cult supporters alsoasked others not to go to Church orcelebrate Sarna (Adivasi) festivals.These were causes of friction betweenthe two factions,” said Kujur.

Elaborating about findings ofthe team Kujur said, “On 16 January,a day after local Maghe Parv (anAdivasi festival), James Budh and hisfriends attacked the houses of RanasiBudh and four others. “ On 19January, Ranasi Budh and otherSatipati cult supporters brought theattackers from their homes to a

meeting, to allegedly discuss theattack on their houses. From the tes-timonies of Satipati supporters andfamily members of the victims, itemerged that the seven people werebeaten to death in the meeting andthen beheaded.”

As exposed in the Pathalgadimovement and the recent indicationof people’s support for the Satipaticult, the movement and cult are pri-marily driven by the continuingalienation of Adivasis, attack ontheir natural resources and lack ofdevelopment based the Adivasis’needs and worldview.

For example, there is a massivedam erected by submerging a largearea in Pansua, a few Kilometres awayfrom Burugulikera but the villagedoes not get water from the lake.

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From Page 1Agriculture, Animal Husbandry

and Cooperative, Drinking Waterand Sanitation, Water Resources,Building Construction, InformationTechnology and E-Governancedepartments.Meanwhile, the CMhanded over appointment letters to20 students of Kalyan Gurukul,Khunti and wished for their brightfuture at Qatar.

He said that youth are the futureof the country and Jharkhand.Providing employment to youth isour government's priority, hesaid.The CM motivated the studentswho got appointment letters tobring the name of the State to lighton the strength of their hard work.He said that the youth of Jharkhandshould be proud of their success inforeign countries. The CM wished

them for work in Voltas in Qatarcountry and congratulated all theofficials of Kalyan Gurukul. Hehoped that information about thesechildren will also be kept abroad. Ifany difficulties arise, they should besolved. In the future, Kalyan Gurukulwill continue to give the youth achance to move forward in thedirection ofemployment.Department SecretaryHimani Pandey said that PrejhaFoundation is a non-profit specialproject, under which employment isbeing provided to the youth ofScheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes,Minorities, Backward Classes andNaxal affected areas.She said thatthere are currently 26 KalyanGurukuls operating in the entireState.

Training is being imparted in 12different trades in these Gurukuls. Sofar, 569 youth from Kalyan Gurukulhave been employed abroad.ChiefSecretary Dr DK Tiwari,Development CommissionerSukhdeo Singh, OSD to CM GopaljiTiwari alongwith other officers werepresent on the occasion.

From Page 1The Agriculture

Minister said that no deci-sion has be taken to stop theMukhyamantri KrishiAshirwad Yojana , but thedept is going through detailsof the schemes such asobjective of the scheme andthe beneficiaries of thescheme.

The Agriculture min-ister’s refusal to close downthe MMKAY schemeassumes importance asOpposition parties are skep-tical that Hemant govern-ment will close downMMKAY scheme.

On August 11 last year,Vice President M VenkaiahNaidu along with ChiefMinister Raghubar Daslaunched Mukhya Mantri

Krishi Ashirwad Yojana(MMKAY).

The Vice President bypressing a button creditedRs 442, 24,64,758 in theaccount of 13,60,380 farm-ers. Under the MMKAYscheme of Raghubar DasGovernment, the beneficia-ries (farmers) will get Rs5,000 per acre for purchas-ing seeds, fertilizers andother agriculture tools.

Farmers having agri-cultural land upto 5 acreshave to get Rs 5,000 foreach acre with maximumamount upto Rs 25,000.The MMKAY scheme isadditional to PM Kishanscheme under whichfarmers has to get Rs 6,000per acre in three install-ments.

Badal said, “We willhold two or three moresuch review meeting of agri-culture department andthen decide whether to closedown MMKAY.” CM andagriculture minister alsoreviewed the functioningof crop insurance scheme instate. Badal said, “We havecome to know that there aremany beneficiaries of cropinsurance in a family, whileon other hand many fami-lies have been left out.”

On the issue of waivingfarmers’ loan as announcedby three parties GrandAlliance, Badal said, “TheGrand Alliance is commit-ted to waive farmers loan,but at present no decisionhas been taken as the stateexchequer is empty.”

The Grand Alliance(JMM, Congress) in electionhad announced to waivefarmers’ loan on the lines ofCongress ruledChhattisgarh government.During election campaign,apart from waiving farmers’loan it was also announcedthat JMM/Congress gov-ernment will hike theMinimum Support Price(MSP) of paddy upto Rs2500 on the lines ofBhupesh Bhagel govern-ment in Chhattisgarh.Minister Badal said, “Nodecision has been taken onincreasing the MSP ofpaddy as the governmentfirst priority to clear the sys-tem so that farmers get thereal price of MSP and notmiddleman.”

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MP Mahesh Poddar todaysaid that the safe recycling

of lithium batteries can play animportant role in terms of pro-tecting the environment andgenerating new employmentopportunities. In response to aquestion asked by Poddar inthe Rajya Sabha, Minister ofState for Environment, Forestand Climate Change, BabulSupriyo admitted that lithiumbatteries can pose a seriousthreat to the environment if notdisposed of safely. He alsoinformed that there is a tech-nology in India for safe recy-cling of lithium batteries andthrough this, the precious met-als in these batteries arereusable.

Supriyo stated that at pre-sent, lithium batteries used inelectric and electronic equip-ment are being regulatedthrough e-waste management

manual 2016. But, there is noauthored recycling facility forthe use of lithium batteriesemitted from electric mobilityi.e. battery powered vehiclesand other modes of transport.In other words, the recycling oflithium batteries used in elec-tric vehicles is a new opportu-nity for entrepreneurs. Due tothe current policy of the gov-ernment, the number of elec-tric vehicles is continuouslyincreasing and its number isexpected to increase further.

Poddar said that if there isno provision for safe disposalof waste lithium batteries afteruse in electric vehicles, thenthey will pose a serious threatto the environment. On theother hand, if it is regulated, itwill create a new field ofemployment and self-employ-ment. He has requested thegovernment to regulate therecycling of lithium batteriesfrom electric vehicles, just likeelectric and electronic equip-ment.

Guidelines for safe andformal recycling of lithium ionbatteries have not yet beenprepared. However, technolo-gy and facilities exist for suchrecycling facilities in the coun-try.

Recycling technology ofcobalt, nickel, lithium, copper,aluminum, etc present in lithi-um ion batteries in the coun-try is available by any propo-nent.

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Reserve Bank of India (RBI)will conduct Financial

Literacy Week (FLW) for theyear 2020 from February 10 toFebruary 15 on theme of‘Micro, Small and MediumEnterprises’ (MSMEs) in acrossthe Country includingJharkhand.

Addressing a press meet onMonday at RBI’ RegionalOffice in the State Capital,General Manager, RBI, Ranchi,Sanjiv Dayal said that the bankwill celebrate the awarenessweek to spread awarenessamong people about MSMEsector. “MSME Sector has beenidentified as focus area this yearas it plays a vital role owing toits linkages in the IndianEconomy.

The Government of India and RBI have undertak-en various measures for order-ly growth of the sector,” headded.

RBI has been conductingFLW every year since 2016 topropagate financial educationmessages on a particular themeacross the country. FLW 2018

and FLW 2019 were focused on“Consumer Protection” and“Farmers” respectively.

Dayal said that throughthe programme the bank willspread awareness amongmasses aspects relating toformalization, collateral freeloan, discounting of receiv-ables, rehabi l itat ion ofstressed units and timelyrepayment. “Banks have been

advised to disseminate theinformation and create aware-ness among its customers andgeneral public. Further, RBIwill undertake a centralizedmass media campaign duringthe month of February 2020to broadcast essential finan-cial awareness messages toMSME Entrepreneurs,” headded.

Speaking on the occasion

Assistant General Manager,Rajesh Tiwary said that thereare very few people know aboutthe programmes running bythe nationalized banks in theCountry.

It will be our endevour toreach to a wider section of thepopulation during the pro-gramme, the banks will put upposters in Hindi and Englishlanguage at every importantplaces including the branchesof PSBs. The posters in the locallanguages will also be provid-ed,” he added.

Tiwary further said that thefinancial literacy camps willalso be conducted on each ofthe five days specially targetingMSMEs entrepreneur. TheState Level BankingCommittees (SLBCs) andUnion Territory Level BankersCommittee (UTLBC) con-vener will promote the event atState, Districts and Blocks, headded.

“Four different kinds ofvideos regarding promotingthe programme will also be runat various places. Doordarshanwill also run the videos,” saidTiwary.

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Members of Indian Instituteof Mass Communication

Alumni Association, JharkhandChapter organised the StateChapter’s annual picnic atDream Destinations,McCluskieganj, 65 kms awayfrom State Capital Ranchi onSunday.

Many former students ofthe institute including mediapersons working in variousinstitutions of Jharkhand,teachers of universities andpublic relations officers work-ing in many companies alongwith their family membersgathered for the picnic. On thisoccasion, members of IIM-CAA, Jharkhand Chapter vis-

ited the picturesque andpanoramic views of the Anglo-Indian colony McLuskiganj.

It is noteworthy that mem-bers of the IIMCAA JharkhandChapter has been active in theState for the last several yearsand continue to contributepositively in many social activ-ities from time to time. Theseinclude distributing books,copies and pan-pencils to thepoor children and also doingpublic service.

President of the StateChapter Manoj Kumar,General Secretary PranavPratyush Das, Treasurer KumarRajesh, including MukeshKumar, Ranjit Kumar andRajesh Kumar were presenton the occasion.

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Men of gangster Sujit Sinhaset afire a heavy vehicle -

- hywa at Toree railway coalsiding under Chandwa policestation of Latehar district lastnight.

Sinha's men fired fourrounds also. Police have recov-ered 4 empty cartridges. Twoother vehicles parked at therailway coal siding were dam-aged.

SP Latehar PrashantAnand said Sujit Sinha's mendid this for levy only. Policehave lodged the case and huntis on. Anand claimed policehave got some clues as well.

Sources said Sujit Sinha'smen have started threateningcoal operators the most direstway saying those who will nottoe the line of Sujit Sinha willfind their bodies as riddledwith holes.

Anand said a joint effort ofpolice of chatra, Hazaribag,Ramgarh and Latehar led to thenabbing of 5 who have pro-fessed their loyalty to twogangs one led by Sujit Sinhaand the other of Aman Sao.

The five held are Pakouri

alias Vishal, Khursheed Alam,Jaipal Turi, Sulender Turi andRavi Thakur.The SP addedRavi Thakur and KhursheedAlam are from Ramgarh whileRavi Thakur is from Chatradistrict. The two Turis arefrom Latehar.

He further said police haverecovered one 9 mm desi pis-tol, four rounds of fire , 11 cellphones and 3 routers.

Anand said these gang-sters used all tricks to create ter-ror either by giving threat callsor by firing which is their easymode of instilling fear.

On their hit list is anyonewho has wherewithal with himsaid police sources.

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In a success against illegal cat-tle traffickers, police seized a

truck carrying over 72 cows nearJamua on Giridih-Bokaro NHroad under Jamua police limitsin the Giridih district here onMonday afternoon and arrestedthe six persons including driver,said Giridih Superintendent ofpolice SK Jha. The raid was con-ducted after Giridih superin-tendent of police S.K. Jha got atip-off on the cattle laden four-wheeler lorry truck late in theafternoon. A police team led byOfficer-in charge , SantoshKumar ,which intercepted thetruck near the NH and foundover 72 cows and buffaloeswhich were being transportedunder inhumane conditionsduring the search. At least 8cows were found sick in thevehicle also.The arrested per-sons identified as SunilSingh,Virendra Kumar,DeepakKumar, Santosh Prasad,AnilKumar,Fottu Yadav.

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In the biggest ever night heistat Hansdih area in Dumka,

unidentified thieves decampedwith cash Rs 62.43 Lakh fromthe office of a private L&Tfinance company at Hansdih inDumka district on the inter-vening night of Sunday andMonday.

Dumka superintendent ofpolice Y.S.Ramesh said thethieves entered the office ofL&T Micro Finance company,situated at the ground floor atPagwara area under Hansdihpolice station through the maingate and ransacked the entireoffice in search of cash.

The place of occurrence ishardly 600 metre away fromthe Hansdih police station.Jarmundi SDPO AnimeshNaithani said though the com-pany could not deploy anysecurity guards at the office.

Superintendent of policeDumka Y.S.Ramesh, SDOOJarmundi Animesh Naithaniand Officer in charge AmitKumar Lakra rushed to thespot and inquired about theincident. The SP said the crim-

inals could escaped with thecash on either their motorbikesor car.“Borders of the districtshave been sealed and vehiclechecking drive launched tonab the criminals involved inthe daynight loot,” the SP said,adding that the police have gotsome clues in the case.

Sources said the sleuths ofspecial task force have beenasked to cooperate with theHansdih police to solve the lootcase.

“A special investigationteam was formed to arrest thecriminals and recover thestolen cash,” a senior policeofficer said.The members of theSIT later obtained the CCTVfootage from the office of thecompany and also from near-by shops to ascertain the exitroute of the robbers.

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Projecting a dismal picture,former Finance Minister

and senior Congress leader PChidambaram on Monday saidthe "economy is in ICU" and"perilously close to a collapse"attended to by "incompetentdoctors". He also said the econ-omy is facing twin problems ofrising unemployment anddeclining consumptionterming them as "two ele-phants" in the room but theGovernment continues to livein denial.

Making these remarkswhile initiating a debate in theRajya Sabha on Budget for2020-21, he offered FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharamanthe same advice that NarendraModi as BJP's PrimeMinisterial candidate hadoffered him in November 2013.

On November 2, 2013, avery distinguished politicalleader said and I quote:"Economy is in trouble. Theyouth wants jobs. Devote moretime to the economy, not onpetty politics. Please focus onthe job at hand. Very wiseadvice. I can't do anythingbetter than reading this piece of

advice to the Finance Minister,"Chidambaram quipped.

He said the need of thehour was to revive demand andincentivize investment.Moreover, more money has tobe put in the hands of the mass-es rather than classes and doaway with 'tax terrorism,"Chidambaram said.

According to him, theeconomy was facing structur-al problems but theGovernment continues tobelieve they were cyclical innature. Modi government'schief economic adviser for fouryears, Arvind Subramanian,has stated that the economy isin the ICU (Intensive CareUnit). But "I would say the

patient has been kept out of theICU and incompetent doctorsare looking at the patient,"Chidambaram said. Tearinginto the Budget, the formerfinance minister said the BJPgovernment lives in denial,refuses to acknowledge its mis-takes and has an "outdated"predisposition towards pro-tectionism and a strong rupee,and is against bilateral as wellas multilateral trade agree-ments.

Chidambaram calleddemonetisation of old 500 and1,000 rupee notes as well as thehurried implementation of a"flawed" Goods and ServicesTax (GST) with wrong design,rates, structure and procedure

and an unprepared system as"monumental blunders" thatruined the economy.

He urged the Governmentto realize its mistakes and havean open mind to debate it.While GDP has fallen to an 11-year low of 4.5 per cent in 2019July-September quarter, agri-culture is growing by just 2 percent, while consumer priceinflation has risen from 1.9 percent in January 2019 to 7.4 percent in a matter of 11 months.

Also, food inflation is at12.2 per cent. Bank credit isgrowing 8 per cent with non-food credit rising by 7-8 percent and credit to the industryby just 2.7 per cent.

Credit to agriculture hasdeclined from 18.3 per cent to5.3 per cent and that forMSMEs from 6.7 per cent to1.6 per cent, he said.

He quipped that everycompetent doctor that theModi government could everfind has left the country andlisted out former Reserve Bankof India(RBI) governorsRaghuram Rajan and UrjitPatel, former Chief EconomicAdvisor Arvind Subramanianand former NITI Aayog ViceChairman Arvind Panagariyaas persons who quit during the

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Great Indian Bustard, AsianElephant and Bengal

Florican from India will beamong 10 endangered speciesof migratory animals/birdsfrom across the world whichwill be included in a special UNlist for protection under theConvention on Conservationof Migratory Species(CMS)—an international treaty to pro-tect such species throughouttheir range countries.

Their inclusion besides arange of issues affecting migra-tory species will be discussed ata triennial UN conference onconservation of migratoryspecies of wild animals(COP13) in Gandhinagar fromFebruary 15 to 22 which will beinaugurated by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi.

Hosting CMS COP-13 is asignificant step towards wildlifeconservation in India. ThePrime Minister will inauguratethe CMS COP13 which will beattended by representatives

from 130 countries besideseminent conservationists andinternational NGOs working inthe field of wildlife conserva-tion, Union EnvironmentMinister Prakash Javadekarsaid at a press conference.

The theme of CMS COP13in India is, "Migratory speciesconnect the planet and wewelcome them home. " TheCMS COP 13 logo is inspiredby 'Kolam', a traditional artform from southern India. Inthe logo of CMS COP-13,Kolam art form is used todepict key migratory species inIndia like Amur falcon, hump-

back whale, and marine turtles.The mascot for CMS

COP13, "Gibi - The GreatIndian Bustard" which is a crit-ically endangered species thathas been accorded the highestprotection status under theWildlife Protection Act, 1972.

The CMS listing makesmember countries responsi-ble to work towards protectingthese animals/birds, conservingtheir habitats and controllingother factors that might endan-ger them. Currently, 173species from across the globeare listed in CMS Appendix I,which deals with migratory

species threatened with extinc-tion.

Besides three species pro-posed by India, the other sevento be considered include Jaguar(proposed by Costa Rica,Argentina, Bolivia andParaguay), White-tip Shark(Brazil), Little Bustard (EUnations), Urial (Tajikistan, Iranand Uzbekistan), AntipodeanAlbatross (New Zealand,Australia and Chile), SmoothHammerhead Shark (Brazil)and Tope Shark (EU nations).

Migratory species thatneed or would significantlybenefit from international

cooperation are listed inAppendix II of the Convention.A total of 518 species are list-ed in Appendix II, but this list-ing also includes entire speciesgroups including subspecies.Besides, many of those inAppendix I are also listed inAppendix II.

Representative from 110countries will also discussadoption of dedicated actionsto protect 12 species, includingGangetic River Dolphin,Gabon and Giraffe. India hasprepared a concerted actionproposal to protect GangeticRiver Dolphin.

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Raising serious concernover the "bad state of

affairs of economy", declininggrowth, falling investment,Opposition MPs in Lok Sabhaon Monday asked theGovernment to take correctivemeasures to arrest the slow-down and generate employ-ment.

The MPs were speaking atthe second day of debate onBudget and Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman will replyon Tuesday afternoon in LokSabha and evening in RajyaSabha, the last working day ofthe first part of BudgetSession.

Participating in the debateon the Union Budget 2020-21in Lok Sabha, BJD member BMahtab called for financialsector reforms to revive rapid-ly declining investment. "Weare measuring GDP growth.

More the investment, thegrowth would be faster andquicker," he said, adding thatadequate corrective measureswere necessary to boostgrowth which is estimated toslip to five per cent in 2019-20.Banks were not in a positionto lend to infrastructure,Mahtab said and asked thegovernment not to lose sightof wider reforms in the pub-lic sector.

"There is a need to bringcompetition within the bank-ing sector," he said.

NCP's Supriya Suletermed the budget as "longand tiresome" and said it hasexposed the failure "of thisGovt when it comes to fiscalhealth".

She said the Governmenttalks about achieving USD 5trillion economy but "we arenot even barely crossing fiveper cent (growth)".

Former Union Minister

Preneet Kaur (Cong) said thepresumption of 10 per centnominal GDP growth and 12per cent rise in tax collectionseems unrealistic given thelow economic growth andfalling exports.

However, BJP MPAparajita Sarangi said there isa balance between intent andcontent, and vision and pro-vision in the Budget. "Wehave moved from policyparalysis to policy actionunder the Narendra Modigovernment," she said addingthe focus is on growth and theBudget will strengthen thefoundation of Indian economyin the new decade.

The Budget promotes sixmajor sectors against the back-drop of current economic sce-nario, she said. It will helpfacilitate investment, spur con-sumption while giving a pushto infrastructure and fillip toagriculture sector, she added.

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DMK leader DayanidhiMaran's remark question-

ing the relevance of Sanskritsparked a furore in Lok Sabhaon Monday with treasurymembers demanding that heapologise, while the Chairdirected that the objection-able comment be removedfrom the records.

During a debate on theUnion Budget, Maran saidcrores of rupees were beingspent on Sanskrit and asked asto what has the Governmentdone for the classical languageTamil.

Maran also made a con-troversial remark aboutSanskrit which was stronglyobjected to by Minister of Statefor Finance Anurag Thakur,who said that one can criticisethe Budget or the FinanceMinister, but it was not right tospeak in an indecent mannerabout Sanskrit.

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In a counter to Pakistan'sconsistent campaign in for-

eign capitals against India'smove on Article 370, theGovernment has decided tosend a fresh batch of foreignenvoys to visit Jammu &Kashmir this week to facilitatethem in getting a first-handaccount of the ground situationin the erstwhile State which lostits special status on August 5last year.

The fresh batch of foreignenvoys will visit Jammu &Kashmir later this week andthose who will be part of thedelegation include envoys fromEuropean Union and the Gulfcountries, official sources saidwithout any further elaborationon the specific date of the visitor the composition of the vis-iting team.

The first batch of 15

envoys, including the USAmbassador to India, KennethI Justerhad, had visited Jammuand Kashmir last month on atwo-day visit. .

The first batch of theenvoys included those from theUS, Latin America and Africa.But diplomats from Australiaand several Gulf nations as alsothe European Union could notmake the cut but were desirousof visiting the Valley at a laterdate.

Parliamentarians from theEuropean Union had visitedJammu and Kashmir inOctober in order to assess theground situation. TheParliamentarians, on a privatevisit, were briefed by the secu-rity forces on the situationthere.

The Parliament had onAugust 5 abrogated the specialstatus to J&K under Article 370and bifurcated the erstwhile

state of Jammu & Kashmirinto union territories, Jammuand Kashmir, and Ladakh.

Following India's move,Pakistan had launched a viti-ated campaign against themove across major capitals asthe repeal of the special provi-sion paved the way for full inte-gration of the terror-hit terri-tory with the Indian Union.

In the wake of continuedpropaganda and the telecomrestrictions, a number of coun-tries had voiced concern overInternet shutdown and deten-tion of political leaders.However, Pakistan could notget much traction despite apitched campaign against Indiadue to lack of credibility in Islamabad's argu-ments.

Pakistan's role in terrorfunding and human rightsabuse has been under the gazeof various multi-lateral bodies.

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Prime Minister NarendraModi on Monday told his

Sri Lankan counterpartMahinda Rajapaksa that theRiver Ganga is at the heart ofIndian civilisation and our cul-tural and economic lifeline,after the latter commendedModi for the "Namami Gangeeffort".

Modi made the remarks onTwitter, replying to a post byRajapaksa about his Sunday'strip to Varanasi where he gotthe "honour" of visiting theGanga."Before leaving#Varanasi, I had the honour ofvisiting the sacred River Ganga.I commend PM @naren-dramodis #NamamiGangeeffort, not only because of therivers spiritual and culturalsignificance but also because it

is host to approximately 40% of#Indias population," Rajapaksatweeted, attaching a picture ofhis visit. In his reply, Modi saidthe "Ganga is at the heart of ourcivilisation. It is our culturaland economic lifeline. I amglad you spent time in Varanasiand also went along the Ganga.The experience would havebeen wonderful."The NamamiGange programme waslaunched in 2014 to clean theriver and improve its flow.

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The CBI has registered a case to probe allegedimpersonation of PK Mishra, the Principal

Secretary to the Prime Minister, by unidentifiedconmen seeking favours from the regional admin-istrator of Mahe in Puducherry. It is alleged thatAman Sharma,

The regional administrator of Mahe Regionin Puducherry, Aman Sharma received a call onhis mobile phone from an unknown number andthe caller, claiming to be Mishra, sought somefavours for his daughter studying at JIPMER,according to the complaint from the PMO whichis now part of the FIR.

The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) referredthe matter to the CBI through a letter onNovember 27 last year saying it is a clear case ofimpersonation.

Nearly two-and-a-half months after receivinga complaint, the agency has registered an FIRagainst unidentified persons under IPC sectionsrelated to criminal conspiracy, cheating andcheating by impersonation.

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The Supreme Court Mondayupheld the constitutional

validity of SC/ST AmendmentAct, 2018 saying a court cangrant anticipatory bail only incases where a prima facie caseis not made out.

A preliminary inquiry isnot essential before lodging anFIR under the act nor is theapproval of senior police offi-cials, said a bench headed byJustice Arun Mishra. JusticeRavindra Bhat, the other mem-ber of the bench, said in a con-curring verdict that every cit-izen needs to treat fellow citi-zens equally and foster theconcept of fraternity.

