03-03-2016 - The Hindu - Shashi Thakur

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NEW DELHI: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhimade a frontal attack onPrime Minister NarendraModi and his governmentshandling of the economy, for-eign policy and domestic is-sues in a speech laced withmockery, sarcasm and banterin the Lok Sabha onWednesday.

Speaking during a debateon the Motion of Thanks tothe President for his addressto both Houses of Parlia-ment, Mr. Gandhi allegedthat the government was run-ning on his [PMs] ownopinion, forgetting that thecountry is not the PrimeMinister, and the Prime Min-ister is not the country.

He accused Mr. Modi of re-leasing Pakistan from thecage that the previous UPAgovernment had put it in af-

ter the 26/11 attacks by hisunilateral decision to have acup of tea with Mr. Nawaz

Sharif in Lahore.He did not bother to con-

sult anyone...the people in in-telligence, the diplomats.Perhaps he did not even talkto [External Affairs Minister]Sushmaji [Swaraj]. Only hisopinion matters.

He single-handedly de-stroyed the six years of workdone by the UPA, Mr. Gand-hi alleged.

Modi let Pakistan offthe hook, Rahul claimsNISTULAHEBBAR

RAHUL TARGETS PRIMEMINISTER AGAIN | PAGE 12

Rahul Gandhi said thegovernment was running onthe Prime Ministers ownopinion. PHOTO: PTI

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www.thehindu.in Regd. DL(ND)-11/6110/2006-07-08 RNI No. TNENG/2012/49940 ISSN 0971 - 751X Vol. 6 No. 53 CITYEDITION 24Pages Rs. 8.00

RAJIV GANDHI ASSASSINATION CASE

CHENNAI: In yet another bid torelease the seven convicts inthe Rajiv Gandhi assassina-tion case, the Tamil Nadu gov-ernment on Wednesdaywrote to the Centre, seekingits views on its decision tofree them.

In a letter to the UnionHome Secretary, Chief Secre-tary K. Gnanadesikan said theState government decided toremit the life sentences of allthe seven and release them asthey had already served over24 years in prison.

Under Section 435 of theCr.PC, the State has to consultthe Centre before releasingprisoners prosecuted by theCBI or under a Central law.

In December last year, the

Supreme Court had ruled thatthe State government had nopower to release the convictswithout the Centres concur-rence.

In his letter, the Chief Sec-retary said the communica-tion to the Centre was beingsent without prejudice to theStates right to seek a review

of the December 2, 2015, judg-ment, wherein the Constitu-tion Bench had said the wordconsultation used in Section435 meant concurrence.

The seven convicts are A.G.Perarivalan, V. Sriharan aliasMurugan, T. Suthendrarajaalias Santhan (all three whosedeath sentences were com-muted by the Supreme Courtin 2014 owing to the delay inthe disposal of their mercypetitions), Nalini (whosedeath sentence was commut-

ed to life by the State govern-ment in 2000), Robert Payas,Jayakumar and Ravichandran,who are serving life terms.

Sriharan, Santhan, Jayaku-

mar and Payas are Sri Lankannationals, while the others arefrom Tamil Nadu.

In 1999, the Supreme Courtfound the seven guilty of con-spiring to assassinate RajivGandhi in May 1991.

The State governmentsearlier attempt in 2014 to re-lease the seven failed, as its

communication to the Centregave only three days time fora response. The Union gov-ernment rushed to the SC,questioning the power of theState to release them withoutits concurrence.

The Constitution Benchwas asked to answer sevenmajor legal questions, whichwere settled in the December2015 judgment.

The main petition ques-tioning the legality of the gov-ernments order of release isstill pending before a three-judge Bench of the SC.

In its latest letter to theCentre, the State said the con-victs had again petitioned fortheir release on the groundthat they had spent over 20years in prison. Of them, Nali-ni has filed a writ petition inthe Madras HC seeking herrelease.

We hope the State will fol-low through and releasethem, said Saravanan, coun-sel for Perarivalan. It is a wel-come decision taken by the

Tamil Nadu government.While the SC has said theycannot be released withoutthe Centres concurrence, ithas also made it clear that theStates constitutional powerswill remain untouched.

Chief Secretarysays the sevenhave served over

24 years in prison

T.N. makes another bid to freeconvicts, seeks Centres views

DENNIS S. JESUDASAN

LETTER IS A PRETENCE, SAYSNALINIS LAWYER | PAGE 12

NEW DELHI: The BCCI said in theSupreme Court that the R.M.Lodha Committees report wasfull of impractical suggestions,which might lead to furthercorruption, cripple the financesof cricket, cause inherent

conflict of interest and violatethe fundamental rightsenshrined in the Constitution.

LODHA PANEL REPORT

It will cause morecorruption: BCCI

SPORT | PAGE 17

Attacked yet again

NEW DELHI: Asking JawaharlalNehru University StudentsUnion president KanhaiyaKumar to make all effortswithin his power to control

anti-national activities onthe campus, the Delhi HighCourt on Wednesday grant-ed him interim bail for sixmonths in a sedition caseregistered against him inconnection with a contro-versial event organised inthe university recently.

While releasing him onbail on his furnishing a per-sonal bond of Rs.10,000 anda surety of like amount, theBench of Justice PratibhaRani said the student leaderwould be required to give anundertaking that he wouldnot participate actively orpassively in any activitywhich may be termed anti-national. Though the courtgave relief to Mr. Kumar,who has been behind barsfor over a fortnight oncharges of organising andtaking part in an event

against the hanging of Par-liament attack convict AfzalGuru, it observed that hehad the right to pursue his

political affiliation or ideol-ogy only within the frame-work of the Constitution.

India is a living exampleof unity in diversity. Free-dom of expression enjoyed

by every citizen can be sub-jected to reasonable restric-tions under Article 19 (2) ofthe Constitution. The feel-ings or protest reflected inthe slogans need introspec-tion by the student commu-nity, stated the 23-page or-der pronounced late onWednesday evening.

Mr. Kumar had not beenreleased from Tihar Central

Jail till late on Wednesdaynight as the legal formalitieswere yet to be completed.

JNU students celebrate the bail to JNUSU president KanhaiyaKumar, in the university campus on Wednesday. PHOTO: SANDEEP SAXENA

Kanhaiya gets 6-month interim bail

MOHAMMED IQBAL

COURT UPSET AT ANTI-NATIONAL SLOGANS | PAGE 12

HC counsels studentto curb anti-national

acts on campus

NEW DELHI: Admitting for thefirst time that the Pathan-kot terror attack has had adeep impact on the IndiaPakistan dialogue processthat was restarted in De-cember 2015, the govern-ment today said that deal-ing with the attack tookprecedence over the For-eign Secretary talks at pre-sent, even as Pakistan dis-closed Masood Azhar wasin detention.

In the aftermath of aterror attack, if you ask mewhat is the priority, dealingwith terror or diplomaticdialogue then the answer isobvious," said Foreign Sec-retary S. Jaishankar at theMinistry of External Af-fairs Raisina Dialogue inDelhi on Tuesday.

Dr. Jaishankar was refer-ring to the Pathankot at-

tack, but his words camewithin hours of the attackon the Indian mission in Ja-

lalabad as well.Dr. Jaishankars words

are significant as they ex-plain the delay in announc-ing a new date for ForeignSecretary level talks withPakistan that were due tohave been held on

January 14 in Islamabad,but were put off at the lastminute.

At the time the MEAspokesperson had said thatthe talks would be resche-duled in the very near fu-ture.

SUHASINIHAIDAR

INDIA, PAK. KEEP PARALLELPROCESSES GOING | PAGE 13

Tackling terror takespriority over dialogue

BRIEFLY

PATNA: Tension had been buildingup since morning in Begusaraidistricts Masnadpur village,JNUSU president KanhaiyaKumars home. But minutes after7 pm, that gave way tocelebration as TV channelsflashed the news of his interimbail.

Sweets were distributedfreely, villagers smeared eachother with gulal and crackerspierced the silence all around.

Far away in Delhi, the High Courthad granted bail to its bestknown son.

I am proud of him, saidKanhaiyas paralytic and bed-

ridden father Jaishankar Singh.Ever since his son was arrestedon sedition charges, his father

has been glued to the TV set,expecting such a celebratory

moment anytime.

Early Holi in Masnadpur villageAMARNATHTEWARY

Parents of Kanhaiya Kumar celebrate with well wishers atMasnadpur village in Begusarai district.PHOTO: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

JUSTICE DELIVERED PAGE 12

NEW DELHI: A 29-year-oldNoida-based fashion designerwho left for Chandni Chowk onMonday afternoon has beenmissing ever since, leading tofears that she may have beenabducted.

ANOTHER ABDUCTION?

Fashion designergoes missing

CITY PAGE 3

SEE ALSO PAGES 4 AND 5

METROPLUS 4 Pages

In the fourth such attempt since 2007, terrorists targeted the Indian Consulate inJalalabad on Wednesday, killing nine persons. All Indians i n the mission are safe.While two terrorists blew themselves up, four were killed by the police. Theformer Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai said the attack was launched fromPakistan. PHOTO: REUTERS (REPORT ON PAGE 13)


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NEW DELHI: Engendered, atrans-national arts and hu-man rights organisation thathas been organising the IView World film festival inNew York for the past sever-al years, made its debut inthe city on Wednesday. Thefestival ends on March 8.

The festival provides newways of looking at humanrights cinema through thelens of gender, marginalitiesand contemporary culture. Itwill feature films rangingfrom art house/independentto mainstream festival fa-vourites; classics to experi-mental and avant-garde, tounder-the-radar documen-taries. During the festival,over 30 innovative features,shorts and documentarieswill be screened.

Festival director and cura-tor Myna Mukherjee said:

In these times of global fer-

ment, entrenched and wid-ening disparities in free-doms, and shrinking spacesfor critical thought, I ViewWorld brings voices fromthe world of cinema, media,academia and the develop-ment sector on a commonplatform to create robustconversations using the artsto galvanise, engage, upliftand transform viewer per-ceptions around issues per-

taining to human rights and

contemporary culture.The festival began on

Wednesday with India pre-miere of Sarah Gavrons Suf-

fragette, which is based onBritains movement forwomens right to votethrough organised protest.The film stars Helena Bon-ham Carter, Meryl Streepand Carey Mulligan.

