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T
he Foreign Secretaries of
India and Pakistan will
meet on August 25 in
Islamabad to carry forward
discussions Prime Minister
Narendra Modi had with his
Pakistani counterpart Nawaz
Sharif in May after Modi's
oath taking ceremony.
On Wednesday, the two
Foreign Secretaries made their
first diplomatic contact to fix
the date for their maiden meeting after the Modi Government
came to power.
However, while fixing a
date for her first meeting under
a new Government, Foreign
Secretary Sujatha Singh, in a
telephonic conversation with
her counterpart Aizaz Ahmad
Chaudhry, said that tranquility
at the border was important for
taking forward the dialogue
process between the two nations.
"The
two
Foreign
Secretaries discussed how they
should move forward. She
(Singh) reiterated that meaningful cooperation between the
two countries cannot take place
alongside violence and the
sound of bullets on the border.
To us and Pakistan, the maintenance of peace and tranquility on the Line of Control (LoC)
is one of the most important
Confidence Building Measures
AB@/756BB/:9
(CBMs)," said Syed Akbaruddin
spokesperson for the Ministry
of External Affairs (MEA).
The two top officials will
discuss ways to move forward on
bilateral ties, which have been
lukewarm in the last two years.
In fact, Modi and Sharif
had a "constructive" 45-minute
one-on-one meeting in May
during which they discussed
several points and agreed that
both Foreign Secretaries will
take things forward. This meeting is a follow up of that discussion by the PMs.
Since there have been incidents of firing along the
International Border, Singh used
the opportunity to raise the issue
with her counterpart and said:
"Incidents of this nature will
impede the positive work" that
the political leaders of both the
countries wish to undertake.
Fresh incidents of firing
were reported over the last
few days at the International
Border and LoC resulting in
the death of an Indian soldier
and other civilian casualties.
In Islamabad, Indian High
Commissioner in Pakistan
TCA Raghavan too raised the
issue of ceasefire violations
along the LoC by the
Pakistani side.
"In keeping with the vision
of the two Prime Ministers to
improve and establish good
relations, the Foreign Secretaries
agreed that the dialogue process
between the two countries
should be result-oriented," the
Pakistani Government said in a
statement.
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?=BQ =4F34;78
ok Sabha members on
Wednesday demanded
L
"immediate abolition" of toll tax
and instead asked the
Government to introduce cess
which could be used for "developmental purposes."
Some of the MPs also
focused on the high-rate of
accidents on Indian roads and
wanted more ambulance services, including in waterways,
to save injured people.
While participating in the
discussion on the demands of
grants for the Ministry of Road
Transport and Highways, Brij
Bhushan Sharan Singh (BJP)
demanded that toll tax should
be abolished immediately. "Toll
tax should immediately end,"
the BJP MP said. He instead
advocated that the Government
could bring in cess, which
could be used for various developmental works. He said the tax
was not serving any purpose.
Singh referred to "astronomical bribes" paid throughout the Indian road network
and sought involvement of the
public to stop traffic viola-
tions. He said unemployed
youths should be awarded for
clicking photos of traffic-violators and submitting them to
the police as evidence.
The BJP MP drew attention to the high-rate of accidents on Indian roads and
mentioned names of leaders
who died in road accidents, like
Congress leader and former
Union Minister Rajesh Pilot,
BJP leader and former Delhi
Chief Minister Sahib Singh
Verma, senior TDP leader
Yerran Naidu and BJP leader
and Union Minister Gopinath
Munde — to prove his point.
Jaiprakash Yadav (RJD) also
demanded abolition of toll tax
which he said was a nuisance,
causing problems for the public.
Members said toll tax was caus-
ing inconvenience to the
public and serving no purpose.
In the recent past,
Rajasthan Governor
Margaret Alva had also suggested that toll tax be abolished
along the Delhi-Jaipur
Highway (NH-8). The NH-8
regularly witnesses trafficchaos on account of complete
mismanagement in toll-collections, causing public outrage.
Shiv Sena in Mumbai has also
been up in arms against "unfair
toll collections."
On other issues, Vinod
Kumar (TRS) from Andhra
Pradesh wanted the Minister to
clarify whether the Transport
Ministry would adopt the PPP
(Public-Private-Partnership) or
EPC
(Engineering-
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Procurement-Construction)
business model.
He said while Finance
Minister Arun Jaitley has spoken of the PPP model,
Transport Minister Nitin
Gadkari has mentioned EPC.
G Hari (AIADMK) said a
chain of Tamil Nadu model
Amma Restaurants should be
set up along National Highways
across the country so that people can get subsidised food.
Rabindra Kumar Jena
(BJD) said research and
development packages for
National Highways should be
increased.
?=BQ =4F34;78
arliament witnessed uproar
P
on Wednesday over reports
that a Shiv Sena MP forced
food into the mouth of a
Muslim staffer of Maharashtra
Sadan in protest against the
poor quality of food. In view of
all-round condemnation of the
incident, Shiv Sena MP from
Thane Rajan Vichare feigned
ignorance that the staffer was
a Muslim and was on Ramazan
fast. However, he was forced to
apologise. "I came to know that
the employee was a Muslim
only after seeing TV footage. I
regret it," Vichare said.
Rajan Vichare was accompanied by 10 other MPs who
were angry over not being
BWXeBT]P<?APYP]EXRWPaTU^aRX]VP<db[X\bcPUUX]<PWPaPbWcaPBPSP]=Tf
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served Maharashtrian food at
Maharashtra Sadan. IRCTC
that runs the canteen at
Maharashtra Sadan has ordered
a probe into the incident.
The
issue
rocked
Parliament leading to brief
adjournments in both Houses.
During Zero Hour in the Lok
Sabha, Ramesh Biduri of the
BJP and Assaduddin Owaisi of
the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul
Muslimeen rushed to the Well
of the House and engaged in
verbal duel when the former
used unparliamentarily language to give the entire episode
a communal twist. The member later apologised after
Parliamentary Affairs Minister
Venkaiah Naidu disapproved
his conduct. The Lok Sabha
witnessed a walkout by
Congress, NCP, Left, PDP and
AIMIM over the issue.
"We are dealing with a
sensitive issue... Don't try to
raise communal passions.
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?=B Q =4F34;78
I
ndia has expressed serious
concerns over violence by
‘non-State actors’ in Gaza
region and termed them obstacles to the peace process.
During an emergency meeting
of the United Nations Human
Rights Council in Geneva on
Wednesday, India urged both
Palestine and Israel to immediately stop the violence and
sort out their differences
through a peaceful dialogue.
India also conveyed its worries
regarding human rights violations in the war zone and asked
both sides to exercise restraint.
"The solution to the
Palestine issue was a sovereign,
independent, viable and united State of Palestine within recognized borders side-by-side
and at peace with Israel and
with East Jerusalem as its
Capital," India's Permanent
Representative to the UN
Asoke Mukerji said.
"India is deeply concerned
at the steep escalation of violence between Israel and
Palestine, particularly heavy
airstrikes in Gaza and disproportionate use of force on the
ground. We are deeply concerned over the human rights
situation in Occupied Palestine
Territory including East
Jerusalem, as also at the violence
by non-State actors in the region
which have the effect of serving
as avoidable obstacles to the
peace process, as well as to the
realization of the legitimate
aspirations of both the peoples
to co-exist in peace and security. We call upon all sides to exercise maximum restraint and
— India's Permanent
Representative to the UN
Asoke Mukerji
committing war
crimes in Gaza,
while calling for
investigations by an
0?P[TbcX]XP]Q^hRPaaXTbQ[P]ZTcbS^]PcTSc^cWTD]XcTS enquiry commission.
=PcX^]bbRW^^[fWTaTWd]SaTSb^UUP\X[XTbb^dVWc
Israel's envoy
aTUdVTPUcTaU[TTX]VcWTXaW^\TbSdTc^WTPeh8baPT[X
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0? to the UNHRC in
Geneva, Eviatar
avoid taking actions that may Manor, charged that the UN
further exacerbate the situation, Human Rights Council failed to
and threaten peace and securi- protect the human rights of
ty of the region," said Mukerji. Israelis. Israel criticized the conIndia underlined its com- vening of the Special Session as
mitment, made both at BRICS misguided, ill-conceived and
and IBSA platforms, for a com- counter-productive to efforts
prehensive and lasting settle- being made to end hostilities.
ment of the Arab-Israeli con- "Hamas was committing war
flict while calling upon both crimes when it fired rockets
sides to resume negotiations and missiles indiscriminately at
leading to a two-State solution Israeli towns. The Council could
with a contiguous and eco- regain its moral authority by
nomically viable Palestine State. unequivocally condemning
"India believes that the Hamas and rejecting outright the
solution to the Palestine issue one-sided resolution," Israel said.
should be based on the relevant
While Palestine argued that
UN resolutions, the Arab Peace the fundamental right to life of
Plan and the Quartet Roadmap the Palestinians was severely
resulting in a sovereign, inde- endangered since families were
pendent, viable and united being killed, and journalists
State of Palestine within secure and medical teams were being
and recognized borders side- targeted. It sought a fact-findby-side at peace with Israel and ing mission should look into
with East Jerusalem as its human rights violations perCapital," the official said.
petrated by Israel, which should
In Geneva UNHRC chief visit Gaza with the Special
Navi Pillay feared Israel may be Procedures mandate holders.
3URZOLQJOHRSDUGV¶ WUDQVORFDWLRQVHWVWKHFDWDPRQJSLJHRQV
<>DB7D<810BDQ =4F34;78
T
he frequent occurrence of random
trapping and releasing of leopards has
serious consequences. The case
of a leopard on
prowl on the outskirts of Chennai
underlines the
need to adhere to
the guidelines of
the Environment
Ministry in such cases
to contain the possibility of
man-animal conflict.
Panic has gripped
pockets of Chennai with the reports of a
leopard on the prowl for the past few
weeks. Carcasses of livestock found in the
nearby forest indicate the movement of
the leopard in areas near Chengalpattu
range of Vallam reserved forests.
Nearly one hundred forest depart-
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ment personnel have been deployed to
trap the leopard, which has so far killed
two persons in Thimbam forest area.
Based on the results of camera trapping
of the big cat, the forest department has
placed several cages to trap and translocate to deep forest.
According to wildlife activist Diya
Bannerjee, who is working on leopardman conflict, similar cases are happening in other States as Uttarakhand, Uttar
Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and West
Bengal. She has taken up the issue with
the Tamil Nadu Forest Department in this
regard. "In such cases, the forest department is required to monitor the situation
through camera traps, patrol the area and
m
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reassure villagers," she said.
The MoEF guidelines for man-leopard conflict management released on
April 2011 clearly state that the translocation of leopards does not help as they
exhibit amazing instinct to travel back to
their turf.
Apart from emphasising that capture
should be the last option, the guidelines
recommend that captured leopards
should be released within the immediate
vicinity of their captivity. Research has
shown that the translocation of leopards
to faraway places causes further conflict.
The conflict might spread to the place of
translocation.
Vidya Athreya, wildlife biologist
from Centre For Wildlife Study and Asian
Nature Conservation Foundation,
Bangalore, has thrown light on the effect
of a translocation programme of large
numbers of leopards trapped in humandominated landscapes and released into
adjoining forested areas.
The results of such translocation were
found to have serious consequences. "The
leopards did not stay at the released sites
and it was found that translocation further
induces attacks on people," she said. This
is due to increased aggression induced by
stress of the translocation process.
Wildlife activist Diya Bannerjee
pointed out that in the past States like
Karnataka put in place good measures to
check such trapping practices. Sanjay
Gandhi National Park in Maharashtra too
is working on similar lines to control such
steps by increasing awareness among
locals on man-leopard co-existence. She
expressed optimism that Tamil Nadu forest department too would learn its lesson and eventually avoid trapping the
straying leopard.
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Nobody knows the truth.
Whether the incident has happened or not, we are not sure,"
Naidu said seeking to douse the
passions. He said the
Government was in no way
connected
with
the
"unsavoury" incident.
Continued on Page 4
>Vec`UcZgVcd
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BC055A4?>AC4AQ =4F34;78
wo engineering students'
bid to commit suicide by
T
jumping in front of a Metro
train at Chhatarpur Metro
Station, was foiled on
Wednesday, by the prompt
action of the train driver,
who had used emergency
brakes to save the young lives.
The two students, Amit
Chauhan (27) and Mohini
(22), from Haryana, were in
love and wanted to get married to start a life together. But
driven to despair by their
respective families' continuous objections, the couple
decided to end their lives. On
Wednesday morning Amit
and
Mohini
reached
Chhatarpur Metro Station
and at 10:48am they jumped
in front of a train heading
toward Huda City Centre.
"The train operator slammed
emergenc y brakes and
stopped the train immediately. Security staff rushed and
rescued the duo from the
under-frame of the train's
second coach and gave clearance at 10:57am. The couple
received head injuries but
was in a conscious state. They
were sent to AIIMS by an an
ambulance," said a Metro
spokesperson.
According to police
sources, both the students
sustained head injuries but
are now out of danger. Police
will record their statements
before proceeding on legal
recourse. "The CCTV footage
shows that they jumped on
the track together. Prima facie
it seems that the couple is in
a love relationship. Their family might have objected to it
forcing them to jump to
death," said a senior police
official, while adding that
they have not found any suicide note from them.
A police official said that
Chauhan belongs to Kalka in
Haryana and has completed
his M.Tech from Kurukshetra
University, while Mohini is
from Ambala in Haryana and
is a B.Tech fourth year student
from the same university.
Police said Mohini resides in
Delhi as she is preparing for
competitive examinations to
take admission in M.Tech.
"The couple met at Kashmere
Gate metro station in the
morning and were going to a
mall in Gurgaon. They suddenly got out of the train at
Chattarpur and then jumped,"
said a police official.
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?=BQ 347A03D=
T
he cumulative seasonal
rainfall in Uttarakhand till
July 23 has been 11 per cent
short of normal this year.
Between June 1 and July 23, the
state received 409.7 mm of
rainfall which was 49.9 mm or
11 per cent less than the normal amount of rainfall for that
period- 459.1 mm. Rains within the range of +19 percent to
-19 per cent are considered
normal, said Uttarakhand
Meteorological Centre director
Anand Sharma.
The spell of increased rains
for the last many days has
brought cheer to the agriculture
and horticulture sector in the
state. The rain deficit caused by
hitherto weak current of monsoon a week ago has been
wiped out now. The soil is sat-
urated everywhere and overall
moisture content has become
sufficient now, which will give
a boost to agriculture, he
added.
Sharma further said that
significantly, the distribution of
monsoon so far has been quite
uneven across the State this
year. While some districts have
received rains in excess, some
are still reeling under substantial rain deficit. Six out of 13
districts of Uttarakhand
received more than normal
rainfall with Nainital of
Kumaon division topping the
chart at 797.2 mm which is 31
per cent more than the normal
amount (563.5 mm). Haridwar
stands second in this list with
413.6 mm that is 28 per cent
more than normal (323.3 mm)
while Bageshwar stands third
with 26 per cent more than
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normal rainfall followed by
Almora with 15 per cent excess,
Champawat with 4 per cent
excess and Chamoli with 3 per
cent excess. The cumulative
seasonal rainfall in Pauri till
July 23 has been 37 per cent
short of the normal quantity
followed by Dehradun with 32
per cent less, Pithoragarh with
30 per cent less, Rudraprayag
with 25 per cent less, Uttarkashi
and Udham Singh Nagar each
with 11 per cent less than normal, he added.
The Met office has forecast
light to moderate rain at isolated places in the state on
Thursday. Light to moderate
rainfall was received at various
places in Dehradun district on
Wednesday. The State received
light to moderate rainfall at various places on Wednesday. By
8.30 am on Wednesday, 50
mm rainfall was recorded in
Dehradun, 25.6 mm in
Pantnagar, 15.4 mm in
Mukteshwar, 3.8 mm in Tehri,
38.4 mm in Uttarkashi, 38 mm
in Dunda, 9 mm in
Pithoragarh, 11 mm in
Lansdowne, 17 mm in
Chamoli, 24.6 mm in Almora,
62 mm in Kausani, 7.4 mm in
Ranikhet and 6 mm in Nainital.
Sharma said that the maximum and minimum temperatures were recorded at 28°C
and 23°C respectively in
Dehradun on Wednesday. The
weather forecast for Dehradun
on Thursday is cloudy sky and
one or two spells of moderate
rain/ thunder storm at isolated places in the district. The
maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to be
around 29°C and 23°C respectively on Thursday in
Dehradun. The weather forecast for Uttarakhand on
Thursday is generally cloudy to
cloudy sky and light to moderate rain/thunder storm at
many places in the state, he
added.
´EbWU^d^UUTd_S_^cUbfU
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?=BQ 347A03D=
here is an urgent need to
conserve and manage the
T
natural
resources
on
sustainable basis for future
generations, said the Forest
Research Institute director Dr
PP Bhojvaid. He was addressing participants of a five day
interactive course for the field
functionaries of Emmanuel
Hospital Association, New
Delhi. The course is being
liaisoned by Landour
Community
Hospital,
Mussoorie.
Bhojvaid said that the conservation of natural resources
is only possible with the participation of people from all
sectors. He expressed confidence that this course would
certainly be beneficial for the
trainees and will act as an
effective tool to make the people aware about natural
resources. The participants can
play an important role in conservation of natural resources,
he added.
The natural resources are
valuable for the people and a
reservoir of natural wealth of
the country. These natural
resources are being exploited
vigorously and unscientifically. If this practice continues,
these resources will not exist in
nature in future. For sustainable
conser vation of natural
resources for the need of future
generation,
people’s
participation is necessary.
The interactive course was
organised keeping this in view.
FRI Extension Division head
Sandeep Kujur also expressed
his views on importance of natural resources and their conservation through people’s participation.
As part of the five-day
long interactive course the
trainees visited FRI museums
and interacted with subject
specialists on the aspects of
natural resource management.
They also visited the soil conservation centre at Selaqui here
on Wednesday.
CaP]b_^acST_c
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?=BQ 347A03D=
ith the deployment of the
Indo-Tibetan Border
W
Police (ITBP) force at ITI,
?=BQ 347A03D=
W
ith the introduction of
modern display screens
at the RTO office and launch of
official Facebook page, the
department of transport here
appears to have gone high-tech.
The official Facebook page of
department could be accessed
from the website of the transport
department of Uttarakhand. The
Facebook page in Uttarakhand is
being introduced on the lines of
Delhi transport department.
The Additional Regional
Transport Officer (ARTO),
administration, Sandeep Saini
told The Pioneer that the
Facebook page would have the
normal traffic rules and the
laws of the Motor Vehicle Act.
He said the Facebook is
being introduced to make the
public more aware about the
rules and regulation. He said that
the Transport commissioner M
Ramaswami is the chief Editor of
the page and Assistant Transport
Commissioner Rajiv Mehra is
the deputy chief Editor while
Naresh
Singh
and
Pramod Nautiyal are the editors
of the page.
Saini said that a modern
waiting hall with a seating capacity of 150 persons is being constructed at the RTO office
Dehradun with an estimated
budget of C9.25 Lakhs.
He disclosed that a LCD
screen with projector would
also be installed in this waiting
hall once it is completed. Saini
said that the screen would convey the rules and regulation of
the motor vehicle act and advices
like safety measures to be adopted while driving to the people.
The modern waiting hall would
benefit large number of people
who visit the RTO office daily
and have to stand in the queues
for long hours.
19?f^aZTabX]3TWaPSd]Qda]^[SaPcX^]RPaSbc^_a^cTbcPVPX]bcUPX[daT^UcWT5^^SP]S2XeX[Bd__[XTbST_Pac\T]cc^_a^eXST]TfaPcX^]RPaSbc^cWTRPaSW^[STab
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Doiwala, the counting venue of
Doiwala Assembly bypoll, security has been beefed up in the
campus. Provincial Armed
Constabulary (PAC) jawans and
Uttarakhand police have been
deputed outside the ITI campus
to strengthen the security at the
counting venue. The counting of
votes polled for assembly bypoll
will be held here on Friday.
When this correspondent
visited the ITI Doiwala to
observe the security at the counting venue, initially, ITBP personnel who were deputed at the
gate did not allow access to the
monitoring room where a television has been placed to monitor the stream from CCTV
cameras installed outside the
strong room. However, later
with the permission of returning
officer, this correspondent was
allowed to visit the monitoring
room to observe the security
arrangements at the strong room
through the CCTV footage.
ITBP inspector Brijmani Avasthi
said that to protect the Electronic
Voting Machines stored in the
strong room, tight security has
been ensured with the
deployment of 40 ITBP personnel and installation of three
CCTV cameras. One official
observer had earlier visited the
counting venue to inspection the
arrangements on Wednesday.
Another election official
said that the agents of any political party who are having entry
card have not approached for visiting the monitoring room so far.
The employees who were
deployed to set up 14 tables for
counting of the votes were witnessed giving final shape to the
arrangement. ITBP personnel
did not allow this correspondent
access to this area.
The returning officer PC
Dumka said that tight security
arrangements have been made at
the counting venue and persons
having valid entry card are
allowed to oversee the security at
strong room through CCTV
footage on the television screen
installed at the monitoring room.
All the EVMs used for
polling on July 21 were stored in
the strong room at ITI campus,
Doiwala. A total of 14 tables have
been installed and vote counting
will be completed in 11 rounds.
Any political party can
depute its agent to oversee the
strong room on television in the
monitoring room. The courting
of polled votes will begin from
8 am on July 25. A total of 150
government officials have been
deputed on counting duty as
counting micro observer, counting observer and counting assistant. They have been given training at the Town Hall in
Dehradun, he added.
>B9\QgiUb_^% TQi]YccY_^d_UbQTYSQdUSQcdUYc]Vb_]^QdY_^
?=BQ 347A03D=
RI lawyer and activist
KK Sarachandra Bose
N
reached Dehradun along with
his team as part of his 50-day
Bharat Yathra aimed at eradicating casteism from the
nation. Addressing the media
here on Wednesday, he said
that if the Government of
India does not act on his declaration- a mandate for social
equality on or before
December 31 this year, he will
take the lead and do all that
is necessary to wipe out the
caste system and untouchability from India.
Dubai-based Bose, who
has ser ved a mandator y
notice on the Government of
India to eradicate the caste
system by this calendar year,
is going ahead with his
50-day Bharat Yathra that
began on June 9 f rom
Thiruvananthapuram, the
capital of his native
Kerala State.
Along with a team of 34
volunteers, the sexagenarian
is addressing people across
the states before reaching
Delhi this month-end, traversing a distance of almost
14,000 km.
Addressing the media in
Dehradun, he said that he had
received a positive response
throughout his journey so
far with people expressing
interest in the eradication of
casteism.
::BPaPRWP]SaP1^bTPSSaTbbTbcWT\TSXPX]3TWaPSd]
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Travelling through the
nation, Bose has been freely
distributing a book. Caste
Away! India, Hinduism &
Untouchability.
“ This 208-page work
brought out in November
2013 is in fact a 13-month
mandator y
notice
I
have ser ved on the
Government of India for
Constitutional Reform to
eradicate the caste system
from the country — by or
before December 31, 2014.
Caste Away, which is supported by 40 years of research,
has already been handed out
to the President of India, the
Prime Minister, all Members
of Parliament, besides chief
ministers, legislators, judges
of the Supreme Court as well
as several High C our ts
and lower echelons of the
judiciary.
It has also gone to the
United Nations SecretaryGeneral, Heads of States of
dif ferent
countries,
intellectuals and the media
among others.
The Supreme Court of
India has ruled that the caste
system conveyed the message ‘Divided we are — come
and rule us’. In short, ‘the
caste system is a curse on the
nation and the sooner it is
destroyed the better’, the apex
court has noted.”
Bose said that the present
caste system in India was
introduced by the British
colonial rulers with the help
of some “anti-social” Indians.
“I would fight to ensure
the eradication of such a custom in India in the name of
caste system. It is impossible
to conceive that a human
being can enslave another
human being like an animal.
These slave-holders are inhuman, cruel, criminal monsters. I do not want such a system to continue in my country," he added.
Bharat Yathra has been
covering all state capitals with
Bose holding meetings in
another 15-plus cities and
towns besides impromptu
addresses to the public. The
journey is expected to conclude in Delhi by July 31.
6aPSdPcX^]RTaT\^]hWT[Sc^\PaZR^\_[TcX^]^UcaPX]X]V
?=BQ 347A03D=
T
ata Relief Committee and IL&FS
organised a graduation ceremony
to mark the completion of 45 days of
training to the disaster-affected youth
of Uttarkashi region.
A certificate distribution ceremony was held in association with
Institute of Cooperative Management
(ICM) Rajpur for 47 participants in
Retail and F&B trade.
The programme director of Tata
Relief Committee, Arun Mamgain,
programme leader of TRC Sourav
Roy, the director of ICM Bhanwar
Singh, coordinator of ICM Salil
Gupta, regional head of IL&FS
Ramesh Petwal and IL&FS staff were
among those present on the occasion.
IL&FS Skills is associated with
Uttarakhand Skill Development programme to facilitate skill training and
employment to the youth of
Uttarakhand which is sponsored by
Tata Relief Committee.
On the occasion Bhanwar Singh
and Arun Mamgain addressed the
trainees on the importance of establishing their career, grabbing the
available opportunities, having the
right attitude in life and focusing on
self development. Ramesh Petwal
shared in detail about the Tata
Uttarakhand programme and the
upcoming project. Under this programme IL&FS Skills has trained 136
trainees from Pithoragarh, Uttarkashi,
Chamoli, Bageshwar, Rudraprayag
and other districts. The trainees are
interviewed, assessed and selected for
45 days residential skill development
placement linked programme.
Shahwez B aksh who is the
Uttarakhand skill development coordinator also supported the endeavour
by assisting in the mobilisation of the
trainees.
3XUUTaT]c[hPQ[TSVTcBcPcT6^ecbbd__^ac
?=BQ 347A03D=
he State Government will
play the role of legal
T
guardian of the differentlyabled including those suffering
from cerebral palsy, mental
retardation, multiple disabilities
and autism.