Justice Bhat said a courtcan quash the FIR if a prima

facie case is not made outunder the SC/ST Act and theliberal use of anticipatory bailwill defeat the intention ofParliament. The top court'sverdict came on a batch of PILschallenging the validity of theSC/ST Amendment Act of2018, which was brought tonullify the effect of the apexcourt's 2018 ruling, which haddiluted the provisions of thestringent Act.

The apex court had inJanuary last year refused to staythe 2018 amendments to theSC/ST Act, which restored theprovision that no anticipatorybail be granted to the accusedin offence lodged under thislaw.In its 2018 verdict, theapex court had taken note ofthe rampant misuse of the

stringent SC/ST Act againstgovernment servants and pri-vate individuals and said thatthere wouldbe no imme-diate arrest onany complaint filed under thelaw.

Violent protests had takenplace across the country afterthe apex court's verdict inwhich several persons lost theirlives and many were injured.

Parliament on August 9,2018 had passed the bill tooverturn the apex court March20, 2018 judgement concerningcertain safeguards against arrestunder the SC/ST law.

Later, the Centre had fileda petition in the top court seek-ing review of its March 2018judgement.

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The Supreme Court onMonday sought response

from the Kerala Governmenton pleas byK o c h i ' sMaradu flat

owners, whose apartmentswere recently demolished forbeing constructed in violationof coastal regulation zonenorms, seeking setting up of atribunal for exact valuation ofthe land.

A bench of justices ArunMishra and Indira Banerjeeissued notice to the KeralaGovernment on the applicationfiled by the flat owners, whosought exact valuation of theirproperty.

Senior advocate PSPatwalia, appearing for someflat owners, said a retired apex

court judge should be appoint-ed as a tribunal judge forassessing the exact valuation ofthe property.

He said otherwise they willbe at the receiving end for notbeing able to get the price,which they have paid to thebuilders of the apartment.

Senior advocate DushyantDave, also appearing for anoth-er set of flat owners, sought asimilar relief and said that a tri-bunal should be appointed toassess their loss.

Senior advocate GopalSankaranarayanan, appearingfor some home buyers, said onthe apex court directive theyhave been paid an interimcompensation of �25, lakh butthe exact value was much moreand they need to be paid morefor the loss.

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In view of complaints thatsome of the States have been

registering even prototype vehi-cles, the Centre has issued anadvisory to all the StateTransport Authorities to regis-ter vehicles that are certified bythe Government based on theMotor Vehicle Act. Directivesalso come ahead of the Centreall set to implement BharatStage VI vehicle emission witheffect from April 1, 2020.

The Road TransportMinistry in its advisory hasstated that it has come to thenotice to the Ministry that insome States, vehicles are notbeing registered in spite of

vehicles having Valid TypeApproval (Road Worthiness,Certificate from authorizedtesting agencies) and that eachmodel of the vehicle is sub-jected to physical inspection bythe State TransportDepartment before their regis-tration in the States. Ministryof Road Transport andHighways has issued an advi-sory to all State /UTAdministrations to implementsystem of vehicle registration asper Rules notified under theCentral Motor Vehicle Act1988.

A senior MoRTH officialsaid that all authorized testingagencies carry out testing ofprototype of the model and pro-

vide the type approval certifi-cate and in this regard a specificquality certificate for compli-ance with pollution standards,safety standards of componentsand road worthiness are issued.

Manufacturers of all kindsof motor vehicles as also E-rick-shaws and E-carts will have togive detailed declaration aboutthe make and emission levels ofthe vehicle they have manufac-tured. Through a recent noti-fication, Ministry amendedForm 22 through which man-ufacturers provide the InitialCertificate of Compliance withPollution Standards, SafetyStandards of ComponentsQuality and Road -Worthinesscertificate for all vehicles.

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The CBI on Monday arrested yet againformer New Okhla Industr ial

Development Authority (Noida) chief engi-neer Yadav Singh in a two-year old cor-ruption case for allegedly awarding projectsworth �116.39 crore to private companiesduring his tenure, in lieu of regular bribesfrom the firms.

The case has been registered on the alle-gations of criminal conspiracy and misuseof official position as well as accepting ille-gal gratification by Singh from the accusedcontractors and firms while awarding con-tracts. "It was also alleged that the then ChiefMaintenance Engineer (CME) in conspir-acy with other officers/officials of theNOIDA as well as with the said contractorshad awarded several contracts worth�116.39 crore (approx.) to the five firms ingross violation of tender norms and proce-dures of the Noida," the CBI said in a state-ment. Yadav had been arrested earlier in aslew of cases involving corruption and wasgranted bail by the Supreme Court onOctober 1 last year.

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Jammu: CPI(M) leader MY Tarigami termed onMonday the grounds for booking former Jammu &Kashmir Chief Ministers Omar Abdullah andMehbooba Mufti under Public Safety Act (PSA)‘hilarious’ and said it shows the “intellectual andmoral bankruptcy” of the BJP Government at the Centre.

Former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah's con-siderable influence over people, including the abil-ity to attract voters to polling booths despite poll boy-cott calls and the potential for channelling energiesof public for any cause, has been cited in support ofhis detention under the stringent PSA.

His political opponent and Peoples DemocraticParty (PDP) leader Mehbooba Mufti has beenaccused of making anti-national statements andextending support to organisations such as theJamaat-e-Islamia of the state, which has beenbanned under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention)Act (UAPA).

Tarigami, in a statement here, said, “The PSAdossier of Mehbooba states that the 'green colour ofparty (PDP) flag' reflects radical origin. Was not thecolour of PDP flag same when the BJP entered intoan alliance with it to share the power in Jammu &Kashmir in March 2015?”

He also said that Omar Abdullah's PSA dossierstates his ability to convince the electorate to votein huge numbers even during the peak of militancy and poll boycott calls by separatists andmilitants.

“Is it a crime to have influence over voters andconvince them to vote despite threats by militantsand separatists?” Tarigami asked and asserted thatin a democratic setup every leader has influence overpeople and voters which is not considered as crimein any part of the country or the world. PTI

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Over 250 tribals in Valparai inCoimbatore were on Monday

stopped from taking out a march tothe city to press for their long-pend-ing demands, policesaid.

The demands were: provisionof rights on forest, patta (deed) fortheir habitats, land for agricultureand also alternative place inreserved forest areas.

The tribals, including women,from 16 settlements gathered tomarch to the city, covering 120 kmin the early hours of Monday, andpetition the Collector on theirdemands.

However, a large number ofpolice deployed there preventedthem from proceeding and all ofthem squatted in front of a Gandhi

statue, later detained in a marriagehall, police said.

The representatives of Kadar,Malaisar, Irular Muthuvar, Pulaiyarcommunities decided to reach thecity and petition the Collector forrights on forest, patta (deed) fortheir habitats, land for agriculture,among others.

The communities had alreadydiscussed the issue with ValparaiMLA Kasthuri Vasu and local dis-trict officials on the issue.

Their problem started afterValparai being announced as TigerReserve, due to which their rightson forests and to move in andaround were curtailed.

They decided to walk 120 kmafter the communities lost theirtrust in the government officials andthe system. All those who detainedwere released later, police said.

Kolkata: West Bengal ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee onMonday expressed sadnessover slapping of the stringentPublic Safety Act (PSA) on for-mer Jammu & Kashmir ChiefMinisters Mehbooba Mufti andOmar Abdullah, saying “theyare getting ill-treatment”.

“Very sad case, the slappingof PSA on Omar, Mehbooba. Iam really sorry for that. I amshocked. They are two verysenior politicians. And howthey are getting ill-treatment.It's a shame for all of us,”Banerjee told media personshere.

The PSA was slapped onOmar Abdullah and MehboobaMufti on February 7. Thedossier citing grounds for slap-ping the PSA on MehboobaMufti says she is known ashard-headed scheming personand for actions like glorifyingmilitants in her speeches andcreating fears among themajority population, based oncheap politics. IANS

Srinagar: Hilal Akbar Lone,National Conference (NC)leader and son of party MPMuhammad Akbar Lone,booked under the Public SafetyAct (PSA) on Monday.

In the last five days, sixmainstream leaders from theregion belonging to NationalConference and People'sDemocratic Party (PDP) havebeen slapped with PSA, whichallows detention of any indi-vidual for up to two years with-out a trial or charge. The totalnumber of mainstream leadersbooked under the detentionlaw has now mounted to seven.

On Thursday, two formerChief Ministers — OmarAbdullah and Mehbooba Mufti— were booked under PSA.

Earlier, NC leader AliMuhammad Sagar and seniorPDP leader Sartaj Madni werebooked under PSA.OnSaturday, senior PDP leaderand former minister NaeemAkhter was also booked underthe same law.

Around 50 politicians,including three former ChiefMinisters -- Farooq Abdullah,Omar Abdullah and MehboobaMufti, were placed under deten-tion on August 5 last year whenArticle 370 was abrogated andthe erstwhile state of J&K wasbifurcated into two UnionTerritories — Jammu &Kashmir and Ladakh. IANS

New Delhi: Congress leader PriyankaGandhi Vadra on Monday said it is ‘pret-ty clear’ the Government has no basis tocharge Omar Abdullah and MehboobaMufti under the Public Safety Act and thetwo former Jammu & Kashmir ChiefMinisters must be freed.

Since when has becoming a ‘daddy'sgirl’ and encouraging people to votebecome a crime against the nation,Priyanka Gandhi asked on Twitter.

Her attack came after Abdullah's ‘con-siderable influence’ over people, includingthe ability to attract voters to polling booths despite poll boycott calls andthe potential for channelling energies ofpublic for any cause, was cited in supportof his detention under the stringentPSA.

His political opponent and PeoplesDemocratic Party (PDP) leader MehboobaMufti has been accused of making anti-national statements and extending supportto organisations such as the Jamaat-e-Islamia. She was also reportedly referred inthe report as being called by the masses as'Daddy's girl' and 'Kota Rani'.

“Since when has being a 'Daddy's girl'and encouraging people to vote become acrime against the nation? I would be proudto be both!” Priyanka Gandhi said in atweet.

“It's pretty clear that the governmenthas no basis for charging Omar Abdullahand Mehbooba Mufti with PSA. They mustbe freed,” she said. PTI

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Puducherry: Two days aheadof the Congress Government'smove to bring in an anti-CAAresolution in the Assembly, LtGovernor Kiran Bedi onMonday shot off a letter toChief Minister VNarayanasamy, saying the Actpassed by Parliament is applic-able to the Union Territory and“cannot be questioned or delib-erated in any manner.”

She said this after threenominated legislators from theBJP, V Saminathan, KGShankar and S Sellaganapathy,met her and submitted a peti-tion, bringing to her notice theGovernment's move to bring ina resolution in the assembly onFebruary 12 against theCitizenship Amendment Act.

The legislators had alreadypresented a petition to theSpeaker VP Sivakolundhu onFebruary 6,requesting him not to permit any discussion ora resolution against CAA

“as it exceeds the powers of theLegislative Assembly underGovernment of UnionTerritories Act 1963”.

The legislators requestedthe Lt Governor to take neces-sary action, saying any discus-sion or deliberation on CAAwould be violative of the pro-visions of the Constitution andinfringing the rights ofParliament.

They also pointed out thatthe CAA had been passed byboth Houses of Parliamentandthe President had also given his assent to the Act.Bedi, in her WhatsApp mes-sage, said she had examined thelegal position of their repre-sentation and sent a letter to theChief Minister, “advising himaccordingly”.

She pointed out in her let-ter that CAA had been passedby both Houses ofParliament,given assent to bythe President and notified inthe extraordinary Gazette of

December 12, 2019.She said the legislative

power of the PuducherryAssembly does not extend to discussing ordeliberating the matter of citi-zenship as it falls squarelywithin the domain ofParliament and the CentralGovernment.

“The matter of CAA isalready under adjudicationbefore the Supreme Court,”she said.Bedi said that as perRules of Procedure andConduct of Business ofPuducherry LegislativeAssembly 1966 “a resolution ofany matter which is underadjudication by a court of lawhaving jurisdiction in any partof India is not not admissibleunder Rule 105 of the abovementioned rules”.

The Lt Governor said shehad also enclosed a copy of the petition with herletter to the Chief Minister. PTI

New Delhi: Former Jammu &Kashmir Chief Minister OmarAbdullah's sister on Mondayapproached the SupremeCourt, challenging his deten-tion under the J&K PublicSafety Act(PSA), 1978 sayingthe order of detention is “man-ifestly illegal” and there is noquestion of him being a “threatto the maintenance of publicorder”.

In her plea, Sara AbdullahPilot has said that exercise ofpowers by authorities under theCrPC to detain individuals,including political leaders, was“clearly mala fide to ensure thatthe opposition to the abroga-tion of Article 370 of theConstitution is silenced”.

It said the intent of exerciseof power was to “incarceratenot just him (Omar Abdullah)but the entire leadership of theNational Conference, as well asthe leadership of other politi-cal parties, who were similar-ly dealt with including FarooqAbdullah, who has served theState and the Union over sev-eral years... Stood by Indiawhenever the situation sodemanded.”

The plea has sought quash-ing of February 5 order detain-ing Omar Abdullah under the

PSA and also sought his pro-duction before the court.

Senior advocate KapilSibal, appearing for Pilot, men-tioned the matter for urgentlisting before a bench headedby Justice NV Ramana.

Sibal told the bench thatthey have filed a habeas corpuspetition challenging the deten-tion of Omar Abdullah underthe PSA and the matter shouldbe heard this week.

The bench agreed for list-ing of the matter.

In her plea, Pilot has saidthat on the intervening night ofAugust 4-5, 2019, OmarAbdullah was put under housearrest and it was later learntthat section 107 of Code ofCriminal Procedure (CrPC),1973 was invoked to justifysuch arrest.

“There has been a graveviolation of Articles 14, 21 and22 of the Constitution,” the pleasaid, adding, “similar orders ofdetention have been issued bythe Respondents (authorities ofunion territory of Jammu &Kashmir) over the last sevenmonths in a wholly mechani-cal manner to other detenues,which suggest that there hasbeen a consistent and concert-ed effort to muzzle all political

rivals”.It said there could be no

material available to detain aperson who has already beendetained for previous sixmonths and the “grounds forthe detention order are whol-ly lacking any material facts orparticulars which are impera-tive for an order of detention”.

It said the provisions ofPSA were “wholly violated”and none of the conditions laiddown to justify a detentionorder exists, “nor is evenadverted to”.

“It is rare that those whohave served the nation as mem-bers of Parliament, ChiefMinisters of a state, ministersin the Union and have alwaysstood by the national aspira-tions of India are now per-ceived as a threat to the State,”the plea said.

“In fact, a reference to allthe public statements and mes-sages posted by the detenue(Omar Abdullah) during theperiod up to his first detentionwould reveal that he has keptcalling for peace and co-oper-ation — messages which inGandhi's India cannot remote-ly affect public order,” it said. PTI

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New Delhi: Irked over repeated failures of the Centreand States to file their replies, the Supreme Court onMonday came down heavily and imposed cost of ��fivelakh on them for not complying with its directions tofile their affidavits on a PIL seeking setting up of com-munity kitchens across the country.

A bench of Justice NV Ramana, Ajay Rastogi andV Ramasubramanian, during hearing in the morning,said if the Union of India and the States file their affi-davit in the next 24 hours then they will have to payonly Rs one-lakh fine, whereas those who still fail to sub-mit it by then will have to pay �5 lakh fine.

The top court said that five states — Punjab,Nagaland, Karnataka, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand —and Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar, who havefiled their responses on the PIL filed by Arun Dhawan,will not pay any fine. Advocate Ashima Mandla, appear-ing for the petitioner said that five months have passedsince the apex court had issued notice and except forfive states and one union territory, no other states andUTs have filed their response. PTI

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The Allahabad High Court on Monday dis-missed a petition challenging recovery

notices served on anti-CAA protesters foralleged damage to public property.

The Lucknow Bench of the High Courtsaid such matters are already sub judice beforethe Supreme Court so there was no occasionto file the instant petition here.

The order was given by a division benchof Justice Pankaj Kumar Jaiswal and JusticeKarunesh Singh Pawar on the writ petition filed by a protester, MohammadKaleem.

The petitioner had challenged a noticeissued by the UP government for the recov-ery of damages allegedly caused to publicproperty during a recent protest in the cityagainst the Citizenship Amendment Act.

The petitioner had stated that the noticewas illegal.

Opposing the plea, the government coun-sel submitted that it was a mere notice towhich the petitioner should reply before theissuing authority and secondly same mattersare pending before the apex court so the peti-tion is not maintainable in the HC.

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BJP leader and former LokSabha MP Narendra

Sawaikar on Monday calledGoa Archbishop Filipe NeriFerrao's statement against theCitizenship Amendment Act as‘divisive’ and asked why the lat-ter was not objecting to Article30 of the Constitution whichgives minorities the right toestablish educational institu-tions.

Ferrao on Saturday hadasked the Centre to scrap CAA

and drop any plans of carryingout the National Population Register andNational Register of Citizensexercises.

“They (minorities) claimall benefits under Article 30.They run educational institu-tions with the money I pay astax,” Sawaikar, the Goa BJP'sgeneral secretary, said.

Article 30(1) lays downthat religious and linguisticminorities have the right toestablish and administer edu-cational institutions.

Kanpur (UP): Tension prevailed here after police alleged-ly tried to remove anti-CAA protesters forcibly fromMohamed Ali Park in the Chamanganj area in the weehours on Monday.

Continuing their stir, the protesters has accused policeof resorting to a lathicharge.

Additional District Magistrate (ADM) VivekSrivastava said the protesters had agreed to end their agi-tation on Saturday after assurance by the district admin-istration that cases against them will be withdrawn.

However, many stayed back despite ending their stirafter reciting the national anthem with the DM, the ADMadded.He said police then asked the protesters to vacatethe park by Sunday night. Kanpur DM Brahma Deo RamTiwari denied reports of any lathicharge on the protest-ers. PTI

Gandhinagar: Underlining that respect-ing the unity and integrity of the coun-try is perhaps the ‘most important fun-damental duty’, former Chief Justice ofIndia Ranjan Gogoi on Monday saidenough protests have been held on thenew citizenship law and that peopleshould not create ‘two parallel forums’when the SC has already seized the mat-ter.

Addressing students of the GujaratNational Law University (GNLU) here,the former CJI also said that everybodyhas the right to express views on theCitizenship Amendment Act (CAA), but“the resolution of the issue must bethrough Constitutional means”.

Referring to the protests over theCAA in his home State Assam, the for-mer CJI said there were elements whowanted to harm the integrity of the coun-try, but the student community therecalled off the violent protests within days,which improved law and order situationovernight.

“Perhaps the most important fun-damental duty is the respect of the unityand integrity of the country. There areissues in this, and why hype them. TheCitizenship Amendment Act...It is an

issue. You may have a view about it, Imay have a view about it, and our viewsmay not match. I have the right toexpress my view, you have the right toexpress your view. Fine. But the resolu-tion must be through Constitutionalmeans,” he said.

Former CJI Gogoi further said thematter (challenge to CAA) is pendingbefore the Supreme Court. “Trust yourjudges. They will decide, according to theConstitution,” he added.

Several petitions have been filedchallenging the constitutional validity ofthe Act including by RJD leader ManojJha, Trinamool Congress MP MahuaMoitra and AIMIM leader AsaduddinOwaisi.

“Protests have been held, view-points have been expressed. Enough. Youcannot have two parallel forums, theSupreme Court and someone else,” hesaid. On December 18, the apex courthad agreed to examine the constitutionalvalidity of the CAA, but refused to stayits operation.

Assam was the first Sate whereprotests broke out after the CAA waspassed by Parliament in December lastyear. PTI

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Jaipur: Crop on over 1.49 lakhhectares has been damaged invarious districts due the locustattack since May, RajasthanAgriculture Minister Lal ChandKataria informed the stateassembly here on Monday.

He, however, said no sig-nificant damage was caused tothe kharif crop due to a promptaction by the authorities whenswarms of locust enteredJaisalmer on May 21 last year.

“Fresh locust swarmsentered the country inDecember 2019 due to windintensity and lack of effectivecontrol over locusts by neigh-bouring country Pakistan,” hesaid amid the BJP criticism thatthe state did not take timelyaction to tackle the problem.

He said the crop on

1,49,881 hectares—54,989hectares in Jaisalmer, 53,682hectares in Jalore, 33,788hectares in Barmer, 2,549hectares in Bikaner, 2,308hectares in Jodhpur--was dam-aged.

He said till date the locustcontrol exercise had been taken

up on 5,29,602 hectares andpesticides were given to farm-ers at 100 per cent subsidy.

Earlier, Deputy Leader ofthe Opposition RajendraRathore said that StateGovernment could shy awayfrom its responsibility. PTI

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Ahmedabad: A prime accused in the 1993 Mumbaiserial blasts, who is a close associate of the terrorattack's key conspirator Tiger Memon, was arrest-ed from the airport in Maharashtra's capital by theGujarat ATS in a drug seizure case, a senior offi-cial said on Monday.

Munaf Halari was arrested from the Mumbaiinternational airport on late Sunday night by a teamof the Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS), hesaid.

The 55-year-old, travelling on a Pakistani pass-port, had arrived from Nairobi and was supposedto catch a Dubai- bound flight from Mumbai, saidAssistant Commissioner of Police (ATS) KKPatel.

Halari is wanted in the 1993 Mumbai serialbomb blasts in which around 260 people were killedand more than 700 injured in what was one of theworst terror attacks in India.

Halari was on the radar of the Gujarat ATS fol-lowing the arrest of five Pakistani nationals inJanuary off the Gujarat coast with drugs worth Rs175 crore, he said.

The questioning of the Pakistani nationals hadrevealed the role of Halari in drug smuggling, theACP told reporters at Gujarat ATS headquartershere.

“Munaf Halari is also a prime accused in theMumbai serial blasts case of 1993 in which a RedCorner Notice had been issued against him. He hadplayed a vital role in the serial blasts. PTI

�����3������� � -B-*1

Tension prevailed in Darodavillage of Hinganghat talu-

ka of Maharashtra’s Wardhadistrict on Monday, as a 24-year-old lecturer succumbed toburns at Orange City Hospital& Research Institute (OCHRI)in Nagpur, a week after she wasset ablaze by her spurned suit-or near her college in the near-by taluka town.

The news of the victimwoman’s death sparked unrestin her village, where the peo-ple took to street to condemnher death and stopped theambulance carrying her bodyfrom the Nagpur-based hospi-tal to her native village. Somevillagers resorted to stone pelt-ing.

However, a 300 member-strong police force deployedspecially in the village broughtthe situation under the control.

An intense drama unfold-ed in Daroda village after theparents of the victim womanhad refused to take her body tillthey got a written assurancefrom the State Governmentthat the accused Vicki Nagrale(27) — who had doused thevictim woman with petrol and

set her on fire on February 3 inbroad day light— would bedealt with sternly. Some iratevillagers were demanding thatthe accused be burnt alive.However, the parents agreed toaccept the body after StateHome Minister AnilDeshmukh assured them thatthe accused would be pun-ished.

Hundreds of people turnedout for the victim woman’sfuneral held in the village laterin the evening, amid gloom andemotional scenes.

Earlier at 6.55 am, the vic-tim woman — who had beenbattling with life for a week —-succumbed to burns atOCHRI. “At around 6.30 am;patient again had bradycardiaand in spite of prolongedCardiopulmonary resuscita-tion as per ACLS guidelines;patient could not be revivedand was declared dead at6.55am today,” Dr. Anup Marar,Director of OCHRI.

“Probable cause of deathkept was Septicemic shock inpatient of 35% Grade III DeepDermal burns withInhalational Injury. MLC wasduly conveyed and body washanded over to police author-ities for post mortem and alliedformalities,” Dr Marar said in

a statement issued later in theday.

Dr Marar said that thevictim woman, who was onventilator since February 7,remained critical all through asshe had respiratory distressand fluctuations in BloodPressure. Her condition dete-riorated further in the earlyhours of Monday, after oxygenlevels in her blood dippedalarmingly low.

In his reaction to the deathof victim woman and subse-quent developments at hernative village, Maharashtrachief minister UddhavThackeray said: “We will notshow any mercy to the accused.Many a time, the trial in thiskind of cases takes time. Wewill not allow such a delay totake place in this case. We willprove the guilt of the accusedin a quickest possible time andexecute him”.

“It is rather unfortunate wecould not save the victimwoman from being set ablazein such a savage manner. Norcould we save from succumb-ing to burns. This incident is abig blot on Maharashtra,”deputy chief minister AjitPawar said in his condolencemessage.