Film-makers and actorsMira Nair, Onir, Hansal Meh-

ta, Aparna Sen, Manoj Baj-

payee, Prakash Jha, LeenaYadav, Radhika A pte, Shweta

Tripathi, Monica Dogra, Ar-pita Chatterjee, TannishthaChatterjee, Srijit Mukherjee,and Rituparna Sengupta willattend various events andscreenings to introduce theirfilms, and join paneldiscussions.

Some of the films that area part of the line up includeFrench director Jacques Au-diards Dheepan. Winner ofthe Palme dOr awards at the2015 Cannes Film Festival forthe best feature film, it isbased on the story of threeSri Lankan Tamil refugees inFrance. The other Delhi pre-miere includes Pakistanifilm-maker Sarmad Khoo-sats critically-acclaimed

Manto. Besides this will be aretrospective of Mira Nairsfilms including The Reluc-tant Fundamentalist, Mon-soon Wedding, Mississippi

Masala, Namesake; and

screening of documentariesand shorts like Words with

God, Migration, 9/11, TheLaughing Club of India , In-dia Cabaret and Queen of

Katwe. A special screeningof Hansal Mehtas Aligarhwill be held at JNU.

Queer shorts and docu-mentaries from South AsianDiaspora like Rosie Habers

Relapse featuring MonicaDogra, Payal SethisLeechesand regional cinema like Sa-tarupa Sanyals Onyo Opa-laa, National Award winnerSrijit MukherjeesRajkahini,Suman Ghoshs Kadambariand Kannada film Nanu Ava-nalla Avalu will also bescreened.

The festival is being orga-nised across multiple ven-ues, including the AmericanCenter, the British Council,Alliance Franaise, St. Ste-phens College and theSchool of Arts and Aesthet-

ics in JNU.

A special screening of Hansal MehtasAligarhwill be held atJawaharlal Nehru University.

I View World film festival makes Delhi debutJAIDEEPDEOBHANJ

NEW DELHI: Charges for surfaceparking lots in areas withmulti-level facilities could behiked by the South Delhi Mu-nicipal Corporation to en-courage the use of the latter.

The SDMCs StandingCommittee decided onWednesday to explore the op-tion of increasing the rates forthe surface level parking lotsin Hauz Khas, Kalkaji andMunirka, where multi-levelfacilities are also available.

We spent crores of rupeeson constructing these multi-level parking lots. We weresupposed to pay for 50 percent of the cost, but ended upbearing the entire burden asthe Centre and Delhi govern-ment did not help, saidStanding Committee chair-person Radhey Shyam Shar-ma.

The Hauz Khas facility ishardly used and the other twolots are yet to be opened as

electrical work is still pend-ing. He said the Munirka andKalkaji facilities will be readyin 15 days. The agency thatwas running the Hauz Khasfacility quit, saying that whenpeople can park on the roadfor Rs.20, why would they en-ter the multi-level lot. Wehave to come up with a way tobest utilise our investment.

He asked officials to look atthree options: hiking therates, outsourcing operationsto a company for a charge,and tying up with localRWAs, NGOs or market asso-ciations to run the facilities.

Surface parkingrates may go up

DAMININATH

NEW DELHI: Hundreds of heri-tage buildings across the Cap-

ital are dying a slow death inthe absence of any conserva-tion measures. The Delhi gov-ernment had in July 2014 re-ceived a list of 551 buildingsand sites for bringing themunder the heritage category,but nearly two years on, thefile seems to be gatheringdust.

After a two-year survey, theIndian National Trust for Artand Cultural Heritage (IN-TACH) had come up with thefinal list of buildings in thecity which could be tagged asheritage. However, the onusfor notification of these siteslies on the Delhi government,which is yet to happen.

We have no authority tocall these sites heritage. It hasto come from the Delhi gov-ernment through a notifica-tion which will make it bind-ing on the authorities and

owners to conserve and pre-serve it. Until that happens,the structures will continueto get ruined, said A.G.K.Menon, the convener of IN-TACH (Delhi circle).

The matter has been withthe State Urban DevelopmentDepartment. When contact-ed, the Department saidwork is in progress, al-though initially it was unableto locate the file.

Most of the buildings thatare awaiting the heritage taginclude beautiful havelis,

schools, mosques and mar-kets of Old Delhi, some ofwhich date back to the Mugh-al era.

Primarily, the havelis date

back to the 19th Century orthe colonial era. Many suchhouses have fluted columnsthat accentuate the grandeurof the buildings and jharok-ha-type windows, said an-other conservationist fromthe organisation.

The reason why many ofthese buildings are fallingapart is because owners areunable to maintain them inthe original way, which re-quires considerable money.The Shahjahanabad Redevel-opment Corporation (SRDC),

under the Delhi government,is coming up with a soft loanscheme with the aim of adap-tive reuse of these buildings.However, buildings owners

interested in availing thescheme will have to be noti-fied, which means that the 551buildings that await notifica-tion are out of the race.

Explaining the scheme aSRDC official said: The heri-tage designs for conservationand preservation will be pro-vide by INTACH and finan-cial assistance will be givenby Delhi Finance Corpora-tion. There will be a subsidyon the loan.

According to Mr. Menon,INTACH had first ap-

proached the chief town plan-ners of the three municipalcorporations for the notifica-tion. But we were asked towait as they said the MCDs

would soon be unified again,he added.Several years ago, the civic

bodies had notified 195 build-ings for their conservation, af-ter which there has been nonew announcement fromthem. Some of the prominentstructures include the havelisin Chandni Chowks Maliwa-ra lane along with the famousNamak Haram ki Haveli. Oth-ers are located in areas likeDharampura, Dariba Kalan,Hauz Qazi, Khari baoli, JamaMasjid and Sitaram bazaar.

Hundreds of buildings on heritage list, Delhi govt. yet to issue notification

Apathy leaves heritage in ruinsSWETAGOSWAMI

NEW DELHI: In a move aimed atkilling two birds with onestone, the Delhi Develop-ment Authority (DDA) hasdecided to turn vacant plotsinto play fields.

This will ensure that thevacant land does not fall preyto encroachers and childrenof these neighbourhoods getspace to play.

Encroachment of primeDDA land is a major problemfor the land developmentagency, as more than 1,000acre an area big enough toaccommodate 10 JawaharlalNehru Stadiums is underencroachment at present.From fencing to creatingland protection teams, theDDA has tried different mea-sures to curb the problem,but in vain.

In order to utilise its va-cant plots, not immediatelyrequired for developmentpurposes, the DDA has intro-duced a pilot project to de-velop play fields for residen-tial neighbourhoods of the

area on these vacant lands, aDDA spokesperson said.

The agency has identified15 vacant plots at presentsthat are being levelled and

cleared, and will soon boastof sports infrastructure likefootball goal posts, volleyballpoles, etc., apart from sportsequipment for football, crick-et and volleyball. The DDAsaid these sports facilities

will be provided to the chil-dren free of cost.

Four play fields have al-ready been started at Neb Sa-rai, Maidan Garhi, Paschim

Vihar and Dwarka. Anotherfive such playfields are in eastDelhi at Ghazipur village, aplot for Mayur Vihar districtcentre and two sites at ShastriPark, the spokesperson said.

More sites are likely to be

identified so that vacant sitesare utilised fruitfully, shesaid.

The basic objective of thescheme is that the children ofthese residential neighbour-hoods will get opportunity toplay sports and vacant plotswill not have wild vegetationor will not be used for dump-ing of malba, defecation, etc.These plots will also not beprone to encroachment, sheadded. Levelled, cleared anddeveloped play fields bringabout cleanliness in the area,thereby improving the quali-ty of life of the people of theareas and can be used by resi-dents of the neighbourhoodsfor recreation. Since childrenand people of the neighbour-hood are stakeholders in thisproject, there is lesser chanceof unauthorised encroach-ment of these public lands.

Residents of these neigh-bourhoods, in their own in-terest, will immediatelybring it to the notice of theDDA and the local police,thereby protecting publicland.

Move aimed at keeping encroachers away from unused plots, make space for kids to play

Once the scheme is implemented, children in residentialneighbourhoods will have ample playing space and the plotswill be free of wild vegetation, encroachers, debris and waste.FILE PHOTO

Vacant DDA plots to beconverted into play grounds

STAFFREPORTER

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Develop-ment Authority (DDA) onWednesday argued thatthere is no violation of anyjudgment or order while grat-ing permission to the Art ofLiving mega event World Cul-ture Festival on the banks ofthe Yamuna from March 11 to13, before the National GreenTribunal.

The NGT is hearing a pet-ition filed by environmental-ist Manoj Misra of Yamuna Ji-ye Abhiyan against allowingthe event which he claims willcause irreversible damage tothe fragile and alreadystrained ecology of the riverand its flood plains.

The green tribunal is ex-pected to deliver its verdicton Thursday and this report-edly is the only case lined upfor hearing before the specialbench. Calling the granting ofpermission for the event ille-gal, Sanjay Parikh, counsel

for the petitioners, told NGTthe DDA should also be finedin the case. The DDA is beingrepresented by counsel Ra-jeev Bansal.

For the event, five pontoonbridges are being construct-ed across the river, a seven

acre stage has been preparedon a 1,000 acre plot and willfeature 35,973 performersfrom 24 countries.

Earlier, inspections car-ried out by IIT-Delhi profes-sor A.K. Gosain maintainedthat in preparation for the

event the site has been clear-ed of all natural vegetationand raised with the help ofmechanical excavators. Thetribunal had subsequently, onFebruary 19, ordered a thirdinspection by a committeecomprising Gosain, Brij Go-pal, C.R. Prabhu and the sec-retary of the ministry of wa-ter resources, ShashiShekhar.