A State level coordination
committee has been formed for
this purpose under the chairmanship of the principal secretary, Social Welfare. Similarly,
such committees have been
formed at the district level
under the chairmanship of the
district magistrates.
These issues were discussed
in a meeting of the National
Trust for the Welfare of Persons
with Autism, Cerebral Palsy,
Mental Retardation and
Multiple Disabilities of the
Union Ministry of Social Justice
and Empowerment presided
over by the chief secretary
Subhash Kumar here on
Wednesday.
The joint secretary and
chief executive officer of the
National Trust for the Welfare
of Persons with Autism,
Cerebral Palsy, Mental
Retardation and Multiple
Disabilities Ajay Lal informed
that in Uttarakhand, the
Raphael Centre has been made
the State Nodal Agency
Centre (SNAC).
The district level committees will also consist of one representative of a voluntary
organisation and one differently
abled person apart from the district magistrate. The voluntary
organisation working for disabled people will work seriously
to identify the disabled persons
in the district. The Health
Department will issue a certificate to such disabled persons
who have completed 18 years of
age. The State Government will
provide protection, employment and legal guardianship to
such disabled persons in addition to facilitating vocational
training for them.
Through video conferencing, the chief secretary directed all district magistrates to
include this scheme in the
agenda of their monthly meeting and review it regularly.
Officials of the National Trust
provided detailed information
about the scheme to the
district magistrates.
The State officials were
informed that such disabled
persons can also be insured
under the Niramaya scheme.
The State government will
deposit the insurance premium
amount. Various other schemes
and facilities for the
disabled were also discussed in
the meeting.
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he company implementing the 400 MW
T
Vishnuprayag hydro power
project in Chamoli district is
blatantly violating the
regulations by dumping
debris in the Alaknanda river
at the Lambagad barrage site
instead of dumping the debris
at a designated dumping site.
While the district
administration has so far
remained apathetic to this
anomaly,
the
Forest
Department officials state
that no such activity is being
undertaken. With the advent
of the monsoon and resulting
rise in the level of water in the
rivers here, the project proponent companies have started dumping muck and debris
in the rivers.
The barrage of the
Vishnuprayag hydro power
project being implemented
by Jaiprakash Associates had
sustained serious damage due
to flood and debris during the
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disaster in June last year.
The debris from last year's
disaster is still lying on the
side of the barrage at
L ambagad.
Now,
the
company is blatantly
dumping the debris into the
Alaknanda river.
According to observers,
such dumping of debris in the
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T
U
ttarakhand Chief Minister
Harish Rawat has directed
officials to organise a tourism
investors’ meet in the State to
mark World Tourism Day on
September 27. He said this
while chairing a meet to review
tourism and Char Dham Yatra
on Wednesday.
Chairing the meet, Rawat
said that representatives of the
tourism industry from India
and abroad should be invited to
the planned tourism investor
meet to invest in tourism in
Uttarakhand.
He also directed officials to
draft a detailed policy for
developing market for local
products and facilitating display
and sale of handloom and
handicraft items made in the
mountainous regions of the
State. Rawat directed officials to
work on the Tehri mega tourism
circuit plan and link the Tehri
dam reservoir with the Char
Dham Yatra circuit while stressing on the need for developing
Chopta, Gwaldam and
Duggalbitta as new tourist
destinations for enhancing
ecotourism.
The CM directed officials
to consider the scope for developing the Char Dham Yatra
even during the winter season.
The cultural fairs held in the
mountainous regions of the
State should also be linked to
the Char Dham Yatra.
Agricultural produce and
angling should also be linked
with tourism, the CM stressed,
while also directing the officials
to market the Himalayan
region across the globe from
the tourism point of view.
Reviewing the Char Dham
Yatra, the CM directed officials
to ensure that the pilgrimage is
conducted efficiently.
He clarified that the Yatra
is halted temporarily at times
due to heavy rain and road
blockage even as the Border
Roads Organisation and Public
Works Department work to
repair the roads. Work is
being undertaken to reopen
blocked roads to traffic on
priority basis while officials
have also been issued instructions to ensure that the Char
Dham Yatra is facilitated in a
systematic manner. The officials concerned are executing
their duties related to the Yatra.
?X^]TTa_W^c^
river is not only a violation of
regulations but is also likely to
affect the flow and ecology of
the river downstream.
Locals and environmental
activists allege that such
violations are being carried
out blatantly with the
knowledge of the administration officials.
When this correspondent
asked the Nanda Devi national park sub divisional officer
Sarvesh Kumar Dubey about
the dumping of debris in
the river, he outrightly
rejected this and stressed that
no such activity was taking
place in the area.
Earlier in June this year,
the National Green Tribunal
has directed the Jaiprakash
Associates to f ile an
affidavit in connection with
the dumping of debris and
muck of the Vishnuprayag
project barrage in the
Alaknanda river.
Such dumping was said to
be posing an imminent threat
to the villages downstream
with the advent of monsoon,
according to Vimal Bhai of
Matu Jansangathan who had
filed the application along
with villagers living downstream of the project against
the company in the National
Green Tribunal.
He had then alleged that
the company had been unable
to clear the debris properly
and was waiting for the
advent of the monsoon showers so that the muck is carried
away by the river.
It will be recalled that the
company implementing the
Vishnuprayag project was
accused by locals and activists
of being responsible for the
destruction wreaked in the
downstream areas during the
June 2013 calamity.
On June 16-17 last year,
floods had washed away proper ties
in
L ambagad,
Pandukeshwar, Govindghat,
Vinayak Chatti, Pinolaghat
and other areas downstream
of the project reportedly
because the gates of the barrage were not operated properly by the company staff.
D?2;bTc
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?=BQ 347A03D=
o reduce the power outages in the State, the
T
Uttarakhand
Power
Corporation (UPCL) has
entered into an understanding
with the power corporation of
neighbouring Himachal
Pradesh to supply power to
the State. The UPCL
spokesperson Madhusudan
said that Himachal Pradesh
would provide power to the
State from July 25 to July 30.
On Friday, the UPCL would
purchase 2.5 MUs of electricity from Himachal Pradesh.
The power generation
from the 198 MW Kalagarh
and 40 MW Khatima hydro
power stations remained
affected due to silt on Tuesday
9^VYWXdY^WQ]_^W\UQTUbc]QiS_cd2:@TUQb
?=BQ 347A03D=
he infighting among the
BJP leaders could cost the
party the coveted position of
District Panchayat president in
Dehradun. The district has 43
members of district Panchayat.
These directly elected members
would elect the President of the
District panchayat.
Though the nominations
for this post would be on July
30 there is unanimity among
the Congress party on the
name of Chaman Singh, who is
brother of senior Congress
leader and Cabinet minister
Pritam Singh. The BJP is divided house on the issue and
names of Madhu Chauhan
who till recently held the position of President District
Panchayat and Subhash
Sharma are circulating as the
probable candidates.
In the direct elections of
the member district Panchayat
which were recently held the
BJP buoyed by its spectacular
success in the Lok Sabha
elections officially declared the
list of its candidates.
The party however got a
shock in these elections as
only 12 candidates’ could get
elected out of house of 43. The
1bbQ^WU]U^dcY^`\QSUV_bcUS_^T
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he process of the second
phase of Panchayat elections in all the 12 districts of the
State, barring Haridwar, would
start on Wednesday with start
of nomination process for the
positions of Block Pramukh,
Senior Deputy Pramukh and
Junior Deputy Pramukh.
The State Election
Commission has made all the
arrangements for the free and
fair elections.
In the second phase of the
Panchayati Raj elections 89
positions of Block Pramukhs
and 12 positions of Member
District Panchayat would be
indirectly elected, after the
direct elections for the positions of Village Pradhan,
Member Village Panchayat,
Member Block Panchayat and
Member district Panchayat on
June 18, 21 and 24 in the 12
districts of State that went to
the Panchayat polls.
Nominations for the Block
positions would be on July 24,
the date of withdrawal of
names would be on July 26 and
the election and result declaration would be on July 27.
Similarly nominations for the
District Panchayat positions
of President District Panchayat
and Vice President District
Panchayat would be on July 30,
withdrawal of names is on
August 2 and elections and
result declaration would be on
August 5.
The newly elected 3054
Members Block Panchayat
would elect 89 Block Pramukhs
in their respective blocks while
389 member district Panchayat
would elect the 12 President
District Panchayat in their
districts.
The District President of
Dehradun would be elected by
43 Members of District
Panchayat while the President
District Panchayat of Pauri
Garhwal would be elected by
42 Members of district
Panchayat.
Congress on the other hand
played its cards cautiously in
the aftermath of a crushing
defeat in the Lok Sabha elections and did not officially
declare its candidates.
Surprised by the results the
Congress in the district is now
claiming that it would com-
fortably get its candidate elected for President as majority of
the elected District panchayat
members are having Congress
background.
The internal rivalr y
between former Chief Minister
and MP from Haridwar Lok
Sabha constituency Ramesh
Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ and seasoned leader Munna Singh
Chauhan is casting its shadow
on BJP’s prospects in
these elections.
Madhu Chauhan is wife of
Munna Singh Chauhan and a
section of BJP in the district is
demanding that she should be
T
made the official party candidate for the post of President
District Panchayat. According
to sources Nishank this time is
backing the candidature of
Subhash Sharma for the position. Surprisingly Sharma
fought the election of member
district Panchayat as an independent candidate and has
tossed the contentious issue of
Parwa Doon and Pachwa Doon
in these elections.
It is worth mentioning
here that Madhu Chauhan was
able to win the election of
Panchayat President last time
even though her party BJP
opposed her candidature.
Munna Singh showed his tight
grip over the politics of district
when despite opposition of
BJP; he was able to get his wife
elected President District panchayat as an independent candidate. Speaking to The
Pioneer, Madhu Chauhan said
that she is sure that she will win
the election this time too if BJP
declares her candidature.
She however categorically
said that she will fight the
elections only if the party gives
her go ahead and would
respect party’s decision if party
decides to field some one else
for the position.
also. Due to this, the UPCL
undertook a power cut in
the rural areas of Haridwar.
The State received 20.48
MU of power from its Hydro
power stations on Tuesday.
Madhusudan said that in
Doiwala area of Dehradun,
the Executive Engineer of
UPCL, PS Rawat undertook
an inspection of 4 km line
which passes through the
Rajaji National Park area and
corrected the minor faults.
It is worth mentioning
here that people across the
State have been suffering from
the effects of recurring power
cuts in both urban and
rural areas.
The onset of monsoon
has worsened the situation by
affecting power generation
and causing damage to power
supply network in various
parts of the State.
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Dehradun: Prime Minister
Narendra Modi’s biography and
his vision in a book authored by
Rajya Sabha MP from
Uttarakhand and journalist
Tarun Vijay has been published
in Chinese language by
Sichuan University’s South Asia
Study Centre.
Its publisher, the director of
the Centre, Prof Xie has written
in the book: “Mr Modi has
emerged as a new star of India.
He has changed the political
atmosphere in India and the
polity as a new reformer and
revolutionary politician. We are
publishing this book to
introduce to the Chinese
readers his life and vision with
great happiness.”
In his message for the book,
Modi has said, "I hope that the
book will enable Chinese friends
to have a glimpse of what is happening in India right now. It will
act as a window to the
contemporary scenario in India
and shall hopefully help to open
up understanding and
companionship.” The book has
also been sent by the Sichuan
University to the Chinese
President Xi Jinping.
The book was introduced in
the BJP Parliamentary Party
meeting by veteran BJP leader
and Union Minister for
Parliamentary
Affairs
Venkaiah Naidu and presented
to the Prime Minister by Tarun
Vijay in the Central Hall in the
presence of Union Finance and
Defence Minister Arun Jaitley
and others.
Before the India visit of the
Chinese president Xi Jinping, the
book is being considered as a
significant friendly gesture by
the Chinese for Indian people,
said Vijay in a statement released
to the media.
PNS
3^^]R^_bUPX[c^_aTeT]c:P]fPSXPbUa^\aTPRWX]V<dbb^^aXT
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he district police seem to
have failed in preventing
T
the Kanwadias from reaching
Mussoorie inspite of imposing
a ban on their entr y in
Mussoorie. In past years,
Kanwadias were allowed to
visit Mussoorie but some of
them ended up creating
nuisance causing law and order
problems in Mussoorie and en
route to this hill station.
To hide their identity, most
of the young Kanwadias put on
casual dress to reach Mussoorie
instead of the ochre coloured
clothes generally worn by
Kanwadias. This is making it
hard for the police to identify
them. Though police claim to
have taken several measures for
preventing them from reaching
Mussoorie, they reach
Mussoorie anyway.
In Jogiwala area, several
kanwadias can easily be seen
travelling through the Raipur
ring road and then
Sahastradhara Road route to
reach Mussoorie.
Police who have been
posted on various roads in the
city for restricting the movements of kanwadias seem to be
negligent on their duty. In
Doiwala, kanwadias were witnessed carrying sticks with
saffron colour flag coming
towards Mussoorie from
Haridwar.
Some kanwadias were seen
removing the ochre coloured
clothes and wearing casual
dress before advancing towards
Mussoorie. A sub-inspector of
Doiwala police station said
that it is very difficult to identify the genuine kanwadias
because all of them generally
carry saffron coloured flags.
Mussoorie CO Jaya Baloni
said that police have been
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strictly directed to prevent
kanwadias from entering
Mussoorie. Police force has
been deployed at various points
on the roads leading to
Mussoorie including Kuthal
Gate and Kolhukhet to prevent
kanwadias from reaching
Mussoorie.
The persons on vehicles
with registration numbers of
Haryana, Punjab and other
States are prevented from
entering Mussoorie if they fail
to answer the police
satisfactorily, she added.
d_CUbfYSUµY^YdYQdYfU
?=BQ 347A03D=
S
ocial organisations and general public has hailed the
‘Right to Service’ introduced by
the State Government and
termed it a powerful tool in the
hand of common public. On
Tuesday the Right to Service
Commission in the State came
into existence with former
Chief Secretary Alok Kumar
Jain as its first Commissioner.
The Founder of ‘Himad
Samiti’ a Non Governmental
Organisation (NGO) working
for child right and women
empowerment, Dr D S Pundir
told The Pioneer that the above
law could be a very powerful
instrument in the hands of the
public if it is properly used.
“The Government should
first make the people aware
about the provisions of the
Right to Service so that people
can be really bene\fited by
this,” he said.
The
President
of
Uttarakhand
Parents
Association Neeraj Singhal was
of the view that the government
should ensure that the law is
properly implemented. He
expressed hope that people
would use this tool to fight corruption in the society. MPS
Bisht an advocate said that the
new law could become powerful weapon but he also was
apprehensive about its misuse. He said that the Right to
Information (RTI) Act too was
a revolutionary step but we all
are aware of its misuse by the
certain people as they have
made it a tool to blackmail corrupt officials. Arpit Jain a businessmen said that Right to
Service is good for the society
as it is a right step towards
reducing corruption.
The Right to Service act
was introduced in the state by
the then Chief Minister Major
C74A867CC>
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General (retd) B C Khanduri
on October 28, 2011 during the
BJP government's term but the
Act was repealed by the
Congress Government during
the rule of Chief Minister Vijay
Bahuguna on September 26,
2013. The Harish Rawat
Government however issued
notification for reintroducing it
in February 27, 2014.
The Right to Service Act
provides a fixed time period for
the services of the State
Government.
Officials
concerned will have to provide
the necessary service within the
stipulated time frame.
If the official fails to provide the necessary service within the time period the applicant
can move to the first appellate
authority against the official,
the appellate authority is the
departmental head and he will
have to dispose the case with in
30 days.
The applicant can move to
the second appellate authorities
who for most of the services are
the District Magistrates or the
Commissioners. The erring
officials can be imposed a
penalty of C5000 if it he/ she
fails to provide the necessary
service within the stipulated
time period.
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T
he National Human Rights
Commission (NHRC) has
sought an action-taken report
(ATR) from the Chief
Secretary within four weeks on
the human rights of the martyrs and other related issues of
Eram, a place known as the
second Jalianawalbagh in the
Indian freedom struggle.
The commission passed
the order on June 25 this year
while acting over the petition
filed by Supreme Court lawyer
and rights activist Radhakanta
Tripathy.
Eram, a place in Bhadrak
district, where the British
forces killed 28 persons on
September 28, 1942 was also
very important as the only
woman martyr of the freedom
movement in Orissa, Pari
Bewa, also fell to the British
bullets there.
Most of the descendants of
the martyrs and the freedom
fighters have been living life in
lurch. Even though their forefathers have sacrificed their
lives for free-India, these
unfortunate victims are denied
social welfare schemes of
Government, the petitioner
contended.
“Today there is no museum to showcase the great sacrifice through pictorial or any
audio-visual depiction. The
police had blocked the only
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passage to the ground surrounded by rivers on three
sides. However, in the absence
of Government patronage,
there is not even a proper road
to the memorial. The place has
not found a place in the
tourism map of India; no
development work has been
undertaken by the State
Government,” the petitioner
pointed out.
In 1942, the people of
nearby villages were assembled
at Eram after they declared
themselves as part of a
‘Swadhina
chakla’
or
Independent area under the
leadership of freedom fighters
like Banchhanidhi Mohanty.
The place where a mandap
has been constructed in the
memory of the martyrs and
injured freedom fighters has
been a place for open defecation and heaven for the butchers to kill goats and pigs. Such
worse has been the situation, I
have personally witnessed,
Radhakanta alleged.
“Non-recognition of the
contribution of the large number of martyrs for the Indian
freedom struggle amounts to
violation of human rights of
these great sons of soil.
Denial of benefits of social
welfare schemes to the descendants of the freedom fighters
pose serious threat to their
human rights since most of
them started starving for survival. It is most important to
mention that the family members of ‘Pari Bewa,’ one of the
rare lady martyrs of India have
also living in lurch till date, the
petitioner contended.
He requested the commission to direct the State authorities to make a comprehensive
survey of the living condition
of the descendants i.e. the
family members of the martyrs
including those who were
injured by British bullet and
ensure them the benefits of
social welfare schemes like
BPL,
Indira
Awas,
Annapurna/Antorday, PDS
(food security) and social security pension to the eligible
persons and ensure their basic
human rights and direct the
district administration to
ensure basic infrastructure to
the area and keep the historical place free from open defecation and animal killing.
6OXJLWRXWLQFRXUW3KRROND
?=BQ 270=3860A7
unconstitutional and unethical
move on the part of Hooda
Government was “politically
motivated aimed at dividing the
Sikh Sangat”.
Terming it as a “great betrayal with the Sikh Panth”, Dhillon
said that the shoddy manner in
which the State Government
acted spoke volumes of the hidden agenda of the Hooda
Government who was acting at
W
ith Haryana Government
constituting ad-hoc committee for the management of the
Gurdwaras in the State, senior
advocate and Aam Aadmi Party
leader HS Phoolka on
Wednesday asked both the ruling SAD in Punjab and Haryana
Government to take control of
Sikh shrines in Haryana
“through court and not through
police”.
Giving “free legal advice” to
the both rival factions, Phoolka
asked them to move the Supreme
Court for the solution, and “wait
for final decision by the Court”.
He said that the provocative
speeches by Akali leaders and
filling of Haryana Gurdwaras by
armed men were “absolutely
wrong”.
“The SAD is taking this
action under the pretext of keeping Sikh Panth united, and at the
same time, trying to create violence and disturb peace in gurdwaras… it is detrimental to the
panth… If the SAD has been sincere that they do not want division in the panth, they should file
the petition in the Supreme
Court by now,” said Phoolka.
He pointed that the reason
that SAD is not filing the petition itself shows that they are not
sure about succeeding in the
Supreme Court and the correctness of legal position propounded by them.
On the other hand, Phoolka
appealed to the Sikh leaders of
Haryana for not taking the help
of police in taking control over
Gurdwaras. “This could results
said that the reason and logic for
a separate Haryana SGPC was
similar as argued by Badal and
his style during Punjabi Suba
(State) movement.
“You wanted a separate
State where Sikhs could have a
majority. That ultimately led to
the creation of Haryana and if
the Sikhs there now want autonomy for running their own
Gurdwaras what is wrong in
4@?EC@=@792CJ2?2D:<9D9C:?6D
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in violence in Gurdwaras. Badals
want violence in Gurdwaras at
this moment because they have
utterly failed on all fronts and
want to take up issue of use of
police by Haryana Government
in Gurdwaras,” he said.
Phoolka advised the
HSGPC leaders to use other
methods and to avoid police and
violence. “The best way to take
over control is that after HSGPC
is constituted, it should file a “suit
for injunction” against SGPC
president Avtar Singh Makkar,
and SAD President Sukhbir
Badal seeking Court orders that
these persons and their agents
should be restrained from interfering in management of
Haryana Gurdwaras,” he said.
B03A0?B70AH0=0
Chandigarh: Squarely blaming
the Haryana Government for
creating a separate State-level
Gurdwara management committee, SAD general secretary
and Punjab Irrigation Minister
Sharanjit Dhillon said that this
the behest of Sonia Gandhi.
“They have deliberately got
the bill passed in Money Bill category so that it could not be sent
to the President for his
approval….As per the
Constitution, any Religious Bill
comes under Civil Bill and this
bill being a part of the concurrent list requires the approval of
the President,” he added.
Expressing shock that
Haryana Government has
declared Sikh Gurdwaras as
Government property under
the Companies Act, he pointed
that sacred offerings of Sikh
devotees before Guru Granth
Sahib “will now become
Government's revenue” and
handpicked masands of
Haryana Government will now
become employees of Haryana
Government and get their
salaries from the State treasury.
?A4=44C:0DA50E>DAB
B4?0A0C42><<8CC44
Patiala: Advocating the formation of separate Gurdwara
Committee for Haryana, former
Union Minister Preneet Kaur
that? Denying Sikhs in Haryana
this right was absolutely unjustified," she said.
Taking a dig at Badal for his
“misplaced priorities”, Preneet
said that he preferred to go to
Delhi to further rake up the
Haryana SGPC issue instead of
attending the Budget Session of
the Punjab Assembly.
2>=6A4BB@D4BC8>=B
1030;´BB8=24A8CH
Jalandhar: Questioning the sincerity of Chief Minister Parkash
Singh Badal in his protest
against the formation of
Haryana Shiromani Gurdwara
Parbandhak
Committee
(HSGPC), the Punjab Congress
chief Partap Singh Bajwa on
Wednesday asked him to prove
the same by making his entire
family resigning from the posts
they hold and participate in the
Morcha.
“If Badal is sincere in his
protest against the formation of
HSGPC
by
Haryana
Government and is not just a
ploy to hand over the power to
his son Sukhbir Badal, then
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270=3860A7
he population of water
birds is declining in the
T
wetland habitats of Punjab.
In a survey conducted by
Asian Wetland C ensus
(AWC), it was found that the
population of water birds is
decreasing due to degradation
of wetland habitats in Punjab.
The State has several wetlands including three Ramsar
sites (wetlands with international importance declared
by Ramsar Convention of
Wetlands) out of 26 sites in
India with rich bird diversity
including resident species and
migratory species.
The survey has been conducted at R anjit Sagar
Reservoir created on River
R avi, Kanjli Wetland in
Kapurthala, three small wetlands in Ropar and at Nangal
Dam (Nangal Wildlife
Sanctuary).
According to the survey
carried out by AWC Delhi
coordinator and ecologist TK
Roy, the number of both
migratory and resident water
birds’ species is declining in
;Xcc[T6aTQT
wetlands of Punjab. Migratory
bird species –Nor thern
Shoveler—which used to
migrate to Punjab wetlands
every year, was not sighted
during last winter.
Also, the population of
migrator y birds’ species
including Northern Pintail,
Common Pochard, Graylag
Geese, Gadwal, Commot
Coot, Red-Crested Pochard
has decreased over the years.
Earlier, a large flock of these
6aTh[PV6^^bT
migratory birds were visiting
the wetlands, but their number has declined drastically in
past few years with plundering of wetlands in Punjab,
said ecologist TK Roy while
talking to The Pioneer.
The population of resident species including Little
Cormorant, White-Breasted
Waterhen, White-Breasted
Kingfisher, and Little Grebe
has also declined in the wetlands of the state.
Roy said, “As per the field
surveys conducted so far, at
various wetlands of Punjab,
the population of water birds
has declined sharply.”
In a survey conducted by
AWS earlier this year, 20
species of water birds including only 5 residents and 15
winter migratory birds’ were
found at R anjit Sagar
Reservoir, which is among the
largest wetlands in Punjab.
The resident species included
Great C ormorant, Little
Cormorant, Osprey, Little
Egret and Pond Heron.
Also, in another census
exercise earlier this year at
smaller wetland habitats in
Ropar, the population of resident species including of
Indian Pond Heron, WhiteThroated Kingfisher, Indian
Moorhen, Grey Heron, Little
Egret, Spot-billed duck were
found to be very low.
Roy said, “The wetland
and smaller reservoirs for the
purpose of irrigation and
flood control carries good
aquatic habitat for water birds
as exists on the Shivalik
foothills in Punjab. But the
state is losing birdlife habitat
due to ignorance for aquatic
wildlife conservation.”
He said that the authority concerned needs to start
conservation initiatives for
the water birds and to sustain
wetland habitat to attract
large number of migratory
species as well population
growth of resident species.
The AWC has already
suggested the concerned officials of State Forest and
Wildlife Department to regularly monitor the wildlife
and biodiversity in the wetland habitat.
Among other suggestions
include bird census atleast
twice in a year, conservation
awareness among the adjacent
villages, display birdlife conservation awareness boards at
the wetlands, prepare a sustainable wildlife management
plan and take coordinated
effort with Irrigation and
Fishery Department for habitat conservation, he added.
When
contacted,
Dhirendra Singh, APCCF
(CWWL), Punjab Wildlife
Wing said, “The condition of
wetlands
under
our
Department is good. Some
wetlands are under Science
and Technology Department
also.”
“As far as the issue of
water birds’ population is
concerned, their population
depends on several factors.
During last winter, a large
number of migratory birds
were sighted at few wetlands
in Punjab. The surveys findings can not be 100 per cent
accurate,” he added.