Meanwhile, theMaharashtra government hasannounced a financial assis-tance of Rs 10 lakh to the nextof kin of the deceased womanand a job to one of the mem-bers of the bereaved family.

Making an announcementto this effect, Minister of Statefor Women and Child WelfareBachhu Kadu said: “We willprosecute the accused througha speedy trial and hand him outa stern punishment”

It may be recalled that thevictim woman suffered nearly40 per cent burns after the

accused Vicki Nagrale — whowas laying in wait for her nearcollege at Hinganghat— tookout petrol from his two-wheel-er and poured it on her and setheron fire, at around 7.30 amon February 3. After sheshrieked for her, the bystandersdoused the burning victimwoman with water and extin-guished the fire. By then, shehad been badly burnt.

The police investigationshave revealed that the victimwoman — who was a Botanylecturer in a Hinganghat-basedcollege — and the accusedused to travel to taluka town inWardha district by the samebus. The accused had somemonth ago expressed his lovefor the victim woman, whospurned him.

Nagrale, who landed a jobin the Railways, is married witha six-month-old daughter. Heused to harass her for the pastthree months. The victimwoman’s father had taken theaccused to task, after her fixedmarriage peroposal fellthrough.

Nagarle, who would nor-mally travel to Hinganghatwith the victim woman by bus,had arrived earlier than hernear college on Monday morning.

�����3������� � -B-*1

In a shocking incident, theparents and brother of a girl

who eloped with her loverfrom a different caste and mar-ried him, committed mass sui-cide by jumping into well inVivekananda Nagar locality ofGadchiroli town in easternMaharashtra on Monday.

Devastated after hearingthat their 24-year-old daughtereloped with her boyfriend andmarried him in a nearby tem-ple on Saturday, RavindraNagorao Vargantiwar (50) andhis wife VaIshali (43), alongwith their son Sairam (19),plunged into a well.

Acting on the informationreceived from the local resi-dents, the police rushed to themishap site and extricated thethree bodies from the well andsent them for post-mortem.

The police investigationshave revealed that the girl,whose parents and brothercommitted mass suicide, was inlove a boy from the neigh-bourhood belonging to differ-ent caste for quite some time.On Saturday, she told her that

she would marry the boywhom she loved.

However, her father toldher in unequivocal terms thathe did not approve her pro-posed inter-caste marriage withher lover. Unmindful of theopinion expressed by her father,the daughter left home andmarried the boy at a nearbytemple.

After hearing the news ofher inter-caste marriage, herupset parents and brother tookthe extreme step of jumping ina nearby well.

Kolkata: A city court onMonday rejected the bailprayers of five persons accusedin the gang-rape case of a 12-year-old girl and remandedthem to judicial custody tillFebruary 24.

Second Additional judge,POCSO court, Alipore, SoniaMajumdar sent the five to judi-cial remand. They were earli-er in police custody followingtheir arrest.

Four of them were accusedof raping the girl, while the fifthone — the owner of the housewhere the incident took place- was charged with abetment tothe crime.

Opposing their bail prayer,public prosecutor Radha KantaMukherjee submitted that it isa heinous crime of gangrapinga class VII student and inves-tigations are in a nascent stage.

Enlarging them on bailwould impact the probe,Mukherjee told the court.Judge Majumdar then rejectedtheir bail prayer.

The incident occurred at ahouse in Ekbalpore area of thecity on Thursday. The fourrape-accused were arrested onFriday while the owner of thehouse was nabbed later. PTI

���3������3����� ����11

In what the critics called aneffort to comeback to power in

the upcoming municipal elec-tions in the State besides gener-ating goodwill for the next year’sAssembly elections, Bengal ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee onMonday walked in the footstepsof her Delhi counterpart ArvindKejriwal by announcing freepower for an earmarked sectionof the society among other pop-ulist schemes.

Announcing the “condition-al” power scheme called ‘HasirAlo’ (smiling light) State FinanceMinister Amit Mitra said that thehouseholds with a quarterly con-sumption of up to 75 units wouldget electricity free of cost. Thescheme is expected to benefit 35lakh poor households Mitra saidadding �200 crore have been allo-cated for the purpose.

In a Budget apparently aimedat the have-not gallery herGovernment also announced acluster of Left-leaning measuresthat ranged from almost free-of-cost provident fund for the unor-ganized sector to suggestingwaiver of agricultural income

tax for two fiscals and con-structing houses for the perma-nent workers engaged in themoribund tea industry of NorthBengal.

The ruling TrinamoolCongress had earlier attackedthe Centre for giving nothing tothe tea workers of North Bengalfrom where the BJP had won allthe five parliamentary seats.

�500 crore for have been set

aside for the housing scheme fortea garden workers, named ‘ChaiSundari’ the Finance Ministersaid adding the scheme will ben-efit around three lakh workers in370 tea gardens of North Bengal.

The “Bina Mulya SamajikSuraksha” was launched to pro-vide Provident Fund (PF) at neg-

ligible rate of �25 per month forthe poorest of the poor. TheGovernment will contribute �30per month as PF to this newscheme. At the age of 60 years, ondeath or discontinuation, theamount can be drawn along withthe interest.

Apart from this the

Government also allocated �200crore for the next financial yearfor the MSME (Ministry ofMicro, Small and MediumEnterprises) parks. Under KarmaSaathi Prakalpa the Governmentwill provide soft loans to unem-ployed youth for setting up smallventures.

The Government alsoannounced setting up of a newuniversity in Scheduled Tribedominated area of Jhargram.Two other universities will alsocome up at Scheduled Castes(SCs) and Other Backward Castedominated areas. This apart thethree new civil service academieswill be set up in Kolkata,Durgapur and Siliguri.

Meanwhile at the post-Budget media meet Banerjeeattacked the Central Governmentfor coming out with a religion-centric Budget and appealed toPrime Minister Narendra Modito avoid what she called “politicsof vendetta” and work with theopposition parties.

“It is our duty to work togeth-er to improve the economic con-dition of the country and ifneeded Prime Minister NarendraModi should speak to the oppo-

sition parties,” Banerjee saidadding the Union Governmentshould try to improve the finan-cial health of the country insteadof spreading politics of hatred.

“Whatever RBI is saying is asensitive matter. The union gov-ernment should look after theeconomy, instead of being busy inthe politics of hatred. The PrimeMinister should take everybodyalong, if needed hold discussionswith opposition parties,” she saidafter her Government presentedthe Budget.

Attacking the State Budgetopposition leader Abdul Mannansaid that it was full of “highsounding nothing” as “they haveannounced a whole lot ofschemes but have not said as towhere the money will comefrom.”

Left Legislative Party leaderSujan Chakrabarty dared theGovernment to “come out withthe details of planned expenditureinstead of non-planned expen-diture,” adding how the presentGovernment had been movingtowards a debt trap with a cumu-lative debt burden of �4.6 lakhcrore in a matter of just 8-9years.

Bengaluru: Four days after thecabinet expansion, Chief Minister BSYediyurappa on Monday allocatedportfolios to the 10 newly inductedministers including RameshJarkiholi, who got the plum majorand medium irrigation department,which he was pushing for.

The Chief Minister retained the Department ofP u b l i c A d m i n i s t r a t i o n , Bengaluru Development,IntelligenceDepartment, Financeand portfolios not allocated.

According to a Governmentpress release, Anand Singh got food,civil supplies and consumers affairsportfolio, Srimant Patil was giventextile while K Gopalaiah hasbeen assigned small scale industries.

Byrathi Basavaraj secured theUrban Development Departmentbarring Bengaluru-related civicaffairs while ST Somashekhar wasgiven the charge of the cooperationdepartment.

The BJP Government assigned

forest department to BC Patil, med-ical education to Dr K Sudhakar,municipal administration was givento K C Narayana Gowda and labourdepartment to A ShivaramHebbar.

The ten BJP MLAs, all defectorsfrom the Congress and JDS, wereinducted as ministers last Thursday,with the Chief Minister rewardingthem with Cabinet berths for help-ing the BJP bring down theCongress-JD(S)coalition and cometo power in July last year. “Neitherhave I asked him nor as he enquiredwith me (regarding portfolio allo-cation). I had told himthat whatev-er portfolio he gives me I will per-form my dutysincerely.

I got the cooperation depart-ment, which is an area I have someexperience,” Somashekhar said.

Byrathi Basavaraj said had hadnot exerted pressure demandingany portfolio. Meanwhile, discon-tentment started brewing with BJPMLABasanagouda Patil raising theissue of addressing the regionalbal-ance in the cabinet.

“The sentiments of the MLAsshould be taken care of. ManyMLAs have spoken to me on vari-ous issues highlighting the regionalbalance in the portfolio for thedevelopment of their region,” he said.

Two other BJP MLAs--UmeshKatti and Mahesh Kumathalli-- onceagain made a pitch for cabinetberth.

Katti said he has always been aneligible candidate for a ministerialpost. Kumathalli once again remind-ed Yediyurappa of his promise tomake him a minister when thebypolls were taking place inDecember last year. PTI

Mumbai: Thirty-four of the 37 people admitted in iso-lation wards in Maharashtra hospitals for suspected expo-sure to the novel coronavirus have been discharged aftertheir samples tested negative for the infection, HealthMinister Rajesh Tope said on Monday.

The samples of these 37 people were sent for test-ing at the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune.

In a release issued on Monday, the state healthdepartment said currently two people were in an isola-tion ward in Pune's Naidu Hospital and one in Sanglidistrict hospital.

It said 23,350 people have been screened at theMumbai International Airport since January 18, includ-ing 166 who arrived in the state from areas affected bythe new strain of coronavirus (2019-nCoV), which haswreaked havoc in China. “Of the 37 persons admittedin isolation facilities in the state on suspicion of coro-navirus infection, 34 have been discharged. Last evening

(Sunday), a person was admitted to the Naidu Hospitaldue to minor cold and cough,” Tope said.

As per information shared by the state health depart-ment, all people coming from China's Wuhan city, theepicentre of the 2019-nCoV outbreak, have been isolatedand tested for the virus as per Union Ministry of Healthand Family Welfare guidelines.

Those coming from affected areas are being moni-tored for a period of 14 days from arrival, and 72 of these166 have completed the two-week follow-up, the stategovernment release said.

Minister Tope asked people to contact state controlroom number 020-26127394 or toll free number 104 incase they had queries on the 2019-nCoV.The death tollin China's coronavirus outbreak has gone up to 908 with97 new fatalities reported mostly in the worst-affectedHubei province, Chinese health officials said onMonday. PTI

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Aligarh (UP): A BJP leaderMonday demanded a ban onburqa, calling it a securitythreat and provocatively link-ing it to demon king Ravana'ssister Surpanakha.

“Burqa should be bannedin the country as has been donein several other countries,”Raghuraj Singh, who holds arank equivalent to a minister ofstate in the Uttar Pradesh gov-ernment, told reporters.

Singh claimed burqa is notworn in countries like SriLanka, China, the US andCanada and said it should bebanned in India as terroristscan take advantage of it.

The BJP leader said peo-ple are sporting burqas inDelhi's Shaheen Bagh protestagainst the new citizenshiplaw, and added, “The burqahelps terrorists, thieves and

anti-socials elements to hidebehind it.”

“Burqa is a threat tonational security and has to bebanned to crush terrorism,”Singh said.

Without citing his source,Singh linked burqa toSurpanakha, the demon whohas her face disfigured inRamayana. According toSingh's version, Surpanakhafled to hide in the Arabdesert.

“As her nose and ears werechopped, she used a burqa tohide her face,” he said, addingit is not necessary for humans.

“In Mecca, a shivalingawas set up by GuruShukracharya, who was theguru of devils, and from therethe burqa tradition started,” hesaid. PTI

Page 8: ˆ ˙ ˝ !#˝ $$ $ ˆ...top BJP leadership of a “lotus” ... Sarkar. Quoting Sarkar, on board Diamond Princess, NDTV ... launched various farmers’ wel-fare schemes. The schemes

Finally, after many centuries, thedecks have been cleared for the con-struction of the Ram temple atAyodhya with the UnionGovernment setting up the Shri

Ram Janmabhoomi Tirth Kshetra trust tooversee the construction of the temple andto manage its affairs. Prime MinisterNarendra Modi told Parliament that the con-stitution of the trust — which was a historicstep — was in line with the SupremeCourt’s verdict.

While handing over the disputed landto the Hindus, the apex court directed theGovernment to formulate a scheme withina period of three months from the date ofits judgment. It said the scheme should envis-age the setting up of a trust with a board oftrustees or any other appropriate body.Further, the scheme should make necessaryprovisions with regard to the functioning ofthe trust, including management, power oftrustees and the construction of the temple.

The possession of the inner and outercourtyards should be handed over to thetrust and the Union Government would beat liberty to make suitable provisions withrespect to the rest of the acquired land.Further, the court directed that a suitablepiece of land measuring five acres be hand-ed over to the Sunni Central Waqf Board.This land could be allotted “at a suitable,prominent place in Ayodhya.” It said theUnion Government and the StateGovernment should act in consultation witheach other to effectuate the above allotmentwithin the stipulated period. TheGovernment announced all these measureslast week, as was directed by the top court.

The creation of the trust for the con-struction of the Ram temple is also in asense the fulfilment of the solemn promisegiven by the then Government inSeptember 1994 when PV Narasimha Raowas the Prime Minister, that if it was foundthat a Hindu temple existed under the BabriMasjid, the Government would return theacquired land to the Hindus.

The Union Government’s commit-ment before the court at that time said: “Ifthe question referred to is answered in theaffirmative, namely, that a Hindutemple/structure did exist prior to the con-struction of the demolished structure,Government action will be in support of thewishes of the Hindu community. If on theother hand, the question is answered in thenegative, namely, that no such Hindu tem-ple/structure existed at the relevant time,then Government action will be in supportof the wishes of the Muslim community.”

Subsequently, almost a decade later, theArchaeological Survey of India (ASI), whichwas given the task of excavation to ascertainthe veracity of the claims and counter claims,came up with evidence of pillars and otherartefacts associated with a Hindu templebelow the demolished masjid.

The assurance given by the Union

Government in this regard wasunambiguous and completelydevoid of any “ifs and buts.”Given the sensitivity of the issueand the fact that this was a mat-ter of faith for the Hindus —who believe that the disputedpiece of land is the birth place ofRam — the Government’s affi-davit was a big risk. It meant thatthe Hindus would need to pro-duce proof or hope that it exist-ed below the demolished struc-ture, which would lend credenceto their belief regarding thejanmasthan of Lord Ram.

On the face of it, this waswholly unreasonable becausethe Hindu faith would be test-ed on the anvil of scientific evi-dence and if they failed the test,they would lose their claim tothe birthplace of Ram. Was theUnion Government right inbinding the Hindus to such ascenario? It also seemed as if theGovernment was giving thecommitment on behalf of thealmost one-billion strongHindu community.

Yet the Hindus went alongwith this proposition and it isdifficult to find a parallel to thisin any part of the world.Although the outcome was atoss-up and could have hurt thebelief of the Hindus regardingLord Ram’s birthplace, whichhad prevailed over the millen-nia, the Hindu majority tookthis in its stride. It also waitedpatiently for the higher judicia-

ry to give its verdict on whethertheir faith regarding the jan-masthan was justified. If everone wanted proof of the secu-lar, democratic credentials ofthe Hindu community, thiswas it. Its silence over theNarasimha Rao Government’saffidavit and the patient wait forthe judicial verdict on a matterof faith showed that for themajority, the Constitution wasabove everything else.

Eventually, the Hindu-majority found that neither ofthe faiths — in Lord Ram’sbirthplace and in the fairness ofthe Supreme Court — weremisplaced. The court held that“the faith and belief of Hindussince prior to the constructionof the mosque and subsequentthereto has always been thatjanmasthan of Lord Ram is theplace where Babri Mosque hasbeen constructed.” It said thatthis faith and belief had beenproved “by documentary andoral evidence.”

Similarly, the quiet accep-tance of the Supreme Courtjudgment by Muslims is also apointer to the resilience of ourdemocratic system and the gen-eral sentiment across communi-ties and across the land regard-ing the court’s supremacy whenit comes to interpreting theConstitution and the laws and in settling such vexatious dis-putes.

This is indicative of the

robustness of our Constitutionalway of life. The peaceful reso-lution of this centuries-old con-flict within the framework ofour Constitution is a sterlingexample of our pristine demo-cratic traditions and of howevolved we are as a democracy.This needs to be celebrated.

The Prime Minister allud-ed to this when he said recent-ly that following the RamJanmabhoomi judgment, thepeople of India had displayedremarkable faith in democrat-ic processes and procedures.The grand temple, when built,will symbolise not only India’scivilisational glory but also itscommitment to democracy andharmony.

Let there be no confusion.One may not find anotherexample of this kind elsewhere.It is, therefore, pathetic to listento some malcontents, whosepolitical ambitions have beenthwarted by the people of Indiain the Lok Sabha election heldlast year, who are constantly try-ing to run down our democra-cy because the people haverejected them. It is even moredisgusting to hear lectures ondemocracy in the Westernmedia, which has never shownthe spine to talk about the plightof religious minorities in 60Islamic nations.

(The writer is an author spe-cialising in democracy studies.Views expressed are personal.)

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Sir — The Kerala health depart-ment that functions under theleadership of Minister KK Shailajamust be complimented for theexemplary and stupendous workit has done to contain the danger-ous novel coronavirus after threeindividuals, all students, testedpositive for the infection.

The Health Minister, whoboldly led the medical team tocounter the deadly Nipah virusepidemic two years ago, is back inaction to fight yet another dead-ly virus. Kerala’s preparedness andresponse to coronavirus has beenso comprehensive and swift thatother States are taking lessonsfrom it. Two years ago, health offi-cials and volunteers, police, pan-chayats and other local bodies,politicians, Press and even thecommon people alerted and sup-ported one another to contain theNipah virus. The same is beingrepeated for coronavirus. Around2,239 individuals are under sur-veillance and 84 are in hospitals.A tracking system monitorseveryone coming to the Statefrom high-risk destinations andalso those who have come in con-tact with suspected cases. Five

international airports in the State,sea ports and railway stationshave been put on alert and med-ical teams are ready 24x7 totrace, track and transport doubt-ful cases for check-up and treat-ment. Awareness, confidence,

grit and determination undoubt-edly help to overcome such healthcrisis. Half the battle is wonwhen there is no panic andunnecessary pressure.

M PradyuKannur

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Sir — It is agonising that Chinais facing global isolation asnations across the world haveimposed travel restrictions due to

the outbreak of coronavirus.Besides significant threat to itseconomic growth, serious reper-cussions on the social life of theChinese people, too, are a causefor concern. Already, conflicts,suspicion, mistrust and dishar-mony have risen. Baselessrumours about the spread of thevirus are doing the rounds. Butsensible people will realise that nocountry is free from any kind ofoutbreak. At this hour of crisis,people must remain calm. Othernations must show solidaritywith China and extend all help.

Venu GSKollam

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Sir — Novak Djokovic must becongratulated for his latest featwhere he defeated the Austrian,Dominic Thiem. Prior to this, healso defeated Roger Federer in thesemi-final in straight sets. If hecontinues with this sublime form,chances are ripe for him to sur-pass Nadal and Federer in 2020.

VintiVia email

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Buoyed by the success of disinvestment inPublic Sector Undertakings (PSU) during2017-18 and 2018-19 (when the Centre gar-

nered over �100,000 crore and �85,000 crorerespectively), for the current year, the ModiGovernment had set an ambitious target of get-ting �1,05,000 crore. A major slice of these pro-ceeds was to come from “strategic disinvestment”or transfer of a sizeable portion of ownership (thiscould go up to 51 per cent, implying privatisation)and management control to a private entity.

The crucial “strategic disinvestment” propos-als included divestment of all of the Government’sshareholding in Bharat Petroleum CorporationLimited (BPCL) 53.29 per cent; ContainersCorporation of India (ConCor) 30 per cent;Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) 63.75 per cent;North Eastern Electric Power Corporation (NEEP-CO) 100 per cent and THDC India Limited 75 percent. However, the results are disappointing. As perthe revised estimates (RE) given in the UnionBudget for 2020-21 on February 1, proceeds fromdisinvestment are �65,000 crore-�40,000 croreshort of the Budgetary Estimates (BE). However,till date, the Government has garnered only�18,000 crore. One wonders where it will get thebalance �47,000 crore even as the sale of BPCL,CONCOR and SCI (these three undertakings alonewere projected to account for over 75 per cent ofthe target) is unlikely to get consummated beforeMarch 31.

For 2020-21, Sitharaman has set an over-ambi-tious target of �2,10,000 crore which is double theBE for 2019-20 and more than three times the REfor 2019-20. Apart from the strategic sale of theabove-mentioned three PSUs, the UnionGovernment has also taken a major decision to listand sell shares of the Life Insurance Corporationof India (LIC), which is 100 per cent owned by itand accounts for nearly three-fourths of the lifeinsurance business. Besides, it has also resurrect-ed its plan for sale of Air India which was aban-doned during 2018-19 due to lack of interestamong potential investors. The Governmentseems to be betting big on LIC and BPCL.Considering the likely valuation of about �900,000crore (at 30 per cent of its assets estimated at�30,00,000 crore), the sale of 10 per cent sharesin LIC could yield about �90,000 crore. Further,divestment of 53.29 per cent shareholding in BPCLis estimated to yield about �60,000 crore (at cur-rent market capitalisation of over �110,000 crore).These two add up to �150,000 crore. For the bal-ance, it could bank on sale of 100 per cent Air India(plus Air India Express and 50 per cent of AirIndia’s stake in ground-handling company AISingapore Terminal Services Limited (AISATS),CONCOR and SCI et al. The task is daunting.

Prima facie, the sale of a small percentage ofshareholding in LIC may sound easy to push asthe Government can argue that majority owner-ship and control will continue to be with it evenafter this divestment. But, this is easier said thandone. The proposed Initial Public Offering (IPO)of the LIC will have to be preceded by amendmentsto the LIC Act, particularly three sections —Section 24: It deals with the way the corporationhandles its corpus (own fund in which all of itsreceipts are credited thereto and all payments madetherefrom); Section 28: It lays down the policy ondividend distribution (how the surplus is to be dis-tributed) and Section 37: It provides Governmentguarantee on all its policies. The policy on divi-dend distribution could be a bone of contention.

At present the LIC pays five per centof the surplus to the shareholder(Government), while the remaining 95per cent gets distributed among policy-holders. In case of private insurancecompanies however, the shareholdergets 10 per cent of the surplus even asthe rest 90 per cent goes to policyhold-ers. The external investor could insist onbringing LIC on par with other insurancecompanies by modifying the dividenddistribution norms. The former mayinsist on increasing the share of share-holder in surplus from existing five percent.

According to existing rules underSection 37 of the Act, “Sums assured byall policies issued by the corporationincluding any bonuses declared inrespect thereof...shall be guaranteed asto payment in cash by the CentralGovernment”. One wonders whetherpost-dilution of the Government’sshareholding, the sovereign guarantee tothe policyholders would be retained.

As per the LIC Act, “The paid-upequity capital of the corporation shall be���� crore provided by the CentralGovernment after due appropriationmade by Parliament by law for the pur-pose”. This needs to be increased appro-priately in order to prepare it for the pro-posed IPO and sell even a 10 per centstake. The preparations in this regard arebound to be time-consuming and maystretch till the end of fiscal 2020-21. Thatapart, considering that most of the par-ties across the political spectrum haveopposed stake sale in the LIC, it is doubt-ful whether the Government will be ableto get the amendment Bill passed, moreso when it is in the minority in the UpperHouse (the chances of this being takenup as Money Bill in which case, it does-n’t have to go to the Rajya Sabha aredim). As regards BPCL, while divestment

of majority stake in it won’t face any legalhurdle (necessary amendment to the rel-evant law was made in 2016), the poten-tial buyer will look for exercising its duerole even in undertakings where BPCLholds significant stake. For instance, itholds 12.5 per cent stake in PetronetLNG India along with Oil and NaturalGas Corporation (ONGC), Indian OilCorporation (IOCL) and Gas Authorityof India (GAIL) holding 12.5 per centeach. Though branded as a privatecompany, its Chairman is Secretary,Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas(MPNG). The acquirer of BPCL willinsist on changing this arrangement.

Likewise, in a city gas distributionfirm, Indraprastha Gas (IGL), BPCL has22.5 per cent along with GAIL whichalso holds 22.5 per cent. However, thechairmanship of IGL is decided byGAIL (which will continue to be major-ity-owned by the Union Governmenteven as BPCL is divested). As in the caseof Petronet LNG India, the new ownerof BPCL will insist on having a role indeciding the management of IGL.

