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rime Minister Narendra
Modi has urged the global
community to battle terrorism
unitedly by dropping the
notion that it’s someone else’s
problem since the perpetrators
of terror are now “globally networked” and are “using 21st
century technology”.
At a gathering of world
leaders attending the Nuclear
Security Summit hosted by
President Barack Obama, Modi
also underscored the need for
all nations to “completely abide
by their international obligations” to ensure nuclear security is an abiding priority for
every nation.
“Terrorism is globally networked. But, we still act only
nationally to counter this threat,”
he said at a White House
working dinner that kicked off
the summit on Thursday
evening, stressing, “Terrorists are
using 21st century technology.
But our responses are rooted in
the past.”
Modi,
coming
to
Washington via Brussels that
witnessed the latest horrific terror attacks, lamented that while
the reach and supply chains of
terrorism are global, genuine
cooperation between nation
states is not.
“Drop the notion that terrorism is someone else’s problem and that “his” terrorist is
not “my” terrorist,” he
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remarked at one point.
Obama, hosting what will
be his fourth and final summit
to bring nations together to prevent terrorists and other nonstate actors from gaining access
to nuclear materials, was flanked
by Modi and Chinese President
Xi Jinping at the dinner table.
The Prime Minister made
the case for focusing on three
contemporary features of terrorism, noting, “First, today’s
terrorism uses extreme violence
as theatre. Second, we are no
longer looking for a man in a
cave, but we are hunting for a
terrorist in a city with a computer or a smart phone. Third,
State actors working with
nuclear traffickers and terrorists present the greatest risk.”
Turning to the global challenge for nuclear security amid
the mounting fears of nuclear
terrorism, the Prime Minister
said, “Nuclear security must
remain an abiding national priority.” He sought to drum home
the point that “without prevention and prosecution of acts of
terrorism there is no deterrence against nuclear terrorism”.
Lauding Obama for turning the spotlight on the critical
issue, Modi remarked,
“President Obama has done
great service to global security.”
“This legacy of President
Obama must endure,” he said,
given the probability that the
Obama initiative of holding
these biennial global summits
on this score could end when
he demits office next January.
“Brussels shows us how
real and immediate is the threat
to nuclear security from terrorism,” Modi commented.
With the world leaders
gathering at the Washington
Convention Centre on Friday
for the plenary sessions, the
discussions were slated to focus
on national actions to enhance
nuclear security. A separate
session has been devoted to
deal with the current foremost
terror challenge posed by ISIS.
Continued on Page 4
Washington: The United States
and Saudi Arabia on Thursday
joined hands to sanction
Pakistani individuals and terrorist entities, including
Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT), hours
ahead of Prime Minister
Narendra Modi’s visit to Riyadh.
Thursday’s action targeted
James Alexander McLintock
and his Pakistan-based AlRahmah Welfare Organization,
which the Treasury Department
said is a front organisation that
provides money for al-Qaeda,
the Taliban, LeT and other
Afghan extremists groups under
the guide of helping orphans.
“As of early 2013,
McLintock recruited Afghan
insurgents to obtain photos of
children, Afghan identity documents and cell phone numbers to create falsified dossiers
used to obtain donations,”
Treasury said in a statement.
Continued on Page 4
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s a reciprocal measure to
A
the visit of the Pakistani
Joint Investigation Team (JIT)
to India and to carry forward
its probe into the terror attack
at the strategic IAF base in
Pathankot by suspected Jaishe-Mohammad (JeM) cadre, a
team of the National
Investigation Agency (NIA)
will visit that country.
Dates for the visit will be
worked out later, Director
General of NIA Sharad Kumar
told reporters here at the end
of five-days of discussions with
Pakistani JIT which returned
home on Friday.
“We expressed that a team
of NIA could be sent to
Pakistan for a probe in that
country since conspiracy has
been hatched in that country.
They welcomed the idea and
the dates will be worked out
later,” the DG said.
Kumar said the NIA presented the JIT with “concrete
evidence” against the officebearers of JeM who conspired
in the attack and the handlers
of the terrorists who facilitated and guided them.
“The NIA also sought voice
samples of some senior officebearers of JeM,” he said without naming anyone. However,
NIA sources said that they
had sought voice samples of
JeM chief Maulana Masood
Azhar, his brother Abdul Rauf
and Khayyam Babbar, mother
of one of killed Jaish terrorist
identified as Nasir Hussain as
he had called her before
launching the attack at the airbase in Pathankot.
Kumar also said that the
NIA has asked the JIT for a
DNA sample of the mother of
the terrorist.
Continued on Page 4
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day after the collapse of the
A
Vivekananda Flyover in
the busy Burrabazar-Posta area
of Kolkata north-west, three
more bodies were pulled out
from the debris on Friday, taking the death toll to 24.
Till late Friday evening
one person was trapped inside
a truck on which the
bridge had collapsed. Around
90 people were being treated at
various hospitals, Kolkata
Police Commissioner Rajib
Kumar said.
Some workers of the
Hyderabad-based construction
company, ICVRL Infra,
had been rounded up for interrogation even as its Kasba
office in South Kolkata
remained locked for the second
day on Friday.
The police said cases of
murder, attempt to murder
and criminal conspiracy had
been slapped against the erring
company. The police had on
Thursday filed a suo motu
case of culpable homicide not
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amounting to murder.
Meanwhile, statements
emanating from different
quarters questioned the role of
the Urban Development
Department. The locals claim
that the accident could have
been avoided had the
Government been a little more
sensitive towards the people’s
concern.
Local Trinamool MP Sudip
Bandopadhyay on Friday
claimed that he had alerted the
Government about the faulty
designs of the bridge. “As a people’s representative, I had alerted the Government about the
faulty design that the locals
reported to me often. But by that
time about 50-60 per cent of the
work had completed” he said.
The Opposition parties
immediately raised the issue
wondering
why
the
Government did not stop work
and got the plan changed.
“From Sudip Bandopadhyay’s
statement it appears that the
Government was aware that a
disaster might happen. The
question is why they did not
take action then,” said PCC
president Adhir Chowdhury.
Like the BJP did on
Thursday, the Congress too
demanded CBI enquiry into
the accident. “We are filing a
PIL demanding a CBI probe”
Chowdhury said.
Meanwhile, in a sensational revelation local people
claimed that the parts of the
construction work had been
sub-contracted to a construction syndicates run by local
Trinamool leaders.
Continued on Page 4
Kolkata: Even as hundreds in
Kolkata did their best to rescue victims after a flyover collapsed, some youngsters displayed insensitivity by clicking
away selfies with the injured.
Some teenagers as well as
young men were perched on a
broken pillar of the
Vivekananda Road flyover, taking pictures with their mobiles.
A few youngsters forced
themselves into a waiting
ambulance and started clicking
selfies in the Posta area where
the Vivekananda Road flyover
came crashing on Thursday.
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n recent years, it had become
a blink-and-miss structure
on the approach to the historic
Kashmere Gate, but till some
decades ago, the Ritz cinema, set
back a few feet from the main
road, was a very happening
place. However, having lost its
glory days with the advent of
multiplexes, the demise of Ritz
on March 18, 2016, elicited no
more than a whimper, that too
from middle aged and elderly
people of North Delhi.
Once upon a time it was a
swank theatre in the heart of
what used to be equivalent to
today’s Connaught Place or
South Extension. Flanked by
restaurants like Khyber (not to
be confused with Khyber Pass
near Mall Road), fashionable
garment stores and even a
I
t’s official now. Uttar Pradesh
will get an international airport at Jewar in Gautam Budh
Nagar. The Centre has sent
approval to the Uttar Pradesh
Government last week asking it
to prepare DPR as per
Greenfield Airport policy, 2008.
