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oncerned over the delay in
the implementation of the
C
Lokpal Bill, the Supreme Court
on Friday asked the Centre to
decide by September 9 on the
issue of replacing Leader of
Opposition (LoP) with Leader
of the Principal Opposition
party, for the formation of the
Lokpal Selection Committee
and made it clear that the
Lokpal legislation could not be
put into cold storage.
Dealing with a petition that
termed the Lokpal selection
process as being non-transparent in the absence of the Leader
of Opposition, the Bench said
that the LoP was a “very important component in the selection
process and by not providing for
one, the appointment will lack
objectivity and the committee
will be ineffective.”
The Supreme Court (SC)
asked Attorney-General Mukul
Rohatgi to suggest by September
9 whether the Centre seeks to
amend the words Leader of
Opposition provided in Section
4(1)(c) of the Lokpal and
Lokayukta Act 2013 on the lines
of the recent National Judicial
Appointment Commission Bill.
As per the NJAC, the Leader of
the Principal Opposition party
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will be part of the selection
process for nominating two eminent jurists.
Rohatgi informed the SC
that the Government will
undertake a complete review of
the Lokpal Act and Rules and
the exercise is almost complete.
When the Bench wished to
record this statement, Rohatgi
clarified that the problem areas
in the Act and Rules will be
addressed. The Bench said that
if the concern of the SC was not
addressed, it will suitably interpret the provision to provide
for LoP.
The petition by NGO
Common Cause said that with-
out the LoP the process under
Section 4(1)(c) would not
achieve its desired purpose.
The composition of the Search
Committee headed by the
Prime Minister includes
Speaker, Leader of Opposition
in Lok Sabha, Chief Justice of
India or his nominee, and an
eminent jurist.
“Leader of Opposition is a
very important component in
this composition. We are not
undermining others, but the
LoP has a special significance.
It gives objectivity to the selection process...When the LoP is
not there, can the committee be
termed effective,” the Bench,
headed by Chief Justice RM
Lodha asked the Centre.
Rohatgi said that with the
order of the Speaker denying
Congress the post of LoP, the
position of Leader of
Opposition will not exist.
Congress has 44 MPs, short of
10 per cent seats in Lok Sabha.
Rohatgi further argued that
even in the past, the LoP post
had not existed. But the Bench
differed with the view.
Continued on Page 4
2T]caT_dcb
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P__^X]c\T]c
New Delhi: The Government
on Friday put on hold the
appointment of new chief of
Central
Information
Commission (CIC) due to
absence of the Leader of the
Opposition (LoP) in the
selection committee.
The transparency watchdog is thus headless for the
first time since its inception
in 2005 after Chief
Information Commissioner
Rajiv Mathur relinquished
his charge on Friday.
The appointment of the
CIC head is done by the
President on the recommendation of a three-member selection committee
headed by the Prime
Minister and comprising
LoP and a Union Cabinet
Minister to be nominated by
the PM. “The appointment
of the new chief of the CIC
has not been done as there is
no LoP,” official sources said.
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On Board Special Plane: The
Central Government on Friday
denied claims made by
Uttarakhand Governor Aziz
Qureshi that he had been asked
to quit and said an “appropriate response” will be filed
before Supreme Court soon.
After touring flood-affected areas of Uttar Pradesh,
Union Home Minister Rajnath
Singh said, “There was no
move to remove him. He holds
the Constitutional post with the
pleasure of the President.”
The statement from the
Minister came a day after the
Supreme Court issued notice to
the Centre on the Uttarakhand
Governor’s plea challenging
Narendra Modi Government’s
moves to ease him out of office,
bringing the controversy over
removal of UPA-appointed
Governors under judicial lens.
The apex court had also
issued notice to Home
Secretary Anil Goswami who
had allegedly threatened
Governor Qureshi to resign
from the post or face removal
by Centre. However, the Home
Minister maintained that no
pressure was exerted for
Qureshi’s removal and said
that a response will be filed
before the apex court soon.
Continued on Page 4
n its biggest-ever crackdown
on a large-scale illicit money
Ipooling
scheme estimated at
?C8Q =4F34;78
nearly Rs 49,100 crore, regulator Sebi on Friday ordered
immediate closure of unauthorised collective investment
schemes run by PACL Ltd and
refund of investors’ money
within three months.
Besides, the capital markets
regulator also said it is initiating further proceedings against
the company and its nine promoters and directors for fraudulent and unfair trade practices,
as also for violation of Sebi’s
CIS Regulations, among others,
as per a direction from the
Supreme Court.
As per Sebi’s 92-page order,
the total amount mobilised by
the company, “by its own admission” comes to a whopping Rs
49,100 crore and “this figure
could have been even more if
PACL would have provided the
details of the funds mobilised
during the period of April 1,
2012 to February 25, 2013”.
The number of customers
through which the money
could have been collected is
estimated around 5.85 crore,
which includes the customers
who said to have been allotted
land and who are yet to be
allotted the land, Sebi said.
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D
elhi’s sex ratio has
improved as compared
to last year. It has increased
from 886 females per 1,000
males to 895 per 1,000 in
2013.
Delhi Government officials
say it is the result of a sustained
campaign against female foeticide and the Ladli scheme for
the protection of the girl child.
It is believed that the reported
use of Pre-Natal Diagnostic
Techniques is declining in the
national Capital.
A total of 3.70 lakh births
were registered in 2013 as
compared to 3.60 lakh in
2012. This means, on an average 1,014 births were registered per day as against 988 in
2012. Further, the infant mortality rate (per 1,000 live
births) decreased from
23.93 during 2012 to 22.37
during 2013.
It may be recalled that
Prime Minister Narendra
Modi while addressing the
nation from the ramparts of
Red Fort had exhorted the
people not to kill their daughters in the womb. He had also
expressed unhappiness over
the skewed sex ratio in the
country.
The Annual Report on
Registration of Births and
Deaths in Delhi 2013 was
released on Friday, which
revealed that
that sex ratio
on birth has
increased from
886 in 2012 to
895 in 2013.
Delhi’s total
population is
1.67 crore.
Officials claimed that the
Ladli scheme and strict action
against female foeticide were
the reasons behind the
increasing sex ratio in Delhi.
In 2001, the sex ratio was
809:1,000 in Delhi. In 2007, it
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This is the biggest ever
amount, as also the largest
number of investors, so far
involved in a case found to be
unauthorised ‘collective investment scheme’ by regulator Sebi.
Among others, PACL and
its top executives, including
Nirmal Singh Bhangoo, are
being probed by CBI as well.
Besides, this is also one of the
longest-running cases under
the scanner of Sebi, which had
first intimated PACL more
than 16 years ago, in February
1998 that it could “neither
launch any new schemes nor
continue raising funds under its
existing schemes.”
While the company maintained that it was not running
any illicit scheme and was in fact
engaged in the business of sale
and purchase of land, Sebi issued
a notice in November 1999 to
PACL, alleging that it “was
operating CIS, wherein the
funds of the investors were
pooled and utilised towards the
cost of land, registration expenses, developmental charges and
other incidental expenses.”
The case later went to
courts, while the Supreme
Court passed an order in
February last year directing
Sebi to determine whether the
business of PACL fell within the
purview of CIS or not, and
accordingly take further action
in accordance with the law.
Promoters and directors
of PACL Ltd have been
involved with Pearls Group
and PGF Group, among others.
Continued on Page 4
fter an alleged suicide
attempt at a renowned
A
boarding school in Gwalior,
Bihar Cooperative Minister
Jaikumar Singh’s son has been
admitted to the Indraprastha
Apollo Hospital in Delhi. Singh
on Friday claimed that his son
Adarsh Kumar Singh is battling
for life after alleged ragging.
Hospital authorities confirmed
that he is on ventilator support
in the ICU.
Adarsh was studying in
Scindia School, Gwalior, said
Singh to a news agency. He said
the school authorities told him
that his son tried to commit
suicide on Wednesday night
and was in serious condition.
“But, I strongly dispute
this that my son tried to commit suicide.
Continued on Page 4
6WUD\GRJVLQWLJHUUHVHUYHVSRVLQJSUREOHPV
?=BQ 347A03D=
he
National
Tiger
T
Conservation Authority
(NTCA) is now mulling a slew
of measures to address the
problems, resulting from displacement of stray dogs from
urban areas and their getting
dumped in and around
tiger reserves. Initially, these
activities will be undertaken in
six tiger reserves of India,
including Corbett tiger reserve
in Uttarakhand.
The NTCA had held a
meeting last month to discuss
handling of stray dogs in and
around tiger reserves. Stray
dogs from cities are dumped in
and around tiger reserves,
resulting in their killing while
also spawning the threat of the
spread of diseases to wildlife,
including tigers, through the
?=BQ 347A03D=
ith
the
Central
Government stressing on
the need for development while
attempting to strike a balance
with environmental concerns,
the Wildlife Institute of India is
prepared to work with the
Government to ensure that the
environmental aspect is
addressed, said the WII director
Dr Vinod B Mathur. Talking to
The Pioneer, Mathur said that
though development is necessary, it is also vital to ensure
that the environmental aspect
is not ignored. Referring to the
need for facilitating an efficient
system to enable wildlife to
cross motor roads, he said that
it is now known that elephants will not enter a tunnel
or subway unless they can see
the light at the end of the
tunnel.
Apart from this the height
of the tunnel and appropriate
plantation also has to be considered in order to encourage
the pachyderms to use these
for crossing a motor road.
"If the land has to be
excavated for some construction or developmental work,
we can ascertain what impact
stray dogs.
It was decided that a survey of stray dog population and
prevalence of diseases in villages located inside tiger
reserves and fringe areas up to
a distance of two kilometres
would be undertaken.
The NTCA would write to
all municipal bodies located in
the vicinity of tiger reserves,
asking them to refrain from
dumping stray dogs inside or
near tiger reserves as it violates
the Wildlife Protection Act,
1972 and is a punishable
offence under the law.
As Animal Birth Control
programme has to be implemented in the villages located
inside tiger reserves and in
fringe areas within a distance
of two kilometres from the
boundary of the tiger reserve,
W
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it will have on the creatures
underground and recommend
measures accordingly. The
institute has expertise and
research based information
on the varied aspects of the
environment across the
nation. We are ready to play
our part in facilitating balance
between developmental
works and environmental
concerns," he said.
the field directors of the tiger
reserves in consultation with
the animal husbandr y
department/voluntary organisations will chalk out a
programme for this besides
dovetailing the resources.
Continued on Page 4
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was 848. During 2008, the sex
ratio was reversed due to the
introduction of the Ladli
scheme, showing 1,004
females per 1,000 males,
which was unprecedented.
When asked, LieutenantGovernor Najeeb Jung said
that the Government has
taken several steps in the last
few years to increase the sex
ratio in the
n a t i o n a l
Capital.
According
to the report,
the total number of births
registered in
the city in 2013 was 3.70 lakh,
as compared to 3.60 lakh in
2012 and 3.54 lakh during
2011. The average number of
births per day works out to
1,014 in 2013 as compared to
988 in 2012.
Of the 3.70 lakh total reg-
istered births, 1.95 lakh (52.8
per cent) were males and 1.75
lakh (47.2 per cent) were
females. About 81.75 per cent
(3.02 lakh) were institutional
births and the remaining
18.25 per cent (0.67 lakh)
were domiciliary births.
Out of the total registered births in Delhi, 34.8 per
cent were in North Delhi
Municipal Corporation, 32.7
per cent in South Delhi
Municipal Corporation, 20.6
per cent in East Delhi
Municipal Corporation, 11.1
per cent in New Delhi
Municipal Corporation and
0.80 per cent in Cantonment
Board Area. The total number
of deaths reduced from 1.05
lakh in 2012 to 97,185 in
2013. Accordingly, average
deaths registered per day
reduced from 287 to 266 during the corresponding period.
Continued on Page 4
6XVKLO.XPDULV
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enowned wrestler and twoR
time Olympic medalist
Sushil Kumar has been
appointed sports brand ambassador of Delhi. Lieutenant
Governor Najeeb Jung made an
announcement in this regard
while felicitating eight Glasgow
Commonwealth Games medal
winners from Delhi on Friday.
Out of these eight sportspersons, six are wrestlers and two
are shooters.
This is the first time that the
Delhi Government has chosen
a wrestler for brand ambassador
of Delhi. While announcing
Kumar as the Delhi’s brand
ambassador, the Lt-Governor
said, “He is a role model, soft
hearted and his feet are on the
ground. Youngsters can learn a
lot from Sushil Kumar.”
Sushil has overcome hurdles to carve a niche for himself in the world of wrestling.
He had won Gold medal
in the recently concluded
Commonwealth Games at
Glasgow in United Kingdom.
Jung felicitated the wrestler
along with Yogeshwar Dutt
and Amit Dahiya with a shawl
and a cheque of C14 lakh each.
Other sportspersons Bajrang
Kumar, Rajeev Tomar and
Shrayasi Singh were given
cheques of C10 lakh each and
Mananjeet Singh Sandhu and
Pawan Kumar cheques of C6
lakh each.
Sushil Kumar had represented India in prestigious
Olympic Games three times —
2004 Athens Olympics, 2008
Beijing Olympics and 2012
London Olympics — in 66 kg
free style category of wrestling.
He is the first Indian to win
back-to-back individual
Olympic medals. Later talking to
reporters, wrestler Sushil Kumar
said that it’s a great moment for
him. “We should make Delhi a
world class city,” he added.
At a felicitation function,
Jung said that it is a matter of
great pride that eight Delhi
sportspersons have brought
laurels for the countr y
and Delhi in Commonwealth
Games 2014 held at
Glasgow.
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D
ehradun
District
Magistrate Chandresh
Kumar Yadav who assumed
charge around two months
back sounded exhausted at 2
pm on Friday when this correspondent asked him about the
measures he had taken to
improve the long-doddering
public distribution system in
the district. Things assumed
serious proportions against the
backdrop of the State Chief
Minister Harish Rawat having
recently made the DM
accountable for the execution
of State food security scheme in
the district.
Seemingly making light of
the issue, DM Yadav said this
is nothing new. "All departments come under the administrative jurisdiction of the
District Magistrate. So is the
food and civil supply department. However, the additional DM (administration) has
been deputed to review public
distribution system in the city
area periodically while it is the
chief development officer who
has been made in-charge for
the rural area," he said.
It seems the DM is wilting
under pressure, a fact that can
account for his singular failure
in fulfilling pledges he boastfully made in the public after
assuming charge.
He acknowledged on
Friday that a large number
ration cards issued by the
administration have got
annulled under National Food
Security Scheme in the district
and now the ADM and the
CDO would review whether
they are valid or not with the
department officers.
When this correspondent
had asked him on August 9
why the district food and civil
officers were not being directed to conduct random checking campaign (on sample basis)
on the issued new ration cards
with many Doon residents
having recently protested at
DSO office over abounding
anomalies in the ration card
thus issued, Yadav rubbished
outright the allegation, asserting that there was no such
anomaly. "One can register
complaint in Complaint
Redressal Cell if one feels
something is wrong and his
concerns will be addressed," he
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averred.
It was thus clear from his
gait that despite knowing well
that anomalies exist in superabundance on the matter of
issuing new ration cards under
National Food Security Scheme
in the district, he was feigning
ignorance in a bid to either
shelve the issue or to pass the
buck to others.
Moreover, though Right
to Public Service Act is being
implemented in the state, the
applicants who are submitting
applications for procuring
income certificates, caste certificates, domicile certificates,
character certificates and the
like in the Janadhar office
which is adjacent to DM office
said they were not being pro-
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P
rincipal Secretary and Dehradun
district in-charge secretary Manisha
Panwar reviewed district level developmental works with District
Magistrate Chandresh Kumar Yadav
and other district officers at
Collectorate on Friday and directed
them to conduct physical verification
of welfare schemes periodically which
are now being executed in the district.
She said she would self conduct
physical inspection of several welfare
schemes in the district before convening a meeting with district officers.
Panwar directed the DM Yadav to form
a task force and deploy them for conducting physical inspection of
developmental projects periodically in
the district.
The district officers were directed to
present a project highlighting status of
physical verifications department wise.
vided with them. After assuming charge as DM, he stressed
on prompt execution of the
government welfare schemes to
ensure that the benefits reach
out to the intended beneficiaries. But, as things stand now,
his zealous pledges to make
things better sound like farce.
After reviewing public
complaints received in
Complaint Redressal Cell with
the district officials on
Thursday, the DM expressed
The Principal Secretary reviewed
ongoing pension schemes being run by
Social Welfare Department and
directed the officers to ensure that
intended beneficiaries are given their
pension on time.
She also reviewed scholarship
schemes and directed the officers to
disappointment over the irritatingly tardy pace of complaint
redressal. Out of 1,025 registered complaints since June 27,
only 401 were sorted out. He
directed the district officials on
Thursday to redress public
concerns in a month failing
which their salaries will be
withheld. This correspondent
kept on highlighting the sorry
state of things for months, but
things remained stuck where
they had been. Yadav
ensure that students are being given
their scholarship on time. The district
education officers have been directed
to conduct meeting with school management committees from time to
time and ensure that scholarship
schemes are implemented transparently
on time. The district officers should lay
introduced staffing pattern
to depute administrative officers in the remote areas so as
to ensure government welfare
schemes are executed uniformly across the district. But
later he capitulated supinely
in the wake of the
C ollectorate employees
baring fangs.
Consequently, the order
was withdrawn to the glee of
the sulking staff and to the
woe of the common people of
;^Z0SP[Pc
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?=BQ 347A03D=
he work of cleaning the
Ganga river and reconT
struction in disaster-affected
ATbXST]cb^U1WaP\PfP[P_a^cTbcPccWT<23PVPX]bccWT_[P]]TSP]cXT]Ra^PRW\T]cSaXeTX]cWT[^RP[Xch
?=BQ 347A03D=
he Municipal Corporation
of Dehradun has deferred
T
its anti-encroachment drive in
Bhramawala area and will
demolish encroachments here
after the all India Mayors’ conference slated to be held in
Dehradun on August 25.
Earlier,
residents
of
Bhramawala staged a protest at
the Municipal Corporation of
Dehradun and submitted a
memorandum to the Mukhya
Nagar Adhikari Harak Singh
Rawat.
It will be recalled that the
MNA had visited the
Bhramawala area on Thursday
and directed the encroachers to
evict failing which the
encroachments would be
demolished by the MCD on
Saturday. According to the
MNA, about five hectare of
municipal land has been
encroached upon with about
250 unauthorised constructions. “Many of the occupants
had agreed to evict the unauthorised construction when we
had gone there on Thursdaybut
now someone seems to be
exploiting them,” said Rawat.
The Dehradun Mayor Vinod
Chamoli has now directed that
the anti-encroachment drive
at Bhramawala be conducted
after the all India Mayors’ conference to be held in Dehradun
on Monday. The MCD plans to
park its vehicles in this area
after the encroachments
are removed.
Earlier, residents of
Bhramawala led by the local
councillor Nitu Valmiki staged
a protest at MCD and demanded that the occupants be
?X^]TTa_W^c^
allowed to stay. They told the
MNA that many of them had
been living in the locality for
more than two decades and had
been provided water and electricity supply by the authorities.
According to municipal
officials, the MCD has been
removing the smaller encroachments from its lands in different areas of the city but the land
in Bhramawala is one of the
major areas of municipal land
under encroachment.
Efforts have been undertaken repeatedly many times in
the past years, to remove the
encroachments from this place
but so far the authorities
have failed to do so. It remains
to be seen whether the MCD
will be able to free its land from
encroachment this time
and keep it free from encroachment for long.
areas should complement each
other, said activists of
Uttarakhand Sarvoday Mandal
and Nadi Bachao Abhiyan after
a meeting in Uttarkashi. The
activists said that the work of
stopping the drainage of sewage
from disaster affected villages,
settlements and municipal areas
directly in to the Bhagirathi
should be undertaken with the
people living in these areas.
While constructing safety walls
along rivers for disaster management, no scope should be left
for draining waste into the river
directly from nearby settlements. Though nullahs will
carry rainwater from settlements into the river, this should
not be linked to toilets.
Every family living along
the banks of the Bhagirathi
should be provided a toilet to
prevent contamination of
mountain streams and gorges
flowing through villages. Bodies
being cremated on the banks of
the Bhagirathi should be burnt
completely to ensure that no
body part ends up in the river.
Electric crematoriums should
also be provided in such places.
The sewage treatment plans of
municipal bodies should be
constructed in the middle of
rivers while the dumping of
waste from slaughter houses
into the river should also be
stopped. Steps should also be
taken to stop the waste gener-
ated in hospitals from being
dumped in the rivers and an
efficient system should be made
for disposing such waste scientifically. Environmental activist
Suresh Bhai said that simply
cleaning the Bhagirathi at
Uttarkashi will not suffice as it
is also necessary to clean up the
dozens of gorges and streams
draining into the Bhagirathi
between Gangotri and
Uttarkashi. A Namami Gange
monitoring committee should
be formed for making the
Bhagirathi clean from Gangotri
to
Uttarkashi
with
representatives of voluntary
organisations and officials of
departments concerned.
There have been repeated
floods, earthquakes and landslides in this region since 1977.
Since the 1991 earthquake with
its epicenter in Uttarkashi, geologists have been stressing on the
need for considering the cracks
resulting from seismic activity
while undertaking developmental works. “Following the
disaster last year, the government did not inform the public about the timeframe for
completion of the reconstruction and other works which has
fueled dissatisfaction among
the people. Following the recent
flood in the Asi Ganga valley
here, about Rs 10 lakh was spent
on transporting ration valued at
Rs 60,000 to the people here
whereas the government had
earlier decided that ration would
be stocked three months in
advance in disaster prone areas,”
he pointed out.
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?=BQ 70;3F0=8
P
eople, particularly those
who are facing cases
related to road accidents,
family, revenue, civil or criminal matters and the like, may
get them solved on-the-spot
in a Lok Adalat being organised by the district legal service authority (DLSA),
Pithoragarh in the district
on August 23.
The main objective of
organising this Lok Adalat is
to resolve long -pending cases
related to above-mentioned
matters through mutual
understanding and agreement, said the officials concerned of the district legal service authority (DLSA),
Pithoraagarh.
Therefore, those who
wish to get their matters
solved in course of the Lok
Adalat may submit their
applications to the respective
courts at tehsil and district
levels on time so that these
matters could be taken up for
hearing on Saturday, added
the officials concerned.
At the same time, the litigants have been advised to
participate in this Lok Adalat
in their full strength to get
their long- pending matters
solved through mutual understanding and agreement,
further said the officials concerned
of the DLSA,
Pithoragarh.
DZWP]SaT\T\QTabBcPcTb_aXST<B9^bWX
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347A03D=
T
he month of August brings
to us the memory of a
great writer belonging to this
hill state who achieved
fame nationally as well as
internationally.
He was the renowned
Hindi writer Manohar Shyam
Joshi, the one who wrote powerful ,unforgettable dramas of
Hum Log and Buniyaad, the
pioneer soap operas of our
country. It is a matter of great
pride for Uttarakhand that the
man who created a revolution
in the world of television in
India in the 1980s with these
wonderful scripts had his roots
in this hill region.
Joshi was born in
Almora in August 1933, millions of Indians could identify
with Hum Log and Buniyaad
both of which have become legendary. In the following years,
Joshi wrote many more long
running serials like, 'Mungeri
Lal Ke Hasin Sapney', 'Kakkaji
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Kahin', 'Hamrahi', 'Zameen
Aasman' and 'Gatha'.
Films were Joshi's forte
and he loved exploring various
genres such as comedy,
romance and satire. Not many
people know this about him
but he was a dubbing expert as
well! His dubbings include
mainstream movies like Hey
Ram, Appu Raja, Papa Kehte
Hain and Bhrastachar. The last
part of Joshi's career orbited
around journalism where he
did exceptionally well. Being a
part of the All India Radio and
the Films Division in Mumbai
had given him immense exposure to both broadcast and
print media. Here, he wrote
scripts for many documentaries. He became the assistant
editor of Dinmaan , a Hindi
magazine. He played another
editing role in Saptahik
Hindustan, 'English Weekend
Review' and the prestigious
'Morning Echo'. He also wrote
for Outlook India's column
'Outlook Saptahik'.
His novels and short stories, much like the writings of
the famous Gaura Pant Shivani
brought Kumaon, his home
country, prominently on the literary map of India and went
into several editions. Kasap,
regarded as one of the best love
stories in Hindi and Kuru Kuru
Swaha can be named among
these.
Manohar Shyam Joshi
passed away in New Delhi in
2006.It was after his death that
the well-known translator and
editor Ira Pande , daughter of
the legendary Shivani, translated his novella" T'-ta
Professor" into English , which
won the 2009 VodaphoneCrossword Award for the best
translation of that year.
As Khushwant Singh once
wrote, it was through this
English translation that he got
his first insight into the writings
of Joshi. "I was most impressed
by his portrayal of middle class
people — in this case, teachers
of a village school, their rivalries and affairs with lady colleagues and students. It was my
first exposure to Kumaon's
Brahmins — Pandeys, Pants,
Joshis, Tiwaris — who, like
Brahmins of other parts of
India — regard themselves as
a cut above the others."
It is amazing how sensitively Joshi wrote about the
Punjabi culture in Buniyaad,
being a non-Punjabi. The finest
nuances of the ethos of Punjab
were so easily captured by him.
He was a master of words and
his deep understanding of
emotions lent beauty to his
words. It would be difficult to
find any Indian who has not
seen or at least heard of Hum
Log. It unites numerous Indians
into collective emotions. Pride,
nostalgia, memories, family
feelings and a longing for simplicity in life and relationships.
Buniyaad was the next soap
which evoked the same kind of
response all over the country.
Doordarshan re-launched
Hum Log in its new avatar
Hum as a tribute to the rich
imagination and versatility of
the man who scripted India's
first soap, creating a
masterpiece.
emphasis on providing scholarship to
minority students and it should be
reviewed periodically in the district.
Panwar said that the received
applications of Gaura Devi Kanyadhan
Yojana should be verified by the
officers concerned and they should
ensure that intended beneficiaries are
benefited under the scheme.
Right to Education Act was also
reviewed and she said that the officers
were directed to verify whether school
fees have been transferred on
students' account.
Panwar reviewed several schemes
being run by Child Development
Department and directed the officers
to provide weak children with medical
facilities after they are identified in
Anganwadi Centre in the district.
Panwar directed the department
officers to utilise funds released under
district plan, State sector, Centrallysponsored schemes effectively.
the district.
Sources said controversy
keeps on haunting DM Yadav
all though his assignments.
He stirred controversy while
he was in Pauri district after
he had ordered the reporters
to leave his office.
Later, however, he sought
apolog y. The same was
repeated a few days after he
assumed charge as DM of
Dehradun.
When Mussoorie MLA
Ganesh Joshi along with his
supporters went to meet him
at his camp office to register
complaint in regard to
Panchayat election he asked
the media persons to get out
and later he asked the MLA to
persuade his followers to
leave, threatening him with
FIR in case he did not fall in
line
while
dangling
model conduct of conduct
norms remaining then in
force in the district.