If, the Government is unwilling tobring about these changes, this will lowervaluation or lead to dissipation of inter-est. Late last year, the political brass wascontemplating to sell BPCL stake toIOCL on lines similar to the so-calledstrategic sale of Hindustan PetroleumCorporation Limited (HPCL) during2017-18 (then, the Union Governmentsold 51.11 per cent of its shareholdingin HPCL to ONGC which is majorityowned by itself).

But, the idea was dropped. It may berevived (in a desperate bid to achieve thetarget) if during 2020-21 also investorsdon’t evince interest. As regards, AirIndia, the Government has removedsome major bottlenecks which led to thefailed move in 2018-19. Now, it is offer-

ing 100 per cent of its shareholding,hived off over 60 per cent of total debtfrom its balance sheet and dispensedwith other riders such as three years’lock-in period on disposition of sharesby the acquirer and so on. However,there still remain many irritants, themost serious being a condition relatingto retention of employees.

Besides, the PSU-specific factors, theGovernment’s ability to achieve the tar-get is constrained by “lack of appetite”in an overall subdued economic environ-ment characterised by plunging growth,demand compression, deceleration ininvestment and above all a not-so-buoyant perception about opportunitiesahead.

The appetite was missing even dur-ing periods of high growth; for instancein 2017-18 when GDP growth was overseven per cent yet, the Government wasforced to sell all of its stake in HPCL toONGC (this alone yielded �37,000 croreout of a total of �100,000 crore). Now,with growth plummeting to less than fiveper cent during 2019-20 and mutedrecovery projected for 2020-21, theappetite would be even lower.

Unless there is dramatic turnaroundin the economy, the bureaucraticmachinery moves with alacrity to makethe required preparations for conduct-ing the sale and Opposition partiesextend cooperation in getting necessarylaws/amendments passed, it is unlikelythat the Government will reach any-where near the �2,10,000 crore target.The shortfall on this score alone couldcause at least 0.5 per cent slippage in fis-cal deficit (target for 2020-21 is 3.5 percent) which anyway will be under threatdue to unrealistic projections for tax col-lections during the year.

(The writer is a New Delhi-based pol-icy analyst)

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Over the last couple of months,we have all constantly heardthat the economy of the coun-

try is witnessing a slowdown. Abouttwo to three years ago, our GDP fig-ures were anywhere between six toseven per cent whereas now sudden-ly we are below five per cent. All thesestatistics and numbers are suggestivethat we might be heading towards anearly recession or an economic down-turn. To put this in context, we have tofirst understand the key factors thatbrought about ground-level bottom-up

changes in the country’s economy. The first grand move happened

towards the end of 2016 when demon-etisation was announced, followed byimplementation of Real Estate(Regulation and Development) Act,2016 (RERA) and the Goods andServices Tax (GST). These three majorannouncements and shift in policieshave been the primary reasons for theseunusual times in our economy.

In addition to these three reasons,multiple global scares like China-UStrade wars, oil spikes, tensions withneighbouring countries, geopoliticalrisks and uncertainty of elections dur-ing the early part of 2019 can be lookedas additional factors for weakdemand.When we analyse these datapoints beyond just the numbers, it indi-cates that all this is leading to a tecton-ic shift in the way our economy wasstructured in the first place. Our econ-omy has a large segment that is stillunorganised, fragmented and localised.Many of our businesses were notunder the tax ambit and sectors like real

estate didn’t have a regulatory frame-work. When RERA and demonetisa-tion were introduced, it curtailed thecash economy or what we call the par-allel economy. When GST was intro-duced, many small and medium busi-nesses which were not under the taxambit could no longer get away withnot paying taxes. All these changes haveled to a level playing field for other play-ers who were following the rules of theland and taxation policies removingany unfair advantage for those whowere not paying them. This led to con-solidation, formalisation and the indus-try became a lot more organised.There are some industries that bene-fitted from the GST whereas some ofthem had to make initial readjustmentof a slightly higher input cost. Overallit will be right to say that this was a verypositive move for a developing econ-omy like India as it gives a level play-ing field for businesses across sizes tobenefit from a unified policy. How doesone invest in the backdrop of this for-malisation, organisation, consolidation

and slowdown? I believe that in a cou-ple of quarters from now, this down-turn could turn around. With therevival of the GDP and consumptiongrowth back on track, the key driverthat led to the deceleration in the GDPwill be back to take it forward, gradu-ally before we significantly uptick. Thedemand recovery will bring in the GDPgrowth along with inflation. Thisshould take us back to a nominal GDPof 11 to 12 per cent. We have all the ini-tial signs of green shoots that areemerging. The Government is aware ofthe challenges being faced by industriesand several steps have been taken toaddress the issues. Similarly, active anddynamic policies by Central bankers,the Government and policymakers alsoindicate that the right steps are beingtaken towards clearing the challenges.All this presents attractive opportuni-ties for a serious investor looking forthe long-term. A downtrend is also agreat reminder for people to not getcarried away during the good times.We need to understand that ups and

downs are a cyclical part of the econ-omy. If one had to take a three to five-year horizon and more, India is in agreat spot domestically and globally.There is a lot of foreign interest that’scoming into the country and domes-tic demand is sure to come back. Manymedium and small businesses that arenimble and agile have the ability to dis-rupt and offer great products becausewe have access to domestic and inter-national markets. Technology is a keyenabler for businesses to tap newmarkets and introduce new offerings.One can look at investing in equitiesor even quality debt funds to partici-pate in this move.

We are all hoping that within a fewyears, India will be the next superpow-er economically. The growth rate thatit has is significantly better than manyother emerging markets. If peopleshould align their investments with thekey sectors that will contribute to thegrowth of the economy, one can ben-efit significantly. Here are some optionswhere people can invest:

Equities: Equities offer greatgrowth for a disciplined investor. Asopposed to popular misconception thatputting money in equity is risky, doneright this asset class can generatetremendous value in the long-term.There are multiple options available forpeople to invest in equities. Buyingshares from the stock market, invest-ing in Mutual Funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are some.Investment can be done in lumpsumor in a staggered manner via system-atic investment plan (SIPs). Equityinvestment has the potential to beatinflation and deliver superior risk andtax adjusted returns in the long term.Dividends, bonus, splits all add furthervalue.

Fixed Income: Like equities, FixedIncome comes with a variety of options.These are popular and hugely-accept-ed. Depending on the choice, one canopt from a combination of PPF, FD,Tax-free Bonds, Company Depositsand Government securities. Fixedincome offerings of mutual funds

have all the above options in very con-venient schemes and it makes sense totake the mutual fund route for simplic-ity and efficiency. The hallmark of thisasset class is stability and while someof these are backed by the Governmenttoo. So there’s plenty to choose from.

Real estate: This may offer goodopportunities in certain pocketsbecause a growing economy means thatthere will be a lot more demand forhousing and commercial real estate.With listing of Real Estate InvestmentTrusts (REITs) gaining popularity andmore to come, many well-known realestate players are listed on the markets.One could invest in physical realestate, invest in share of these compa-nies or even participate in their REITs

It’s time to go out there, keep yourasset allocation in mind and go aheadwith your investments to make ahandsome gain in the next four to fiveyears.

(The writer Founder and ManagingPartner of a leading wealth managementsolutions company)

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Indian equities fell for the sec-ond straight session on

Monday in line with globalmarkets that continued to reelunder mounting death toll andeconomic damage from thedeadly coronavirus.

At close, the BSE Sensexwas down 162.23 points, or0.39 per cent, at 40,979.62.The index swung about 373points during the day.

Likewise, the NSE gaugeNifty ended lower by 66.85points, or 0.55 per cent, to12,031.50.

Indices were mainlydragged lower by heavy lossesin auto and metal stocks.

On the Sensex chart,Mahindra and Mahindracrashed over 7 per cent, fol-

lowed by other major laggardsincluding Tata Steel (5.80 percent), ONGC (2.84 per cent),Sun Pharma (2.39 per cent) andHero Motocorp (2.34 per cent).

In contrast, Bajaj Finance,

TCS, Kotak Bank, Asian Paints,HDFC, HUL and RelianceIndustries closed with gains.

Sectorally, among the toplosers were metal (3.14 percent) and auto (2.37 per cent)indices. Power and consumerdurables too fell 1.66 per centand 1.64 per cent, respectively.

Auto stocks were downafter industry body SIAM datashowed that domestic passen-ger vehicle sales declined 6.2

per cent in January. Whilemetal shares bore the brunt ofgrowing concerns over the rising cases of coron-avirus. The industry body saidthat the Indian auto sector isapprehensive about coron-avirus outbreak disruptingcomponent supplies fromChina, but a clear picture willemerge only in the next fewdays after factories in the coun-try reopen.

According to variousreports, coronavirus has killedmore than 900 people andinfected over 40,000 acrossmainland China.

Market mood remainedjittery amid rising apprehen-sion about economic falloutdue to Chinese coronavirusglobally as the increase in casu-alty figures surpassing SARSoutbreak has raised alarm bellsabout its severity, NarendraSolanki, Head FundamentalResearch (Investment Services)- AVP Equity Research, AnandRathi Shares & Stock Brokers, said.

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The rupee on Monday roseby 10 paise to close at

71.30 against the US dollaramid easing crude oil pricesand weakening of theAmerican currency in theoverseas market.

Forex traders said whileweak dollar and easing crudeoil prices supported the rupee,heavy selling in domestic equi-ties weighed on the local unitand restricted the upmove.

At the interbank foreignexchange market, the localcurrency opened on a positivenote at 71.36. During the day,it saw a high of 71.28 and a lowof 71.43.

The Indian currency set-tled higher by 10 paise at71.30 against its previous closeof 71.40 on Friday.

“Indian rupee gained onlower crude oil price and dol-lar inflows related to DMart’sQIP. Rupee remained resilientto higher dollar index amidstrong foreign fund inflows inequity market,” said V KSharma, Head PCG andCapital Markets Strategy,HDFC Securities.

Sharma further said that“broadly, local currency isconsolidating in the range of 72to 71 a dollar”. CPI and IIPwould be keenly watched local data point this week, headded.

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Markets across the Asia-Pacific were in the red on

Monday with investors wor-ried about the impact of theChina coronavirus outbreak onthe global economy.

The virus has killed morethan 900 people, infected40,000 across mainland Chinaand spread to more than twodozen countries in what hasbeen termed a global healthemergency. It has also joltedmajor supply chains for every-thing from food and householdsupplies to car and electronicsparts. Tokyo’s benchmarkNikkei 225 index closed 0.6 per-cent down, while Hong Kongpared some losses, ending theday 0.6 per cent lower aftertanking 1.1 per cent at the open.

Elsewhere, Sydney slipped 0.1per cent, Seoul was down 0.5per cent and Singapore was 0.7per cent lower. Shanghai, how-ever, rebounded after opening0.5 per cent lower and was up0.5 per cent at the close. Taipei,Jakarta, and Mumbai were alsounder water.

Investors around the worldhave been watching with con-cern as China, the world’s sec-ond-largest economy, battlesthe novel coronavirus, whichemerged at the end of last yearin the central city of Wuhan.

The domestic impact wasreflected in China’s inflationfigures released Monday,which showed the highest risein consumer prices in morethan eight years, with foodprices spiking more than 20per cent.

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Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman on Monday met

industry representatives on theproposed direct tax disputeresolution scheme that providesopportunity to taxpayers topay outstanding taxes and getwaiver of interest and penalty.

With over �9 lakh croreworth direct taxes locked up inlitigation, the government lastweek introduced “Direct TaxVivad se Vishwas Bill, 2020” inthe Lok Sabha. Once passed byParliament, the scheme wouldbe notified and rules would be

framed.“During the meeting,

industry associations gave theirsuggestions for the scheme,” asource said. Separately PHDChamber of CommercePresident DK Aggarwal in astatement said that the lastdate for the scheme should beextended by a month till April30, 2020.

The scheme “will benefitmany taxpayers and can gen-erate more than �2 lakh crorefor the Government in thecoming times if it is broadenedand exclusions are minimumunder this scheme,” he said.

Under the proposedscheme, taxpayers willing to set-tle disputes shall be allowed acomplete waiver of interest andpenalty if they pay the entireamount of tax in dispute up toMarch 31, 2020, after which 10per cent additional disputed taxshall have to be paid over andabove the tax liability.

Further, where the taxarrears relate to disputed inter-est or penalty only, then 25 percent of disputed penalty/interestshall have to be paid only if thepayment is made by March 31,2020, beyond which the sameshall be enhanced to 30 per cent.

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New Delhi: Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman on Mondaysaid public sector banks’ (PSBs)bad loans came down to �7.27lakh crore at the end ofSeptember 2019, on host ofmeasures taken by the govern-ment to improve financial healthof the banks in the country.

“The Government hasinstituted comprehensivereforms in PSBs to improve,governance, underwriting,monitoring and recovery, andhas leveraged technology in allaspects of banking, resulting inreduction in their NPAs,”Sitharaman said in writtenreply to a question in the LokSabha.

She said bad loans of PSBsstood at �7.27 lakh crore at theend of September 2019, downfrom �8.96 lakh crore at theend of March 2018.

“Record recovery of �2.03lakh crore over the one-and-half year period endingSeptember 2019, 12 out of 18PSBs reporting profit in thefirst half of the current finan-cial year, and the highest pro-vision coverage ratio in seven-and-half years,” she said.

She said the Banking TrendReport published by theReserve Bank of India (RBI) inDecember observed that thehealth of the banking sectorhinges on a turnaround inmacroeconomic conditions.

Further, the RBI’s FinancialStability Report stated that thecapital adequacy ratio of sched-uled commercial banks hasimproved significantly from14.3 per cent in March 2019 to15.1 per cent in September2019 following recapitalisationof state-owned banks. PTI

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Domestic passenger vehiclesales declined 6.2 per cent

in January as vehicle demandcontinued to be stressed by ris-ing cost of ownership andslower GDP growth, automo-bile industry body SIAM saidon Monday.

Passenger vehicle sales lastmonth stood at 2,62,714 unitsagainst 2,80,091 units in theyear-ago month, according todata released by the Society ofIndian AutomobileManufacturers (SIAM).

Car sales last month werealso down 8.1 per cent at1,64,793 units compared with1,79,324 units in the Januarylast year. Vehicle sales acrosscategories registered a declineof 13.83 per cent to 17,39,975units from 20,19,253 units inJanuary 2019, SIAM said.

“Sales of vehicles continueto be stressed due to rising costof vehicle ownership and slow-er growth in GDP,” SIAMPresident Rajan Wadhera said.

Vehicle prices have gone upas manufacturers gear up forthe transition to stricter emis-sion norm BS-VI from BS-IVbeginning April 1. Besides,many companies had increasedprices in January citing risinginput costs.

Wadhera further said, “Weare hopeful that the recentannouncements by the gov-ernment on infrastructure andrural economy would supportgrowth of vehicle sales goingforward, especially in com-mercial vehicles and two-wheeler segment.” According toSIAM, total two-wheeler salesin January fell 16.06 per cent to13,41,005 units compared with15,97,528 units in the same

month last year. Motorcyclesales last month declined by15.17 per cent to 8,71,886units from 10,27,766 units ayear earlier.

Scooter sales during themonth stood at 4,16,594 unitsas against 4,97,169 units inJanuary last year, a decline of16.21 per cent.

SIAM further said, sales ofcommercial vehicles weredown 14.04 per cent to 75,289units in January as against87,591 units in the year-agomonth. Commenting on theoverall sales performance,SIAM Director General RajeshMenon said wholesalesdeclined in all segments, bar-ring three-wheelers.

In passenger vehicles, hesaid post-festive season salesdecline has been less, althoughthe industry is still in the neg-ative territory.

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ONGC, Indian OilCorporation and NTPC

were the top three profitablePSUs in 2018-19, whereasBSNL, Air India and MTNLincurred highest losses for athird consecutive year, accord-ing to a survey tabled inParliament on Monday.

The Public EnterprisesSurvey 2018-19, which maps theannual financial performance ofall central PSUs, revealed thatthe top 10 companies in the redclaimed a whopping 94.04 percent of the total losses made byall the 70 loss making CPSEsduring the year.

The top three profit mak-ing PSUs including Oil andNatural Gas Corporation(ONGC), Indian OilCorporation and NTPC con-tributed 15.3 per cent, 9.68 per

cent and 6.73 per cent, respec-tively to the total profit earnedby all profitable CPSEs.

State Trading Corporationof India, MSTC and ChennaiPetroleum Corporation whichwere profit making CPSEs in2017-18, incurred losses in2018-19 and also featureamong the top ten loss- mak-ing firms, the survey found.

Total income of all CPSEsduring 2018-19 stood at�24,40,748 crore compared to�20,32,001 crore in 2017-18,showing a growth of 20.12 percent. The contribution of CPSEsto the central exchequer by wayof excise duty, customs duty,GST, corporate tax, interest oncentral government loans, div-idend and other duties andtaxes stood at �3,68,803 crore in2018-19 as against �3,52,361crore in 2017-18, showing anincrease of 4.67 per cent.

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India, the world’s largest con-sumer and importer of puls-

es, is on track to become self-sufficient in production of theprotein-rich commodity andwill further boost the output tomeet global demand.Agriculture Minister NarendraSingh Tomar said on Mondaythat the government has takenmany measures including hikein the minimum support priceand procurement of pulses tosupport farmers. The countryhad produced 23.40 milliontonnes of pulses during 2018-19crop year (July-June), still shortof annual domestic demand of26-27 million tonnes. The gap

is met through imports. However, for the current

year, the government is target-ing pulses output of 26.30 mil-lion tonne. Speaking at anevent on the occasion of WorldPulses Day, Tomar said, “puls-es are becoming necessary notonly in India but also in othercountries. We faced huge short-age of pulses earlier but nowthe situation has improved.”

Research and develop-ment (R&D) at the govern-ment’s research body IndianCouncil of AgriculturalResearch (ICAR) and appro-priate policy intervention hashelped achieve substantialincrease in pulses output in lastfew years, he said.

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Page 11: ˆ ˙ ˝ !#˝ $$ $ ˆ...top BJP leadership of a “lotus” ... Sarkar. Quoting Sarkar, on board Diamond Princess, NDTV ... launched various farmers’ wel-fare schemes. The schemes

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Indian equities fell for the sec-ond straight session on

Monday in line with globalmarkets that continued to reelunder mounting death toll andeconomic damage from thedeadly coronavirus.

At close, the BSE Sensexwas down 162.23 points, or0.39 per cent, at 40,979.62.The index swung about 373points during the day.

Likewise, the NSE gaugeNifty ended lower by 66.85points, or 0.55 per cent, to12,031.50.

Indices were mainlydragged lower by heavy lossesin auto and metal stocks.

On the Sensex chart,Mahindra and Mahindracrashed over 7 per cent, fol-lowed by other major laggardsincluding Tata Steel (5.80 percent), ONGC (2.84 per cent),Sun Pharma (2.39 per cent)and Hero Motocorp (2.34 percent). In contrast, BajajFinance, TCS, Kotak Bank,Asian Paints, HDFC, HUL andReliance Industries closed withgains. Sectorally, among the toplosers were metal (3.14 percent) and auto (2.37 per cent)indices. Power and consumerdurables too fell 1.66 per centand 1.64 per cent, respective-ly.

Auto stocks were downafter industry body SIAM data

showed that domestic passen-ger vehicle sales declined 6.2per cent in January. Whilemetal shares bore the brunt ofgrowing concerns over the ris-ing cases of coronavirus.

The industry body saidthat the Indian auto sector isapprehensive about coron-avirus outbreak disruptingcomponent supplies fromChina, but a clear picture willemerge only in the next fewdays after factories in the coun-try reopen.

According to variousreports, coronavirus has killedmore than 900 people andinfected over 40,000 acrossmainland China.

Market mood remainedjittery amid rising apprehen-sion about economic falloutdue to Chinese coronavirusglobally as the increase in casu-alty figures surpassing SARSoutbreak has raised alarm bellsabout its severity, NarendraSolanki, Head FundamentalResearch (Investment Services)- AVP Equity Research, AnandRathi Shares & Stock Brokers,said.

Bourses in Hong Kong,Tokyo and Seoul settled in thered, while those in Shanghaiended higher.

Stock exchanges in Europealso opened on a negative note.

Meanwhile, Brent crudeoil futures slipped 0.44 per centto USD 54.23 per barrel.

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Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman on Monday said

public sector banks’ (PSBs)bad loans came down to � 7.27lakh crore at the end ofSeptember 2019, on host ofmeasures taken by the govern-ment to improve financialhealth of the banks in thecountry.

“The government has insti-tuted comprehensive reformsin PSBs to improve, gover-nance, underwriting, moni-toring and recovery, and hasleveraged technology in allaspects of banking, resulting inreduction in their NPAs,”Sitharaman said in writtenreply to a question in the LokSabha.

She said bad loans of PSBsstood at � 7.27 lakh crore at theend of September 2019, downfrom � 8.96 lakh crore at the

end of March 2018.“Record recovery of � 2.03

lakh crore over the one-and-half year period endingSeptember 2019, 12 out of 18PSBs reporting profit in thefirst half of the current finan-cial year, and the highest pro-vision coverage ratio in seven-and-half years,” she said.

She said the Banking TrendReport published by theReserve Bank of India (RBI) inDecember observed that thehealth of the banking sectorhinges on a turnaround inmacroeconomic conditions.

“The government hastaken significant steps towardsspeeding up the insolvencyresolution process under theInsolvency and BankruptcyCode (IBC) and easing of cred-it, particularly for the stressedreal estate and non-bankingfinancial companies (NBFCs)sectors, and that the impact of

critical measures taken to boostinvestment present greenshoots for growth in the secondhalf of 2019-20 and 2020-21.”

Further, the RBI’s FinancialStability Report stated that thecapital adequacy ratio of sched-uled commercial banks hasimproved significantly from14.3 per cent in March 2019 to15.1 per cent in September2019 following recapitalisationof state-owned banks.

PSBs’ provision coverageratio has risen to 61.5 per centfrom 60.5 per cent over thesame period implyingincreased resilience of thebanking sector, and their netnon-performing assets ratiohas declined reflectingincreased provisioning, shesaid.

When asked about thebank’s confidence in extendingloans, she said sporadic creditdefault events and incidents of

frauds have contributed toreluctance in lending by banks.She, however, added that anumber of steps have beentaken to address these andother matters concerning lend-ing by banks.

She said the measures ini-tiated include maintenance ofoverall positive liquiditythrough open market opera-tions by the RBI, liquidity sup-port through various means tothe NBFC sector in whichthere have been instances ofcredit defaults, and enabling offinancial support for stalledhousing and real estate projects.

“Mechanism for resolutionof stress in NBFCs has beencreated by empowering RBI totake action in this regardthrough amendments...andbringing NBFCs with an assetsize of � 500 crore and abovewithin the ambit of resolutionunder IBC,” Sitharaman said.

To address concerns due tofrauds contributing to reluc-tance in lending, she said thePrevention of Corruption Acthas been amended to prohibitconduct of inquiry or investi-gation of offences relatable todecision taken by public ser-vant in discharge of functions,without previous approval ofthe authority competent toremove him.

The Advisory Board forBanking and Financial Fraudshas been set up for distin-guishing between commercialfailure and criminal actioncases of suspected frauds over� 50 crore, before initiation ofinvestigation by the CentralBureau of Investigation.

Besides, the governmenthas taken steps to facilitate andincentivise lending throughsuccessive cuts in lending rates,linking of loans for micro,small and medium enterprises

(MSMEs) to an external bench-mark rate, and relief to banks’cash reserve ratio requirement,among others.

“With regard to gover-nance norms for banks, it isstated that the government hasrecently introduced compre-hensive reforms in PSBs, tak-ing into account global bestpractices, for empowering bankboards, strengthening theboard committee system,improving the effectiveness ofnon-official directors andbuilding a leadership pipeline,”the minister said.

She also said that specificreforms include empowermentof boards to recruit chief riskofficers from the market atmarket-linked compensation,mandate to boards to providenon-official directors neces-sary training, and to undertakeannual peer evaluation of theirperformance.

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Domestic passenger vehiclesales declined 6.2 per cent

in January as vehicle demandcontinued to be stressed by ris-ing cost of ownership andslower GDP growth, automo-bile industry body SIAM saidon Monday.

Passenger vehicle sales lastmonth stood at 2,62,714 unitsagainst 2,80,091 units in the

year-ago month, according todata released by the Society ofIndian AutomobileManufacturers (SIAM).

Car sales last month werealso down 8.1 per cent at1,64,793 units compared with1,79,324 units in the Januarylast year. Vehicle sales acrosscategories registered a declineof 13.83 per cent to 17,39,975units from 20,19,253 units inJanuary 2019, SIAM said.

“Sales of vehicles continueto be stressed due to rising costof vehicle ownership and slow-er growth in GDP,” SIAMPresident Rajan Wadhera said.