;YYDcdeTU^dcY^fYdUbQ`UfYSdY]d_dXUYbcSX__\
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S
tudents of the KiiT
International School here
on Wednesday invited the
rape victim Odia girl of
Bangalore to take admission
and study peacefully in their
school, provided her
parents agree.
The KiiT International
School students staged a
protest march against the
gangrape of the six-year-old
girl in a reputed school in
Bangalore.
Thousands of students
holding placards took out a
procession from the KiiT
International School to KIIT
Square demanding speedy
justice for the victim.
Voicing deep concern on
increasing incidences of rape
and other crimes in schools,
they
demanded
that
Government take decisive
steps to check the trend.
They gave importance to
awareness programmes in
schools and sought special
laws for this.
They demanded maximum punishment to the culprits under the law. KIIT &
KISS Founder Dr Achyuta
Samanta said it is heartbreaking to know about the
Bangalore crime. It is now
most important to change
the general attitude towards
girls and women in the
society. Value education
should be included in school
curriculum, he added.
Badal's entire family should
resign from the posts they hold
and participate in the Morcha
which Badal is intending to
launch after July 27,” said Bajwa.
After Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal's announcement that he was ready to
lead any movement to protest
against the formation of
HSGMC by Haryana Government, Punjab Congress president Partap Singh Bajwa has
said that if the CM was sincere
and it was not just a ploy to
hand over the reins of power
to Sukhbir Badal then Badal's
entire family should resign
from the posts they hold and
participate in the Morcha
which Badal is intending to
launch after July 27.
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enior BJP leader and former
Himachal Chief Minister
SPrem
Kumar Dhumal on
Wednesday hailed the initiative
of the Ministry of Defence and
Finance for clearing four
strategic rail links along the
border of India and China.
Talking to The Pioneer, he
said Himachal Pradesh had
been repeatedly asking the
Congress Governments at the
Center for strengthening rail
and road network along the
border with China, but the successive Railway Ministers of
the Congress led UPA
Governments had been turning a deaf ear to the dire
necessity of matching our road
and rail infrastructure with
China.
Dhumal said he met Prime
Minister Narendra Modi
recently and impressed on the
need for strengthening rail
network in the strategic IndoChina border by allocating liberal funds as it concerned
India’s freedom and security.
He said the Prime Minsiter
gave him a patient hearing and
assured to take all possible
steps in this direction.
The former Chief Minister
said visionary BJP Prime
Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee
had taken steps in this direction and had started the work
of the Rohtang Tunnel and
expressed confidence that the
new Prime Minister would
accomplish the left over work.
During his four rallies in
Himachal Pradesh, Modi had
assured the people to expand
the rail network up to the
China border.
6HQD03VPLVEHKDYH
From Page 1
We need to enquire...Let us not
send wrong signals to the country."
Raising the issue during Zero Hour,
C ongress member M I Shanavas
described the incident as shocking.
"MPs who should be role models
have become bad models...The faith of
minorities has been tarnished. The
House should condemn it," he said.
He also quoted a reported statements
made by the concerned employee,
Arshad, of Maharashtra Sadan. This followed heated exchanges between the
Treasury and Opposition benches.
Reacting to Owaisi's allegations,
Union Minister Anant Geete said, "Those
who want to respect the month of
Ramzan should not make false statement
in the House." This triggered sharp
protests from the Opposition.
"Whatever the report has appeared
is totally false and the Congress is trying to tarnish the image of the
Government," Geete said. At this point
Biduri and Owaisi locked horns with
each other.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was
present in the Lok Sabha when the issue
was raised. Leader of the Congress in the
Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge wanted
the issue to be referred to the Ethics
Committee. When the Lok Sabha reassembled at 12.30 pm, Parliamentary
Affairs Minister Naidu disapproved the
conduct of the MPs and said there is
"need for maintaining decency and
decorum of the House... We should
respect each other."
In the Rajya Sabha, Minister of
State for Parliamentary Affairs Prakash
Javadekar said, "It is an unsubstantiated
report. We should not take it to the next
level. Let it be ascertained. There are sensitivities involved."
Ali Anwar Ansari of the JD(U)
raised the issue after Zero Hour, but
Deputy Chairman P J Kurien said he will
allow him time after those who have
given notices to raise their issues.
Ansari was supported by Congress
members. As he rushed to the Well of the
House amid sharp exchanges between
the Treasury and Opposition benches,
Kurien adjourned the House for 10
minutes.
Later, Ansari said the incident is an
insult to the Constitution and demanded action against the MP. "Forcing roti
into the mouth of a person observing fast
is against the dignity of a person," he
said.
As the uproar continued, Kurien
said, "It has to be ascertained whether it
is fact or not. The Government has
assured that it will ascertain the issue and
then come back to the House. Whatever
action to be taken under the law, the
Government will take after that."
It was reported that a group of
around 11 Shiv Sena MPs, apparently
angr y over not b eing ser ved
Maharashtrian food, allegedly forced a
chapatti into the mouth of Muslim
catering supervisor who was on fast last
week.
Later talking to reporters in the afternoon, senior BJP leader LK Advani disapproved the controversial behavior of
the Shiv Sena MP with the canteen
employee. "This is wrong," he said.
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he issue of extension to a
Madras High Court judge
under corruption cloud figured within and outside the
Parliament for the third consecutive day on Wednesday
with
AIADMK
and
Parliamentary Affairs Minister
M Venkaiah Naidu seeking
former Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh’s response
in the matter.
While AIADMK leader V
Maitreyan raised the issue in the
Rajya Sabha during Zero Hour
saying Singh owes “an explanation to the nation,” Naidu
said outside the Parliament
that the former Prime Minister
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should make a “categorical”
<C70<183DA08
statement.
He said Singh’s silence was F0=C43C>:=>FF7>
an indication that “there is
F4A4C743<:
something to hide and in the <8=8BC4AB8=E>;E438=
interest of justice the former C74<0CC4A0=30;B>
Prime Minister should come
28C43A4?>ACBC70C
out and make a categorical
5>A<4A?<³B>55824
statement about what exactly
happened. Was he really under
F0B8=E>;E438=
pressure?”
C749D38280;
The sequence of events
0??>8=C<4=CB
about granting extension to
the judge was first brought out
by former Supreme Court judge
<03A0B
Markandey Katju and it showed
how the government was func78672>DAC
tioning during the UPA regime, 9D3642>=CA>E4ABH
Naidu charged adding the erstwhile regime was trying to will enhance the image of judicompromise on each and every ciary and remove misgivings.
Raising the issue during
issue.
Urging the former Prime Zero Hour in Rajya Sabha,
Minister to come clean on the Maitreyan said the Prime
issue, the minister also said the Minister’s Office(PMO), during
people of India have a right to Manmohan Singh’s tenure, had
know and a statement by Singh asked why the Supreme Court
collegium had not recommended extension for the judge.
The AIADMK member
then said, “Singh owes an
answer to the country. He
should break his silence. His
silence only confirms the allegation.” He also sought a statement from Law Minister Ravi
Shankar Prasad on the issue.
Singh was present in the
House when Maitreyan raised
the issue and many Congress
MPs protested against his
demand. Deputy Chairman P
J Kurien said the former Prime
Minister was not liable to
answer. “He is not the Prime
Minister anymore. He is not
expected to answer,” he said.
Prasad said he has taken note
of Maitreyan’s concern.
In the Lok Sabha also, the
AIADMK raised the issue and
wanted to know whether the
government would look into
the matter. AIADMK leader M
Thambidurai wanted to know
who were the DMK Ministers
involved in the matter and also
cited reports that former Prime
Minister’s Office was involved
in the judicial appointments.
Meanwhile, eminent
jurist Fali Nariman said the outburst by Katju was “unbecoming” of a dignitary who was
once a judge of the Supreme
Court. He, however, said Katju’s
remarks are “not untimely.”
The matter has now entered the
public domain and let the
responses of the three retired
Chief Justices be clear and
unambiguous, Nariman said,
and asked did they or did they
not buckle under pressure.
For its part, the Congress
said that the party believes that
the entire episode seems to have
been engineered by the government of the day at the
Centre to humiliate the
Collegium. AICC general sec-
retary Shakeel Ahmad said
there are insinuations in political circles that “very important
and influential people in the
government” are involved.
Ahmad also said that
Congress the is the first one to
institute a judicial commission
to bring transparency in the
appointments of judges but
that was initially opposed by the
present ruling dispensation.
Asked about the talk that
the former Justice has deliberately spread the controversy to
seek an extension as Chairman
of the Press Council of India,
Ahmed said Justice Katju is an
outspoken person.
On a question as to why
Manmohan Singh is not coming out clean on the issue, he
said that the former PM has
already made a statement that
former law minister HR
Bhardwaj has clarified on
the subject.
8]SXPbcP]SbcWXaSX]
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?=BQ =4F34;78
I
ndia figures third among top
10 countries where highest
number of rapes was reported
in 2010 and ranked third in
terms of murder cases recorded in 2012, the Government
told the Rajya Sabha on
Wednesday.
Minister of State for Home
Kiren Rijiju said according to
UN Crime Trends Survey 2010,
the US recorded 85,593 cases of
rape in 2010 followed by Brazil
with 41,180 rape cases. A total
of 22,172 rape cases were registered in India in 2010, the
minister said.
The UN data said in the
US, 27.3 rape cases were
reported per lakh population,
followed by 21.09 in Brazil
and in case of India, there were
1.8 cases of rape per lakh population. The United Kingdom
has reported 15,892 cases of
rape in 2010 (28.8 cases of rape
in per lakh population) and in
Mexico, there were 14,993 cases
of rape (13.2 cases of rape every
one lakh of population).
France has reported 10,108
cases of rape, which comes to
16.2 cases of rape per lakh of
population.
There were 7,724 cases of
rape in Germany, 5,960 cases of
rape in Sweden (63.5 cases for
every one lakh of population),
4,907 cases of rape in Russian
Federation, 4,718 cases of rape
in Philippines and 3,157 cases
of rape in Colombia.
Among the murder cases,
the UN report said the highest
number of murder had taken
place in Brazil (50,108) in
2012, followed by India
(43,335).
A total of 33,817 cases of
murder had taken place in
Nigeria, 26,037 cases in Mexico,
18,586 cases in Congo, 16,259
in South Africa, 14,670 in
Colombia and 13,846 cases of
murder in Pakistan in 2012, the
Minister said quoting the
Global Study on Homicide,
UNODC 2013.
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was perhaps because of partisan politics which prompted
he
Opposition
on the BJP to highlight the counWednesday trashed the try’s economy as weak,” he said,
first general budget of the adding as elections are over
Narendra
Modi-led now, the new government
Government dubbing it as should acknowledge the fact
“uninspiring” and “devoid of that “we have not left a weak
economy” as
any new vision and
big picture.”
CWT_T^_[T “facts do not
lie.”
F o r m e r
Stating that
Commerce Minister ^UcWTR^d]cah
during the previous fTaT[^^ZX]V some of the
budget
proposCongress-led UPA
U^a\^aT
als were directregime
Anand
Sharma said even if Ua^\cWT]Tf ly lifted from
the previous
the Gods - Brahma,
6^ecPbXc
he tried
Vishnu and Mahesh RPcP_d[cTS budget,
to highlight the
come on this earth,
they will not be able X]c^_^fTaQh double stanto fulfil the dreams bT[[X]VSaTP\b dard of the ruling party on
sold to Indians by
the proposal of
this BJP-led government during the poll raising foreign direct investment limit in insurance sector.
campaign.
He also took up the Goods
Without naming Prime
Minister Narendra Modi, and Services Tax (GST) issue
Sharma obliquely referred to to justify the point. Sharma
him alleging that concentra- said the proposal was opposed
tion and consolidation of by the BJP-ruled States
power in the hands of one indi- including Gujarat.
Finance Minister Arun
vidual is an unhealthy practice
and could prove counter-pro- Jaitley has proposed implementation of GST in his maidductive.
Participating in the dis- en budget, saying “It’s time to
cussion in the Rajya Sabha on implement GST.”
Sukhendu Sekhar Roy of
the budget, Sharma attacked
Finance Minister Arun Jaitely the TMC said the budget does
for failing to acknowledge the not take care of the common
contribution of the Manmohan man and termed as “laughSingh-led dispensation in ush- able” the meagre provision of
C100 crore each for Beti Bachao
ering in a healthy economy.
“The people of the coun- and for setting up of new ventry were looking for more tures which gives only C2.77
from the new government as it crore to each State and Union
catapulted into power by sell- Territory. Roy slammed Jaitley
for announcing 25 schemes
ing dreams,” said Sharma.
The former Commerce with C100 crore allocation
Minister also slammed the each and another 40 with C50
government for holding the crore allocation each.
BJP member Bhupender
UPA-II responsible for passing
a “weak economy”, saying this Yadav complimented the
was not “a fair comment” as Finance Minister for present“we have left a very healthy ing a budget that takes care of
economy and you know that”. all sections.
He said the budget will not
Highlighting the growth
recorded in different sectors of only take the country on the
the economy during the path of speedy economic
Congress-led UPA rule, he development but also ensure
said forex reserve of the coun- human development.
BSP member Rajpal Singh
try has trebled to USD 315 billion even as petroleum imports Saini said farmer community
is not being taken care of in
have gone up manifold.
“Exports also went up. It this budget.
T
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?=BQ =4F34;78
T
he NDA Government is
keen to let victims of a
crime have a say in matters of
remission granted to life convicts by States or Centre.
On Wednesday, the Centre
represented by Solicitor
General Ranjit Kumar asked
the Supreme Court to consider the question whether a victim should be given a right of
hearing by the State or Centre
before it decided on remission
appeals of life convicts.
The submission was made
before a Constitution Bench
dealing with the appeal filed
by the Centre against the
Jayalalithaa Government’s
decision to suo moto grant
remission to Rajiv Gandhi
killers. Kumar requested the
Court to deal with the victim’s
right under Sections 432, 433,
and 435 of Criminal Procedure
Code dealing with remission
along with the seven questions
already framed by Court.
He said, “In addition to
the above, the Centre would
like the Constitution Bench to
decide on an additional question whether victims of incident of crime have to be heard
during any stage or the authority under the law can decided
on the application of the
accused without hearing
the victim.”
This question had become
necessary in the light of recent
amendments to the CrPC,
Solicitor General said.
The bench of Chief Justice
RM Lodha, Justices JS Khehar,
J Chelameswar, AK Sikri and
Rohington Nariman has
already issued notice to all
plete according to the latest
Operational
Guidelines
of 2011. It was thereafter decided that the revised nomination
would be prepared by the Assam
Government, he said. The State
?=BQ =4F34;78
ajuli, the largest riverine
island in the world which
M
is nestled in the lap of the
Brahmaputra in Assam,
Saytagraha sites associated with
the freedom movement and the
Cellular jail of Andaman islands
are on the tentative list to qualify for inclusion in the World
Heritage list.
Their dossier has been prepared by the Archaeological
Survey of India, Minister of
State for Culture Shripad Naik
told the Rajya Sabha on
Wednesday in a written reply.
He said that the nomination
dossier of Majuli was returned by
the World Heritage Centre in
March 2012 as it was not com-
Government was accordingly
requested for the purpose, he
added. Other popular sites that
find place in the tentative list of
the World Heritage sites of India
as on April 15 are the Apatani
cultural landscape of Arunachal
Pradesh, Baha’i house of worship
here, Chettinad village cluster of
Tamil merchants, Chilika Lake
and Ekamra kshetra of Odisha,
iconic saree weaving clusters of
India, the Mound burial system
of the Ahom dynasty in Assam
and
monuments
of
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trying to fast track
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infrastructure projects,
there is green light at the end
=Tf3T[WX) CWTBd_aT\T2^dac^]FTS]TbSPhSa^__TSP!#hTPa^[S
States in the matter. Earlier a
three-judge bench had framed
seven questions of law asking
the Constitution Bench to
determine among other things
decide if in place of death sentence, Courts can order varying periods of incarceration
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Srirangapatna island town.
Besides, mountain railways
of
India
(extension),
Padmanabhapuram Palace in
Kerala, sacred ensembles of
Hoysala, sites along the Badshahi
Marg, The Grand Trunk Road,
Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple at
Srirangam, glorious Kaktiya
temples and gateways, the
Neolithic settlement of
Burzahom and Thembang fortified village also figure in the
tentative list.
To another query, Naik said
that the Karnataka government
had submitted six nominations
including Mahamastakabisheka,
Mysore Dasara, Kodavas of
Kodagu,
leather
of
puppetry,Yakshagana and
Soligaru (Tribal of BR Hills) to
the representative list of intangible culture heritage on humanity of the UNESCO. As the
nomination documentations
were incomplete, they could not
be sent to UNESCO for consideration, he added.
whether it is the state or
Centre that will have primacy
in matters of grant of remission to life convict prisoners
and if so, whether such power
8b?<6^Sc^VXeT
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?=BQ =4F34;78
L
eader of Congress in the Lok
Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge
on Wednesday took a dig at
Narendra Modi wondering if
the Prime Minister is a God that
he should give us darshan once
in a while. The poser by Kharge
was in response to External
Affairs Minister Sushma
Swaraj’s dig at him over his
remarks on Tuesday that
Narendra Modi should show
his face in Parliament at least
once a week. Swaraj said since
Kharge made the complaint, the
Prime Minister was in the
House during Question Hour
and “you had his darshan”.
Kharge lost no time in
replying by retorting whether
“the Prime Minister is God to
give occassional darshan”. “The
Prime Minister should show his
face, at least, once in a week. I
do not expect him to come here
every day. After the Budget
Session, he did not come to the
House,” Kharge had said
on Tuesday.
could be exercised after the
President or the Supreme
Court had given a final view.
In
addition,
the
Constitution Bench will also
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beyond 14 years, during which
the Government is restrained
from granting remission.
1^dYTU`bUccQ^dTbeWc4UQ^hYd
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0A270=09H>C8 Q =4F34;78
fter much dillydallying, the
Union Health ministry has
A
finally banned anti-depressant
drug sold under the trade
names of Deanxit and
Anxidreg, a combination of
two psycho-active agents, after
they were found to be risky to
human life and their alternates
were easily available.
The Drug is already banned
in Denmark, the country of its
origin. A combination of
Flupentixol and Melitracen, the
drug is being frequently prescribed by private doctors in
India. However, last year, the
Government had suspended
the sale and distribution of the
controversial drug following
opposition of a section of doctors who raised question about
its efficacy given that its own
country was not using the drug
for its locals.
A Government panel too
had pointed out the addictive
potential of the drug as harmful side effects.
The Drugs Technical
Advisory Board, a highest decision making body of the Health
Ministry too in November last
year recommended its discontinuation in the country. Now,
a notification has been issued in
this regard recently to make the
decision effective.
Justifying the ban, the notification issued by Health
Ministry Joint Secretary AK
Panda states that the
“Government was satisfied that
the use of the drug ‘fixed dose
combination of Flupenthixol
and Melitracen’ for human use
was likely to involve risk to
human beings and whereas
safer alternatives to the said
drug are available.”
The ban on sale and marketing has come after the manufacturers failed to establish the
safety and efficacy, said an official. “These tablets are made in
Denmark, though it is not
approved for use in that country itself.
“According to rule 30B in
the Drugs Act, any drug not
approved in the country of origin cannot be used in India.
Moreover, its sale is prohibited
in the UK, US, Australia,
Canada and Japan. Then how
come it is beneficial for the
patients in India,” Chandra M
Gulati, editor of MIMS India, a
drug journal. Gulati said that
the drug was being aggressively promoted for a wide range of
known and unknown disorders
such as psychogenic depression,
depressive neuroses, masked
depression, menopausal depression, dysphoria in alcoholics
and drug addicts.
of the tunnel for hydro-electric
power projects.
“ The Government is
reviewing some of these projects,” said Environment
Minister Prakash Javadekar
during Question Hour in teh
Lok Sabha on Wednesday.
The country needs clean
energy without hurting the
ecology, he said adding that
Government was sensitive to
the concerns expressed by
some States, including Assam,
over some of the hydro power
projects being implemented.
Terming hydro power as
the clean energy, Javadekar
said Government is trying to
assess the impact of hydro
power projects on river system
and the people living in its
surrounding areas.
“There should be study on
impact,” he said.
Replying to a supplementar y
question,
the
Environment Minister said
the impact of the Uttarakhand
rain disaster last year would
have been more if the Tehri
and Srinagar (in Uttarakhand)
hydro power projects were
not in place.
He said the IIT, Roorkee,
Wildlife Institute of India,
Dehradun, and an InterMinisterial Group headed by
B K Chaturvedi have examined cumulative impact of
hydro power projects on
aquatic biodiversity, river ecology and environmental flow in
Alakananda and Bhagirathi
rivers in the Himalayas.
Simultaneously, carrying
capacity studies in seven river
basis in Arunachal Pradesh,
Teesta river basin in states of
Sikkim and West Bengal,
Chenab and Satluj river basins
in Himachal Pradesh have
been undertaken.
“These studies primariliy
examined the feasibility of
development of hydropower in
an environmentally sustainable manner,” he said.
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lose on the heels of arrest of
C
IAS officer Sachidanand
Dubey, the Central Bureau of
Investigation (CBI) on
Wednesday arrested Aligarh
Development Authority Vice
Chairman JB Singh in connection with the C19 crore mid-day
meal (MDM) scam during his
tenure as Chief Development
Officer of Mainpuri.
Another IAS officer,
Shanker Chaturvedi, and a former basic Shiksha Adhikari,
KDN Ram, along with two
other accused involved in the
scam have so far managed to
evade arrest.
Reports said that an inspector of the CBI and a team of
Kwarsi Police Station of Aligarh
raided Avantika Colony — residence of JB Singh on
Wednesday morning and served
on him a non-bailable warrant
issued by the CBI Court.
He was immediately taken
into custody by the CBI team
and he will now be presented
before the CBI court in
Ghaziabad.
The arrest was made in
connection with the scam that
took place in the neighbouring
Mainpuri district between 2008
and 2010 when Singh was
posted there as the Chief
Development Officer.
The action was taken on
the basis of an FIR filed in
Mainpuri in April 2011, in
which JB Singh along with 10
other senior district officials,
including the then District
Magistrate of Mainpuri
Sachidanand Dubey, have
been named.
Dubey and Singh are also
said to be involved in a C100
crore fraud in the Mahatma
Gandhi National Rural
Employment Guarantee Act
(MNAREGA) scheme.
However, Singh had so far
not only managed to save his
skin, but also get plum postings
due to his political connections.
Last Friday, the special
CBI court had ordered seizure
of the properties of former
DM of Mainpuri, Sachidanand
Dubey, former CDOs of
Mainpuri, JB Singh and
Shanker Chaturvedi and exBSA KDN Ram after they
failed to appear in the court
even after repeated summons.
The CBI had managed to
arrest Dubey from his residence
in Lucknow on Saturday night.
He was later taken to Ghaziabad
and produced before the CBI
judge on Sunday morning. The
judge sent him to jail. During
the raid, the CBI had recovered
C51 lakh cash from Dubey’s residence, sources said.
?^U[Y\\UT#Y^ZebUT
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he Congress party in
Gujarat is in complete disT
array. Indiscipline surfaced
within the party during a recent
meeting of Vadodara City
Congress Working Committee
meeting as a group of party
workers shouted slogans
against their national leader
0_^[XRT\P]X]b_TRcX]VcWTQ[PbcbXcTfWTaT^]T_Tab^]fPbZX[[TSP]ScWaTT^cWTab Rahul Gandhi and demanded
fTaTX]YdaTSPc:aXbW]PXX]6^P[_PaP3XbcaXRc^U0bbP\^]FTS]TbSPh
?C8 his ouster from the party.
They also termed senior
said. Owner of the tea stall Congress leaders including
0=D?B70A<0Q 6DF070C8
Mujibur Rahman, succumbed Rahul Gandhi for party’s debane person was killed and to his injuries in the hospital, cle, nationally as well as in
Gujarat that too in presence of
three others were injured Police said.
“The militants wanted to Gujarat Pradesh Congress
after cadre of the anti-talk faction of Ulfa triggered a blast in target the police and security Committee (GPCC) president
Assam’s Goalpara district on forces. We have been carrying Arjun Modhwadia.
out series of anti-insurgency
Since the last two years,
Wednesday morning.
Police said that the mili- operations in and around the the grand old party is contintants planted a powerful district for the past several uously losing one after other
Improvised Explosive Device days. The anti-talk faction of elections ranging from District
(IED) in a bicycle outside a tea the Ulfa had been trying to dis- Panchayat, Assembly bypolls,
stall at around 8 am in Krishnai rupt the peace ahead of the Municipalities, Municipal
area of the district. They further Independence Day and Corporations and Lok Sabha.
was
Junagadh
said that four persons were Wednesday’s blast is a part of Latest
injured during the incident. their evil design,” said Municipal Corporation on
One of the injured later Goalpara superintendent of Tuesday after humiliating
defeat in Lok Sabha elections.
breathed his last at the hospital. Police Nitul Gogoi.
The SP said that the conAs the meeting initiated on
The place of occurrence is
located to the Krishnai Police ditions of the three injured was Tuesday, a group of Congress
workers started shouting sloStation in the district, police stated to be out of danger.
O
gans against the All India
Congress Committee (AICC)
vice-president Rahul Gandhi
and demanded to kick him out
of the party.
In this meeting, a resolution was passed to start agitation against ‘corruption in the
BJP Government’. However,
the meeting was full of action
as local leaders made accusation against each other and at
one point Modhwadia had to
intervene and threaten that he
would slap show-cause notices
to those trying to obstruct
meeting.
Apart from Rahul Gandhi,
a senior leader in Vadodara
accused senior Congress leaders in State for the party’s constant poor performance. A few
workers also raised the issue of
local leadership in the city at a
time when by-election of
Vadodara Lok Sabha constituency is due in near future.
“We are worried about
groupism within the party. If
such situation will prevail, it
would be difficult for the party
to perform well in the upcoming bypolls of nine Assembly
seats and one Lok Sabha seat
(Vadodara) in the State,” said a
senior Congress leader requesting anonymity.