1edX_bYdYUcYW^_bUY\\UWQ\
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T
he illegal refilling of LPG
cylinders in the main market along the highway in
Lalkuan continues to pose a
danger here. Some shopkeepers, frustrated with the failure
of the authorities to prevent
such anomalies, have put up
signs stating ‘illegal gas filling
area’ in places where this practice continues unabated. They
complain that there have been
incidents of fire resulting from
illegal refilling of gas cylinders
many times in the past but the
authorities appear to be
waiting for some major mishap
to take place.
This highway is used by
trucks transporting gas daily to
the cooking gas bulk plant and
scores of tankers are transport
to the Indian Oil depot which
is also nearby. Inspite of the
volatile nature of the commodity being transported
through this road, the authorities have continued to ignore
the illegal refilling of gas cylinders in the market area here.
Those who run shops near sites
used for this illegal activity say
that this blatant crime also
creates the risk of fire.
They complain that in spite
of having complained repeatedly to the authorities, the
officials are yet to initiate any
action in this regard which has
made those involved in the illegal refilling of LPG cylinders
more confident.
The traders further point
out that the gas agency owner
is abetting those involved in the
illegal activities. Shopkeepers
Ramesh Pathak and Anil
Melkani state that the traders
will be forced to undertake agitation if immediate action is
not taken to clamp down on
this activity. Meanwhile, the
Tehsildar Anand Singh
Bhandari said that the administration will work in cooperation with the Food and Civil
Supplies department and take
stringent action against those
refilling gas cylinders illegally.
The Kotwal Vipin Chandra
Pant said that he should be
informed about such activities
by the public which will result
in immediate action against
those violating the law who will
be arrested.
The sub divisional magistrate Harvir Singh said that the
gas agency owner will also
face strict legal action if found
involved in the illegal gas refilling business. Action will also be
taken against the shop owner
or any other commercial unit
if a gas cylinder is found to be
in use without necessary
safety arrangements.
BcPcTW^^SPRcXeXbcP__[XRP]cb
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ppealing to those who had
taken part in the
A
Uttarakhand Statehood movement to complete all necessary
formalities while applying for
getting the status of a statehood
activist, the district administration, Almora, claims to have cancelled 118 applications out of 138
pending before it for seeking the
status of Statehood activists.
A total 138 applications
were received from the people,
seeking the status of statehood
activists, out of which only 20
applications have been found
correct, given the laid- down
norms for granting the status of
a statehood activist, said the officials concerned of the district
administration, Almora.
Notably, among other documents, local intelligence report
and some other police records
like daily diary, FIR, medical
report, to name a few, are
required to identify the statehood
activists, informed the officials
concerned of the district
administration, Almora.
Those applicants who have
not yet submitted these aforesaid
documents with their applications may submit the same at
their respective area tehsil. More
so, such applicants are also
advised to be in touch with the
respective area SDM, added the
officials concerned of the Almora
district administration.
Besides, they may also contact Manoj Masiwal, associated
with the justice department of
the district collectorte, Almora,
on his mobile number
9410953170 in case of any
doubt, added the officials concerned of the Almora district
administration.
At the same time, the
Almora district administration
has also directed the officials
concerned to deal with the statehood activists identification
process carefully and dispose of
such matters on a priority basis.
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ith dust and heat of electoral politics steadily setW
tling down after completion of
a series of elections in the
state, the improved position of
Congress in the 70-member
State Legislative Assembly
after it bagged all the three
seats up for grabs in the
recently concluded by- polls,
has made many within the
party to eye the solitary Rajya
Sabha seat from Uttarakhand
which keeps lying vacant
since the incumbent — senior
BJP leader Bhagat Singh
Koshiyari — was elected to the
Lok
Sabha
from
Nainital-Udham Singh Nagar
parliamentary seat.
The battle is likely to be an
interesting one as, at least,
three party satraps — former
Chief
Minister
Vijay
Bahuguna and State Congress
president Kishore Upadhyay
are said to have thrown their
hats in the ring.
“There are several contenders in Vijay Bahuguna,
Kishore Upadhyay and others
as of now from the party,” said
Dhirendra Pratap, while talking to The Pioneer.
But finally the party's high
command would take the final
=P]SPAPY9Pc
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N
anda Raj Jat Yatra began
from Munsyari's Martoli
village in Pithoragarh for the first
time on Friday. The Nanda Raj
Jat Yatra was launched from
Martoli village with traditional
rituals, said CS Martolya,
convener of the Nanda Raj
Jat Yatra.
The Yatra reached Rilkot
around 10 am where the
villagers welcomed the devotees
on the pilgrimage. It reached
Bagudiyar on Friday evening
and the same will leave for
Lilam on Saturday morning,
added Martoliya.
Meanwhile, the district
administration Bageshwar has
also directed the officials concerned to complete all the preparations for the Nanda Raj Jat
Yatra. Notably, Kotbhramari
Temple in Bageshwar is one of
the main points of the Nanda
Raj Jat Yata route.
Since devotees from Almora
also stay at the Kotbhramari
Temple premises along with
devotees from Bageshear, the
Bageshwar
district
administration, therefore, has
directed the officials concerned
to take the necessary steps on
time to ensure smooth journey
of the devotees.
:XbW^aTD_PSWhPh
EXYPh1PWdVd]P
call, added Pratap. “But my
point is that the Rajya Sabha
members should be elected
from Uttarakhand. No outsider should be pushed up,” he
said. For instance of Shushma
Swaraj being elected a Rajya
Sabha member from the state,
he said, she had seldom visited the state. “She cared not
visit to show empathy for the
suffering people even
when the natural calamity
struck the state hard last year,
he alleged.
As Congress is enjoying a
clear- cut majority in the State
Legislative Assembly with the
support guaranteed from its
alliance partners, the candidate to be put up by it is sure
to win the
Rajya Sabha
election.
Notably, the ruling party's
tally went up to 35 in the 70member House after it had
bagged three seats in the
recently concluded by- elections. Besides, it has support
from seven MLAs from
alliance partners. BJP’s present
strength is 28 in the House.
However, it would be
interesting to see to what
extent the Chief Minister
Harish Rawat who has so far
succeeded to have his way in
managing things within the
party and the Government in
the state, is able to lead things
his way over the Rajya Sabha
election in the coming days.
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D
istrict Magistrate/ District
Election Officer (panchayat) Chandra Sekhar Bhatt
said that the election of Deputy
Pradhan in all gram panchayats in the district will be held
on August 29. The nomination,
scrutiny, withdrawal of nomination, allotment of symbol,
polling of votes will be held the
same day from10 am to 4 pm.
After these procedures are over
the counting will commence
and result will be declared
thereafter.
For the election of Deputy
Pradhan, district election officer has called a meeting of all
gram panchayats in the concerned gram panchayat headquarters on 29 August and the
meeting could be organised in
the building of gram
panchayat, a primary school
or in a public place.
With the necessar y
changes, the process of the
election of deputy pradhan
will be the same as election of
gram panchayat and all
processes of the election will be
held in the concerned gram
panchayat, added Bhatt.
Bhatt said nominations for
the posts will be filed from 10
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to 11 am, scrutiny will be done
from 11 to 12 pm, withdrawal
of nomination from 12 to 12.30
pm and the allotment of symbol to contesting candidates
from 12.30 to 1 pm. The
polling will be held from 1.30
to 3.30 pm and the counting of
votes will start from 4 pm.
The general election of
1207 deputy pradhan of gram
panchayat in the district
includes the elections of deputy
pradhans in Thallisain
block -107, Nainidanda-88,
Pauri-63, Jahrikhal-72, Khirsu43, Pokhara-58, Kaljikhal-86,
Paubo-74, Beerokhal-101,
R i k h i n k h a l - 8 1 ,
Yamkeshwar-86, Ekeshwar-81,
Dwarikhal-96, Duggada-102
and Kot block-69.
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A
large number of students in
the State eying admission
seem to have trained their
focus on DAV (PG) College
while there is a large number of
seats in other Government
degree colleges lying vacant. A
centralised admission process
is the need of the hour and
sooner or later, the
Government will have to
implement this process in the
State. This was what some
educationalists said while talking to The Pioneer on Friday.
A higher education department officer said there are 95
government degree colleges
and government- aided degree
colleges which are affiliated
with HNB Garhwal University,
Sri Dev Suman Uttarakhand
University, Kumaon University
and others. DAV (PG) College
is the only college in the state
where around 35, 000 students
are enrolled in various bachelor, post graduation courses till
last year.
However, there are several
government degree colleges,
especially in mountainous parts
of the state, where very few students are enrolled. According
BcdST]cb`dTdTU^aPS\XbbX^]bPccWT30E?62^[[TVTX]3TWaPSd]^]5aXSPh
to him, most of the students
long to enroll in the DAV
(PG) College because they are
interested only in appearing in
the
examinations.
In
Government Degree College,
Majra Mahadev and GDC,
Gairsain, around 80 students
are studying here and around
200 seats have been allocated
by the University for admissions in various bachelor
degree courses. The introduction of centralised admission
process is prerogative of the
University and the state may
ask the state university like Sri
Dev Suman Uttarakhand
University to implement centralised admission process in its
<P]VTbW:d\Pak?X^]TTa
affiliated colleges.
SGRR (PG) College
Admission Cell in-charge and
head of Chemistry department
AK Gupta said that several universities, including Delhi
University and Meerut
University, have adopted centralised admission process and
the students are given options
in the centralised admission
forms to choose the college and
based on their rankings in the
merit list, students are allocated college. Students may
choose private college too if
they fail to get admission in the
colleges of their choice.
Sri
Dev
Suman
Uttarakhand University Vice
Chancellor US Rawat said,
“Following the direction of the
state government, we are working on giving affiliation to the
government degree colleges
and government aided degree
colleges. As of now, there is no
such proposal and we may
think over this if such a proposal comes.”
An associated professor
said given the available infrastructure, Sri Dev Suman
Uttarakhand University cannot
introduce centralised admission process. But if the
Government
starts
preparation now this state university may introduce centralised admission process from
the next academic year.
“Centralised admission process
is need of the hour and sooner or later, the Government will
have to implement this process
in the State,” he added.
³DaVT]c]TTSU^aPfPaT]TbbP\^]VUPa\Tab´
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^]cf^fWTT[Ta ?=BQ 347A03D=
sector in India
]^X]YdaXTb
has undergone significant
Agriculture
?=BQ 347A03D=
laims of self regulation by
C
the city bus operators
appeared to vanish into thin
air when a speeding city bus
hit a two-wheeler rider near
the clock tower of the city on
Friday, luckily the youth
ridding the two-wheeler did
not sustain any injuries.
The incident infuriated
the passerby as they caught
hold of the driver and gave
him a sound thrashing, the
police had to intervene to save
the driver. This is third incident of accident involving
city buses in less than a
month.
When contacted the
President of the city bus association VV Dandriyal claimed
that the two wheeler riding
youth came from the wrong
side and he did not possess a
driving license also. He said
that the matter was resolved
and no case was registered.
Dandriyal said that the association is committed to implement the code of self regulation in a bid to check the cases
of over speeding and bad
behavior.
The union in a face saving measure had undertaken
a drive in which it ensured
that the all the divers and
conductors wear a uniform
and give tickets to all the passengers.
It also asked the drivers to
remove the music systems
and asked them to refrain
from over speeding. There are
250 city buses in Dehradun
which are plying on 13 routes
of the city.
structural changes in the form
of decrease in share of GDP
from 30 percent in 1990-91 to
17.4 percent in 2013 indicating
a fruit processing shift from the
traditional agrarian economy
towards a service dominated
one, but more than half of the
total workforce (about 52 %) is
still employed by the agriculture. These days, we continuously observe that there is an
urgent need for awareness
amongst the farmers about the
latest practices in farming and
crop protection. There is a
need for investment in storage
facilities easily accessible to
farmers. Local products need to
be promoted within India and
abroad to create more demand”
said Dr Neeraj Anand while
addressing in a conference title
Agro Supply chain conference
(ASCC_2014), organized by
University of Petroleum &
Energy studies (UPES) in its
campus on Friday.
Chief guest Vijay Sardana,
Co-chairman, Agri Business
Committee, PHDCCI stressed
on the fact that the main reason for rise in the price of vegetables, fruits and other agro
products is the huge gap which
currently exists in management of the supply chain in
India.
Dr BS Negi, Mission
Director, National Horticulture
Mission, informed the audience
on various steps taken by the
Uttarakhand government
including the state governments focus on promoting the
food processing industry in
the state. To promote the spice
sector the state government
will shortly establish three mini
spice parks at three different
locations in Uttarakhand.t these
will cater to the entire value
chain of this sector.
Arun Dhand, Director –
Media Affairs(UPES) disclosed
that conference is being supported by institutions like
NABARD and National
Horticulture Mission was very
well received across the country and participants were from
many states including
Uttarakhand, West Bengal,
Rajasthan, Orissa, Gujarat,
Tamil Nadu & Uttar Pradesh.
Speaking at the valedictory function, the chief guest
Anil Taneja, resident Director
of PHDCCI Uttarakhand chapter informed the audience on
various activities which the
Uttarakhand which PHDCCI
chapter has undertaken to promote and assist the food processing industry in the state of
Uttarakhand.
Present on this occasion
were Dr S. J. Chopra, chancellor of UPES, Dr Rajesh Tripathi,
Assistant professor , deptt of
strategic management, faculty
and students of UPES.
´AeQ\YdiX_ecUcV_bebRQ^`__bd_RU
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?=BQ 347A03D=
he State Housing and Urban
Development Minister Pritam Singh
T
Panwar chaired a meeting here on Friday
to review the Integrated Housing and Slum
Development Programme (IHSDP). The
Minister told the officials concerned that
houses for the urban poor will be
constructed in a phased and time-bound
manner and no compromise will be made
with the quality of the construction.
Responsibility will be fixed at the directorate level for this purpose.
The Minister also told the officials to
review the work efficiently on receiving the
progress report from the executing agency
every 15 days. Panwar clarified that funds
under the programme will be received
from the Government of India only on the
condition that 70 per cent of the funds
received earlier will be utilised and the utilisation certificate will be submitted to the
Government of India. During the meeting
chaired by Panwar, a proposal for the State
government allocating C1170.96 lakh for
completing construction of homes and Rs
2693 lakh for infrastructural development
was also presented. The officials considered presenting this proposal in the meeting of the State cabinet.
Officials of the Urban Development
department informed that while 650
homes have been facilitated through the
urban local body level, 1532 homes
approved on 16 sites are yet to be constructed. These will require C3065 lakh on
the basis of per unit cost.
This construction will be facilitated
through the beneficiaries on the lines of
the Pauri model. Similarly the number of
partially constructed homes is 1314 and
C20.80 crore is required to complete these
constructions, informed the officials. The
minister said that in case the construction
of homes is yet to be started, the construction should be facilitated through the
beneficiaries.
He also directed that the executing
agency should facilitate completion of work
on 1314 homes constructed to varied
extents in a phased manner. Secretary, Urban
Development DS Garbyal, additional director, Urban Development Navdip Pandey,
executive engineer, Urban Development,
Ravi Pandey and other officials were also
among those present in the meeting.
B_PRTRad]RWX]T\TaVT]RhfPaSWXcb_PcXT]cb
?=BQ 347A03D=
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he shortage of space in the
emergency ward of the
T
Doon hospital here is creating
6094=3A0B8=67=468Q
347A03D=
problems for both the patients
and the staff. Large numbers
of patients visit the emergency
and trauma ward of the hospital daily.
Emergency ward of the
hospital has 14 beds and one
Emergency Medical Officer
(EMO), six nurses and four
class IV employees are on
round the clock duty here. To
meet the requirement the
hospital authorities have
placed seven more beds in the
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8=C7460;;4AH
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bite which are reported in the
Doon hospital.
The hospital has reported 5367 cases of dog bite till
August 21 this year. These
cases are treated by injecting
serum and the vaccines
which are very costly.
The hospital data reveal
that apart from cases of dog
bite 88 cases of cat bite, 20
cases of rat bite, seven cases
of monkey bite, five cases of
bear bite, two cases of leopard bite and one case each of
fox, squirrel and eagle
arrived in the hospital
this year.
The animal bite cases
are treated with the anti
rabies injection and as these
injections need to be kept in
deep fridge this facility is
available only at the Doon
hospital, district hospital
Rishikesh and Mussoorie
hospital in the district.
The increasing stray dog
menace in the city is one the
major cause of dog bite cases.
Narrating his experience
Radhyshyam Sharma a resident of Kaulagarh said that a
stray dog pounced upon
him when he was opening
his shop.
He said that the state
government should under-
take a mass sterilization drive
of the stray dogs of the city.
Another victim of stray dog
bite Nadeem a resident of
Biharigarh said that the government would save lot of
money it spends on the vaccines if the population of
dogs is kept under check.
The chief Pharmacist KC
Kukreti informed The
Pioneer that the quantity of
the vaccine is decided by the
body mass index of the
patient, for example a 10 kg
child needs 1.5 ml of vaccine
while a 75 kg person needs to
be injected 10 ml of vaccine.
The State Government
spends about Rs 250-300 on
the vaccination of every
case of animal bite.
Roorkee said that he is admitted here for last two days and
added that the do ctors
regularly check him. Not satisfied by the treatment in the
ward the relatives of Tej
Bahadur of Rajendra Nagar
locality decided to shift him
to a private clinic.
The Principal Medical
Superintendent (PMS) of
Doon hospital Dr RS Aswal
admitted that the problem of
space is there in the ward.
He however added that
problem would be sorted out
when the construction work
which is in progress in the
neighboring room is
completed, after which more
space would be available in
the ward.
The Uttar Pradesh
Nirman Nigam is agency
which is assigned this task
and is expected to complete
the work soon.
Aswal said that after
adding more space 24 beds
would be available for the
patients of emergenc y
and trauma.
When inquired about the
preparedness and the
resources available in the
emergency ward during the
cases of mass causality, Dr
Aswal said that the additional beds are made available
during such cases and more
doctors are pressed into service as per the requirement.
he dog bite cases constitute almost 98 per cent of
T
the total cases of animal
BcaTcRWTab_[PRTS^dcbXSTcWTT\TaVT]RhfPaSX]3^^]7^b_XcP[c^R^_TfXcWcWTX]RaTPbX]V]d\QTa^U_PcXT]cb ?X^]TTa_W^c^
gallery of the ward which
result in space crunch.
Due to shrinking space,
the ward appears too crowded and a situation of chaos
prevails as the patients, their
relatives and hospital staff
appears to jostle past each
other. The staff posted at the
ward acknowledged the space
constraints and said that more
manpower is also needed in
the ward.
One patient with injury
on leg Doorbin Singh Yadav
said that the doctor has not
seen him though he was
brought here about an hour
ago. One of the patients
Sufian who sustained head
injury and was referred from
³B^d]SbhbcT\
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\^aTTUUTRcXeT
?=BQ 347A03D=
T
he Doon hospital has
installed a modern
sound system which is
used for conveying
messages and the playing
devotional songs to sooth
the nerves of the patients,
but it appears that the hospital authorities have failed
to
understand
the
problems the patients and
their relatives face at the
hospital inquiry.
The construction of
the inquiry is such that
there is quite a space
between the inquiring
person and the receptionist which causes problems
in the communication.
The inquiring persons
have to repeat their questions and crane their necks
and ear to listen the reply
of the receptionist. The
receptionist told The
Pioneer that a small sound
system should be installed
in the inquiry which would
make the work easier.
]PcX^]#
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?=BQ =4F34;78
N
ext time you visit a 5 Star
or 4 Star hotel and do not
find a liquor bar there, don’t be
surprised. As per the Tourism
Ministry’s new guidelines, it
will not be mandatory for 5 Star
or 4 Star hotels to have a liquor
bar on the premises to get
the “Star” tag.
The Tourism Ministry will
just scrutinise the level of facilities and amenities to assign
them Stars. Till now alcohol
service was essential for hotels
seeking classification under
the categories of 5 Star, 5 Star
Deluxe, 4 Star, Classic Heritage
and Grand Heritage.
“Considering the longstanding demand of the hotel
industry, the Ministry has
taken the progressive step of
classifying 4 Star, 5 Star hotels
in non-heritage sector and
classic category hotels in heritage sector without insisting on
0b_TacWTC^daXb\
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fX[[YdbcbRadcX]XbTcWT[TeT[
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the presence of a bar that
serves alcohol on the premises,” said Tourism Minister
Shripad Naik on Friday.
According to the new
guidelines, hotels in the categories of 5 Star and 4 Star in
non-heritage sector and classic
category hotels in heritage sector can now be classified as “5
Star with alcohol service”, “5
Star without alcohol service”, “4
Star with alcohol service”, “4
Star without alcohol service”,
“Classic Heritage with alcohol
service” and “Classic Heritage
without alcohol service”.
“This decision would provide flexibility to hotel owners and management to take
considered decision on
whether to provide alcohol
service or not in their units,”
a senior official said.
This is yet another relief
for the hotel industry. On
Thursday, the Tourism
Minister had announced simplification of classification
process for hotels by cutting
the number of mandatory
approvals from 17-18 to two.
The Ministry will only seek
‘trade’ and ‘bar’ (where applicable) license from the hotel
owner. Instead of numerous
approvals, a hotel owner must
now produce an affidavit with
an undertaking that the
approvals have been
taken from the respective authorities.
Earlier,
the
Ministry used to seek
certificates of clearances from the
Environment
Ministr y, police,
pollution board, fire
services and airport,
among others.
To protect the
interest of customers,
the official added, all
classified hotels have
been asked to mandatorily
make their precise classification status known on the
1A845B
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3TWaPSd])8]PQXSc^X\_[T\T]ccWTD]X^]6^eTa]\T]c³bbRWT\T
PQ^dcc^QdX[S b\PacRXcXTbP]SP[[^RPcTSAb&%Ra^aT
DccPaPZWP]SV^eTa]\T]cWPbQTVd]cWTXaW^\Tf^aZ8]eXTf^UcWXb
RWXTUbTRaTcPahR^]eT]TSP\TTcX]VfXcWDccPaZPWP]S8]UaPbcadRcdaT
?a^YTRcbR^\_P]h_dQ[XR[X\XcTSD8?2X]bTRaTcPaXPc^]5aXSPh
B>280;F4;50A434?C>558280;BBC064?A>C4BCB
opening page of their website
and also declare the status
clearly on their promotional and marketing material
without any abbreviations.
The classification of
hotels in Star and heritage
categories is a voluntary
scheme wherein classification is granted based on
inspections undertaken by a
committee comprising of representatives
of
hospitality/travel trade,
Tourism Ministr y, State
Government and hospitality
experts. The key objective of
the classification is to certify
minimum acceptable standards of services and infrastructure of the hotel, based
on globally acceptable best
practices. The classification
process has been one of the
very prestigious and acceptable certification of services in
the hospitality sector, the official added.
3;AeVR^^VVed8¶aReZ /RFDO%-3OHDGHU 5DMQDWK
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:ADB7=0270=3A0?0=30Q
1A07<0?DA
A
team of senior BJP leaders
led by State president KV
Singh Deo met family members of deceased nursing student Sunita who committed
suicide on August 13 last due
to non-receipt of the stipend
from the Government in time.
The team met family members of Sunita at their
Diptinagar residence at
R Udayagiri in Gajapati district
and held discussions with the
family members about the circumstances that led to the suicide by the girl.
Among others former
Deputy Speaker of Assembly
and BJP Krushak Morcha
national vice president Rama
Chandra Panda, Remuna MLA
Govinda Pradhan, Chillika
MLA Bibhuti Bhusan
Harichandan, State BJP Mahila
Morcha president Sumantini
Jena, BJP leaders Samir
Mohanty, Bibhuti Jena,
Biranchi Tripathy, Prabhat
Parida, former Mayor
%HWLEDGKDR
From Page 1
The report said the analysis of major causes of institutional deaths during 2013 as
per
International
Classification of Diseases,
reflects that 8.25 per cent
deaths were due to septicaemia, 4.47 per cent due to
3XUXOLDGLVWULFW
Sibasankar Das, Bhrugu
Baxipatra, Saroj Sabat besides
party workers, social workers,
and scribes met the victim
family members.
The leaders after meeting
the bereaved family held the
State Government responsible
for the death of the nursing student. The leaders demanded
stern action against the Project
Director/Administrator of the
Coordinated
Tribal
Development Organisation
who is mainly responsible for
delay in releasing the stipend.
When the district Collector has
been transferred in this tragic
incident, why the Government
is protecting the Project
Administrator in the case, the
leaders questioned. The State
BJP will soon discuss the matter with the Union Tribal
Welfare Minister Jual Oram to
provide necessary assistance to
the deceased family, said Singh
Deo to mediapersons.
In addition to financial
assistance to the family, efforts
will also be made to find out a
mechanism to provide assistance to the brother and sister
of Sunita to continue their
studies, Singh Deo pointed out.
While expressing concern
over this tragic incident, the
leaders alleged that neither the
SC/ST students are well treat-
ed nor they are paid their
legitimate stipend in time in
various educational institutions in the State. Besides, he
said proper and hygienic food
under midday meal (MDM)
scheme is also not given to the
hapless students.
The BJP will demand
before the Union Ministry for
Tribal Welfare for a thorough
investigation into all irregularities, Singh Deo pointed out.
Senior BJP leader Panda
demanded justice to the
deceased family and job to one
of the family members of
Sunita so that the remaining
members of the family can continue their study and sustain
their livelihood.
Notably, after the girl committed suicide due to perpetual harassment in getting her
stipend, the State Government
first transferred district
Collector Basudev Bahinipati
and directed RDC (Southern
Division) Bikas Mohapatra to
probe the matter and submit a
report. The RDC (SD) is investing into the matter since
August 19, sources said.
On the other hand,
Additional District Collector
Sunil Kumar Nayak has paid an
assistance of C1 lakh to the family members of Sunita on behalf
of the district administration.
tuberculosis, 4.52 per cent
due to disease of the pulmonary circulation and other
forms of heart diseases, 4.19
per cent due to shock, 3.19 per
cent due to cerebrovascular
diseases, 2.82 per cent due to
diabetes mellitus, 2.43 per
cent due to liver diseases and
2.26 per cent due to
pneumonia.
B^]X]82DPUcTa
bdXRXSTQXS1XWPa
<X]RaXTbaPVVX]V
?=BQ 90<B743?DA
A
BJP leader of Chandil
was shot dead by two
armed
assailants
at
Raghunathdih village under
Bagmundih police station
area in Purulia district of
neighbouring West Bengal, in
the wee hours of Friday. The
victim was identified as Anil
Chandra Gope (50), a resident
of Triludih in Chandil subdivision of East Sighbhum
district.
According to sources, the
slain leader Gope had gone to
his
native
village
Raghunathdih. He was an
active member in BJP both in
Jharkhand as well as in
Bengal. At the time he was
murder, he was at his house in
Raghunathdih village.