Vehicle prices have gone upas manufacturers gear up forthe transition to stricter emis-sion norm BS-VI from BS-IVbeginning April 1. Besides,many companies had increasedprices in January citing risinginput costs. Wadhera further

said, “We are hopeful that therecent announcements by thegovernment on infrastructureand rural economy would sup-port growth of vehicle salesgoing forward, especially incommercial vehicles and two-wheeler segment.”

According to SIAM, totaltwo-wheeler sales in Januaryfell 16.06 per cent to 13, 41,005 units compared with15,97,528 units in the same

month last year. Motorcycle sales last

month declined by 15.17 percent to 8,71,886 units from10,27,766 units a year earlier.

Scooter sales during themonth stood at 4,16,594 unitsas against 4,97,169 units inJanuary last year, a decline of16.21 per cent.

SIAM further said, sales ofcommercial vehicles weredown 14.04 per cent to 75,289

units in January as against87,591 units in the year-agomonth. Commenting on theoverall sales performance,SIAM Director General RajeshMenon said wholesalesdeclined in all segments, bar-ring three-wheelers.

In passenger vehicles, hesaid post-festive season salesdecline has been less, althoughthe industry is still in the neg-ative territory.

Script Open High Low LTPICICIBANK 537.10 542.05 530.45 533.90HDFCBANK 1246.70 1246.70 1226.00 1240.20TATASTEEL 460.30 465.00 440.10 443.65RAJESHEXPO 704.45 780.30 703.60 710.15DMART 2286.70 2537.00 2286.00 2484.15IBULHSGFIN 317.80 328.00 315.75 322.95YESBANK 40.10 40.70 37.15 37.60RELIANCE 1430.00 1445.60 1411.05 1436.75SBIN 320.00 322.80 316.75 318.50UJJIVAN 407.00 407.00 392.65 398.45TATAMOTORS 174.00 174.00 168.05 168.95MOTHERSUMI 132.00 135.90 121.40 124.95UPL 573.00 579.50 556.15 573.50BAJFINANCE 4650.05 4735.40 4641.65 4720.30DLF 236.00 236.50 231.20 233.70BRITANNIA 3279.90 3283.30 3125.70 3155.15LT 1300.00 1301.30 1273.45 1285.35ZEEL 249.80 249.80 228.10 230.50HDFC 2407.70 2425.30 2390.40 2414.60RBLBANK 337.95 338.65 329.70 331.70GRASIM 790.00 790.00 752.10 758.95TCS 2136.70 2166.95 2119.80 2162.35AUROPHARMA 548.80 555.35 534.60 542.10HEG 1240.00 1299.80 1230.05 1241.10M&M 567.70 567.70 526.00 528.05NAM-INDIA 380.10 398.90 380.10 388.10BPCL 494.95 495.30 483.30 485.95JINDALSTEL 197.00 197.00 190.50 193.25BHARATFORG 515.80 518.90 483.45 499.55GRAPHITE 319.00 329.40 316.00 318.95MRF 71271.00 73500.00 69701.00 73363.25MARUTI 6988.85 6988.85 6852.50 6891.60GNFC 197.00 206.00 193.85 196.10ITC 213.55 214.20 210.20 210.70PEL 1600.95 1607.00 1534.00 1548.15STAR 498.35 504.10 495.00 497.55WOCKPHARMA 344.00 367.50 344.00 363.25JUSTDIAL 537.00 537.00 491.55 499.70RECLTD 156.10 156.55 152.50 153.95POWERGRID 190.55 190.95 184.75 186.65BIOCON 310.00 316.65 307.60 309.65INDUSINDBK 1304.90 1304.90 1269.00 1275.45BHARTIARTL 540.00 543.75 536.45 538.50CIPLA 445.00 450.80 442.15 444.85SANOFI 6824.00 6987.55 6824.00 6962.50GAIL 125.00 125.00 119.35 121.80HINDUNILVR 2159.60 2188.40 2151.65 2160.05COALINDIA 185.70 185.70 177.80 178.90TATAGLOBAL 399.00 399.10 388.55 392.45HCLTECH 608.80 611.15 601.80 605.65ESCORTS 869.00 878.40 861.70 870.20EICHERMOT 19920.00 19920.00 18800.00 19059.15ADANIENT 239.50 245.10 237.90 244.60BANDHANBNK 445.00 461.00 437.90 457.20SUNPHARMA 430.45 432.00 418.35 420.15BOMDYEING 90.60 95.50 89.25 90.75LICHSGFIN 443.00 443.00 425.85 429.90IDEA 5.42 5.44 5.01 5.05WELCORP 223.30 229.10 212.00 221.20IRB 107.85 117.25 107.00 112.10ASHOKLEY 82.65 84.40 82.00 82.95NTPC 116.45 116.45 112.15 113.45BBTC 1137.50 1230.00 1137.50 1187.60MANAPPURAM 166.95 172.70 165.60 168.00VEDL 144.75 144.75 139.60 140.25INFY 776.00 778.05 769.80 773.25KOTAKBANK 1663.90 1674.30 1646.00 1669.85TITAN 1279.90 1279.90 1254.10 1257.40SRF 4117.25 4173.05 4091.90 4133.05ACC 1499.00 1499.00 1447.70 1451.15ABBOTINDIA 14444.00 15399.00 14337.10 14753.50AXISBANK 747.90 747.90 739.00 741.30HEROMOTOCO 2450.00 2451.00 2375.50 2385.05SAIL 48.70 48.70 45.65 46.00JSWSTEEL 271.00 279.55 271.00 277.85MGL 1181.90 1211.45 1156.00 1195.60TRENT 662.10 701.05 642.35 695.95ONGC 109.00 109.50 105.90 106.20DRREDDY 3161.40 3172.90 3115.00 3150.50JUBLFOOD 1909.45 1909.45 1847.60 1854.95ITDC 289.70 346.00 284.65 337.55ALKEM 2510.00 2698.50 2510.00 2594.25RPOWER 1.86 1.86 1.75 1.80L&TFH 131.45 131.45 127.10 127.60BAJAJFINSV 9630.00 9657.80 9535.10 9626.70APOLLOHOSP 1663.45 1700.80 1634.75 1665.80NCC 51.10 51.20 48.80 49.10ADANIGREEN 219.00 221.80 206.90 213.20HDFCAMC 3329.85 3339.80 3280.60 3301.40GODFRYPHLP 1325.00 1365.00 1296.75 1351.40TATAELXSI 1030.20 1070.10 1022.00 1060.20INDIGO 1390.10 1411.80 1388.45 1400.70VOLTAS 699.00 699.00 667.30 681.35BHEL 39.95 40.00 37.90 38.25CANBK 190.00 191.60 186.05 187.15HINDPETRO 241.70 243.95 237.85 238.90BANKBARODA 92.05 92.25 89.65 90.10ASIANPAINT 1860.70 1872.40 1838.40 1870.35CGCL 211.50 214.60 207.50 209.55NATCOPHARM 705.55 737.80 696.90 713.90BAJAJ-AUTO 3140.00 3150.75 3093.95 3104.30IOC 117.30 118.30 115.35 115.90SRTRANSFIN 1224.80 1225.35 1198.90 1207.30HDFCLIFE 597.60 598.90 584.70 587.40DIXON 4629.30 4720.60 4557.35 4613.60SPARC 204.25 206.00 197.20 198.35ULTRACEMCO 4472.30 4474.25 4394.00 4410.85

LUPIN 707.05 709.55 696.50 701.75DEEPAKNI 406.10 418.75 404.00 410.60PIDILITIND 1560.00 1582.35 1548.00 1576.85PNB 58.80 58.85 56.95 57.25BATAINDIA 1843.00 1844.50 1793.50 1821.85CADILAHC 277.00 282.50 271.55 278.80AMARAJABAT 787.40 789.50 771.00 776.95PFC 125.35 127.45 124.90 125.75EXIDEIND 184.90 184.90 177.90 178.40INFRATEL 247.65 252.35 238.45 239.30AUBANK 1127.50 1138.00 1105.05 1125.35CARERATING 641.05 647.00 590.05 595.95WHIRLPOOL 2495.00 2495.00 2367.75 2373.55DIVISLAB 2087.15 2112.45 2079.35 2088.00PAGEIND 23800.00 24415.00 23581.80 23933.55UNIONBANK 48.90 52.35 47.70 50.953MINDIA 24200.00 24750.00 24170.00 24631.05FEDERALBNK 91.80 91.80 89.90 90.00NATIONALUM 45.10 45.10 43.15 43.30BERGEPAINT 575.00 584.00 564.40 582.15INFIBEAM 58.90 58.90 57.10 57.35AJANTPHARM 1369.20 1401.80 1340.45 1393.45HINDALCO 198.00 198.00 189.70 190.80ADANIPOWER 61.00 61.00 59.20 59.85NHPC 24.95 25.40 23.50 24.25NESTLEIND 16309.00 16342.95 16119.30 16168.20NMDC 111.20 114.20 110.95 112.80BEL 87.65 87.70 85.95 86.50ASTRAZEN 2589.80 2775.00 2549.10 2757.80ABCAPITAL 94.90 94.90 92.70 93.15HEXAWARE 377.00 383.90 371.00 381.30FDC 245.90 260.40 245.25 255.55IDFCFIRSTB 42.35 42.35 41.15 41.25IGL 522.50 522.50 504.00 513.25SCHNEIDER 107.00 112.35 101.55 111.25OIL 138.75 138.75 132.20 133.95SHANKARA 480.00 495.35 454.50 495.35GSFC 81.70 83.90 79.40 80.55GODREJCP 649.50 649.50 629.15 630.85CANFINHOME 486.35 487.00 478.00 481.30HEIDELBERG 210.00 216.00 205.00 206.55

DBL 399.00 400.00 378.80 383.45NIITTECH 1885.00 1897.00 1834.20 1857.30OMAXE 165.00 165.00 150.00 153.80CONCOR 560.65 575.40 560.65 572.90ICICIPRULI 495.50 495.50 480.25 484.15JAICORPLTD 111.50 114.35 110.35 111.35BALKRISIND 1105.80 1113.20 1094.45 1108.35TVSMOTOR 465.50 467.60 453.75 456.35SWANENERGY 139.30 151.00 138.00 149.00REPCOHOME 350.60 357.85 318.40 324.50CUMMINSIND 558.00 561.25 542.00 546.85NIACL 155.95 157.80 150.40 151.20TATAINVEST 967.00 1010.00 961.90 996.35PCJEWELLER 20.70 20.70 18.75 19.40AVANTI 651.00 651.90 626.70 628.90ADANIPORTS 368.30 373.45 366.30 368.40M&MFIN 398.45 398.45 391.30 393.90TECHM 825.00 825.60 811.60 813.40FORTIS 163.70 166.00 159.00 164.45SUDARSCHEM 466.00 488.00 466.00 471.55INOXLEISUR 430.00 452.70 427.00 444.45AMBER 1545.00 1677.30 1539.35 1637.45AAVAS 1860.10 1862.90 1800.00 1814.35VBL 844.90 863.05 813.45 829.10NAUKRI 3107.25 3125.00 2986.40 3011.60WABAG 218.20 228.50 215.50 217.95RAYMOND 633.60 647.55 629.00 635.20EIDPARRY 234.00 234.00 216.00 218.80APOLLOTYRE 164.90 164.90 159.80 162.10VIPIND 497.00 508.20 495.00 506.20SUNTV 485.00 490.00 476.00 481.45PFIZER 4070.00 4300.00 4070.00 4292.70AMBUJACEM 209.95 210.70 206.25 207.10SBILIFE 950.00 956.20 938.50 952.80WELSPUNIND 45.40 45.40 43.60 44.00EQUITAS 116.50 116.80 111.55 112.95GUJGAS 307.80 307.80 295.25 299.65PETRONET 277.70 277.70 269.50 270.85CHOLAFIN 338.00 338.35 331.00 335.35GRANULES 162.00 166.80 158.40 165.00VENKYS 1527.00 1537.70 1459.00 1462.90HAVELLS 632.40 632.40 616.55 622.25MCX 1265.00 1267.90 1227.00 1234.80MARICO 312.90 313.90 307.05 308.70SIEMENS 1501.05 1501.20 1470.30 1474.75SUZLON 2.28 2.51 2.25 2.48CASTROLIND 145.65 145.65 141.65 143.10

SPICEJET 91.65 91.90 90.60 90.75WIPRO 245.00 245.50 239.55 241.00ICICIGI 1383.00 1390.00 1368.00 1377.40DABUR 514.00 517.00 508.70 512.55PNBHOUSING 441.70 442.10 425.30 427.30MEGH 57.20 61.70 57.20 58.90IDBI 36.00 36.60 36.00 36.25NBCC 32.30 32.50 31.10 31.25PHILIPCARB 130.00 131.80 126.75 128.45GLAXO 1365.00 1365.00 1296.00 1301.25BALRAMCHIN 167.85 168.30 160.70 162.85GUJALKALI 364.65 364.65 355.00 355.65GLENMARK 329.60 329.60 319.75 321.95FORCEMOT 1420.00 1420.00 1352.70 1358.20LAKSHVILAS 18.15 18.15 16.90 18.15RAIN 113.50 114.35 110.10 111.50ADANIGAS 172.90 173.50 170.35 171.10JKCEMENT 1437.50 1465.00 1415.15 1420.00ERIS 518.00 518.00 494.90 501.20BEML 972.05 978.95 943.25 957.95TATAMTRDVR 71.50 71.75 69.60 70.25NOCIL 95.50 95.85 90.80 91.55MINDTREE 930.00 931.40 904.00 919.45RADICO 418.00 420.00 404.80 406.45DELTACORP 168.60 169.00 164.35 165.75TATAPOWER 57.90 58.00 55.95 56.95POLYCAB 1068.00 1068.00 1032.85 1038.40CAPPL 360.00 380.90 356.00 369.25GODREJPROP 1183.00 1183.00 1145.00 1156.40TORNTPHARM 2021.00 2026.10 1988.20 2009.55DALBHARAT 890.00 915.00 890.00 903.45HONAUT 34350.00 34404.40 33690.35 34139.20KEC 349.15 357.70 344.85 346.30VAIBHAVGBL 1012.45 1125.55 1008.90 1100.80DEEPAKFERT 98.00 103.90 97.50 102.70CHAMBLFERT 164.40 167.30 161.90 162.80MUTHOOTFIN 761.55 762.90 753.00 760.60APLAPOLLO 2028.00 2125.00 2028.00 2076.50RCF 46.10 47.20 45.05 45.20LALPATHLAB 1617.40 1626.00 1565.80 1615.10INDHOTEL 139.90 140.25 135.00 137.75LTI 1944.00 1971.15 1942.60 1949.60OBEROIRLTY 537.00 537.00 519.05 524.95BANKINDIA 64.70 64.90 64.00 64.65STRTECH 124.90 124.90 120.65 121.50DCBBANK 178.05 178.50 176.45 177.05GMRINFRA 23.00 23.50 23.00 23.25MFSL 482.00 482.00 473.45 478.10RELINFRA 21.40 21.45 20.50 20.80GICRE 271.10 274.95 255.00 264.55UFLEX 225.90 234.00 223.85 230.90BASF 983.00 1017.05 975.00 992.15COLPAL 1371.00 1376.55 1354.45 1368.60CEATLTD 974.05 1006.50 971.00 994.40EMAMILTD 303.70 303.70 291.45 292.70UBL 1323.00 1323.00 1290.00 1295.45TATACHEM 765.00 767.40 755.00 761.40ABFRL 262.25 262.25 250.65 259.00SUNTECK 396.35 396.60 388.30 392.65CROMPTON 284.70 289.75 279.95 281.20HSCL 61.60 65.20 61.60 63.45JBCHEPHARM 571.40 580.00 547.55 576.95ADVENZYMES 176.00 183.00 173.15 177.55INDIACEM 77.00 77.90 75.10 75.20INTELLECT 165.25 165.25 159.25 160.65IRCON 463.70 476.50 461.90 468.45SCI 60.15 60.45 58.75 59.35IBREALEST 90.30 92.30 90.00 90.30BAJAJELEC 411.85 431.20 410.70 427.50DCMSHRIRAM 370.00 373.95 359.65 365.45PVR 2055.00 2067.00 2039.00 2046.75SHREECEM 25100.00 25100.00 24838.85 24966.75WESTLIFE 469.45 477.75 467.00 469.35RITES 309.30 310.55 301.10 301.95RVNL 25.25 25.30 24.65 24.75DHFL 12.18 12.18 11.11 11.11SHILPAMED 408.00 410.90 394.00 398.05SJVN 26.20 26.25 25.15 25.35TIMKEN 1005.00 1005.00 940.50 950.45JUBILANT 560.00 560.00 541.20 544.15BAJAJHLDNG 3774.00 3774.00 3750.00 3758.95OFSS 2919.80 2965.45 2883.00 2943.65RAMCOCEM 796.35 796.35 779.00 788.65ISEC 471.00 478.15 465.55 469.50TV18BRDCST 26.50 26.85 25.80 26.30IIFL 183.65 187.20 182.30 183.70ORIENTELEC 250.00 258.85 237.15 245.05SYMPHONY 1375.00 1385.00 1309.00 1313.40IFBIND 586.95 586.95 525.10 529.90KEI 526.20 544.50 526.20 533.05ENGINERSIN 92.35 92.65 91.25 91.90ASTRAL 1203.55 1205.00 1183.80 1197.25METROPOLIS 1657.50 1660.70 1588.00 1611.20FRETAIL 341.95 346.00 335.00 343.40EDELWEISS 90.40 92.40 89.15 89.35ASHOKA 115.70 116.50 108.10 108.75PIIND 1600.00 1626.00 1562.00 1565.00MIDHANI 163.90 166.00 161.70 163.70TCIEXP 922.70 943.70 900.00 909.05JSWENERGY 65.90 65.90 64.25 65.15FINEORG 2365.00 2490.00 2365.00 2470.40TORNTPOWER 306.90 308.00 301.75 306.05BOSCHLTD 14224.95 14224.95 13965.75 14063.50JMFINANCIL 116.55 116.75 110.25 114.10BIRLACORPN 753.95 755.00 732.40 737.60KALPATPOWR 440.80 459.90 440.25 449.95IEX 179.60 185.00 179.55 183.10RELAXO 740.00 758.10 737.00 752.60

JKTYRE 72.70 74.25 71.00 73.50VINATIORGA 1030.55 1030.55 974.00 994.60COCHINSHIP 362.75 362.75 344.00 347.75MAXINDIA 91.80 93.80 90.00 92.05PGHH 11501.00 11810.00 11468.00 11688.15HIMATSEIDE 120.15 120.15 113.70 114.40MOTILALOFS 807.00 807.00 782.80 787.05IOB 9.90 10.60 9.05 9.92

INDIANB 96.85 96.90 94.95 95.55KAJARIACER 554.20 555.00 540.55 544.90LTTS 1699.50 1704.95 1669.25 1682.15RESPONIND 88.10 89.00 87.25 87.95NLCINDIA 56.35 56.35 53.40 55.55AEGISLOG 236.95 238.50 226.00 226.45SOUTHBANK 10.18 10.18 9.96 9.99NAVINFLUOR 1137.00 1154.25 1135.30 1141.05GODREJAGRO 557.60 561.35 542.85 544.90BLISSGVS 142.00 143.45 139.85 141.05KRBL 285.00 290.85 279.55 284.55IPCALAB 1266.00 1268.35 1232.80 1235.30PRESTIGE 371.00 371.00 358.00 361.75LAURUSLABS 443.00 448.40 435.00 436.35RALLIS 232.55 232.55 227.75 229.15DISHTV 12.39 12.39 12.03 12.14GALAXYSURF 1649.95 1649.95 1600.55 1636.45AIAENG 1955.65 1985.05 1882.40 1917.95APLLTD 647.00 647.25 635.00 642.45BAYERCROP 4490.00 4525.00 4468.50 4505.65J&KBANK 23.50 23.75 22.50 22.60TVSSRICHAK 1720.00 1785.00 1687.35 1733.00PNCINFRA 200.10 200.90 192.70 197.20CESC 730.60 730.60 716.80 721.10JINDALSAW 88.80 89.00 85.25 85.60ITI 87.65 87.65 84.65 85.70ESSELPRO 185.00 192.15 180.90 181.80ADANITRANS 345.00 345.00 328.40 331.85KANSAINER 509.50 509.90 499.00 501.70SHK 111.40 123.50 110.00 119.80HINDZINC 195.65 196.15 191.75 193.75JAMNAAUTO 45.30 45.30 43.25 43.70NESCO 773.30 779.45 762.25 766.60SUNDRMFAST 475.90 476.50 466.75 469.80PGHL 4451.00 4451.00 4275.15 4310.15CCL 234.05 242.00 232.25 235.55INOXWIND 38.30 40.45 36.75 37.00SUPREMEIND 1396.00 1397.05 1369.45 1384.45FCONSUMER 22.05 22.25 21.65 21.85LINDEINDIA 726.60 759.60 724.00 740.05REDINGTON 125.80 127.45 122.00 123.60FSL 42.55 42.65 41.45 41.85GSPL 249.95 249.95 243.00 244.80JSL 42.25 42.55 40.65 41.65CORPBANK 26.00 26.00 23.95 24.15JCHAC 2490.00 2578.80 2489.00 2557.50NH 350.00 357.95 343.00 351.50NETWORK18 28.45 29.05 28.45 29.05BAJAJCON 222.50 223.10 219.65 221.40BDL 296.55 297.30 290.20 294.45GARFIBRES 1566.55 1580.00 1547.85 1569.85GMDCLTD 63.00 63.00 59.40 60.25THYROCARE 611.00 611.00 581.15 598.55TATACOFFEE 99.00 99.00 96.25 97.10GEPIL 799.00 820.90 752.00 816.10PTC 56.00 56.00 54.50 54.65VGUARD 214.05 214.15 207.35 208.05VARROC 447.00 465.00 409.00 421.65GET&D 166.50 166.50 158.45 160.90FINOLEXIND 582.00 584.90 548.35 549.95MPHASIS 935.00 941.95 926.00 928.25SOBHA 406.00 407.75 396.00 397.00GSKCONS 9300.00 9355.85 9237.90 9294.65PARAGMILK 125.40 125.70 120.00 120.30NILKAMAL 1399.60 1427.70 1385.85 1402.10GREAVESCOT 142.80 142.85 138.80 139.50MMTC 20.05 20.15 19.20 19.40MOIL 152.30 152.30 148.55 148.95CUB 234.80 234.80 229.70 230.40HFCL 16.90 16.95 16.65 16.90HINDCOPPER 42.20 42.25 41.00 41.50LEMONTREE 53.95 55.20 53.50 53.85CHENNPETRO 122.60 124.30 120.35 120.85BLUESTARCO 813.80 813.80 797.00 800.70CRISIL 1675.00 1690.10 1650.20 1664.65BRIGADE 230.00 235.70 226.00 234.50CARBORUNIV 337.75 353.00 326.00 333.25QUESS 618.70 618.70 597.85 599.30TVTODAY 247.90 247.90 235.30 238.15IFCI 6.11 6.12 6.00 6.05LAXMIMACH 3279.00 3279.00 3250.00 3250.00THERMAX 1044.00 1044.00 1005.60 1009.85