“We have crossed all hurdles. The Centre has approved
construction of an international airport at Jewar. We
have sent the approval to the
UP Government last week and
have asked them to prepare a
DPR,” Minister of State for Civil
Aviation and Tourism Mahesh
Sharma told The Pioneer on
Friday.
Continued on Page 4
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shop that sold guns and armaments, The Kashmere Gate
area buzzed with activity till
late in the night.
Delhi University students
of the 70s recall that Ritz was one
of their most favored haunts,
vying with Amba in Ghantaghar
and Alpna in Model Town.
Every Hindi film released in one
of these three halls, most easily
accessed from hostels of Delhi
University colleges as well as
areas of Old Delhi adjacent to the
Railway Station and Civil Lines.
While families would
throng the evening shows, the
student crowd generally preferred to go for the night show.
Many a university romance
and heartbreak were scripted
around this hall.
A student from the mid70s recalls the tale of a freshly
heartbroken friend who decided to drown his sorrows in
drink and then watch Manoj
Kumar’s Shor which ran for a
considerable length of time in
Ritz. Accompanied by two others, he drank more than his
capacity and shortly after the
movie began, started to cry
loudly and inconsolably.
Eventually by the interval, his
friends decided to escort him
back to the hostel.
Continued on Page 4
They appeared to be
oblivious to the pain and suffering of a seriously injured
person who was pulled out of
the rubble by policemen to be
ferried to a hospital. None of
the young men cared to lend
a helping hand. Police had to
literally drag them out of the
ambulance.
Several ambulances
were held up as large
groups of youngsters almost
laid siege to the vehicles in a
desperate bid to click snaps of
the injured.
Continued on Page 4
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New Delhi: India will experience a little more than normal
rainfall this monsoon, according to a forecast by a weather
risk management company.
“As per our models, India
will receive more than normal
rainfall this year. June is
expected to receive fairly good
rainfall, around 25 per cent
more than the normal limit,”
said Kanti Prasad, senior consultant (climate sciences),
Weather Risk Management
Services Ltd.
In June, the country is
expected a receive 25 per cent
more rainfall than normal.
Rainfall will start receding
thereafter but will remain within the parameters of “normal
monsoon”, he said.
Continued on Page 4
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N
TPC Ltd, India's largest
power utility has recorded highest ever annual generation of 241.98 BUs ( excluding JVs ) in the financial year
2015-16.
The company exceeded its
capacity addition target by
adding 2255 MW taking
NTPC Group's total installed
capacity to 46653 MW as on
March 31, 2016 , a NTPC press
release informed.
NTPC's solar stations
achieved highest ever generation of 160.8 MUs at a CUF of
16.64 %. Four coal power stations of the company were
amongst the top 5 in the country in terms of PLF during the
period.
The company met its
capex target of C 25000 crore
during the year and also
achieved 100 % realization of
the dues. Coal Mining activities shall also commence at its
Pakri Barwadih Mine soon.
Company reduced its imported coal consumption by
42.19% during the year to
9.47MMT from 16.38% during
last year.
NTPC's efforts during second half of FY 16, as a result
of rationalization of coal linkages, reduction in imported
coal consumption, enforcement of third party sampling
of coal and other measures led
to reduction in energy charges
of coal stations by nearly 20%.
NTPC shall endeavour to
bring down the energy charges
further to help the Discoms, it
stated.
With capacity addition of
9550 MW during the current
plan, NTPC is all geared up to
achieve the target of 11920
MW for the 12th five year plan
ending 2016-17.
NTPC commissioned
Unit 3 and 4 at Koldam - 400
MW
in Himachal ,
Bongaigaon unit 1-250 MW in
Assam, Vindhyachal unit 13 500MW in Madhya Pradesh,
BRBCL Nabinagar unit 1 - 250
MW in Bihar, Kanti unit 3 195 MW in Bihar, Mouda
unit
3-660
MW
in
Maharashtra during the year.
Under its CSR activities,
company shall continue to
provide safe drinking water
and focus on training and
skill development of people in
the vicinity of its projects and
stations. The options of
installing water ATMs and
opening of generic medicine
shops to provide access to
low cost medicines for them is
also being explored.
NTPC presently has 18
coal based, 7 gas based, 8
solar PV, one Hydro and 8
Subsidiaries / Joint Venture
power stations. Company has
a capacity of over 24,000 MW
under different phases of completion .
It may be recalled that
NTPC’s upcoming 1600 MW
Lara Super Thermal Power
Project in Raigarh district of
Chhattisgarh has acquired all
necessary clearances from the
Union Ministry of Forest,
Environment and Climate
Change for the project, officials stated.
The Lara plant of NTPC
would be utilising super critical technology for power generation.
The power to be generated by upcoming project will be
supplied to Chhattisgarh , Goa
and Maharashtra states, officials stated.
The project is most likely
to go on stream by March 2017
.The coal requirement for the
proposed plant would be met
from Talaipalli Coal Block of
Mand in Raigarh Coalfields,
officials stated.
The proposed work to be
taken up by RITES at the
plant site would comprise con-
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struction of major and minor
bridges besides other works.
The project is expected to be
completed within 18 months
from the date of commencement of the construction work,
officials stated.
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Significantly, NTPC the
largest power utility of the
country recorded highest single day generation of 733.12
MUs, the highest so far in this
Financial Year from its 18
coal based, 7 gas based, 8
solar and Hydro power stations on August 27, 2015. The
Declared
Cumulative
Capability of the stations was
91.10 % and Plant load factor
( PLF) of 86.34 % on the day.
During financial year
2014-15, NTPC Group contributed 25% of total electricity generated in India with
16% share of Country’s total
installed capacity as on
31.03.2015.
NTPC recorded Gross
generation of 241.261 BUs
(stand-alone) in FY 2014-15
registering a growth of 3.42%.
Plant Load Factor (PLF) of
NTPC’s coal stations was
80.23% against national aver-
BC055A4?>AC4AQ A08?DA
nder the Integrated
U
Handloom Development
Scheme of the State
Government's Rural Industry
Department, 940 weavers of the
State were benefited by
December in 2015-16 with
expenses of C 2.75 crore.
In the new fiscal year 201617 starting from April 1 budget provision of Rs 7 crore has
been made for this scheme and
target of benefiting two thousand 195 weavers has been set.
Rural
Industr y
Department Officials informed
that this scheme was started for
development of handloom
weavers of the State, under
which financially weak weavers
of rural areas are divided into
groups of 20 and are provided
weaving training of four
months so as to make them
more employable.
For making designs as per
the market demands, weavers
are provided two-months of
skill improvement training.
Weavers who do not have their
own looms are provided C
25,000 for loom and C3000 for
other necessary equipments.
Moreover, Weavers cooperative
societies are provided financial
aid ofC20 lakh each for infrastructure development.
A total of 8,500 persons
were provided employment
under the Prime Minister
Employment Generation
Programme (PMEGP) in
Chhattisgarh during the past
eight years, officials stated.
According to Chhattisgarh
Khadi and Village Industries
Board, the PMEGP during the
financial year 2015-16 as on
December 2015 had provided
fund of C17.56 crore to 830 cottage industry units for commencing their works.
In turn, these units have
provided employment to 948
persons. The PMEGP is a programme sponsored by Central
Khadi and Village Industries
Commission.
Under this scheme, for setting up of cottage industry, projects costing upto C25 lakh is
sanctioned. For beneficiaries of
general category margin money
of C25 per cent is provided by
the Board, while for beneficiaries belonging to the female
category, ST, SC and OBC
class, 35 per cent margin
money is provided as grant,
officers said.
The loan availed from the
bank has to be returned over a
period of seven years, they
said.
Mainly Poha Mill, mini
rice mill, crusher plant, lack
production, bamboo and cane
production center, pottery
business, pulses mill, flour mill,
soap industry, incense sticks,
candle industry, carpenter
works, ironsmith, hosiery, production of utensils from brasscopper-brass, aluminum utensil, iron furniture production
unit and others are financed
under the programme.