Prime Minister Narendra
Modi fought election from
Vadodara apart from Varanasi
parliamentary constituency in
the last Lok Sabha election. As
Modi won from both the constituency, he decided to remain
a Member of Parliament from
the holy city of Varanasi and
vacated Vadodara seat. The
Congress had put AICC general secretary and Rahul
Gandhi’s
confidant
Madhusudan Mistry against
Modi, but he was defeated
with mammoth margin of
more than 5.70 lakh votes.
9´ZWP]S21c^Q^^Z<db[X\^a_WP]PVT
EA90H0A09Q :>278
he Crime Branch of
Jharkhand Police will initiT
ate a case against the Muslim
orphanage at Mukkom,
Kozhikode for bringing a large
number of children from
Jharkhand to the institution
without the required permission
or documents. The Jharkhand
Crime Branch (CB) has learned
that the children were trafficked with the knowledge of the
orphanage management.
“This is indeed a case of
human trafficking and necessary action will be taken accordingly,” said DP Sharma, the
officer in-charge of the probe
into the incident and leader of
the nine-member team of the
Jharkhand Crime Branch which
visited Kerala. The team had
arrived in the State on July 18.
The team, which visited the
Muslim orphanage at
Mukkom, recorded statements
of the children there and
inquired about the situation in
:4A0;0278;3
CA05582:8=6
which they were brought. They
also talked to the authorities of
the institution. The decision to
book the orphanage was taken
on basis of the finding that the
children were trafficked with
the knowledge of the institution's management.
The Railway Protection
Force had detained 486 children of ten-to-14-year age
group at Palakkad on May 24
as they were being brought
from Jharkhand, Bihar and
West Bengal without the
required papers to orphanages
managed by Muslim outfits at
Mukkom in Kozhikode district
and Vettathur in Malappuram
district.
The Kerala Police had
arrested 11 persons, who had
allegedly acted as agents, in
connection with the incident
for human trafficking, a charge
the orphanage managements
rejected saying that the children had come to seek education. Despite the State police's
stand, the Kerala Government
also took the position that the
incident could not be termed as
human trafficking.
The Jharkhand Crime
Branch has booked seven natives
of that State, who had acted as
agents for taking the children to
Kerala and who had already
been arrested by the Kerala
Police. Presently, the State
police's Crime Branch is looking
into the matter. The National
Human Rights Commission has
also registered a case in connection with the incident.
The Jharkhand officials
said that they would question
Jharkhand
natives
Muhammad Parvez Alam and
Shakeel Akhtar, who had acted
as trafficking agents and were
among those arrested. Further,
action would be taken against
the Mukkom orphanage on
basis of the findings emanating from the interrogation of
these two persons.
The police had reportedly
seized letter pads and seals of
top Revenue officials of
Jharkhand. The orphanage
managements' position is that
the children were students of
the institution and they were
detained while they were coming back from Jharkhand after
spending summer vacation
with their families.
The team of Jharkhand
Crime Branch officials returned
on Wednesday after their weeklong visit to Kerala during which
they interacted with the concerned State police officials.
They said they would come
back if necessary. A team of
Jharkhand Government officials
had earlier visited Kerala in
connection with the incident.
9P\\d:PbW\Xa2^]VaTbbRWXTUBPXUdS3X]B^iP]S?T^_[Tb3T\^RaPcXR?Pach[TPSTa<TWQ^^QP<dUcXPc?Pa[XP\T]cSdaX]VcWT1dSVTcBTbbX^]^]FTS]TbSPh
?C8
EXQVh^abRW^^[2WPXa\P]PaaTbcTS ³5^aRTUTTSX]VP<db[X\^]UPbcXb
:4BCDAE0BD:8Q
10=60;>A4
10=60;>A4 A0?4
nder pressure from the
general public and major
U
Opposition parties, the
Government came into action
and made second arrest in the
rape of a six-year-old school
girl in Bangalore.
Just a few days after the
arrest of the skating instructor,
the Bangalore police on
Wednesday arrested Rustom
Kerawalla, Chairman of Vibgyor
International School in connection with the alleged rape which
brought Bangalore to halt.
According to Bangalore
Commissioner of Police MN
Reddi, a case has been registered against posh school in
Bangalore East for abetting
the crime.
He said, “Bangalore police
arrested Kerawalla, the chairman of Vibgyor School, from
Daman and Diu on Tuesday
and brought him to city on
Wednesday. We have booked
the chairman for destruction of
evidence, denial of information
BcdST]cbW^[SX]VP_a^cTbc\PaRWPVPX]bcaP_T^UPbXghTPa^[SVXa[X]1P]VP[^aT
^]FTS]TbSPh
?C8
to police and a criminal act on
a minor under his custody.”
One of the accused,
Mustafa, 30, a skating instructor
in the school, was arrested on
July 20. Mustafa has also been
accused of being a pedophile, as
pornographic videos of children
being raped were found in his
mobile and laptop.
“We have stepped up the
investigation and efforts are on
to nab the other accused as we
are also probing other staff
members,” Reddi said in a
Press conference in Bangalore.
According to MN Reddi,
Kerawala has been booked for
destr uction of evidence
(Section 201 of IPC) and
delay in the reporting the
crime against a child in his
school (under section 23 of
Juvenile Justice Act) and failure to protect the child an
negligence (section 21 of
POCSO Act). The six-yearold was raped on July 2 but
the case was reported only on
July 17. “Prima facie there has
been a failure to report the
case and the failure to protect
the child, so we have gone
ahead with the arrest,” MN
Reddi said.
Section 23 Juvenile Justice
Act (anyone with charge or
control of a child willfully
neglecting a juvenile), section
21 of Prevention of Sexual
Offences Against Children
(POCSO) act (Failing to report
a crime of rape) were invoked
as there was clear negligence of
the school administration from
the part of the shool, police said
besides section 201 of IPC for
destruction of evidence.
Denying delay or cover-up
in the case, the top cop said no
stone would be left unturned in
unravelling the truth, bringing
culprits to book and doing justice to the kid and her parents.
“We are going hammer
and tongs in the case against
the school management and
the accused. We want to send
a strong message to everyone
that any crime against children, girls and women in
schools, colleges or anywhere
will be dealt with stringently
and their perpetrators punished severely, Reddy claimed.
In fact recent incidents of
rapes in the city has put ruling Congress Government
led by Chief Minister
Siddaramaiah under pressure
and people and Opposition
BJP has protested the apathy
of the Government in handling the cases.
The Government in a bid
to instill confidence did major
surgery to the Bangalore police
and transferred Police
Commissioner Raghavendra
Aurdhkar who faced the wrath
of the anger and fury of the
people.
[XZTPccPRZX]Vb_XaXc^U2^]bcXcdcX^]´
0<0A=0C7C4F0AHQ ?0C=0
C
ommenting on the incident
in which a Shiv Sena MP
was caught on camera while
force-feeding a catering supervisor at a guest house in Delhi,
former Bihar Chief Minister
and JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar
on Wednesday said that stern
action must be taken against
such people. Kumar also clarified that he was not going to
Delhi for the next two-three
days to meet RJD chief Lalu
Prasad for seat-sharing talks as
was reported in media.
“Strong action must be taken
against people attacking religious faith of other communities.
Everybody has freedom to practise one’s religion and any activity against this is an attack on religious faith of others,” said Kumar
while condemning the incident
before mediapersons.
He also said that the act
was like an attack on the very
spirit of the Constitution. He
further added “I strongly disapprove the incident”.
Earlier, a video footage had
gone viral in which a Shiv
Sena MP from Thane in
Mumbai Rajan Vichare was
seen force-feeding a Muslim
youth identified as Arshad
Zubair while he was on Ramzan
fast. There has been all round
condemnation of the incident.
Meanwhile, the MP had
reportedly said that he did not
know that the youth was a
Muslim and was on Ramzan
fast. “I was only protesting
against the poor quality of
food and unfit water to drink
served at the Maharashtra
Sadan”, said the MP.
However, the former Bihar
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar
further made it clear that he
was not going to Delhi for next
two-three days for holding any
talk on seat-sharing with RJD
chief Lalu Prasad as was reported in media.
“I'm in Patna today,
tomorrow and after that also
and I'll be meeting you people
here”, Nitish Kumar told media
persons at Bihar legislature
precincts.
He also clarified that the
State JD(U) president Basistha
Narayan Singh had not gone to
Delhi for holding any talk with
Lalu Prasad on this issue.
“Basistha Babu had gone to
Delhi to attend session of Rajya
Sabha as Parliament session is
going on. He had not gone to
the national capital for holding
talks with anyone for tie-up”,
declared Nitish Kumar.
,QHIILFLHQWJRYHUQDQFHOHDGLQJ
-.WRILQDQFLDOFULVLV3'3
µA`hVc`fe`W[f^S`fcZ_VZda`ddZS]V¶
laming
the
Omar
Abdullah-led coalition
B
Government of pushing the
Chennai-based young scientist claims that it is posA
sible to generate electricity
?=BQ BA8=060A
State into “virtual financial
emergency”, the Opposition
Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP) said that “inefficient
governance and politically
motivated commitments” are
leading to a financial crisis in
Jammu & Kashmir.
“Market borrowing of C300
crores by the State Government
reflects not just liquidity deficit
but an acute fiscal crisis,” PDP
leader and former J&K Bank
Chairman Haseeb Drabu said
in response to recent media
reports on fiscal situation of the
State. “It is a mismatch between
revenues and expenditures; revenue inflows have been delayed
even as committed expenditures have been made. This
mismatch has been aggravated
by unfunded liabilities of
around C8,000 crores that have
been created by pre-election
freebies”, he said.
He said while market borrowings are a part of the State
finances, these are to be used
for financing capital expenditure and building assets. The
problem with these borrowing
is that it is being used to defray
current expenditures like
salaries and pensions and that
too on the non-plan account.
“This is surest route to a debt
trap,” Drabu said.
Giving reasons of the prevailing financial crisis, he said the
real reason why the liquidity crisis has become binding is
because of the institutional
change which this Government
made: replacing J&K Bank by
RBI as the lender of last resort for
the State Government. “Earlier
J&K Bank would bridge this gap
on call through the overdraft
facility. Now, with the RBI as the
banker, the state doesn’t have
such an on tap mechanism to
meet mismatches,” he added.
Drabu said if the situation
continues like this, the present
liquidity problem will graduate
into a solvency crisis which can
result in a financial emergency.
This would be yet another
inglorious first of this government he said, even as the state
government doesn’t have
money to pay salaries and pensions on time, not to speak of
advance payment ahead of the
festival season, it is adding to
its liabilities.
:D<0A274;;0??0=Q
274==08
from elephant’s urine. MG
Gireeshan (30), who has postgraduation in electronics and is
working as a scientist at Bharat
University says electricity could
be generated by deploying
microbial fuel cell technology
(MFCT) to generate power
from the urine of elephant.
Gireeshan, who has around
150 scientific inventions to his
credit, says he could generate
3.5 volt power from 200 ml of
elephant urine. “I operated an
LED bulb and a buzzer out of
this power. Please do not
ridicule me. It is possible to
operate an inverter with electricity generated from 50 litre
elephant urine. A 12 volt battery sufficient to operate four
lamps as well as four fans for
two days could be powered
with 50 litre elephant urine,”
Gireeshan told The Pioneer.
This physicist is yet to
understand the chemistry
behind the elephant urine
which leads to power generation. “I came across an article
which mentions that electricity could be generated from
cow’s urine. This prompted
me to work on elephant urine.
What I have found is that we
can produce more electricity
from elephant's urine,” he said.
One needs an anode and
cathode which act as electrodes. “The elephant urine is
the electrolyte. When the electrodes are inserted into the
urine sample, it undergoes
electrolysis generating power,”
Gireeshan explained.
Dr T C R Nambiar, chief
physician of the 59 elephants in
Guruvayur Devaswom of
Kerala is thrilled by Gireeshan's
claim. “I never knew the elephant urine has this power. I
would like to take up this
innovation to find out whether
we can produce power from the
urine of the elephants in our
stable,” said Dr Nambiar.
Dr Nambiar agreed with
Gireeshan’s argument that an
elephant produces 50 litres
urine per day. “A pachyderm
drinks 150 to 200 litres of
water every day. Hence we can
get 50 litres of urine from each
elephant,” he said.
The commercial viability of
maintaining an elephant has to
be worked out. According to
Dr Nambiar, elephants command a premium. “There are
instances of an elephant being
sold for C1.5 crore. Hence how
far this would help us in producing cheap energy has to be
debated,” he said.
Gireeshan has developed
many innovations, the important one being a system which
closes and opens unmanned
railway level crosses. “The system will ensure that the gate at
the unmanned level cross closes by itself five minutes before
the train passes the stretch. The
gate will open immediately
after the train crossing the
unmanned gate,” said
Gireeshan.
The scientist says he is
willing to offer this technology to the Indian Railways free
of cost. There are 12,500
unmanned level crossings in
the country and 40 per cent of
the rail accidents are due to
these unmanned crossings.
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T
he dreaded Japanese
encephalitis threatened to
take epidemic proportions in
North Bengal with Siliguri and
Jalpaiguri recording 48 deaths
in the past three days taking the
toll to 108, State Health
Department sources said amid
complaints of suppressing of
reports by the powers that be.
Unofficial sources said
the death toll was “much more
than what is being presented
by the Government.” State
Director for Medical Health
Education Dr Susanta
Banerjee said the toll “could be
around 102.”
While Banerjee hoped
that the ‘ferocity of the disease
would come down gradually’,
there were hardly any sign of
the infection going down.
Tended only to aggravate
since Sunday till when the
death toll was 60.
While between 1st July
and 20th July, Jalpaiguri and
Siliguri regions saw 60 deaths
additional 48 people died after
that, State Opposition Leader
Suryakanto Mishra said alleg-
C742<B7>D;3?>BC?>=474AE8B8C
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1A8=68=E4BC<4=C0=36>C>=>AC7
14=60;8=BC403B08319?<?101D;
BD?A8H>C74C>;;8B²<D27<>A4
C70=F70C8B148=6?A4B4=C43³
ing “there is a clear case of suppression of facts. There could
be many more deaths than
what is being reported.”
BJP MP Babul Supriyo
said Chief Minister Mamata
Banerjee who was also handling the Health Department
“should postpone her visit to
Singapore from where she
will reportedly bring investment and go to North Bengal
instead.”
While Health Department
officials requesting anonimity
said there could be 350 people
still suffering from the disease
complaining lack of infrastructural facilities, other
sources put the figure to more
than 500 as more reports of
infections were coming in from
places like Dhupguri,
Maynaguri, places which have
3RVW&RQJGLYRUFH
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:7DAB7443F0=8Q BA8=060A
T
hree days after the Congress
announced to contest the
upcoming Assembly elections
without entering into pre-poll
alliance with the National
Conference (NC), the ruling
party came out with the second
list of candidates, mostly for the
Jammu region.
The NC’s first list of 32
candidates issued on July 15
was silent on several constituencies in Kashmir Valley
where Congress candidates
are in a formidable position.
This led to speculations that
the NC was awaiting
Congress response
on the pre-p oll
alliance. However,
Chief
Minister
Omar Abdullah
clarified that his
party had decided
to go for polls alone
much before the
Congress announced it in
Jammu on Sunday.
Sources said NC President
Dr Farooq Abdullah arrived
here on Wednesday afternoon
and immediately summoned
the meeting of the party’s
Parliamentary Board. “The
meeting witnessed hectic
deliberations on panels of
candidates whose nominations are yet to be announced”,
a party spokesman said.
Interestingly, 13 of the
14 candidates have been
declared for constituencies
in Jammu region. The party
has decided to field senior
leader Muhammad Shafi from
border constituency of Uri in
north Kashmir. Shafi, a former Rajya Sabha member,
has represented Uri several
times but failed to cruise
through in 2002 and 2008
elections against Congress
candidate Taj Mohiuddin.
The NC has kept the suspense over the constituency where Chief
Minister
Omar
Abdullah will be fielded. The party insiders
say that Abdullah is
not keen to contest
from his traditional
Gandarbal constituency. Dr. Farooq
Abdullah who lost the Lok Sabha
election against the People’s
Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, is also not keen to contest
the Assembly polls.
The upcoming election
would be the toughest battle for
the ruling party that witnessed
its declining graph in the parliamentary polls.
large number of piggeries.
Such was the lack of infrastructural facilities that the
patients struck by the disease
had to be accommodated with
the general patients at North
Bengal Medical College
Hospital in Siliguri. Doctors said
chances of the disease spreading to neighbouring Bihar or
South Bengal were remote.
“High alert has been
sounded in seven North Bengal
districts of Cooch Behar,
Jalpaiguri,
Alipurduar,
Darjeeling, North Dinajour,
South Dinajpur and Malda”
Banerjee said.
The State Government had
requested the Centre to rush in
aid, Health officials said. “It is
quite an alarming situation,”
said B Satapathy, State Health
Services Director.
he Port Chairman
Committee that recently
met to examine among other
things — the representation
made by BJP MP Mansukh
Vasava to then Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh drawing his
attention to large-scale irregularities in shore handling operations in major ports seems to
have circuitously accepted the
veracity of the points raised in
the said representation.
The report of the
Committee that met on July 3
and 4 has recommended “fixation of normative tariffs for
stevedores and shore handling
agents as required under the
provisions of the Major Port
Trusts Act, 1963.” The
Committee also “favours the
statutory solution of getting
TAMP (Tariff Authority for
major Ports) to notify normative tariffs that could act as a
ceiling rate within which competition can be brought in
among the different agents as
a more sustainable solution.”
Though the Committee is
“unable to agree with the suggestion that ports must
appoint handling agents by
tender-cum-auction with the
bidding parameter being royalty/revenue share” the rec-
&ORVHVKDYH
IRU5DMGKDQL
([SUHVV
0<0A=0C7C4F0AHQ ?0C=0
n yet another strike in Bihar,
the Maoists triggered blast at
Ia railway
track late on Tuesday
night between Ismailpur and
Rafiganj section in Aurangabad
district of the State. The blast
later led to derailment of a pilot
engine running ahead of the
Bhubaneshwar-New Delhi
Rajdhani Express.
No casualty, though, was
reported in the incident.
“The advance pilot engine
running ahead of the
Bhubaneshwar-New Delhi
Rajdhani Express jumped off
the track due to the blast,” said
Arvind Kumar Rajak, Chief
Public Relations Officer of East
Central Railway (ECR).
He also said that nearly
three meter of the rail track has
been damaged in the blast.
“Electric wire overhead has
also been damaged”, he said.
The police officials said
that the blast was powerful as
it has created a four-feet deep
crater at the place.
Due to the blast, nearly one
APX[fPhcaPRZQ[^f]d_Qh<P^Xbcb]TPaAPUXVP]YAPX[fPhBcPcX^]X]1XWPa[PcT^]CdTbSPh]XVWc
dozen mail and express trains
including three Rajdhani
Express trains were stranded at
various places between Gaya
and Mughalsarai stations in the
ECR section, Rajak said.
Howrah-New
Delhi
Rajdhani
Express,
Bhubaneshwar-New Delhi
Rajdhani Express, SealdahNew Delhi Rajdhani Express,
Jodhpur-Howrah Express and
Doon Express were among the
major trains that were strand-
he brave soldier of the
Indian Army, Naik
T
Mongchon B on Wednesday
58=8B78=6CC>D27)0acXbcb_aT_PaTXS^[bPWTPS^U6P]TbWUTbcXeP[X]1P]VP[^aT^]FTS]TbSPh
?C8
7TPehaPX][PbWTb=:TaP[P
even as heavy rains triggered a
mudslide in northern Kerala,
due to which three employees
of the Water Resources
Department were trapped at a
dam site. Weathermen said
heavy rains would continue in
the State till Thursday.
Those who were trapped at
the Kakkayam dam site in
Kozhikode district after the
?C8
Aurangabad and Rohtas districts of the State. The
Aurangabad firing was recently triggered during an antiNaxal operation by CRPF in
which two people, including a
woman and a child were killed.
The twenty-four hour bandh
call was given by Maoists from
Tuesday midnight till Wednesday. The train movement, however, was later restored and
trains started running on the
track towards their destination.
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houses were damaged
and most low-lying areas
Swereeveral
submerged on Wednesday
ed at various places in between
the two stations.
Later, Ghulam Shah, the
train driver said that he saw
smoke and just after there was
a blast at the track.
“I tried to stop the train
coming from that direction.
Sealdah Rajdhani, Howrah
Rajdhani and Bhubaneswar
Rajdhani were behind it,” he said.
Earlier, the Maoists had
given a one-day bandh call in
protest of police firing in
$UP\SD\VKRPDJH
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leading out of the place
2bQSY^WV_b roads
were washed away in the mudslide were an assistant engineer
two other employees. The
]_bUd_TQi and
spillway shutters of the dam
have already been raised by four
feet following the rains. Crop
loss worth several lakhs of
rupees had already been reported from Kozhikode district.
Reports said that heavy
rains were continuing in almost
all the northern Kerala districts.
Though most of the low-lying
areas in Kannur district were
waterlogged, no property loss
had been reported from there.
Educational institutions in the
hilly Wayanad district were
given a holiday on Wednesday
due to the heavy rains.
ssam Governor JB Patnaik
on Wednesday approved
A
Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi’s
recommendation of dropping
Ardhendu Dey and Siddeque
Ahmed from the Council of
Ministers.
The Chief
Minister had
last night decided to drop both
the
rebel
Ministers —
Dey and Ahmed — from the Ministry for indiscipline. Gogoi had also accepted the resignation of State Health
and Education Minister Himanta
Biswa Sarma on Tuesday. Patnaik
also approved the resignation of
Himanta Biswa Sarma on the
recommendation of the CM.
State Irrigation and Soil
Conservation Minister Dey
and Minister of State
(Independent charge) for
Cooperation and Border area
development Ahmed had been
very vocal against the CM
after the party failed to score
desired results in the recently
concluded Lok Sabha polls.
Panaji: Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on Wednesday
announced in the Legislative Assembly that he would trim his
security cover by doing away with the escort policemen as other
departments of police are facing shortage of personnel.
“I have decided to revert them (escort policemen) to the main
pool,” Parrikar said on floor of the House. The Chief Minister
also said that around 30 police personnel would be transferred
from VIP security duty to the main pool and there services will
be utilised in departments like Traffic Police, which is currently facing the shortage.
PTI
Mumbai: A court in suburban
Kurla on Wednesday issued
fresh summons against All
India Majlis-e-Ittehadul
Muslimeen (MIM) MLA from
Hyderabad Akbaruddin Owaisi
in connection with an alleged
hate speech case.
?=BQ :>278
Yechur y studied various
aspects of the Port related
issues and referred to irregularities in the cargo handling
system by shore handling
agents at 12 major ports.
The Port Chairmen
Committee report in recommending TAMP-approved
ceiling rates for the handling
agents also proves that the fact
that “thus far rates charged by
such agents had not been
approved by the TAMP which
is a mandatory as per the
Act,” said a KoPT official
requesting anonimity.
In fact, the Committee
itself accepts in para 2.3 of the
report that “the rates have not
been fixed by the TAMP for
those operations so far.”
Official requesting anon-
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The metropolitan magistrate court has asked the MIM
leader to be present before it next
month. “Earlier a summons was
issued against him (Owaisi) in
May. However, since there was
no report from the Hyderabad
police confirming service of the
summons, a fresh summons has
been issued,” said advocate
Gulam Hussain Khan.
PTI
ommendations for a TAMP
approved ceiling rate for the
handling agents “indirectly
accepts the fact that the cargo
handling operations had been
shrouded by large-scale irregularities” sources in Kolkata
Port Trust said.
The Pioneer had been running reports on how the
Government had been
deprived of thousands of
crores in revenue from shore
handling operations of cargo
by the so-called handling
agents in utter violation of the
MPT Act. These stories were
based among other sources the
stated representation of Vasava
to the then Prime Minister.
This newspaper also
showed how a Parliamentary
Committee headed by Sitaram
imity also wondered whether
the C ommittee of the
Chairman could accept largescale scams taking place in
their own Port areas adding
“at least recommendations for
a TAMP approved ceiling rate
is one step towards cleansing
of the scam-tainted system.”
The official also wondered
as to “why the Committee
tends to focus more on stevedoring which has by-far been
on legal lines while making
occasional reference to the
shore handling operations
where the real scam has been
taking place for the past 40
years or so.”
The alleged scams had not
only deprived the Government
of huge amount of revenue but
also significantly contributed to
inflationary trends as the arbitrary rates charged by the shore
handling agents added up to the
cost of the cargo — for instance,
steel, cycles, utensils, coal for
power, cement, manganese etc
— that ultimately went to the
consumers sources said.
There has been reports of
scams worth thousands of
crores taking place in the 12
major ports where the private
handling agents had set up
their monopoly business in
absence of tendering or auctioning out of the shore-handling operations.
The Thiruvananthapuram
unit of the IMD said that monsoon activity would remain
intense till Thursday due to the
presence of a low-pressure
system off the coast of Odisha.
Monsoon might weaken in
Kerala after Thursday as the low
pressure system was moving
westward, they said.
IMD scientists also said
that a new weather system was
forming over the Bengal Bay
and that heavy rains could
return to Kerala after July 29 if
this system strengthened.
Reports from southern Kerala
said that rainfall was showing
signs of weakening in contrast
to northern Kerala.
However, Kerala has wit-
nessed a huge deficit in rainfall
since the start of the southwest
monsoon on June 6, five days
behind the normal schedule.
According to scientists, there
had been a rainfall shortfall of 22
percent in Kerala. It had received
only 92 cm of rainfall till
Tuesday while the normal rainfall was estimated to be 118 cm.
Highest rainfall deficit of 55
per cent was registered in
Thiruvananthapuram district.
Rainfall deficit has also been witnessed in Kollam, Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha, Thrissur and
Kasaragod districts while reasonably normal rains were
received in Kannur, Wayanad,
Malappuram, Ernakulam and
Idukki districts.
embarked on the final journey
to his native village in Nagaland
after making supreme sacrifice
in the line of duty along the
Line Of Control in Pallanwala
sector of Akhnoor on July 22.
Senior Army officers and
fellow soldiers paid glowing
tributes to the martyr before his
mortal remains were taken to
his native village for the last
rites with full military honours.