This noted that small waterbodies that existed earlierhave been filled up, all natu-ral vegetation removed, andmost of trees had beenlopped or removed, the com-mittee said that the prepara-tions for the event have had asevere environmental im-pact. It had, therefore, recom-mended the imposition of aRs 120 crore fine on the Art ofLiving Foundation, notedenvironmentalist Manoj Mis-hra while speaking to The

Hindu on Wednesday.Meanwhile the Art of Liv-

ing Foundation maintainedthat there is no violation.

Preparations in full swing on the banks of the Yamuna for Artof Livings World Culture Festival. To be held between March 11and 13, the stage and seating for the audience will cover nearly1,000 acre. P HOTO: SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA

No violation in granting permit: DDABINDU SHAJAN PERAPPADAN

NEW DELHI: This November, theCapital will host the DelhiFestival, on the lines of simi-

lar international festivals heldin Dubai and Singapore.

Delhi Tourism MinisterKapil Mishra said on Wednes-day that the mega interna-tional festival will showcaseDelhis culture and heritage,apart from providing a worldclass shopping experience totourists.

We are in touch with ma-jor agencies that have beendoing such festivals in otherparts of the world, Mr. Mis-hra said, while speaking at theannual conference of theConfederation of Indian In-dustry on Thursday.

Mr. Mishra also said theDelhi government will startan aggressive initiative fromAugust on creating BrandDelhi, which will include ap-

pointing a brand ambassador,launching a television cam-paign, coming up with a punchline, etc. He said the campaignwill find a mention in the up-coming Delhi Budget.

He also announced that theDelhi government is going tocome up with two exclusivevenues for organising culturalevents in the city.

I saw Zubin Mehta per-forming at the JawaharlalNehru stadium and it didntlook good. We should have ex-clusive venues for suchevents, he said.

He also mentioned that the

cost of creating two venueswill be taken care of in theBudget. Delhi has everythingthat makes it a world classtourist destination, its not

about making it a world classcity but managing it, publicis-ing it. It is about letting peopleknow and providing them aworld class experience whenthey are here.

People are going to Jaipurand Agra because they dontknow what all is happeninghere. It is good going to a mon-ument but then what? That iswhy we are planning moreevents, he said.

He also said that the Delhigovernment is going to ratio-nalise the luxury tax in the up-coming budget to address theconcerns of the industry.

Delhi Festival to showcase heritageSTAFFREPORTER

NEW DELHI: Delhi has had adry run for over fivemonths now, but there is

some good news in store.The weatherman has fore-cast rainfall this week.

The prolonged waitingperiod of rain may just getover in view of an activenew western disturbancedue to affect northwestplain during March 4-7,which most likely to bringsome measurable rainfallin mm/cm in parts of Delhias the ost of model fore-cast indicates, R.K. Jena-mani, Director-in-Charge,IGI Airport Meteorologi-cal Department unit said.

Rain forecastSTAFFREPORTER


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| 3THE HINDU THURSDAY, MARCH 3, 2016NOIDA/DELHI

CITY

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NEW DELHI: Suspecting his wifeof infidelity, a man stabbed hiswife before hanging himselffrom a ceiling fan.

The woman has sustainedseveral stab injuries on herneck, chest and abdomen, buthas managed to give her state-ment to the police. Barringone deep stab wound, her oth-er injuries are mostly superfi-cial, said a senior police offi-cer. The couple HanumanGupta (48), and Rekha (40),lived with their four childrenin Bindapur. Hanuman earnedhis living by painting build-ings. The couple had an ar-ranged marriage 26 years ago.

Rekha, however, said sheand her husband did not sharea cordial relation ever since

their marriage. They foughtfrequently because he wouldallegedly suspect her of infi-

delity and threaten to kill her,she told the police.

One such quarrel took anugly turn around 2 a.m. onWednesday as Hanuman,armed with a knife, allegedlybarged into her room andstarted stabbing her, scream-ing all the while that he wasgoing to kill her.

Hearing Rekhas cries forhelp her children tried to pre-vent the assault. Neighbours,too, arrived and she wasrushed to Deen Dayal Upad-hyay Hospital, said theofficer.

A police team quickly ar-rived at the hospital and foundout that the assailant could benabbed at home. But, whenthe police reached Hanumanshome, it was locked from in-side. The police broke open

the door to find Hanumanhanging from the ceiling fan,the officer said.

Man stabs wife before

hanging himselfSTAFFREPORTERNEW DELHI: Two young menon a scooty were moweddown by an allegedlyspeeding truck in South-West Delhis Dabri areaduring the early hours ofWednesday. A police teamchased the truck and inter-cepted it a little away fromthe spot. The driver was ar-rested from the spot.

The victims have beenidentified as Sonu, 19, andhis 18-year-old friend An-kush. Both were college stu-dents and worked part-timeas DJs. The police said thata PCR van and a CATS am-bulance arrived at the spotwithin 10 minutes. But, theCATS ambulance staffchecked the victims pulseand declared them dead.

The police then shifted thedeceased to the hospital,said a senior police officer.

Two killed by

speeding truckSTAFFREPORTER

NEW DELHI: A 29-year-old Noi-da-based fashion designerwho left for Delhis ChandniChowk on Monday afternoonhas been missing ever since,

leading to fears that she mayhave been kidnapped.

What gives some sort ofweight to these fears is that thelast number the woman hadcalled from her mobile phonewas 100, the police controlroom number.

The call lasted a few sec-onds during which the womandid not say anything. The mo-bile phones location aroundthe time of that police call wasshown to be in Lajpat Nagar inSouth Delhi.

This incident comes withinweeks of a similar incident inGhaziabad where a youngSnapdeal employee was alleg-edly kidnapped by a group ofmen while returning fromwork. The Noida Police haveregistered a kidnapping caseand are probing the matter.Not much progress had beenmade at the time of filing this

report. The missing womans

name is Shipra Kataria Malikwho lives in Noidas sector 37and until sometime ago wasrunning a boutique by thename Shipra Creations inSector 29.

Her husband Chetan Maliktoo was in the real estate busi-ness for quite sometime, saidthe police. She would often

make trips to Chandni Chowk

to buy fabric and other rawmaterials. On Monday, she leftaround 1 p.m. for ChandniChowk, said the womans fa-ther-in-law Virendra Malik.

Shipras husband found hermobile phone switched off

around two hours later. TheMaruti Swift car she had left inwas soon found on the road-side in Sector 29, around akilometre from her house. Thedoors were allegedly foundopen and car keys were foundinside. The womans mobilephone and purse weremissing.

It is unlikely that the wom-an would have been forciblykidnapped from the spot hercar was found. It is a busy roadand such an incident wouldnot be missed by motoristspassing by, said Dinesh Yadav,SP (Noida City).

The victim does not comeacross as a submissive womanwho could have been forciblykidnapped on a busy road. Thepersons involved in her disap-pearance are most likelyknown to her, said Mr. Yadav.The Noida Police are working

in coordination with their

counterparts in Delhi to tracethe woman.

On Wednesday, as familyand friends gathered at Ship-ras house, there was still notrace of her. Overwhelmed bythe crowd and missing his

mother, Shipras one-and-a-half-year-old son Sarvam re-mained restless. We cantthink of anyone who wouldhave had a problem with heror us, her husband Chetansaid. His fatheradded that thefamily had occasional tiffs, likeany family does. But, it wouldlast an hour and then every-thing was back to normal. Shewas happy, he said.

Shipra had moved to Noidafrom Central Delhis Patel Na-gar after marrying Chetan fouryears ago. After studying fash-ion designing at Pearl Acade-my, she had worked at a gar-ment house before starting herown business.

She was in the process ofshifting her boutique to GangaShopping Complex that wascloser to her home. Until thenew shop was ready, she wasrunning a small tailoring unit

from her residence.

Her car was found in Noidas Sector 29, with doors open and car keys inside; mobile, purse missing

Fashion designer goes missing;last call to police helpline 100

DAMININATH& SHIVSUNNY

The womans nameis Shipra KatariaMalik. The Policehave registered akidnapping case

NEW DELHI: Two juveniles kid-napped a nine-year-old boy forransom and murdered him inSouth-West Delhis Dwarka,the police said on Wednesday.

The suspects, aged between16 and 18, were apprehendedseparately after police round-ed up and questioned dozensof suspects in a bid to save thevictim. However, police couldrecover only the boys bodyfrom an abandoned flat, notvery far from his house inDwarkas Pochanpur villageon Tuesday afternoon, a dayafter he went missing. The as-sailants had allegedly re-strained the strongly-builtboy with ropes before using ashaving blade to slit his throat.

The victim has been identi-fied as Lalit Sehrawat, a classIII student of a private schoolin Dwarka. He lived with hisparents and elder sister. His fa-ther operates school vanswhile his mother runs a gar-ments shop in the village.

My son liked to attend so-cial gatherings and would in-teract with everyone aroundhim. He played with boysmuch older to him, said Lalitsfather Pradeep. A senior policeofficer quoted villagers as say-ing that the boy was way toointelligent for his age.

Lalit had dressed up and lefthis home for his grandfathersshop nearby around 5 p.m. onMonday. From there he hadcalled one of the suspects onhis mobile phone before walk-ing out. He had been lured onthe pretext of attending a par-ty, said the officer.

It was only a few hours laterthat his family realised he wasmissing. Following a briefsearch in the locality, they ap-proached the police which reg-istered a missing complaintand started a probe.

The first clue came from La-lits 12-year-old sister who toldthe police she had last seenhim with a local boy who is al-legedly notorious in the villagefor petty thefts. The primary

suspect, found among the lo-cals searching for the victim,was immediately apprehend-ed along with some other sus-pects. But the juvenile sus-pect misled us. In one of theseveral stories he cooked up,he claimed that some men in aRitz car, hailing from Gurgaon,had kidnapped the boy walk-ing with him. He even men-tioned the names of some per-sons who may have beeninvolved in the abduction,said a senior investigator. Thepolice conducted raids in Gur-gaon and West Delhis RajouriGarden and detained aroundhalf-a-dozen persons based onthe juveniles claims. Theywere all found innocent duringthe probe, said the officer.