As many as 119 cottage
industry units were established
involving an estimated cost of
Rs 1.78 cr under the PMEGP
during 2015-16. The project is
being run by Khadi and
Gramodhyog
Board.
Chhattisgarh had 7,586 persons
involved in manufacture of
Khadi products as on March
31, 2015.
Out of the 7,586 persons,
there were 6502 spinners and
1084 weavers, according to the
data released by Union
Ministry for MSME).
Notably, the Chhattisgarh
Khadi and Village Industries
Board has been churning out
trained youngsters through its
various training programmes
from rural areas with complete
knowledge of availability of
raw material, marketing and
financial management to run
their units , officials stated.
Beneficiaries of this
scheme also have easy access to
bank loans.
The Board provided selfemployment training to 73
youth from rural pockets of the
State during 2014-15 under its
Artisan Training Scheme.
Nearly C14.84 lakh has
been spent on this training in
the programme.
Board officials informed
that under this scheme, youngsters of rural areas are provided training in various trades for
self-employment.
The State Government
has also established an Apparel
Training & Designing Centre
each in Bilaspur, Raipur, Bhilai
and Rajnandgaon.
produced 27.857 million
tonnes of coal during the period April to June 2015 (provisional), officials stated.
As per Annual Plan document 2015-16 of Union
Ministry of Coal, the annual
target for overall coal production for 2015-16 has been
fixed at 700 million tonnes.
As action plan has also
been drawn by Coal India
Ltd. in this regard to achieve
production of 1000 Million
tonnes by 2019-20, officials
stated.
Agreement for World
Bank loan of US $ 1100 million
for Eastern Dedicated Freight
Corridor (DFC) (Phase-2)
have also been signed, officials
stated.
Notably, the Chhattisgarh
government will allocate 66
acres of land for speedy implementation of two key railway
corridor projects in the State.
'&RWX[SaT]_d[[TS^dc^U\P[]^daXbW\T]c)6^ec
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age of 64.46%. Two stations
recorded more than 90% PLF.
All NTPC stations
achieved Plant Availability of
or above 83%. Four coal stations of NTPC featured among
the top 10 stations of the
Country in terms of PLF in FY
2014-15.
Notably, the Centre has
signed a Memorandum of
Understanding each with the
states of Odisha, Jharkhand
and Chhattisgarh for critical
coal connectivity projects to
improve transportation of
coal, officials informed.
Coal production in
Chhattisgarh stood at 115.19
million tonnes (MT) during
2014-15 ( provisional), officials
stated.
This was in comparison to
110.14 million tonnes (actual)
coal produced in the State during the previous year.
The State had already
A decision was taken during a meeting of an interdepartmental committee
chaired by State Revenue
Minister Prem Prakash Pandey
here recently, officials stated.
It move will expedite setting up of the East-West Rail
Corridor and East corridor, he
said.
The 122 km long EastWest Rail Corridor will be built
on the Gevra Road-DeepikaKatghora-Sindurgarh-PasanPendra Road section.
The Union Railway
Ministry had already submitted a proposal to the
Chhattisgarh government for
allotment of land for this project.
After considering the proposal, it was decided to allocate
52-acre land for the purpose,
of which 25 acres fall in
Bilaspur district and the rest in
Korba district.
For the East Corridor, the
State government has decided
to allocate 14 acres of land in
Raigarh district.
The Corridor will be about
180
km
long
from
Bhupdevpur-GharghodaDharamjaygarh up to Korba,
the official said.
The committee also sanctioned 20 acres of land for the
under-construction rail route
from Talaipalli to Lara village
where a plant of NTPC is coming up in Raigarh district.
NTPC has commenced the
process of developing necessary
Railway infrastructure at the
Talaipalli mines section in
Raigarh district for coal transportation to its upcoming
Super Thermal Power Plant
(STPP) at Lara in the district,
officials stated.
A number of bridges and
Path Way are to come up as
part of the construction of
Railway infrastructure of the
Tallaipali Mines Section .
bout 87,000 children have
been pulled out of malA
nourishment through the
'Nava Jatan Yojana' implemented by the State Women
and Child Development
Department.
The scheme is playing a
crucial role in eliminating
malnourishment in recent
years. The Budget allocated to
the scheme is Rs 17 crore for
the year 2016-17, officials
stated.
The Union Government
had appreciated the implementation of the Yojana many
times and it has been included in the Best Practices, they
stated.
Women and Child
Development
Minister
Ramsheela Sahu said that
87,000 infants had been
pulled out of malnourishment and made healthy.
Navajatan is a community based ser vice in which
Women's Self-Help Groups,
Mahila mandals and corporate houses take active part.
The scheme makes efforts
to make an infant healthy in
six- month's time. Concerned
citizens co-operate with selfhelp groups to locate malnourished children and provide nourishment to make
them healthy.
In case of severely malnourished children they are
admitted to Nourishment
Rehabilitation Centres or
Health Centres to provide
free medical aid and nourished back to health.
Sahu added that monitoring is done on a regular
basis to nurture infants back
to health. In the first phase
7036 infants had been nurtured back to health. In the
fourth phase which is operating about 37,000 children
had been nurtured back to
health.
Women and Child
Development
Minister
Ramsheela Sahu stated in
February this year that if
families take care of minor
health issues of children then
malnourishment can be eliminated soon.
The Infant Mortality Rate
can be brought down if nutritious diet is provided. The
C
hief Medical and Health
Officer Dr NK Yadu said
as many as 82,343 smart cards
are to b e prepared at
Bemetara district of which
16974 cards will be distributed in Saja followed by 23328
cards in Nawagarh block,
23963 cards in Bemetara
block and 18078 cards in
Barela block.
The
District
Administration will host
camps for the cards in the
respective four blocks, offi-
Raigarh, Surguja, Balrampur,
Surajpur, Jagdalpur and
Kondagaon . About four lakh
minor girls are availing the
nutritious diet facility , officials stated.
In the remaining 17 districts a similar scheme is
operating which is providing
the diet to girls. Fifty per cent
of the expenditure is borne by
the Central Government and
the other half is by the State
Government.
The of f icials of the
Women
and
Child
Development Department
said that the Anganwadi centres provide nutritious diet to
anemic women and other
allied services. 'Sabhla Yojana'
provides facilities to school
drop-outs in the age-group of
11-14 years. The minor girls
in the age-group of 14-18
years are taught child rearing,
home management, life skills
training and other issues.
1^WQ^gQTYcd_bU]QY^_`U^dY\\!
The 50,000 Anganwadis
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message should be conveyed
across the State, she said
while addressing the World
Bank sponsored training programme titled '' Sattu Seekh
Prakriya'' in Raipur.
A blueprint should be
prepared to eliminate malnourishment before schedule. The World Bank is aiding
the project in 17 districts to
check deficiencies .The training session is focusing on
twelve points like looking
after pregnant women,
infants, breastfeeding and
identifying malnourished
infants.
The State Women and
Child
Development
Department had been distributing nutritious diet to
nine lakh girls in the agegroup of 11-18 years at the
Anganwadi centres.
The 10 districts where
'Sabla Yojana' is operating
are : Raipur, Gariabandh,
Balodabazar, Rajnandgaon,
cials stated.
Officials said the initiative
is being taken for the Smart
Card registration of small
families under the National
Health Insurance Scheme and
Chief Minister Health
Insurance Scheme.
Notably, the cards of only
those families will be covered
who had registered their
names during the survey conducted for the same.
Officials said the registration cost of the Smart Card is
Rs 30. For further assistance,
the applicants can contact at
toll free number 104.
and Mini-Anganwadis will
remain open from 7 am to 1
pm from April 1 to June 15.