Officer-in-charge,
Tir uldih p olice station,
Umesh Upadhyay said that
the investigation was on and
it was too early to reach to a
conclusion. He noted that
dreaded criminal Chhadnu
Ansari along with his associate had attacked Gope at a
f ield in R aghunathdih
village.
The officer-in-charge said
that the assailants had come
by a bike and they ran away
From Page 1
Even doctors attending on him at Apollo hospital said it does
not seems a case of suicide but that of suspected case of throttling,” the Minister alleged.
He added that his son had complained to his mother in the
past about harassment from seniors. “But, we never thought the
matter was so serious,” he said.
Asked if he has lodged any complaint with the police in the
incident, Singh said “presently we are busy saving life of the child.
But will take up the matter with the school authority definitely.”
Hospital authorities said that the patient was brought to the
hospital on Thursday morning at 8.30 am in a very critical condition and was immediately attended to by a team of experts.
“He is being provided appropriate medical care by a competent
multidisciplinary team of senior consultant doctors and is under
constant monitoring and observation on ventilator support in
the ICU,” said the hospital officials.
6WUD\
From Page 1
Funding will be provided
for prophylactic vaccination
and ABC measures for stray
dogs in and around tiger
reserves under the ongoing
centrally sponsored scheme of
Project Tiger.
The NTCA has also
decided that special teams
should be constituted in and
around tiger reserves involving NGOs working for animal
welfare to deal with the stray
dog problem and that a standard operating procedure be
developed for dealing with
stray dogs in and around
tiger reserve.
Initially, these measures
will be implemented at
Corbett in Uttarakhand,
Ranthambhore in Rajasthan,
Kahna and Panna in Madhya
Pradesh, Mudumalai in Tamil
Nadu and Tadoba-Andhari
in Maharashtra.
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eX[[PVT
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7TfPbP]
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f rom the place after
shooting him.
Upadhyay said that the
police team from Jharkhand
had recovered the assailants’
bike and later handed it over
to the Bagmundi police station. According to officer-incharge of Tiruldih police,
Chhadnu Ansari is wanted by
the police in several districts
in Jharkhand, including East
Singhbhum district and
Seraikela-Kharsawan where
he is accused of murder
and robbery.
The officer-in-charge said
Gope had also a criminal
background and was
also accused of committing
murder.
=`A_VVUd
UVWZ_ZeZ`_+D4
From Page 1
It said that at the time of
passing of the Lokpal Act,
such a situation was not envisaged.
When the LoP post was
denied to others, there was no
law which allowed the LoP to
play a role in selection of an
important post. Now, with a
clear mandate given under
law to the LoP in selecting
Lokpal, CVC, CIC, NHRC
Chairperson, there will be a
vacuum in the selection
process in the absence of a
LoP,” the Bench said. It directed the AG to come back with
his response on the next date.
From Page 1
The Government will be
filing an “appropriate reply to
the Supreme Court” in response
to Aziz’s decision to approach
the apex court, he said. Qureshi
is the first Governor to move
Supreme Court against the
Modi Government.
Earlier,
the
NDA
Government had sacked
Mizoram Governor Kamla
Beniwal (87), who had served
in Gujarat earlier and had a
running battle with Narendra
Modi when he was the State’s
Chief Minister.
Virendra Kataria, a former
Congress leader, was also
sacked as Puducherry Lt
Governor last month. Four
other Governors - MK
Narayanan (West Bengal),
Ashwani Kumar (Nagaland),
BL Joshi (Uttar Pradesh) and
Shekhar Dutt (Chhattisgarh)
had put in their papers apparently after they were telephoned
by the Union Home Secretary.
Two former Law Ministers
- Kapil Sibal and Salman
Khurshid - had termed Home
Secretary’s calls to the Governor
as unconstitutional as Quereshi
had taken charge of the office
on May 15, 2012 for a tenure of
five years.
A Bench headed by Chief
Justice RM Lodha had granted
six weeks time to Centre and
Goswami to file their response
on the allegation levelled by the
Governor and referred the case
to five-judge Constitution
bench observing that interpretation of Article 156 (Term of
office of Governor) is involved.
Qureshi had said in his
petition that Centre and the
Home Secretary should be
asked on whose behest he was
threatened and urged the court
to “reprimand and pass strictures against such person(s)”.
Qureshi said in his plea that
after NDA Government came
to power at the Centre,
Goswami had called him on
July 30 and asked him to tender resignation and made it
clear that he will be removed
from office if he does not step
down. On August 2, Qureshi
handed over in person his
explanation to the President in
a confidential communication
and similar intimation was also
made to the Home Minister, the
petition said, adding that the
copies of the communication is
also filed in a sealed envelope
for court’s perusal.
3TWaPSd])3T\P]SX]VaT\^eP[^U3TWaPSd]SXbcaXRcb^RXP[fT[UPaT
^UUXRTa0ecPaBX]VWfW^WPSP[[TVTS[h\PSTRPbcTR^\\T]cbP]S
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he Central Government is
planning to change the
T
labour laws in an attempt to
increase privatisation in the
country and 16 labour federations of the country has
decided to oppose the antilabour policies of the
Government, said the National
President of All India Defence
Employees Federation SN
Pathak while addressing the
newsmen here on Friday. He
said that Federation would
oppose the government’s decision to allow Foreign Direct
Investment (FDI) in defence
sector. Pathak claimed that the
government is planning to
bring changes in the Labour
law of 1946 and Trade
Apprentice Act of 1961 in
order to curb the powers of the
trade unions. He informed
that the leaderships of the
labour federations would meet
in Delhi on September 15 and
deliberate on the future course
of action.
Pathak said that the federation has submitted the draft
of its demands to the pay
commission.
He said that the federation
has demanded that the benefit of pension should be
extended to employees who
are recruited after January 1
2004. He informed that the
federation has proposed that
the minimum wages for a
high school pass candidate
should be Rs 33000 per
month.
BTQX^aSTab_^]iXUXa\c^aTUd]S
From Page 1
Accordingly, Sebi’s wholetime member Prashant Saran
also has now ordered appropriate proceedings against
PACL and its nine promoters
and directors - namely
Tarlochan Singh, Sukhdev
Singh, Gurmeet Singh,
Subrata Bhattacharya, Nirmal
Singh Bhangoo, Tyger
Joginder, Gurnam Singh,
Anand Gurwant Singh and
Uppal Devinder Kumar, as
also other persons in default,
for violations of various Sebi
regulations.
With immediate effect,
PACL along with its four
promoters and directors Tarlochan Singh, Sukhdev
Singh, Gurmeet Singh, and
Subrata Bhattacharya - have
been asked to abstain from
collecting any money from
investors or launch or carry
out any CIS scheme.
Besides, they have been
also asked to wind up all the
existing Collective Investment
Schemes of PACL Ltd and
refund the collected monies,
with returns which are due to
its investors as per the terms
of offer, within three months.
Thereafter within 15 days,
they have been asked to submit a winding up and repayment report to Sebi, including
the trail of funds claimed to be
refunded, bank account statements indicating refund to the
investors and receipt from
the investors acknowledging
such refunds.
Sebi has also asked them
to immediately submit a complete and detailed inventory of
the assets owned by PACL
Limited, while they have been
barred from alienating or disposing off or selling any of the
assets of the company, except
for the purpose of making
refunds to investors.
If the company and its
directors and promoters fail to
comply with these directions,
they would be barred from
securities market and Sebi
would make a reference to the
State Government/Local
Police to register a civil or
criminal case against them
“for offences of fraud, cheating, criminal breach of trust
and misappropriation of public funds”.
Sebi further said it would
also make a reference to the
Ministry of Corporate Affairs
to initiate the process of winding up of PACL Limited, while
it “shall also initiate attachment and recovery proceedings” in the event of failure to
comply with its directions.
Sebi said that Anand Gurwant
Singh had resigned in the
year 1996. Besides, Nirmal
Singh Bhangoo and Uppal
Devinder Kumar resigned in
1998.
Singh was the director of
PACL since incorporation,
while Bhangoo and Kumar
had resigned only after the
press releases issued by government and Sebi.
Therefore, they are liable
and responsible for the violations committed by PACL in
running CISs without obtaining registration from Sebi. As
of March 31, 2014, PACL had
4.63 crore customers and an
amount of Rs 29,420.65 crore
outstanding against these customers. The company has
only lands worth Rs 11,706.96
crore “out of which it has not
only to satisfy the claim of
4.63 crore customers who
have deposited 29,420 crore
with it but also to satisfy 1.22
crore customers to whom the
land has been allotted but sale
deeds have not been executed.”PACL, which has
mobilised close to Rs 50,000
crore from 5.85 customers, has
paid huge amounts as commissions to its agents.
As of March 31, 2012,
‘loans and advances and other
assets’ stood at Rs 9,350.33
crore, including prepaid commission and other expenses
worth Rs 4,182.14 crore,
“which is a very high amount
in proportion to the total
sales value.”
Considering the facts, Sebi
said it can “be satisfactorily
said that the transactions
between PACL and its customers are not real estate
transactions simpliciter, and
they satisfy all the ingredients
of a CIS...It is clear that the
business run by the PACL is
nothing but that of a CIS.”
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?=BQ =4F34;78
week-long tour by MPs of
A
BJP and Shiv Sena to the
US to study Genetically
Modified (GM) crops was cancelled on Friday following pressure from the RSS and
Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM).
The tour was sponsored by
global seed giant, Monsanto.
MPs are understood to
have been told that in future
foreign tour relating to BJP parliamentarians would be first
cleared by Prime Minister’s
Office(PMO).
“No BJP MP will be part of
delegation sponsored by
Monsanto”, tweeted RSS leader
7>?4B ³CA8?´?8=6.
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and BJP General Secretary Ram
Madhav during the day, indicating strong disapproval to the
sponsored tour. Soon after SJM
leader S Gurumurthy tweeted
“Shocking BJP MPs going on a
tour funded by Monsanto to
visit its headquarters”
Within few hours,
Gurumurthy tweeted again
confirming cancellation of tour
by the government. BJP leadership has conveyed that “the
BJP MPs told not to got to
Monsanto tour. MPs told not to
accept foreign tour without
PMO’s yes”, said the SJM leader.
The MPs were to fly to
America on Saturday, weeks
after the Government overruled
field trials for 15GM crops.
Party
spokesperson
Shahnawaz Hussain said the
party has not given go ahead to
the tour that stands cancelled.
BJP MP from Siwan Om
Prakash Yadav and the party’s
Bulandshahr MP, Bhola Singh,
Prataprao Ganapatrao Jadhav
and another Shiv Sena MP,
Krupal Balaji Tumane, MP from
Ramtek were among the members of the delegation. Others in
the group included two MPs
from Andhra Pradesh, one each
from Gujarat and Rajasthan and
four each from Uttar Pradesh
and Bihar. BJP MP from Aligarh,
Satish Gautam, claimed he had
opted out of the visit.
Altogether 20 MPs were
offered invitation by the Seed
giant. The MPs were to attend
a ‘Farm Progress Show’ in
Iowa, then visit the Monsanto
headquarters in St Louis,
Missouri. The trip would have
cost an estimated C363,540 per
head for travel, food and
accommodation, Monsanto
official have reportedly said.
The US company was of
view that parliamentarians with
interest in agriculture and seeking to advance their knowledge
of agricultural technology had
responded to the invitation.
On July 29, Environment
& Forests Minister Prakash
Javadekar overruled the recommendations of the Genetic
Engineering
Appraisal
Committee (GEAC) and put a
halt to the field trials of 15 GM
crops, including of brinjal and
rice, after protests from SJM
and Bharatiya Kisan Sangh,
organisations backed by the
RSS. The US company said
that the trip had no connection with Government overruling the field trials.
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?=B Q =4F34;78
D
efence Minister Arun Jaitley
will take stock of operational
preparedness of the Army on the
India-China border and the status of infrastructure development there during his visit to
Eastern Command, Kolkata on
Saturday. He will also review the
progress of raising the Mountain
Strike Corps for facing any challenge from China.
In his first visit to the eastern sector after assuming
charge as Defence Minister, he
will be briefed about the
Mountain Strike Corps at its
base headquarters in Panagarh,
West Bengal. The previous
UPA Government had given
the nod for the Corps in July
last year and the raising including building infrastructure
began early this year.
The Corps will cost the
exchequer more than C80,000
crore which includes recruitment
of 40,000 personnel and acquisition of specialised weaponry for
9PXc[ThP]SBdWPV´beXbXcc^4PbcTa]
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fighting a war in the mountains
facing China in the east and in
Ladakh region. The Army will
raise the Corps in a period of five
to seven years.
Army Chief General
Dalbir Singh Suhag will also be
present during Jaitley’s tour
and incidentally Suhag is also
visiting Eastern Command for
the first time since taking over
as the Chief in July. He will
also visit some posts in
Arunachal Pradesh and Assam
to review preparedness, officials said here on Friday.
As regards infrastructure,
India lacks behind China as it has
built roads right up to the Line
of Actual Control(LAC) besides
airfields and rail network in the
Tibetan plateau. India shortlisted 73 roads as strategically
important and
construction
of most of
these roads
in behind
schedule.
Moreover, Jaitley
a n d
S u h a g ’s
visit to
Eastern
Command
comes at a
time when
China is repeatedly transgressing the
LAC and the
figure stands at
more than 340
incidents till
July end.
S_^cdbeUT* :QYd\Ui
New Delhi: Amid criticism from
various quarters over his “small
rape incident” remark, Union
Finance Minister Arun
Jaitley on Friday clarified
on the controversy saying
he never referred to any
particular case and that
he did not intend to
trivialise any crime,
particularly those
against women.
“I regret that the
statement has been
construed or some
words that I have
used have been construed as insensitive. That
was never my intention,”
Jaitley said.
The minister was referring to his remarks made at
the annual state tourism
ministers’ conference on
Thursday that “one small incident” of rape in Delhi, advertised
world over, was enough to cost
India millions of dollars in terms
of global tourism.
While Congress leader
Rashid Alvi termed the remarks
as “most unfortunate,” scores of
Mahila Congress workers staged
protest at the Minister’s residence. Member of National
Commission of Women Nirmala
Sawant condemned the remark.
Jaitley said he has always
been outspoken on issues relating to crimes, particularly those
against women. “I am very sensitive to these issues myself and
there is no question of trivialising any crime or any particular
incident. I had not referred to any
particular incident,” he said. The
Minister said he had spoken “in
general” on how crime can hurt
tourism and the image of crime
against women itself dissuades
tourists from coming to India.
Though he had not specified any
incident, his remarks were seen
to be a reference to the rape and
brutal assault of a paramedic girl
on December 16, 2012. PNS
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=4F34;78
resident Pranab Mukherjee
on Friday described IITs as
P
“knowledge leaders” of the
nation and asked them to explore
how quality of education can be
improved and good governance
brought in to help the institutes
of higher learning compete with
the best in the world.
Inaugurating a first of its
kind day-long conference of
chairmen, board of governors
and directors of IITs at
Rashtrapati Bhavan, Mukherjee
called upon the Council of IIT’s
to draw up a roadmap for governance in line with the best
global practices and implement it without any delay.
Prime Minister Narendra
Modi, and HRD Minister
Smriti Irani were also present
at the conference.
“There is need for soul
searching on what is holding
back good governance in insti-
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tutes of higher learning. If our
institutes of higher learning
are to compete with the best in
the world, governance of these
institutes must be comparable
to the best in the world,” he said.
The President also shared
the concerns of the Prime
Minister over the country’s
dependence on other countries
for import of technology from
security features and papers for
Indian currency to defence
equipment despite having technical capabilities to put satellites
of other countries into space.
“We need to see how the
technologies developed by IIT’s
and future research in IIT’s can
be used to meet the technology requirements of the nation.
The Council of IIT’s should
focus on how IIT’s can become
a source for meeting technology needs of Government and
become a harbinger of the
vision — Make in India and
Made in India,” Mukherjee said.
Speaking on the occasion,
the Prime Minister asked the
IITs to come together to find
innovative solutions to the problems of the common man. He
said they should take up the
challenge of making products for
which India is critically dependent on imports. “Science is universal. Technology must be
local,” the PM said, calling upon
IITs to bring about a “positive
change” in the quality of life of
the people in the country.
Citing examples of a range
of defence and health sector
equipment and sensitive and
security-related items like currency ink and tear gas which
are imported, he exuded confidence that India has the talent to produce them indigenously. “I refuse to believe that
India does not have the talent
to make these things” the PM
said, asking the IITs to take up
such challenges. Modi also
asked them to contribute
towards user-friendly innovation in Indian Railways.
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?=B Q =4F34;78
ocial Justice Minister
SFriday
Thawar Chand Gehlot on
demanded the resignation of chairman of the
National Commission for
Scheduled Castes PL Punia.
Gehlot said Punia
should step down on
moral grounds as he
was nominated by the
outgoing Congress
Government.
“After there is
change in the
Government, the
appointees and nominees of those parties
should not continue
as the chairman of
the Commission on
moral grounds,” he said on the
sidelines of a Conference of
Ministers of Welfare in States
and Union Territories in the
Capital on Friday.
“The Chairman of
National Commission for
Scheduled Castes is a Congress
man. Henceforth, he should
not continue as the Chairman
of NCSC,” he said.
Addressing the gathering, he
said his Ministry was catering to
over 70-crore population in the
country comprising SCs, OBCs
and differently-abled people.
Gehlot also said that a survey would be conducted to
enumerate the number of
transgenders in the country to
list them as a third
gender.
Expressing
concern over nonutilisation of funds
by some State
Governments, he
said,
“People are
under the impression that one
should bribe to
avail benefits of
Government
schemes, particularly, those
implemented by the NGOs. I
appeal to all to increase the
monitoring system on implementation of schemes.”
In his address, Sudhir
Bhargava, Secretary, Ministry
of Social Justice and
Empowerment said 90 per cent
of the ministry’s funds are
being spent through state governments.
?=B Q =4F34;78
T
he two largest political parties — the Congress and the
BJP — heaved a sigh of relief on
Friday as the Supreme Court
decided to examine a Delhi
High Court verdict faulting
them for failing to disclose
receipts of foreign contributions over the years to the
Election Commission.
In its appeal, the Congress,
led by senior advocate Kapil
Sibal, argued that the High
Court verdict of March 28,
2014 failed to consider a crucial
aspect whether an Indian citizen living abroad who owns
majority stake in a foreign company can contribute to a political party, which will not be classified as a contribution from a
“foreign source” and hence, will
not attract prosecution under
Foreign
Contribution
Regulation Act, 2010 (FCRA).
The bench headed by Chief
Justice RM Lodha was quick to
point out, “This was not argued
in High Court,” even as it
admitted the appeal and issued
notice to the Centre, BJP and
8]XcbP__TP[cWT2^]VaTbbPaVdTScWPccWT72
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Election Commission besides
Association of Democratic
Rights (ADR), the NGO that
approached the High Court.
While the matter got posted for hearing after eight weeks,
Sibal pleaded for stay on operation of the HC direction to
launch prosecution against the
party. The Bench, also comprising Justices Kurian Joseph
and Rohington Nariman did
not favour a stay. Instead, it
granted liberty to the party
concerned to approach the
Court as and when any “coercive action” was undertaken
either by the Ministry of Home
Affairs or the poll panel.
Bhushan said that Sibal’s
argument was misconceived as
a company which is registered
outside India is a foreign entity. The law treats it as a legal
entity for purposes of making
contributions. If such a company had made contributions into
the coffers of the two national
parties, it amounted to contribution from a foreign source. As
this amount was undisclosed to
the EC, the parties were liable
for prosecution under FCRA.
While there was no dispute
over the sums of crores of
rupees received by the political parties from UKbased Vedanta and its
Indian subsidiaries Sterlite and Sesa Goa,
Sibal suggested that
Vedanta’s majority stakes
were held by an Indian
Anil Aggarwal, who is situated abroad. Bhushan protested
that such an interpretation
would render the FCRA meaningless as contributions are seen
from companies and not individuals manning the companies.
?=BQ =4F34;78
he Supreme Court on
T
Friday emphasised the
need to have a law in
each State to prevent vexatious litigation.
The Bench headed by
Chief Justice RM Lodha said,
“In Maharashtra there is a
Vexatious
Litigation
(Prevention) Act of 1971 that
needs to be enacted by every
state.” The court was dealing
with a petition filed by one
Nutan Thakur, a resident of
Uttar Pradesh who was
restricted from filing petitions
in the Allahabad High Court
unless she deposited a
sum of C25,000.
In the event her
petition was entertained, she could
reclaim
the
demand draft submitted along with the
petition. If not, the
money stood forfeited in
favour of the Court.
This money would be
received by Court in addition
to any cost being imposed on
her for filing the frivolous
petition.
Till date, she had to her
credit 86 petitions filed in
High Court. Her counsel
Anoop Chaudhary took the
plea that a citizen’s right to file
a petition cannot be curtailed
in this manner.
The apex Bench, which
also comprised of Justices
Kurian Joseph and Rohington
Nariman said, “There is
nothing extraordinary about
this order. All that it asks you
to do is to deposit C25,000.
It does not curtail your
right to file a bonafide PIL. Its
only to ensure that
you don’t henceforth file frivolous petitions.”
An attempt was made by
the Law Commission in 2005
to recommend a law on
lines of the Maharashtra law
and the Madras Vexatious
Litigation (Prevention) Act
of 1949.
It sought to identify litigants f iling petitions
“habitually and without reasonable ground” who once
declared as frivolous litigant
could file any petition only
with leave of court.
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sking India to maintain a
constant vigilance against
A
Ebola, the World Health
Organisation (WHO) has
warned that a single case of
deadly virus would be disastrous for the country which has
a teeming population.
The WHO is working
with Health Ministry to formulate a “preparedness plan”
to deal with any eventuality if
there is an outbreak of Ebola
in the country.
Presently, the disease is
restricted to four West African
countries-Guinea, Liberia,
Sierra Leone and Nigeria. India
has been proactive in keeping
surveillance against the disease.
But it needs to continue doing
it so because a single case of
deadly disease here could
prove disastrous for the country, Nata Menabde, WHO representative to India told
reporters on Friday.
“Preparation is a very crit-
ical aspect. WHO is working
with the Ministry of Family
Welfare and Planning to ensure
that we put into place preparedness measures. It doesn’t
mean it is going to happen, but
we are prepared if it happens,”
said Asheena Khalakdina,
Team Leader, Communicable
Disease, WHO Country office
for India.
She said the countries
should be prepared to deal with
an outbreak scenario. “We have
outbreak measures in place
and in India we are looking at
airports and other entry
points.”
Khalakdina said there were
gaps related to infection control
practices and the WHO was
working with the government
to deal with them.
“It requires a great amount
of effort to reach a 100 per cent
(in preventing an Ebola case in
country). The Ministry is very
serious (in handling the situation). Even before the pan-
demic was announced the
Minister (Harsh Vardhan) discussed some measures to go
about in this,” she said.
India is tracking each passenger arriving from the affected countries by the Airport
Health Organisations based on
the information provided by
the External Affairs Ministry.
They are being monitored by
the Integrated Disease
Surveillance Programme.
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ok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan has appointed BJP’s veteran leaders Murli Manohar Joshi and Shanta Kumar as chairpersons of Estimates Committee and Committee on Public
Undertakings respectively. Senior leader LK Advani is also a
member of the panel on Public Undertakings.
Joshi took charge of the Committee on August 19 after it
was constituted on August 14. With former Union Minister
KV Thomas from Congress taking over as the chairman of
PAC, the three key financial committees of Parliament have
been constituted.
The Committee on Estimates scrutinises the functioning of
government ministries and departments in terms of expenditure
and utilisation of funds. It also suggests alternative policies in
order to bring about efficiency and economy in administration.
The 30-member Committee on Estimates has members from the
Lok Sabha alone.
The Committee on Public Undertakings consists of 22 Lok
Sabha and seven Rajya Sabha members. It examines reports and
accounts of public undertakings as well as CAG reports on PSUs.
By convention, while PAC is headed by a senior Lok Sabha
member from the Opposition, the Committee on Estimates and
Committee on Public Undertakings are headed by senior Lok
Sabha MPs from the ruling party. For the past four years, the PAC
was headed by Joshi. The panel which scrutinizes the CAG report
often locked horns with government on its findings on 2G scam,
Coalgate and reports related to defence and finance sector.
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major controversy erupted
over the missing phoA
tographs of Prime Minister
Narendra Modi at Vidhana
Soudha, the corridors of power
in Karnataka. The ruling
Congress Government, led by
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah,
has not bothered to display
photographs of the Prime
Minister in the offices of Chief
Minister and Ministers at
Vidhana Soudha. The main
Opposition BJP was up in arms
and ready to protest — considering the action as an example
of the CM’s politics of hatred
and an insult to PM Modi.
The BJP alleged that the
State Government has insulted
the Constitution and the NDA
Government at the Centre by
not installing the photographs
of the PM in the chambers of
Ministers and State Secretariat.
Addressing the media in
Bangalore, BJP spokesperson
CT Ravi said the party would
take the initiative if the
Government fails to install
PM’s pictures in the next few
days. It is has been always a
convention to display the Prime
Minister’s photos in all prominent Government offices and
Ministers’ chambers.
However, the Secretariat
officials feel as if it is not
mandatory. Even during the
BJP’s tenure, they displayed
Manmohan Singh’s photographs in all the offices,
including the CMO.
According to S Prakash,
BJP media in-charge, it is an
insult to the polity and the BJP
will protest the attitude of the
arrogant CM, who recently
compared the PM to Hitler.
He said, “It is a custom and
convention to display the photographs of the Prime Minister
in all the Government offices.
This act of the Congress
Government and the CM is
71$µSHDFHSDQHO¶PHHWV6XVKPD
?=BQ =4F34;78
he Indian Government has
questioned the timing of
T
Pakistan High Commissioner
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change the democratic composition of the northern province.
“We have explained the position
currently prevalent on the
ground in the north and the
east. The difficulties people are
facing, the aggressive program
implemented by the Lankan
Government to change the
democratic composition of the
northern and eastern provinces
and the cultural and linguistic
identity of the areas,” said TNA
leader R Sampanthan. The delegation will meet PM Narendra
Modi on Saturday.
Abdul Basit’s interactions with
seperatists in New Delhi saying
the Foreign Secretary level
talks were only to prepare the
roadmap for future dialogues
and nothing substantive this
time. “So why bring the separatists in between?”
Basit had claimed that ‘consultations’ with separatists prior
to Foreign Secretary-level talks
was part of the process to
‘engage all stakeholders’
on the issue of Jammu
& Kashmir, which the
Ambassador termed as
bilateral dispute. India
called off the talks and
bluntly told Pakistan
that there are only two stakeholders in this matter —India
and Pakistan. The Pakistani
diplomat while terming the
cancelation of talks unfortunate, said both countries should
move forward.