In an indication that he wasprepared for interrogation bythe police, he allegedly pro-duced recording of the tele-phone conversation between

Lalit and him to claim that hewas only taking the boy out fora party. But, he broke down un-der sustained interrogationand on Tuesday evening he ledus to the spot where he hadkilled Lalit. In the subsequentinterrogation, he revealed thename of his accomplice whoturned out to be his distantcousin. The second suspectwas nabbed from Jind in Ha-ryana, said the officer.

The interrogation of the twosuspects has revealed that theywere looking for quick moneyfor which they planned to kid-nap Lalit for ransom.

As is the case in most kid-napping incidents involvingabductors known to the vic-tim, the juveniles killed Lalitwithin hours of abducting him.They had plans to make ran-som calls a few days later whenthey expected things to settledown, said the officer.

Since Lalit was well-built forhis age, the kidnappersthought that he may be able toput up a fight and escape, thusprompting them to kill him inno time, the officer said basedon the suspects interrogation.

The father of Lalit Sehrawat (inset) who was kidnapped forransom and killed. PHOTO: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Juveniles kidnap 9-year-oldboy, kill him; two held

SHIVSUNNY

The interrogationof the suspectsreveals that theywere looking forquick money

Paintings: Silence of the Heav-ens - a solo show of paintings byMamoon Nomani at Gallery 3, LalitKala Akademi, 11 am-7 pm

Paintings: Adamyavyom - soloshow of paintings by Kanishk Shar-ma at Triveni Gallery, Triveni KalaSangam, 205, 11 am-7 pm

Exhibition: Paintings exhibitionby Dr. Iris Odyuo from Nagaland atAnnexe Art Gallery, IIC, 11 am-7 pm

Exhibition:11th All India Photo Ex-hibition 2016 at All India Fine Arts &Craft Society, 11 am-7 pm

Music: Indo German Jugalbandiof Pt. Salil Bhatt (Satvik Veena) andMathias Muller from Germany (Gui-tar) at Vasuki Auditorium, Lok KalaManch, 20, Lodhi Institutional Area,Lodhi Road, 6:30 pm

Film Festival: 12th IAWRT AsianWomens Film Festival Screeningof much acclaimed films at AnnexeBuilding, India International Centre(IIC), 10 am- 5:30 pm

Screening: Don Pasquale - Ital-ian film screening with English sub-titles at Habitat World, IHC, 7 pm

Screening: Le Salaire de la peur- French film screening at M.L.Bhartia Auditorium, Alliance Fran-caise De Delhi, 72, Lodhi Estate,6:30 pm

Screening: Night Train to theStars - Japanese film with Englishsubtitles screening at The JapanFoundation, 5A Ring Road, LajpatNagar IV, 6:30 pm

(Mail your listings for this columnat [email protected])

DELHI TODAY


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Members of JNUSU take out a victory march f rom Sabarmati Dhaba to Administration Block on the JNU campus; support poured in from all corners for Kanhaiya Kumar on Wednesday.PHOTOS: SANDEEP SAXENA, AFP

ealing with the anti-nationalviews among students whoraised slogans on the death anni-versary of Afzal Guru, the DelhiHigh Court was on Wednesdayinspired by a popular song,Mere Desh Ki Dharti Sona Ug-le... from the 1967 Hindi film'Upkaar', to make some patrioticremarks while granting bail to

JNU student leaderKanhaiya Kumar.

In her detailed or-der, Justice PratibhaRani found the songfrom Manoj Kumarstarrer 'Upkar' assymbolising the in-dividual character-istics of Hari SinghNalva, Lal Bahadur

Shastri, Bhagat Singh and Jawa-harlal Nehru represented by dif-ferent colours and love formotherland.

After citing the lyrics at thebeginning of the order, the Judgewent on in her 23-page verdict totell the JNU faculty to find thereason for the students raisingslogans against the hanging ofParliament attack convict Afzal

Guru and take remedial steps toensure that such an event is notorganised again on the varsitycampus.

While noting that the investi-gation in the case was at a nas-cent stage, the court saidthoughts reflected in the sloganscould not be claimed to be pro-tected as the right to freedom ofspeech and expression. I con-sider this as a kind of infectionwhich needs to be controlled orcured before it becomes anepidemic.

Whenever some infection isspread in a limb, effort is made to

cure it by giving antibiotics oral-ly and if that does not work, byfollowing second line of treat-ment...However, if the infectionresults in infecting the limb tothe extent that it becomes gan-grene, amputation is the onlytreatment, observed the court.

The Judge said she was in-

clined to provide conservativemethod of treatment to Kumar,who might have introspectedabout the JNU events during theperiod spent in judicial custody.

Taking into consideration thefacts and circumstances, I am in-clined to release the petitioneron interim bail.

The order carried copies ofphotographs of JNU studentstaking part in the controversialevent of February 9 as well asthat of a poster inviting the stu-dents at the cultural evening atSabarmati Dhaba, where thehanging of Afzal Guru and Maq-

bool Bhat and Kashmiri people'sright to self-determination wasto be discussed.

The court reminded the JNUfaculty of their role in guidingthe students to the right path toenable them to contribute to thegrowth of the nation and achievethe vision for which the univer-sity was established.

It also said Kumar belonged toan intellectual class pursuingPh.D. from International Schoolof Studies in JNU, while affirm-ing that the students should in-trospect on the kind of slogansraised by them.

Court draws patriotic inspiration from Upkar songJudge begins order with Mere Desh Ki Dharti Sona Ugle, comes down hard on Kumar, says slogans raised are start of an infection that must be cured

MOHAMMED IQBAL

KANHAIYAGETS RELIEF

Fight goes onThe court remindedthe JNU facultyof their role inguiding the studentsto the right path

NEW DELHI: Holi has come earlyfor the students of JawaharlalNehru University (JNU) withstudents union president Kan-haiya Kumar being granted in-terim bail by the Delhi HighCourt on Wednesday.

His friends in the universityare all set to welcome him withsweets and holi colours.

As soon as the news aboutMr. Kumars bail broke, a largenumber of students, who wereat Parliament Street for amarch, started hugging and

congratulating each other. Slo-gans like Jail ka tala toota hai,comrade kanhaiya chhoota hai(doors of jail have broken, Kan-haiya has been released) filledthe air.

The celebrations later con-tinued in the university campuswhere students sang, dancedand raised slogans.

While the larger mood wasthat of happiness, the studentsalso did not miss a chance toregister their opinion againstformer Police CommissionerB.S. Bassi and HRD MinisterSmriti Irani and raised slogansagainst them.

Cheering for Mr. Kumar, thestudents repeatedly shoutedhathi ghoda palki jai kanhaiyalal ki as they marched from Sa-barmati Hostel to the adminis-tration block inside the campus.

Mushtaq Anjum, fromSchool of Language, said: "I am

very happy that Kanhaiya hadbeen granted bail, this definite-ly calls for a celebration. How-

ever I am not happy with thecourt orders language.

Rama Naga, general secreta-ry of JNUSU, said: We wel-come the news we will takeout another march again whenMr. Kumar is released.

Kanhaiya's hostel-matescheered the loudest as theyjoined the rest of their universi-ty mates in celebrating Kanhai-ya's release.

We will distribute sweets inthe hostel tomorrow. Holi hascome early for all of us. We will

celebrate Kanhaiya's home-coming with abir and gulal,said Kanhaiya's hostel-mate, aresearch scholar at theuniversity.

Kanhaiya will be back to thecampus on Thursday. Studentshave planned another march inthe campus with him. Theyplan to continue their protest inthe coming days.

We are waiting for Kanhaiyato come back to the campus sothat we can decide the futurecourse of action for demandingthe release of Anirban andUmar, said Shehla Rashid,JNUSU vice-president.

While Mr. Kumar has beengranted bail, Anirban Bhatta-

charya and Umar Khalid arestill in judicial custody in con-nection with the sedition case.

A heros welcome awaits KumarKRITIKASHARMASEBASTIAN

Students haveplanned a march onthe campus onceKanhaiya Kumararrives at the varsity

JNU students celebrate at Jantar Mantar after Kanhaiya Kumar wasgranted bail on Wednesday. PHOTO: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR

Students lift up Rama Naga, one of the students charged with sedition, during celebrations on the JNUcampus on Wednesday. PHOTO: SANDEEP SAXENA

NEW DELHI: Manikant, the elder brother ofJNU students union president Kanhai-ya Kumar, hailed the courts decision asa triumph for truth and justice but add-ed that only a clean chit would be a de-cisive victory for the family.

"I had complete faith in the judiciaryand was sure that relief would be grant-ed to my brother against whom the po-lice don't have any evidence. I am surehe will come out clean," said Manikantwho has been camping at Ajoy Bhawan,the ITO-based headquarters of Com-munist Party of India since February.

It was this unshakeable belief whichmade him stay even as other family

members returned to Begusarai. Butthis hope that Mr. Kumar would begranted bail had dwindled a bit whenthe High Court Bench reserved its or-der two days ago.

His mother and others returned be-cause the wait turned longer but Mani-kant and his uncle, a CPI activist, decid-

ed to stay put till the time his youngerbrother was out of jail.

"Livelihood concerns forced a dilem-ma where I had to rejoin work butdidn't want to leave Delhi before meet-

ing Kanhaiya. Now that wish at leasthas come true," said Manikant, after thebail was granted.

His job, he explained, was extremelyimportant to support the family whichhas lost one brother Kanhaiya topublic service, he said smiling.

Only a clean chit willbe a victory for usSHUBHOMOYSIKDAR

I had complete faith in thejudiciary I am surehe (Kanhaiya) willcome out clean

Manikant,Kanhaiya Kumarselder brother

D

NEW DELHI: The courts shouldnot be swayed by the mobhysteria while dealing withthe sensitive cases of sedition,as the charges in such mattersare often slapped in a premed-itated manner, said SupremeCourt lawyer and humanrights activist Vrinda Grover,She was reacting to Wednes-days order of the Delhi HighCourt granting bail to studentleader Kanhaiya Kumar.