IDFC 36.25 36.30 35.45 35.55CREDITACC 802.00 804.40 780.00 782.25GHCL* 182.50 183.00 176.00 176.55VSTIND 4425.35 4510.75 4351.00 4476.30ALLCARGO 112.30 114.70 110.80 112.25HAL 780.00 785.00 772.50 774.40CENTURYPLY 171.55 171.55 166.10 167.65PERSISTENT 701.50 710.95 699.00 700.90INDOSTAR 292.00 292.00 285.00 286.95ORIENTBANK 48.35 48.45 47.25 47.60TEAMLEASE 2377.00 2385.50 2261.00 2350.95JKLAKSHMI 360.00 360.20 350.35 352.10DCAL* 95.70 95.70 95.70 95.70KTKBANK 75.40 75.40 74.15 74.45VMART 2301.00 2302.45 2265.00 2271.10HUDCO 38.10 38.60 37.40 37.55MINDAIND 384.90 385.00 375.40 376.95MAHSCOOTER 4590.00 4590.00 4550.00 4571.55ITDCEM 67.00 67.00 63.70 64.00HERITGFOOD 345.60 349.25 342.60 346.15GPPL 89.80 90.05 85.50 86.80MAHINDCIE 178.60 178.60 170.50 171.20ECLERX 628.15 628.15 612.95 615.90PRSMJOHNSN 67.95 68.30 66.00 67.20AKZOINDIA 2123.00 2142.40 2092.30 2109.55KNRCON 283.00 283.00 275.50 278.00SIS 559.20 565.00 541.60 549.10MINDACORP 110.50 113.00 108.00 110.85EIHOTEL 141.95 149.60 141.65 148.20RELCAPITAL 8.19 8.19 7.80 7.80CYIENT 482.55 482.55 467.60 468.55ZENSARTECH 161.35 161.65 154.15 158.15SYNDIBANK 23.90 24.00 23.65 23.90SADBHAV 118.65 121.00 113.70 117.45MASFIN 1118.50 1144.00 1111.85 1124.30SONATSOFTW 346.25 346.25 340.25 341.95SYNGENE 316.35 316.95 311.00 312.05ATUL 5001.45 5001.45 4902.00 4926.20JYOTHYLAB 145.90 145.90 141.95 144.10ALBK 16.65 16.75 16.30 16.60GULFOILLUB 800.55 804.00 784.50 787.40TRIDENT 6.04 6.06 5.97 5.98WABCOINDIA 6799.95 6809.50 6736.05 6744.65LAOPALA 193.00 196.00 189.45 192.75PHOENIXLTD 879.85 882.40 860.00 873.65UCOBANK 15.90 15.90 14.95 15.00GICHSGFIN 146.10 149.35 146.10 147.30IBULISL 108.50 108.95 104.10 106.90GRINDWELL 675.00 675.00 640.95 645.90MRPL 43.00 43.35 42.60 42.85MHRIL 228.60 228.60 223.45 227.05ENDURANCE 1070.00 1070.05 1043.60 1046.20GILLETTE 6335.00 6392.40 6335.00 6372.30FINCABLES 390.00 390.00 379.00 382.10GESHIP 322.10 322.75 311.85 314.55GODREJIND 433.20 433.20 420.00 422.85TTKPRESTIG 5740.00 5800.00 5685.05 5701.35COROMANDEL 620.00 622.00 612.10 614.15CERA 2525.00 2525.00 2461.55 2468.65DHANUKA 507.60 523.75 500.00 518.40BLUEDART 2799.90 2810.30 2740.25 2772.90VRLLOG 263.50 265.95 262.30 263.15BALMLAWRIE 116.85 117.30 114.45 115.05SKFINDIA 2070.00 2085.35 2045.00 2049.30UNITEDBNK 8.63 8.65 8.46 8.49JAGRAN* 69.35 69.40 68.95 69.20CENTRALBK 18.00 18.00 17.65 17.75SOLARINDS 1290.00 1290.00 1260.00 1272.65TIMETECHNO 53.55 53.85 51.75 52.15MAHABANK 12.50 12.50 12.04 12.13ASTERDM 165.65 166.00 161.00 163.05ANDHRABANK 16.15 16.25 15.70 15.75LUXIND 1513.25 1513.25 1478.00 1490.60ZYDUSWELL 1468.95 1475.00 1450.00 1463.95NBVENTURES 73.85 74.50 70.50 71.60JISLJALEQS 7.00 7.01 6.89 6.92TATAMETALI 607.10 615.25 604.55 608.65MAHLIFE 404.35 416.25 404.10 406.40MAHLOG 414.45 414.45 399.90 401.35TEJASNET 79.00 79.20 76.80 77.00KPITTECH 95.95 99.85 94.00 97.90TNPL 181.70 182.05 175.00 180.10SHRIRAMCIT 1412.15 1453.25 1412.15 1441.85DBCORP 132.00 132.00 129.15 129.70MAHSEAMLES 369.00 372.25 366.15 367.40TIINDIA 525.45 525.45 518.00 521.95SOMANYCERA 224.20 228.95 221.65 227.40CHOLAHLDNG 545.05 549.00 536.25 542.50MAGMA 59.80 60.05 56.00 57.50GDL 127.00 127.00 124.85 125.30JSLHISAR 76.00 76.15 74.55 74.90HATHWAY 19.25 19.25 18.85 19.00STARCEMENT 87.80 88.85 87.50 87.80TCNSBRANDS 580.00 585.90 575.00 578.75ARVINDFASN 357.40 364.50 349.00 354.60CENTRUM 21.85 22.00 21.35 21.45SFL 1627.05 1627.05 1571.65 1586.65FLFL 405.00 405.50 394.20 398.20TAKE 98.00 98.00 93.00 93.90RATNAMANI 1300.00 1312.00 1270.00 1276.80ORIENTCEM 81.40 81.40 80.00 80.65SUPRAJIT 199.00 200.60 199.00 200.45GAYAPROJ 37.90 37.90 37.90 37.90CHALET 336.75 342.00 334.65 339.45SCHAEFFLER 4692.75 4700.00 4637.65 4654.25VTL 1022.40 1022.45 1011.20 1013.05KPRMILL 652.40 660.25 651.50 659.90SHOPERSTOP 398.60 398.60 398.60 398.60

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY 50 12102.35 12103.55 11990.75 12031.50 -66.85UPL 570.30 579.60 555.70 569.00 25.90BAJFINANCE 4660.00 4734.00 4640.00 4729.60 75.30KOTAKBANK 1660.00 1674.60 1645.70 1673.00 19.95TCS 2140.90 2167.00 2119.00 2153.10 16.55RELIANCE 1428.00 1445.50 1410.45 1442.20 8.55ASIANPAINT 1867.00 1872.75 1837.20 1869.50 10.80CIPLA 444.20 451.00 442.10 445.00 1.80HDFC 2405.00 2425.30 2391.05 2412.10 6.45BAJAJFINSV 9605.00 9657.95 9531.00 9644.00 20.70HINDUNILVR 2160.10 2189.55 2151.70 2161.85 1.90HDFCBANK 1242.95 1242.95 1226.05 1240.95 -1.25ADANIPORTS 370.05 373.45 366.15 369.00 -0.55DRREDDY 3166.45 3173.25 3113.00 3161.00 -5.70ICICIBANK 538.65 542.25 530.50 535.00 -1.45BHARTIARTL 540.20 543.65 536.10 538.00 -1.45JSWSTEEL 276.00 279.80 273.20 277.95 -1.35INFY 774.00 778.00 769.75 773.00 -4.30SBIN 319.80 322.80 316.50 318.50 -2.05HCLTECH 608.90 611.55 601.65 603.00 -4.70NESTLEIND 16300.00 16373.10 16112.00 16193.00 -134.80GAIL 124.10 124.35 119.25 121.90 -1.10WIPRO 245.40 245.65 239.45 241.25 -2.70BAJAJ-AUTO 3138.00 3150.85 3091.70 3100.00 -34.85MARUTI 6975.00 6989.10 6851.10 6894.60 -77.15AXISBANK 746.30 746.80 739.00 739.20 -8.95POWERGRID 190.70 191.10 184.75 188.10 -2.30LT 1300.00 1302.45 1273.10 1283.00 -16.00ULTRACEMCO 4487.00 4492.60 4390.75 4413.80 -58.00ITC 214.00 214.05 210.05 210.50 -2.90TITAN 1270.90 1275.00 1253.35 1257.20 -17.80IOC 117.40 118.35 115.25 115.80 -1.70TECHM 827.00 827.10 811.50 812.50 -11.95NTPC 115.80 115.90 112.05 113.90 -1.70BPCL 492.00 495.55 483.35 484.20 -7.20INDUSINDBK 1304.00 1304.00 1268.50 1275.00 -23.80HEROMOTOCO2449.50 2457.45 2375.15 2395.65 -47.80ONGC 109.15 109.15 105.75 106.55 -2.70SUNPHARMA 428.55 432.75 418.30 419.95 -10.85TATAMOTORS 173.20 173.20 168.00 169.00 -4.60VEDL 143.70 143.70 139.55 140.60 -4.00BRITANNIA 3270.00 3280.00 3125.00 3155.00 -96.40YESBANK 40.00 40.75 37.10 37.55 -1.15HINDALCO 195.90 196.95 189.60 191.00 -6.40COALINDIA 184.90 185.00 177.65 178.85 -6.20EICHERMOT 19855.00 19855.00 18790.00 19070.00 -666.30INFRATEL 245.55 252.75 238.30 239.40 -8.40GRASIM 787.00 789.70 752.00 753.85 -33.80TATASTEEL 460.25 463.25 440.00 443.15 -27.85ZEEL 249.00 249.75 228.10 231.90 -17.85M&M 566.80 567.00 526.05 528.40 -40.70

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY NEXT 50 29066.95 29075.35 28851.35 28953.70 -92.75DMART 2287.20 2537.45 2287.20 2480.85 193.65BANDHANBNK 444.70 461.20 437.15 458.80 16.10BERGEPAINT 573.70 583.70 564.10 583.10 12.25OFSS 2899.25 2968.15 2880.10 2942.95 45.60MCDOWELL-N 672.10 690.50 671.25 687.20 10.55PIDILITIND 1558.90 1581.80 1547.00 1581.00 22.10PAGEIND 23899.00 24428.20 23581.00 24048.00 297.05IBULHSGFIN 316.90 328.00 315.50 323.45 2.05SBILIFE 952.00 956.25 938.00 953.10 5.80CADILAHC 275.50 282.90 271.50 276.50 1.30PFC 125.65 127.50 124.85 125.80 0.45PGHH 11599.90 11839.95 11388.00 11559.90 36.25SHREECEM 25000.00 25149.25 24820.50 24950.50 32.35NIACL 155.80 156.00 150.45 150.55 0.20CONCOR 569.55 575.90 562.90 575.70 0.50INDIGO 1400.00 1411.80 1387.45 1399.00 -1.15ICICIGI 1382.00 1390.00 1366.00 1380.20 -1.50DIVISLAB 2085.00 2112.45 2076.15 2083.75 -2.20DABUR 513.60 517.50 508.55 512.50 -1.15BIOCON 311.95 316.80 307.70 308.00 -0.90COLPAL 1372.00 1376.00 1354.95 1365.05 -5.60HDFCAMC 3320.00 3337.90 3278.75 3300.05 -13.85BOSCHLTD 14194.05 14214.70 13975.00 14110.00 -84.05BAJAJHLDNG 3786.05 3793.00 3750.00 3760.00 -23.00AUROPHARMA 548.20 555.95 534.70 542.40 -4.15HINDZINC 196.20 196.75 191.65 193.40 -1.65NMDC 113.00 114.25 110.85 112.75 -1.00ASHOKLEY 83.55 84.45 81.90 83.00 -0.75MARICO 313.60 313.95 307.00 308.80 -2.90LUPIN 705.95 710.00 696.30 701.00 -6.60AMBUJACEM 209.80 210.80 206.15 207.80 -2.00DLF 235.30 236.60 231.15 233.45 -2.35PETRONET 273.00 273.70 268.50 269.50 -3.15HINDPETRO 241.00 244.05 237.80 238.25 -2.80HAVELLS 627.90 629.00 616.10 620.95 -9.05SRTRANSFIN 1213.00 1226.90 1198.55 1202.00 -21.10HDFCLIFE 596.00 598.90 584.50 585.00 -10.70NHPC 24.90 25.40 23.45 24.10 -0.45SIEMENS 1506.00 1506.00 1470.55 1477.60 -29.50BANKBARODA 91.85 92.30 89.60 90.10 -1.95UBL 1322.40 1322.40 1290.25 1291.00 -29.85ICICIPRULI 495.20 495.50 480.20 483.70 -11.80PNB 58.75 58.90 56.95 57.30 -1.50GICRE 273.40 274.00 253.50 265.00 -7.00GODREJCP 650.45 650.45 629.05 630.00 -16.80PEL 1600.50 1615.55 1534.00 1554.00 -46.55L&TFH 131.00 131.10 127.00 127.50 -4.05ACC 1498.00 1500.00 1446.00 1449.05 -53.65IDEA 5.40 5.40 5.00 5.05 -0.20MOTHERSUMI 132.00 135.95 121.35 125.45 -6.85

Page 12: ˆ ˙ ˝ !#˝ $$ $ ˆ...top BJP leadership of a “lotus” ... Sarkar. Quoting Sarkar, on board Diamond Princess, NDTV ... launched various farmers’ wel-fare schemes. The schemes

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Beijing: The death toll inChina's coronavirus outbreakhas gone up to 908 with 97 newfatalities reported mostly in theworst-affected Hubei provinceand the confirmed cases ofinfection crossing 40,000,Chinese health officials said onMonday, as a team of interna-tional experts led by the WHOis set to arrive in Beijing to helpcontain the epidemic.

According to China'sNational Health Commission,91 deaths were reported inHubei province, the epicentre ofthe epidemic, two in Anhui, andone each in Heilongjiang,Jiangxi, Hainan and Gansu.

There were 97 deaths and3,062 new confirmed cases ofthe lethal infection on Sunday,it said.

A total of 908 people havedied of the disease and 40,171confirmed cases of the out-break have been reported in31 provincial-level regions sofar, it said.

Another 4,008 new sus-pected cases were reported onSunday. A total of 296 patientsbecame seriously ill, the com-mission said, adding that 6,484patients remained in severe con-dition and 23,589 people weresuspected of being infected withthe virus. A total of 3,281 peo-ple have been discharged fromhospital after recovery, it said.

The commission said 3.99lakh close contacts had beentraced, adding that among them,29,307 were discharged frommedical observation on Sunday,with 1.87 lakh still under med-ical observation.

By the end of Sunday, 36confirmed cases, including onedeath, had been reported inHong Kong, 10 confirmed casesin Macao and 18 in Taiwan.Overseas, over 300 cases ofcoronavirus have been reported,including from three fromKerala. A team of internationalexperts led by the World HealthOrganisation (WHO) would

arrive in China on Mondaynight to assist the Chinese healthofficials to contain the spread ofcoronavirus outbreak.

"I've just been at the airportseeing off members of anadvance team for the @WHO-

led 2019nCoV internationalexpert mission to China, led byDr Bruce Aylward, veteran ofpast public health emergen-cies," WHO director generalTedros Adhanom Ghebreyesussaid in a tweet. PTI

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London: Britain has declaredthe new coronavirus thatemerged from China a "seriousand imminent threat to publichealth'' and announced newmeasures Monday to combat thespread of the disease.

The UK Department ofHealth and Social Care said peo-ple with the virus can now beforcibly quarantined and will notbe free to leave.

It named two British hospi-tals as isolation facilities forthose affected by the disease anddesignated the Chinese city ofWuhan and the surrounding

Hubei province where the virusfirst emerged as a “infectedarea.” “The incidence or trans-mission of novel coronavirusconstitutes a serious and immi-nent threat to public health, andthe measures outlined in theseregulations are considered as aneffective means of delaying orpreventing further transmis-sion of the virus,” the agency saidin a statement.

It added that the changeswere designed to ensure thehealth and safety of medicalworkers who came into contactwith infected patients. AP

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Tokyo: Another 65 peopleaboard the quarantinedDiamond Princess cruise shipmoored off Japan have beendiagnosed with novel coron-avirus, the health ministry saidMonday, bringing the totalnumber of known infections to135. The Diamond Princesshas been in quarantine sincearriving off the Japanese coastearly last week after the viruswas detected in a former pas-senger who got off the ship lastmonth in Hong Kong.

"Test results from 103 peo-ple have now come out and 65of them are confirmed positivefor the new coronavirus," theministry said in a statementwithout giving further detailssuch as their nationalities. PTI

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Brussels: The EuropeanUnion will host an extraordi-nary meeting of health min-isters on Thursday, alongwith a WHO envoy, to discussthe novel coronavirus out-break.

So far, only around 30cases of the new strain havebeen detected in Europe.

"Now is the time to joinforces to stop this epidemic,"said European Commissionerfor Crisis Management JanezLenarcic. The EU Ministersdiscuss ways to prevent thevirus' spread and "adopt con-clusions in relation to the EUresponse to the novel coron-avirus outbreak". AFP

Geneva: The head of the WorldHealth Organisation said onMonday there have been "con-cerning instances" of coron-avirus among people with notravel history to China, warn-ing that it could be the "tip ofthe iceberg", as he urged allcountries to prepare for the pos-sible arrival of the novel virusthat has killed over 900 people.

Tedros AdhanomGhebreyesus lauded the doc-tors, nurses and health workersfor doing "their utmost" at per-sonal risk to contain the epi-demic, terming them "trueheroes" of the outbreak that firstsurfaced in December inWuhan city in China's centralHubei province where millionsof people are under lockdownin a bid to stop it from spread-ing.

"There've been some con-cerning instances of onward2019nCoV spread from peoplewith no travel history to China.The detection of a small num-ber of cases may indicate morewidespread transmission inother countries; in short, wemay only be seeing the tip ofthe iceberg," tweetedGhebreyesus, Director-Generalof the WHO.

Ghebreyesus said the spreadof coronavirus outside Chinaappeared to be slowing, butcould accelerate, warning thatany breach in solidarity is a vic-tory for the virus. "Containmentremains our objective, but allcountries must use the windowof opportunity created by thecontainment strategy to preparefor the virus's possible arrival,"he said. PTI

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Kano (Nigeria): Boko Haramjihadists killed at least 30 peopleand abducted women and chil-dren in a raid in northeastNigeria's restive Borno state, aregional Governmentspokesman said on Monday.

The attack Sunday eveningtargeted the village of Auno ona key highway linking to region-al capital Maiduguri.

The jihadists stormed in ontrucks mounted with heavyweapons, killing, burning andlooting before kidnappingwomen and children, state gov-ernment spokesman AhmadAbdurrahman Bundi said.

They aimed at travellerswho had stopped for the nightand torched vehicles.

The attackers "killed notless than 30 people who aremostly motorists and destroyed18 vehicles," Bundi said in astatement after visiting the scene.

The attack, some 25 kilo-metres (15 miles) west ofMaiduguri, occurred in an areawhere fighters from the IslamicState West Africa Province(ISWAP) have been active,

mounting roadblocks to targetsecurity forces and civilians.

Witnesses said jihadists setalight 30 vehicles in the raid,including trucks that hadstopped overnight on their wayto Maiduguri. "Many of the dri-vers and their assistants whowere sleeping the vehicles wereburnt alive," civilian militiafighter, Babakura Kolo told AFP.

The jihadists combedthrough the village, looting andburning shops and propertybefore withdrawing, he said.

Auno lies on the 120-kilo-metre highway linkingMaiduguri to Damaturu, amajor regional city in neigh-

bouring Yobe state. The highwayhas been increasingly targeted byISWAP militants in recentmonths. The surge has followedthe creation of so-called "supercamps" by the Nigerian militaryin the northeast — a strategyunder which small army campshave withdrawn from severalareas and combined into fewer,larger bases. Last month fourNigerian soldiers were killed andseven injured when the jihadistsattacked troops positioned inAuno. The decade-long Islamistinsurgency has killed 36,000people and displaced aroundtwo million from their homes innortheast Nigeria. AFP

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Jerusalem: Israeli forcesattacked Hamas positions fromthe air early on Monday, thearmy said, after militants in thePalestinian enclave fired a pro-jectile at the Jewish state.

The "aircraft and fighter jetstargeted a number of Hamasterror targets in the southernGaza Strip," a statement fromthe Israeli army said, noting aHamas "training compoundand military infrastructures"were included in the attack.

There were no reports fromGaza of casualties or damage.

On Sunday night, a pro-jectile was launched from Gazaat southern Israel, triggering airraid sirens and sending thou-sands to bomb shelters.

A spokeswoman for theregional council in ShaarHanegev, just northeast of Gaza,said the projectile apparently hitan open field.

Palestinian attacks have

increased since January 28when US President DonaldTrump released his vision forresolving the Israeli-Palestinianconflict -- a plan firmly reject-ed by the Palestinian leadershipin both the West Bank andGaza.

It would grant Israel anumber of its long-held goals,including full control of dis-puted Jerusalem and a greenlight to annex all settlementsand other parts of the WestBank.

In exchange thePalestinians would be offered astate in the remaining parts ofthe West Bank and Gaza.

Palestinians in Gaza, anenclave ruled by the Islamistmovement Hamas, havelaunched rockets, mortar shellsand balloons rigged with explo-sives at southern Israel on anear-daily basis since the planwas unveiled.

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Ramallah: One of the menwas hospitalized with kidneyfailure and 11 broken ribs.Another was nearly unrecog-nizable to his wife when he waswheeled into a courtroom. Athird was stitched up after beingattacked by a security dog.

Then the three Palestinianswere returned to their Israeliinterrogators. They had beenswept up in a sprawling man-hunt launched after a roadsidebomb killed a 17-year-old Israeligirl and wounded her father andbrother as they hiked down toa spring last August in theoccupied West Bank. The attack

raised fears of a sophisticatedmilitant cell that might strikeagain, and Israeli interrogatorsappear to have treated it as aticking time-bomb scenario.Israeli and Palestinian rightsgroups say there is strong evi-dence that they tortured sever-al detainees in violation ofIsraeli and international law.

The allegations againstIsrael are the most serious tocome to light in years, and therights groups say they point toa loosening of constraints twodecades after the IsraeliSupreme Court outlawed mostforms of torture. AP

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Moscow: Russia's DefenseMinistry said on Friday that apassenger jetliner in Syria wasendangered by Israeli fighterjets that used it as shield whilestriking the suburbs ofDamascus the previous day.

The allegation comes astensions run high in Syria,where fighting has escalated inthe northern province of Idlib.

Syrian government forces,backed by the Russian mili-tary, have clashed with Turkishtroops that support the oppo-sition there after failing toobserve a cease-fire.

A spokesman for theIsraeli prime minister did notrespond to a request for com-ment. Israel rarely acknowl-edges strikes carried out inSyria.

Israel has repeatedlystruck Syrian and Iran-linkedtargets in Syria in recent yearsand has vowed to push backagainst increasing Iranianinfluence in its neighboringcountry.

The news of the allegednear-miss came amid jittersjust a month after a Ukrainianpassenger plane crashed short-ly after take-off from Tehran,killing all 176 people on board.

Iran said the plane wasmistakenly shot down by itsparamilitary RevolutionaryGuard. In a statement releasedFriday, Russian DefenseMinistry spokesman Maj.Gen. Igor Konashenkov saidthe strike was carried around2 am local time Thursday. AP

*� ������ ����!$ ��5���� ����� ����5����(����� Berlin: German Chancellor

Angela Merkel's designatedsuccessor unexpectedly threwin the towel Monday, plungingher conservative party intodeeper crisis as it struggles toagree on its future politicaldirection after losing votes tothe far right.

Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer told leading mem-bers of the ChristianDemocratic Union that shewon't be seeking the chancel-lorship in next year's election,upending Merkel's plans tohand her the reins after morethan 15 years in power.

Merkel's spokesmanSteffen Seibert told reporters inBerlin that Germany's long-time leader stood by her deci-sion not to run for a fifth termin 2021, despite the latestdevelopment.

Kramp-Karrenbauer 'sannouncement reflects thegrowing split with the ChristianDemocrats exposed last weekin its handling of the electionof a governor in the state ofThuringia.

There regional party law-makers voted with the far-right Alternative for Germanyparty to oust the left-wingincumbent, ignoring advicefrom Berlin leadership.

The move broke what iswidely regarded as a taboo inpost-war German politicsaround cooperating withextremist parties.

Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer is still Germany'sdefense minister.

It was unclear how the lat-est developments would affectMerkel's earlier plans for hersuccession. AP

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Washington: Four members ofthe Chinese military have beencharged with breaking into thenetworks of the Equifax creditreporting agency and stealingthe personal information of tensof millions of Americans, theJustice Department saidMonday, blaming Beijing for oneof the largest hacks in history.

The 2017 breach affectedroughly 145 million people, withthe hackers successfully stealingnames, Social Security num-bers and other personal infor-mation stored in the company'sdatabases. The four — membersof the People's Liberation Army,an arm of the Chinese military— are also accused of stealing thecompany's trade secrets, lawenforcement officials said.

The case comes as theTrump administration haswarned against what it sees asthe growing political and eco-nomic influence of China, andefforts by Beijing to collect dataon Americans and steal scientificresearch and innovation.

“This was a deliberate andsweeping intrusion into the pri-vate information of theAmerican people,” AttorneyGeneral William Barr said in astatement. “Today, we hold PLAhackers accountable for theircriminal actions, and we remindthe Chinese government that wehave the capability to remove theInternet's cloak of anonymityand find the hackers that nationrepeatedly deploys against us,"he added. AP

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The Oscars closed the awards seasonin style, with statement necklacesand classic gowns, traditional tuxe-

dos and some young rule-breakers. In amilestone win that instantly expanded theawards’ horizons, Bong Joon Ho’s mas-terfully devious class satire Parasitebecame the first non-English languagefilm to win best picture in the 92-year his-tory of the Academy Awards.

The prom king gets his crown This we know to be true: If

Hollywood is high school, the Oscars isprom night. And Brad Pitt has alwaysbeen the prom king, missing only hisactual crown.