Wreaths were placed on the
mortal remains of Naik
Mongchon B by the GOC
White Knight Corps, GOC
Crossed Swords Division, station Commander Akhnoor
=PXZ<^]VRW^]1
and several other officers of the
Indian Army.
On the solemn occasion, as
a mark of respect to the martyr
“Reversing of Arms” was carried
out by the guards, followed by
sounding of “Last Post” by the
buglers. Maj Gen AK Dhar
GoC, 10 Division said, Naik
Mongchon B was a brave soldier
and made supreme sacrifice in
the Line Of Duty battling with
infiltrators on the LOC.
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T
he 1.3 million Indians,
then loyal subjects of
Queen Victoria, who
sailed overseas to fight in
the ironically billed “War
to end all Wars”, aka WWI, will be
remembered by an Indian
Government, at last, on
Independence Day 2014.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi
will recall the bravehearts who
went to war 100 years ago. Mr Modi
will honour these men in all those
centenary photographs, from the
ramparts of Red Fort on August 15.
This upcoming mention from
a staunchly nationalist Prime
Minister in his first Independence
Day speech is indeed a fitting
salute. And to top it all, it comes
from an administration that is
deeply committed to national security, the Armed Forces, its equipment, its logistical supports, manning, training, procurement, dignity; the entire Defence sector in general, and the start of a much-needed Indian defence industry, in particular. There is also a new War
Memorial budgeted for by Union
Minister for Finance Arun Jaitley,
not just to remember the brave martyrs of WWI, mostly accounted for
at India Gate by the British; but the
many new shaheeds, lost to us in
peace and war, since Independence.
And Prime Minister Modi will
deliver the remembrance, not from
the mock-up Red Fort on which he
practised being Prime Minister as
the Chief Minister of Gujarat, but
the real McCoy, in Delhi, with the
solid red stone ramparts — attended by his Cabinet, parliamentarians,
diplomats, children, assembled
guests, the sarkari All India Radio,
Doordarshan, and the global fedgaze of satellite television.
Mr Modi is likely to talk about
many other things, perhaps arising
out of his recent directives to all the
ministries, his over-arching and
transformative 17-point programme, as exciting as it is ambitious. Everything about the Modi
Sarkar, with so many initiatives, is
now down to the implementation,
but there is absolutely no fear of
falling short on the part of the man.
However, there is a marked difference in how Mr Modi goes
about his messaging. He is not interested in aggravating speculation, or
even debate, as he goes about his
business. The private media must
be satisfied at the controlled feed he
provides it, and even within the
Government, Mr Modi is known to
play his cards close to his chest.
To tell what he wants to tell, he
has been using only the
Government agencies of the
Doordarshan and the Press Trust of
India, and of course, Twitter and
Facebook. This messaging is clearly limited, controlled, and one-way,
and interactive only at onceremoved. Send in your questions
and comments, he seems to say, and
they will be attended to.
This echoes Mr Modi’s essential media strategy during the
election campaign, when every
television channel covered his
speeches, but he gave no interviews
till just before the end. And no
Press conferences at all. This was
done, let us be clear, in tandem and
harness with some very expert PR
advisers from home and abroad,
and to resounding success.
The private media, print, internet and satellite TV, mostly populated, as of now, by dyed-in-thewool Congress acolytes, is being
kept away. This is the case from day
one, May 16, right from the
SAARC attended inauguration, the
first bilateral visit to Bhutan, and
that to the BRICS Summit in Brazil,
before and after the Budgets, when
we saw the Finance Minister and
Press Information Bureau men
explaining things to news-folk,
and onwards.
The bulk of this private media,
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over 80 per cent, has, after all, tried
its best to spread disinformation, on
the Godhra riots 2002, the fuss
about Mr Modi’s apology or lack
thereof, the pinning of blame flying
in the face of the Supreme Court’s
clean chit, the distortion of his
“puppy dog” remark, the stonewalling of counter-charges on the
Sikh riots of 1984. There was also
the drama and mockery about Mr
Modi being chosen as the BJP’s
prime ministerial candidate, the
supposed rift between the Modi
camp and that of Mr LK Advani, the
constant playing up of bizarre
fringe elements.
Then there were the purported ‘fake encounters’, vicious charges
of crony-capitalism, name-calling
— Fascist, Hitler, Feku, aspersions
on Mr Modi’s class and character,
links with venal Godmen,
Snoopgate, the BJP’s alleged majoritarianism, Mr Modi’s marriage;
and daily, offensive and intemperate talking heads given free reign.
All this, relentlessly, in order to
spread rank prejudice against the
BJP in general, and Mr Modi and
Mr Amit Shah in particular. It
hoped, no, expected, to thwart Mr
Modi’s rise to power.
B>D=318C4
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°8Q]YT1^cQbY
Today, all these people in the
Congress-loving media are deeply
embarrassed at the extent of their
failure to influence. But they are full
of resentment still, and try to justify their toxic hate-mongering in
the name of ‘Press freedom’. Mr
Modi, on his part, surely cannot be
expected to forget the unfair treatment for over a decade when he was
Gujarat Chief Minister, and right up
to date. Fortunately, the people, to
whom Mr Modi spoke so eloquently, over the heads of this prejudiced
media, have been most generous.
But the majority media slant
remains both pernicious and persistent. The recent Israel-Gaza conflict ongoing, or the Shia-Sunni battling in Iraq is sought to be cast in
‘communal’ hues, presumably to
polarise minority sentiment in this
country. But the NDA Government
to its clear credit, is largely incommunicado on this, unwilling to fan
the flames of such negative passions,
and loathe to take sides.
Meanwhile, it is the economy,
gaining traction and recovering its
mojo, that will do the real talking
and burnish the Government’s
image. The NDA Government, in
harness for about two months, is
fortunate to see the green shoots of
a recovery on all fronts already. So
much so, that the stock market is
getting ready to forge ahead much
higher than the 22 per cent it has
already risen in 2014.
Meanwhile, the foreigners are
also keen to get in on the lucrative
FDI projects on offer. These range
from those in the Indian Railways,
development and modernisation of
its infrastructure and the bullet
trains, to the defence production
sector, catalysed by the placement
of 56 aircraft to replace the Avro
transports in the private/FDI
domain already. Then there are the
higher caps in insurance, lower
entry bars in construction and
infrastructure, raised limits for the
debt securities market, mining,
power, alternate energy, nuclear
energy, roads and ports.
There is a re-think going on
about multi-brand retail, and a
clearing of the 30 per cent local
input barrier for single brand.
There is China-led SEZs revival,
manufacturing incentivisation
across the board via Japan, South
Korea and others.
In Mr Modi’s 17-point vision
there are many other goodies —
huge container ports, many more
metro rail projects, country-wide
telecommunications at the price of
a local call, fast travel, going from
anywhere to anywhere in the country in 24 hours etc. So what else is
there to talk about?
DXURYWaeUcdY_^Yc*9V9
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2bYdYcX\Qg]Q[Ub
°4QfYTGQbT
;4CC4ABC>C74438C>A
=Yc`\QSUTci]`QdXi
Sir — This refers to the report,
“Govt stands firm; refuses to take
sides over Gaza” (July 22).
Minister for External Affairs
Sushma Swaraj took a wise decision in rejecting the Opposition’s
demand in the Rajya Sabha for a
resolution condemning Israel.
This is an old conflict that began
on the issue of a Jewish homeland
in Israel following the end of
World War II.
Towards the end of Palestinian
leader Yasser Arafat’s years of
struggle, peace and reconciliation
were forged between the two sides
with US help. But, sadly, with the
demise of Arafat, Palestinian terror groups like Hamas took over,
escalating the tension. The
Palestinian political leadership
assumed a backseat. The latest
flare-up was, once again, triggered by Hamas with the killing of
three Israeli teenagers and relentless rocket attacks on Israeli areas.
Hamas does not seem concerned
by Gaza’s civilian fatalities in Israeli
counter-attacks, as it was using its
people as its shield for
propaganda purposes.
Opposition leaders like Mr
Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mr Sitaram
Yechury and Mr D Raja, in their
castigation of the NDA
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Government’s supposed inaction
on Gaza, did not utter a word on
the vicious role of Hamas. Israel
was their sole bugbear and the
whipping boy. Were they serving
India’s national interests?
M Ratan
New Delhi
7\_bY_ecfYSd_bi
Sir — This refers to the editorial,
“India is lord of the Lord’s” (July
23). A victory at the Mecca of
cricket after 28 long years has
come as pleasant news for us.
There are various heartening
aspects of this win. The first is an
all-round performance by the
team, where Ajinkya Rahane,
Murali Vijay, Ravindra Jadeja,
Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ishant
Sharma chipped in. The second is
that we beat England through its
own tactics of throwing shortpitched stuff; we are known to
succumb to such tactics, but this
time we did it to the opponent.
The win might not erase
horrible memories of the 4-0
whitewash by England three years
ago, but with only two players,
MS Dhoni and Ishant Sharma,
having played Tests before and
the rest being new, the victory
augurs well for our future. Critics
might call it a flash in the pan if
we get complacent and do not
perform to our full potential in
the remaining matches.
Bal Govind
Noida
3\UQ^e`^UUTUT
Sir — This refers to the report,
“Govt puts Manmohan in dock”
(July 23). Former Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh and the
Congress have been in the dock
for long now. Retired Supreme
Court justice Markandey Katju
belongs to a family of judges with
an unimpeachable record and
has been described as brilliant,
bold, and one of the best legal
minds. He is one of the few
scholarly judges having interest in
languages, history and sociology.
When he says something, he says
it with conviction.
It will be in the national interest if the comments by Mr Katju
are utilised to clean up the judicial
system, which needs a total overhaul. Corruption in higher judiciary is no secret and the Congress is
responsible for making it part of
our national DNA.
Shailendra Kaul
Lucknow
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y refusing to censure Israel for
its ongoing military campaign
in the Gaza Strip, the BJP-led
NDA Government has taken a
firm and decisive steps towards
correcting a historical anomaly in India’s
foreign policy. Traditionally, New Delhi
has been driven by a strong pro-Arab sentiment, which is what translates into its
‘full support for the Palestinian cause’
stand, even though this has hardly ever
helped further our national interest. This
policy-tilt can be traced as far back as the
Khilafat Movement of the early 20th century. When the matter of Partition came
up, the Congress opposed the idea of
dividing the Indian subcontinent on
religious lines while the Muslim League
championed the cause of a separate
Muslim homeland. Worried that it may
lose a chunk of its support base to the
Muslim League, the Congress too adopted a similar anti-Jewish line although
eventually its appeasement efforts failed,
and India was divided.
However, by the time of
Independence, the pro-Arab/anti-Israel
stance had been hardwired into Indian
foreign policy thinking. This was not just
a matter of political expediency but also
the result of an ideological bias furthered
in no small measure by the Mahatma
himself. For the Indian leadership, which
had just drawn the curtains on 200 years
of British rule, Israel was (falsely) seen
as a ‘colonial power’, an ‘occupying
force’ — labels that still resonate with the
old guard here.
Meanwhile, India’s radical support for
Arab causes which continued at least till
the 1980s brought it almost no rewards.
For instance, the Arab nations never
favoured India on the Kashmir issue, and
till date, their support for Pakistan has not
wavered. In fact, one of the reasons why
Jawaharlal Nehru accorded official recognition to Israel in the late 1950s (full diplomatic relations were established much
later), having opposed the Jewish nation’s
membership to the UN in 1949, was
because he was upset with Egypt for not
supporting India on the Hyderabad issue
at the global forum.
Over time, there were several such
disappointments — including India’s
exclusion from the 1969 Rabat conference
which paved the way for the establishment
of the powerful Organization of the
Islamic Conference, whose doors are still
shut for India. There is little merit in listing all such instances but it suffices to say
that India’s Arab appeasement foreign policy, mostly an extension of the Congress’s
Muslim appeasement on the domestic
front, was a lonely, one-way street.
The situation changed gradually
after the fall of the Soviet Union as well
as India’s own economic liberalisation in
1990s. Though the pro-Arab rhetoric has
remained, New Delhi’s policy towards
Israel has changed dramatically.
Following the establishment of full
diplomatic ties in 1992, relations between
the two countries have evolved rapidly
— the extent and scope of which is not
always acknowledged in public. Proof of
this is the fact that Israel’s crucial support to India during the Kargil war is
hardly ever publicised.
On the other end of the spectrum,
India’s Arab appeasement tendencies
have also dried up significantly. For
instance, though India still allocates two
billion dollars for the Palestinian cause,
it has toned down its official language on
the Arab-Israeli conflict and taken a largely neutral stand in recent years, occasional deviations (such as the anti-Israel parliamentary resolution passed during the
2006 war against Hezbollah in Lebanon)
notwithstanding.
Against this backdrop, the new
Government’s refusal to pass a parliamentary resolution criticising Israel essentially builds on processes that have been quietly underway for two decades now. The
difference is that the incumbent BJP-led
Government is not squeamish about
India’s ties with Israel, and has no qualms
in acknowledging that the Jewish nation
has been a long-standing friend of India’s.
Also, given its tremendous popular mandate, the Modi Government is neither
beholden to the whims of coalition partners (such as the Left parties under UPAI
which still romanticise the Palestinian
cause, ground realities be damned) nor
does it have reason to play vote-bank politics with the Muslim community. This,
in turn, allows the Modi Government to
take a clear-eyed view of the situation:
First, India has no business meddling in
the larger Arab-Israeli conflict; second, as
far as the current crisis is concerned, it is
a case of self defence which Israel, as a sovereign nation under threat, has the right
to exercise.
The larger geo-politics of the ArabIsraeli conflict notwithstanding, there can
be no two ways about the fact that this lat-
est of fighting has been provoked by
Hamas, the globally-designated terrorist
group that has been controlling the Gaza
Strip since 2006. It hoped that Israel would
eventually retaliate and cynically strategised that it could use the assault to regain
public support.
Hamas has been at its weakest —
politically and economically — in recent
times. Gazans are disillusioned with the
group which has failed to govern entirely. Moreover, the group’s support bases in
Syria have been destroyed and its patrons
in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood, is once
again being driven underground by the
military which has come back to power
in Cairo. In fact, this was precisely why
Hamas, after seven years of bitter rivalry, joined hands with Fatah to form a
Unity Government in early June. The
arrangement breathed life into the terror
outfit which focused on doing what it does
best: Street-level resistance. Hamas began
firing rockets — first into southern Israel
and then all over that country including
Jerusalem and Tel Aviv — after Israel
arrested many of the group’s supporters
in the aftermath of the kidnapping and
murder of three Jewish teenagers in
West Bank, which in turn led to the retaliatory murder of a Palestinian boy.
After days of incessant rocket fire
from Hamas, which could claim only one
Israeli life, thanks to the enormously successful Iron Dome which intercepts such
missiles, Israel retaliated with airstrikes on
Gaza on July 8. Despite the rising
Palestinian death toll as a result of Israeli
bombing (not to mention Hamas’s use of
6WUHQJWKHQLQJZDWHUVHFXULW\
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T
he Modi Government
has displayed muchneeded sensitivity
towards the environment on
a variety of forums since
assuming power. But probably
the most talked about and
much-appreciated step has
been the creation of a separate
ministry for river development and Ganga rejuvenation.
Water Resources, River
Development and Ganga
Rejuvenation Minister Uma
Bharti has made an earnest
beginning by making Varanasi
the focal point of the Ganga
clean-up project. The city lies
in the centre of the Ganga
river system and is symbolic
of the extent of pollution that
the holy river suffers from.
The Government has done
well to recognise the significance of evolving traditional
environmental laws that help to
protect water resources and
regulate the impact of erratic
development on the major
rivers and water bodies. The
much anticipated new set of
laws, assisted by a soon-to-beset-up Institute of River
Sciences, will help in cleaning
and developing the Ganga,
thereby, restoring its status as
a water resource and help
ensure its uninterrupted flow.
As 138 drains from various
cities and towns en route pour
a staggering 6,087 million litres
a day of sewage into the Ganga,
the fecal coliform levels in the
river remain above acceptable
limits. Given this scenario, the
Government’s determination
to translate concern for rivers
into meaningful action is
appreciable, but it is also
important that the newly
carved ministry focuses on
conservation and rejuvenation
of urban wetlands as well.
Urban wetlands, in the
form of lakes, swamps, marshes and mangroves, are lifelines
that ensure water security to
the cities by constantly replenishing the groundwater. They
act as natural reservoirs for
water har vested as well.
Additionally, urban wetlands
are rich natural habitats, and
also protect against natural
hazards by slowing floodwaters, reducing the risk of fire
and protecting against erosion
of river banks and coastlines.
Wetlands and associated vegetation can provide a cooling
effect to the surrounding areas
in summer and also moderate
strong winds.
Wetlands contribute to the
well being of the community by
acting as urban green spaces
that provide aesthetic appeal,
landscape diversity and recreational opportunities. Many
Indian cities have a variety of
wetlands, but their present
condition is deplorable due to
incessant pollution and
encroachment, resulting in
habitat loss and ecosystem failure. In many cases the introduction of exotic species in the
form of weeds and pests has
irredeemably damaged the
wetlands. Protecting and
enhancing our urban wetlands
is going to be a challenge for
both planners and the community, unless the Government
deploys adequate measures to
conserve and protect the wetlands. The new ministry must
facilitate the survey and recording of all wetlands in municipal limits across the country so
that these natural water assets
can be brought under municipal land laws for protection.
The municipal records must
also include an updated and
comprehensive list of water
bodies and their catchment and
any change of this land use
should not be permitted.
In many parts of the country the potential of local water
resources has not been fully
utilised. Instead of ensuring the
same, cities keep applying for
Central funds to access water
supply from distant areas during the summer months. This
needs to be checked by the
Government, which must
ensure that the cities take adequate steps to protect their wetlands and water sources, as the
eligibility criteria before expecting Government assistance.
The Government must
also ensure that water bodies,
such as rivers and wetlands,
have their own ‘right to exist’.
It must contain other factors
such as the rapid and irresponsible real estate development
that pose a serious threat in the
form of encroachment and
construction. The recent building collapse in Chennai is a sad
example of callousness of the
municipal authorities and the
endless greed of real estate
developers. The ill-fated structure was built on the Porur lake
civilians as human shields), Hamas did not
stop its rocket fire and, in fact, spurned
ceasefire offers. The situation took a turn
for the worse on July 17 when 13 Hamas
militants penetrated Israel through underground tunnels and killed two Israeli soldiers near Sufa kibbutz close to the border. The ‘discovery’ of these tunnels
prompted an Israeli ground incursion,
bringing back memories of the bloody
2008 Operation Cast Lead.
Essentially, Hamas has sought to
attack Israel from the ground below, having failed to inflict any serious damage
through airstrikes. This is not a new strategy (Hamas has similar tunnels on the
Egypt border that are used to smuggle
goods and weapons) but it has enormous
security implications for Israel as the case
of Gilad Shalit stands proof. In 2006, the
Israeli soldier was taken from his border
outpost by Hamas militants who had burrowed underground. He was released five
years later in exchange for a 1,027
Palestinian militants, many of whom have
since returned to their terrorist activities.
Still, the extent and sophistication of
the tunnel network, worth millions of dollars (ostensibly Western aid that has been
misused), seems to have taken the Israeli
military by surprise. Dismantling these
(and Hamas’s overall terror infrastructure
in Gaza) requires a major on-the-ground
offensive which is bound to take a heavy
toll on Palestinian as well as Israeli lives.
A UN-monitored demilitarisation of the
Gaza Strip is the only way to break this
cycle of violence, but it is unlikely without serious concessions from both sides.
WKLQN
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:>C0BA8A09
land. In order to avoid such
eventualities, the Government
must suitably empower local
authorities. For this, the
Wetlands Conservation and
Management Rules need to be
modified, as they are inadequate and weak.
The real estate sector must
be sensitised regarding the
costs of wetland loss and degradation. Infrastructure and
other construction projects
should be encouraged to
include wetlands as natural
infrastructure for nature conservation, landscape planning
and water management. The
Government must also educate
the community to appreciate
the value of local wetlands.
The prevention of degradation and loss of wetlands and
the rejuvenation of rivers passing through the cities can vastly improve urban water security, besides achieving sustainable urban communities.
C
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?=BQ =4F34;78
T
elecom regulator TRAI has
warned that it will review
service providers' freedom to fix
mobile call and service rates if
they increase tariffs beyond the
current base rates.
“I do not expect headlines
tariff to change. If they change,
as and when they change, I have
told the industry, then the regulator reserves its right to go
back and look at it again if forbearance should be continued or
not. I am being open, there is
nothing to hide,” Trai Chairman
Rahul Khullar said here.
He was responding to a
question on the possible changes
in mobile rates following recent
recommendations by the
Telecom Regulatory Authority
of India on issues such as spectrum sharing and lowering of
maximum of rates on leased
5HFRPPHQGDWLRQRQPHGLDFRQWURODQGRZQHUVKLSE\$XJXVW
?=BQ =4F34;78
T
RAI will come up with its recommendation on media control and ownership by end of
August.
“In another two weeks, it
must be out. Give me a little more
time...But definitely before end of
August,” TRAI Chairman Rahul
Khullar told reporters in reply to
a query on expected time for
releasing recommendation on
media control and ownership.
Telecom
Regulatory
lines that could lead to cost saving for mobile operators.
Base rates or headline tariffs
are the maximum call or service
rates that a telecom operator can
Authority of India had issued consultation paper on 'Issues relating
to Media Ownership' in February
2013.
The regulator has sought
public comments on the need,
nature and level of restrictions and
safeguards with respect to vertical integration in the broadcasting and distribution sectors and
cross holdings across various
media sectors.
TRAI's move had received
mixed response from media
houses. Delhi Union of Journalists
appreciated TRAI's initiative and
suggested dismantling of existing
monopolies and cross media
empires.
Times Television Network
suggested a ban on entry of lobbyists having association with
public relations or political parties,
religious bodies, urban and local
administrative bodies, Central
Government ministries and
departments, and Central
Government owned companies
undertakings.
Commenting on the paper,
The Indian Newspaper Society
said that TRAI's role is not to visualise in terms of placing restriction
on print media and examining
cross media restrictions while
including print media is a clear act
of misdirection.
The same was echoed in
comments by Bennett and
Coleman Co. Ltd (BCCL) .
The BBCL said that instead
of suggesting any cross holding
restrictions, the Government policy should be targeted on fair consolidation in each media vertical.
charge to its customers but normally companies charge less
than these rates. At present
most of the telecom operators
have fixed base rate at 2 paise per
second.
The regulator allows free
hand to fix telecom call and service rates as it feels that competition in the market will keep
control on tariffs.
“Its a separate matter, if
(spectrum) sharing leads to
lower cost they may be able
plough it back or they may want
5%,ZRUNLQJRQV\VWHPIRUH[LW
E\EXVLQHVVHVIDFLQJEDQNUXSWF\
?=BQ =4F34;78
n the absence of a good bankruptcy code in India, Reserve
IBank
is working on a system to
enable entrepreneurs seeking to
exit insolvent business, a top official of the apex bank said.
“We have a tendency in
India that we do not like failures.
We think everybody should
pass and have distinction. We do
not have a culture to accept failures.
“How to create that? There
is a thinking in Reserve Bank, we
have been thinking how to create a system so that people
should voluntarily withdraw
from an unattractive business,”
RBI Executive Director B
Mahapatra said in his address on
“Managing Stressed Assets”
organised by Assocham.
He said it is felt there has to
be a good bankruptcy system in
India. Mahapatra said RBI has
started working on an enabling
system for banks that will help
those entrepreneurs seeking an
honourable exit from unattractive ventures.
He said here in India the
bankruptcy has a stigma
attached as, “Nobody wants to be
called a bankrupt person...
Indian philosophy is that we do
not like failures”.
Mahapatra said RBI has just
begun working on such a framework to enable companies a voluntary withdrawal.
While there is a talk of pro-
TV Today group said:
“While plurality is vital for
democracy since it helps to
ensure that citizens have access
to a variety of sources of news,
information and opinion, the
benefits of horizontal cross media
ownership cannot be overlooked.”
It further said that the objective of any regulation from the government should be to strike a right
balance and provide for competition, diversity and plurality of
players, news and views.
to put that cost in to larger profits. Better yet if they can use to
service debt. All telecom operators are in heavy debt and debt
has to be paid otherwise what
2ZchRjdac`WZeRS]VZ__VieeYcVVjVRcd
0X\bPcSTQcaTRPbc*aTYXVQP[P]RTbWTTc*Tg_P]bX^]c^0\TaXRPb4da^_TB40bXP
?=BQ=4F34;78
A
viding legal provision in the
Companies Act in this regard,
but the RBI would like to work
on examining the regulatory
framework for the voluntary
withdrawal by the entrepreneur,
he added.
Pointing to the problem of
bad loans, he said, it is a known
fact that the problem of stressed
asset is there. And particularly in
the cases of public sector banks,
the problem is more worrisome,
though the private sector lender
have fared much better.
“Reserve Bank has now provided a system of incentives and
disincentives for following rules
of the game for Corporate Debt
Restructuring (CDRs).”
The problem of stressed
assets earlier was in traditional
sectors such as iron and steel,
fertilisers etc but of late it is in
infrastructure, he said.
Mohapatra felt that the stressed
assets could also be revived.
To identify the stressed
assets, RBI has established a
Credit Central Repository of
Information. It ensures that if a
large borrower defaults with
one bank, the information about
the same is passed on to the
other banks on quarterly basis,
he said.
Chairman and Managing
Director of Indian Overseas
Bank, M Narendra, who was
also present, said presently
revival of the economy is the
most important focus and that
there is also a continuous necessity of foreign direct investment.
He said there is a need for
more investment from the private sector which has not come
to the desirable level, as the
Government alone could not
do it. “Demand is there but
capacity is not fully geared up.
We need to really improve the
infrastructure,” Narendra said.
llaying fears from new competition, Jet Airways promoter Naresh Goyal has said that
the airline would turn profitable by 2017 through a major
rejig in its balance sheet, cost
reduction, fleet and route expansion in close association with the
Gulf carrier Etihad Airways
which has picked up 24 per cent
stake in the former.