The direction regarding the
notification has been passed by
the State Women and Child
Development Department to
all the District Programme
Officers and District Women
and Child Development
Officers.
A circular of the department clearly states that the time
is modified for the sake of children affected by various summer affected diseases.
Officials
said
the
Anganwadis will function from
9:30 am to 3:30 pm after June
15 onwards.
1,7KROGV&\EHU&ULPH$ZDUHQHVV:HHN
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T
he National Institute of
Technology (NIT) Raipur
observed the Cyber Crime
Awareness Week recently.
Sohil Jain, Chief Executive
Officer, Jain Software
Developers was the speaker on
the occasion.
Notably, cyber crimes are
the offenses committed with a
motive to harm the victim
directly or indirectly using
modern telecommunication
networks such as internet and
mobile phones (SMS).It was
organized
by
Team
Technocracy, the Technical
Committee of NIT Raipur.
Jain shared his years of
experience with students and
made them aware of the intricacies of social media
(Facebook and Whatsapp),
risks associated with social
media and showed them their
susceptibility to such crimes
and how easily they could
become a prey of crimes such
as facebook hacking. He shed
light on various aspects of
cyber crime.
The awareness week was
inaugurated by Professor AP
Rajimwale (Dean Student
Welfare) who appreciated the
work of team technocracy.
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BC055A4?>AC4AQA08?DA
50 Government colleges have
been selected on the basis of
igher Education Minister the strength of the students
Prem Prakash Pandey and internet connection availinformed on Friday that 14 ability. It is difficult to name
graduation-level government the colleges. We hope to cover
colleges of Chhattisgarh have 106 Government colleges by
been upgraded to post-gradu- the end of this financial year
ending in the month of
ation (PG) level.
A sum of Rs 3 crore has March.”
Notably, Chhattisgarh
been provisioned for this in
the budget of fiscal year 2016- Infotech and Biotech
Promotion Society (CHiPS)
17, he said.
The 14 colleges that have had been assigned the task to
been upgraded are namely- Dr provide Wi-fi connectivity of
Radhabai Girls College Raipur, the 50 chosen colleges.
Vijay Chandrakar, the
Badriprasad College Aarang
(Raipur), Kamladevi Rathi CHiPS Project Manager of
Girls College Rajnandgaon, Wi-fi City project said, “We
Mata Shabri Girls College hope to complete the project
Bhanupratappur Kanker, by the end of April as certain
Maharshi Valmiki College formalities from the Higher
Jagdalpur Bastar, Danteshwari Education Department’s side
are still under
C o l l e g e
process.”
N a r a y a n p u r,
He furS w a m i
ther informed
Atmanand
that the funds
C o l l e g e
for impleNarayanpur, JP
menting the
Mishra College
project are yet
Mu n g e l i ,
to
be
S h a h e e d
received.
Bapurao College
Sources
Sukma, Veer
claimed
Surendra Sai
B h a r a t
C o l l e g e
?aT\?aPZPbW?P]STh
Sanchar
Gariaband, Pt
N i g a m
Revti Raman
Mishra College Surajpur, Limited (BSNL) and CHiPS
Gundadhur
College are likely to work together on
Kondagaon, Larangsai College this project.
As per the announcement
Ramanujganj and Shaheed
of Chief Minister Raman
Venkatrao College.
The
State
Higher Singh, CHiPS is extensively
Education Department is tar- working for making campusgetting to provide Wi-fi con- es of colleges and public
nectivity to around 106 places securely Wi-fi enabled.
Notably, in July last year,
Government colleges across
Chief Minister Raman Singh
the State.
The work for providing had launched ‘Wi-fi City
Wi-fi connectivity had already Project’ by ensuring secured
commenced in 50 college cam- Wi-fi facility at five public
places in the city. According
puses.
Talking to The Pioneer, to information received,
State Higher Education CHiPS will soon equip
Minister Prem Prakash Telibandha and Civic Centre,
Pandey had stated , “As of now, Bhilai with Wi-fi facility.
H
BC055A4?>AC4AQA08?DA
hief Minister Raman Singh
C
on Friday said that the primary responsibility of schools
is to instil confidence and
inculcate interest in studies
among the schoolchildren.
Education itself is the
biggest asset. Illiterate person
lives in a world of darkness and
ignorance. It is the social
responsibility of all concerned
citizens to send children to
schools, he said.
Singh was speaking at the
inaugural ceremony of Statelevel 'Shaala Pravesh Utsav' at
village Saragaon (Development
Block Dharsiva). In the coming days a person will be
respected for his education
and not for assets and materialistic possessions, he said.
The Chief Minister said
that students of State
Government schools also have
innate talent like other students
and they also can gain
immense knowledge. The
school authorities should
develop keen interest in the
students towards education
and knowledge.
A colourful cultural programme was held at the
Saragaon Government Higher
Secondary School premises to
launch the Shaala Pravesh
Utsav.
On the occasion, the Chief
Minister also planted saplings
in school premise at
Government
Higher
Secondary School Saragaon.
He said that plants give
oxygen and help in controlling
pollution. Plants and are necessary for life.
Singh said that green trees
should be planted in school
premise so as to develop
healthy atmosphere.
The Chief Minister distributed school bags and other
study material to the students.
He sanctioned Rs 28 lakh to
build additional classrooms at
the school, Rs 50 lakh to construct a stadium and Rs 41.42
lakh to lay a new pipeline for
drinking water at Saragaon.
He encouraged the young
ones by asking them to recite
poems on mic.
The Chief Minister praised
Devendra Chauhan of standard 1 for reciting the poem
with message of saving every
drop of water. Chandni Yadav,
who recently got admission in
standard 1, recited 'machhli jal
ki rani hai' poem. Chief
Minister appreciated her as
well.
Singh gave best wishes to
the children and said in his
address to the function that it
is inspiring for all of us to listen to a small child giving message of saving every drop of
water.
He said : What speech can
we give? This child has given
us the message of saving water.
This message is more powerful and effective than any
speech given by elders.
The Chief Minister said
that today is the first day of
school for these children, and
the confidence with which
they have recited poem and
sang song on stage shows their
joy and enthusiasm.
On the occasion, School
Education Minister Kedar
Kashyap, Chairman of
Textbook Corporation and
Dharsiva MLA Devji Bhai
Patel, State Commission of
Child Right Protection
Shatabdi Pandey, Jila
Panchayat President Raipur
Sharda Verma and other public representatives and a large
number of villagers and school
students were also present.
The Chief Minister added
that teachers and citizens of the
area are welcoming school
kids by applying 'Tilak' and distributing sweets. Festive atmosphere prevailed at Saragaon
µXQLWVVHWXSVDQVJUHHQQRG¶
during the Utsav.
He appreciated the enthusiasm of the residents of
Saragaon towards Shaala
Pravesh Utsav. He mentioned
the keen interest of former
President Dr A.P.J. Abdul
Kalam towards education. The
first day in school is remembered by all throughout their
lives.
The State Government had
0R^[^daUd[
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increased the Education
Budget to C11,000 crore from
the earlier C7,000 crore. The
parents should educate their
children for at least couple of
hours during the summer holidays. Efforts will be made to
take steps to improve the hand-
writing of school children. He
lauded the steps of Textbooks
Corporation to provide books
free of cost to school children,
he said.
School Education Minister
Kedar Kashyap said that the
target is to provide all the
books by 15 April.
He added that Shaala
Pravesh Utsav is being
observed on the instructions of
Chief Minister Dr Raman
Singh. The new academic session was started on April 1 as
per the C.B.S.E. pattern. Dr.
A.P.J Abdul Kalam Quality
Education Mission had been
launched in the entire state.
It is the cherished dream of
the Chief Minister that children should educate themselves and become useful citizens of the nation. A provision
had been made in the Budget
to open 150 high schools and
up-gradation of 80 high
schools soon. Examinations
are mandatory to test the
knowledge of students.