The much-admired actor, finallywinning his first acting Oscar for his sly,knowing performance in QuentinTarantino’s Once Upon a Time ... inHollywood, grew emotional as he lookedback at his fairytale rise to Hollywoodstardom, beginning with a combustive-ly sexy performance in “Thelma &Louise” nearly three decades ago. “Onceupon a time in Hollywood. Ain’t that thetruth!” he said, misty-eyed.

Zellweger completes comeback withbest-actress Oscar win

Renée Zellweger completed aHollywood comeback for the ages by win-ning the best actress award for her roleas Judy Garland in Judy. Written off dur-ing a six-year hiatus from acting thatended in 2016, Zellweger returned toclaim her second Oscar after 16 years. “Ifonly I could stand up straight, I was shak-ing so much,” Zellweger said as shewalked offstage. “Oh my word.”

Time to come alive As the very first person to take the

stage, Monae set the tone when she plain-ly addressed the diversity issue in heropening number. “It’s time to comealive, because the Oscars is so white, it’stime to come alive!” she sang. Her per-formance directly referenced films andactors who’d been snubbed in the nom-inations and also the missing femaledirectors. “I’m so proud to stand here asa black, queer artist telling stories,”Monae said. “Happy Black HistoryMonth.”

Missing: A certain reproductive organ Diversity — both racial and gender

— was also a major topic of the “non-monologue” given by “non-hosts” ChrisRock and Steve Martin. (Like last year, theshow famously went hostless.) Rockquipped pointedly that actor MahershalaAli had two Oscars, but “you know whatthat means when the cops pull him over?Nothing.” Martin noted that among thedirecting nominees, something seemedto be missing. “Vaginas?” replied Rock.

A first for indigenous people An emotional highlight of the night

was Taika Waititi’s win for best adaptedscreenplay for the anti-hate themed JojoRabbit. Waititi, from New Zealand,became the first Oscar winner of Maoridescent. He dedicated his victory “to allthe indigenous kids of the world whowant to do art and dance and write sto-ries. We are the original storytellers, andwe can make it here as well.”

Later, as a presenter, Waititi took thestage and noted the Academy was gath-ering “on the ancestral lands of theTongva, Tataviam and the Chumash.”

And for disabled actors When The Peanut Butter Falcon star

Zack Gottsagen appeared to present inthe live-action short category, it was a firstfor both him and for the Oscars.Gottsagen was the first presenter withDown syndrome, and he received astanding ovation after intoning the famil-iar line: “And the Oscar goes to ...”

And speaking of voices When Joaquin Phoenix won, he

spoke about “the opportunity to use ourvoice for the voiceless.” He added that hesaw a commonality in the different caus-es people in the Hollywood communityfight for. “Whether we’re talking aboutgender inequality or racism or queerrights or indigenous rights or animalrights, we’re talking about the fightagainst the belief that one nation, onerace, one gender or one species has theright to dominate, control and use andexploit another with impunity,” he said.He also apologised for past behaviour.“I’ve been a scoundrel in my life,” he said.

“I’ve been selfish, I’ve been cruel at times,hard to work with. I’m grateful that somany of you in this room have given mea second chance.”

Eminem, take two Also getting a second chance was rap-

per Eminem, who stunned the crowd byshowing up for a surprise performanceof Lose Yourself — 17 years after it wonbest original song from the film 8 Mile.

Backstage: Dazed winners and sweetreunions

A whole other show happens just afew feet to the right of the main Oscarsstage in the wings where presentersgather, ecstatic winners get a moment toprocess what just happened and the pro-duction staff stays busy making sureeverything is going to plan. Here are a fewmoments that the cameras didn’t catch atthe 92nd Academy Awards.

“WHOSE IS THIS?”Joaquin walked offstage in a bit of a

daze, with tears still in his eyes from hisemotional acceptance speech. Jane Fonda,waiting to present the best picture award,was among the few familiar faces in thewings for the Joker star who stopped togive her a hug and a kiss.

Phoenix looked down at the goldenstatuette in his hand and said, “Whose is

this?” The woman escorting him to hisnext stop said gently, “It’s yours.”

STEVE MARTIN GETS READYSteve Martin made sure to get to the

wings extra early for his and ChrisRock’s show openerSunday but his prompt-ness also meant he hada little time to kill.

He offered supportto Janelle Monae’sbackground per-formers. “You’ll do agood job,” Martinsaid with a thumbsup. “But you’resupposed to saybreak a leg.” Andhe even took amoment to allowhimself to enjoythe performance,watching on themonitors with a bigsmile. But he quicklyturned back to thinkingabout his imminentmoment on stage. “Aslong as I have my open-ing line, I’m fine,” hesaid, continuing topace.

A breakdown of the gowns, bling andbeauty

A look at fashion highlights from thebig night:

The gownsScarlett Johansson, Renée Zellweger,

Charlize Theron, Cynthia Erivo andRegina King served up standout looks.

King’s pale pink Versace with just theright amount of silver embellishment wasa flawless fit. Johansson’s Champagne-hued Oscar de la Renta was a straplesswonder with strand details at the top.Theron’s black Dior Haute Coutureoffered one shoulder up and one down,along with a high side slit. Erivo shut itdown in a white custom Atelier Versaceone-shoulder bustier gown. Zellwegerdidn’t disappoint in a white symmetricalbody hugger from Armani with one longsleeve.

“Regina King and Cynthia Erivoreally did the ballgown right,” said JustineCarreon, senior market editor forElle.com. “Cynthia Erivo had those kindof modern paniers on the hips. Reginahad a pink princess moment, but it stillhad a very modern neckline.” Nobodytook any big risks, she said, though therewere some statements made.

YOUNG HOLLYWOOD DIDN’T DIS-APPOINT

Janelle Monae stunned in silverRalph Lauren with a hood, long sleevesand about 170,000 Swarovski crystals.Florence Pugh wore a tiered gown in wel-come green from Louis Vuitton. BillieEilish donned fuzzy, oversize Chanel jack-ets and pants to go with her bright greenand black hair. Timothée Chalametdetoured from a slew of classic black tuxe-dos in a custom Prada navy gabardinejacket with satin racing stripes andmatching trousers.

“She always brings such drama to thecarpet in such an elegant way,” E! stylecorrespondent Zanna Roberts Rassi saidof Monae’s look. Monae, along with

Eilish and Billy Porter (ina golden feather top

and orange ballskirt), show

trends aren’teverything. The

trend was to be yourself.” “It’s less about trends. It’s more about

showing who they really are. Billie Eilishand Billy Porter tend to just stick to theirguns. When it comes to fashion, theydon’t let themselves be confined to anybox. It’s true that Eilish loves a logo, butthat’s true of her generation, from Guccito Louis Vuitton,” she said.

VINTAGE REPRESENTED, BUT JUSTA TAD

Margot Robbie hit the carpet inChanel from the brand’s spring 1994haute couture collection. It was a blackfitted bustier gown with detached sleevesthat practically touched the ground. Apearl pendant was front and center.

The blingThere was an abundance of statement

necklaces on women (Mindy Kaling, JuliaLouis, Zazie Beetz) but there was also ashow of “gents jewelry,” said ClaibournePoindexter, jewelry specialist.

From Porter in multiple bracelets andrings from Swarovski to men bringingback the lapel brooch (Chalamet’s vintageCartier), “there is no doubt that men areembracing jewels for the first time in along time,” he said.

Among other favourites: AnthonyRamos in a long necklace and lapelbrooch worn with a white suit. As for thewomen, Greta Gerwig wore diamondsand emerald from Bulgari, as did Beetz.Theron wore a diamond drop necklaceby Tiffany & Co. weighing in at more than20 carats. Louis-Dreyfus wore more than60 carats set in platinum from HarryWinston. Vintage represented in a smallway, thanks to Rebel Wilson’s gold anddiamond double row necklace byPomellato to Chalamet’s 1950s ruby anddiamond clip, Poindexter said.

“Over the last several years we’ve seena consistent increase in gentlemen whowear jewels as a great way to diversifytheir style on what is arguably a more dif-ficult wardrobe to show individuality in,”he said. Gerwig’s emerald beads and dia-monds has her “following in the footstepsof many powerful women in film,”Poindexter said. “From Elizabeth Taylorin her own Bulgari emerald and diamondjewels purchased on a visit to the Bulgariboutique with Richard Burton to MonicaVitti posing for Karen Radkai in a fullsuite of oval shaped emerald and dia-mond jewelry in 1963, Bulgari has had along reputation of being a favorite amongthe film and jet set,” Poindexter said.

The beautyThe Oscars are often a parade of

nudes, sheers or pale pinks, especially innail polish, said Cat. “So I was excited tosee so many actresses go for a bolder look.Black nail polish in particular reignedsupreme, with a variety of cool iterations,”she said.

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Barnes & Noble is withdrawinga planned line of famous liter-

ature reissued with multiculturalcover images that has been metwith widespread criticism on socialmedia.

“We acknowledge the voiceswho have expressed concerns aboutthe Diverse Editions project at ourBarnes & Noble Fifth Avenue storeand have decided to suspend the

initiative,” Barnes & Nobleannounced.

The author Adriana Herrerahad called the books, scheduled tobe launched this week, “the classicsin blackface.”

Diverse Editions, a joint projectbetween Barnes & Noble andPenguin Random House, featured12 texts, including Lewis Carroll’sAlice’s Adventures in Wonderland,Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and LFrank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz.The words are the same, but on thecover, major characters are depict-ed with dark-skinned illustrationsby artists of “different ethnicitiesand backgrounds,” as per Barnes &

Noble.It was announced at a time

when the publishing industry isalready facing scrutiny over thenovel American Dirt and its depic-tion of Mexican life and culture.

“Absolute TONE-DEAF decision-making,” Mexican-American writerDavid Bowles, a leading critic ofAmerican Dirt, tweeted aboutDiverse Editions.

The decision also comes in

February, which is the BlackHistory Month, an annual celebra-tion of achievements.

To much disbelief online, theorganisers of Diverse Editions hadsaid they used artificial intelli-gence in reviewing more than 100older books and determiningwhether the race or ethnicity of acharacter is specifically stated. Fewwould argue that Alice from Alicein Wonderland or the title charac-ters of Strange Case of Dr Jekyll andMr Hyde are fitting for a tribute toblack history.

“They could have Googled,chosen a dozen books by actualBlack authors that are classics andsent those out with fresh covers anda big event,” author MIkki Kendalltweeted. “Add in bringing in con-temporary Black authors to discuss

these works and the whole thing isa win. They didn’t do the easy orlogical thing.”

Barnes & Noble acknowledgedthat the new covers were “not a sub-stitute for black voices or writers ofcolour, whose work and voicesdeserve to be heard. The book-sellers who championed this initia-tive did so convinced it would helpdrive engagement with these clas-sic titles,” as per the bookstorechain. “It was a project inspired byour work with schools and was cre-ated in part to raise awareness anddiscussion during Black HistoryMonth, in which Barnes & Noblestores nationally will continue tohighlight a wide selection of booksto celebrate Black history and greatliterature from writers of colour.”

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The film took Hollywood’s topprize on Sunday night, along with

awards for best director, best interna-tional film and best screenplay. In ayear dominated by period epics —1917, Once Upon a Time ... InHollywood, The Irishman — the filmacademy instead went overseas, toSouth Korea, to reward a contempo-rary and unsettling portrait of socialinequality in Parasite.

True to its name, Parasite simplygot under the skin of Oscar voters,attaching itself to the Americanawards season and, ultimately, to his-tory. The win was a watershedmoment for the Academy Awards,which has long been content to rele-gate international films to their owncategory. Multiple standing ovationsgreeted Bong’s several wins. “I amready to drink tonight,” Bong said,prompting roars from the crowd.Unexpectedly called up again forbest director, Bong saluted his fellownominees, particularly MartinScorsese, and concluded: “Now I’mready to drink until tomorrow.”

The victory for the film — whichhad echoes of the surprise win byMoonlight over La La Land three yearsago — came in a year when many crit-icised the lack of diversity in the nom-inees and the absence of female film-makers. But the triumph for Parasite,the Palme d’Or-winner at last year’sCannes Film Festival, enabledHollywood to flip the script and sig-nal progress, nevertheless. No Koreanfilm had ever won an Oscar before.

In doing so, the film academyturned away another history-makingevent, again denying Netflix its firstbest-picture win despite two con-tenders in The Irishman and MarriageStory, and a big-spending awardscampaign blitz.

South Koreans reacted with joyafter the good news came as theircountry struggles to guard against anew virus and counter North Korea’snuclear threat.

The film’s win made history inSouth Korean film industry too. The

class satire is the first non-English-lan-guage film to win best picture in the92-year history of the AcademyAwards, and is the first South Koreanfilm to ever win an Oscar.

South Korean social media wereoverwhelmed with congratulatorymessages. Bong, Parasite and otherOscar-related news also dominatedsearch terms throughout Monday atmajor internet portal sites, which hadbeen preoccupied with the outbreakof a virus in China that has killed morethan 900 people and sickened tens ofthousands of others, mainly in China.

“It’s happy news, like welcomerain, to the Republic of Korea, whichis depressed, stagnant and thrown intodespair due to Wuhan pneumonia,”the main opposition Liberty KoreaParty said in a statement. Wuhan is theChinese city at the center of the out-break.

President Moon Jae-in and hisadvisers began a regularly scheduledmeeting by clapping their hands to cel-ebrate Bong’s wins. Moon later tweet-ed that he is proud of Bong and hisstaff and “particularly grateful tothem for giving courage and pride toour people who are overcoming dif-ficulties.”

“I think this was a great opportu-nity to let the world know the truevalue of Korean movies,” said officeworker Cho Sung-ho, 54. “I think itis very meaningful that the AcademyAward this time has acknowledged thesuperior quality of Korean films.”

Actor Priyanka Chopra said thatthis win is a call for representation. Shebelieves that this signals the fact thatit is time for wider representation inHollywood, beyond the cinema thatonly the US makes. “It’s the time ofrepresentation. As people and asentertainers. Our craft has the powerto transcend borders and languages,and tonight Parasite demonstratesexactly that. Congratulations to theentire film for shattering the glass ceil-ing and making history as the firstnon-English film to win Best Picture,”she wrote on her social media.

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To serve public awareness forthe arts and provide oppor-

tunity to artists to widen theirweb of influence in the marketthat is, at the moment, regres-sive and stagnating, curatorNeeraj Gupta, president of theDelhi Art Society, brings fortha show of sculptures and paint-ings for public space.

Public art spacesPublic Art includes about

17 artists who are seasonedsculptors as well as painters.

Neeraj Gupta’s elephantflits through time and tide, rais-ing questions and invitingintrospections that waftthrough our everyday idiomsand practices. While AnjaliKhosa Kaul creates a synergy ofsorts with her series that depictforest botanical creations inwood, Bhola Kumar’s stonecreation has about it a stealthygravitas as it’s about dimensionsand depth. Brajesh Vermanexplores history and time witha work that goes down into theroots of Sumerian culture togive us words that are integralto sovereignty — strength,courage, freedom and emi-nence —and echoes of antiqui-ty.

Nature and the human formArun Pandit’s Couple is

influenced by Rodin andBrancusi. His Patina creates arooted synergy of sorts as itspeaks about the beauty ofbronze and the pathos of lifeand its many learnings.

Bhaktibhushan De’s Nature’sSorrow is an evocative workthat talks to man about nature’sstrength and its eternal quali-ty of recycling. It also talksabout the harmony that manneeds because it has beendestroyed by man’s greed.

Madhab Das creates themost enduring form of thehuman figure. Here, man islost, deprived and full ofdespair. Kavita Nayyar’s terra-

cotta works are symbolic of herlove for nature. Her prowess asan artist of measure and sub-stance is seen in detail.

Simran KS Lamba’s Treescreated out of tree trunk andcopper give us tenets of manand nature and the unerringpower of trees. He OR IS ITSHE brings back the words ofHermann Hesse who said,“Trees are sanctuaries.” RajeshSharma creates an emblemat-

ic symbol of man with hissculpture that is made of steelcircular rods. It presents manin a dual setting who is balanc-ing different things. UttamPacharne’s brass piece echoesthe emblematic essence ofnature.

Evocative paintingsKalicharan Gupta, the

abstract maestro of Delhi, cre-ates paintings that spell thequasi realistic language of thedispersion and scattering oflight and colour fields. He bringsalive both modernist and

impressionist moods.Sangeeta Gupta, the poet,

thinker and abstractionist, cre-ates a set of platters that shepaints upon with acrylic to cre-ate a conversation.

Ranjeeta Kant’s paintingspeaks about the universaldebacle of infanticide. Withinthe realism of the human fail-ing, here, we see the poignan-cy of the miracle of life and thesuggestion of beauty of livingrather than death.

The multi-faceted NareshKapuria, who has worked withso many media, creates a stir-ring amalgamation of compo-sition, contours and colourfacets with his work that strad-dles many scenes and times asit oscillates through the pendu-lum of time.

Artist Prem Singh createspaintings that celebrate thelyrics of spring in an impres-sionist manner evoking themagic of hillsides and flowersblooming in spring.

The most important facetof this exhibition is to lend athought for art that must trav-el through time and be madevisible to an audience. Themost important part of anartist’s creation is the end resultwhen the work is gazed uponby thousands. Public art for acity is about history, memory,metaphors and moods and itenlivens art practices and lastslong.

(The show is on tillFebruary 17 at Visual ArtsGallery, IHC.)

Medium and materialoften lead an artist

towards evolution, changeand transition. It has beenseen as the precursor to everykind of growth. It reveals theconcept that lies within theartwork. The interesting partis that it raises questions aboutthe boundaries often drawnaround a particular style,material or presentation.

Three artists — SatishSharma, Anju Kaushik andRubkirat Vohra come togeth-er to explore their journeythough objects in a groupshow of paintings and sculp-tures — Trails of Materials.

While Satish has beenpainting for two decades, hehas traversed the works thatrecall the musings of VincentVan Gogh, moving on towardabstraction which celebratespure colour and texture. Hiscanvases evoke a three-dimensional form that cele-brates earth in differentshades — a deep madder red,the aquamarine of seashoreblues, solemn slate greys andthe darkened shades of a blacknight.

Satish says, “For me art isbreaking out of boundaries. Ifelt it first when I switched toabstracts. The act of throwingcolour on canvas, let it take itsown shape and form was lib-erating. It opened up mymind and journey tounknown beginnings.”

The artist has also beenmoving towards monochro-matic expressions with a pref-erence for brighter colours.

Anju’s new works aremore about the sculpturesque,with a preference for high-relief surfaces. She prefersworking with discardedobjects, transforms them withplaster of Paris, concrete andwood. The act of reclaimingold, rusted and discardedobjects and giving them newlife is particular to Anju’spractice. The objects chal-lenge the idea of what isrejected elevating it from whatmay appear to be a part ofmundane existence.

Anju’s works are oftenconnected into a loose narra-tive, where she makes a com-ment on the environment,where a fossilised fish shape is

a poignant reminder of urbandetritus and waste. A hunk ofconcrete is brushed withpaint, nails, wire and placedupon a concrete bracket cre-ating a new relationshipbetween the elements ofwaste. “Every time I lookaround, I find bundles ofempty bottles, canes, plates,nails, building materials andother junks. It makes methink that there is still somelife in them. I get new ideasfrom them. Through mypainting, I give a new identi-ty to the waste and changethem into three-dimensionsculpture.”

Rubkirat enjoys workingwith metal and wood, creatingcomposite forms from a mal-leable lead that has a low heatpoint. The abstractions hinttowards architectural formsand human existence. Theobjects are aesthetic, disasso-ciated from the world of nar-rative. Ranging from oils,charcoal on canvas, metallicobjects to delicate construc-tions from wire and lineardrawing work, it evokes herfeelings. One could say thather inner voice experimentswith objects.

Rubkirat says that her workis contemporary and not in thehistorical architectural forms.Although she conforms to herinner self, her art is deeplyimmersive lending a serenecalmness to the viewer asthough stemming from herown contentment and realisa-tion.”

Her “abstruse creations”are created with nails, metal,wood, wires, charcoal, canvas,fire. It lends a sense of satisfac-tion to the viewer.

Together, the works of thesethree artists bring home a freshperspective on the materiality ofobjects. We may appreciate howthese objects and their materi-als communicate across culturesand temporal boundaries, mov-ing in some instances beyondthe intentions of their creators.The materials have the ability totransport the viewer into dis-covering their own narrativebehind the presented narrative,but they may also hone in onthe story that the artist is keento tell us in their own languageand materiality.

Photographer, archivist, print-maker and visual historian,Padma Shri Jyoti Bhatt belongs

to the arc light of Indian artists whohave spent six decades exploringIndia’s indigenous arts. Over theyears, it is Bhatt’s investigations ofrural and tribal designs that haveinfluenced the motifs he has used inhis printmaking. He has been active-ly engaged with intaglios since themid 60s and these images constitutean important chapter in the historyof printmaking in India. Theydemonstrate great artistic sensibili-ties, creativity and a unique under-standing of traditional cultures. Eachprint can be seen as an artwork in itsown right as well as a historical doc-ument. His works set him apart as anethnographer.

Through his show of originalintaglios at Bihar Museum, startingtoday, he goes back in time. Here aresome excerpts:

��Tell us about your photographdocumentation that began in the1960s.

In 1961, I won an Italian govern-ment scholarship to study at theAcademia Di Belle Arti in Naples fortwo years. From Italy, I went to thePratt Institute in New York, where Ireceived a Fulbright fellowship. I wastrained in the graphic arts and beganto take a particular interest in print-making.

When I returned in the 1960s, Iwas asked to take photographs of theGujarati folk art for a seminar at theBhartiya Vidhya Bhavan in Mumbai,keeping the disappearing rural artsin focus. I was asked to chronicle thearts and indigenous practices ofrural parts of Gujarat, Rajasthan,Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha,West Bengal and Bihar from 1967 to1995. I travelled extensively, visitingvillages and tribal regions, pho-tographing folk arts and craft tradi-tions in their local areas, as well aspeople who inhabited these spaces.Those folk and craft traditionsbecame part of my intaglios.

�� It is said that at the MSUniversity in Baroda, you becamea catalyst for other artists pickingup printmaking as a genre. Wouldyou like to reflect on those days inthe 1960s?

When I began, my early workswere influenced by cubism as well aslighthearted and colourful pop art

kind of imagery. It was inspired bytraditional Indian folk designs.

It was in 1966 that I returned toMSU Baroda with a thorough knowl-edge of the intaglio process that I hadgained at the Pratt Institute atBrooklyn, New York. I found intaglioexciting. The thought that so manyprints could be made was a sense ofcommonality I believed in because Ididn’t like the idea of elitist art. Thiscaused friends such as Jeram Patel,Bhupen Khakhar and GulamMohammed Sheikh to follow thesame process. At the Faculty of FineArts in Baroda, we were soon knownas “The Baroda School” of Indian art.

��When we look at your work, wecan also find a wide repertoire ofhistorical evidence. How did youexplore such a wide variety of prac-

tices?I knew that when I began, I had

to include whatever I could captureon my frame. Cultural evidences havea wide canvas so I was looking at trib-al musicians and women who hadmastered pottery, to artistes anddancers, weavers, wall painters andeven children. Sometimes I wouldwalk into a makeshift hut and see thewet wall and suddenly see the calfready to shut his eyes and sleep. Thatis how I got the image, Calf (MadhyaPradesh, 1983). Their cattle were asimportant to them as their familymembers. When it comes to art tra-ditions, people and their environs arethe most important.

�� Your photographs pay greatattention to background details...

I was looking at a world that was

full of rural rhythms in the simplestof circumstances. For instance, in Atribal house from rural India (SouthGujarat, 1987), a mother and herchild are sitting against a wall in theirhut. Resting next to them are toolsand impediments, some householdappliances and weapons used by thetribal folks. The tools are shown asan impression on the wall. And Iobserved that the villagers were sosimple yet full of their own elemen-tal ideas. Life in the village has itsown tranquil pace and their creativepursuits are what engaged methroughout.

��Your prints reflect the ingenu-ity of indigenous iconography.Please reflect on this journey.

My focus has always been on thesurroundings. When I look at it now,I see that it presented a holistic per-spective in an age where traditionsare vanishing. Everything had its own

significance. You call it a slice of his-tory but I would say that it is a liv-ing moment in the lives of the hum-ble.

Printmaking for me became aprocess of rich imagery and a residueof living traditions. I recall how inRajasthan, the intricate floral patternsof a rangoli or a mandana, painstak-ingly created by a woman in thecourtyard of the house, were impor-tant statements of a rural lifestyle thatwe hardly see anymore.

Many of the artforms I pho-tographed even as late as 1994 are notvisible anymore. The number ofpeople who made them have less-ened. Most of these traditions havestarted losing their essence. Forinstance, people now buy Kolam —the Rangavalli designs — in theform of plastic stickers from shopswithin South Indian temples, which,ironically, have supported this tradi-tion the most. I used the designs inmy prints as a motif for longevity.