“We are in the process of
finalising our new products,
restructuring our financial balance sheet, working with banks
and making payments to our
creditors, “ said Goyal in a first
joint meet along with Etihad
President and CEO James
Hogan.
He said that Jet's Airways
plans progressive expansion to
North and South Americas,
Europe and Africa and aims at
lowering of operational costs due
to combining of their fleet and
routes of the two airlines. Jet
Airways has incurred a loss of
C4,130 crore for 2013-14.
“We plan to reduce losses in
2015, consolidate in 2016 and
turn profitable in 2017.... We are
already on track as our international business has turned prof-
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itable. We now have to take our
business forward,” said Jet's CEO
designate Cramer Ball. Ball is yet
to get necessary clearances to formally take over his position.
Terming the Indian aviation
market as 'fiercely competitive',
Ball said, the next 12 months
would see major changes being
implemented to enhance Jet's
domestic and international operations.
Replying to queries on
whether there was any restruc-
turing of Jet fleet or whether its
ATR turboprop fleet be transferred to its low-cost subsidiary
JetLite, he said, “We are looking
at it. We may sell our surplus aircraft or return them to lessors.
We finding out what is the most
economical way to go forward.
We will be announcing all this
soon.”
Asked whether Etihad
would consider increasing its
equity stake in Jet from the current 24 per cent, Hogan said,
Jaitley in his budget proposals on
July 10 had said that long-term
capital gains tax on debt-MFs
will go up to 20 per cent from 10
per cent. The move is part of
government's effort to bring
parity with banks and other debt
instruments.
Besides the holding period
for these units to be eligible for
long-term capital gains has been
hiked to 36 months from 12
months.
Finance Ministry, according
to sources, could extend lower
tax rate of 10 per cent to those
investors who had redeemed
their holding on or before July
10. Also, the tax department is
considering to exempt past
investments whose redemptions would be made by March
2015.
?C8
at acquiring, for which we will
be using the funds,” JSW
Energ y Chairman Sajjan
Jindal told reporters on the
sidelines of the company's
20th Annual General
Meeting.
At this moment, I cannot
give the timeline for raising
the money, he added.
According to the company annual report, JSW Energy
has sought an approval of its
shareholders for mopping up
C5,000 crore through an issue
of
secured/unsecured
redeemable non-convertible
debentures on a private place-
We have no exit strategy from Jet
and we are here to stay,” Hogan
said.
Jet CEO Ball said the 312
destinations being served by
the two airlines now would
grow to 1,200 by 2018 as “connecting traffic from Abu Dhabi
will increase seven-fold in five
years”. Goyal and Ball said Jet
would launch flights to Ho Chi
Minh City in Vietnam from
November and add Kuala
Lumpur, Yangon and Seychelles
within the current financial
year.
Focus areas for Jet's global
operations would include
newservices to Europe, China,
Australia and Southeast Asia,
expanded frequencies to existing routes and additional codeshares, the Jet chief said.
In addition, the domestic
business model would improve
connectivity across India and
worldwide, while removing
complexity in product and fleet,
including the standardisation
and reconfiguration of the
Boeing 737 fleet.
Goyal also announced the
appointment of aviation veteran Subodh Karnik as the Chief
Operating Officer pending regulatory approval.
,QGLDDIWHU0RELOLRODXQFK
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A0:4B71870A8970Q
=4F34;78
aking on the likes of
Maruti Suzuki's Ertiga and
T
General Motors' Enjoy
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-6:(QHUJ\H\HLQJVWUHVVHGDVVHWVPD\UDLVHXSWRCFU
<D<108)Private sector power
producer JSW Energy, which
is looking to raise up to
C5,000 crore, is eyeing
stressed projects for acquisition, a top official said on
Wednesday.
“Our growth stagnated
for the past four years, but
now we have decided to grow
significantly. We have plans to
raise C5,000 crore to fund our
expansion plans which will be
organically as well as inorganically...We may not raise
the entire amount at one
time. There are a number of
stressed projects we may look
“We have just completed the
process (acquiring equity). We
are delighted with our investment....We have stepped in as a
partner.”
Referring to the strategic
direction of the Jet-Etihad partnership, the Etihad chief indicated taking on competition
from global groupings like Star
Alliance, which recently had Air
India as its latest member,
though he did not name any.
Etihad's equity investments
in Virgin Australia, airberlin, Air
Seychelles, Aer Lingus, Air
Serbia and Jet and similar talks
going on with Alitalia would
make the combine to have a total
fleet of over 700 aircraft touching all major destinations across
the globe, he said.
“If we complete our talks
with Alitalia (to acquire equity),
we will be the fifth largest airline
group in the world,” Hogan
said.
He said Etihad had made
$750 million investment in Jet,
including $380 million in equity and $70 million to buy three
Jet slots at London's Heathrow
Airport.
“We are long-term investors
in Jet Airways, which is different from being a shareholder.
+RQGDDLPVKLJKLQ
SURSRVDOWRGRXEOHWD[RQGHEW0)V
is examining to tweak the Budget
proposal for hiking capital gains
tax to 20 per cent for debt mutual funds following representation
from the industry, Economic
Affairs Secretary Arvind
Mayaram said on Wednesday.
“There have been many representations (on debt MF). We
have sent our views to revenue
department for examination and
consideration,” he said.
There have been demands
from mutual fund industry for
relaxation in the proposal. It has
been arguing that those persons
who had invested money in
debt-oriented MFs prior to the
announcement of Budget proposals should not be subjected to
higher incidence of tax.
Finance Minister Arun
changed their headline tariff.
“They did it at rate of something like 2 percentage,” Khullar
said.Telecom companies have
raised mobile base rates by
about 100 per cent between 2011
to 2013 and more frequently
after cancellation of 122 2G
telecom permits by Supreme
Court in February 2012.
Menwhile, TRAI recommended extension of licence
period of direct-to-home (DTH)
operators to 20 years, while
proposing bringing down fees to
8 per cent of the adjusted gross
revenue.
In its recommendations on
a new DTH licensing regime, the
Telecom Regulatory Authority
of India (TRAI) said vertically
integrated broadcasters must
be subjected to a set of additional
regulations, allowing them to
control only one distribution
platform operators (DPOs).
?RcVdY8`jR]g`hde`efc_;Ve
)LQ0LQH[DPLQLQJ%XGJHW
=4F34;78) The Finance Ministry
will happen to banks,” Khullar
said.
Trai has recommended that
Government should allow sharing of all categories of spectrum
held by telecom companies for
mobile services.
If this recommendation is
approved, telecom operators
will be able to bring down cost
of ownership of radiowaves
which has increased to about 5
times compared to its price of
C1,658 crore under old licencing
regime.
Khullar said mobile rates
were low earlier because telecom
operators were having fighting
to attract the customers of their
competitors, and in the process
they were offering calls at lower
rates than their actual costs.
He said telecom operators
who were in heavy debt or
making losses starting cutting
down on freebies and some
ment basis, as well as the utilisation of the funds.
Asked about the company's plan to acquire Lanco
Infratech's 1,200 MW thermal
power plant at Udupi in
Western Karnataka, Jindal
said,
“There are various opportunities we are looking at
across the country, but we
cannot name any specific project. We have a good balance
sheet and we are open to any
such acquisitions,” adding
that the company is also open
to opportunities in global
markets.
Responding to a query if
the company plans to take up
ultra mega power projects
(UMPPs), he said, “We want
to have a diversified portfolio
in various states and not concentrate on one State.
However, we will participate
in coal auction, since we currently depend more on
imported fuel”.
The company, which is
primarily engaged only in
generation, is keenly evaluating opportunities in the distribution space, he said.
“To be a fully integrated
player in the power sector, we
are keenly evaluating opportunities in the distribution
space. We think there is a
need to open up the power
distribution segment as well
to make the sector more efficient and transparent. So, as
and when the sector is opened
up, we will also look at
expanding in that segment,”
Jindal said.
Meanwhile, the company
announced today that it has
posted a 51.9 per cent
increase in consolidated net
profit for the quarter ended
June 30 at C325.47 crore. JSW
Energy reported a net profit
of C214.26 crore in the corresponding quarter last fiscal.
The company's total
income grew by 3.49 per cent
to C2,558.32 crore in the first
quarter against C2,471.96
crore in Q1 FY14.
?C8
Japanese premium car maker
Honda on Wednesday
launched launched 'Mobilio',
its first Multi-purpose Vehicle
(MPV) segment in India.
The MPV is priced competitively between C6.49 lakh
and C10.86 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi) so that the company reaches total annual sales
of three lakh units by 2017.
Maruti Suzuki's Ertiga is
priced between C5.8 lakh and
C8.49 lakh (ex-showroom
Delhi).
“Mobilio is already a success in Indonesia, selling
46,000 units since its launch in
January capturing 23 per cent
of market share in the segment. We expect the same
success in India and will try to
sell as many units as we can
here,” said Honda Motor
Company Managing Officer
Yoshiyuki Matsumoto while
explaining company’s plan
behind launching Mobilio.
“Honda has set a target of
selling six million units globally by March 2017, out of
which 1.2 million will come
from the Asia Oceania region.
HCIL will account for 25 per
cent of the region's sale,” he
added.
Mobilio has been developed at Honda's R&D facility
in Bangkok exclusively for the
Asian markets keeping in
mind needs of Indian and
Indonesian customers.
Bullish on the new model,
Honda Cars India Ltd (HCIL)
President & CEO Hironori
Kanayama said: “The launch of
Honda Mobilio follows the
success of Honda Amaze and
the all new City which led our
exceptional growth of 83 per
cent in the previous financial
year.”
“The company is progressing well to achieve its target of achieving annual sales of
three lakh units by 2017,” he
added.
During the fiscal 2013-14,
Honda Cars India reported 83
per cent increase in sales at
1,34,339 units as against 73,483
units during the previous year.
HCIL had earlier this year
launched an all-new version of
its mid-sized sedan City. The
company's other models
include compact sedan Amaze
and hatchback Brio. The
Honda Amaze, introduced in
April last year, was the company's first diesel offering in
India.
\^]Th
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C
ountry’s largest software
services exporter Tata
Consultancy Services (TCS),
on Wednesday attained a
market valuation of over C5
lakh crore, becoming the
first company in Indian marke t s
to
achieve
this milestone.
At the
end
of
trade, the
market
capitalisat i on ( m c ap )
of
TCS soared to C5,06,703.34
crore, the highest for the
company since its listing in
2004.
Shares of the IT bellwether ended the day at
C2,586.90, up 2.21 per cent
on the BSE. In intra-day, it
gained 2.52 per cent to Rs
2,595 -- its 52-week high.
In dollar terms, TCS'
market valuation rose to $ 84
billion.
Interestingly, TCS's current market capitalisation is
higher than the combined
valuation of other big IT
players such as Infosys
(C1,92,196.84 crore), HCL
Technologies (C1,07,880.18
crore), Wipro (C1,40,474.31
crore) and Tech Mahindra
(C50,374.76 crore).
TCS's stock has been in
strong position, rallying more
than 8 per
cent in five
consecutive
sessions
f rom last
T h u r s d a y,
af ter
t he
company
posted a 45
p er
cent
jump in June
quarter net profit.
TCS is also currently the
country's most valued company in terms of market valuation.
The IT major is followed
by state-run ONGC whose
m-cap stood at C3,46,582.90
crore, Reliance Industries
C3,34,054.95 crore, ITC
(C2,80,454.65 crore) and Coal
India (C2,42,579.97 crore).
The combined market
capitalisation of as many as
16 listed Tata group firms
stands at C3,06,338.63 crore.
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#!"#
=4F 34;78) Sensex on
Wednesday rose 121 points to
end at a new peak of 26,147.33
extending its winning run to
seventh session, its longest
since September 2012, boosted by gains in IT and banking
bluechips on upbeat earnings,
higher capital inflows and positive global cues.
The NSE Nifty barometer
rose 27.90 points, or 0.36 per
cent, to end at yet another
record close of 7,795.75. The
Nifty also hit new all-time
intra-day peak of 7,809.20,
surpassing its previous record
of 7,808.85 hit on July 8.
Software giant TCS
attained a market valuation of
over Rs 5 lakh crore for the first
time, helped by a 2.21 per cent
rally in the stock. Infosys was
the best gainer on Wednesday
among the 30-share Sensex as
it jumped nearly 3.5 per cent.
Its peer, Wipro inched up by
1.9 per cent.
"Selective buying in index
heavyweights and particularly IT sector maintained buying momentum on the bourses," said Rakesh Goyal, Senior
Vice President, Bonanza
Portfolio.
?=B
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ac`WZeRS]VXc`heY+AcV^[Z
?=BQ=4F34;78
W
ipro Chairman Azim
Premji on Wednesday
said the company is focused
on strong profitable growth,
and will make investment in
both organic and inorganic
growth areas.
Addressing the company's 68th Annual General
Meeting here, he said the
firm was focused on profitable growth and enhancing
shareholder value.
Premji also said the company will make investments in
both organic and inorganic
growth areas.
This comes less than a
week after Wipro announced
it has entered into a multimillion dollar dual pact with
Canada's ATCO through
which India's third largest
software services company
will provide a complete suite
of outsourcing solutions to
the Canadian firm as well as
acquire its IT services arm.
He further said Wipro is
investing on its staff and
training them.
In addition, Premji also
told investors that succession
plans for the leadership at
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Wipro "is strongly in place".
This come in the wake of
concerns over leadership succession plans in IT services
firms, which have seen series
of top level exits at Infosys,
another IT major.
The Wipro Chairman also
informed that sanction from
Karnataka Government to
start new SEZ is long over
due.
Premji had earlier this
month met Karnataka Chief
Minister Siddaramaiah and
sought speeding up of departmental clearances, including
those relating to environment
and forest, as part of setting
up of Kodathi SEZ project
here.
The SEZ is expected to
create around 25,000 jobs in
the first phase
.*'FDVH2LO0LQVD\VLW
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?=BQ<D<108
A
s it looks at policy support
to boost output from
Rajasthan oil block, Cairn India
on Wednesday called for predictable taxes and fiscal regime
together with maintaining contract sanctity to aid production
increase.
Addressing the company's
Annual General Meeting (AGM)
of shareholders here, Chairman
Navin Agrawal said that for a
nation undergoing transformational changes, a simple and forward-looking policy to encourage investment that maximises
domestic oil and gas production
would be a key enabler.
Citing example of the US
which has turned from net
importer of oil and gas to an
exporter, he said: "Much like the
US, maximum value can be
created by encouraging domestic production of hydrocarbons.
Can we as a nation, draw lessons
from the US? Clearly, above-theground factors together with
good infrastructure played a
key role.
"Simple policy framework,
predictability of taxes and fiscal
regime, maintaining contract
sanctity and facilitating private
sector capital are key levers
which have been effectively
utilised by the US. This led to
their energy renaissance."
Domestic production, he
said, has a transformational role
in a nation's development. It
increases Government's revenue
because of taxes and production
levies. In turn, however, imported barrels of oil result in transferring our wealth.
"Adopting a strategic vision
for our exploration and production (E&P) sector and following through with a stable policy regime can be a game-changer for India's upstream oil and
gas landscape," he said.
Not only will it help minimise costly imports but will also
strengthen our nation's balance
of trade. "Thus, we need to
make every effort to increase
domestic production by maximising our resource potential,"
he said.
Cairn produces a fourth of
nation's domestic oil production
with about 200,000 barrels per
day of output from its prolific
Rajasthan fields.
Agarwal said Cairn's production helped reduce the India's
import bill by over Rs 48,000
crore. "Our annual contribution
of over C32,000 crore to the
Government and its nominees
would further strengthen
Meanwhile, the company
reported a 65 per cent drop in
its first quarter net profit after
booking a one-time depreciation charge on new accounting
rules, and said it would invest
$200 million in developing a
gas find in predominantly
oil-rich Rajasthan block.
FKDOOHQJHG0F+XJKGHFLVLRQWRUHWXUQ
=4F34;78) Former Australian judge Michael McHugh had to
quit as chairman of an arbitral tribunal in the Reliance
Industries' KG-D6 cost recovery dispute as Oil Ministry challenged his decision to return after he initially withdrew from the
post.
Oil Ministry in a Facebook post confirmed that McHugh has
"communicated his decision that he would cease to act as the
Chairman of the Arbitral Tribunal."
The Supreme Court had on April 29 named Michael Hudson
McHugh, former judge of the High Court of Australia, as the
third arbitrator in the dispute over cost recovery in KG-D6 gas
block.
McHugh, however, on May 20, withdrew as the chairman
of the tribunal to which RIL had named former Chief Justice of
Supreme Court S P Bharucha as its arbitrator and government
appointed former Chief Justice of the apex court and V N Khare
its counsel. McHugh had said he was not contacted before the
appointment was made.
He, however, had a change of heart after counsels of the partners in KG-D6 block reportedly wrote to him.
The ministry, however, felt that an arbitrator appointed by
the Supreme Court cannot re-appoint himself once he withdrew.
"This (the final withdrawal from the case) is in response to
the Government's stand that he ceases to be the Chairman of
the tribunal once he has declined to act as the Presiding
Arbitrator," the ministry said in the Facebook post.
?=B
F^a[S1P]Z?aTbXST]c9X\H^]V:X\PSSaTbbTbP_aTbbR^]UTaT]RTX]=Tf3T[WX8]SXP^]FTS]TbSPh:X\Xb^]PcWaTTSPheXbXcc^8]SXP
7::Z_gVde^V_e 0LFURVRIWWRXQLI\:LQGRZV
dfS]Z^ZeZ_
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investment in R&D and sales for
8dVTdcRZdVU
our digital work and life businesses even as we cut total
Sj&SZ]]Z`_
operating expenses. We have a
?=BQ<D<108
he Reser ve Bank on
Wednesday said the FII
T
limit for investment in government securities has been
increased by $5 billion within the total cap of $ 30 billion.
The central bank said the
limit has been enhanced by
reducing the investment limit
for long term investors from
$10 billion to $ 5 billion.
"It has been decided to
enhance the investment limit
in Government securities
available to FIIs (Foreign
Institutional Investors)/QFIs
(Qualified
Foreign
Investor)/FPIs (Foreign
Portfolio Investors) by $ 5 billion by correspondingly
reducing the amount available
to long-term investor from $
10 billion to $5 billion within
the overall limit of $ 30 billion," an RBI notification said.
Long-term investors
include sovereign wealth
funds (SWFs), multilateral
agencies, pension, insurance
funds and foreign central
banks registered with Sebi.
Earlier this year, the limit
for long-term investors for
investment in government
securities was raised from $5
billion to $ 10 billion within
the total limit of $ 30 billion
available to them.
The RBI, however, said the
increment investment limit
of $ 5 billion shall be required
to be put in government
bonds with a minimum residual maturity of three years.
It further said all future
investment against the limit
vacated, when the current
investment by an FII/QFI/FPI
runs off either through sale or
redemption shall, also be
required to be made in
Government bonds with a
minimum residual maturity of
three years.
"There will be no lock-in
period and FIIs/QFIs/FPIs
shall be free to sell the securities to the domestic
investors," the notification
said.
?=BQ =4F34;78
icrosoft on Wednesday
said it will introduce soluM
tions like Skype translator, while
unifying the Windows experience to offer a simplified user
experience across multiple
devices.
Speaking to analysts,
Microsoft's India-born CEO
Satya Nadella said the firm will
invest on productivity, while
consolidating overlapping
efforts and running all businesses in an "economically"
sound way.
"Looking forward in fiscal
year 2015, we are increasing our
rich roadmap going forward,"
Nadella said.
Two examples of such innovations are Delve and Skype
Translator, he added.
Skype Translator will allow
translation of voice conversation
in "near real-time", while Delve
is a new breed of intelligent and
social work experiences.
"...Consolidate overlapping
efforts. This means one operating system that covers all screen
sizes and consolidated dual use
productivity services that cross
life and work. We will streamline the next version of
Windows from three operating
systems into one single converged operating system for
screens of all sizes," he said.
Nadella added that the
firm will unify its stores, commerce and developer platforms
to drive a more coherent user
experience and a broader
developer opportunity.
*RYWGHYHORSLQJVRSKLVWLFDWHG
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?=BQ =4F34;78
he Government is working
on a sophisticated and flexT
ible framework for the Public
Private Partnership (PPP)
model to boost infrastructure
development,
Finance
Secretary Arvind Mayaram
said on Wednesday.
"What we need to do is to
have a more sophisticated PPP
framework which we are working on now. Which means a
:RUOG%DQNFKLHIODXGV
*XMDUDWJURZWKPRGHO
?=BQ =4F34;78
L
auding the Gujarat growth
model, World Bank chief
Jim Yong Kim on Wednesday
said India's business standing
will jump 50 places if the
ranking is done on the basis of
Gujarat.
The remark comes in the
backdrop of India raising concerns with the World Bank
over various indicators used in
the ease of doing business
report.
"If the ranking of India in
doing business report was
based just on Gujarat, they
would improve 50 places in the
doing business ranking.
"So, my hope is that what
Modi did in Gujarat in improving business environment can
be scaled up now to all of India
and if that happens then India
will rise quickly in rankings of
doing business in India," he
said here.
The World Bank group
has been publishing annual
'Doing Business Report' since
2004. The report provides specific information on ease of
doing business in 189 countries.
As per the latest report,
India had slipped three notches to 134th spot.
Kim also acknowledged
that there are many "legitimate
critics" of doing business
report.
"Doing business report has
continuously evolved in the
last 10 years...For example
instead of survey doing in one
city we will be doing two. If we
have resources we will do
more," he said.Doing business
report is an important tool, he
said, adding that "it is not perfect. It does not cover every-
0?
thing thing. It is focused on
ease of opening a business for
small and medium enterprises."
Kim showered praise on
Prime Minister Narendra
Modi, saying he was inspired
by Modi's ambitious vision
for India.
Earlier in the day, the
World Bank Group President
had a meeting with Modi to
understand the vision of the
new government.
"The meeting with the
Prime Minister was one of the
most inspiring ones that I
have had in my two years in
this job," Kim said.
"The Prime Minister reiterated his three most important goals-- skill, scale and
speed. India is trying to do
some really aspirational things
and it is trying to do at huge
scale very quickly.
framework which looks at
PPPs in a manner where there
is flexibility to factor in the
changes in the circumstances
that run over a period of 2530 years," he said at a Ficci
event here.
Mayaram also underlined
the need for de-stressing the
PPP model, which is facing
various regulatory hurdles, for
infrastructure development.
"There is a strong case to
see whether we can look at
developing a framework which
is going to decide what stress
is, who is responsible for stress,
what is causing the stress and
how we deal with them?
"... We would meet to now
look at what a stress is and how
it can be defined," he said.
As regards the risks associated with PPP projects,
Mayaram made it clear that the
government alone cannot bear
the entire responsibility.
The risk should be shared
between the private sector and
government, he added.
Although over 900 PPP
projects are under various
stages of development, they
suffer from various weaknesses including contractual rigidities and lack of quick dispute
redressal mechanism.
Finance Minister Arun
Jaitley in his Budget speech
had proposed setting up of an
institution to provide support
to mainstream PPPs called 3P
India with a corpus of Rs 500
crore.
The 3P India will look at
issues relating to regulation,
financing structures, stress in
project, management of contract over a period of time and
also issues relating to capacity building both in public and
private sector, Mayaram said.
"It will be a unique and
powerful institution which will
rejuvenate the entire universe
of PPP which seems to be
slowing down at the moment,"
he added
3KLOLSVSDUWQHUV$PD]RQWRWDS
WKHEXUJHRQLQJHFRPPHUFHPDUNHW
B>=8:0=468Q =4F34;78
n a bid to tap online retail
market, consumer elecItronics
major Philips India
announced its collaboration
with e- commerce Amazon to
introduce a unique section of
toys for kids called
"Imaginative LED lights with
Disney.
"A lot of parents really
want to look at things beyond
toys for their children, which
have active imagination," said
Philips India Lighting
Sub continent President
Nirupam Sahay.
Philip's superior lightening technology with Disney's
range of cartoon characters
will give a unique combination
nostalgia as well as the best in
technology and Amazon's vast
network will ensure its availability not just in Metros but
also in tier II and III cities, he
added.
"We are launching it exclusively through Amazon
0RcaTbb<P]SXaP1TSXSdaX]VcWT[Pd]RW
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because our research indicates that consumers which we
are targeting are actually very
comfortable buying online. Its
changing quite dramatically
the kind of interaction the
people are having with our
lighting products.
It has become a great
medium," Sahay said.Philips
Lighting is expecting a business of C1,000 crore from
consumer luminaries by FY
2017.
PUBLIC NOTICE
This is for notice of the general public that the political party by
the name of Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya) with
headquarters at Narendra Niketan, Indraprastha Estate, New
Delhi-110002 registered with the Election Commission,
proposes to change its name to Samajwadi Janata Party
(Chandra Shekhar).
If anyone has any objection to the proposed new name they
may send their objection with reasons thereof, to the
Secretary (Political Party), Election Commission of India,
Nirvachan Sadan, Ashoka Road, New Delhi-110001 within 30
days of the Publication.
f^a[S !
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A
plane landing in stormy
weather crashed outside
an airport on a small Taiwanese
island late Wednesday, and the
Transport Minister said 47
people were trapped and feared
dead.
Taiwanese Transport
Minister Yeh Kuang-shih was
quoted by the Government’s
Central News Agency as saying
11 other people were injured
when the plane crashed and
caught fire while making a
second landing attempt.
Yeh was quoted as saying
the flight, operated by Taiwan’s
TransAsia Airways, carried 58
passengers and crew members. The news agency had earlier quoted a local fire brigade
chief as saying that 51 people
had been killed.
Flight GE222, a twin-engine
turboprop ATR-72 aircraft, was
heading from the southern port
city of Kaohsiung to the island
of Penghu in the Taiwan Strait,
according to the Taiwanese
news agency.
It crashed outside the airport in Xixi village, and pictures
in local media showed firefighters using flashlights to look
at wreckage in the darkness.
Penghu is a lightly populated island that averages about
two flights a day from Taipei.
The flight left Kaohsiung at
4:53 pm for Magong on
Penghu, according to the head
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of Taiwan’s Civil Aeronautics
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Administration, Jean Shen.