Tests will be conducted in
the current academic session,
Kashyap said.
He appreciated the
Saragaon Higher Secondary
School authorities and added
all the schools in entire State
will be upgraded as Model
schools. Teachers at the
Development Block level will
be felicitated.
The Chief Minister later
felicitated two talented children- Devendra Verma and
Kumudhini Dheevar at the
Shala Pravesh Utsav programme organized in
Government
Higher
Secondary School Saragaon. In
the 12th board exam organized by Chhattisgarh Board
of Secondary Education in
year 2015-16, student
Devendra Verma of this school
held first rank and scored
92.8 per cent marks; he scored
100% marks in chemistry subject. Likewise, Kumudini
Dheevar got first rank in
school with 89.3% marks in
10th board exam.
Singh also honoured both
the students with memento.
On the occasion, School
Education Minister Kedar
Kashyap, Chairman of
Chhattisgarh
Textbook
Corporation Devji Bhai Patel,
Jila Panchayat President Sharda
Verma, Janpad President
Dharsiva Rukmani Verma,
School Education Secretary
Subrat Sahu and other public
representatives, officials of
school management committee, officers were also .
C!&"SbQ``b_fUTV_bCXYfbY^QbQiQ^RQbbQWU`b_ZUSd
255.55 crore.
In November last year,
the State Government had
also provided administrative
approval of C28.76 crore for
Baihamuda Barrage Scheme at
Kurket River in Gharghoda
C7410AA064
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T
he Comptroller and
Auditor General of India
(CAG) has observed that out of
the 355 ‘test checked’ small
industries out of 4322, 50 were
established without obtaining
environmental consent from
Chhattisgarh Environment
Conservation Board (CECB).
CAG in its report for financial year ending March 31,
2015 further observed that a
total of 174 industries had not
renewed their environment
consent even after a lapse of
one to 174 months.
Also irregular consent was
issued to 42 coal based power
plants and sponge iron plants
in restricted area.As a result ,
these industries had continued
their operation without adhering to environmental laws and
rules, it observed.
The report further
observed that 31 industries
started production six months
to five years before obtaining
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consent from CECB whereas
13 industries had started production five to 10 years before
obtaining consent.
Remaining six industries
had started their production 10
years before obtaining CECB
consent. This indicates failure
on part of the industries and
the CECB to ensure compliance of environmental laws.
The reason for not obtaining the consent was mainly due
to inadequate monitoring by
CECB over issue of consent
resulting from 63 per cent
vacancies in respect of the
post of Senior Scientific Officer,
Chief Chemist, Scientist, Junior
Scientist and chemists and 18
per cent and 25 per cent vacancies in the post of Lab
Assistant/Attendant and other
staff respectively, the report
stated.
During exit conference,
Secretary stated in November
2015 that necessary action
would be taken in this matter,
it stated.
The fact remains that the
industries are operating without obtaining CECB consent,
the report stated.
BC055A4?>AC4AQA08?DA
T
he
Chhattisgarh
Government has provided
C162.43 crore approval for
construction
of
the
Shivrinarayan Barrage over
Mahanadi river in Navagarh
Development Block of JanjgirChampa district.
The barrage when ready
will supply water to industrial units.
Notably, the Chhattisgarh
government has earlier provided administrative approval
to the Basantpur Barrage project on Mahanadi river to ful-
fill the water requirements of
industrial units in JanjgirChampa district.
The barrage would be
constructed on Mahanadi
river
in
Bamhdih
Development Block.
As per the details available, the Barrage would span
867.5 metres with gross water
storage capacity of 53.93 million cubic metres.
As per a letter of the State
Environment
Impact
Assessment Authority ,
Chhattisgarh dated May 22,
2014 to Chief Engineer, Water
Resources Department,
Bilaspur, water would be
available for projects constructed downstream of the
barrage.
The Chhattisgarh government has also sanctioned C
637.71 crore for the construction of two barrages in
Miruni and Basantapur villages of Janjgir-Champa district, officials stated.
Out of C637.71 crore
sanctioned, C382.16 crore
would be utilised for construction of the barrage in
Miruni.
The Basantpur barrage
would be built at a cost of C
block of Raigarh district.
Baihamuda
Barrage
Scheme will supply water to
the industrial units in the
area, officials said.
The officials concerned
have been instructed to complete the construction works
under this scheme within
given time-limit, they stated.
Notably, in the month of
June last year, the State Water
Resources
Utilization
Committee allocated 49.80
million cubic meters of drinking and industrial water
including 19.06 million cubic
meters annually for industrial purpose and 30.74 million
cubic meters for drinking and
municipal supply.
The annual allocation of
water was done in a meeting
which was held under the
chairmanship of Chief
Secretary Vivek Dhand in
Naya Raipur.
The Chief Secretary had
stated in the meeting that
natural resources like water
and land are limited and
hence officers of all the concerned departments should be
cautious and ensure best possible use of these resources.
He had asked the officers
of
Water
Resources
Department to ensure implementation of the water policy.
Dhand had stated the
Industries Department should
be informed about those who
fail to establish industrial
units in the given time period and do not deposit the
charges of water allocated to
them as per the agreement.
In case water allocation of
an industry is to be cancelled,
the
Water
Resources
Department should ensure
no-objection certification
from Industries Department
before refunding the amount.
Dhand said that an integrated plan should be prepared
for better use of land and
water.
It was resolved in the
meeting that apart from annual 14 million cubic meter
water being provided by
Hasdeo Bango Project to the
water expansion project of
Korba Municipal Corporation,
an additional 8.15 million
cubic meters should be provided annually for the first
phase of the project and 14.88
million cubic meter of water
for the second phase.
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four-year-old female
Spotted Deer was run over
A
by an unidentified vehicle on
Balod-Dallirajahara road on
Thursday night.
The deer was five to six
months pregnant and lost her
life in a road accident at night
and her body was found on
Friday, stated Balod District
Forest Officer (DFO) Stylo
Mandavi.
“She suffered head injuries
and must have tried hard to
save her life but failed,” added
the Forest Officer while referring to the autopsy report.
Mandavi further stated that
the accidental area lies in a sensitive area of wild animals.
“The road is hardly five kilo0\TTcX]V^UBcPcT[TeT[^UUXRTQTPaTab^UcWT2WWPccXbVPaWd]Xc^UcWT1WPaPcXhP9P]PcP?Pach19?fPbWT[SPccWT_PachBcPcTWTPS`dPacTabPc:dbWPQPWdCWPZaT_aT\XbTb
meters from Tandula Dam and
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Gondli Dam. It is a vulnerable
zone for wild animals,” she
maintained.
The animal was cremated
with the required formalities in
Balod.
Mandavi said the district is
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often seen with cases of wild
animals getting injured. Few
days back a Leopard was found
hunting a spotted deer at a public place, said the Forest Officer.
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he
Chhattisgarh
Government could not
T
utilise C1,870.74 crore (32 per
cent) out of total provision of
C 5,873.36 crore provided on
the recommendations of the
13th Finance Commission
during period 2010-15, the
Comptroller and Auditor
General of India (CAG) has
observed.
In its report for the financial year ending March 31,
2015, the CAG observed that
out of the total provision of
C5,873.36 5,873.36 crore, an
amount of C4,003.56 crore (68
per cent) was utilised.
During the award period
of the 13th Finance
Commission, the percentage
of savings ranged from 10.34
per cent and 85.74 per cent.
Firty per cent and above
amount was not utilised under
the major head 2014Adminstration of Justice, 2054
Treasury and Accounts, 2055
Police, 2203 Technical
Education, 2205 Art and
Culture,
2217
Urban
Development, 3454 Census
Surveys and Statistics, 4202Capital Outlay on Education
Sports, Art and Culture, 4210
Capital Outlay on Medical
and Health, 4217 Capital
Outlay
on
Urban
Development.