Ms. Grover, who represent-ed Mr. Kumar in his bail pet-ition, told The Hindu that allthe facts about the JNU stu-dents organising the February9 event were in the public do-main and the court had rightlyreached the conclusion in fa-vour of granting bail to thestudent leader. .

However, we feel that thiswhole episode of electronicmedia first highlighting theuniversity event, followed bythe police crackdown, waspre-planned, said Ms. Grov-er, adding that the entire se-quence of events would be re-vealed if the investigation wasfree and fair.

Asked if a petition could beseparately filed seeking ex-punging of some of the re-marks made in the HighCourts order, Ms. Grover saidthe defence lawyers teamwould wait for completion ofinvestigation which itselfwould reveal the truth.

The Delhi governmentsstanding counsel Rahul Meh-ra, who argued in the court infavour of granting bail to Mr.Kumar, said justice had beendelivered, as it was a fit casefor releasing the student lead-er on bail.

The bail should not havebeen opposed. I am happythat truth has prevailed, saidMr. Mehra, reacting to thecourt verdict.

Courts should not beswayed by mob hysteriaMOHAMMED IQBAL

NEW DELHI: A large number of law-yers, scholars and students are nowdemanding that the Centre scrapthe colonial era law of sedition. Thedemand comes at the backdrop ofthe controversy surrounding the Ja-waharlal Nehru University where asix students were charged with se-dition for allegedly raising anti-na-tional slogans at a pro-Afzal Guru

event organised in the campus.Describing the current situation

prevailing in the country, Justice

Jaspal Singh, one of the speakers atthe public meeting held at GandhiPeace Foundation, expressed thatSection 124 (A) of the Indian PenalCode has almost turned nauseat-ing for him and many others in thecountry. Speaking about JNU stu-dents union president who wasgranted bail on Wednesday, he said,We must thank Kanhaiya for nowwe know what sedition is. Kanhaiyais a challenge to the establishment,

he is a movement.JNU Professor it the School of In-

ternational Relations, Nivedita Me-

non highlighted how governmentpolicies have been formulated forthe systemic exploitation of naturalresources. It is when people or dif-ferent classes oppose these policiesthat the sedition law is used to sup-press dissent, she said.

Ms. Menon further insisted that itis the first time in the history of thecountry that a Left-AmbedkariteFeminist Solidarity movement hasemerged the credit of which she

attributed to the students.Dhonta Prashanth, a friend of

Hyderabad Central University

scholar Rohith Vemula, narratedtheir ordeal for merely objectingthe ban on screening of a movie inDelhi university. We had a toughtime confronting the students fromABVP. They got us expelled fromthe university just because we hadcomplained and one of them had togive us a written apology. All thefive of us, including Rohith, whowere expelled come from very poorfamilies in villages. A point came

when we were fearful of explicitlyrevealing are leaning towards Am-bedkars principles, he said.

Demand rises to scrap colonial-era sedition lawSWETAGOSWAMI

The other fight

Rohith Vemulas mother Radhika cries at a YouthCongress protest against HRD Minister Smriti Irani, atJantar Mantar on Wednesday. PHOTO: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR

Whole episode ofmedia highlightingthe university event,followed by policecrackdownwas pre-planned

Vrinda Grover,SC lawyer

The bail should nothave been opposed.I am happy thattruth hasprevailed

Rahul Mehra,Delhi govtsstanding counsel

NEW DELHI: JNUSU presidentKanhaiya Kumar will be released, atleast for the next six months, onThursday, but will he be able towalk out like a free citizen?

The question remainsunanswered as the Delhi Policehave not taken a call on whether toprovide security cover to Kumaronce he is out of jail.

Given the threat that Kumarfaces, he has been kept under heavysecurity.

His release will mean that he willno longer have the security cover.

The Hindu spoke to officers of theSouth district the Special Cell,

which is probing the case now, andthe Security Unit. While the firsttwo said they had not seen the courtorder and whether it mentionedthat the Delhi Police will have toprovide security to Kumar evenafter bail, the security wing said itsmandate was VIP security for longterm and no order for short-termsecurity was issued by higher ups.

During a hearing on his bail pleaearlier this week, the Delhi HighCourt had directed the police toensure no one suffers even ascratch while Kumar is producedin court.

Kanhaiyas lawyer Vrinda Groversaid he would be out by Thursdayevening.

Kanhaiyas security remains a concern

STAFFREPORTER


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he magisterial probe institutedby the Delhi government intothe JNU incident has foundnothing against Kanhaiya Ku-mar, Umar Khalid and AnirbanBhattarcharya, who were arrest-ed on sedition charges. Interest-

ingly, the probe has also appre-ciated the Delhi Police and thevarsity for doing a commend-able job in handling the Febru-ary 9 event.

The probe report, prepared byDistrict Magistrate Sanjay Ku-mar and submitted to DeputyChief Minister Manish Sisodiaon Wednesday evening, says thatanti-India slogans were raisedby eight other students whohave been identified by the uni-

versitys internalprobe.

They have beenidentified by thecommittee ap-pointed by the uni-versity and posterswith their photo-graphs are pastedall over the campus.It is up to the JNU

authorities to take action againstthese eight. But no evidence has

been found against the three stu-dents who were arrested by thepolice and the other three stu-dents facing sedition charges, asource in the Delhi governmentsaid.

Praising the police, the inqui-ry report states that no untowardincident took place on the eve-ning of February 9, when the stu-dents had gathered to observethe death anniversary of Parlia-ment attack convict Afzal Guru,and the police handled the situa-tion rather deftly.

The atmosphere wascharged, but no untoward inci-dent or clashes among groupshappened. The police was atguard and ensured law and order

was maintained, the reportmentions.

The Delhi government had or-dered the magisterial probe onFebruary 13 to look (only) intothe February 9 event.

According to the findings,similar events were organisedon the same date in 2014 and 2015inside the university campus.

When Anirban Bhattar-charya organised a talk on AfzalGurus hanging on February 11,2015, at Tapti Hostel mess hall af-ter the dinner time, despite can-cellation of permission, he wasfined Rs. 5,000 for his conductand was shifted to a differenthostel, a source said.

The only difference this year

was the presence of Zee Newsand ANI. The university log-book shows that both ANI andZee News reporters at 4:48 p.m.and 5:20 p.m. respectively gainedaccess to the varsity campus forthe purpose of meeting JNUjoint secretary Saurabh Sharmaof Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Par-ishad, said sources.

DMs probe praises cops; finds nothing against studentsInquiry ordered by AAP govt. says eight other students were raising anti-national slogans; police ensured no untoward incident happened on Feb. 9

MARIAAKRAM

KEEPINGTRACK

JNU case

T KRITIKASHARMASEBASTIANSTUDENTS STAND WITH JAILED PROFESSOR GEELANI

A march for Kanhaiya, Umar, Anirban

The protesters were joined by professors and students of DelhiUniversity, Jamia Milia Islamia, Hyderabad University and the FTII.PHOTO: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR

NEW DELHI: In yet another show of

solidarity with the JNU studentsjailed in connection with a sedi-tion case, students and academi-cians marched from MandiHouse to Parliament Street onWednesday. The protesters alsodisplayed solidarity towards for-mer Delhi University professorSAR Geelani who is also in judi-cial custody in connection with asedition case.

Slogans like Kanhaiya ko ri-ha karo (free Kanhiaya), Umaraur Anirban ko riha karo (freeUmar and Anirban) Rohith koinsaf do (justice for Rohith) re-verberated in the heart of theCapital, close to the Ministry ofHRD and Parliament a few hoursbefore JNUSU president Kanhai-ya Kumar was granted interimbail by the Delhi High Court.Though the students were stop-ped before they could reach Par-liament, they made sure theirvoices were heard.

The march, which continuedtill late in the evening, also sawJNUSU general secretary RamaNaga and former vice-presidentAnant Prakash who re-sur-faced on the campus after goinginto hiding following Kumars ar-rest addressing the gathering.

The protesters were joined byprofessors and students of DelhiUniversity, Jamia Milia Islamia,Hyderabad University and theFTII. The students, who havebeen fighting for justice for Dalitscholar Rohith Vemula, also de-manded the enactment of theRohith Act in all central univer-sities. Another demand raisedwas the scrapping of the seditionlaw from the IPC.

Carrying banners that readFree Kanhaiya, free Umar, freeAnirban, free all political prison-ers, Justice for Rohith, Scrapsedition charges against JNU stu-dents and others, a large numberhad turned out for the march.

Addressing the gathering, Ra-ma Naga said: Nationalism isdeeply embedded in us. We rejectthe nationalism that BJP and RSSare forcing upon us. They arrest-ed Kanhaiya and then locked uptwo more students calling themanti-national, but the Delhi policefailed to prove anything againstthem and sent the case to anti-ter-ror cell. These are mere tacticswhich will not bend our morale.

Sucheta De, another protestersaid: HRD Minister Smriti Iranisaddress in Parliament was full ofironies. She quoted a report of the

JNU inquiry committee sayingthat they had suspended the eightstudents based on facts. Thatcommittee is a sham. It was

formed in 24 hours, after which itordered rustication of the eightstudents without listening to us.It is a panel with members whoare anti-reservation.

A high-level inquiry commit-tee constituted by the JNU ad-

ministration had debarred eightstudents including Kanhaiya Ku-mar, Anirban Bhattacharya andUmar Khalid for their allegedrole in the February 9 incident.

Students also levelled allega-tions against JNU Registrar Bhu-pinder Zutshi.

A RSS sympathiser, Bhupin-der Zutshi is the one who allowedthe Delhi Police on the campus.He is hand-in-gloves with thegovernment. In an emergencymeeting, his time to officiate atthe position was expanded onpurpose. We have news that thegovernment is planning to ele-vate him as the V-C of the Megha-laya University, Rama added.

NEW DELHI: Deputy Chief Min-ister Manish Sisodia onWednesday said incidentslike the Jat agitation and theJawaharlal Nehru Universi-ty controversy were an at-tempt to take the countryback by a century.