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I
ndia has said it remains concerned at the ongoing violence and deteriorating humanitarian situation in Syria and
asked all sides in the war-torn
nation to immediately cease
attacks against civilians.
“We remain concerned at
the ongoing violence and continually deteriorating humanitarian situation in Syria. We
urge all sides in Syria to sincerely implement the Security
Council resolutions on humanitarian efforts and ensure
humanitarian access, immediately cease attacks against
civilians and lift the siege of
populated areas,” India’s
Ambassador to the UN Asoke
Mukerji said.
He made the comments
during the Security Council
open debate on ‘The Situation
in the Middle East, including
the Palestinian Question’ here
on Tuesday.
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Mukerji stressed that unilateral sanctions which adversely impact on the Syrian population must be lifted.
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would make a second attempt
at a landing, the plane lost contact with the tower.
Visibility as the plane
approached was 1,600 metres,
which met standards for landing, and two flights had landed before GE222, one at 5:34
pm and the other at 6:57 pm,
the agency reported.
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wo military transport
T
planes carrying 40 coffins
bearing victims of the downed
Malaysia Airlines Flight 17
landed on Wednesday in the
southern city of Eindhoven,
and pro-Russian rebels shot
down two fighter jets in
Ukraine’s restive east as fighting flared in the region.
Six days after the Boeing
777 was shot down over the
battlefields of eastern Ukraine,
the first bodies finally arrived
in the Netherlands, the country that bore the heaviest toll in
the crash that killed all 298 passengers and crew.
A Dutch Hercules C-130
that Dutch Government
spokesman Lodewijk Hekking
said was carrying 16 coffins
touched down first, closely followed by an Australian C-17
Globemaster plane carrying
24 coffins.
British investigators began
work on a pair of “black boxes”
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B
loodbath in Gaza continued
unabated on Wednesday
with Israel and Hamas refusing
to back down in the conflict
that has killed over 660
Palestinians and 31 Israelis,
even as US Secretary of State
John Kerry said his ceasefire
negotiations in Jerusalem were
making progress.
Several international airlines on Wednesday halted flights
to Israel indefinitely, citing security concerns after a rocket from
Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip
landed near Israel’s biggest airport, Ben-Gurion International
Airport in Tel Aviv.
Kerry flew into Tel Aviv
from Cairo despite US warnings over airline safety and held
hectic parleys in Jerusalem,
also meeting UN SecretaryGeneral Ban Ki-moon. “We
have certainly made some steps
forward, but there is still work
to be done,” Kerry said. Kerry,
during his whirlwind tour of
the region, will also meet Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu and Palestinian
President Mahmud Abbas.
On US President Barack
Obama’s direction, Kerry on
to retrieve data on the flight’s
last minutes, while Dutch officials said they have taken
charge of the stalled investigation of the airline disaster and
pleaded for unhindered access
to the wreckage.
The Dutch and Australian
military transport planes
departed Ukraine at midday,
and landed at Eindhoven Air
Base where the flights were met
by Dutch King WillemAlexander, Queen Maxima,
Prime Minister Mark Rutte
and other government officials. Hundreds of relatives
were also there, Hekking said.
“If I have to wait five
months for identification, I
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ro-Russian rebels on
P
Wednesday shot down two
Ukrainian fighter jets in eastern Ukraine just days after the
downing of Malaysia Airlines
flight MH17, a Ukrainian military spokesman told AFP.
“Two Sukhoi Ukrainian
fighter jets have been shot
down. The fate of the pilots is
not known,” spokesman
Oleksiy Dmytrashkivsky said,
adding the planes were brought
down some 25 kilometres from
the crash site of MH17.
But a second military
spokesman said the jets had
been downed at a different
location by rockets fired by
insurgents. The two pilots managed to parachute out, he said.
Mosul: Radical insurgents in
Iraq have reportedly set fire to
a church, amid a wake of thefts
and ultimatums directed at
Christians in the country’s second-largest city of Mosul.
The Islamic State of Iraq
and the Levant (ISIS wrestled
control of the northern Iraqi
city on 10 June in an attempt to
carve out a Sunni caliphate.
Large swathes of Christian
and Iraqi property has been
seized by the militant group as
it grows its governance in the
aim of making Mosul the capital of its new Islamic state.
Another property seized by
militants, the ancient Catholic
Mar Behnam Monastery, located 15 miles south of Mosul, was
a place of pilgrimage and an
important Christian landmark.
However on Sunday, it was
seized by ISIS fighters and its
can do it,” said Silene FredrikszHoogzand, whose son, Bryce,
and his girlfriend Daisy
Oehlers died in the crash.
monks expelled, who were
permitted only to take the
clothes they were wearing.
Last week, the extremists
gave Christians in Mosul three
options: either convert to Islam,
pay a special tax or be killed.
They gave a deadline of
Saturday 19 July, which led to
a mass exodus of Iraqi
8]SXP]^aXVX]PdcW^aX]1^^ZTa_aXiT[^]V[Xbc
?C8 Q ;>=3>=
eel Mukherjee, a Kolkataborn British citizen, on
N
Wednesday emerged as the
only Indian-origin writer to be
named in this year’s Man
Booker Prize longlist of authors
vying for the prize in its debut
as a global literary award.
London-based Mukherjee
has been selected for his second
novel, ‘The Lives of Others’,
published in May this year.
The book is based in the
author’s birth place of Kolkata
and centres around a dysfunctional Ghosh family in the
1960s.
Mukherjee, who went
on to study at Oxford
and
Cambridge
Universities, reviews fiction for the ‘Times’ and
the ‘Sunday Telegraph’.
His first novel ‘A Life
Apart’ was a joint winner
of the VodafoneCrossword Award in India.
There are six novels from
Britain, five from the US, one
from Australia and one from
Ireland shortlisted for the prize.
For the first
time in its 46-year
history, the 50,000
pounds prize has
been opened up to
writers of any
nationality, writing
originally
in
English and published in the UK.
Previously, the
prize was open to authors from
the UK & Commonwealth,
Republic of Ireland and
Zimbabwe.
Christians — communities that
had had 2,000-year-old links to
the country — on Friday, Al
Arabiya News reports.
Though a number of
Christians — a religious minority in Iraq — had already fled
the city after hard-line ISIS captured it last month, for many
the ultimatum was the final
straw. The city is now said to be
all but clear of Christians.
Iraqi Christians who have
fled the violence say that they
had to either leave most of their
belongings behind or have it
stolen by armed militants.
“We had to go through an
area where they had set up a
checkpoint,” Zaid Qreqosh
Ishaq, 27, said of his family, as
he explained they were on
their way to the relatively safe
region of Iraqi Kurdistan.
Agencies
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T
he General National
Congress, which has governed violence-wracked Libya
in the wake of the overthrow of
dictator Muammar Gaddafi,
said on Wednesday it will hand
over legislative power to a
newly-elected Parliament on
August 4.
But hopes that the
announcement would signal an
end to fighting among rival factions were dashed as a more
than week-long battle intensified for control of Tripoli airport.
“Monday, August 4 has
been set as the date for the
transfer of power ... To the
elected chamber,” the GNC
said in a statement signed by its
speaker, Nuri Abu Sahmein.
The handover is to take
place within two weeks as
specified of Monday’s publication of the election results.
Under a law passed by the
GNC, the new Assembly is to
sit in the eastern city of
Benghazi, which was the bastion of the 2011 uprising but
has since epitomised the lawlessness of post-Gaddafi
Libya. In Tripoli, there was no
sign of a ceasefire on Tuesday
between the rival factions
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Tuesday held talks with Egyptian
and Arab League officials in
Cairo to push for an “immediate cessation of hostilities”.
Ban also voiced guarded
hope for ending the violence, as
efforts to broker a truce in the
the 16-day conflict hastened.
“We are now joining our
forces in strength to make a
ceasefire as soon as possible,
but there is still some detailed
way which we have to make,”
he said.
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P
arveen is dressed in red and gold
coloured sari with dazzling ornaments,
vermillion mark and bindi on her forehead. She is dressed for Karva Chauth festivities in Pakistan at the Laxmi Narain temple. The woman is Muslim and it is her first
fast as per the Hindu traditions. Parveen
mentioned that she is a big fan of Bollywood
movies and that Karva Chauth has a romantic appeal for her. Interestingly, Parveen’s husband also did not eat for the entire day. Much
like it happens in India and our Bollywood
films. “Ancient faiths have so much in common and we’ve stopped searching for these
commonalities. Everybody is just consigned
to labels, whether it’s a Hindu, Muslim or a
Sikh. There is so much unity in different
faiths,” says Reema Abbasi.
The book Historic Temples in Pakistan:
A call to Conscience by Abbasi incorporates
many stories like that of Parveen and makes
a sincere effort to document the unheard
tales of temples in Pakistan. It presents
detailed narratives and evocative photographs of shrines, opulent rituals and
Hindu festivals in Pakistan. It takes you to
a land of exquisite culture, where the Hindu
temples can be spotted with green coloured
flags, walls and doors. The wall paintings of
Luv and Kush sitting with Valmiki show
them holding cards with Om Namo Namah
written in Urdu. The Om chalked in
Devnagri script between messages written in
Urdu on temple signboard beautifully merges
with the Arabic script.
“The book focusses on the most antiquated sites in the region, which don’t have
much prominence or public exposure. They
that he was blessed with a child.” The Kalka
Cave Temple at Arore is blissful with a narrow and dark path, leading in a vertical
motion. Interestingly, just opposite to this
holy cave temple is a 250-year-old white
shrine or dargah of Arif Fakir. This is one
such instance of faiths meeting each other
in a peaceful union.
A similar confluence can also be seen
at the Sri Laxmi Narain Temple by the
sea at Chinna Creek in Karachi, where
a picture of Shiv-Parvati and a page
from Quran were found floating
together. It is that area where all water
related rites in Hinduism are generally carried out. As all rituals involving immersions from Navratri to
Ganesh Chaturthi are performed
at Chinna Creek, the 201-year-old
Sri Laxmi Narain Temple is
valuable to Hindus.
Making an effort to bring
out this book and document the
lesser known temples of Pakistan
is in itself an arduous task of courage.
Reema says that she faced many challenges
while working on the book.
“Exploring the temples was a pleasure but traversing through the rough
terrains of Baluchistan, bearing the
heat and escaping a bomb in Peshawar
were some of the difficulties. We were
staying in a hotel and went to cover two
temples in Peshawar. While returning,
there was a breaking news that there
was a bomb blast just two minutes
away from where we were staying,”
informs Abbasi.
might not be badshahi (built by an emperor) but at the same time are creations of time
and have immense value. The book chronicles the most ancient of these sites, which
are holy and sacred to Hindu community as
well as to the people of other faiths. These
places have incredible importance in tourism,
archeology and research. They have a pull
of their own, whether it’s generated by a
kind of human energy or a divine pull
but their mystique is undeniable. My
book takes a small step in a big journey
of showcasing these places of importance,” says Reema.
The architecture of a 1,500-yearold Panchmukhi Hanuman Mandir at
Soldier Bazaar in Karachi is unique.
This shrine houses a natural idol of
Hanuman, which was founded many
centuries ago at the same place. The
blue and white coloured statute of
five-faced deity (Panchmukhi
Hanuman) is nearly eight feet tall. The
five faces are of Hanuman, Narasimha,
Adivaraha, Hayagriva and Garuda.
“The temple is the result of unparalleled
craftsmanship. The cover of my book has the
same temple on it. There is not a single
motif that is repeated on the sikhara of this
temple. The motifs are completely different, fine and impossible to replicate. It is
a total stroke of luck that there is one surviving artisan who does this kind of work
on rocks. He is Muslim, his name is
Allah Rakha and is making the extension of this temple. He is doing this for
his devotion to Hanuman. He believes
that it is because of Lord Hanuman
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aine samjha tha kay tu hai to
darakhshaan hai hayaat/tera gham
M
hai to gham-e-dahar ka jhagdra kya
hai/teri surat se hai aalam mein
bahaaron ko sabaat/teri aankhon ke
sivaa duniya mein rakkha kya hai,” (I
had thought if I had you, life would
shine eternally on me/If I had your sorrows, those of the universe would
mean nothing/Your face would bring
permanence to every spring/What is
there but your eyes to see in the world
anyway), recites a graceful and spirited Zohra Segal at 99.
It was a clip from one of her interviews. Like this, there were parts
extracted from Sehgal’s two interviews
and woven together to form a film,
Zohra Segal on Zohra Segal, directed by
MK Raina and edited by his son
Ananth Raina. The film, which has
the veteran actress sharing anecdotes
from different phases of her life, was
recently screened at
Nirvaaha Organic café
in Defence Colony. The
screening was followed
by a discussion by MK
Raina, who addressed
Segal as “Zohra aapa”,
meaning elder sister.
“While I was a student
at the National School of
Drama in Mandi House, I
would see a woman, very
elegantly dressed in a sari,
visiting the place. When I
enquired, I was told that
she was Zohra Segal.
Clueless, I further asked, who she was
and what she did and was only reprimanded,” said MK Raina as he shared
his first encounter with the actress.
He further stated there were numerous times when the actress had to “resurrect herself from zero.” Raina said,
“She fought against various odds in life.
It was on Indira Gandhi’s request that
Zohra aapa came back from England
and went across the country to select
dancers for her new folk art dance
ensemble. While the rehearsals were in
CWTcaPX[Tab^U1P]V1P]V P]S<Pah
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hile she tries too hard to deglamourise
herself, he effortlessly looks saucy and
W
dashing in his Tom Cruise avatar. She is seen
full swing, the troupe
was suddenly ordered to
be scrapped. Meanwhile
the Prime Minister also
lost
the
famous
Allahabad case after
which the Emergency
was announced. The
students protested
against the demolition
of the troupe but all was
in vain. Later, it was
found out that problems were created by
one of the dancers in the academy, who
was envious of aapa’s success.”
Segal, who was probably the senior
most actor Indian cinema has ever had,
gave her last performance in the film
Saawariya at the age of 95. Extremely
disciplined, she religiously exercised and
was always on her toes. “Once when I
went to her residence for an interview,
she shouted from the third floor, ‘kambakht niche hi reh.’ (Stay downstairs).
After some time when I was called
upstairs, I learnt that she was exercis-
ing. She even exercised for her speech
and diction,” Raina said.
The long recitations of poems by
Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Hafeez
Jullandhari, even at 99, speak of her
photographic memory. “She was always
110 per cent ready. Her readiness to do
things was always an inspiration. She
taught me what professionalism is,”
Raina said as he broke into a rush of
nostalgia.
Ananth shared his experience with
the veteran, “When we used to go to
interview her, she would choose her
spot, move her chair to the place, put
on her coat and say, ‘ab shuru karo.’
(Lets start now). She would not care if
the light was not good or the angle wasn’t right, nothing could make her
move.”
In her final days the actress had
requested for a house on the ground
floor with a window but was refused by
the government. “We had tried till the
very last day because we thought that
she would somehow carry on, but
failed,” said MK Raina.
beating her opponents in the ring and
fighting societal odds, he is blowing cars and performing breathtaking stunts in the air, water and land
and is an epitome of the alpha
male, all set to conquer hearts!
Priyanka Chopra in Mary Kom and
Hrithik Roshan in Bang Bang
took the Internet by
storm. The recently
released trailers of
both the films
triggered
a
tsunami of reactions online.
Bang Bang
conquered
the war with
a maximum number of hits
o
n
Yo u Tu b e ,
leaving Mary
Kom behind
by lakhs of
viewers.
Both trailers
though borrow
heavily
on
Hollywood idioms,
the Million Dollar
Baby practice bouts
almost being lifted frame by
frame in Mary Kom, and the
sleek two-way motor-riding
sequence of Knight and Day replicated in Bang Bang. But Bang Bang
has got more hits probably
because of the slapdash yet elegant finish of Hrithik Roshan,
the sizzle of Katrina Kaif and the high voltage action. It makes no pretence of being
anything else other than a celebration of
high speed life and crimes with dollops of
glamour strewn in between. Perhaps that’s
the reason for its aggressive and rather nonpolitically correct pitch of storming into the
screens on October 2, the birth anniversary
of the non-violent Mahatma Gandhi. Mary
Kom has a docu-drama feel in the trailer,
tracing the boxer’s rise from humble origins, battling stigmas and biases, scoring and then falling again to pick up
the pieces. The emotional panning, however, does not get reflected as effortlessly with Priyanka, the
star overtaking Priyanka, the actor
in the gritty lines she delivers.
Her pout often comes in the
way of her conviction in
delivering broken Hindi.
Touted as her career-best
effort, perhaps the trailer
does little justice to her acting chops in the film. But
we will reserve judgment on her whole
performance later.
Hrithik Roshan,
meanwhile, shows
how he should
have been walking on the
Milan ramp
given
his
effortless
gliding and
quiet dignity
in the high
o c t a n e
sequences. He knows this is a film
of looks and plays up to those
strengths without screaming from
the rooftop. And therein lies his
subtlety. Katrina shows why she is
still the best bet for paisa vasool
entertainers. We wonder how
much the trailers will lead to the
Maggie brand of opinion-making
and impact the battle of the superhero versus the superwoman.
eXePRXch3(4 #
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?ReZ`_¶dacZUV
he 30th meeting of the Town Official
Language
Implementation
T
Committee (TOLIC), Panipat was held
at Indian Oil’s Community Centre,
recently. The meeting was presided over
by the chairman of TOLIC, Panipat
region, TK Basak and attended by over
50 senior functionaries of the central government offices, undertakings, banks,
insurance companies and central educational institutes like SBI, BSNL, Indian
Postal department, NFL, CISF and others.
Neeta Choudhary, IAS, secretary,
Official Language Department, was the
special guest on the occasion. Choudhary
took the inputs on progressive use of official language from the administrative
heads and thereafter dwelled upon on it.
The secretary in her address stressed
on the importance of progressive use of
Hindi as a link language. She also suggested that effective and proactive work
is taken up on a regular basis so that it
1BDA4=34A<>70=
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B
Surender Mohan, CMD, NLC inaugurated the new conference hall and
while addressing said that the management takes pride in providing infrastructure like this conference hall built at
a cost of C10 lakh. He said the federation
can use the hall for education and social
activities. CMD also lit the traditional lamp
to commence the 14th anniversary of the
federation. Directors, S Rajagopal, MS
Ravindranath and S Boopathy felicitated
the occasion. The CMD and directors distributed special prizes to 10th and 12th
standard students, the wards of the members of the association who secured first
1^YTUQ\`\Q^
C745434A0C8>=
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5d]SU^a_a^VaTbb
ational
Buildings
C onstruction
N
Corporation Ltd (NBCC), the
state owned construction
major and a Navratna
Company, under the Ministry
of Urban Development, has
secured work order of C2067
crore in Q1 of FY2014-15
which is well above the targeted MoU of C1,250 crore
signed with the government.
The annual MoU of NBCC in
respect of the order book target has been fixed at C5,000
crore for the company during
FY2014-15.
Some of the major works
bagged by the company during first quarter includes:
„Pradhan Mantri Gram
Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) Works
of 5C633 crore in West Bengal.
„Four hundred ninety
nine crore construction work
of Mahanadi Institute of
Medical Science & Research in
Odisha.
„Two hundred twenty six
crore Central University construction works in Haryana.
„Two hundred fifteen
crore Indian Statistical Institute
(ISI) centres in Kolkata and
Tejpur (Assam). It may be
mentioned that the company,
over the last few years, has
been making extensive efforts
to enhance its stake in real
estate sector as well as in redevelopment work of the government and has been quite
successful in the initiative.
Apart from PMC and EPC
contract, NBCC is now majorly focussing upon its real estate
and redevelopment works for
its future business expansion.
E`aY`_`fcd
he
13th
NTPC
Professional Circles
T
Convention at PMI Noida
was held recently wherein
three of the most successful
Professional Circles were
awarded.
Sipat (PC-Cognizance)
got the first position, followed by Talcher-Kaniha (PCDeepcon) and the third position went to Simhadri (PCCrystal).
Among the regions,
Southern got the top honours
followed by the Northern
region as runner up.
Arup Roy Choudur y,
CMD, NTPC was the chief
can be imparted to all employees in the
organisation.
Basak appreciated the praiseworthy
efforts of the member offices towards
implementation of the official language
which helped the committee to receive
awards and laurels continuously from the
government.
The Rajbhasha award was also
awarded to Indian Oil Corporation
Limited, Northern Pipeline (NRPL),
CISF Unit of Panipat Refinery, CISF Unit
of NFL unit, National Handloom
Corporation Ltd Panipat, Indian Export
Credit Guarantee Corporation Ltd for
commendable job in implementation of
official language in their respective
offices. Also present at the occasion were
AK Choudhury, ED (HR), RHQ, Indian
Oil who addressed the meeting with
aplomb.
He emphasised the use of Hindi in
official business transactions to propagate the national language.
guest of the programme. IJ
Kapoor,
director
(Commercial), NN Mishra,
director (Operations), UP
Pani, director (Human
Resources), SC Pandey, director (Projects), Kulamani
Biswal, director (Finance),
and AK Ahuja, executive
director (Corporate Planning)
were present on the occasion.
Professional Circles
movement was started in
NTPC in the year 1999 for
promoting professional
growth of executives through
knowledge sharing and leveraging their efforts towards
meeting business challenges.
7RXFKRIJUHHQ
SES Rajdhani Power Limited (BRPL) the discom supplying
electricity in South and West Delhi, has been conferred the
B
fourth annual Greentech HR Award in Gold Category for
Technology Excellence in HR.
Senior BRPL officials received the award on behalf of the
organisation. Awards were presented by RK Dubey, chairman
and managing director, Canara Bank during the 4th Annual
Greentech HR Awards and Corporate Governance Conference
2014, at Hotel Marriott Whitefield, Bangalore, recently.
The awards were given to companies demonstrating the
highest level of commitment to HR practices. They serve as a
catalyst for understanding the value of human resource management in business excellence.
Greentech Foundation is a non-profit organisation under
the HRD ministry, promoting education, training, research and
dissemination of knowledge, thus advancing the scientific, technical and practical aspects of HR, safety at work place, environment protection and climate change.
three places. Office bearers of trade unions,
associations and welfare associations also
participated. TS Thirumarban, legal advisor of the federation felicitated state leaders of adivasi and tribal welfare organisations. Members of the federation from
various units attended the function.
K Kanagaraj, president of the federation thanked the management for the
infrastructure and said, “NLC will be a
role model for the other PSUs of the
nation.” The federation which registered
in the year 2000 with 96 members has 430
members in 14 years.
B Kanagaraj, general secretary, welcomed the gathering. L Jayaraman, treasurer delivered the inaugural address.
A^PSc^bdRRTbb
ccording to the recent ASQ report,
the Chennai airport has consistentA
ly improved on its facilities towards its
passengers over the years particularly in
2013 and the first quarter of 2014.
„Chennai Airport has scored 4.30 points
in the Qtr-II of 2014 as compared to 4.10
points in the previous quarter.
What is more significant in this score is
that Chennai Airport rating of 4.30 has
earned the second position in AAI managed airports.
Also this rat2WT]]PX
ing of 4.30 is
PXa_^acWPb
above the MoU
target set-out by X\_a^eTS
Ministry of Civil
^]Xcb
Aviation which is
4.20.
UPRX[XcXTb
„The reported
world highest c^fPaSbXcb
rating is 4.98 for
the second quar- _PbbT]VTab
ter (April-June)
^eTacWT
scored by ICN hTPab
Seoul Incheon
airport.
_PacXRd[Pa[h
„ Chennai
Airport
has X]! "P]S
claimed up to 56
cWTUXabc
in the rank list as
`dPacTa^U
well, as against
the previous
! #
quarter.
„ The
above
scores are proving that Chennai
Airport is improving in passenger
perception rating and shall continue to
strive to meet the international bench
mark.
Airports Council International (ACI)
conducts Airport Service Quality (ASQ)
Survey, worldwide, among 220-225
International airports on quarterly basis.
These are the findings of the report which
was released recently.
The survey considers 33 parameters
to assess the satisfaction level of passenger, both international and domestic, on
five points scale.
)DLUGHDO
etail Source India, Northern
India’s biggest garment fair ended
R
on a successful note at Pragati
Maidan. Textile Minister Santosh
Kumar Gangwar graced the occasion
and concluded the show with award
ceremony. After the lamp lighting
ceremony along with members of
AEMA (Apparel Exporters &
Manufacturers Association) the
organisers of the show Gangwar
felicitated participants for their
unique displays and collection of garments.
While interacting with the media
he said, “Our domestic garment sector is a growing segment and has a
huge potential. The fair Retail Source
India is a very good platform and will
create new opportunities for employment. I am glad to see that a lot of
domestic market players have come
to this exhibition and I am sure that
the fair will create new opportunities.”
Gangwar also spoke that the government would give its full support
to the domestic segment and the players are free to discuss their problems
anytime.
“Narendra Modi has also extended his support to the domestic segment and is very upbeat about the
growth of domestic industry of India.
He feels that the domestic sector can
help in growth and development of
Indian economy and also boost
employment,” he added.
Gangwar also appreciated the
efforts taken by AEMA in creating a
platform for the domestic industry.
He shared that our textile and apparel industry is worth 50 billion dollars
and it can prosper even more in the
coming times. The textile and apparel industry is an important sector as
it can boost employment opportunities in India.
The fair was being held from July
19-21. The show which was organised
by AEMA brought the entire gamut
of garment manufacturers, retailers,
brands, online retailers, wholesalers,
distributors and agents under one
roof. “The aim of of the fair was to
organise the retail segment and utilise
the growing potential of Indian
domestic market,” said Lalit Thukral,
chairman of Retail Source India.
“Retail Source India is a giant step
that would bridge the gap between
manufacturers and retailers and will
take this industry to new heights of
development and growth,” Thukral
said. He further added, “Due to the
absence of industry status, organised
retail in India faces difficulties in procurement of organised financing and
fiscal incentives. We will appeal to the
government to grant the much needed industry status to the sector to promote both big and small retailers.”