However, complete utilisation was made under major
head 2202-General Education.
The savings were attributed
mainly due to non-receipt of
administrative sanctions, non
release of funds by Central
government and non implementation of schemes.
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BC055A4?>AC4AQ=0H0
A08?DA
he State Water Resource
Department has sanctioned
T
C 1.22 crore for construction of
Podi (Chhal) irrigation water
reservoir scheme of Kharsiya
block of Raigarh district.
Water
Resource
Department has issued revised
sanction orders from
Mantralaya to Chief Engineer
of Hasdeo Kachhar in Bilaspur
for implementation of this
scheme.
Notably, Chhattisgarh is
among nine states which will
benefit more from Centre's
'Neeranchal project' due to
implementation of large number of watershed schemes
already in these states, officials
stated.
The nine states which
would benefit from the project
are
Andhra
Pradesh,
Chhattisgarh,
Gujarat,
Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh,
Maharashtra,
Odisha,
Rajasthan and Telangana.
Notably, the Central government has signed a loan
agreement with World Bank for
the Neeranchal National
Watershed Project. The project
to be implemented by the
Ministry of Rural Development
over a six-year period (201621) will support the Pradhan
Mantri Krishi Sinchayi Yojana
in hydrology and water management, agricultural production systems, capacity building
and monitoring and evaluation.
The Neeranchal project
was approved by the Union
Cabinet in October last year
with a total budget outlay of C
2142 crore with the
Government share of C 1071
crore and the rest 50% by the
World Bank.
The Chhattisgarh government has ensured usage of
nearly 73 per cent of the
extended irrigation capacity
which is far better than many
other states of the country, officials stated.
The actual irrigation
capacity for Kharif season has
doubled whereas the irrigation
capacity for Rabi season has
increased by 10 times, they stated.
Notably, the Chhattisgarh
Government had also made all
preparations to strengthen
Central Government's Water
Conser vation
and
Management policy of ''Jal
Kranti Abhiyaan'' (Water
Revolution Mission).
A total of 54 severe water
scarce villages have been selected for the Mission. Two villages
from each of the 27 districts
have been selected for the purpose .
Water
Resources
Department Secretary Dr B L
Tewari held a meeting of the
State-level Committee recently at the Data Centre in Raipur.
He reviewed recently the
steps taken to implement the
'Jal Kranti Abhiyaan' in the
State. Top Engineers of the
Department participated in
the meeting in Raipur.
Tewari said that the 'Jal
Kranti Abhiyaan' is the top priority of the State Government.
Two severe water scarce
villages from each of the 27 districts have been selected for the
Mission.
Various Departments
should closely co-ordinate to
make water available for drinking water, irrigation and other
basic necessities of the villagers, Tewari said.
He had instructed the
concerned officials to address
the problems of the villages as
early as possible. The officers of
the
Water
Resources
Department have been
appointed as Nodal Officers of
the 'Jal Kranti Abhiyaan'.
The Nodal officers will
tour the problem villages every
15 days and redress the grievances. The District Collectors
are being given responsibility to
make the Mission a success.
Janpad Panchayats and Gram
Panchayats will also be kept in
the loop in implementing the
Mission, Tewari said.
He said that every drop of
water is precious and the chosen villages will be asked to
conserve and preserve water.
Governmental,
NonGovernmental and citizens will
join hands to make the Mission
a great success.
3T^QW^Vc^VTcaXS^U B4;58B7B4;584B
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60A8010=3
ollector Niranjan Das has
C
assured to solve the low
voltage problems b eing
encountered in Deobhog
region.
The State government has
made a budget provision for
setting up a power sub station
of 132 KV and line extension,
stated officials.
Das while addressing the
residents at a District level
Public Grievance Redressal
Camp at Mainpur block of
Gariaband said the setting up
of the substation within a
year at Indagaon village will
s olve t he low volt age
problem.
The applications of as
many as 261 cases were
received in the camp of which
186 cases were disposed.
On the demands of the
villagers, the Collector passed
directions of constructing
road f rom Deobhog to
Haldigona to the Executive
Engineer under the Pradhan
Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana.
Highlighting the Swachch
Bharat Abhiyan, Das encouraged the villagers saying that
the government provides
C12,000
for
toilet
construction.
The irrigational facilities
of Gariaband will be extended through Pradhan Mantri
Krishi Sinchai Yojana,
informed the Collector.
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From Page 1
One such company S
Enterprises was allegedly doing
the casting work at the site,
Kamlesh, a local said, adding,
the company belonged to the
nephew of local Trinamool
MLA. Another company called
R Constructions allegedly held
under a benami deal by the
same MLA’s relatives was also
involved in some kind of activities in the construction of the
flyover, sources said.
“It should be investigated as
to whether the main company
from Hyderabad had to cough
up huge amount to these companies and compromised in
the quality of work to make up
for the losses,” they added.
The workers involved in the
work also said that they had
been employed by Rafiqul, a
Trinamool strongman from
Rajarhaat-Salt Lake area.
BJP leaders like Babul
Supriyo and Siddharthnath
Singh also pointed fingers at the
connivance between the local
Trinamool MLA and the construction company and
demanded a probe. “The
reports of some kind of link
between the construction company and the local Trinamool
MLA is coming this should be
probed,” he said.
However, Firhad Hakim,
Urban Development Minister,
on Friday attacked Singh for
“playing politics when so many
people have died.”
Notwithstanding Hakim’s
appeal to depoliticise the rescue
operations, his own party leaders prevented CPI(M) supporters from donating blood at the
Government-run Central Blood
Bank at Maniktulla.
This, at a time whe2
there was a huge shortage
of blood being reported from
the hospitals. Sources said about
100 SFI members had donated
blood but after that Trinamool
MLA Dr Nirmal Maji got the
blood donation camp removed.
“He said that we will not
take CPI(M)’s blood,” Blood
Bank sources said. He, however, rejected the claim saying he
had not given such orders
adding as well that there was no
need of blood.
Meanwhile, the layout of
the area and the ‘pattern’ of the
collapse made the rescue work
all the more difficult even as an
NDRF engineer pointed out
how the partially smashed truck
is literally holding the huge
girder on which one lane of the
collapsed flyover is resting with
its entire weight.
If the heavy-duty cranes are
used to pull out the truck to
release the trapped person,
“there is a possibility of the
whole weight subsiding on the
vehicle causing even the tyres
and the fuel tank to explode
causing bigger disaster,” said the
NDRF engineer.
So, concrete cubes had been
piled up underneath the precariously inclined girder. One
side of the beam was touching
the road at the Rabindra Sarani
crossing in the east and the
other side hanging from the pier
number 39 to the western side.
To escape fire sand bags had
been piled up around the truck
and the entire locality had been
cleared, the police sources said.
“We have to pull the truck
out and salvage the dead person
because finally the body may
start decomposing,” an NDRF
official said.
During the day forensic
experts visited the area and collected materials which would
throw light on two things in the
least, experts said. First, the test
will ascertain whether there
was sabotage, and secondly, it
will find out whether the material being used was up to the
mark,” said Partho Roy, a
Jadavpur University professor
and a structural engineer.
From page 1
They positioned themselves in a way so that they
could takeselfies with the
wounded — many dazed and
in pain and some dying.
The large crowd of onlookers choked the crucial Rabindra
Sarani where a taxi and a Tata
Sumo vehicle crushed under
the flyover were kept. Some
selfie-seekers positioned themselves on a crane brought to the
site to clear the rubble.
A few were seen virtually
competing with each other in
clicking gory videos of the
destruction.
“Ami peye gechi, ami peye
gechi (I have got it, I have got
it),” shouted a teenager, proudly showing his video to his
friends.
A common thread in their
operations was to ensure their
faces were seen in the videos.