In later years, in my etchings,intaglios and screen prints, I alsotried to explore a personal languageof symbols that belonged to indige-nous cultures — peacock, parrot,lotus, stylised Indian gods and god-desses, and some unending variationson tribal and village designs —which became part of my iconogra-phy. Now I am happily exploringinkjet digital printing and hologra-phy. I like the multiplicity of print. Iam happy that many art lovers canbuy my prints.

(Manushya aur Prakriti runs tillFebruary 27 at Bihar Museum.)

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RB Leipzig held Bundesliga leaders BayernMunich to a goalless draw at the Allianz

Arena on Sunday to stay just one point behindthe defending champions in the title race.

Leipzig worked tirelessly to thwart thehosts, for whom victory would have opened upa four-point gap after third-placed BorussiaDortmund’s 4-3 loss at Bayer Leverkusen.

Bayern are bidding to win an eighthstraight league title.

They were awarded a second-half penaltywhich was then reversed when VAR showedRobert Lewandowski had been offside.

Second-placed Leipzig often rode their luckto repeatedly frustrate Bayern, but wasted aseries of second-half chances themselves.

“The problem was that both teams couldlive with a 0-0 draw,” admitted Bayern forwardThomas Mueller.

“In the end, neither team want-ed to take the absolute risks, whichmeant we didn’t play to ourstrengths.”

Bayern coach Hansi Flick expectsthis season’s title race to go to thewire.

“The Bundesliga will be tenseuntil the end,” he said.

“There are a few teams with a chance.“We want to keep our position, but it’s

going to be a hard path to stay on.”Leipzig coach Julian Nagelsmann said his

side showed the bravery required to win inMunich.

“In the second-half, we had much clearerchances to win the game,” he said.

“We were brave, defended high up and hada good grip on the game.”

Leipzig striker Timo Werner, who misseda golden opportunity on 63 minutes, rued histeam’s missed chances, including a skied effortby captain Marcel Sabitzer.

“In the beginning, it seemed just a matterof time before we scored,” admitted Werner.

“But in the second half we played as ourcoach (Julian Nagelsmann) wanted and werethe better team. We could have won.”

���������� !"#�$ ��%!&� ��$ ''(�)*)* ������-6

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Lionel Messi gave a hat-trick ofassists on Sunday as Barcelona

ended their turbulent week with athrilling 3-2 victory over Real Betis tostay in touch with Real Madrid at thetop of La Liga.

Madrid’s 4-1 win at Osasuna putpressure on Barca to respond, only forBetis to twice lead at the BenitoVillamarin through a penalty fromSergio Canales and bril-liant solo effort fromNabil Fekir.

Yet both timesBarcelona hit back asFrenkie de Jong andSergio Busquets pulledthem level before Clement Lengletheaded in with 18 minutes left, all threegoals teed up by Messi.

Fekir and Lenglet were then sentoff in a frantic contest by the end ofwhich, Barca had the victory they sodesperately needed following a diffi-cult few days for the club.

Messi had put himself at the heartof a political spat this week by publiclytaking exception to comments madeby sporting director Eric Abidal, whosuggested the players were the causeof the decision to sack ErnestoValverde last month.

Barcelona were then beaten byAthletic Bilbao and knocked out of theCopa del Rey before the semi-finals forthe first time in 10 years on Thursday.

“In Bilbao we played well but theyknocked us out,” said coach QuiqueSetien. “This win will give us motiva-tion and extra energy for the future.”

To make matters worse, winger

Ousmane Dembele suffered anotherhamstring injury, which is likely tokeep him out for the rest of the season,while centre-back Samuel Umtitiappeared in court too, for alleged dam-ages to a rented villa.

It meant defeat against Betis wasunthinkable, particularly for Setien,who could ill-afford another setbackagainst the team he managed for twoyears between 2017 and 2019.

Instead, Barca turned the tide, witha chaotic performance that mighthave been punished by better oppo-nents, but that keeps them threepoints behind Real Madrid, who hadearlier won at a canter in Pamplona.

����� Paris Saint-Germain survivedthe absence of Neymar and a Lyonfightback to win Sunday night’s Ligue1 clash 4-2 at a stormy Parc desPrinces, helped by Fernando Marcal’struly stunning second-half own goal.

Runaway leaders and defendingchampions PSG were cruising at half-time with Angel Di Maria and KylianMbappe giving them a two-goal advan-tage against a Lyon side enduring a dis-appointing season.

Then Marcal comically blast-ed the ball into the roof of hisown net just after the break, leav-ing Lyon looking at anotherheavy defeat in Paris, where theylost 5-0 in this fixture last season.

However, Martin Terrier andMoussa Dembele quickly pulled goalsback, and PSG needed a late strike bysubstitute Edinson Cavani to secure thepoints.

“Normally after a goal like that thegame is over,” said coach ThomasTuchel of the own goal. “But we were

not disciplined enough and it was a les-son for us that it’s never over.”

PSG’s performance showcasedwhy they can ill afford to be compla-

cent heading into theirChampions League last 16, firstleg match away to BorussiaDortmund on February 18, evenif sporting director Leonardoinsisted to Canal Plus that the tiewas “not life or death” for the

Qatar-owned club.They will hope to have Neymar

back by then. The world’s most expen-sive player sat out a second consecu-tive match due to a rib complaint.

“We play a lot of games and errorshappen but I don’t know if it’s the timeto be too critical,” Tuchel added. “The

team was great and we can’t forget wewere without lots of key players.”

Without Neymar — as well as hisinjured compatriots, Thiago Silva andMarquinhos, in defence — Tuchel’sside made it eight straight wins andstretched their unbeaten run to 21games in all competitions.

Lyon, meanwhile, have not won inthree and this result leaves the seven-time former champions in ninth place.

They are eight points adrift of theChampions League qualifying spotsand their upcoming European double-header against Juventus looks certainto be a step too far for them. AFP

���� -�1�

Inter Milan moved top of Serie Aon Sunday after storming backfrom two goals down to snatch

a 4-2 win over AC Milan in a pul-sating derby at the San Siro.

Inter pull level on 54 pointswith Juventus, who lost 2-1 atHellas Verona on Saturday, but areahead of the champions on goal dif-ference thanks to a thrilling secondhalf turnaround after Ante Rebicand Zlatan Ibrahimovichad put Milan 2-0 up at thebreak.

Lazio are just a pointbehind in third after FelipeCaicedo scored the onlygoal in a hard-fought win atParma earlier on Sunday.

“It’s a special nightbecause in the first half wewere in great difficulty like we had-n’t been this season. There was therisk of taking a hammering,” saidInter boss Antonio Conte.

“Credit to these lads becausethey were able to resist the blowswhich means that we are ready forsomething good.

“It’s absolutely too early to talkabout things that we can still dreamof today.”

Milan had dominated the firsthalf with Inter struggling to dealwith Ibrahimovic, who soaredabove Diego Godin before knock-ing down for Rebic to tap the open-er past Daniele Padelli.

Stefan De Vrij blocked anoth-er cross to deny Rebic a second tapin but Franck Kessie flicked on fora waiting Ibrahimovic to turn in thesecond.

The comeback began five min-utes after the break when Brozoviclashed home a stunning volley andtwo minutes later Mattias Vecinofinshed off an Alexis Sanchez pass

to level the scores.De Vrij put Inter deservedly

ahead with a superb diving headerwith 20 minutes to go, and afterIbrahimovic hit the post for MilanRomelu Lukaku then headed homesubstitute Victor Moses’ cross threeminutes into injury time to main-tain Inter’s charge for a first Serie Atitle in a decade.

Milan’s collapse means they

missed the chance to move into theEuropa League places and sit 10th.

“It’s difficult to explain. The firsthalf was almost perfect, the secondhalf the opposite.” said Ibrahimovic.

“We conceded the first goal andthe squad lost faith, then conced-ed a second and everything fellapart.

“Inter in the first half didn’t looklike a team who were second but

then demonstrated why they wereafter the break."

LAZIO IN MIXCaicedo kept Lazio’s own

dream of a first Scudetto in 20 yearsalive as a 1-0 win over Parmamoved the Romans second in SerieA.

Simone Inzaghi’s side are rightin the title discussion after extend-ing their unbeaten run to 18 leaguegames.

Their last Serie A defeat was inSeptember to Inter Milan, who theyhost next weekend at the StadioOlimpico.

“We are trying to stay in there,fighting against the battleships.With this spirit, we can advancevery well,” said Inzaghi.

“Sunday will be a great gameagainst a great team.”

Caicedo broke through justbefore the interval as theEcuadorian volleyed home afterParma failed to clear a ball into thebox.

���� -1��1

Unfazed by coronavirus fears, afull-strength Indian men’s

team has landed here to competeat the Asia Team Championshipsfrom today, eyeing a medal-win-ning performance which will giveplayers crucial ranking points inthe Olympic year.

The Indian women team,which was supposed to be led byyoung shuttlers Ashmita Chalihaand Malvika Bansod, chose not totravel for the competition, fearingthe spread of coronavirus, whichhas claimed over 900 lives inChina so far.

A 44-year-old Chinese touristfrom Wuhan had died on February1 in Philippines, which has report-ed three virus cases so far. The twoothers were discharged from hos-pital after their tests were report-ed to be negative.

Former world number oneKidambi Srikanth and 2019 worldchampionship Bronze medallist BSai Praneeth will lead the Indian

team which also has HS Prannoy,Subhankar Dey and youngLakshya Sen.

The Indian men’s team, whichwon the Bronze medal in the2016 Championship, was initiallyclubbed with two-time defendingchampions Indonesia and hostsPhilippines in Group A but withChina and Hong Kong not playingdue to a travel ban on them by thePhilippines, the draw was re-worked at the team managers’meeting on Monday.

India are now placed in GroupB alongside Malaysia andKazakhstan. The top two team ineach of the four groups will makeit to the quarterfinals.

India, who had lost to China1-3 in the last edition in 2018, willbegin their campaign againstKazakhstan today before taking onMalaysia on Thursday. This isonly the third edition of the Asia

Team championship, which servesas Asia qualifiers for the Thomasand Uber Cups.

Praneeth and Co are expectedto have an easy outing againstKazakhstan, who are not a promi-nent badminton nation, but theclash against Malaysia will be ainteresting one.

Malaysia boast of a youngteam, comprising world No 14 LeeZii Jia, 2014 Youth Olympic GamesGold medallist Cheam June Weiand Leong Jun Hao, a formerthree-time Silver medallist atWorld Junior Championships.

In doubles, Malaysia haveworld No 17 pair of Ong Yew Sinand Teo Ee Yi, who claimed theThailand Masters title last month,and the pair of Goh Sze Fei andNur Izzuddin Mohd Rumsani,who were part of 2018 Asian teamChampionship Bronze medal win-ning team, in their team.

�� �-1����/��

Scott McTominay saysManchester United are “fully

focused” on ending their troubledseason on a high note, withsilverware still on offer in

the FA Cup and EuropaLeague as he nears a returnfrom injury.

United have found ithard to establish anymomentum in a chal-lenging campaign thathas threatened to spi-ral into disarray at times.

They are six points adriftof the Premier League’s topfour but could still qualify forthe Champions Leaguethrough another route ifthey win the Europa League.United face Club Brugge inthe last 32 later this month,

while their next FA Cup assignmentis a fifth-round tie at second-tierDerby.

Despite distracting speculationabout Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s futureas manager, combined with fanprotests against United’s owners,McTominay is adamant there is stilla possibility of a happy ending foreveryone at Old Trafford.

“It would be nice to comeback and have a massivepush with the rest of theboys to get into some finals,

get some trophies underour belts and really setthe bar for next season,set a bar that we don’tstep underneath,”McTominay told

United's website.“All of the boys are fully

focused on doing that andhopefully we can do it as well.”

���� -1����/��

Manchester City manager PepGuardiola admitted his side could be

set for an overhaul in the summer afterfalling 22 points behind Liverpool at thetop of the Premier League.

Guardiola will definitely lose DavidSilva, who has already announced he willleave the club after a decade at the end ofthe season.

However, the Catalan coach does notbelieve he needs the same degree ofchange as after a difficult first season inManchester when the arrival of six newplayers inspired a romp to the title witha record 100 points.

“This group of players has donesomething unique — they have won thelast six of the last seven domestic trophiesin England. I admire them and I sufferwith them when they don’t get what theydeserve,” said Guardiola.

“Of course we have to do somethingbecause David Silva is leaving and in someother positions we are going to do it, butI don’t know how many or how muchbecause the market is always difficult.

“There are still are two or threemonths to go and things can change a lotin that time.”

City could still turn a hitherto disap-pointing campaign into a glorious one asthey face Aston Villa in the League Cupfinal in three weeks’ time, have progressedinto the fifth round of the FA Cup and arepreparing for a blockbuster ChampionsLeague last 16 clash with Real Madrid.

“There are still incredible nice thingsstill to fight for,” added Guardiola.

“We are in the EFL Cup final in threeweeks, we are still in theFA Cup, we want to tryand finish second inthe league and we havetwo big gamesagainst RealMadrid in theC h a m p i o n sLeague.”

One ofthose whocould be sacri-ficed by City tomake room andresources for sum-mer signings isJohn Stones.

The Englandinternational hasbeen scarcely usedby Guardiola thisseason despite alack of cover at cen-tre-back due to thedeparture ofVincent Kompanyand injury toAymeric Laporte.

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Dortmund said Brandt had suf-fered torn ankle ligaments and willmiss Friday’s league clash at home toEintracht Frankfurt.

They have not said whether theGerman international will be fit fortheir Champions League first leg athome to PSG on February 18.

Dortmund are already withoutcaptain Marco Reus, who suffered aleg injury in their German Cup lossat Werder Bremen last month. AFP

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India would expect its toporder to fire to avoid aseries whitewash when it

clashes with a high-flying NewZealand in the third and finalOne-day International at BayOval today.

Despite missing inspira-tional skipper KaneWilliamson in the line-up dueto a shoulder injury, the hostsshrugged off the T20 seriesdebacle to claim the ODIseries.

New Zealand, though, willhave the experience and lead-ership of Williamson for thefinal game as he has passed thefitness test.

“He certainly had a fullworkout and all is on track fortomorrow. He’s looking goodto be ready to play. We'll haveone final look at him in themorning and make sure noth-ing happens overnight,” NewZealand stand-in head coachShane Jurgensen said on theeve of third ODI.

The major differencebetween the two sides hasbeen the top-order’s impact.

With Rohit Sharma andShikhar Dhawan missing dueto injuries, Virat Kohli missingout on scoring big and KLRahul batting later in the order,India’s traditional ODI strengthwas neutralised without NewZealand having to do any hardwork.

Openers Prithvi Shaw and

Mayank Agarwal have shownonly momentary flashes ofbrilliance and have not repli-cated the kind of starts theIndian batting has grownaccustomed to from its top-order.

Rohit’s absence has been amajor factor in India’s defeat inthis series. The opener aver-aged 57.30 in ODI cricket inthe past 12 months, having amajor impact on Indian for-tunes in this format.

In that light, the burden ofscoring runs has been placedsquarely on Kohli in this series.With 66 runs in two innings,he did not come through foronce and the restdidn’t rise to theoccasion either.

All of itresulted in rever-sal of fortunes onthe limited-overs leg of thistour, as India had arrived hereat Mt Maunganui a week agoleading the T20I series by a 4-0 margin. They went on todrub the Black Caps 5-0, butnow find themselves in thesame position at the sameground.

It is also a reversal ofresults from the Men in Blue’slast visit here in 2019 whenthey won the ODI series 4-1but lost the T20I series 2-1.

India’s previous ODI seriesloss in New Zealand was 4-1on the 2014 tour here.

Shreyas Iyer, with a hun-dred and a half-century, has

mirrored Ross Taylor’s richform in Hamilton andAuckland. But Iyer lacked thefinishing touch as compared toTaylor’s experience. He could-n’t see India’s chase through inAuckland like the senior Kiwibatsman did in Hamilton.

India may also look toexperiment a bit before the Testseries.

Rahul, Shaw, Iyer, KedarJadhav and Yuzvendra Chahaldid not take part in the option-al practice session on Monday.

Kohli was first into the netsagainst both pace and spin.Manish Pandey was in thenets beside him, while RishabhPant had a long session onceagain.

Pant has not played limit-ed-overs' cricket since he suf-fered a concussion againstAustralia. If India goes as perroutine plan, he is in danger ofmissing out entirely from play-ing white-ball cricket on thistour.

In theb o w l i n gdepartment,all pacerswere presentfor training,

except Mohammed Shami.New Zealand have added

leg spinner Ish Sodhi andpacer Blair Tickner to thesquad for this match. Sodhiplayed in the first ODI atHamilton, bowling Kohli witha googly.

They were part of the NewZealand A team playing anunofficial Test against India Abut did not take part on thefourth day’s proceedings. TimSouthee (stomach bug),Mitchell Santner (stomachbug) and Scott Kuggeleijn(viral fever) are hoping torecover in time for the thirdODI.

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Pakistan completed a crushing innings-and-44-run victory over Bangladesh on the fourth

morning on Monday, taking a 1-0 lead in thetwo-Test series.

Bangladesh were bowled out for 168 in theirsecond innings after resuming the day on 126-6 as Pakistan’s pace and spin attack was too hotto handle despite a flat Rawalpindi stadium pitch.

Fast bowler Naseem Shah, who at 16 yearsand 359 days became the youngest bowler totake a Test hat-trick on Sunday, finished with4-26 and was declared man of the match.

Despite Naseem being unavailable to bowlon Monday with rib pain, Pakistan mopped upthe last four wickets in 90 minutes, inflictingtheir 10th defeat on Bangladesh in 11 matcheswith one draw.

Pakistan skipper Azhar Ali said homewins — only possible in recent months, after theresumption of Test cricket in Pakistan follow-ing a decade’s isolation over security concerns— were important to boost confidence.

“It’s an important win and home wins alwaysincrease confidence within the team,” said Azhar.“We have to play important away series includ-ing one in England (July-August this year) sowe will carry this confidence.

“Naseem and other bowlers bowled superblyand it was an outstanding batting display, so allin all it was a complete team effort.”

B’desh skipper Mominul Haque started theday by square-driving paceman Shaheen ShahAfridi for his fifth boundary inthe first over, but then fell leg-before in the same over for 41.

Liton Das (29) and tail-ender Rubel Hossain kepthosts at bay for 11.5 oversbefore Abbas trapped Rubelleg-before for five.

Leg-spinner Yasir Shahdismissed Das lbw andhad Abu Jayed forthree to finishwith 4-58 andcomplete thewin.

With thewin, Pakistangained 60points in theICC World TestChampionship, takingtheir tally to 140 points.

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Understanding thepeculiar dimensions

of the grounds and nego-tiating the wind factor is amust for bowlers to suc-ceed in New Zealand,reckons India pacerShardul Thakur.

“There are no groundsalike in New Zealand, soit is very important tounderstand the grounddimensions. How to bowl,etc. In each game, as abowler, you may have tochange your plan becausethe last game in Auckland,straight boundaries wereshort. Before that inHamilton, the side bound-ary was short. The dimen-sions of each ground aredifferent and you have to

bowl accordingly. Here inthe next game, we will geta bigger ground comparedto the others,” said Thakurahead of final ODI game.

Thakur feels the con-ditions make NewZealand one of the tough-est places to play cricket in.

“It is very difficultbecause you don’t get toplay on grounds like thisevery day. That’s why theysay New Zealand is a dif-ficult country to playcricket in. I feel that whenyou practice in the netsyou have to practice in themanner in which you aregoing to bowl the nextday.

“Mentally too, it iscrucial to be preparedbecause if you are notprepared mentally, the

opponent can take you bysurprise. So both thingsare important. If you see,their batsmen use thewind and the short side,”he added.

India will be aimingto avoid a 0-3 whitewashtoday and with the seriesalready out of reach,Thakur feels he and histeammates can play evenmore freely.

“When you play inter-national cricket, everygame matters for everyplayer. When you are 2-0down, you can expressyourself even more — ourskills, our variations inbowling. Batsmen canplay their shots, can exe-cute shots and expressthemselves. That’s howwe will approach it.”

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An emotional David Warneron Monday won the

Australian cricketer of the yearaward beating teammate SteveSmith by one vote in their firstseason following the ball-tam-pering ban that brought theirrollicking careers to a one-yearhalt.

Dashing opener Warnerwon his third Allan BorderMedal with 194 votes, with for-mer Test captain Smith getting193 votes and fast bowler PatCummins coming third with185.

Ellyse Perry claimed hersecond Belinda Clark Award atthe Australian Cricket Awardshere.

Considering his stunningreturn to the game following ayear’s suspension, an emotion-al Warner held back tears dur-ing his acceptance speech.

“I couldn’t be any prouderto stand here and receive theaward ... (and) to see the rest ofthe other guys doing so well,”Warner said, according toCricket Australia.

“I really had a hunger anddetermination to come backand really put my foot forward... So to have a summer like thatreally put a smile on my face.”

“I know I’ve let you guysdown in the past. It’s just beenremarkable to come back,”Warner was quoted as saying byfoxsports.Com.Au.

The dashing opener added,

“With the World Cup, to not gothe whole way was disappoint-ing. The Ashes, retaining thatwas fantastic — I obviously did-n’t turn up and I apologise forthat — but I really had thehunger and determination tocome back and do the best forour team.

“To come back and have asummer like that and just con-tribute, it really put a smile onmy face — and I hope it did foryou guys as well.”

Warner had previously wonthe coveted individual prize in2016 and 2017. He polled atotal of 194 across the Test, ODIand T20I formats to finishahead of former captain Smithand nine votes clear ofCummins.

Warner now joined a selectlist of multiple winners of theAllan Border Medal, whichincludes Ricky Ponting,Michael Clarke, Shane Watsonand Smith.

Meanwhile, Perry won theBelinda Clark Award after herteammate Alyssa Healy baggedboth the T20 and ODI Player ofthe Year awards for women’scricketers.

Australia’s limited-oversskipper Aaron Finch claimedthe male ODI Player of the Yearaward, while MarnisLabuschagne won the maleTest Player of the Year recogni-tion.

Warner also claimed themale International T20 Playerof the Year Award.

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India vice-captain Ajinkya Rahanewarmed up for the Test series in New

Zealand with an unbeaten 101 for thetouring A side in the drawn four-daygame against New Zealand A onMonday.

In response to New Zealand A’s 386for nine, India A reached 467 for five in109.3 overs when the game ended in adraw on the fourth and final day. The end

of the second unofficial Test alsomarked the end of the A tour.

Rahane stayed unbeaten on 101 off148 balls and his knock com-prised 15 fours and a six.

Shubman Gill, who hasscored a double hundred in thefirst game at number four,continued his good run withthe bat, making another hun-dred on day three, this time

as an opener. Resuming dayfour at 107, Gill, who too is part

of the Test squad, went on to make

136. Rahane took over from there andgot much needed time in the middleahead of the first Test beginning inWellington on February 21. A practicegame will also be played before the series-opener.

Vijay Shankar also made a valuablecontribution with a 66-run knock. Testnumber three Cheteshwar Pujara hadmade a solid half century on day three.He could only score a run on day fourand was dismissed on 53.

Among the other Test regulars, off-spinner R Aswhin bowled 37.5 overs inthe New Zealand innings, conceding 98runs for two wickets.

BRIEF SCORESNew Zealand A 1st innings: 386 for 9in 131.5 overs (Daryl Mitchell 103,Glenn Phillips 65; Sandeep Warrier2/50). India A 1st innings: 467/5 in109.3 overs (Shubman Gill 136,Cheteshwar Pujara 53, Ajinkya Rahane101 not out; Blair Tickner 1/71, EdNuttall 2/98).

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���������3����� He hasdismissed Virat Kohli themost number of times ininternational cricket andNew Zealand pacer TimSouthee on Monday creditedhelpful pitch conditions forthe feat he “didn’t know”about.

Including Saturday’s ODIin Auckland, Southee hasnow dismissed Kohli ninetimes across formats.

“He is obviously a classplayer and doesn’t have manyweaknesses. I think the wick-et had a little bit of assistancewith the new ball and if youput it in the right areas, therewas enough there to ask a fewquestions. It is about assistanceand the pitch conditions...,”

Southee said on the eve of thethird ODI.

“It is your job to takewickets...And Virat is a greatplayer and he has been ingreat form. Especially in runchases he is exceptional, so Iguess it’s always nice to see theback of him. I didn’t know that

was the most...,” he added.Southee said his side’s 2-0

series win over India in thecurrent three-match contestshouldn’t be a surprise to any-one as the Black Caps, consec-utive ODI World Cup finalists,have been playing well in thisformat for a while now. PTI