The retail industry of India is
attaining new benchmarks everyday, however, the business is still done
in a traditional manner. Retail
Source India will not only open a new
door of opportunities for everybody
in retail segment, but will also standardise systems and way of working
in the retail segment. Retail Source
India is a must for those who want to
tap the domestic market and look for
latest trends. The show was being
conducted in an exclusive pavilion
measuring 2,400 square meter which
showcases price competitive garments like men’s shirts, trousers,
denims, jackets, ladies tops, kids
wear, kurtis, jeggings, leggings, bridal
wear, saris, sherwanis, accessories,
fabrics
and
many
more.
Manufacturers from Delhi, NCR,
UP, Haryana, Mumbai, Kolkata,
Ludhiana and many more places
also displayed their latest range of garments for the domestic market. The
show also saw numerous events like
fashion shows where latest trends in
different product categories were
showcased on the ramp.
Retail Source India on its first day
itself witnessed visits from all top
brands and retailers like Shoppers
Stop, Pantaloon, Wills Lifestyle, Ritu
Wear, Bharti Retail, Bindals, Reliance
Trends and many more. The show
saw visitation of more than 8000 visitors from all over India. Also, e-commerce companies like Jabong,
Flipkart, Myntra, Snapdeal, Zovi,
Amazon and many more visited the
show along with their sourcing teams.
Distributors and agents from all over
India were also seen at the show.
Roadshows were conducted in
cities like Delhi, Meerut, Aligarh,
Jaipur, Ludhiana, Chandigarh,
Amritsar,
Varanasi,
Surat,
Ahmedabad, Indore, Mau, Jodhpur,
Bhopal, Gorakhpur, Lucknow,
Bareilly and many more places to
ensure high number of visitors at the
fair. Organised retail is a new phenomenon in India and despite the
downturns, the market is growing
exponentially, it is expected that by
2015, more than 300 million shoppers
are likely to patronise organised
retail chains.
The growing middle class is an
important factor contributing to the
growth of retail in India. By 2030, it
is estimated that 91 million households will be middle class, up from 21
million at present.
The retail industry of India is
attaining new benchmarks everyday, however, the business is still done
in a traditional manner. Retail Source
India will not only open a new door
of opportunities for everybody in
retail segment, but will also standardise systems and the way of working in the retail segment. Retail
Source India is a must for those who
want to tap the domestic market and
look for the latest trends.
The show will give an excellent
platform for networking and establishing contacts with India’s top
domestic garment manufacturers and
retailers.
5adXcb^U[PQ^da 1TbcX]cTaTbcb
or the first time home buyers are going to construct
F
their own home inspite of pay-
he 29th BSF Inter-Frontier
Aquatic and 39th InterT
Frontier Cross C ountr y
Competition came to a close
recently. KK Sharma, IPS,
additional director general
(Operations) of BSF was present as the chief guest. A
colourful parade of BSF frontier teams from all over India
was also organised to honour
him. A spectacular demonstration of synchronised and
individual diving was also
displayed on the closing day.
After completion of the
final competition, KK Sharma
presented medals and trophies to the winners of the
competitions.
Details of Final Winners
events wise are as below:
=QbSXQXUQT
„Swimming: BSF South
Bengal Frontier Stood 1st.
BSF Jammu Frontier Stood
second and BSF Rajasthan
Frontier Stood third.
„Water Polo: BSF South
Bengal Frontier Stood 1st,
BSF Jammu Frontier Stood
2nd and BSF Tripura Frontier
Stood third.
„ Cross Country: BSF
Punjab Frontier stood 1st,
BSF Tripura Frontier stood
2nd and BSF R ajashtan
Frontier stood third.
Since the time of its inception Border Security Force has
been in the lime light for its
glorious record in the field of
sports. The prevalent sports
culture in the force always
inculcated the spirit of healthy
competition among its officers.
The encouragement of
sports activities has borne
fruits which is evident from
the performance of BSF players in national as well as
international events.
In recognition to the outstanding performance, the
BSF sportsmen have so far
been
awarded
with
Padamshree, Arjuna National
Adventure awards.
ing the developer for it. More
than 150 aggrieved home owners of the Unitech Residences
project in Sector 33, have volunteered to work every weekend
with the labour at the project site
to ensure that their dream home
is completed. Each one of these
buyers has paid over C45-55
lakh to the builder.
Most of the home owners
are professionals with an average of 15-18 years of work
experience, some of whom are
working with leading MNCs,
banks, financial institutions, IT
and automobile companies have
all come together to work as
labour at the site so that they can
move into their dream home.
Depending on their individual apt for physical
endurance some of them have
volunteered to undertake painting, plastering the walls, in
spite of being unskilled in these
fields. The customers have come
forward to train under the
skilled labour and will then
work independently and eventually supervise the skilled
labour every weekend.
This unusual protest and
solution has shown light for
these owners, who have been
waiting for over 5 years for their
home.Unitech has been telling
the buyers that there is a shortage of labour at the site.
he National Building Code of
India (NBC) is a prestigious
T
publication of Bureau of Indian
Standards formulated to lay
down a set of minimum provisions for buildings designed to
protect the safety of public with
regard to structural sufficiency
and life safety requirements etc
including environmental concerns.
Keeping in mind, lot of
developments in the techno-legal
regime and techno-financial
regime, BIS has decided to take
up a comprehensive revision of
NBC and bring out a state-ofthe-art and most contemporary
version of NBC dealing with
futuristic developments, by next
year as NBC 2015.
In this revision, it is proposed to incorporate new chapters relating to structural use of
glass, solid waste management
and asset and facility management. Besides this, various
important aspects proposed to
be incorporated in the revised
version of NBC include detailed
provisions relating to sustainability; single window approach
and computerisation in building
permit process.
$
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ith eyes firmly set on a
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podium finish, Indian
women’s hockey team would
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I
ndia’s first medal in the 20th
Commonwealth Games is expected to
come on Thursday from weightlifting
when the competitions begin with the
women’s 48kg and men’s 56kg weight categories, respectively, here.
In both weight categories, the Indians
are expected to win medals and Thursday’s
performance may set the stage for their
challenge at the Games, where they would
look to do better than the 2010 Delhi edition.
Nigeria topped the weightlifting medal
charts in 2010 edition with five gold, four
silver and five bronze followed by Samoa
(3, 0, 0) and India (2, 2, 4). This time also,
India, with six lifters from 2010 Games, are
likely to maintain that level of performance.
Nigeria’s preparation has not gone well
as lack of funds did not allow them to go
for foreign training and exposure. They
have, however, named a strong squad,
including 2010 63kg gold winner Obioma
Agatha Okoli.
India had done exceedingly well in the
2013 Commonwealth Championships in
Johannesburg last November. Many Indian
lifters are among top three of the latest
Commonwealth rankings.
2010 CWG gold medallist in men’s
69kg, K Ravi Kumar is again in the team
but he is competing in 77kg this time, and
is not expected to win gold in his new
weight category having laid low for a long
time due to injury.
Khumukcham Sanjita and Saikhom
Mirabai Chanu are competing on
Thursday in women’s 48kg and India has
the chance to win two medals from this
category. This has been a strong category
for India since the days of Kunjarani Devi.
India had won a silver and bronze in this
category in 2010.
The Indian duo will have a strong
competitor in Chika Amalaha of Nigeria,
who had won silver in 53kg in
Commonwealth Championships, but is
competing in 48kg class here.
Canada’s Jessica Ruel, who lifted 158
(72+86) recently, South African Porta
Vries, who lifted 157kg (70+87) to win silver behind India’s Mirabai in
Commonwealth Championships, could be
the other challengers. Augustina Nwokolo
of Nigeria, who had won gold in 2010
CWG with 175kg (77+98), has not been
named in her country’s team.
Sanjita and Mirabai lifted 179kg
(79+100) and 161kg (72+89) respectively
in the Senior National Weightlifting
Championships in March-April. Mirabai
won gold in 2013 Commonwealth
Championships with a total lift of 166kg
(73+93).
Women’s team coach Kunjarani Devi
said that her wards should bag a handful
of medals in the Games. “We traditionally do well in women’s 48kg and we are hoping to do well this time also. In fact, we can
win at least a medal each in all the women’s
weight categories,” she said.
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Seven Indian women are taking part
in four weight categories — two each in
48kg, 53kg and 63kg and one in 58kg.
Asked about hopes of winning a gold
medal from her two wards in women’s 48kg,
Kunjarani said, “Let us keep our fingers
crossed. We can win but it all depends on
how you perform on the day of competition.”
In men’s 56kg that will also be held on
Thursday, India can win a gold medal in
the absence of defending champion,
Malaysia’s Amirul Hamizan Ibrahim, now
32, who also won gold in the 2002
Manchester Games.
Sukhen Dey and Ganesh Mali are competing in this category and this is another
event from which both the Indians can win
a medal each as competition is less here.
The 25-year-old Dey, who won a silver in 2010 with a total lift of 252kg
(112+140), is the reigning Commonwealth
champion as he clinched a gold in
Johannesburg with a total lift of 254kg
(114+140). Dey is the top-ranked lifter in
men’s 56kg.
look to make a positive start
against a lowly Canada in its
opening pool match of the
Commonwealth Games, here
on Thursday.
Going by their present
form, the Indian eves have a
fair chance of progressing to
the semi-finals of the quadrennial event as apart from
Canada they are placed alongside 2010 Delhi Games silver
medallist New Zealand,
Trinidad and Tobago and
South Africa in Pool A.
Apart from New Zealand,
who are ranked fourth in the
world, South Africa (11th) is
the other higher placed team
in India’s (13th) pool, but the
gap between the Indians and
the South Africans are minimal.
A winning start against
Canada will act as a confidence booster for the Indian
eves as they take on New
Zealand in their next match
on July 27, followed by games
against Trinidad and Tobago
(July 28) and South Africa
(July 30).
Against the 22nd ranked
Canada on Thursday, the
Indians will definitely start as
overwhelming favourites as in
their last clash in 2012, it was
the latter who came out victorious with 4-0 margin.
Going by past records, the
Indian girls enjoy a clear edge
over Canada, having won
both their duels in the history of CWG Games — in 2002
and 2010.
Coming into the Glasgow
Games, the Indian eves could
not have asked for a better
preparation as they routed
Malaysia 6-0 in an away Test
series recently to gain confidence. With a well-balanced
unit at his disposal, Indian
women team’s chief coach
Neil Hawgood is confident
that his young team will deliver their best result in the
Games.
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He, however, warned his
wards against complacency
against a young Canadian
outfit who are desperate to
prove a point at the world
stage. “While the team is
young but the kind of play
they showed in the recent
Malaysian Tour gives me reasons to be proud of them and
confidence that we will deliver our best performance here,”
Hawgood said.
“I am confident that the
girls will give a tough time to
Canada on Thursday, but I am
still keeping my fingers
crossed. Though India has
been in the best of forms in
the recent past, we cannot forget that Canada with its young
team is hungry to prove a
point too. It will be their captain and forward Kate Gillis
who we consider will be their
key player tomorrow,
Hawgood said.
“Our aim is to make a
winning start in the event and
then maintain that momentum further,” he added.
She has just 15 caps under
her belt, but young Ritusha
Arya has proved to a vital cog
in India’s forward line and has
complemented both Rani
Rampal and Poonam Rani
with aplomb. The Indians
will also be banking on their
goalkeeper Savita to carry on
her good showing under the
bar.
On the other hand, all
onus will be on captain and a
veteran
of
two
Commonwealth Games, Kate
Gillis to guide the young
Canadian team in the marquee event.
9^RQT]Y^d_^Ydµc9^TYQ^`bUccebU_^7XQ^Q
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espite star shuttler Saina
Nehwal’s last-minute pullD
out, India will look to maintain
their impressive run when they
begin their campaign with a
clash against minnows Ghana in
the mixed team event of the 20th
Commonwealth Games here on
Thursday.
India had won two gold,
one silver and one bronze in 2010
and this time again they would
look to repeat their performance
even though they suffered a jolt
with the late withdrawal of Saina
due to injury.
P Kashyap and P V Sindhu
are expected to be among medals
in men’s and women’s singles
respectively while the women’s
doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and
Ashwini Ponnappa would be
raring to go to defend the gold
they won in 2010.
The Indian team has been
considerably weakened due to the
absence of Saina but it will still be
in the reckoning for a medal in
the combined mixed team event.
The badminton competitions at the Glasgow Games
begin with mixed team event at
the Emirates Arena and India has
been placed in Pool B along with
Ghana, Kenya and Uganda and
it should not be a problem to top
the group and make it to the
knock-out round.
The Indian team is raring to
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go and they have left behind the
disappointment of Saina’s pulling
out. “The players are upbeat, they
are training well and ready. We
hope to do very well and maintain our level,” team manager Tej
Pal Singh Puri said.
About Thursday’s match
against Ghana and Kenya, Puri
said, “We should be able to top
our group and make it to the
quarterfinals.”
The group winner of the six
pools and the two best runnersup teams will make it to the quarterfinals. “We won silver last
time but we cannot say anything
now about our performance in
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the knock-out phase. There will
be a draw after the preliminary
rounds and we will know who
plays whom in the knock-out
phase,” he added.
India has a strong chance to
win at least a medal in the men’s
singles after the pulling out of
world number one Lee Chong
Wei.
Another Malaysian Wei Feng
Chong is now the highest ranked
left in the fray at 19th while
India’s Kashyap, bronze winner in
2010 Delhi CWG, is ranked two
rungs below. England’s Rajiv
Ouseph, who won silver in 2010
Delhi CWG, is at 27th while two
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other Indians K Srikanth and
RMV Gurusaidutt are at 31st and
35th.
Kashyap has been handed
second seed while Ouseph is
third. Srikanth and Gurusaidutt
are fourth and fifth seeds.
Kashyap had lost to Wei Feng
Chong in the recent Thomas Cup
in India while Gurusaidutt too
went down against the Malaysian
in the Malaysia Grand Prix Gold.
In women’s singles, only
three players in the fray are in the
top 50 of the world ranking with
India’s P V Sindhu (11th) leading
the pack, followed by Kirsty
Gilmour of Scotland at 17th and
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Li Michelle of Canada at 20th.
19-year-old Sindhu has been
handed the top seed after the
withdrawal of Sindhu and she
would be aiming for gold and add
another achievement in her
fledging career.
Among other challengers,
Kirsty Gilmour, seeded second,
will attempt to become the first
Scot to win the Women’s Singles
title, while Michelle Li of Canada
will also fancy her chances. India
has another shuttler in the fray in
women’s singles in P C Thulasi
who has been seeded sixth.
In men’s doubles, it is a difficult proposition for India to win
a medal though it is not impossible. Malaysia are hot favourites
and English, Singapore and
Australian teams may be in for
other medals. In women’s doubles
also, Jwala Gutta and Ashwini
Ponappa are ranked 21st in the
world. They will have to fight out
for top honours against Malaysian
and Singaporean opponents in
their quest to defend the title they
won in 2010.
Singapore pair of Shinta
Mulia sari and Lei Yao, ranked
15th, have been named in their
country’s squad while Malaysian
18th ranked pair of Vivian Kah
Mun Hoo and Khe Wei Woon
will also be competing. In mixed
doubles, India has been seeded
third behind defending champions Malaysia and and last edition
silver medallist England.
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F
ormer Indian wicket-keeping
great Farokh Engineer has
questioned
skipper
Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s ploy to
stand back against spinner
Ravindra Jadeja during the second
Test at Lord’s.
India won by 95 runs to take
a 1-0 lead in the five-Test series
against England.
“Standing back to Ravindra
Jadeja didn’t make sense at all,”
said Engineer.
“I just couldn’t fathom why he
was doing so. There were times
when the other fielder behind the
wickets, Virat Kohli, was standing
next to Dhoni and it looked like
there were two wicket-keepers in
there. I have never seen anything
like this in international cricket.
It was baffling and mind boggling.
He is a far better wicket-keeper
than he showed at Lord’s.”
After the match, Dhoni had
gone on to explain this particular ploy. “Actually I wanted to
have a fielder there (behind the
wicket on leg-side). But according to the rules, you can’t have
three fielders there. So I wanted
Virat to stand slightly wide from
where he was standing because
anything like a snick or a faint
edge on the leg side would have
gone between me and him. So the
plan was to stand behind and
cover that,” he had said.
The game has really changed
in the current scenario and it is
more about what suits you at this
point of time,” he had added,
when asked if this move was in
sync with proper wicket-keeping.
Clearly, one classic-era wicket-keeper counted amongst one of
India’s best behind the stumps,
didn’t really appreciate it.
“I am a huge fan of Dhoni. He
reminds me of my own playing
days, my own cricket,” said
Engineer.
“But that reasoning is not
valid. What would he have done
if he was keeping to Bhagwath
Chandrasekhar who used to give
the ball a rip without too much
rough on the wickets? Thank
God he never kept to that legendary leg-spinner.”
“Of course there was rough at
Lord’s pitch, have you ever seen a
pitch without some rough areas
on day four and five. But was it a
lack of confidence that he couldn’t stand up to stumps and catch
them? In fact if I compare from
the 2011 series, he has really
improve his wicket-keeping skills.
“So this standing back to the
spinner was absolutely unnecessary in what was otherwise a magnificent win,” he added
Indeed, for India won their
first-ever Test at Lord’s since
1986. It was only their second win
ever in 17 attempts at this hallowed ground. In fact India have
only won six Tests out of 54
matches played in England since
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they first toured in 1932.
For someone who was part of
the historic 1971 side that won its
first-ever Test and then the firstever series victory in England,
Engineer knows how rare Test victories are in this country for any
Indian team.
“It was a really happy day for
Indian cricket,” said the rank oldtimer about a young Indian team’s
triumph at Lord’s.
“Dhoni has been a fantastic
captain over the years. He is
India’s most successful captain and
he is doing a wonderful job leading this young Indian team. I have
been very impressed with Rahane,
Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Murali
Vijay so far on tour.”
“All cards were in England’s
favour since this Test match
began. Right from the time they
won the toss and inserted India on
a green-top wicket. And then
they just failed to take advantage.
“Ajinkya Rahane played a
marvellous knock at Lord’s. It
doesn’t get better than that
innings. He was supported well by
the tail-enders and that was the
difference between the two sides.
India fought back valiantly in that
first innings,” he added.
Needless to say, England are
in trouble. They haven’t won a
single Test in the last ten matches played, home or away. Their
captain and leading centurymaker in the long format is
struggling to score runs. Their
senior batsmen aren’t scoring
runs either. Matt Prior has
excused himself and there is a
0bWfX]bW^d[SQT_Pac^U_[PhX]VG8)1TSX
=4F34;78) Impressed by India’s
brilliant showing at Lord’s, spin
legend Bishen Singh Bedi feels the
only trick the team has missed so
far in England is not playing
Ravichandran Ashwin.
“Ideally, Ashwin should have
played in the both the games.
Again it’s not Stuart Binny’s fault
that he’s been thrust there. He has
no utility when he doesn’t even get
an over in the second innings,”
Bedi said.
“It’s not about a winning
combination, it’s about getting
your act together. You don’t pick
Ashwin and get Murali (Vijay) to
bowl off-spinners, it doesn’t make
sense. Both teams missed out on
this front. Of course, England
missed out more and India capitalised on it,” said the former leftarm spinner.
Bedi said England are looking
“helplessly hopeless” and playing
below par cricket but that cannot
take anything away from India’s
brilliant showing at Lord’s.
“Let’s not take anything away
from India. They played brilliantly. And don’t forget they lost
the toss also. England played
much below par. They look pretty directionless. They look helplessly hopeless,” Bedi said.
If England veterans like Cook,
Ian Bell and Stuart Bell were left
struggling then Indian youngsters
rose to the occasion, he noted.
APeXRWP]SaP]0bWfX]
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Bedi said while Indian players are peaking at the right time
the English cricketers have had
their time. “When you touch the
peak then there is nothing
beyond that. You can stay at the
top if you are willing but if not
then there is no other way than
the way down. What goes up
must come down. So the England
veterans like Cook, Broad,
Andersen, Bell, Prior have all past
their peak.” he said.
“But in the case of Indians —
Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane,
Rohit Sharma, Ishant Sharma,
Mohammad Shami, Bhuvneshwar
Kumar — their peak is ahead of
them. They haven’t peaked yet,
they are on their way up. It is a
cycle and Indians have stayed low
for quite sometime. So they can
only go up from here,” the spin
legend said.
Reacting strongly to the interpretation of the term all-rounder,
Bedi was quick to clarify that he
does not consider Ravindra Jadeja
or Stuart Binny as genuine allrounders. “They are not the
answer to an all-rounder. Even
Bhuvneshwar Kumar can score
runs. Let’s not confuse this term
called an all-rounder. The one
who can find his way into the side
purely for his batting and purely
for his bowling is a true allrounder. Same for Ashwin or
Jadeja or Binny or Kumar,” he said.
“Ray Lindwall scored 2 Test
hundreds against England but
nobody called him an allrounder. He was a bowler. Gary
Sobers, Imran Khan, Kapil Dev,
Richard Hadlee, Ian Botham
they were genuine all-rounders.
Let’s not insult the term allrounder,” said Bedi.
Bedi also came down heavily on England captain Cook saying that it is time for the veteran
opener to start thinking as a
leader. “We’ve seen it against
Australia, against Sri Lanka and
we have seen it here. He is pretty
much bereft of cricketing ideas,”
opined Bedi.
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threat of suspension hanging
over James Anderson.
“England are very much in
trouble. It is a total mess at the
moment. They need to change
their captain. They need to
regroup. They need to select players who can perform in the next
Test and the two after that.
“It is a long series. Soon they
will be considering rest of their
over-worked bowlers and Stuart
Broad might need some rest as
well (on account of his knee
injuries). It is a total mess at the
moment,” said Engineer.
“And Virat Kohli hasn’t even
fired yet. If he starts scoring, he
will just pile up the pressure on the
England team. Anyone would
rather be in the Indian camp at the
moment,” he signed off.
BT]X^ab=P]Sh2[X\Pg3XPb_XRZTSQh8B;UaP]RWXbTb
?C8Q <D<108
xperienced footballers Sandip
Nandy, Climax Lawrence, N P
E
Pradeep and Steven Dias were
among the home-grown stars picked
on day two of the domestic players
draft for the Indian Super League,
here on Wednesday.
A total of 84 players were on
offer in the two-day draft process that
concluded on Wednesday.
Former India goalkeeper Nandy
was among the first from the second
lot of 42 players to be chosen today,
by Kerala Blasters - a team co-owned
by cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar and
coached by successful ex-East Bengal
coach Trevor Morgan.
Midfielders Lawrence, Dias and
Pradeep had to wait till the last few
rounds before being picked by
Athletico de Kolkata, Delhi
Dynamos and Bengaluru respectively.
Among the others to be picked
were Sanju Pradhan and
Mehrajuddin Wadoo who were chosen by Kolkata and Pune franchises
respectively.
Several talented youngsters were
also picked by the six franchises over
the last two days while two other
franchises - Goa and North East FC
- announced their pickings - done
prior to the draft - after each round.
The first lot of 42 players was
picked on day one of the draft on
Tuesday.
The player pool was a mix of
seasoned, experienced senior national players and promising young talents from across the country.
In terms of playing positions, ISL
draft pool had 27 attackers (forwards
and wingers), 21 midfielders, 26
defenders and 10 goalkeepers.
It also included 30 players on
loan from four I-League clubs, as well
as free agents who have been cen-
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trally contracted.
ISL has also made provision of
additional seven players in the
Central Reserve Pool to serve as
future replacements in case of
injuries or other emergencies.
Speaking to reporters, Dias said
he was very excited to be playing for
Delhi.
“I have always enjoyed playing
in Delhi during the Nehru Cup and
Durand Cup,” he said.
He also said that the ISL will help
Indian footballers “get to know
where we belong and to learn from
international footballers”.
Lawrence, on free transfer from
Goa, will be back playing in Kolkata
where he had played for I-League
clubs before and said ISL needed
experienced players too.
“There will be international
players too. I am looking forward to
the kick off,” he said.
Current
international
Gouramangi Singh, picked on
Tuesday by Sun Group-owned
Bengaluru franchise, said he was very
happy that he would be playing in the
IPL-style event.
“A lot of people and a lot of my
friends are waiting for ISL to kick off.
I am not saying ISL is going to
change everything in Indian football.
But it’s a big step and we are on the
right track,” he said.
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<PYZPfX]bbcTT_BcPVT &
PLA D’ADET (France):
Poland’s Rafal Majka captured
his second stage victory at the
Tour de France on Wednesday,
winning Stage 17th with a late
breakaway on the last of four
tough climbs in the Pyrenees.
Vincenzo Nibali of Italy
trailed by about a minute, and
gained more seconds on his
main rivals, as he retained the
leader’s yellow jersey that he’s
worn for all but two stages this
year. Majka, who cheekily
winked to a French TV camera
with about a kilometer left,
tapped his chest, thrust his arms
skyward and shouted in joy after
giving his Tinkoff Saxo-Bank
squad its second straight stage
victory after Tuesday’s win by
Australian Michael Rogers. “I
promised Bjarne today that I
would win the stage,” said Majka
of his team manager, Bjarne Riis.
Italy’s Giovanni Visconti,
whose solo breakaway with
about nine kilometers left failed
to hold off Majka, was second,
29 seconds back. Nibali was
third, 46 seconds behind.
Majka has shown that he’s
the best climber in this Tour. The
24-year-old Polish rider tightened his grasp on the polka dot
jersey awarded to the race’s
King of the Mountains, which he
was already wearing.
With a last Pyrenean day
ahead on Thursday, Majka is
looking increasingly likely to
take home the red-dot jersey. His
closest rival as the day began was
Spain’s Joaquim Rodriguez, who
swatted the air in frustration at
Majka when the Pole broke
away on the last climb.
Wednesday’s 124.5-kilometer (77-mile) trek was the
shortest stage in this year’s
Tour, and the second of three
days in the mountains along
France’s border with Spain. It
covered three hard Category 1
ascents from Saint-Gaudens
and a final push up to Pla d’Adet
ski station above the town of
Saint-Lary-Soulan.
Nibali gained about 50 seconds on his nearest rival, Spain’s
Alejandro Valverde, who made
a valiant recovery on the last
climb to avoid even more damage. Overall, the Italian has a 5
minute, 26 second lead over
Valverde.
0?