Speaking at the annualconference of the Confeder-ation of Indian Industries(CII), Mr. Sisodia said thatIndia cannot afford suchmishaps.

The Deputy CM urgedthe industry to considerthese issues while thinkingabout the countrys growthand progress.

We are fighting in thename of reservation and the

JNU row. This is all regres-sive and will take the coun-try backward by 100 years.Industry must keep inci-

dents like the Haryana vio-lence in mind when theytalk about the countrys pro-gress. Can the country, theindustry afford such inci-dents? We have to be con-cerned about that too. Theonly solution is to inculcatedreams in our next genera-tion so that unscrupulouselements are unable to takeadvantage, Mr Sisodia said.

He also stressed on theneed to focus on skill devel-opment to ensure employ-ment to students. The Aam

Aadmi Party is planning to

launch 200 skill develop-ment centres in the comingmonths, he added.

Also, present there was

former Chief Minister Shei-la Dikshit, who emphasisedon making Delhi more liva-ble and using the premium

space judiciously.Planning has to be done

very carefully. Projectsshould be taken up keeping

in mind the demands andneeds of people. During theCongress rule, we opened askill training school in east

Delhi taking technical ex-pertise and assistance fromSingapore, Ms. Dikshitsaid.

Cant afford incidents like Jat stir, JNU row

At CII meet, Manish Sisodia calls thecontroversies an attempt to take thecountry back by a century

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia speaks at the annual CIIconference on Wednesday. PHOTO: SHANKER CHAKRAVARTY

INDUSTRY

NEW DELHI: The Delhi HighCourt on Wednesdaytransferred to itself from aDelhi court four revisionpetitions filed by realestate barons Sushil Ansaland Gopal Ansal and twoothers against the framingof charges against them inan evidence tamperingcase related to the Uphaarfire tragedy of 1997.

The revision petitionersare facing prosecution inthe case.

Transferring thepetitions to the HighCourt, Justice SiddharthMridul said the plea wouldbe heard on a day-to-daybasis from March 31.

The Delhi Police had

sought the transfer of therevision petitions.

The counsel for the

accused agreed to thislater.

The counsel for thepolice also informed theCourt that they wereunconditionallywithdrawing allallegations made againstthe Additional SessionsJudge, before whom therevision petitions werepending.

Justice Mridul laterexpunged the pleadings ofthe police.

The present transfer iswarranted in order toprotect and uphold thedignity and majesty of thejudicial system and toensure the faith of thecitizens in courts of law,Justice Mridul said in hisorder.

Ansal brothers plea moved to HCNIRNIMESHKUMAR

The two face charges in anevidence tampering caserelated to the Uphaar firetragedy of 1997. FILE PHOTO

NEW DELHI: The DelhiHigh Court onWednesday asked ChiefMinister ArvindKejriwal and suspendedBJP MP Kirti Azad tofile written statementsin a civil defamation suitfiled against them by theDelhi and DistrictAssociation (DDCA)seeking damages of Rs. 5crore.

The DDCA hadalleged that the ChiefMinister and the MPmade defamatoryremarks about itsfunctioning andfinances. Joint RegistrarAnil Kumar Sisodiadirected Mr. Kejriwaland Mr. Azad to submittheir statements within30 days after they failedto file it on Wednesdayon the ground that theyhad not received a fullcopy of the suit.

The DDCA hasalleged that Mr. Kejriwalwith a prior motiveindulged in certainfalse, shocking,scandalous, defamatory,baseless, slanderous,malicious, disgracefuland outrageousstatements against it.Mr. Azad also madestatements solely withan agenda to defameand cause harm to theDDCA for self-serving

and motivated reasons,the suit said.

Kejriwal,

Azad to filestatements

in 30 days

NIRNIMESHKUMAR

NEW DELHI: In yet another roundof confrontation, the Delhigovernment has claimed thatLieutenant-Governor Najeeb

Jung refused to clear a propos-al to build dedicated bus lanesalong the citys arterial roads,and imposition of a Rs. 2,000fine to those obstructing thepassage of buses. The L-G,however, has refuted theseclaims.

In an official statement, theDelhi government said thatthe L-G had declined approvalto the proposal seeking en-

forcement of bus lanes andlane driving, calling it ambig-uous. Following the demand

of the traffic police and consis-tent orders of the SupremeCourt over the years, the Delhigovernment had prepared thisproposal and sent it to the L-G.But he has declined it, thestatement read.

However, the L-Gs officerubbished the claims sayingthat they have asked the Delhigovernment to resubmit theproposal ensuring full compli-ance of the Supreme Court or-der. The file is still under re-view. There are ambiguousremarks on the file as the opin-ion of the Public Works De-partment (PWD). The govern-

ment has also not sought theLaw Departments view, saidsources in the L-G office.

Govt, L-G at loggerheads againSTAFFREPORTER

NEW DELHI: A 68-year-old man with a mas-sive groin hernia, among the largest thathave been reported at All India Instituteof Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here, wassuccessfully operated upon recently us-ing laprascopic repair, said hospital au-thorities on Wednesday.

AIIMS director M.C Misra said thesurgery was unique as the hernia wasbig. Also, the patient had undergone sur-gery for another hernia on the right side10 years ago. However, this time it wasmuch bigger, the doctor said.

According to the surgeon, parts of thepatients small and large intestines pro-truded through the weak area of his low-er abdominal wall, producing a bulge.

The patient, hailing from Saharanpur inUttar Pradesh, was a heavy smoker too,which added to the complications.

Hernia removedBINDU SHAJAN PERAPPADAN


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STATE

EDUCATIONAL

EDUCATIONAL EDUCATIONAL

PACKERS

EDUCATIONAL

BUSINESS OFFERS

LEGAL NOTICE

PUBLIC NOTICESEDUCATIONAL

NEW DELHI: Delhiites will be able to havebigger balconies going all aroundtheir flats and wider staircases intheir homes, as per the new UnifiedBuilding By-Laws that will be an-nounced soon.

The Delhi Development Authorityhad approved the revised by-laws inFebruary. Very soon you will see theUnified Building By-Laws in the pa-pers. It has some path-breakingchanges, said DDA vice-chairpersonArun Goel while addressing the an-nual meet of the Confederation of In-dian Industry here.

Among the main changes will bewider balconies in flats. For grouphousing societies, the width has beenincreased from 4 feet to 6 feet. In plot-ted areas, the balcony width has beenincreased from 3 feet to 5 feet. In addi-tion, balconies outside differentrooms can be connected.

Just imagine if you have a 6-feetbalcony all around your flat, therewouldnt be any difference between apenthouse and a flat on any otherfloor. Its going to change the skylineof Delhi, said Mr. Goel.

In the interest of public safety, theby-laws have excluded staircasesfrom the FAR, which means the stairscan be wider than before.

Also, public facilities will now havemore space for womens toilets. Earli-er, the by-laws said that the public

spaces must have equal area allocatedfor men and womens toilets.But the number of pots in a wom-

ens toilet are less compared to thosein mens toilets in the same area. Wehave changed the rule to say that thenumber of pots should be equal, saidMr. Goel. He added that in the comingyears, the availability of womens toi-lets would improve in public areaslike cinemas and malls.

Meanwhile, the DDA is working onsetting up green circuits around thecity by linking its parks. Mr. Goel saidabout 5,000 hectares of greenery be-longed to the DDA, in about five toseven years these areas would be inte-grated.

The DDA has recently issued an ex-pression of interest for consultants toredo the urban design and botany inthe parks. The Authority is also set-ting up three hubs in Dwarka, Rohi-ni and Narela which will includecultural-cum commercial centres.

We had been looking at the citysneed for housing till now. But, we arelooking at job-oriented development.People shouldn't have to travel forbetter quality of life, said Mr. Goel.

Wider balconies, staircasesin new building by-laws

DAMININATH

For group housing societies, the width has been increased from 4 feet to 6 feet. Inplotted areas, the balcony width has been increased from 3 feet to 5 feet. Inaddition, balconies outside different rooms can be connected.FILE PHOTO

In the interest of publicsafety, the by-laws haveexcluded staircases fromthe FAR, which meansstairs can be wider

NEW DELHI: An Audi car allegedlymowed down a 43-year-old Army manriding a bicycle in South-West Delhiscantonment area on Wednesdaymorning.

Identified as Naik Ram Swaroop,the victim succumbed to his injuries afew hours later at the Army Hospitalin the area.

Swaroop had recently returned toDelhi after his brief deployment inHaryanas Panipat and Hisar to con-trol the recent quota agitation by theJats.

He belonged to the Assam Re-giment of the Indian Army.

The accused driver, identified asone Sarabjeet Singh, was held fromthe accident spot itself. He was arrest-ed on charges of causing death bynegligence.

A senior police officer said that the

accident took place around 10 a.m. onWednesday.

The Audi car driver rammed thecyclist who suddenly appeared infront of him on the main road, said asenior police officer.

The victim was flung several feet inthe air before he fell, suffering severeinjuries. He was rushed to a hospitalwhere he succumbed to his injuries

over three hours later.The victim has left behind his wife

and a two-year-old daughter. Army of-ficers said they would file a Motor Ac-cident Claims Tribunal (MACT) caseagainst the errant driver.

Audi driver kills Army manSTAFFREPORTER Naik Ram Swaroop had

recently returned to Delhiafter his brief deploymentin Haryanas Panipat andHisar


7/24

EDUCATIONAL

EDUCATIONAL

PUBLIC NOTICES

EDUCATIONAL

SITUATIONS

VACANT

GENERAL

SITUATIONS

VACANT

GENERAL

LEGAL NOTICE

CMYK

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NORTHERN REGION | 7THE HINDU THURSDAY, MARCH 3, 2016NOIDA/DELHI

AHMEDABAD: Gujarats Health Minis-ter and spokesperson of the Stategovernment, Nitin Patel, onWednesday apologised in the legis-lative Assembly for making per-sonal comments on Congress MLAKamini Rathod during the Assemb-ly proceedings that had led to aruckus and eventual suspension ofthe entire Opposition from theHouse on Tuesday.