However, in a snub to this
statement, Ministry of External
Affairs spokesperson Syed
Akbaruddin said: “In diploma-
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C
oming at time when the sands
of Goa undergo their annual
purge, the Bonderam float parade
festival is a smaller version of its
more popular infamous twin — the
Goa Carnival.
Nonetheless, the festival is celebrated on August 23 and owes its
existence to village boundary disputes in the colonial Portuguese era
and continues to hold on to some of
its old world charm even today.
Streamers deck the village in
remembrance of the Portuguese
regime’s method of demarcating village boundaries to avoid fistfights
between groups of villagers, while
troupes of children and adults hold
costume parades remembering
everything ranging from traditional
lifestyles to modern political issues
like that of corruption, nepotism, etc.
As a long-time participant in the
local village celebration, Annabelle
Heredia explains, “All we need is the
excuse to celebrate. The celebration
brings the village together and feel
proud that at least for once the atten-
tion is on us.” Sometimes referred to
as quaint, at other times queer, the
festival in the island village of Divar
is today a major tourist attraction
with both locals and tourists thronging to see the colourful floats, which
might not exactly match the state
sponsored carnival, but retains the
old world charm.
And not without reason. Being
held on an island whose only links
is via a fifteen minute ferry the island
has evolved differently from the
rest of the State.
Having a slower pace of life,
agrarian economy and completely
bereft of any high rises, the island
also boasts of familial relationships
among its 40,000 odd inhabitants.
The original inhabitants of this
island were people who once lived in
Old Goa but had to leave during a
disastrous plague that greatly
reduced the population of Old Goa.
Contrary to popular perception,
the celebration does not have religious
connotations or origin. Instead, arose
as an imitation of villagers of two main
wards of the village Piedade and Sao
Mathias who used to, in an attempt to
bring down, fling stones at poles of
flags erected by the Portuguese administration to demarcate the boundary
between the two wards.
The word Bonderam emerged as
a corruption of the Portuguese word
‘bandeira’ which means flag.
Consequently there are two ‘bonderam’ festivals celebrated in the villages by the respective wards — Sao
APYPbcWP]2WXTU<X]XbcTaEPbd]SWPaPAPYTT]Y^hbP\TP[Pc6PSPaXhP1PbeX[[PVTX]APYPbcWP]^]5aXSPh
8]SXP`dTbcX^]bcX\X]V^U
1PbXcbT_PaPcXbcbSXP[^VdT
?=BQ =4F34;78
n a bid to seek deeper and
‘pro-active’ Indian involveIment
in resolving the ethnic
Tamil problem in Sri Lanka, a
delegation of Tamil National
Alliance (TNA) from the island
country met External Affairs
Minister Sushma Swaraj on
Friday. The TNA leaders are
here to push their case for full
implementation of the 13(A)
amendment to the Sri Lankan
Constitution that stems from
India-Sri Lanka peace accord
signed in 1987. The amendment stipulates devolution of
powers to the provinces which
was centre of ethnic conflict.
The six-member TNA delegation made a presentation to
Swaraj detailing their perception
of the political environment in
Sri Lanka and their engagement
with its Government.
According to officials,
Swaraj emphasised the need for
political solution that addresses substantially the aspirations
of Tamil community in Lanka
for equality, dignity, justice
and self-respect within a framework of united Lanka.
The TNA MPs complained
about the alleged attempts by
the Lankan Government to
senseless and politics of hate.”
In the war of words
between Siddaramaiah and the
State BJP leaders, the BJP
accused the Chief Minister of
suffering from some physical
and mental illness. The retaliation from the BJP came a day
after CM Siddaramaiah compared Modi to Hitler, and BJP
leader Ravi hit back saying that
Siddaramaiah constantly falls
asleep during meetings which
indicates that he is in fact ill. He
said, “Now that he equated the
country’s Prime Minister to
Hitler, further proves that he
suffered mental illness.”
Reacting to Ravi’s comments, Siddaramaiah said that
he stands by his remarks of
likening Modi to Hitler.
Speaking to reporters, he said,
“I still stand by my comments.
Modi has centralised all the
power to himself and is not
giving any opportunity to his
Cabinet colleagues. I made
the remarks in this context.” He
further said: “Ravi lacks political maturity and still has a lot
to learn.”
Mathias which celebrates it on the second Saturday of August and the bigger Bonderam celebrated at Piedade
on the last Saturday of August.
The Tourism Department is
only to happy to promote the festival, with its director seeing it as a
welcome relief during an otherwise
lean time of the year.
“During weekends like these, off
season does not seem like off season
anymore,” he said adding that the
residencies offered by them were
reporting around 80% occupancy. “It
gives people an excuse to come down
and that’s all they need,” he said. He
however, admitted that other than
the weekends the monsoon packages
are not doing as well as they should.
The Goa Tourism department
on its part promotes the festival
among its guests in a bid to monetize it. Locals, however like to keep
it on a small scale, if only so that it
does not go the carnival way.”What’s
special of this festival is that its made
up of people’s participation. There
are no commercial dancers, or professionals, but nonetheless we are
taking it forward,” Heredia added.
cy it is not always about saying
the right things at the right time.
It is also about avoiding to say
the wrong things at any time.”
He added that when
Government of India takes a
decision it takes all factors and
every situation into account.
“In this case we were not having
talks but we were going to have
talks. Our understanding was
these talks were to be about talks.
These were not any substantive,
meaningful engagements but
were only going to lead to that.
Therefore, we felt that it would
not serve any purpose in an
environment when there
were diplomatic discussions on how to go about
it. A series of action were
taken which were not
conducive to proceed
ahead,” said Akbaruddin.
The spokesperson added
that a possible meeting between
Prime Minister Narendra Modi
and Nawaz Sharif on the sidelines of the United Nations
General Assembly in the
United States of America could
have been discussed during the
Foreign Secretary talks. “But
since she didn’t go it is not
there,” said Akbaruddin.
?[P]_P]T[)2<X]U^a\b
?<^U:TaP[P´bR^]RTa]b
Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Chief
Minister Oommen Chandy has asked
Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take the
States into confidence before making any
structural changes to the Planning
Commission.
In a letter written to the
Prime Minister on the subject, the Chief Minister said
that Modi’s announcement
in his speech on the
Independence Day about
the Centre’s plan to replace
the Planning Commission with another
body had raised several concerns for State
Governments. State Minister for Planning
KC Joseph told newsmen in
Thiruvananthapuram on Friday that
Chandy had informed the Prime Minister
about Kerala’s anxieties in matters including the future of the Five-Year plans.
Chandy pointed out in the letter that
the plan allocations for the states and states’
share of Central schemes had so far been
decided by the Planning Commission
comprising independent economic experts.
He wanted to know whether this would be
done with justice if the responsibility was
given to the Union Finance Ministry.
?C8
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n a move to assure the liquorfree-Kerala-in-a-decade policy, the Congress-led ruling UDF
announced that the same was
not a political gimmick but a
sincere initiative, Chief Minister
Oommen Chandy on Friday
declared that the Gandhi Jayanti
day, October 2, would be the
base date for starting the implementation of the various measures contained in the policy.
“Kerala will attain the goal
of total liquor ban by October
2, 2023,” Chandy said in
Thiruvananthapuram after a
high-level meeting which formally endorsed the UDF liquor
policy for the Government
without waiting for the Cabinet
to do that at its August 27
meeting. “Can you now call
our policy a political gimmick?” the Chief Minister
asked the media.
Chandy said that the
Government would close down
the 312 bars which were operating now in the State even
before the start of the next
financial year. This would be
done once the procedures were
over, he said. The Government
also endorsed the UDF recommendation not to reopen
the 418 bars which were closed
onApril 1 for lack of facilities.
According to the CM, there
are no legal impediments to
closing down the 312 bars
before their licence period (till
March 31) is over. He said the
Government would have to pay
about C45 crore back to these
bars towards the remainder of
their licence fee. With their closure, the only bars functioning
in Kerala will be at the 16 fivestar hotels in the State.
As many as 39 retail outlets
would close on the next Gandhi
Jayanti day as per the decision
to end the entire retail booze
sales in ten years. Of these 39
outlets, 34 belong to the Kerala
State Beverages Corporation
(Bevco), the State-owned
monopoly liquor distributor
which has 338 shops, and five
belong to the Civil supplies
Corporation which is running
46 shops.
The plan is to close down
all the retail outlets in ten
years by closing ten per cent of
the shops every year. The initiative to make all Sundays ‘dry
days’ would start on October 5,
the first Sunday after Gandhi
Jayanti. A five-per cent cess
would be imposed on the price
of liquor which would go to the
fund for employees’ rehabilitation and anti-liquor campaigns,
he informed.
When asked how the
Government was going to bear
the loss of revenue from the
liquor sector, Chandy said, “It
is true that we are going to lose
a lot of money. But that cannot
be considered a huge loss when
we take into account the losses we are suffering through the
health problems, accidents, rising crime rates, etc caused by
alcohol consumption.”
At the same time, the communist parties, obviously outsmarted by anti-liquor move of
the UDF and the CM, resorted to criticising the policy
even when claiming that they
too were against booze.
State CPI(M) secretary
Pinarayi Vijayan said the
Government was trying to
overcome its crises through the
Prohibition move.
Banning liquor totally cannot be done at one go but it
should be done through stages,
Pinarayi said. “We welcome the
policy of banning liquor totally. But the Government could
have done this much earlier,” he
said, adding that the liquor policy of the party-led Opposition
LDF would be revealed when
it came to power.
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ragrances from the North-East, a
festival of films and cultural heritage of the Northeastern States of
India, kicked off in the Capital from
Friday. Five-day 13th International
ABU Asia-Pacific Robot Contest
(ABU-ROBOCON) organised by
Doordarshan also began on the
same day in Pune. The first-ever
Chinese film shot in India with
Sino-Indian theme will make a
debut in China soon
The NE film festival is being
held at the Sirifort Auditorium
organised by the Directorate of film
festivals of the Information and
Broadcasting Ministry (I&B).
The opening film of the festival
will be Khawnglung Run (The Raid
of Khawnlung) in the Mizo language. The 122-minute-long movie
has been directed by Mapuia
Chawngthu. The closing film will be
RI: Homeland of Uncertainty in
Khashi directed by Pradip Kurbah.
he list of IAS officers division between Telangana
T
and Andhra Pradesh is not
matter of surprise or worry for
the two States, as the senior
most officer occupying the
key positions will remain in
their places.
Telangana Chief Secretary
Rajiv Sharma and his counterpart in Andhra Pradesh IYR
Krishna Rao will remain in
their respective positions.
Similarly, in the list of IPS
officers too, there were no disputes as the DGPs Anurag
Sharma or Telangana and JV
Ramudu of AP will also retain
their places.
On the whole, 163 IAS
officers were allocated to
Telangana cadre and 211 to
Andhra Pradesh.
Tirumala
Tirupati
Devsthanam Executive Officer
MG Gopal will however lose
his position as he has been
shifted from Andhra Pradesh
to Telangana.
The other IAS officers allocated to Telangana cadre
include Smita Sabharwal, special Secretary in CM’s office,
Rajeshwar Tiwari, Shanta
Kumari, Rahul Bojja, Ajay
Mishra, Anil Singhal, JSV
Prasad, Veena Ish, A K Parida
and Sanjay Kumar.
Officers allocated to
Andhra cadres include Satish
Chandra, Ajay Jain, Shweta, SN
Mohanty,
While the process of division of officers of All India
ser vices was completed
smoothly, division of State
employees was still tied in
the knots.
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Other films being screened are:
Yarwng in Kokborok by Joseph
Pulinthanath; Phijigee Mani in
Manipuri by O Gautam Singh;
Sonam in Monpa by Ahsan Muzid
and Ajeyo in Assamese by Jahnu
Barua. ABU-ROBOCON, on the
other hand is a TV programme
where students compete with their
hand-made robots. The contest aims
at encouraging scientific tempera-
ment of undergraduate engineering
students in the Asia-Pacific region.
These events also offer opportunity
to broadcasting agencies for advancing their technological skills and
international cooperation.
This year, broadcasters and
ROBOCON teams from 17 countries will be participating in this
contest. Prominent participants
include Japan Broadcasting
Corporation (NHK), Russia State
TV & Radio Broadcasting
Company (RTR) and Egyptian
Radio and television Union (ETU).
The theme of ABU-ROBOCON is
“A Salute to Parenthood”.
The Chinese film My amazing
trip to India, graphically portrays the
travails faced by a Chinese traveler
in the country will be released soon.
According to Nirupama Kotru,
Director, (Films), Ministry of
Information and Broadcasting the
two countries are close to reach an
agreement on co-production of
films which could be finalised during the visit of Chinese President Xi
Jinping’s to India.
New Delhi: Several FIRs were registered across
the country against controversial activist
Teesta Setalvad on Friday for uploading
derogatory photo of Goddess Kali and drawing comparison with the beheading of a US
journalist by the ISIS on her Twitter account.
The controversial activist’s action led to
widespread outrage in the social media. Teesta
posted a collage of photos of the Goddess
beheading the demon and the brutal beheading of the US journalist by ISIS, and stated that
both the acts were condemnable.
Several people, especially from Kolkata,
filed FIRs in different police stations demanding action against Teesta. Later in the day as
the issue generated much heat, she deleted her
photo compilation and apologised for her act.
She claimed the derogatory picture was
uploaded by mistake. “Image was still to be
worked upon put by mistake. No intention to
upset anybody. Apologies,” she tweeted.
Teesta is already facing the heat for siphoning huge funds meant for riots victims. She is
accused of misusing the money for purchase
of liquor, shopping of diamonds and settling
her credit card dues.
PNS
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n what could give goosebumps to top Trinamool
brass, jailed ponzi kingpin
Sudipto Sen (now in custody of
the Central Bureau of
Investigation) has revealed the
names of “four very influential
politicians” including two MPs
and two Bengal Ministers, considered very close to Chief
Minister Mamata Banerjee, in
connection with the multicrore chit-fund scam.
The CBI was also trying to
know, under whose instructions he had fled Kolkata in
April 2013 after his business
collapsed, and whether the
politicians he had named were
in touch with him while he was
on the run before being arrested from Sonmarg in Kashmir,
officials who quizzed Sen for
hours on Friday said.
Curiously Sen had left a letter for the CBI before he fled
Kolkata. The CBI has found
that only portions of the letter
was leaked to the media while
the names of some “big fishes”
given in its annexure were
held back.
Incidentally the Chief
Minister had soon after Sen’s
escape had “conjectured “ about
his whereabouts saying he was
somewhere in North India.
The Agency sources also
said that top East Bengal Club
official Debabrata Sarkar who
was arrested on Wednesday
evening, following marathon
grilling, had told them about
two more Club officials
through whom the chit cash
was routed to other sources
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including business ventures.
Sarkar had invested hugely in tourism industry in Goa
from his ill-gotten money that
he extracted from Sen by using
threats. In fact the CBI had earlier recovered from Sarkar’s
house “show-cause” letters written by SEBI to Sen. The
recovery of the letter written by the
SEBI to Sen from
Sarkar’s house tended to lend credence
to Saradha boss’s
claim that he gave
money to many people including Sarkar “to
manage” the SEBI and other
market regulators.
The other two officials of
the football club would also be
summoned soon sources said
adding the CBI sleuths would
carry on further investigations
in Goa where Sen’s money was
invested in hospitality industry.
The CBI sources also said
quoting Sen that out of a
monthly C70 lakh given to
Sarkar C35 lakh were paid to a
senior SEBI official and C10
lakh was given to “one Mr Sil
of the RBI.” The agency sources
said they were “gathering more
information on the issue” and
could soon interrogate the
SEBI and RBI officials.
On whether the CBI would
interrogate State Textiles
Minister SP Mukherjee and
Trinamool Rajya Sabha Ahmed
Hassan Imran already summoned by the Enforcement
Directorate, sources said “soon
a host of them would be
called for interrogation as
CBI has enough evidence
in its hands.”
Imran who was the
editor of two proTrinamool newspapers
and channels was last year
sent to Rajya Sabha by the
Trinamool Congress. The ED
investigating the money-laundering part of the Saradha
scam has reportedly found that
Hassan had bought over the
media houses from Sudipto Sen
without having paid the price.
Meanwhile, a senior
Trinamool Congress leader and
State Transport Minister Madan
Mitra whose name has repeatedly come up for his alleged
links with Sen was on Thursday
admitted to a private hospital in
Kolkata even as he complained
of breathing problems.
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A
metropolitan court in
Ahmedabad admitted a
2,000-page closure report filed
by Ahmedabad police on
Friday in connection with the
alleged Model Code of
Conduct violation case during
the last Lok Sabha elections
against then Gujarat Chief
Minister Narendra Modi.
The case was filed against
Modi, who after utilising his
franchise to vote in the Lok
Sabha polls on April 30th, 2014
had taken selfie from his mobile
while showcasing BJP’s symbol
‘Lotus’ in front of camera and
also addressed a Press conference near a polling booth.
The case has been disposed of and a clean chit to
Modi given by police and the
court. While accepting the closure report the court said that
no case was made out against
the PM Modi. Thus the court
has disposed off the case.
On the basis of a complaint
filed by the Congress, the
Election Commission of India
(ECI) had diverted the matter
to the Gujarat Government.
The report said that neither
Modi nor his party had given
invitation to the media to
interact with him outside the
polling booth.
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“The re-arrest was made to
avoid further deterioration of
her health”, said Manipur
Deputy Chief Minister
Gaikhangam while speaking to
the media on Wednesday.
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what is being viewed the
of a nervous reacItionnproduct
of the Trinamool goon
brigade against the rising
organisational prowess of the
saffron outfit in Bengal, yet
another BJP leader was shot
dead in the State on Friday
morning, police said.
Anil Gope a BJP block
president of Baghmundi block
in Purulia district bordering
Jharkhand was shot from point
blank range when he was out
on a morning walk, district SP
NS Kumar said, adding the
police immediately rushed to
the place and found that he had
died on the spot. The incident
took place at Raghunathdihi
village of Baghmundi.
Party district president BP
Singhdeo said Gope was an
active worker and “those who
were threatened the most by our
rise in the State have killed him.
It is surely a political killing.”
n yet another action against
a party legislator for his ‘antiparty activities’ JD (U) president Sharad Yadav, on Friday,
suspended Islampur MLA
Rajiv Ranjan from the party for
six years. Earlier, the party
had suspended four MLAs,
while serving notice to many,
citing the same charge.
Rajiv Ranjan, the JD (U)
MLA from Islampur Assembly
constituency of Nalanda district, has recently been pushing
both the party and the
Government to the corner
while raising issues of “unabated corruption and the newlyfound alliance with the RJD”.
Recently, when the JD (U)
MLA had embarrassed the
Jitan Ram Manjhi Government,
saying “since corruption has
become unabated, its time that
the Government should adopt
a new law by the name of
“Right to Bribe” in Bihar”.
He had also opposed the
grand alliance of his party with
the RJD saying the people of the
State would not tolerate this
alliance with the party which had
created jungle raj in the State.
“We’d been fighting against
this jungle raj for so many years
and had even come to power
on this issue and again making
an alliance with those forces
would not be forgiven by the
people of the State,” Rajiv
Ranjan had said.
JP president Amit Shah concluded his two-day visit to
B
Hyderabad with a clarion call to
the party leaders and workers in
Telangana to spare no effort to
make the party strong so that
Telangana, along with entire
South and Eastern regions, can
play a major role in the BJP’s victory in 2019 elections.
Amit Shah, who addressed
the village unit presidents of the
party from all over the state and
also met many important leaders including Andhra Pradesh
Chief Minister N Chandrababu
Naidu on second day of his visit,
laid a road map for strengtgheing the party in Telangana.
Addressing a meeting of
Telangana state executive, Amit
Shah set a target before the
State unit to garner 40 per cent
popular vote in the State by the
next elections. “To achieve this
goal we should take the party to
the people in a big way”, he was
quoted as saying in the closeddoor meeting. He told the leaders that only those people should
occupy the party posts who can
devote their time to the party
work. He cautioned that with out
strengthening the organisational structure the party can not
hope to do well in the elections.
“You should not become
complacent thinking we are in
power at the Centre. You should
work keeping in view the fact
that the party was in opposition
in the State”, he said.
He gave the same message
to the village unit presidents to
maintain a close rapport with
the masses.
However, soon after such
remarks came from the party
MLA, a JD (U) leader known
as close to Nitish Kumar, said
that “now enough was enough”
and the party would take some
action against Islampur MLA,
Rajiv Ranjan.
“Party president Sharad
Yadav has suspended Islampur
MLA Ranjan for six years for
his anti-party activities,” said JD
(U)general secretary KC Tyagi,
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Hospital, Bangalore, was suffering from multi-organ failure.
URA who started as an
English lecturer in Mysore
University rose to become VC
of Gandhi University in
Kottayam. His socially relevant
novels always critical of the system has been ver y well
acclaimed across the world.
Great intellectual, always a
rebel URA gave new dimension
to Kannada literature.
His
wife
Esther
Ananthamurthy, and daughter
Anuradha Ananthamurthy
were seen at the hospital.
A fearless critic, Ananthamurthy was always against the
system and never hesitated to
criticize the political system.
URA a close friend of Shanta-
veri Gopala Gowda steered the
socialist movement in Karnataka along with George Fernandes and JH Patel.
Born on December 21,
1932 in Melige, a tiny hamlet
near Thirthahalli Taluk of
Shimoga district, Udupi,
Ananthamurthy was the sixth
of the eight Jnanpith awardees
from Karnataka. He was presented with the award in 1994,
in recognition of the body of
his work.
A Padma Bhushan award
winner, Ananthamurthy was a
finalist for the Man Booker
Prize in 2013. He hit the limelight with his novel, Samskara,
which he wrote in 1965. The
modernist novel was made
into an eponymous movie that
set a new trend in avant garde
cinema in the country.
His other works include
Ghatashraddha, Bharatipura,
Avasthe and Bhava. Chief
Minister Siddaramaiah and
host other literary personalities
have condoled the death of this
literary giant who always
fought for social justice.
border in RS Pura area —
have been spending sleepless
nights due to regular breach of
ceasefire agreement from the
Pakistani side and continuous
shelling on the civilian areas.
Late Thursday night
Pakistan rangers once again
targeted two Border posts of
BSF in the RS Pura sector and
lobbed mortar shells in the
civilian areas to spread panic
among the natives.
The firing which started
around 1.00 am continued till
5.30 am along the International
border in RS Pura sector,official sources said.
Some of the forward villages were targeted by the Pak
rangers and several houses bore
the brunt of the Pak firing. One
villager received bullet injury on
his leg while roof tops of some
of the houses was damaged due
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to mortar shelling. In response
the BSF troops effectively retaliated the fire to silence the Pak
guns but the exchange continued till 5.30 am.
Following heavy exchange
of firing during the night the
villagers are left with no other
option but to shift to abandoned bunkers in the area to
ensure their safety.
“Our houses are regularly
targeted by the Pak rangers, our
live stock is badly hit. we can-
Tyagi also said that the party
president has directed all party
leaders to maintain discipline
and fight for social justice.
“There is no place for any
kind of anti-party activities,”
said KC Tyagi empathically in
the statement. The suspension letter has also been a
warning for other senior lead-
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The police came to the
make shift shelter around
10.30 am today, said the supporters of Sharmila while
adding that there was scuffle
between the supporters of
the activist and police when
the later came to take her
forcefully.
The supporters said that
Sharmila sports long toe nails
and one of those purportedly
broke off during the scuffle,
causing injuries to her.
“We condemn the police
action. This is unfortunate that
she has been re-arrested on a
charge which she has been
absolved of by the court only
three days ago,” Sharmila’s
brother Singhjit said.
“We are going to consult
the lawyer and plea before the
court to secure her release
again,” he said.
She has been re-arrested
under Section 309 to avoid
deterioration of her health.
Further legal proceedings are
on,” said Manipur Additional
Director General of Police
Santosh Macherla.
Police said that Sharmila
was shifted to the special ward
of the Jawaharlal Nehru of
Medical Sciences in Imphal for
medical aid.
The 42-year-old activist, on
an indefinite hunger-strike
since 2000, has spent long
years in this hospital,
which was converted into a
jail for her.
“We condemn the violent
act of the police on a non-violent activist. The arrest is in violation of the law,” said Babloo
Loitangbam, secretary of the
Manipur-based human rights
body, Human Rights Alert.
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he 1932 born Udupi
Rajagopacharya
Ananthamurthy — who won
the sixth Jnanpith award to
Karnataka in 1994 — died in
Bangalore on Friday. Dr UR
Ananthamurthy wrote extensively in Kannada and was the
great literary face of the State.
He participated in many sociopolitical movements. His novels like Samskara, Bharathipura
and other literary works have
evoked strong reaction in the
literary world. He was always at
the forefront of agitations in the
State and never hesitated to
express his views.
His comments on Modi
recently faced the wrath of the
BJP which asked him to leave
the country. URA had said that
if Modi becomes PM he would
leave this country and BJP
asked him to Pakistan. Later
URA said his comments on
Modi were misinterpreted by
few vested interests. The 82
year-old titan of Kannada literature, admitted to Manipal
arely three days after her
release, Manipur’s human
rights activist Irom Sharmila
Chanu was re-arrested by the
police on Friday from the
makeshift shelter in Manipur
capital Imphal, where she had
resumed her fast soon after her
release on Wednesday
demanding the repeal of the
Armed Forces Special Powers’
Act from the State.
Sharmila, who had been
fasting for close to last 14 years
now, was only released from
police custody on Wednesday
following direction from the
Imphal East district Sessions
court on Tuesday.
The police on Wednesday
said that Sharmila was rearrested under Section 309
(attempt to commit suicide).
not afford to stay back and
endanger our lives. After dinner we generally shift to nearby bunker to spend night”,
Karam Chand of Trewa village
said. Majority of women and
children are also shifted to
nearby bunkers in vulnerable
areas along with men during
the night. Due to paucity of
space inside the bunkers the
villagers take turn and take rest
while others stand on guard
duty outside the bunkers.
ers of the party, who have been
making statements contradicting the party’s stand.
“Our party president has
also cautioned the top office
bearers and the leaders that
they should avoid making
contradictory statements,” said
Tyagi.
Earlier, the party had suspended four party MLAs
Gyanendra Singh Gyanoo,
Rahul Kumar, Ravindra Rai
and Neeraj Kumar Babloo for
their anti-party activities. All
the four leading a group of dissident JD (U) MLAs had voted
against the official party candidate in the recently concluded Rajya Sabha poll.
The four suspended party
MLAs were also asked to present their views before the
State Assembly Speaker for
why their membership should
not be terminated from the
House. The disgruntled MLAs
have been appearing before
the Assembly Speaker with
their lawyers on a number of
occasions but “the issue
remains to linger on”.
“It’s a ploy by the party
leaders to harass us on the
direction of some senior leaders. Now we don’t have any
faith in the Assembly Speaker
for justice,” said one of them.