Quickly would they post
“their successes” on Facebook,
Twitter and Whatsapp to send
out a message to friends that
they were at the spot where the
flyover crumbled killing 24
people and leaving many badly
injured
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From Page 1
The Prime Minister was
also set to hold three important
bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the summit. He would
be meeting British Prime
Minister David Cameron,
Canadian Prime Minister Justin
Trudeau and Argentine
President Mauricio Macri.
India and the United States,
meanwhile,
signed
a
Memorandum
of
Understanding for setting up a
new Laser Interferometer
G r a v i t a t i o n a l - Wa v e
Observatory (LIGO) in India to
carry forward frontline research
on various aspects of gravitational wave astronomy.
The Prime Minister looked
at the LIGO project not only as
a great example of India-US sci-
entific collaboration but also
one that has the potential of
generating curiosity in a lot of
young minds in India and creating a whole new generation of
Indian scientists who can get
enthused with this remarkable
breakthrough in science,
External Affairs Ministry
spokesman Vikas Swarup told
reporters.
“What was significant about
this project is that now that
India has agreed to be a part of
this project, the possibility is that
India will become central to the
LIGO project partly on account
of the fact that geography
favours us,” Swarup said, pointing out that the Union Cabinet
has already approved an outlay
of C1,200 crore for the project
in India.
6$,/¶V'DOOLUDMDKDUDLURQRUHPLQHLV,62FHUWLILHG
BC055A4?>AC4A=178;08
T
he Dallirajahara iron ore
mine of the Steel Authority
of India (SAIL) in Chhattisgarh
has been given the ISO
14001:2004 certification, officials stated.
SAIL has progressively
introduced ISO : 14001 certification at its plants and mines,
resulting in improvement in
waste management, water &
energy conservation, noise
reduction, control of stack and
fugitive emission, improved
housekeeping, improved work
zone environment etc, they
stated.
Notably, SAIL’s flagship
unit Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP)
has set a target of producing 6.6
million tonnes (MT) of saleable
steel after completion of its
expansion project by end of
2016 from the level of 4.3 MT
during 2014-15, officials stated.
Quite recently, BSP has
won the prestigious Prime
Minister’s Trophy for a record
11 times out of the 21 times it
has been awarded.
Continuing the legacy of
previous two years, the BSP
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From Page 1
But the distance was short
enough for them to return to
Ritz just after the picture had
resumed post-interval.
It was during the late 60s
and 70s that Ritz was at its
zenith. It was a hall with plush
carpets and its upper story
even had private boxes for
families or young lovers to
watch movies in seclusion. In
the 70s, legendary leader Atal
Bihari Vajpayee, an avid Hindi
movie fan visited Ritz, which
added to its popularity.
Varun Seth, manager of
Ritz cinema told The Pioneer
that in 1942, Jawab was the first
movie screened in the cinema
hall while Sanam Re turned out
to be the last movie. “It was a
hall that started in the preIndependence era and was still
popular among university students till its closure.
From the Shammi Kapoor
starrer Junglee to Dabangg,
Ritz cinema invited an audience across all ages and social
strata,” said Seth.
Recalling the golden era of
Indian classical cinema, Jaiveer,
an employee at the cinema
1,$WRWDNHDLUEDVH
SUREHWR3DNWXUI
From Page 1
The NIA briefed the JIT on
investigations carried out here
in the case. The terror attack
executed by the Pakistan-based
terror group JeM on January 2
at Pathankot airbase left seven
security personnel dead. Six
terrorists were also killed in the
gunbattle with the security
forces.
The Pakistan JIT, headed
by Additional Inspector
General of Police, Counter
Terrorism
Department,
Muhammad Tahir Rai and also
including ISI’s Lt Col Tanvir
Ahmed, in turn, shared with
NIA the results of investigations carried out by them so far
in Pakistan.
“The interaction with JIT
was held in accordance with
terms of reference mutually
agreed on the basis of reciprocity. The Pakistan JIT
assured us of their full cooperation and promised to execute the LR which has been
received by them,” he said.
The JIT, which arrived here
on March 27, interacted on the
Pathankot case with NIA officials and the itinerary of the
visiting team included a tour of
the IAF base where they were
shown the scene of crime as
well as the location from where
the terrorists sneaked in and
hid before carrying out the
assault.
The JIT also visited the
spot where Ikagar Singh’s vehicle was snatched, where he was
murdered, and the spot from
where the terrorists hijacked
the SUV of SP Salwinder Singh,
Kumar said, adding the route
taken by the terrorists was also
shown to the JIT.
“These are part of the standard legal procedure of investigation followed in both
nations,” he said.
On JIT’s request, the NIA
provided certified copies of
post-mortem reports, ballistic
report of the seized weapons,
call data record, DNA reports
of four terrorists and the
seizure memo of articles from
the scene of crime.
The Pakistan JIT was given
access to 13 witnesses including Salwinder Singh, his cook,
Rajesh Verma and some witnesses as per agreed terms of
reference and extant legal provisions.
“The JIT informed us that
they were collecting admissible
evidence outside Pakistan
team also made hat-rick in
Chairman’s Trophy for Young
Managers (CTYM) competition as Runners-Up in the
grand finale held at
Management
Training
Institute, Ranchi on February
29, 2016.
The mega expansion and
modernization of BSP is underway which would also raise the
installed capacity for crude
steel manufacturing from the
present level of 4.81 million
tonnes per annum (MTPA) to
7 MTPA, officials stated.
The expansion plan is
taking place in the existing BSP
land measuring 6286.75
hectares and no additional
land is being utilised for the
same.
All projects coming under
the expansion cum modernisation plan would be utilising
state-of-art pollution control
technology, officials stated.
BSP is developing as many
as 21 villages in the periphery
of Bhilai township which have
been identified for adoption as
‘model steel villages'.
The
BSP’s
CSR
Department is engaging in a
number of activities in the
under the provision of Section
188 of the CrPC of Pakistan,
that will legally enable them to
be used in prosecution,” he
said.
The NIA has also requested the JIT to verify the various
articles seized from the terrorists including arms and ammunition as mentioned in the
Letters Rogatory sent earlier to
Pakistan.
The NIA shared with JIT
the identity and the address of
the 4 terrorists and requested
that the JIT confirm those
details.
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complex for the last 32 years,
said that after entering the
cinema hall, people truly
enjoyed the cinematic experience because of its comfortable
ambience. Muqaddar Ka
Sikandar, Pakeezah, Andha
Kanoon, Kranti, Rocky, Sadak
and Roti, Kapada Aur Makan
were among the movies which
ran in the cinema hall for
25 weeks.
“I remember when my
grandfather, who served here
for a long time, shared the overwhelming response of viewers
during the time of Junglee in
1961. He told me that there was
a time when the theatre faced
shortage of tickets due to overcrowding,” Jaiveer further said.
Ram Singh, another worker at Ritz, said that not only
university students, but
employees during office hours,
used to come to watch cinema
here. “People were passionate
about cinema because it was
the sole medium of entertainment those days, before colour
TV arrived. During the releases of Amitabh Bachchan
movies, all 576 seats used to be
occupied,” said Singh.
adopted villages such as
empowering the rural folk,
specially the women under the
Swyamsiddha or self-employment project, providing basic
infrastructure facilities development as well as activities
aimed at providing school children opportunities to express
their talent, officials informed.
Notably, in 2007, the BSP
established 'Bhilai Ispat Vikas
Vidyalaya' and 'Ispat Kalyan
Chikitsalaya' for the benefit of
the economically backward
section of society in the township and its periphery.
The BSP has also adopted
over 100 tribal children, providing free residential education, accommodation and
meals. The mega-sports event
that Bhilai has been organising
in Narayanpur for tribal
school-children for three consecutive years since 2006
attracts more than 1500 students from schools in remote
areas of Bastar every year, officials stated.