After the altercation with Kami-niben Rathod who is a first timeMLA, I realised my mistake and feltthat I should not have reacted to herremarks during the House proceed-ings, Mr Patel, a five-term MLAand top Cabinet Minister, told theHouse during zero hour.

We have a woman Chief Minis-ter and the member from the Oppo-sition party is also a woman.

I should have exercised restraint

while reac-ting on her

speech, Mr.Patel said,amidst athunderousapplause bymembers ofthe ruling aswell as Oppo-sition party.

On Tuesday, Ms. Rathod had al-leged that liquor was flowing freelyin the State despite prohibition be-cause the police had forged a nexuswith liquor mafias while the Statefailed to implement prohibition.

Her remarks led to heated argu-ments between the Opposition andruling party members, resulting inthe suspension of the Oppositionfor a day. However, after the Speak-ers intervention, the suspensionwas revoked and the Oppositionparticipated in the proceedings.

Gujarat Minister apologisesSPECIALCORRESPONDENT

Nitin Patel

GURGAON: Haryana Finance and Indus-tries Minister Capt. Abhimanyu onWednesday said the faith of the inves-tors had not shaken in the wake of theviolence during the Jat reservation ag-itation in Haryana this past month. Atwo-day Happening Haryana: GlobalInvestors Summit is scheduled to beheld at a f ive star hotel here in the com-ing week.

Terming the violence over quota ag-itation as a conspiracy, Capt. Abhi-manyu said that it was not just thebusiness community but everyone wasadversely affected.

He, however, added that the faith ofthe investors was not shaken and theyhad communicated their desire to theChief Minister to take part in the sum-mit despite all the odds.

The investors from Japan and Chi-na sent e-mails and called up the ChiefMinister expressing their full faith in

the government, said Capt.Abhimanyu.

In reply to a question, Capt. Abhi-

manyu said that unfortunate incidentsof violence could happen anywhere inthe world, but it was the response ofthe government that mattered and in-stilled confidence among theinvestors.

The fact that several foreignerswere airlifted to safer places from Roh-tak during the violence shows thecommitment of the government to-wards the safety of foreign investors,said Capt. Abhimanyu.

Twelve countries, including Japan,China, Peru, New Zealand, UnitedKingdom and Poland, have agreed tobe Partner Nations for the summit.

However, the day-long Pravasi Ha-ryana Diwas scheduled for March 9has been postponed. We have decid-ed to postpone the Parvasi HaryanaDiwas as it was more about showcas-ing the culture of Haryana and notabout investment, said Capt. Abhima-nyu. Haryana Chief Minister ManoharLal Khattar launched on-line services

for Grievance Redressal System andDispute Settlement Mechanism on theoccasion.

Faith of investors not shakenASHOKKUMAR

SRINAGAR: National Conference workingpresident Omar Abdullah said onWednesday that his party would neverenter into an alliance with the BJP.

I would rather quit politics thancompromise on the honour and dignityof the State and its people. The PeoplesDemocratic Partys sell-out to the BJPhas brought disillusionment, disempo-

werment and contempt for the people,he said at a public meeting in Shopiandistrict of south Kashmir.

He accused the PDP of entering intoan alliance with those who want to abol-ish our flag, destroy our special statusand patronise those who persecute peo-ple on the basis of what they eat and donot eat.

In the past year, the BJP has used itsalliance with the PDP to make out itspolitics of polarisation to be that of in-clusivity, Mr. Abdullah said.

BJP and RSS leaders continue tospew venom on minorities. I can neverhave anything to do with these peopleand would refuse every position of pow-er that comes at the cost of the dignity ofmy people. The former Chief Ministersaid the PDP was still extremely keenon forming a government with the BJPyet again and the delay [in governmentformation] is an attempt by the party tofake a sense of ideological conviction.

PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti saysthe 10-month-long PDP-BJP govern-

ment did not benefit the people. If thisgovernment did not benefit the people,who are the actual beneficiaries, andwhy the PDP is still in an alliance withthe BJP, he said.

NC will never alignwith BJP: OmarPEERZADAASHIQ

NEW DELHI: Realising the importanceof sufficient time required for cam-paigning ahead of Punjab Assemblyelections that are due in early 2017,the Punjab Congress has decided toannounce its candidates at least sixmonths before the State goes to polls.

Party will announce the candi-

dates for the 2017 Assembly elec-tions six months in advance, PunjabCongress chief Capt AmarinderSingh said on Wednesday addingthat the declaring candidates well inadvance provides sufficient time tothe candidates for campaigning.

He said that winnability would be

the only criterion for selecting thecandidates to be fielded in the elec-tions. Each and every candidatesprospects will be assessed before thenomination, he added.

Capt. Amarinder after launchingthe Drug Free Punjab campaign inFerozpur told reporters it was duringthe Jaipur session, the party decidedthat the tickets should be announced

well in time to provide sufficienttime to the candidates forcampaigning.

Announcing candidates well inadvance would provide extra timefor them to work out their strategy,he added.

Capt. Amarinder also dismissed

the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to beany challenge to the Congress partyin the upcoming Assembly elections.

Lukewarm response for its (AAP)leader Arvind Kejriwal during his re-cent visit to Punjab forced him to cutshort his visit, he said.

Accusing the ruling Akali leader-ship of ruining the state, Capt Ama-rinder said: they (SAD-BJP) may

not cross the double figure mark thistime in elections and it would betheir worst performance ever.

He said the Akalis appeared to bereconciled to the idea of defeat andhave given up and this is the reasonthey have stopped giving any atten-tion to governance in the state.

VIKASVASUDEVA

Punjab Congress to announcecandidates 6 months ahead of polls

PATHANKOT (PUNJAB): An alert has beensounded in villages located near theIndo-Pak border in Pathankot districtand patrolling intensified after BSFalerted police on spotting three tofive suspects in Pakistan side near theborder.

An alert has been sounded in andaround villages located near Indo-Pak border and night patrolling by se-curity personnel has been stepped up

in the wake of information with re-gard to suspect shared by BSF per-sonnel, a Pathankot district policeofficial said.

Three to five suspects were spot-ted by our surveillance equipmentsin Pakistan side near Zero Line andthereafter Pathankot police author-ities have been informed in this re-gard, a BSF official said onWednesday.

The BSF has Dhinda Forward Postin Bamial area near Zero Line at Indo-Pak border.

ABSF official said that informationhas been shared with the district po-lice to remain alert. After receivinginformation, the district police havestepped up patrolling and vigil nearthe IndoPak border to prevent en-try of any antisocial element intoIndian territory. -- PTI

Alert after BSF spots suspects near border

RAIPUR: Tribal activist andthe Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) leader Soni Sorisrelatives have alleged thatthey were being harassedand intimidated by Bastarpolice in the name of inves-tigation. Soni Soris neph-ew Lingaram Kodopi went

on to allege that the policewere also trying to impli-cate her relatives in thecase.

We fear that the policemight implicate me or SoniSoris cousin Ajay Markamin the case of an attack onher. Since the formation ofthe Special InvestigationTeam (SIT), I have beenasked to come to the policestation thrice. Every timethey ask us the same ques-tions and we are being giv-en disrespectful treat-ment, Mr. Kodopi told TheHindu.

Ajay Markam was alsocalled to the police stationfor enquiry. Ajay Markamwas told that he, along withme and Sanjay Pant, wereinvolved in the attack onSoni Sori, he claimed.

This was not the firsttime Mr. Kodopi, the onlyTribal journalist in Bastar,was being targeted by theauthorities. A few yearsago, Mr. Kodopi was impli-

cated along with Soni Soriin an alleged case of a cor-porate house pay off to theMaoists.

According to him, he wasinhumanly tortured in thecustody and a petrochemi-cal liquid was put in his rec-tum for which he is still un-dergoing treatment.

Despite bad health, Mr.Kodopi has been the mainsupport for Soni Sori, whohas emerged the face ofTribal protest in Bastar inthe past few years.

The nephew of Soni Sorialso accused the police ofpressurising AAP leaderArvind Gupta to take backthe police complaint whichhe filed against unknownpersons after the attack onSoni Sori on February 19.

Bastar range InspectorGeneral of police SRP Kal-luri was unavailable forcomments.

Police trying to implicate us

in Soni Sori attack: relativesPAVANDAHAT

Tribal activist and AAP

leader Soni Sori


8/24

CMYK

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8 | THE HINDU THURSDAY, MARCH 3, 2016NOIDA/DELHI

NATION

BENGALURU: In less than a week,it would be a year since Prab-

ha Arun Kumar, a techie fromBengaluru, was stabbed todeath by an unidentified as-sailant in a Sydney suburb.

But her family in India isconfused by the leads that in-vestigators have found in thecase as reported in the Austra-lian media.

What was initially thoughtof as a random attack in 2015 isnow reportedly being probedby the New South Wales po-lice in Australia as a possibleplanned murder.

We have considered thepossibility that an offenderhad helped [commit or beeninvolved with] this crime out-side of Australia, DetectiveSergeant Ritchie Sim leadingthe probe is quoted as sayingin The Sydney Morning

Herald.Reacting to these reports,

Prabhas husband, Arun Ku-mar, an auto consultant in thecity, has expressed scepticismover the line of investigationleading to India.

My wife was a normalwoman and she had no ene-mies either in the family or

among friends here. I dontthink it is possible for a per-son in India to organise herkilling in Australia. Moreover,I am dumbfounded by thistheory as I find no motive foranybody known to us to mur-der her this way. We dontwant any innocents to be tar-geted, he told The Hindu onWednesday.

Mr. Kumar said he had toldthe New South Wales policeabout two incidents that Prab-ha shared with him, that oc-curred during her work stayin Australia. However, he de-clined to disclose details ofthese incidents as they might

hamper the probe.The police havent been in

touch with the family. The lasttime I spoke to them was inNovember 2015 when I hadbeen to Australia to inaugu-rate a memorial plaque for mywife in Parramatta Park, hesaid.