Meanwhile, the recentlysuspended party MLA Rajiv
Ranjan has charged that the
party has taken action against
him on the behest of RJD chief
Lalu Prasad as he has been
opposing the grand alliance
between the two parties.
&%)&&(2·V&%,FXVWRG\H[WHQGHG
Mumbai: A special court on Friday remanded CEO of Central
Bureau of Film Certification (CBFC) Chief Rakesh Kumar, arrested on August 18 in connection with an alleged bribery case, in the
further custody of the CBI till August 28. While seeking Kumar’s
custody in the alleged bribery case, the CBI officials told the court
that they had expanded the scope of its investigations to include all
corrupt practices allegedly indulged in by the CBFC’s CEO other
than the one he had been booked for. Apart from taking illegal gratifications for issuing censor certificates, Kumar was also allegedly
demanding and accepting bribes from the filmmakers during the
movie screening process, by threatening the latter he would cut certain portions in the film if the money was not paid to him. PNS
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T
he Board of Control
for Cricket in India
has gone for drastic
surgery. The coach, Mr
Duncan Fletcher, has
not been sacked, but his status has
been downgraded. From being
the boss, he will now have to
report to Mr Ravi Shastri, who
has been appointed team director, for five One Day International
and one T-20 matches between
India and England. The bowling
coach, Mr John Dawes, and the
fielding consultant, Mr Trevor
Penney, have been axed. Mr
Sanjay Bangar and Mr Bharat
Arun are now the two assistant
coaches. Mr R Sridhar will be the
fielding coach for the ODIs.
The move, unexpected to
many, clearly represents the
BCCI’s panic response to India’s
humiliating 3-1 defeat at the
hands of England in the recent
Test series. India has suffered
worse series defeats earlier, and
that too in a none-too-distant
past. In 2011, it was trounced 40 each by England in 2011 and
Australia in 2011-12. Yet neither
series was followed by a drastic
response. One reason for the
difference was, of course, that the
defeats appeared more humiliating this time because three of
them came in succession after the
country’s commanding win in the
second test at Lord’s, which had
raised expectations to the sky.
The panic is understandable.
Thanks to a rather extraordinary
run of scams, scandals and
shenanigans, the BCCI’s stock has
sunk to the lowest since one can
remember. To a vast segment in
the country, it is a malodorous
entity which has turned the gentleman’s game into an eyebrowraising business enterprise, with
the expected adverse impact on
its quality and ethics. Given the
strong emotions that cricket
arouses in this country, continued
humiliating performance by Mr
MS Dhoni and his troop might
have unleashed a massive wave of
anger and a demand for a thorough restructuring of the BCCI.
This, again, might have convinced the political powers that be
of the necessity of intervening.
But while the BCCI’s
response is understandable, the
question whether it will produce
results by itself, remains. One
would doubtless be told about the
inadvisability of expecting quick
results and the inevitability of
reconstructive processes taking
time to deliver. Valid points. The
fact, however, is that the present
measures amount to no more
than a desperate short-term bid
to shore up a crumbling structure
and divert public wrath from the
BCCI and skipper Dhoni. The
composition and functioning of
the BCCI itself needs to be drastically changed if India’s cricketing fortunes have to be revived.
A beginning has to be made
by scrapping the Indian Premier
League, which has completely
vitiated the ethos of cricket in the
country. The money it has
brought in and the huge sums
that it puts into the hands of
cricketers, has made money the
most important concern for many
of them, and performance and
excellence relevant only to the
extent they help in securing more
of the stuff. Their auctioning
has reduced their status to that of
entities that are bought and sold
from that of human beings whose
honour has no price. This, in
turn, has undermined, subconsciously or consciously, their
sense of shame over poor performance. Money is the thing.
Besides, the IPL has completely vitiated the environment
for cricket by bringing into the
arena scantily-clad young women
gesticulating wildly, and sometimes suggestively, whenever
something spectacular happens in
the field, and by instituting the
custom of post-match parties.
One can hardly blame cricketers
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if they look at, more than the
game, the fun and games to follow, and let their concentration
wander off the field. During Tests,
wives and girl-friends are reportedly a cause of distraction. The
BCCI’s reported move to restrict
the stay of these ladies during
future tours may help only if the
cricketers can be restrained from
adventures with women outside
both categories. Otherwise, things
can get worse, and not just in
terms of concentration,
The undermining of concentration, and the associated inability to sustain attention spans,
account for most of the lapses —
the inability to play the swinging
ball whether coming in or going
out, even the not-very-exciting offspinners of Moin Ali, and the
dropped catches in the slips — that
have occurred. This will become
clear if one analyses each category of failures. The basic defect
behind the shocking inability to
play swing, has been freezing into
the ‘half-cock’ position, which is
playing neither forward nor back
foot but standing rooted in the
general area of the batting crease
with the bat hanging in front.
Doing this, the batsmen, standing
in front of the wicket, have been
unable to play ball moving just
enough from the off-stump-middle-stump to middle-stump-legstump, to beat the bat and hit the
B>D=318C4
pad or the wickets. The result?
Castling or the verdict of legbefore-the-wicket. Or, in the case
of a slight contact, catches in the
leg slip or short square leg off the
bat and pad.
In the case of out-swingers,
beside the suicidal propensity to
‘fish’ — instinctively hanging the
bat out away from the body — outside the off stump, playing ‘halfcock’ to a ball pitched between the
leg stump and middle stump —
and even middle stump and off
stump — has led frequently to
batsmen being bowled or edging
catches to the slips, the gully and
behind the wicket, with the ball
kissing the outside edge of the bat
and moving away.
The ‘half-cock’ position is
basically a safety device often
adopted in the case of inability to
read the ball as it leaves the
bowler’s hand. One can drive,
through the cover, extra-cover or
the mid-off, either off the front
foot or the back foot, if one
knows that it is an in-swinger. One
would, however, edge a catch to
the cover, extra-cover or the
point, if one goes for a front-foot
drive, mistaking an out-swinger
for an in-swinger. Equally, one
would be caught in these positions, or the-wicket, or even
bowled if one goes for a fullfledged back-foot drive against a
out-swinger, moving from offstump-middle-stump (off-mid,
as one would say) to the off-stump
or just outside, the area often
referred to as the fourth stump.
Playing as an off-spinner a
top spinner that straightens out
after pitching can lead to one getting a leg-before-the-wicket decision or being bowled or caught
behind the wicket or in the slips,
the gully or the point. Not being
able to read a googly can have
equally disastrous consequences.
Cricketers playing at the first class
level, should not fail to read a ball
because of poor eyesight. They do
so because they are not watching
with deep concentration the ball
at the point of delivery.
Poor concentration, also the
major cause of India missing
one out of every two catches in
the slips in this series, is a result
of the gross debasement of the
ethos of Indian cricket. Mr
Dhoni’s inadequate captaincy,
the insane refusal to have the DRS
system, and other factors have
contributed, no more.
(The accompanying visual is
of India’s chief coach Duncan
Fletcher, former bowling coach Joe
Dawes and former fielding coach
Trevor Penney. PTI photo)
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@Q[YcdQ^c_`Ye]
Sir — This refers to the editorial, “Destroying the goodwill”
(August 22). It will be foolhardy
to believe that Pakistan will seriously work towards a solution to
the Kashmir issue. Kashmir is the
chief weapon for its Army and the
political class to remain relevant. Kashmir acts like an opium
for the Pakistanis at the time of
elections, as political parties whip
up emotions. In a sense, Kashmir
has become a cornerstone in the
Pakistani consciousness.
India should look at Kashmir
with this prism and formulate a
strategy which can bring back the
lost land to India. The reality is
that all global maps have started
showing Pakistan-occupiedKashmir as part of Pakistan.
Manu Taneja
Delhi
4U\QiUT`b_ZUSdc
Sir — Prime Minister Narendra
Modi’s criticism over the delays in
completion of several projects of
the Defence Research and
Development Organisation, with
a strong message flaying the chalta hai attitude, could not have
come a day sooner. He said that
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the challenge before India is:
“How do we complete work before
time. If the world is coming up
with some products in 2020, can
we come in the field, prepared
with the product, in 2018?”
Several of DRDO’s projects
have been delayed by many years
and have seen cost overruns, but
neither the scientists concerned
nor the research organisation
alone are to be blamed. Each of
our scientists is able and has selfdevotion. Still, we are lagging.
Gulab Shanker Singh
Lucknow
I_WQWebe
Sir — If millions around the
world today swear by yoga, a large
part of the credit goes to BKS
Iyengar and his innovative methods. Iyengar, who went from
being a disease-stricken child to
one of the world’s foremost yoga
teachers revered by the likes of
Yehudi Menuhin, Jayaprakash
Narayan, Jiddu Krishnamurti and
Sachin Tendulkar, has passed
away. Interestingly, Western
celebrities such as actor Annette
Bening, fashion designer Donna
Karan and writer Aldous Huxley
were among his students.
KS Padmanabha
Secunderabad
@Ude\Q^dQddYdeTU
Sir — This refers to the editorial, “No leader of Opposition”
(August 21). There have been
voices asking the Narendra Modi
Government and also Lok Sabha
Speaker Sumitra Mahajan to be
generous in recognising a
Congress nominee as the Leader
of Opposition.
The Congress has claimed
that the Modi administration
does not want the Opposition in
crucial appointment panels where
the Leader of Opposition is usually a member.
If all through India’s parliamentary history, it has been customary that only a party having
at least 10 per cent of the total
number of Lok Sabha seats, is to
be recognised as the Leader of
Opposition, is the Lok Sabha
Speaker supposed to ignore it?
The maximum that the
Government can do at this stage
is make a provision in the rulebook that the leader of the largest
party in the Opposition will be
allowed a position on crucial
appointments committees.
MC Joshi
Lucknow
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T
he geographical logic has greatly
animated the geopolitical contours of
the South Asian region. Its impact on
external and internal policies is effectively
illuminated in the foreign policies, which
have been adopted by the South Asian
states at various points of time. Indeed,
an appropriate example of this dialectical interaction between the internal and
the external is manifested in the sectar<437018B7C
ian strife being witnessed by Pakistan.
The Pakistan Security Report 2013, published by Pakistan
Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS), a think-tank based in
Islamabad, has claimed that the number of sectarian conflicts
has increased since 2011. It notes that Baluchistan has bore the
brunt, followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa/FATA, Sind and then
Punjab. The means adopted in the various incidents of violence
and an understanding which has been arrived at for addressing these episodic events reveal an emerging triad among sectarian groups, extremist groups and covert and overt support
by political parties. This emerging trend suggests that not only
this triad will exacerbate the societal fabric of Pakistan, but also
polarise the polity and society of Pakistan, further raising the
broader questions associated with the nature of leadership exercised in post-colonial states.
In an article published in 1972, Pakistani sociologist
Hamza Alavi made an attempt to theorise the nature of state in
post-colonial societies. Taking Pakistan as a case study, Alavi
advanced the idea that the concept of state is not primarily an
extension of class interests, as believed by the Marxists, but that
the state was a “relatively autonomous” entity, which “mediated” the competing interests of the primary stakeholders. The state
according to Alavi, acted on behalf of these classes in order to
preserve the social order, which these states inherited after the
collapse of colonialism. As a result of sustaining certain structures (particularly the military-bureaucratic oligarchy), which
Pakistan inherited from British India, a distinct static political
culture evolved, which post-1947 minimised spaces for alternative voices. These spaces got further squeezed with Zia-ulHaq’s Islamisation policies post-1977. As a result, progressive
voices got marginalised and the spaces which emerged in the
process were occupied by sectarian and radical groups. Thus,
incidents of Shia-Sunni conflict, which were almost absent before
1970s, became more frequent. A primary reason for this were
the political changes which were taking place in Pakistan’s neighbourhood at the regional level and the strategic Cold War rivalry between the US and Russia at the international level. The
Iranian revolution of 1979, for instance, had domestic ramifications for Pakistan. Political patronage of Saudi Arabia to the
Sunni community and Iran to the Shia community had its own
consequential domestic repercussions. History shows that the
thesis of a secular Pakistan, which Jinnah articulated in his first
address to the Constituent Assembly in August 1947, somewhere
failed to accommodate and pre-empt the wildcards,
which the changing geo-politics of the region would offer to
Pakistan in future.
A continuity rather than a break from past is thus reflected in the pattern and structures visible in the Shia-Sunni conflict in Pakistan. A recent report titled “Unending Violence in
Pakistan: Analysing the Trends” published by the Institute of
Defence Studies and Analyses, a New Delhi-based think-tank
looks at the emerging structures and patterns in Pakistan. Tracing
the linkage between political parties and militant groups in the
electoral campaign of 2013, it claims that there was a covert
understanding between the militant group, Tehrik-e-Taliban
Pakistan (TTP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N),
the federal government headed by Nawaz Sharif at the Centre
and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government in Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa province. It argues that in the course of electoral
campaign in May 2013, the TTP had openly threatened parties
like Pakistan Peoples Party, Awami National Party and the
Muttahida Qaumi Movement, whereas no threats were made
against PML-N and PTI. Explaining the reasons for differences
in spatial sectarian violence in Pakistan, it argues that the reason why Punjab has been relatively bereft of rising sectarian tensions is the alleged mutual understanding between Sunni extremist groups and the Punjab government, where the latter would
avoid cracking down on these groups in return for sparing the
province. As a consequence of this arrangement, the report
argues, while Punjab will be spared of violence, it nevertheless
would emerge as a potential jehadi hub in future. While such
views of accommodation also find resonance in Pakistan’s national media, and other fora, the cobweb of internal and external
interests clearly reveals the complex interactions which govern
the causes behind such incidents. Redressal and response mechanisms to such conflicts and violence are thus hostage to the
emerging politics of accommodation, perpetuated by the state
which is ‘just’ the balancer for the competing interests of the
stakeholders. This shift from a mediator (which Alavi enunciated in 1972) to a balancer, points towards the declining state
capacity of Pakistan.
This subtle ‘balancing’ or the ‘politics of accommodation’
which the Pakistani state is evolving into, has unleashed the chain
of mutual retaliation since 90s, where the minority Shias — which
includes around 13 per cent of the total Muslim population in
Pakistan as compared to the overwhelming Sunni majority —
have adopted equally reactionary violent tactics to protect themselves. The attack on a Sunni seminary in Rawalpindi on
November 2013 by Shias is a case in point. The South Asia
Terrorism Portal’s tabulation of incidents of sectarian violence
is an instructive pointer.
Few incidents of Shia retaliation, which span last two years,
reveal that Shias have been targeting members of the Ahle Sunnat
Wal Jamaat (ASWJ), a Sunni extremist group. For instance, on
January 18, 2013, cadres of ASWJ were killed on Lasbela Bridge
in Karachi. On February 1, 2012, aprominent member of Sunni
Supreme Council and secretary general of a welfare organisation was killed in Hangu District. On July 6, 2012, religious scholar Maulvi Abdul Qasim, hailing from Sunni school of thought,
was shot dead in Musa Colony in Quetta. On December 24, 2012,
a Sunni prayer leader was gunned down outside a mosque in
north Karachi. These sporadic incidents portent a trend in making. While the Shias from Sind, Baluchistan and Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa have also alternatively been demanding justice
from their governments, the Sunni extremists have however, continued their attacks with impunity.
As one celebrates the 68th anniversary of Jinnah’s Direct
Action call, one is indeed reminded of Jinnah’s first constituent
Assembly speech of August 11, 1947. Jinnah stated, “You are free,
you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place of worship in this state of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or
caste or creed that has nothing to do with the business of the
state.” Promising as these words are, the sectarian strife reveals
that the idea of Pakistan is indeed getting blurred with every
incident of sectarian violence.
(The writer is Assistant Professor, Dept of International
Relations, South Asian University, New Delhi)
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L
ooking at Pakistan today
and its march through
history, a Hobbesian misquote is apt here: Pakistan and
political turmoil were born as
twins. That it has tumbled on,
despite its vivisection and
through multiple coups, is
quite amazing. Do Pakistanis
deserve what they have today?
Army as arbiter endorsed
by the people
To some extent, the answer
is yes. Over the years, they have
endorsed trouble mongers to
unseat elected government with
the help of the powerful military. Political instability in
Pakistan has often been injected by unseen forces unwilling
to let the elected ones govern.
Mavericks and rabble rousers
come in handy for these forces
to launch surprise attacks
against the government and
either weaken or dislodge them.
Unfortunately, in the past,
opposition political forces have
successfully mobilised popular
protests and brazenly rallied
around the army to create a situation of anarchy where the
army would step in as an
arbiter, or as a Pakistani observer would call it “gamekeeper”.
The net result has been the
growth of an authoritarian culture, where there is no patience,
let alone tolerance, with any dissenting perspective or point of
view. There has been a clear
unreadiness to accept defeat
honourably and wait out the
tenure of the elected government. The experience during
the days the PPP-led coalition
was in power was an exception,
when the main opposition party
refused to play ball with the
army to bring down the government, but since the elections
of May 2013, the old dynamics
seem to have resurfaced.
Protest on flimsy pretext
A good 14 months after the
elections, Imran Khan, the
leader of the principal opposition party, Pakistan Tehrik-eInsaf (PTI), has taken to the
streets alleging fraud in the last
elections, and that too in mainly four electoral seats! Another
fringe political group, Pakistan
Awami Tehreek (PAT) led by
Tahirul Qadri has also led a
parallel protest against the
Nawaz Sharif ’s government.
Taking a leaf out of Gandhi’s
protests, Imran has called upon
the people of Pakistan to stop
paying tax and utility bills as a
form of “civil disobedience”.
The allegations of these two
parties have not been too convincing to demand rolling back
of the government.
Both these leaders had
threatened the government
with their claims of leading
millions of protesters to the
Bd__^acTab^U?PZXbcP]bUXTahR[TaXRCPWXad[@PSaX^UUTa5aXSPh_aPhTabQTU^aT?Pa[XP\T]cX]8b[P\PQPS
capital city of Islamabad from
Lahore on the independence
day of Pakistan. The show was
a dampener for not many
joined the march, and the coverage of the visual media
showed that the crowd was
rather in hundreds and few
thousands than in millions. Not
to be discouraged by the poor
turnout, the two leaders have
staged a sit-in for last seven
days demanding the resignation of the prime minister.
The demands
The six main demands of
Imran are: (i) resignation of the
prime minister; (ii) electoral
reforms (iii) reelection to follow reforms; (iv) establish a
neutral caretaker government;
(v) resignation of all the members of the election commissioners that managed the previous election; (vi) those
responsible for election rigging,
must be imprisoned and tried
under Article 6 (which deals
with “high treason”).
The ten point demands of
Tahirul Qadri are quite rhetorical which aims at establishing
a democratic society which
brings about rule of the people,
alleviates poverty, caters to
basic needs of the people,
transforms society, eradicates
terror, and protects the rights
of minorities and women.
However, Qadri’ would
demand dissolution of the
assemblies and the government and establishment of a
national government to realize
his demands.
While demand for investigations into the allegations of
electoral fraud is quite legitimate and similarly the issue of
bringing out electoral reforms
is also quite acceptable, the
demands for removal of the
prime minister and his government, dissolution of the
national and provincial assemblies, and holding of re-elections are politically immature
and smack of a larger conspiracy to push back the ongoing
democratic experiment in the
country since 2008.
Is there a conspiracy?
Many commentators in
Pakistani media, especially the
English-language ones, suspect that both Imran and Qadri
have been unleashed by the
army or powerful sections
within the army to weaken the
hold of Nawaz Sharif on power.
There is a view that Nawaz’s
policies towards India and
Pakistan were not acceptable to
the army and through his
actions- like allowing Afghan
interlocutors access to Mullah
Barader and coming to India to
attend Modi’s swearing in and
not meeting Kashmiri separatists- he had annoyed the
army (especially the top leadership, including or excluding
Gen Raheel Sharif, who was
Nawaz’s pick and supposedly
loyal to him).
Hence, it is believed, the
army quietly allowed Imran and
Qadri to go ahead with their
marches. They would argue
that the march could have been
called off had there been efforts
by the Army to dissuade both
these politicians in time.
Nawaz’s efforts to hand over
the security of Islamabad capital city to the army has not
therefore deterred the protesters from marching into
Islamabad and later move into
the red zone declared by the
army. Some of the analysts in
Pakistan had thought that it was
a master stroke for Nawaz to
bring in the army, when suspicion was rife that the march was
vetted by the army. However, it
has not been able to either stop
the march/protest or weaken
and embarrass the army.
Advantage Army
On the contrary, the army
has seized the opportunity and
felt terribly happy about being
catapulted into the centre stage.
Army chief, General Raheel
Sharif, in his meeting with
Interior Minister Chaudhry
0?
Nisar Ali Khan and Punjab
Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif,
asked the politicians to engage
in a meaningful dialogue to diffuse the political turmoil on
August 20.A day earlier,
responding to Imran’s call for
marching into the prime minister’s house, the army
spokesperson Asim Bajwa used
social media (Twitter) to
respect the sanctity of the
houses in the red zone which
were “symbols of state”, and
called upon all stakeholders to
show “patience, wisdom and
sagacity” and resolve the prevailing impasse “through
meaningful dialogue in larger
national and public interest”.
Reflecting on the tweet, the
editorial of Dawn, one of the
prominent dailies of Pakistan
wrote: “Place …the statement
in the proper historical context
and it amounts to little more
than big brother chiding the
children of democracy to
behave - or else. The ‘or else’ is
always left unsaid, but the
country hardly needs reminding about what it could be”.
Future portents
As things stand today, both
Imran and Qadir have pulled
out from the talks, and have
stuck to their demands.
According to media reports,
following army chief ’s meeting
0B7>:147DA80
with Nisar and Shahbaz, there
has been a tacit understanding
between the Nawaz government and the army to concede
the latter space in the decision
making structure, especially
in matters relating to defence
and foreign policy.
Nawaz government’s decision to go ahead with talks with
Kashmiri separatists, despite
request from the Indian foreign
office to the contrary, is being
perceived as the first signs of
army’s inroads into Nawaz’s
India policy. Nawaz’s ability to
take talks with India forward
will be much more limited
than before.
As far as developments in
Pakistan are concerned, a soft
coup has already taken place and
Nawaz has been forced to take
the help of the army to continue in power. However, imponderables remain. If we compare
the present situation with the
one encountered by Bhutto in
1977, there are some disturbing
similarities and differences we
must not lose sight of.
In 1977, when the allegation of rigging was brought in
against Bhutto, most analysts
agreed that despite it Bhutto
would have won a comfortable
majority. The opposition, led
primarily by the religious parties, kicked up a storm, making it easy for the army to step
in as a mediator. And at a
moment when a deal between
Bhutto and the opposition
looked possible, the army intervened, toppled Bhutto, and
later executed him for fear of
his getting back to power and
avenging the humiliations he
suffered at the hands of the
army and the opposition.
It remains to be seen what
the army will do in case Imran
does not back out and prolongs
his protest along with Qadri.
Will Nawaz step down to satisfy the protestors? In case the
‘movement’ does not fizzle out
and gathers fresh momentum,
will the army stay neutral? In
case it does, will Nawaz be able
to wrench himself out of the
control of the Army?
It all depends on how the
people of Pakistan will behave.
So far, large majority of them
have kept themselves out of the
turmoil.
As PTI legislators go ahead
with their decision to resign
from the national assembly,
uncertainty deepens in Pakistan.
Will the people of Pakistan
back them or will it be a repeat
of the experience of the Indian
Aam Admi Party? More the
uncertainty, merrier the forces
in the deep state of Pakistan.
(Dr Ashok Behuria is
Coordinator of South Asia
Centre and a Fellow at IDSA.
The views expressed here are his
own)
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O
n the 68th anniversary of
the Great Calcutta Killings
— caused by the Jinnah’s Direct
Action call for a separate nation
for Indian Muslims — while the
“secular” India celebrated her
68th Independence Day, the
“Islamic” nation of Pakistan is
still struggling for its identity. As
violence in the name of State,
religion and sect is going on
unabated in Pakistan, it is high
time to revisit the legacy of
Jinnah, who blew hot and cold
on making his state — carved
out of the united India in the
name of Islam — secular. The
socio-political upheaval in
Pakistan has its genesis in
the flawed policy of two-nation
theory stoked by the separatist
Jinnah.
Jinnah’s call for Direction
Action had left 8,000 Hindus
butchered in the week-long
Great Calcutta Killings started
on August 16. Though pretentiously secular in his outlook as
well as in food habits - Jinnah
didn’t believe in haram food he remained unrepentant about
his prime role in the tragedy. In
fact, he justified the killings as
reprisals against the highhandedness of the Hindu-dominated Congress party.
In his earlier days, Jinnah
was sacrilegious. After saying
goodbye to his reel life as a
Shakespearean actor during
his London days, he returned
to India with a wish to gain
recognition as the most prominent freedom fighter. However,
he soon realized that he could
not compete with Hindunationalists in the Congress.
In the early 1940s, when the
freedom struggle gained
momentum, the then British
Prime Minister, Clement Attlee,
sent Cabinet Mission to India
to discuss and finalise the
mechanism for transfer of
power to the Indian leadership.
Under pressure from Jinnah,
the Cabinet Mission proposed
granting of freedom to India as
well as the creation of Muslimdominated Pakistan. The
Congress rejected this proposal. To force the Congress to
accept the demand for the
Islamic nation of Pakistan,
Jinnah declared the execution of
Direct Action Day. Jinnah was
adamant on his plan for either
“divided” India or a “destroyed”
India. This exposed the vile and
violent idea of Jinnah against
India. The declaration of Direct
Action during the holy month
of Ramadan stoked communal
tension. The genocide of innocent Hindus and Sikhs is extensively covered by Yasmin Khan
in her book, The Great
Partition: The making of India
and Pakistan. Around 8,000
people were butchered, shops
were looted, and even children
were burnt alive in their homes.
A year after the bloodbath of
the Great Calcutta Killings,
Pakistan took birth.
Jinnah accomplished his
mission to create a nation for
Muslims, but soon after its cre-
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ation, he tried to show his secular side to the world. In his
famous August 11, 1947
address, he envisioned the idea
of a “secular” Pakistan, where
Hindus were supposed to cease
being Hindus and Muslims
were to stop being Muslims.
However going the history
of Pakistan’s enmity towards
India, it seems it was too late for
Jinnah to indulge in course correction.
His idea of a unified
Muslim creed proved flawed
with the need for the creation
of Bangladesh. The whole idea
of a Islamic State of Pakistan to
focus on the development of
Muslims, which Jinnah
claimed was not possible in the
secular India.
The condition of Muslims
in Islamic State of Pakistan is
worse than those in secular
India. While Ahamdis have
been declared non-Muslims,
killing of Hazara Shias is rampant. Blasphemy law is being
perversely applied to persecute
Christians. Minority Hindus
are migrating to India and
5X[T_W^c^
refusing to go back to Pakistan.
Churches, temples, non-Islamic
monuments are regularly
burnt. Moderate Muslims, like
Salmaan Taseer, who dare
speak against the atrocities
face death. And if the guilty is
punished he is hailed a martyr.
The radical Islamisation
started by Zia-ul-Haq has
engulfed innocent Muslims as
well. Various jehadi groups
viz, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Sipahe-Sahaba Pakistan, Tehrik-iTaliban Pakistan are trying to
convert Pakistan into a nation
B7018BC0=0I
for religious fanatics.
As per an estimate, approximately 8,00000 Shias have
been murdered by the Pakistani
Government. This is the best
gift a failed State can give its
Father of the Nation who himself was a Shia!
On the contrary in India,
though minorities have faced
communal outrage, the State
machinery has played its part
in bring the guilty to book.
Whether is 1984, 1991,
Godhra, and Muzaffarnagar,
perpetrators have been taken
into custody, cases filed and
punishment given by the court
of law. Besides Constitutional
provisions, there is progressive
positive-discrimination mechanism to safeguard and promote the interest of religious
minorities in India.
On the other hand, 68
years after its creation, Pakistan
is still marred by sectarian
tensions, religious fanaticism,
and political intolerance. The
famous proverb ‘Old sins cast
longer shadows’ aptly signifies
the current malaise in Pakistan.
It birth signified destruction of
brotherhood, cooperation and
unity and diversity.
The “divisive” Jinnah failed
Pakistan and Pakistan has
failed the “secular” Jinnah.
(The writer is a research
scholar)
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on Friday rose over
59 points to close at
Sensex
26,419.55, near its record high,
and the Nifty settled above the
7,900-mark for the first time,
boosted by gains in banking
and IT stocks on higher capital inflows.
Besides, a strengthening
rupee and positive global cues
on upbeat US economic data
and easing crude oil price
also buoyed market sentiments.
The rally helped both
Sensex and Nifty rise by over
1.5 per cent this week, their
second successive weekly gain.
The NSE Nifty barometer
today rose 22.10 points, or
0.28 per cent, to end above the
7,900-mark for the first time
at 7,913.20 after software
stocks led by Infosys surged.
The Nifty also hit a new alltime intra-day peak of
7,929.05, surpassing its previous record of 7,922.70 hit on
August 20.
The BSE 30-share barometer spurted 59.44 points, or
0.23 per cent, to close at
26,419.55, just missing previous record closing high of
26,420.67 reached on August
19. During today’s session, it
touched a high of 26,508.27.
The gauge had gained
45.82 points in yesterday’s
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overnment will initially
spend C69,524 crore on
G
various IT and telecom pro-
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T
session.
“Mi d - c ap s out - p e r formed larger peers, indicating greater interest from
non-institutional players.
Reduced geo-political tensions and optimism on future
growth buoyed sentiments,”
said Dipen Shah, Head-PCG
Research, Kotak Securities.
A firming trend in other
Asian markets after the US
markets closed at another
record-high yesterday also
helped.
Hindalco was the best
gainer today among the 30share Sensex as it jumped
2.36 per cent.
Among
s of t ware
exporters stocks, Infosys
gained 1.65 per cent, TCS
1.22 per cent and Wipro 1.19
per cent, lifting the broadbased Nifty to all-time high.
In the banking space,
stocks of SBI, Axis Bank and
HDFC Bank witnessed good
buying activity.
Sectorally, the BSE IT
sector index rose the most by
rising 1.63 per cent, followed
by Banking 1.03 per cent,
Teck 0.97 per cent, Capital
Goods 0.16 per cent, Metal
0.16 per cent, Healthcare
0.13 per cent and Auto 0.08
per cent.
Sust aine d
mone y
pumped into markets by foreign investors -the main
market mover- was seen
across the board. FIIs bought
shares worth a net Rs 412.77
crores yesterday as per provisional data from bourses.
he Reserve Bank on
Friday said it would conduct more frequent term
repos auctions in order to
make borrowing more flexible to meet the liquidity
needs.
“With a view to ensuring
flexibility and transparency
in liquidity management
operations, a revised framework for liquidity management is being put in place
with effect from September 5,
2014,” RBI said in a statement.
On September 5, RBI
would conduct 14-day term
repo auction for an amount
equivalent to one-fourth of
0.75 per cent of net demand
and time liabilities (NDTL),
it said.
There will be 4-day term
repo auction for an amount
equivalent to three-fourth of
0.75 per cent of NDTL, it
added.
There will be regular
rollovers of maturing 14-day
term repos on every Tuesday
and Friday, it said.
However, overall borrowing limit for banks have
been retained for liquidity
adjustment facility (LAF).
Banks are currently
allowed to borrow up to 0.25
per cent of NDTL from the
LAF window.
Under the existing
arrangements, day-to-day
liquidity requirements are
met through variable rate
14-day, 7-day repo auctions
equivalent to 0.75 per cent of
NDTL of the banking system.
Banks are also allowed to
raise through overnight auction of repo at fixed rate that
is the repo rate of 8 per cent.
A bank is not allowed to borrow more than 0.25 per cent
of its NDTL
jects under the ‘Digital India’
programme in which it has
identified broadband and
mobile networks as key
growth pillars under the programme.
An official document
shows that NDA Government
has enhanced expenditure on
broadband network to connect all 2.5 lakh village panchayats to C32,000 crore.
The UPA Government
had approved C20,000 crore
for the project.
Simultaneously, it has also
advanced deadline to finish
roll out of national optical
fibre network (NOFN) by a
quarter to December 2016
from earlier announced date
of March 2017.
To provide mobile connectivity to approximately
42,300 villages that still don’t
have any network coverage,
the government has earmarked C16,000 crore. The
mobile connectivity in all of
these unconnected villages
has to be provided by 2018.
The Government has
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ven as the domestic solar
equipment manufacturers
E
have been consistently raising the
pitch for the imposition of antidumping duty on imported solar
equipments, Power Minister
Piyush Goyal on Friday sidestepped the issue when asked
about his stand on it.
He instead put the ball in the
Commerce Ministry’s court, saying it was beyond his jurisdiction
to take a call on the matter.
“I am the Minister for
Renewable Energy (the portfolio
which holds apart from Power
and Coal). I am focusing in my
mission and vision. The subject
of anti-dumping relates to other
ministry (Commerce), which
will take an appropriate call as
and when it is required,” he told
reporters after meeting a delegation of solar power equipment
makers and developers who
are demanding imposition of
anti-dumping duty on solar
equipment imports.
To protect the struggling
domestic industry, the Ministry
of Commerce and Industry in
May had recommended imposing a restrictive duty in the
range of $0.11-0.81 per watt on
solar cells imported from the US,
China, Malaysia and Chinese
Taipei.
While the Designated
Authority in the Department of
Commerce recommends the
anti dumping duty, provisional
or final, it is the Ministry of
Finance which acts upon such
recommendation within three
months and imposes levies.
Goyal in the past had said
that domestic solar power equipment manufacturing capacity
of 700-800 mw is not sufficient
to meet the Government’s ambitious plans of adding more
power generation capacity
through renewable energy
sources.
Road Transport Minister
Nitin Gadkari had written to
Commerce Minister Nirmala
Sitharaman opposing plans to
levy of anti-dumping duty, saying this would escalate the cost
of solar power in the country.
Meanwhile, Power Secretary
P K Sinha said, “solar power
should contribute to supplying
electricity to the transmission
grid. For that the government
should give incentives to the
developers.”
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aruti Suzuki India expects
M
voting by minority shareholders to happen sometime in
October for approval of its
plans to let parent Suzuki Motor
Corp own a proposed new
plant in Gujarat.
“We haven’t yet fixed a
date. It could be in October
probably but not certain yet,”
Maruti Suzuki India (MSI)
Chairman RC Bhargava told
reporters here.
Speaking on the sidelines of
a lecture in memory of the
company’s executive Awanish
Dev, who was killed in worker
violence at the company’s plant
in Manesar in 2012, Bhargava
said MSI’s move on the Gujarat
plant would be beneficial to its
shareholders.
“As far as Gujarat (facility)
structure is concerned, it is
recognised that the structure we
have envisaged is beneficial to
Maruti shareholders... The
major issue which they raised
(institutional investors) are
regrading why higher dividends are paid, why is royalty
audited. On structure, there are
no real issues now,” he said.
Asked how confident the
management was to get minority shareholder approval, MSI
Managing Director and CEO
Kenichi Ayukawa said,
“...Because of the way we communicated our sincerity to the
investors, we did not get any
negative response. We are
expecting to get better results.”
In March, under pressure
from institutional investors,
Maruti decided to seek the
approval of minority shareholders after tweaking some of
the earlier proposals for the
Gujarat plant, which parent
Suzuki Motor Corp (SMC) had
decided to take over with an
investment $488 million to
build the Gujarat plant, that
Maruti had earlier proposed to
set up.
MSI had conducted a roadshow to explain to global and
domestic investors its move
over the Gujarat plant in June.
Revising earlier proposals,
MSI stated that investments in
the Gujarat plant would be
funded by SMC via a wholly
owned subsidiary through
depreciation and equity brought
in by the parent without a
‘mark-up’ on cost of production, as was proposed before.
Also, in case the contract
manufacturing agreement
between them is terminated, the
facilities of the Gujarat subsidiary would be transferred to
MSI at book value and not at
fair value, as was envisaged earlier.
When asked about MSI’s
plans of creating 3 million
capacity and selling it, Bhargava
declined to fix a timeline.
“The target of selling 3
million cars cannot be predicted today...The industry size
must be at 6.5-7 million annually for this...So it depends on
how economy grows,” he said.
Commenting on the market conditions and on any possibility of price hikes, he said:
“At the moment discounts are
at all time high in the industry
so in this scenario there cannot
be price hikes.”
decided to create national
information infrastructure at
a cost of C15,686 crore. The
project will include integration of existing programme
like the National Knowledge
Network and and NOFN.
Under the National Rural
Internet Mission, government
has earmarked fund of C4,750
crore to make roll out
Common Service Centres
(CSCs) across 2.5 lakh villages.
Through CSCs people in
rural area get access to
Government services like
birth certificate, train tickets,
pay various fees etc without
actually having to visit concerned office. The CSCs are
present at about 1.3 lakh locations.
Besides this Government
has earmarked C200 crore to
train 1 crore students in small
towns and villages for IT sector jobs over period of next 5
years.
UPA Government had
started National Knowledge
Network to connect 1,500
universities with high speed
broadband network. The
NDA Government has decided to provide wifi at all universities in the country with
estimated cost of C790 crore
by end of next year.
Under Digital India programme, Government has
decided to spend C98 crore on
secure email, which will now
be primary mode of communications, for official communications.
At present 10 lakh
Government employees have
been moved to secure email
communication and by
March 2015 around 50 lakh
employees will be moved on
to the new system.
The Union Cabinet on
Wednesday approved the
Digital Indiaprogramme that
deal with all projects involving IT and communication
technology like e-governance
and broadband connectivity.
The initial cost of the project,
to be implemented over the
next five years, is estimated at
C1,13,000 crore.
The Digital India programme has various other
provisions which include wifi
hotspots at public places,
ebooks for schools, national
portal for lost and found children, biometric attendance
at government offices for
which funds are yet to be
finalised.
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he recent approval given by
the Union Cabinet to revised
royalty rates for major minerals
like iron ore, will lead to states
like Odisha, Chhattisgarh,
Karnataka, Goa and Jharkhand
becoming the biggest beneficiaries, as their annual royalty collection will go up by 50 per cent.
Mineral-rich Odisha will be
the biggest beneficiary among
the aforementioned states as
after the revision of royalty rates
on iron ore and other minerals,
its annual collection is estimated to go up by 50.27 per cent to
Rs 4,880 crore.
The rise in annual royalty
collection from around Rs 3,250
crore in 2011-12 would help it to
take up more development projects, a senior official in the
Centre said.
Leading in production of
iron ore and other minerals in
the country, Odisha’s royalty
collection is also expected to be
more than two and half times
compared to Chhattisgarh, the
second biggest gainer, official
sources said.
Chhattisgarh’s royalty col-
lection is likely to swell by 46.77
per cent to C1,976 crore from
C1,346 crore as in FY12. Goa
would get C1,414 crore from
C943 crore earlier, clocking a
49.99 per cent growth.
Karnataka, where mining
activity was banned in 2011, had
collected around C353 crore royalty in 2011-12. This may go up
by 45.57 per cent with the revision of the royalty rates to
C513.44 crore.
Rajasthan’s royalty collection is also set to go up to C1,533
crore from C1,300 crore. Madhya
Pradesh may also show an estimated 25.65 per cent rise in collection to C472 crore from C376
crore earlier.
It is estimated that the royalty collection of the States would
increase up by 41.12 per cent to
C12,274 crore per annum from
C9,406 crore in 2011-12.
Earlier this week, the
Government approved the revision of rates of royalty and dead
rent of all major minerals other
than minor minerals, coal, lignite
and sand for stowing, as per provisions of Mines and Minerals
(Development and Regulation)
(MMDR) Act, 1957.
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I
nfosys has granted close to
22,800 restricted stock units
(RSUs) -- worth over C8.2 crore
in shares -- to its new CEO and
Managing Director Vishal Sikka.
“The
Management
Development
and
Compensation Committee of
the Board has granted 22,794
RSUs to Vishal Sikka. The grant
price of the RSU is C5 per RSU,”
Infosys said in a filing to the BSE.
As per company policy,
one RSU is equivalent to one
equity share. At today’s closing price of C3,601.25 on the
BSE, Sikka will get 22,794
shares valued at C8.2 crore.
“The RSUs will vest over
a period of four years subject
to continued employment and
upon
achieving
Key
Performance Indicators as set
by the Board/Management
Development
and
Compensation Committee
from time to time,” it said.
The RSU grant will also
be subject to the terms, definitions and provisions of the
2011 RSU Plan.
Sikka, who was previously executive board member of
German IT firm SAP,
replaced SD Shibulal from
August 1.
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wo months after the Government decided to
defer the implementation of Nearly two
T
months after it put off a steep gas price revision, the
Government has constituted a four-member committee of secretaries to hold consultations with stakeholders before deciding on the quantum of hike.
“The committee will comprise secretaries of
power, fertilizer and expenditure while additional
secretary in the oil ministry will be member secretary to the committee,” said Rajive Kumar, Additional
Secretary in the Oil Ministry here.
The panel will hold extensive consultations with
stakeholders, primarily gas consumers and producers
and submit a report within 2-3 weeks, he said. “The
first meeting is scheduled for Monday.”
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs
had on June 25 deferred by three months the implementation of the Rangarajan formula that would
have doubled gas price to USD 8.4 per million British
thermal unit.
The Rangarajan formula, approved by the previous UPA government, was to be implemented
from April 1 but was deferred by three months as
general elections were announced. The NDA government on June 25 postponed its implementation
by a further three months pending a comprehensive review.
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7H34A0103) Undisclosed
income to the tune of C90,000
crore was detected during
2013-14 in various searches
and surveys conducted by the
Income Tax department, a top
official from the Central Board
of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said
here today.
Speaking to reporters, KV
Chowdar y, Chairman of
CBDT also said the net
income tax collection during
the first four months stood at
over C1.51 lakh crore after
accounting refunds of nearly
C54,000 crore.
“The IT Department has
conducted surveys in as many
as 5,327 cases all over the
country during last year and
an amount of C90,000 crore of
undisclosed income was
detected,” the official said in a
press conference here.
He said the department is
in the process of implementing various data warehouse
and various Business
Intelligence projects which
will enable identification of
new tax payers and also deepen the tax base.
According to him, tax payers in India stood at 3.5 crore
out of which around 2.97
crore people are filing their
returns electronically. During
the current fiscal, about 1.51
crore of returns have been ‘efiled’ showing an increase of
13 per cent compared to last
year.
“The national budget for
the current financial year 201415 is fixed at C7.36 lakh crore
which is more than 15 per cent
of the last year’s collection. The
net collections as on date are
C1, 51,154 crore after accounting for refunds of C53,936
crore,” Chowdary said.
He said they are confident
of achieving the fiscal target by
promoting voluntary compliance.
Chowdary said the department has so far identified 22
lakh people who were supposed to file income tax returns
but failed to do so.
He said tax amount to the
extent of over C3 lakh crore got
stuck in various courts and
appellates across the country,
prompting them to increase
manpower to counter the challenges in the legal forums. ?C8
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he Government on Friday
hiked the import duty on
T
both raw and refined sugar to
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25 per cent from the existing
15 per cent.
The increase in duty
would make imports unviable
and may lead to some jump in
domestic sugar prices that
could cause burden on consumers but would help revive
the business of cash-starved
mills who owe farmers
around C 6,800 crore.
India has been importing
sugar in small quantities taking advantage of lower global prices.
According to the notification issued by the Central
Board of Excise and Customs,
import duty has been raised
to 25 per cent on raw sugar
and refined or white sugar.
The higher duty will also
be applicable to bulk consumers who import raw sugar,
the government said, adding
that this has been done in
public interest.
The Food Ministry had
recommended increase in
import duty on sugar to 40
per cent. "However, the
Finance Ministry has hiked
the duty marginally, considering inflationary concerns
and to give some relief to
domestic millers," a senior
Food Ministry official said.
Currently, domestic sugar
prices are ruling stable in the
range of Rs 34-40 per kg in
view of surplus stocks, as per
the data maintained by the
Consumer Affairs Ministry.
Sugar mills are facing a
cash crunch as domestic
prices have slipped below the
cost of production, hurting
their profits.
Mills in Uttar Pradesh
are selling sugar at C 30.50 per
kg, while the cost of production remains at C37 per
kg.Similarly, mills in
Maharashtra are selling the
commodity at Rs 28.50 per kg
as against the cost of production of Rs 31.
Industry Body Indian
Sugar Mills Association
(ISMA) hailed the decision
saying this will improve cashflow of millers and help clear
cane arrears.
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he Bombay High Court on
Friday granted conditional
T
bail to FTIL founder Jignesh
Shah in the C 5000 crore NSEL
scam over three months after he
was arrested in the case.
"I am inclined to grant bail,"
Justice Abhay Thipsay said asking Shah to furnish two sureties
of Rs five lakh within two weeks.
However, when Shah's
counsels Amit Naik and Aniket
Nikam made a prayer to allow
the accused to furnish cash
surety of Rs five lakh instead of
two sureties on health ground,
the judge accepted it and granted bail.
The lawyers also argued
that there was no likelihood of
the accused absconding and
hence he be allowed to furnish
cash surety.
Shah is likely to be released
later this evening or tomorrow
after completing the formalities.
The court ordered Shah to
personally appear before the
investigating agency every week
on Monday and Thursday until
further orders of the trial
court.
"We welcome the decision. At current global prices
and rupee-dollar exchange
rate, this increase in duty
will check all sugar imports,
which will certainly improve
the domestic market sentiments," ISMA Director
General Avinash Verma said.
Currently, sugarcane
arrears stand at about C 6,800
crore across the country, with
the maximum of Rs 5,000
crore in Uttar Pradesh, he
added.
The Government has
announced several measures
to improve liquidity of
millers.
Earlier this year, the government had rolled out a
scheme of C6,600 crore interest-free loan to mills for making cane payments to growers.
It is also giving export subsidy.
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howing robust interest
among foreign investors,
an auction of Government
bonds on Friday attracted bids
worth C3,640 crore, higher
than the amount of such securities on offer at C3,208 crore.
The auction was held for
overseas investors at BSE's
ebidxchange for government
debt securities, as per the
information provided by the
bourse.
This would be the first
auction after Sebi tweaked the
investment limits for overseas
investors in government securities by increasing the threshold for general investors from
$20 billion to $ 25 billion.
At the end of two-hour
auction this evening, total bids
received amounted to Rs 3,640
crore. The total number of bids
stood at 18 of those were
declared successful.
The successful bidders
have been allocated investment limits for government
debt securities worth the targeted amount of C3,208 crore.
Notably, on Wednesday,
foreign investors have pumped
in a a record high amount of
Rs 16,072 crore ($2.65 billion)
in the debt market.
The total overseas investments in Government debt
securities (through auction
route) has already reached Rs
1,21,224 crore.
Foreign investors have
been asked by exchanges not
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to take any fresh investment
position in the interest rate
futures (IRF) market as the
foreign investors' exposure to
government debt reached 97.2
per cent of permitted limit of
$ 25 billion (C1,24,432 crore).
Overseas investors are
advised not to increase their
long position in IRF till the
time the overall long position
of such investors in cash and
IRF comes below 85 per cent
of existing permissible limit.
Last month, Sebi had
tweaked the investment limits
for foreign investors in government securities by increasing the threshold for general
investors from $ 20 billion to
$25 billion.
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he Reserve Bank on Friday
notified the increase in
deposit money under Public
Provident Fund (PPF) to C 1.5
lakh from Rs 1 lakh earlier.
"We forward herewith a
copy of the Government of
India Notification...The
Government of India, vide
this Notification, has
enhanced the individual subscription limit under the
Public Provident Fund (PPF)
Scheme, 1968, from existing C
1,00,000 to C1,50,000 in a
financial year," RBI said in a
communication to banks.
Earlier, this week, the government had notified the same
in pursuance to an announcement made by Finance
Minister Arun Jaitley this
month.
After the new ruling, people can now deposit up to C1.5
lakh annually in their Public
Provident Fund (PPF)
account.
RBI asked the banks to
communicate the same to their
branches operating the PPF
scheme.
It also advised them to display about the enhanced limit
under the scheme on the
notice boards of their branches for the information of the
PPF subscribers.
PPF is a 15-year investment scheme under which an
investor enjoys tax exemption
at the time of deposit, accrual
of interest and withdrawal.
The interest rate on
deposit in PPF for 2014-15 fiscal is 8.7 per cent.
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=4F 34;78)Bharti Airtel on
Friday said it has introduced a
cross-network money transfer
service in Tanzania by partnering with mobile operator Tigo.
"The service will be available
for Airtel Tanzania and Tigo customers, enabling them to experience a secure, fast and easy
mode of money-transfer services
between the companies’ mobile
money wallets," the company
said in a statement.
The announcement follows
an agreement last month to
adopt such interoperability by telcos beginning July 2014.
on Friday said the "trust deficit"
between Centre and states,
which was delaying GST roll
out, has been removed and
hoped the new indirect tax
regime could become a reality
soon.
Rejecting allegations by the
previous UPA regime that
Gujarat was hampering progress
on Goods and Services Tax, the
state Finance Minister Saurabh
Patel said several states including Congress ruled ones had
issues and did not have faith in
the then central Government
addressing them.
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T
he US has said that ISIL is
more dangerous than a
conventional terrorist group
in terms of ideology, military
and financial power and present an imminent threat to
American people.
US Defence Secretary
Chuck Hagel said, “ISIL is as
sophisticated and well-funded
as any group that we have
seen. They’re beyond just a terrorist group. They marry ideology, a sophistication of strategic and tactical militar y
prowess. They are tremendously well-funded.”
“This is beyond anything
that we’ve seen. So we must prepare for everything. And the only
way you do that is that you take
a cold, steely, hard look at it and
get ready,” he said at a Pentagon
news conference which was
jointly addressed by General
Martin Dempsey, Chairman of
the Joints Chiefs of Staff.
“If they were to achieve
that vision, it would fundamentally alter the face of the
Middle East and create a security environment that would
certainly threaten us in many
ways,” Dempsey said.
Referring to the brutal
murder of American journalist James Foley, Hagel said,
“When we look at what they
did to Foley, what they threatened to do to all Americans
and Europeans, I don’t know
any other way to describe it
other than barbaric.
“They have no standard of
decency, of responsible human
behavior. They are an immi-
CXYQ]Y\YdYQ]U^
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05?Q 10@D108A0@
militiamen gunned
down 70 people in an apparSenthia
revenge attack at an Iraqi
Sunni mosque on Friday, dealing a blow to Government
efforts to regain territory seized
by jehadis-led militants.
The shooting in the
Hamreen area of Diyala
province will increase already
significant anger among Iraq’s
Sunni Arab minority with the
Shiite-led Government, undermining an anti-militant drive
that ultimately requires Sunni
cooperation to succeed.
It came as Government
forces battled to regain ground
in Diyala, and Washington
warned of the dangers of the
Islamic State (IS) jihadist group,
which spearheaded an offensive
that overran swathes of Iraq in
June, and this week released a
video of American journalist
James Foley being beheaded.
Army and police officers
said the attack on the Musab
bin Omair Mosque came after
Shiite militiamen were killed in
clashes in the area, while other
sources said it followed a roadside bomb near one of their
patrols.
Doctors and the officers
put the toll from the attack, in
which worshippers were
sprayed with machinegun fire,
at 70 dead and 20 wounded.
The Government turned to
militiamen to bolster its flagging forces during the IS offensive, sparking a resurgence of
groups involved in brutal sectarian killings in past years that
will be difficult to dislodge.
Elsewhere in Diyala,
Kurdish and federal security
forces on Friday launched an
operation aimed at retaking the
Jalawla area from militants
who seized it on August 11.
Federal forces backed by air
support also clashed with militants in the Saadiyah area
south of Jalawla, officers said.
Pentagon chiefs, meanwhile, warned of the dangers of
IS and said operations against
it in Syria may be needed, as the
West reeled from Foley’s grisly killing. “They marry ideology and a sophistication of
strategic and tactical military
prowess,” US Defence Secretary
Chuck Hagel said of the “barbaric” militants.
“They are tremendously
well funded. This is beyond
anything we have seen.”
General Martin Dempsey,
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff, said the group “has an
apocalyptic end of days strategic vision that will eventually
have to be defeated”.
nent threat to every interest we
have, whether it’s in Iraq or
anywhere else,” he said.
Hagel regretted that the
secret operation launched by
the US military this summer to
rescue American hostages in
Syria, including Jim Foley, did
not succeed.
“We all regret that the mission did not succeed. The US
will not relent our efforts to
bring our citizens home and
their captors to justice,” he said.
Hagel noted that US’ assistance helped Iraqi and Kurdish
forces blunt ISIL’s advance
around Irbil, where American
diplomats and troops are working, and help the Iraqis retake
the strategic Mosul Dam.
“A breach of the dam
would have threatened the lives
of thousands of Iraqis as well as
Americans at our facilities in
Baghdad and prevented the
Iraqi government from providing critical services to its citizens,” Hagel said.
DBSTUT]SbaTUdbP[c^_PhaP]b^\U^a5^[Th´baT[TPbT
:D:DYRUR]d`d`fXYe
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BA0906>?0;0=Q
F0B78=6C>=
T
he United States has strongly defended its refusal to
negotiate with the Islamic State
militants or pay the huge ransom of $133 million it had
demanded for the release of slain
journalist James Foley.
“We do not make concessions to terrorists. That includes
– we do not pay ransoms,” State
Department deputy spokesperson Marie Harf said, adding:
“We believe that paying ransoms
or making concessions would
put all Americans overseas at
greater risk.” In e-mails sent to
the Foley family, the ISIS had
also demanded the release of
Pakistani woman scientist Aafia
Siddiqui and several other prisoners convicted of terrorism
charges in the US.