An e-mail query to NewSouth Wales Police from The

Hinduwent unanswered.

Police want to visit IndiaThe homicide detectives

probing the case have beenquoted by the Australianmedia as saying they will visitIndia soon. There are as-

pects of Mrs. Kumars life thatneed to be explored further,the detectives have beenquoted in a report in The Syd-

ney Morning Herald.Family coming toterms with loss

Prabhas family is slowlycoming to terms with the loss.The most hit though is herdaughter, now 12 years old,preparing for her Class 6exams.

Arun Kumar said it wastragic she lost her mother at atime most daughters need amother to guide them. Prab-ha and I had dreamt of a futurefor her and now my only goalin life is to make that dream areality, he said.

Mr. Kumar recounted thehorror of the night whenPrabha was stabbed to deatheven as he was speaking to herover phone.

That has been the tough-est day of my life and I havenever felt as helpless as that. Icould hear her being attacked,scream for help and laterbreathe for around 20 min-utes on the phone. It was likeshe was suffering before me,but I couldnt do anything, hesaid.

Sceptical husband says Prabha had no enemies in the family or outside

The spot in Sydney park where Prabha Arun Kumar was stabbedto death in 2015. PHOTO AFP

Australian police suggest it couldhave been planned in IndiaK.V. ADITYABHARADWAJ

MUMBAI: The director and theproducer of the movie DarkChocolate based on the Shee-na Bora murder case filedtheir reply at the BombayHigh Court on Wednesday.

Adivision Bench of JusticesS.C. Dharmadhikari and G.S.Patel was hearing a petition

filed by co-accused in themurder, Peter Mukerjea, whowas recently charged withmurder in the Sheena Boracase, and his sister ShangonDasgupta, seeking a stay onthe films release alleging def-amation.

The petition had stated thatthe Kolkata-based directorAgnidev Chaterjee was open-ly promoting the film and itscharacters.

In the last hearing, thecourt had said the traileralone could not be consideredas adequate premise for theallegations of defamation andcontempt.

Advocate Monesh Prem,representing the films direc-tor and producer, denied thethat the contents of the filmwere defamatory and wouldimpede the administration ofjustice.

The affidavit states that theCentral Bureau of Investiga-tion in its 500 pages supple-mentary chargesheet, whichis available in public domain,mentions Mr. Mukerjea as theconspirator in the murder.

Film on Sheenamurder case notdefamatory

SPECIALCORRESPONDENT

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The State government plans tosupport the Kerala Sangeeth Natak Akademi in its ef-forts to help artists and circus performers. Under thehealth insurance scheme launched by Culture MinisterK.C. Joseph here on Wednesday, ailing artists or those

involved in accidents will be eligible for free treatmentup to Rs.1,00,000 a year at any hospital.Akademi chairman Surya Krishnamoorthy said the

State government had agreed to provide a matchinggrant and set up a corpus fund for the scheme support-ed by actors Mammootty and Mohanlal, and business-man B.R. Shetty. Dance, music, magic, kathaprasan-gam, instrumental music, and theatre artistes would beeligible for the scheme. Mr. Krishnamoorthy said theState government had sanctioned two acres to be givenfree of cost to Sarod maestro Ustad Amjad Ali Khan forthe establishment of an international school of music.

Kerala offers health coverfor artists, circus performersSPECIALCORRESPONDENT

BENGALURU TECHIES MURDER IN SYDNEY

NEW DELHI: Trimming the Mah-arashtra governments new-found enthusiasm to keep aclose watch on bar dance per-formances, the SupremeCourt on Wednesday modi-fied its endeavour to haveCCTV cameras trained ondance floors beaming live

feed to the local police con-trol room.A Bench led by Justice Di-

pak Misra, which said danceis an art, gave the Maharash-tra government no room tomanoeuvre in its order whichplainly said the authoritiesshall act in accordance withthe command of this Courtand not venture to deviate.

The Bench ordered thatCCTV cameras shall be fixedat the entrance of the prem-ises and not in the restaurantor the permit area or the per-formance area.

Instead of a non-transpar-ent partition as wanted by theState, the Supreme Courtagreed with the suggestion ofthe bar owners for a three-foot high railing betweendancers and the audience.

The government had re-stricted the number of danc-

ers to four, but the court mod-ified this to say that whilefour dancers can perform onthe stage at one time, therecan be other artists in thepremises.

The court however said itis imperative that the ante-cedents of employees beverified.

It said the premises of theestablishment cannot be al-tered without the permissionof the competent authority. In

case of any grievance in thisregard, the Bench allowed barowners to directly approachthe Supreme Court.

It agreed with the suggesti-on of the bar owners to have agreen room, provided thespace is used in the manner in

which it is understood in theclassical sense.

The Bench ordered themodified conditions to becomplied within three days.Licences should be issuedwithin ten days aftercompliance.

CCTVs only at entrance ofdance bars, says Supreme CourtKRISHNADASRAJAGOPAL

The court agreed with bar owners suggestion to have a three-foot railing between the dancers and the audience.

MUMBAI: Hours after theSupreme Courtdisallowed ClosedCircuit Television(CCTV) cameras in

dance bars, MaharashtraChief Minister DevendraFadnavis said onWednesday that the Statewould approach thecourt with an alternative.

The State cant permitobscenity it has seen inthe past in dance bars.We will approach theHonble Supreme Courtwith an alternative. TheState government is also

contemplating a suitablelegislation, Mr Fadnavissaid on his officialTwitter handle.

The reaction to theverdict among hotel andbar owners was euphoric.

Adarsh Shetty, presidentof the Indian Hotel andRestaurant Association,said:

We are happy withthe judgment and theorder by the SC. We arehappy that some of thepoints that wereirrelevant have beencompletely rejected bythe court, including theCCTV thing.

State cannot allow obscenity


SHIMLA: The BCCI secretaryAnurag Thakur called on Hi-machal Pradesh Chief Minis-ter Virbhadra Singh onWednesday and apprised himabout the preparations for theongoing India-Pakistan T-20game to he held here onMarch 19. Mr. Thakur, presi-dent of the Himachal Pradesh

Cricket Association, the hostfor match, said the schedulewas decided in advance andthe game could not be can-celled at the eleventh hour.

He told media persons thatif the match was cancelled atthis stage, it would give a badname to the State and thecountry.

Mr. Thakur said therewould be no exclusive Indo-Pak cricket series till bilateralrelations become normal, butthe March 19 game was an in-ternational match and itwould be hosted at any cost.He reiterated that everybodyrespected martyrs and their

families and could not forgettheir sacrifices. We will notdo anything that will bring abad name to our martyrs or toour country, said Mr. Thakur,who is also national presidentof the Bharatiya Janata YuvaMorcha that has been oppos-ing the match with Pakistan.

He said he had high hopesthat his home State wouldprovide security for the

match since he had a produc-tive conversation with theChief Minister.

Mr. Virbhadra Singh saidhis government respected thefeelings of the families of themartyrs and if the HPCAcould convince them, he hadno problem in providing se-curity for the match. He said ifthe ex-servicemen or theirfamilies opposed the match,the State government wouldnot use force to stop them.Taking a dig at Mr. Thakur hesaid, he should have made ef-forts much earlier and talkedto the ex-soldiers and theirfamilies.

T-20 match: Anurag Thakurmeets Himachal CM

KANWARYOGENDRA

MADURAI: After knocking on thedoors of the Prime MinistersOffice, the Department of Eco-nomic Affairs (DEA) under theUnion Finance Ministry, andthe Ministry of External Af-fairs, an applicant under theRight to Information Act herehas found that none of themwas in a position to providehim details of foreign invest-ments attracted during severalState visits by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi.

It was on July 20 last thatMadurai based advocate A.Mohamed Yusuff made an ap-plication to the PMO seekingbrief details of the foreign in-vestments and their worth. Re-plying to it on July 31, Under

Secretary P.K. Sharma statedthat the application had beentransferred by him to the DEAand the MEA, and advised theapplicant to approach the pub-lic information officers inthose Ministries for furtherdetails.

On August 8, Rohit Rathish,Deputy Chief of Protocol,MEA, informed the applicantthat the information sought forwas not available with his Divi-sion and hence he was for-warding the application to

Joint Secretaries of 10 other Di-visions in the Ministry. How-ever, when none of those 10 of-ficers replied to him, theapplicant preferred an appealbefore the Chief Protocol Offi-cer on September 23.

The Chief of Protocol Jai-

deep Mazumdar disposed ofthe appeal stating that the Dep-uty Chief of Protocol was notthe custodian of informationsought for by the applicant.Subsequently, the applicant re-ceived three communicationsfrom different officials of MEAbetween October 1 and 28 ask-ing him to visit its website forinformation regarding MoUssigned during the PMs foreignvisits.

Manu J. Vettickan, DeputyDirector (External Markets),DEA, also informed the appli-cant on August 11 that the in-formation sought for was notavailable with his section. Astatutory appeal preferredagainst this reply also met thesame fate as it did with theMEAs protocol division.


Madurai RTI activist moves fromdoor to door but draws a blank


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CMYK

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NATION

VARANASI: Since his appoint-ment as Vice-Chancellor ofBanaras Hindu University,G.C. Tripathi has been ac-cused of pursuing an RSSagenda on the campus andfilling administrative and aca-demic posts with those affil-iated to the organisation.

In an interview to The Hin-du, Mr. Tripathi was candidabout his four-decade-old as-sociation with the RSS, but as-serted that universities dontbelong to any ideology, add-ing that he was following themandate given to him by thegovernment.

Amid the controversy at Ja-waharlal Nehru Universityover what is anti-national,Mr. Tripathi, a former Allaha-bad University professor, saidhe would never allow his uni-

versity to conduct events oncontroversial and sensitiveissues such as the hanging ofAfzal Guru, Kashmirs inde-pendence or beef. Therewere attempts to rake up simi-lar issues at the university, butits 100-year-old culture and

tradition and his admin

Documents

03-03-2016 - The Hindu - Shashi Thakur