Siddiqui, an MIT-trained
neuroscientist with ties to Al
Qaeda, was arrested in
Afghanistan’s Ghanzi province
in 2008. Flown back to the US,
she was convicted in 2010 and
sentenced to 86 years in prison
on charges of trying to kill
American servicemen.
Justifying its firm stand,
the Obama administration said
on Thursday that paying ransom or making concessions to
a terrorist organization would
endanger Americans overseas at
a time when it has been trying
to degrade the capabilities of
such outfits.
Significantly, GlobalPost,
the Boston-based media outlet
for which Foley was freelancing
in Syria when he was captured
by the ISIS in November 2012,
was inclined to pay the ransom.
“Personally – and I know
speak for the Foleys as well – we
would’ve paid a ransom. We
were working very hard to raise
the money,” said Phil Balboni,
co-founder and CEO of
GlobalPost, said in an interview
to NPR.
“It’s very easy to have these
theoretical policies about not
paying a ransom until you’re
faced with the real life-anddeath situation,” said Balboni,
who along with the Foleys, had
extensive conversations about
the ransom demand with the US
Government. While conceding
that “giving money to these evil
people is a very hard thing to do”,
he said emphatically: “But
speaking for myself and for
John and Diane Foley, we were
prepared to do it if we could
raise the money.” At the
Pentagon, Defence Secretary
Chuck Hagel said the United
States, which recently launched
a wave of airstrikes against the
ISIS in northern Iraq, is now
looking at all options to stop the
group which, he noted, was
exceptionally well-funded.
“They’re beyond just a terrorist group. They marry ideology, a sophistication of strategic
and tactical military prowess.
They are tremendously wellfunded,” Hagel said, adding:
“We will continue to stay
focused…on what we’re doing
now and exploring all options as
we go forward.”
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srael on Friday pressed ahead
with its offensive against
IHamas
in Gaza, killing at least
four Palestinians, even as the militant group executed 18 suspected informers for the Jewish
State following the killing of its
three top commanders. Hamas
gunmen executed 11 Palestinians
suspected of collaborating with
Israel at an abandoned police sta<P[PhbXP0a\hb^[SXTabRPaah^]T^UcWTQ^SXTb^UcWTS^f]TS<7 &U[XVWc^]cWT
PaaXeP[Pc:dP[P;d\_da8]cTa]PcX^]P[0Xa_^acX]BT_P]V<P[PhbXP^]5aXSPh 0? tion in Gaza earlier in the day,
Hamas security officials said.
Shortly afterward Hamas
killed seven more Palestinians in
a public execution in a central
Gaza square, witnesses said.
Hamas warned that the same
punishment will be imposed
soon on others.
The executions came a day
?C8 Q 8B;0<0103
after Israel killed three top
B70A85C><44CI0A30A8
Hamas
commanders in an
ounting further pressure,
C>30H8=8B;0<0103
34 Opposition lawmakers
0<83?A>C4BCB
resigned from the National
8b[P\PQPS)FXcWP]cXV^eTa]
Assembly on Friday to force the
\T]c_a^cTbcTabbcT__X]Vd_
Nawaz Sharif Government to
_aTbbdaT^]WX\c^`dXc
quit but their party Pakistan
?PZXbcP]?aX\T<X]XbcTa=PfPi
Tehreek-i-Insaf surprisingly
BWPaXUWPbX]eXcTSU^a\Ta
decided to resume talks after
_aTbXST]cP]S???[TPSTa0bXU
the failed first round.
0[XIPaSPaXU^aP[d]RWT^]
For the second time since it
05?Q 148ADC
\TTcX]VWTaT^]BPcdaSPhc^
mobilised thousands of supSXbRdbbXbbdTbaT[PcTSc^cWT
porters for anti-government
t least 70 Islamic State
_^[XcXRP[X\_PbbT
protests in Islamabad demandjehadi fighters have been
BWPaXUWPSPcT[T_W^]XR
ing Sharif’s resignation, the core
killed in 48 hours of clashes
R^]eTabPcX^]fXcWIPaSPaX^]
committee of Khan-led Pakistan
with Syrian army troops in
5aXSPhP]SX]eXcTSWX\U^acWT
Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) met and
the northern province of
[d]RWT^]\TTcX]V^]BPcdaSPh
discussed the current crisis.
Raqa, a monitoring group
PccWT?aX\T<X]XbcTa³b7^dbT
The meeting took place after
said on Friday.
IPaSPaXR^2WPXa\P]^U
senior leader Shah Mehmood
The Syrian Observatory
?PZXbcP]?T^_[T³b?Pach???
Qureshi handed over the resigfor Human Rights said IS
XbRdaaT]c[hX]:PaPRWX7T
nations, including that of Khan,
had launched a major push
\^bc[h[XeTbX]3dQPXbX]RT
to Secretary of the National
late Tuesday on Tabqa milibcT__X]VS^f][PbchTPaPccWT
Assembly Muhammad Riaz,
tary airport, the last remainT]S^UWXbUXeThTPacTa\PbcWT
mounting more pressure on the
ing army stronghold in Raqa,
?aTbXST]c
?C8
beleaguered Government.
which has been largely overThe resignations do not
run by the jehadis.
affect the stability of the PTI and cleric Tahirul QadriThe assailants had carGovernment which enjoys a led Pakistan Awami Tehreek
ried out car bomb attacks in
majority with ruling PML-N (PAT) had suspended dialogue
their assault but failed to
having 190 members in a with the Government.
make any breakthrough, the
Meanwhile , Imran Khan
House of 342. Khan’s PTI is the
Britain-based group said.
third largest party in the and cleric Tahirul Qadri, who
“At least 70 IS fighters
are leading two anti-government
National Assembly.
have been lost since early
Following the core com- protests in Pakistan, on Friday
Wednesday in regime air
mittee meeting, Qureshi told assured the Supreme Court that
raids, Scud missile blasts
reporters that “PTI is ready for they will remain within the
and mine explosions,”
talks.” After one round of talks limits of the Constitution durObservatory head Rami
on Wednesday both Khan’s ing their ongoing agitations.
Abdel Rahman said.
6;>14
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0?
airstrike in southern Gaza. Hours
after the targeted strike on the
Hamas commanders, Ismail
Haniyeh, the former head of the
Hamas regime in Gaza, said,
“After a senior operative is killed,
we immediately continue on
our path without hesitating or
stepping back”. Hamas, the militant group that holds power in
Gaza, has warned that Israel will
“pay the price” for killing three
high-ranking leaders of its military wing, the Qassam Brigades.
3WPZP)D;50[TPSTa0]d_2WTcXP
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t least 38 people were killed
and 41 others injured on
A
Friday when two tourist buses
carrrying around 80 passengers,
including foreigners, collided
near Sharm El-Sheikh resort in
Egypt’s South Sinai.
The accident took place
early in the morning on Friday
on the highway, 50 km from
Sharm el-Sheikh, killing 38
people and injuring 41. All 38
passengers killed are Egyptians.
Seven of the corpses are yet to
be identified, police said.
The two buses were carrying around 80 passengers from
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Cairo to Sharm El-Sheikh resort
including four foreign tourists:
two Saudi nationals, a Yemeni
and a Ukrainian tourist who are
among the injured, Al Ahram
reported. The death toll could
increase, said Mohamed Lashin,
Health Ministry Undersecretary
in South Sinai. Lashin said that
bodies are currently being
extracted from the rubble
before a final death toll is determined. Thirty ambulances were
rushed to the scene of accident.
An investigation is underway to ascertain the cause of
the accident. Egypt has one of
the world’s highest traffic accident rates due to careless driving, road and vehicle
conditions which leads to
death and injury of thousands every year.
eXePRXch4365 "
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I
have never been a morning person.
Early flights to morning assignments,
I have hated everything that has distanced me from my kingdom of
dreams. But today is one off case. I am
not cursing, rather excited. At 3 am, we are
driving swiftly on the Bengaluru roads to
reach our destination, the mountainous
region of Chitradurga in Karnataka, some
200 km away from the state’s capital. It’s the
debut day of the Maruti Suzuki’s Dakshin
Dare car rally that promises to be a roller
coaster ride. Brimming with excitement, I
peep out from the car window in the wee
hours. Chances are that the god of light
might not show up today due to dense cloud
cover. But who cares when moonlight, our
guiding light, accompanies us in this quiet
ride, lending a touch of romanticism in air.
As they say, moments post romance is no
less patchy, our bumpy ride has just begun
to unfurl!
Almost after two hours, we expose ourselves to the unadulterated hills of
Chitradurga. We are much ahead of time,
with an intention to grab the best possible
spot on the treacherous track so that the
vehicles can be captured in their wildest
moments.
The stage (stretch of the race) is speckled with numerous windmill farms, tense
cloud covers, bold rock hills, strong winds,
and uneven roads. The hairpin bends and
gravel in the route making it tricky to traverse and maneuver through.
The breeze wafts in full force, swinging the three blades of the giant fans, offering us a heavenly experience that is unimaginable in the hustle and bustle of Delhi. A
small group of scribes and cameramen sets
its position. Smartphones, tabs, cameras and
tripods, the kits of equipment unfold the
high-end gadgets to capture the priceless
moments. As we climb atop one of the
biggest rocks, holding breath and indulging
in unadulterated nature, the sounds of
engine ask for attention from behind the
hills. The moment has arrived!
In no time, a white gypsy looking like
a small matchbox is seen maneuvering its
way through the gravel and steep curves.
Amanpreet Ahluwalia, the winner of last
year’s Dakshin Dare, has set the wheels
rolling. Giving him stiff competition from
behind were a pool of customised some 40
vehicles from Gypsy, Honda City to
Volkswagen Polo. The two-wheelers stride
in the Extreme Bike category was hailed by
Natraj, who also sealed the lead by the end
of the day. Apart from the nature’s thunderous roar in the winds and clouds, and constant music of windmills, the defeaning
noise of vehicles filled the air. The day witnessed two stages around the windmill
farms only and also offered one-of-its-own
kind of digital detox (read smartphone). We
didn’t mind cutting away from the world,
before getting back to hotel and cityscape.
41I"OOOOOOO
“Good morning and all the best!” we
greeted the champion, Amanpreet
Ahluwalia, at 4 am before heading to the
next track, precisely the dirt track which
is again carved amid the hills of
Chitradurga but full of merciless stones
and pebbles. The red soil emanating from
within the hills and uneven terrains truly
extract the beauty of rocks. Starting from
Davangere amidst light shimmers of
rain, the dirt and slush have emerged in
the wackiest avatar on our way, only peddling up the level for these extremists. It
is breathtakingly pleasant and thankfully, less cooler, maybe due to lesser fans
around!
But hey! Not everything is pleasant
with the man we met in the morning!
Amanpreet has been awarded with a
stop-and-go penalty, slipping down
straight to the 8th position. Our investigation reveals there was a minor miscommunication between him and the navigator which cost them a huge leap! Team
Maruti’s Sandeep Sharma and Varun
Davessar, in their Gypsy, clocked 1:02:27
to snatch the lead at the end of second leg
of the rally. In the bikes category, defending champion of Dakshin Dare 2013 and
yesterday’s leader, Natraj maintained his
lead on day 2 with a time of 45:36. Bravo!
41I#OOOOOOO
It’s shining today! Ting! Finally we have
a bright and sunny day after experiencing drizzles in the first half of the rally
period. The mercury levels have risen on
the track as well as during the day, with
the competition heating up amongst the
teams. Starting from the Vidyanagar
township, the rally has moved ahead to
the Canal stage. Situated right next to the
brimming Tungabhadra canal, the flat
track features many ditches and patches
of slush, which eventually created several super charged moments with high
speed jumps and skids. Unlike the last
two days, when wind did all the talking,
the rhythm in the canal water is so soothing. An attentive chameleon on the
façade of a small bridge, wearing red and
green hues, is truly reflecting the extreme
adrenaline as the competition just gets
tougher. We hear one gypsy has hit a
stone and crashed out of the game. In a
shocking incident, a racer was slapped by
the locals as he went off track and slugged
the mud on faces of onlookers, informs
another participant.
As we meander around, the walk
reminds us of Banaras ghats. The canal is
utilised for various purposes like bathing
and cleaning laundry. Sandeep Sharma and
Varun Davessar continues to reign
supreme, clocking a total time of 1:57:19.
But what gladdened us really was the
power-packed performance by Amanpreet
Ahluwalia, who fast-tracked to 5th position.
41I$OOOOOOO
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Starting the day as usual before sunrise, the
contestants make their way to the outskirts
of Hospet to meet their next challenge.
Today’s contest spans over three stages
across two different locations. The first
stage, the Countryside leg has drivers roaring through the 27 km stretch at express
pace. Situated in the midst of the wilderness the superfast track presents an
uneven terrain with some tricky turns
meandering through villages. Also featuring several long flat stretches, this route
records the highest speeds of the rally so
far. In the Windmill leg which hosts the
second and third stage of the day, the drivers have to travel a total distance of 175
km burning rubber while manoeuvring
their vehicles up and down hill tops, powering through the dirt. Sandeep and
Varun maintained their prime rank, clocking a total time of 2:37:46.
41I%OOOOOOO
Dakshin Dare has crafted a fresh route in
picturesque northern Karnataka for the
first time ever, traversing spectacular
places like Tumkur, Hiriyur, Chitradurga,
Bellary, Hospet, Hampi, Koppal, Hubli and
Karwar. It’s the longest day of the competition with four stages set in the hills of
Koppal district form a scenic route, with
dense clouds cover while the cars bring in
the thunder. A dirt track running up and
down the slopes with gravel and slushy corners make for the ultimate adrenaline
pumping finale. As much expected,
Sandeep Sharma and Varun Davessar
ring the victory bells registering a total time
of 3:41:26. Sanjay Agarwal and Venu
Ramesh Kumar kept their momentum
going to retain their second spot with a
time of 3:42:49. Deserving a standing ovation, Amanpreet Ahluwalia and Sudeep
Halder edged up to third spot. However,
Suresh Rana, a legend in the motoring circuit finished fourth with a total time of
3:47:01.
“It was a nail-biting competition. We
planned the everyday moments and
ensured no miscommunication during the
race. The determination and alertness can
only bring you here,” says Sandeep Sharma.
In bikes, Mohit Verma edged out
Nataraj to grab the first place finishing the
rally with the overall time of 3:29:15. The
defending champion of 2013, Nataraj
(3:33:30) and Pramod Joshua (3:35:37)
stood second and third respectively.
D51=C@9B9D
Off the track, we catch up with the two
leading motorsport enthusiasts in India,
Amanpreet Ahluwalia and Sanjay Agarwal.
The men burst into spontaneous laughter
as they share their crazy moments from the
drive. “See this is how we interact after the
competition. The fight is only on track and
post that, we ridicule and mock our
weird moments during the race,” says
Sanjay, who has been taking part in
motorsport since 1980s. “I was always
inclined towards cars and machines. I
started motocross in late 80s. In 90s, I
bought one Maruti vehicle and started taking part in these competitions,” adds he,
who has won several titles.
One of the big factors that define the
winnability in this game is the coordination between the driver and his navigator.
Who understands this better than
Amanpreet? The leader of the Day 1 of the
race was not informed about the halt by
his navigator. Result, Amanpreet skidded
to eight position. “The navigator has to
read the driver’s psyche. If there is a miscommunication or problem, then driving
gets affected. Also, every driver has his own
style of performing, so the navigator has
to be dynamic and change his style of communication from pulse to pulse,” says
Amanpreet, who teamed with Sudeep
Halder for the first time.
Amanpreet has been into rallies for last
13 years and laments that there is not much
awareness about motorsports in India.
Racing is defined by glamorous F1, which
has caught the fancy of famed people. “It’s
difficult to even get sponsors for motorsports. Things are getting better with different manufacturers taking keen interest
but nobody is looking at a holistic picture
of the sport,” he says.
For a racer, spontaneity and presence
of mind matter the most. More than the
strategies, it is the dynamism of participants that take them to lead and brave
challenges. “It’s a combination of man and
machine. If you are stressed out due to any
possible reason, you cannot drive. If your
car is incompetent or navigator is not alert,
then you cannot win the competition,” he
says.
Sanjay practises yoga everyday to
keep his cool. “If I lose cool, I start making mistakes. One stupid error and you are
miles away or totally knocked off!” he says.
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What is a penny dreadful?
The title came to me very quickly
because penny dreadful’s, as you
know, were periodicals, Victorian
periodicals that came out sort of
weekly or monthly and they mostly
dealt with the supernatural or grizzly crimes and the Victorian public
could not get enough of them
because, like us, they loved the
Grand Guignol and a good bloody
crime story or vampire story was very
exciting to them. But the reason I
thought it was appropriate for this
show is because this was the era
before television and radio and cinema, it was the first time that horror
actually went into people’s homes.
People would go to their news seller, they’d spend a ha’ penny, they’d buy
this little pamphlet of horror stories
and bring it home and read it in their
bedrooms, which I assume a few people will be watching Penny Dreadful
in their bedrooms.
What are the challenges of writing
for television?
I wrote the entire first season, you
know, just to see, is this what I want
to do, would it work, would the
characters be fascinating enough to
me? Because, you know, if you’re
writing Skyfall you’re like, okay, I
have James Bond, I have M, I have
them for two hours and I know how
to build that story and I know how
to make them fascinating and I hope
interesting for that journey. But with
these characters, with Vanessa Ives
or Ethan Chandler or Dr
Frankenstein, it was a question of
creating characters that were fascinating enough that they would
keep interesting me most of all and
keep unveiling themselves to me and
keep being mysterious in a way for
hours on end. So I wrote all eight
hours and I just had the greatest
time doing it because it was liberating because I’d never done it
before, I’d never written anything
like that before and as I say, I’m a
dramatist, not a prose writer, but
Penny Dreadful is as close as I’m ever
going to get to writing a novel, so
there is a particular kind of satisfaction to it.
How do you plan to develop these
characters throughout the series?
It’s a through-arc through the first
season, which is eight hours. And
my ambition going into it as a writer
was to essentially write a novel, but
I’m a dramatist, I only write lines for
actors and it’s all I’ve ever done, all
I’ve ever wanted to do. But there was
something about this idea that I’ve
lived with for a very long time that
the complexity of the characters was
so interesting to me, I thought, well,
this is a story I want to tell over time.
So you meet the characters in the
first two episodes and then it’s a continuing story, continuing arc
through the first season.
Who is Ethan?
Ethan is unique in the show in that
he is our American, he is our eyes into
it. And in a way, he sort of represents
my eyes into this world, because, you
know, I’m not British, I don’t live in
1891 and I wanted the audience to
have an accessible character to follow
into this story. So in the first episode,
we follow Josh. As he meets the characters he is drawn into this very dark,
strange and frightening world that the
other characters inhabit.
What does Josh Hartnett bring to
his role as Ethan?
Josh, what he brings is incredible sincerity. You know, you look in his eyes
and they convey absolute pain,
absolute passion, and he is an amazing actor to work with. Smart as a
whip as well.
What does Timothy Dalton bring to
his role as Sir Malcolm?
It was a joy when the idea of Tim
came for Sir Malcolm, because I conceived Sir Malcolm as sort of a combination of Sir Richard Burton and
Stanley Baker and a collection of
those sort of rapacious Victorian
explorers and I knew I needed an
actor with swagger, with a real sort
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of mischievous swagger and danger. And Tim has all of that in spades.
He can look at you with a twinkle in
his eye and charm you to pieces so
you melt in front of him and he can
also give you a steely look, the same
steely look, you know, an African
explorer would give an uncharted
tributary of the Nile. I’m delighted to
have him.
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Why was Eva Green chosen to play
Vanessa Ives?
I sort of envisioned the part with her
playing it, because she is the fulcrum
around which all the other characters
orbit. And I knew I had to have an
incredible actor to play that part, who
had sincerity, who had incredible passion and commitment, because
Vanessa Ives, the character Eva plays,
goes through a very difficult and dangerous journey and I needed an actor
who is fearless. And I’ve seen Eva’s
work over the years. She is nothing
if not fearless, so I began the process
of wooing her for about six months,
you know, to play the part and dis-
cussing it and sort of trying to convince her to do it and we teased it out
together. We read the scenes together and I can’t imagine anyone on
Earth doing Vanessa Ives. She is my
touchstone for the show.
How would you describe the show’s
aesthetic?
Sam Mendes is a great filmmaker and
when he and Juan Bayona and I
talked about the look and feel of the
show, you know, what we came to is
granular reality. We didn’t want it to
look like a pastiche. We didn’t want
it to look like a Hammer horror
movie or a Universal horror movie or
anything else. We wanted it to have
it’s own granular reality because,
you know, Juan said very early on to
me for something to be frightening
it has to be true. So that’s what we’re
trying to do.
More on creating the show’s aesthetic...
It’s creating our own unique version
of 1891 London, because we don’t
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What are the advantages of shooting the series in Dublin?
Originally we thought we were going
to shoot the show in London, but we
realised that to find Victorian London
architecture we could more easily find
it in Dublin. It is also the home of
Oscar Wilde and Bram Stoker.
So we went to Ardmore Studios, took
over the entire studio, had all the
sound stages we needed to build these
rather massive Victorian-era sets.
And also my parents are from Belfast,
so for me it’s sort of a bit
of a coming home actually, working
in Ireland.
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lending folklore and fables of
16th century temple art with
21st century forms, Gaurang
Shah’s Chitr-Sena collection was
poetry in motion at Lakmé
Fashion Week Winter/Festive
2014.
The show opened to the
melodious voice of Shubha
Mudgal who sang the theme
song of Chitr-Sena as the models gracefully glided down the
ramp. For contemporary fashion
lovers, Gaurang’s collection had
irresistible heritage and artistry.
The kalidaars, kurtas, lehengas
dhotis and sherwanis were glamour personified, while the silhouettes revealed inspirations from
Afghani history yet tailored with
Indian fabrics.
The wide range of motifs
started with garuda, rudraksh,
hamsa, shikarga, sher, bhagha,
haathi, morni and shikari to create a mélange of flora and fauna.
Embellishments were restricted
to zardozi and badla to add glitter to the garments.
Chitr-Sena was also a rainbow of exotic colours that started with tantubha-yellow, zyamablue, hasti-green, ayasa-grey and
kasaya-brown with futuristic
colours like sutara-yellow, succhaya-pink, suka-green and
uditi-orange.
The rich weaves of the fabrics and saris projected tradition
for the modern dresser. Bringing
in a hint of variety, there were
embroidered cigarette pants, slim
kurtas with animal embroidery,
a graceful purple maxi, tiered
empire line angarakha and a pink
asymmetric floor skimming creation. Adding to the ethnicity of
the garments were interesting
lutkans at the ends of choli tieups, dupattas and saris featured
wooden birds and animals. A
flash of printed lining for some
of the garments added an innovative touch.
The four men’s wear entries
were restrained with dhotis, kurta
with embroidered sleeves,
angarakha and sherwani all
draped with ornate dupattas.
Stopping the show was Taapsee
Pannu who wore an orange/yellow sari with lush border.
Designers Ekta Jaipura and
Ruchira Kandhari under their
label “Ekru” presented a riot of
colours and fabrics. Ikat was focal
point of the collection, with
extensive use of chanderi, handloom cotton, ghicha and silk.
Vibrant hues created a melangé
of colours as fuchsia, red, yellow
and lime teamed up with darker tones of bottle green, wine and
navy.
want to be photo-realistic, we wanted to have a dramatic version of what
that is. So working with all the
department heads, we had to define
what we think our world is and what
it should look like, what it should
smell like, what the texture should be.
And thankfully, working with
Gabriella Pescucci on the costumes,
Jonathan McKinstry on the art direction, you know, was an absolute pleasure because they’re visionary artists
and they embrace the idea of what the
show is. And what was great about all
of them is they work from the inside
out, you know, what the characters
have to express. So when Gabriella
and I met to talk about what Eva
should wear, what her clothes should
be, we talked about her character, we
talked about how she is an austere
woman, but she has great emotion
within her. So the palette that
Gabriella created was dark to suggest
the sort of sinister demons within
Vanessa with these shots of plum or
red, which shows sort of the passion,
you know, that’s also bubbling under
the surface. And so all the department
heads have worked from that perspective and I think because this is
our first year and we’re all just making it up as we go, I think everyone
has a sense of shared authorship
about the show. Because I don’t
think it is my show, I think it is ourshow and that’s as true for the cast as
it is for all the designers.
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Embellishments were lavishly splashed on the garments
with hand and machine embroidery merging with great ease.
Thread, aari and zardozi added
to the luxurious feel of the collection. The silhouettes were
fluid and flowing as anarkalis,
tunics, lean kurtas and draped
creations were ideal for every fastidious dresser during the festive
season.
Dupattas matched the kurtas,
while dual-toned saris had shimmering embellishments and
impressive borders. Shararas
were worn with regal longsleeved coats and asymmetric
hemlines added to the grace of
tunics.
Detailing was interesting
with draped accents at an angle
for the kurtas, attached dupattas,
velvet edges for hemlines, coat
style kurta over chiffon layered
sharara; while the waistcoat or
bolero gave the sari/choli combo
a new fashion direction. More
eye-catchers were a sheer peplum
blouse over sharara and long luxurious kurta with tiny shrug.
For traditional touches with
hints of contemporary designing,
Jaipura and Kandhari offered the
perfect festive line.
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nanpith award winner U
R Ananthamurthy, who
Jstrode
the Kannada literary
world like a colossus with
his pathbreaking works,
died of multiple health
complications at a private
hospital. Ananthamurthy,
rated as one of the best writers in the country who
won acclaims from critics
and fans alike, breathed
his last this evening, 10 days
after he was hospitalised
with fever and infection, the
doctor attending on him
said.
The 82-year old
Ananthamurthy is survived
by his wife Esther, a son and
a daughter. “He had a cardiac arrest. We tried to
resuscitate but it was not
successful,” hospital
spokesperson said.
Ananthamurthy, who
had been suffering from
kidney-related disease for
some years and undergoing
dialysis treatment, turned
critical last night, he said.
“His condition got critical
since last night and blood
pressure also deteriorated.
He was also facing breathing problem, so we had
kept him under ventilator..,”
he said.
In his several decades
of literary life, he has won
the Padma Bhushan in
1998, Jnanpith award in
1994 and the state
Rajyothsava award in 1984.
His nomination for the
2013 Man Booker
International Prize brought
him to the attention of a
Western audience. He was
also the Vice-Chancellor of
Mahatma
Gandhi
University in Kerala during
the late 1980s.
?C8
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U
nder-fire batsman Virat Kohli
finally came good and the
bowlers delivered to help
India beat Middlesex by 95 runs in
the the 50-over practice game at
Lord's here on Friday.
Chasing a target of 231 runs, the
hosts were bowled out for 135 runs
(39.5 overs) with youngster Karn
Sharma picking three for 14. Earlier,
Kohli and Ambati Rayudu hit halfcenturies before India were dismissed
for a paltry 230 runs in 44.2 overs.
Kohli scored 71 runs off 75
balls, with eight fours and a six, while
Rayudu retired out after scoring 72
runs, off 82 balls, with eight fours. The
two batsmen put up 104 runs for the
fourth wicket after the top-order had
been dismissed cheaply once again.
India made first use of the wicket in this one-off practice match
before the first ODI in Bristol on
August 25. Kohli led the side in the
absence of MS Dhoni, though the
team-sheets listed that all 17 players
were once included in the match, with
11 batting and 11 fielding.
Shikhar Dhawan (10) and Rohit
Sharma (8) were united at the top for
India as they made a brisk start, scoring 19 runs in the first three overs. But
then the brakes were applied as the
two batsmen were dismissed within
ten runs of each other.
Dhawan was caught at short
mid-on in an attempt to clear the infield while Sharma top-edged a catch
to third man, albeit at the shortest
boundary on the ground.
Ajinkya Rahane (14) came in to
bat at number four and he got a little cameo-start in, but then holed
out at mid-off, again looking to clear
the in-field. India were struggling at
52/3 in the 14th over when Kohli
and Rayudu came together. They
looked comfortable at the crease,
although the stand-in skipper still
seemed rusty from his poor show in
the Test series prior.
They batted together for 16.3
runs and it seemed India were looking at a 250-plus score. But then Kohli
was caught behind off left-arm spinner Ravi Patel (2-56) and that
changed the complexion of the
innings. Ravindra Jadeja (7) was
sent up the order but he wasted this
chance, holing out to deep mid-wicket in an effort to clear the ropes.
After the 200-run mark was
crossed in the 40th over, Rayudu
retired out and R Ashwin (18),
trapped LBW, followed him back to
the pavilion immediately. It became
three dismissals in succession as offbreak bowler Ollie Rayner (4-32) also
sent back Stuart Binny for a first-ball
duck. Young guns Sanju Samson (6)
and Karn Sharma (8 not out) came
together but Rayner was on a roll as
he snapped up the former, caught and
bowled, and then accounted for
Suresh Raina (5) as well. The latter
came to bat at number eleven and was
held back for getting some practice
in a finisher-role during the death
overs, but that tactic failed as Raina
was stumped cheaply.
Steve Finn (1-20), Gurjit Sandhu
(1-65) and James Harris (1-29) were
the other bowlers deployed by
Middlesex. Their chase never really
got off properly as Bhuvneshwar
Kumar (1-7) and Mohammad Shami
(1-13) struck early blows to reduce
them to 11/2 in the fourth over.
Afterwards, the incoming ODI
New Delhi: Indian batting legend
Rahul Dravid has said that he
would have preferred to wait till
the end of India's England tour
to make changes to the support
staff as such decisions could be
"tough on everyone concerned".
Talking about the appointment of former India captain
Ravi Shastri as Team Director
after India lost the fifth and final
Test against England in under
three days to go down 1-3 in the
series, Dravid said: "You don't
have problems if people want to
make changes, it's part of professional sport."
"(But) there is still not a lot
of clarity on whether this is a long
term appointment or the changes
we have seen are for this series,
so there's a bit of confusion
around that."
With the Indian team management forcing bowling coach
Joe Dawes and fielding consultant Trevor Penney to go on a
break while former India allrounder Sanjay Bangar, ex-pacer
Bharat Arun and R Sridhar
(fielding) were added as assistant
coaches.
Dravid told 'ESPNcricinfo'
that taking such a decision in the
middle of a tour was "tough on
everyone concerned".
"Sometimes from a players'
perspective that can be quite
hard. I hope that's something
Ravi will handle quite well. All
these players also build relationships with support staff and
as players you do recognise that
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Mumbai: Ex-New Zealand skipper Stephen Fleming backed
under-fire Mahendra Singh Dhoni
as still the best option to lead India
in Tests notwithstanding the
squad's 1-3 defeat to England, saying it was pointless to make a
change without addressing problems plaguing the team.
Fleming, who also coaches the
Dhoni-led IPL team Chennai
Super Kings, was of the view that
there appeared to be no viable
alternative to the flamboyant
cricketer.
"It is fine just to say that the
captain has to go, but if you are giving the problem to someone else
without a strong solution then you
are just papering over the problem," he told reporters at an New
Zealand Education event here.
"But how far you go with that
will be a Board decision. That
comes down to what the succession plan is. Who is next in line,
bowlers were put into action by
stand-in skipper Kohli. Mohit Sharma
(1-20), Umesh Yadav (1-32) and
Dhawal Kulkarni (1-13) had a nice little work-out of bowling at the
Middlesex batsmen.
who is putting pressure on
Dhoni?" asked the 41-year-old.
"He (Dhoni) may still be the
man for the job but there might
need to be some changes within
and without. Those questions
need to be asked rather than the
emotional black and white
(response) he has got to go," said
the former opener.
Dhoni's captaincy has been
criticised by several former cricketers following the team's humiliating defeat in the five-game rubber and Fleming agreed the wicketkeeper- batsman was under pressure following the dismal result.
"He is got to be under pressure
as the leader of the side. The dramatic turn of form (of team which
led 1-0 and then lost the last three
games without a fight) does warrant
those questions. His form with the
bat was good, but certainly the captain always gets looked at when the
series goes wrong,” he said. PTI
Brief Scores
India: 230 (Virat Kohli 71, Ambati
Rayudu retired out 71; Ollie Rayner
4/32, Ravi Patel 2/56) beat Middlesex:
135 (James Harris 20; Karn Sharma
3/14) by 95 runs.
Mumbai: Veteran seamer Zaheer
Khan feels India would struggle to
make an impact overseas unless the
batsmen raised their game and notch
up big scores consistently.
India's woeful run of form away
from home continued as they were
blanked 3-1 by England in the
recently-concluded Tests series, with
two matches ending in less than three
days.
"I have always felt that if you
score 350 runs in the first innings
then you are always in the game. If
you don't achieve that then you are
always catching up with the game,"
Zaheer was quoted as saying by
'ESPNcricinfo'.
"The success we had overseas in
the past, the key was that we put the
runs on the board. Then we won that
battle, and then you went and got
those wickets as well," he added.
Indications are that the left-arm
swing bowler is not likely to play any
part in the upcoming Champions
League Twenty20 though he says his
recovery is moving in the "right
direction".
The Champions League T20 is
scheduled to be held from September
13-October 4 across various centres
in India.
;Q\\Yc@_\\QbT_`dV_b9@<dUQ]c
?=BQ =4F34;78
Group A: Kolkata Knight
Riders, Dolphins, Perth
Scorchers, Chennai Super Kings,
A team from the Qualifier.
Group B: Kings XI Punjab,
Cape
Cobras,
Hobart
Hurricanes, Barbados Tridents,
A team from the Qualifier
Qualifier: Q1 - Lahore
Lions, Q2 - Mumbai Indians, Q3
— Northern Knights, Q4 —
Southern Express.
A
ll the players named by
more than two teams for the
Champions League Twenty20,
including South African legend
Jacques Kallis and West Indian
dasher Kieron Pollard, have
opted for their IPL franchises
instead of their domestic teams.
"Eight players scheduled to
take part in the competition
were in high demand after being
named in more than one squad,
after their respective Twenty20
clubs from around the world
qualified for the tournament,"
CLT20 organisers said in a statement. The tournament is scheduled to be played in India from
September 13 to October 4.
Explaining the process for
deciding which teams these
players would represent, CLT20
Governing Council member
and Director of Legal and
Business Affairs, Dean Kino,
said like previous seasons, the
IPL franchises will have to
financially compensate the
teams that the players have left.
"Like previous seasons, players who have been named by
more than one team have been
asked to nominate which side
they are going to represent.
Players are free to make any
decision they wish. Teams are
then allowed to replace any
player that has withdrawn from
their squad and elected to play
at some level you are actually
responsible for your own success
and failure," he said.
Though the move to make
Shastri Team Director has
sparked off a wave of speculation
about Duncan Fletcher's future as
head coach, but Dravid said: "It
will be up to him to decide
whether he is comfortable in
continuing in the role in this new
kind of environment, wherein he
will have to report to someone at
the ground."
Having worked extensively
with Fletcher as a player, as well
as team mentor recently, Dravid
said the Zimbabwean got along
well with the players.
"If you ask me, I think he's
got a lot of knowledge and I
know having been around the
team that the team does respect
him and a lot of them get along
very well with him and do ask
him for a lot of technical advice.
There is a good rapport between
him and Dhoni," he said. PTI
E4CC>A8C>?;0H
:^[ZPcP:]XVWcAXSTab´9PR`dTb:P[[Xb
<d\QPX8]SXP]b´:XTa^]?^[[PaS
for another side," he said.
"CLT20 regulations state
that when a player elects to play
for their 'away' team, that team
must pay the 'home' team
$150,000 compensation per player. A 'home' team is classified as
a team from the country a player is eligible to represent in
international cricket," he added.
Therefore, New Zealand's rising
star Corey Anderson will play for
Mumbai Indians, while
Australia's George Bailey will
turn up for Kings XI Punjab.
Kallis has opted for Kolkata
Knight Riders instead of Cape
Cobras, while Pollard and Lasith
Malinga have gone with
Mumbai Indians.
The tournament will follow
a format similar to the three previous editions, with a Group
Stage preceded by a Qualifier. A
total of 29 matches will be
played in the competition.
The Group Stage will be
played from September 17 to
October 4. It will feature 10
teams. The Qualifier will be
played from September 13 to
September 16.
At the Group stage, each
side will play the other four in
its group once, with the top two
sides from each group going
through to the semi-finals. In the
Qualifier, all teams will play each
other once, with the top two
advancing to the Group Stage.
The top team from Group
A will play the second-ranked
team from Group B, and vice
versa, in the semi-finals, both of
which will be played at
Hyderabad on October 2.
Bengaluru will host the final on
October 4.
Wellington: Former New
Zealand captain Daniel Vettori
will play for Northern Districts
province at next month's
Champions League Twenty20
cricket tournament in India.
The 35-year-old Vettori,
who played the most-recent of
his 112 tests for New Zealand
two years ago, became available
when his Jamaican side was
eliminated from contention in
the Caribbean Premier League.
New Zealand allrounder
Corey Anderson is unavailable
for Northern Districts, but will
play at the Champions tournament for his Indian Premier
League side, the Mumbai
Indians. Northern's 15-man
squad has yet to be confirmed,
but will include Vettori and
current or former New Zealand
players Scott Styris, Kane
Williamson, Tim Southee,
Trent Boult, BJ Watling and
Daniel Flynn.
AP
IPWTTa:
:WP]
5X[T?W^c^
"I have to just go with how my
body is responding and the important thing is for me to play again, I
have to bowl at my best. First I have
to satisfy myself that I am there and
that I can deliver. If I am able to live
up to the stress and pressures of
international cricket, I'll just take a
call at that time."
Zaheer has played 92 Tests and
200 ODIs over a 14-year career.
Zaheer had sustained a tendon
injury in his bowling arm while playing for Mumbai Indians against
Kings XI Punjab in the IPL on May
3 at the Wankhede stadium.
Zaheer followed Indian seamers'
performance in England and felt losing Ishant Sharma to injury after the
Lord's Test win was a big setback.
"If someone is bowling well in a
long series and is able to create a big
impact, that's what we were missing.
There are things you learn with experience. The whole bowling unit is
very young. At this level it is important that you get into a good routine
and manage yourself well."
PTI
0[^cc^_[PhU^a
Dubai: Exciting time awaits
international cricket in the
next couple of weeks as six
top-ranked sides in the ICC
ODI Team Rankings, including second-placed India go
head to head with eyes firmly set on next year's ICC
Cricket World Cup 2015,
which is just 175 days away.
Hambantota will host the
first of three matches between
Sri Lanka and Pakistan tomorrow, while in Harare on
Monday, the tri-series
between Australia, South
Africa and Zimbabwe gets
underway with the opening
match between the host and
Australia.
Also on Monday, Bristol
will stage the first ODI of the
five-match series between
India and England.
In the meantime, eighthranked West Indies is already
involved in its series against
ninth-ranked Bangladesh, and
leads the three-match series 10. This series concludes on
Monday.
There is a lot to play for in
the 17 matches scheduled
over the next 16 days.
PTI
?PZXbcP]aTVa^d_U^aB;>38b
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akistan and Sri Lanka
begin a three-match oneP
day series on Saturday hoping
to gauge each other's firepower and bench strength
ahead of the World Cup just
six months away.
The two former world
champions have been drawn
in different halves for one-day
cricket's showpiece that is to
be played in Australia and
New Zealand in February
and March.
Pakistan, the 1992 champions, will look to bounce back
after an embarrassing 2-0
whitewash for Misbah-ul Haq's
tourists in the short Test series
that concluded on Monday.
Sri Lanka, who won the
World Cup four years later in
1996, hope to build on a successful run by Angelo Mathews'
team in limited-overs cricket
this year when they won the
one-day Asia Cup and the
World Twenty20.
"Our recent record has
been good, but we have to
make sure we remain consistent and do the basics right,"
Mathews said ahead of the
first match in Hambantota.
"The one-dayers will be different and Pakistan will come
hard at us. They are a good side
and we have to be at the top of
BaX;P]ZP´b:d\PaBP]VPZZPaPRWTRZbWXbQPcSdaX]VP_aPRcXRTbTbbX^]
our game."
Mahela Jayawardene, who
retired this week from Test
cricket to concentrate on his
World Cup preparations, and
fellow veteran Kumar
Sangakkara lead a strong batting line-up that also includes
opener Tillakaratne Dlshan.
Sri Lanka will miss offspinner Sachithra Senenayake,
who is undergoing remedial
work on his bowling action
after being reported by umpires
on the England tour in June.
But Pakistan will be with-
0?
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out one-day cricket's top
bowler Saeed Ajmal for part of
the series with the off-spinner,
who was also reported for a
suspect action, flying to
Australia for testing.
"If he gets a flight on Friday
then he will miss the first oneday (match) but we are trying
to get him back by August 26
in time for the next game a day
later in Colombo," team manager Moin Khan said.
Pakistan captain Misbah
was confident the tourists will
recover from the Test whitewash to put on a better display
in the one-dayers. "This is a different format and we play it
well," said Misbah, whose team
beat Sri Lanka 3-2 in the oneday series in the United Arab
Emirates in December.
"This is a good chance to
assess ourselves since the
World Cup is not too far away.
Every one-dayer we play will
tell us where we stand."
Pakistan were reinforced
by eight one-day specialists,
including the talismanic Shahid
Afridi and former captain
Mohammad Hafeez, who
joined the squad after the Tests.
Lanky
paceman
Mohammad Irfan, one of cricket's tallest bowlers at seven feet,
one inch (2.16 metres), is also
back after recovering from a
hip injury.
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F
ormer champions Novak
Djokovic and Andy Murray
face a potential tough US
Open quarter-final after the draw
was made for the final Grand Slam
of 2014.
World number one Djokovic,
who won the title at Flushing
Meadows in 2011, is the top seed
in the tournament, which is missing injured defending champion
Rafael Nadal.
Eighth-seeded Murray, the
2012 US Open winner who hasn’t
won a title since his 2013
Wimbledon triumph, could face
dangerous French ninth seed JoWilfried Tsonga in the round of 16.
Meanwhile, second-seeded
Roger Federer has a lighter-looking path, with seventh-seeded
Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov his
scheduled quarter-final foe.
On the women’s front, Serena
Williams will face an up-and-coming American player in the first
round of the U.S. Open.
The 32-year-old Williams has
won 17 Grand Slam titles. At age
18, Taylor Townsend is in her
! DBRWP\_X^]=^ePZ3Y^Z^eXRXbbTTSTS^]TU^acWT! #TSXcX^]^UcWTc^da]P\T]cfWX[TRWP\_X^]Ua^\!#!'A^VTa5TSTaTaaXVWcXbbTTSTScf^
third major tournament.
Townsend is a former topVenus Williams could face Halep in
the quarterfinals. After she won her in the quarters.
ranked junior player who reached events of 2014.
Second-seeded Simona Halep the round of 16, though Williams
“The way my year’s been going, first Wimbledon title in 2011, she
the third round at the French
Open this year. She got into her I’m worried about every single lost in the first round at the U.S. and fourth-seeded Agnieszka hasn’t gotten that far at a major
Radwanska are in the other half of tournament since 2011. The 34first U.S. Open main draw with a match,” she said after Thursday’s Open.
Kvitova could face two-time the draw. Halep could meet five- year-old Williams, seeded 19th,
draw ceremony.
wild card.
If she makes the quarterfinals, Australian Open champ Victoria time major champ Maria meets 43-year-old Kimiko DateIf Djokovic beats Murray, he
Krumm in the first round.
may face Australian Open champ she could meet eighth-seeded Ana Azarenka in the round of 16. Sharapova in the quarterfinals.
Serena Williams could play
Sharapova, seeded fifth, has a
Stan Wawrinka in one semifinal. Ivanovic, who beat her at the Azarenka lost to Williams in the
Federer and fourth-seeded David Australian Open. Wimbledon finals at Flushing Meadows the last tough first-round matchup against 2010 French Open champion
champ Petra Kvitova could await in two years but is seeded just 16th fellow Russian Maria Kirilenko, Francesca Schiavone in the second
Ferrer are in the other half.
who has been ranked as high as round. At age 34, Schiavone is
after an injury-plagued season.
Williams, seeking her third the semifinals.
Kvitova and seventh-seeded 10th and is a three-time major down to 76th in the rankings, and
Kvitova, though, has always
straight title at Flushing Meadows,
in the first round in New York last
hasn’t reached the quarterfinals at struggled at the year’s last major Eugenie Bouchard could play a quarterfinalist.
Seven-time major champ year she lost 6-0, 6-1 to Williams.
any of the first three Grand Slam tournament, never even reaching rematch of their Wimbledon final
4YR^aZ`_d2e]VeZT`
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0?■ 10A24;>=0
he Spanish league opens this weekend with
the three main title contenders — Atletico
T
Madrid, Real Madrid, and Barcelona — all facing smaller clubs they will be expected to beat.
Defending champion Atletico Madrid
has the most challenging matchup, playing at
Rayo Vallecano, while the two traditional powerhouses start the competition at home.
Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid will not
player their respective matches until Monday
in order to give them an extra day of rest after
they play the second leg of the Spanish Super
Cup on Friday.
Madrid has only won the league once in
the last six seasons and launches its bid to
change that against promoted club Cordoba.
New arrivals James Rodriguez and Toni
Kroos could get their Spanish league debuts.
Rodriguez scored in his first official game at
the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium on Tuesday
in the first leg of the Super Cup, which the
teams drew 1-1.
Cordoba is coached by former Barcelona
and Chelsea player Albert Ferrer.
0;<>BC5>A6>CC4=
With all the hype generated by the transfer activity at Barcelona and Real Madrid this
offseason, it’s easy to forget that Atletico is still
the team to dethrone in La Liga.
Diego Simeone’s team opens its title
defense at crosstown rival Rayo Vallecano on
Monday night.
1A8=68=C742>0274B
Eight coaches will make their debut for
their new teams this weekend. The toughest
introduction will likely be for Valencia’s new
manager, Portuguese Nuno Espirito Santo,
who has to take his team to Europa League
champion Sevilla. Other managers to debut are
Sergio Gonzalez for Espanyol, Joaquin
Caparros for Granada, Jose Mendilibar for
Levante, Javi Gracia for Malaga, Eduardo
Berizzo for Celta Vigo and Victor Fernandez
for the promoted Deportivo La Coruna.
0?■ <0=274BC4A
O
ne round of Premier League
games has already backed
up many pundits’ pre-season
predictions, notably that Chelsea
and Manchester City are title
favorites and Manchester United
needed more than just a change
of manager to arrest its slump.
Strengthened by new attacking signings Diego Costa and
Cesc Fabregas, Chelsea delivered
the best display of the opening
weekend in beating Burnley 31 away and meets another promoted side, Leicester, in its second match Saturday.
City was less eye-catching in
its 2-0 win at Newcastle but the
result served notice that the
defending champions won’t be
giving up its title easily. Next up
for City is Liverpool — the
team it pipped to the championship in May — at home on
Monday.
Things aren’t looking so
promising for United and its new
manager Louis van Gaal, who
are looking to avoid a second
straight defeat in an away match
at Sunderland.
Here are five things to know
about the upcoming Premier
League matches:
B27>;4B540AB
Perhaps the most damning
assessment of United following
its 2-1 opening-day loss to
Swansea came from its former
midfield maestro, Paul Scholes.
“I am scared for United,”
Scholes wrote in Thursday’s
Independent newspaper.
“Genuinely scared that they
could go into the wilderness in
the same way that Liverpool did
in the 1990s.”
After finishing seventh last
season in the turbulent reign of
David Moyes, there was renewed
=>8=380=8=B8=6;4B
0?
In the round of 16, Murray
could get ninth-seeded Jo-Wilfried
Tsonga, who beat Djokovic,
Murray, Grigor Dimitrov and
Federer to win the title at the hardcourt tournament in Toronto this
month.
Wawrinka could meet
Wimbledon semifinalist Milos
Raonic in the quarterfinals. The
seventh-seeded Dimitrov, the other
young player to break through
with a semifinal run at Wimbledon,
could face Federer in the quarters.
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Burnley win went to Fabregas,
who added incisiveness to a
Chelsea forward line that let
down manager Jose Mourinho
too often last season. “I think a
player like Cesc, every team
wants him,” said Chelsea forward
Andre Schuerrle, who scored
from one of Fabregas’ astute
passes.
Except for maybe Arsenal,
which turned down the option
of signing Fabregas this summer.
Leicester started life back in the
Premier League with a 2-2 draw
against Everton and can expect
a long afternoon of defending at
Stamford Bridge on Saturday.
hope at Old Trafford following
the hiring of the experienced
Louis van Gaal and an unbeaten record in preseason.
But the home loss to
Swansea punctured that optimism, highlighting the deficiencies that still exist in the team
— a lack of pace and dynamism
in its attack and a lack of experience in defense.
The signing on Wednesday
of left-sided defender Marcos
Rojo from Sporting Lisbon will
help but there’s a general feeling
that a superstar needs to arrive
at United before the summer
transfer window closes if the
team is to finish in the top four.
Sunderland started with a 22 draw at West Bromwich
Albion.
FIRST BLOCKBUSTER
City and Liverpool meet at
Etihad Stadium in the first blockbuster match of the new season,
featuring the teams who occupied the top two positions in
May.
Both teams started off this
season with victories, although
Liverpool’s 2-1 win over
Southampton was less convincing and showed the reliance the
Reds will have on Daniel
Sturridge in the absence of Luis
Suarez. Sturridge scored the late
winner at Anfield for his 36th
goal in his first 50 leagueappearances for Liverpool — the best
record of any of the club’s list of
great strikers in the Premier
League era.
With only Rickie Lambert as
0?
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a genuine backup for Sturridge,
manager Brendan Rodgers is
looking to add another forward
in the transfer window and
Liverpool has been linked
strongly with a move for Italy
striker Mario Balotelli.
A deal for Balotelli would
need to be wrapped up before
Friday lunchtime in Britain for
his first match for Liverpool to
be against his former club.
SLICK CHELSEA
With Costa already in the
goals, Fabregas slotting in nicely in midfield and the defense
looking as strong as ever, there
doesn’t appear to be a weakness
in Chelsea’s team as it goes for a
first championship since 2010.
Most of the plaudits after the
EUROPEAN DISTRACTION
Tied at 0-0 with Besiktas
after the first leg of its
Champions League playoff,
Arsenal’s players may have one
eye on Wednesday’s return game
when they play Everton on
Saturday.
And that could be dangerous for manager Arsene Wenger,
whose team was blown away 30 in the corresponding fixture at
Goodison Park last season.
That loss sparked a run of
five straight victories by Arsenal
that saw Wenger’s side claim the
fourth and final Champions
League spot ahead of Everton.
Arsenal’s trio of German
World Cup winners, Mesut Ozil,
Per Mertesacker and Lukas
Podolski, could be in line for
recalls after missing the 2-1 win
over Crystal Palace on Saturday
because they lacked match fitness.
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0?■ B?0
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ewis Hamilton posted the
fastest time in the second practice of theBelgian Grand Prix on
Friday, finishing ahead of Mercedes
teammate Nico Rosberg as their
positions from the morning session
were reversed.
Conditions were cool and
overcast for both runs, although the
rain stayed away on the 7-kilometer (4.3-mile) Spa track - the
longest on the calendar.
Times were faster in the afternoon, with Hamilton completing
26 laps and clocking a best lap of
1 minute, 49.189 seconds - more
than half a second faster than
Rosberg, who stayed out for two
laps longer.
The F1 championship resumed
this weekend following a summer
break, with Rosberg leading
Hamilton by just 11 points. The
Briton leads Rosberg 5-4 in race
wins this season, but has retired
from two races.
Two-time F1 champion
Fernando Alonso was third quickest both times in his Ferrari.
Four-time defending champion Sebastian Vettel sat out the second session because of a power unit
failure due to an electrical problem
in the morning, where he finished
nearly two seconds behind Rosberg
in 11th.
The red flag came up twice in
the afternoon session. Venezuelan
driver Pastor Maldonado lost control of his Lotus and Mexican
Esteban Gutierrez stalled his
Sauber.
Vettel, who finished second in
qualifying at the Hungarian GP last
month, could not even get his Red
Bull out of the garage.
ADBB80=6?>=CA02:
Formula One ringmaster
Bernie Ecclestone on Friday said he
had no doubt that this year’s con-
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troversial inaugural Russian Grand
Prix in Sochi will go ahead as
planned in early October.
Speaking to reporters in the
paddock at Belgian Grand Prix
practice, the 83-year-old Briton
said he and Formula One would
respect their contract with the promoters.
“We have a contract,” he said.
“Our friends there are happy with
the contract, we are happy. We will
be there. If people have arguments with Russia, maybe they
have, but we haven’t got any.”
Earlier this week, the
International Motoring Federation
(FIA) race director Charlie Whiting
gave the Sochi Autodrome circuit
the green light to stage the race
from October 10-12. This came
despite calls for F1 to boycott
Russia because of the conflict in
Crimea between pro-Russian separatists and Ukraine.
There will be no Indian competing in the singles event of the US
Open this year as all three players
have been eliminated from the
qualifying competition following
second round defeats of Yuki
Bhambri and Sanam Singh, here.
Yuki Bhambri, who has missed
on-court action for five months this
season due to injury, lost to Ireland’s
James McGee 7-5 2-6 5-7 in two
hours and 19 minutes.
Sanam Singh also had a one-set
advantage before eventually losing
7-5 6-7(3) 3-6 to Anderas Beck of
Germany in two hours and 16
minutes. The country’s top player
Somdev Devvarman, who has been
struggling since the Delhi Open victory in February, had crashed out
in the first round.
Yuki converted only three of the
13 break chances while the Irish
players broke the Indian five times
out of 13 chances. James fired nine
winners to none from the Indian.
Sanam Singh committed nine double faults in the contest and Beck
converted only three of the seven
break chances.
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