The company has also
adopted four girls from
Abujhmad area of Bastar for
their education in Bhilai
Nursing College.
SAIL will be appointing
rural product dealers for its
products across Chhattisgarh’s
27 districts expect the Bhilai
region in Durg district, official
sources informed.
The principal objective of
the SAIL Rural Dealership
Scheme (SAIL-RDS) shall be:
To establish a wide distribution
network for identified branded products of SAIL and to
increase its reach, to promote,
popularise and showcase identified branded SAIL products,
to improve market share and
NSR in the long run, the
Scheme will be open for everyone
in
Talukas/Blocks/Panchayats,
they informed.
SAIL Consignment
Agents / Handling Contractors
/ Transporters / Decoiling
Agents /Conversion &
Wetleasing Agents will not be
considered for appointment
under the Scheme, it was
informed.
Existing SAIL dealers
located in the metros, cities,
towns and district headquarters will also not be eligible
under the Scheme.
The modernization and
expansion of the Bhilai Steel
Plant (BSP) underway here
will involve cost of Rs 17,266
crore, official sources
informed.
The process of modernization and expansion of the
plant is expected to be complete
by December 2016.
Notably, all pollution
control systems in the project
expansion underway at the
Bhilai Steel Plant is designed to
achieve chimney emission
within 50mg/Nm3 as per
Chhattisgarh Environment
Conservation Board (CECB)
directives, officials stated.
Dust suppression system is
being installed in new units to
control dust from coal and iron
ore storage area, they stated.
Dust extraction system is
being installed at coal crushing
and screening area to control
fugitive emission.
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From Page 1
Though the Centre has
approved the project, it needs
to be ratified by the Akhilesh
Yadav Cabinet. Once approved,
this airport will be built under
Design Build Finance Operate
Transfer (DBFOT) basis.
“Earlier, Airport Authority
of India raised a red flag over
construction of international
airport at Jewar saying it cannot be constructed within a
radius of 150 km of international airport in national
Capital. Once this rule was
changed the Civil Aviation
Ministry approved the proposal to have the international airport at Jewar,” the
Minister said.
Jawer is 100 km from
Indira Gandhi International
Airport in New Delhi and
falls in Gautam Budh Nagar,
which incidentally is parliamentar y constituency of
Sharma.
The Jewar airport was proposed in 2001 when Mayawati
was Chief Minister. Mayawati
had vigorously pushed for it.
Even the techno-feasibility
study had been conducted and
submitted to the Centre for
action and bidding document
prepared. Her regime had even
planned to get the airport
operational before the 2010
Commonwealth Games. The
project was estimated to cost
nearly Rs 3,500 crore spanning
about 3,700 acres and handle
4 million passengers annually.
When Akhilesh came to
power in 2012 he scrapped the
Jewar airport project and
pitched for an airport in Agra
to cater the Taj Mahal-Braj
tourist
circuit.
The
Government had even identified land near Etmadpur, about
16 km from Agra City, for the
mega project.
Sharma said that Chief
Minister Akhilesh Yadav earlier wanted an international
airport at Agra but the proposal was shelved because
Defence Ministry did not
approve it.
“In November 2015, the
Uttar Pradesh Government sent
a letter expressing willingness to
revive the Jewar airport proposal. The Civil Aviation
Ministry worked on it and
finally gave approval to the UP
Government last week,” Sharma
said.
Sharma said besides new
airport Centre has also given a
push to tourism sector in UP.
“The Tourism Ministry has
sanctioned Rs 510 crore for
Buddhish, Krishna and
Ramayana circuits. The UP
Government has received over
70 per cent of the money,” he
said, adding that the onus is now
on the State to improve infrastructure for these circuits.
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From Page 1
The department said
McLintock used his organisation to allegedly provide money
to Afghan orphans while helping finance Taliban militant
activities in Afghanistan’s
Kunar province. McLintock
received about $1,80,000 from
donors in Britain between April
2011 and April 2012 and also
received money from charities
in the Persian Gulf and the
United Kingdom, Treasury
said.
McLintock also is suspected of smuggling cash to insurgents in Afghanistan and moving parts for improvised explosive devices between Pakistan
and Afghanistan.
:_UZRe`cVTVZgV
From Page 1
Northeast India, however,
may not receive good rainfall,
he said.
“Generally, the trend is
when the entire India receives
good rainfall, the northeastern part does not receive
good rainfall,” Prasad added.
The India Meteorological
Department is expected to
come out with its forecast
later this month.
It has indicated a good
rainfall this year with the
weakening of El-Nino.
E8E4:?D=9Q A0=278
P
lans of utilising Mahatma
Gandhi
Employment
Guarantee Act to mitigate effects
of drought that Jharkhand is suffering from since last year seem
to be losing steam due to the
strike of personnel responsible
for running the employment
scheme in the State.
Called by Jharkhand Rajya
MGNREGA Karamchari Sangh,
the agitation has been going on
for the past 25 days over
demands of wage hike, maternal
leave, accidental insurance and
regularisation, slowing down
work in 17,000 odd villages in
the State.
Even ‘amicable’ talks
between a delegation from the
association and Rural
Development
Minister
Neelkanth Singh Munda on
March 15 proved unfruitful in
finding any middle ground.
Now, State Government is planning to face the agitators with a
firm hand.
“Since March 10, they are
hampering the spirit of the Act
and making things difficult for
the needy people of the State. If
the strike is not called off now,
the Department will be forced to
take action against the agitators,”
stated
MGNREGA
Commissioner Siddhartha
Tripathi.
In an order issued on
Thursday by Virendra Kumar
Singh, Deputy Development
Commissioner, Ranchi, the honorarium of the agitating MGNREGA staff for the period of
strike will be withheld on
grounds of hampering the
employment scheme in tough
times following drought. If the
personnel on strike do not report
for duty within 24 hours, their
contract will be nullified, the
DDC ordered all Block
Development Officers of Ranchi.
“The strike was called without even informing us in
advance. In our last meeting,
they demanded that deadline is
fixed for fulfilling their demands,
which we decided to be May 7.
Most of them even agreed to it
but a handful of them did not,”
stated the MGNREGA
Commissioner.
The faction that agreed to
the deadline joined work but the
other one went on to stage
hunger strike near Governor’s
House. But the lacking workforce
is failing to bear the burden of
alleviating ill effects of drought
through MGNREGA in the
State.
New provisions to satisfy at
least the wage hike demands are
in the pipeline. “Jharkhand
stands fourth in the nation
regarding wages paid to its
MGNREGA workforce.
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?=BQ =4F34;78
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he Supreme Court on
Friday set out to examine
T
whether a man who rapes or
sexually abuses a mentally challenged victim can be punished
under the stringent provisions
of Protection of Children from
Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act
2012 as such victims have an
under-developed brain like
that of a child.
The occasion for the court
to examine this question came
on a petition by a Delhi-based
doctor whose daughter of 38
years with cerebral palsy was
raped by a man in the year
2010. Due to the impact of the
gruesome incident, the victim’s mental capacity drastically
reduced from that of an 8-year
old to a three-year old toddler.
This made the recording of her
statement before a Magistrate
extremely difficult.
Although the Delhi Police
proceeded with filing
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ndia on Friday strongly
advised its nationals to avoid
Itravelling
in “any circumstances, by any means, for any
purpose” to war-torn Yemen,
where an Indian nun has been
killed and a priest abducted in
recent attacks.
Asserting that the security situation in Yemen continues to remain fragile, the
External Affairs Ministry in its
advisory said, “In light of the
recent terrorist attacks in
Aden, which resulted in killing
of an Indian nun and abduction of one priest, Indian
nationals are again strongly
advised to avoid travelling to
Yemen under any circumstances by any means for any
purpose till further notice.”
The Ministry also said
that it had already issued
number of travel advisories
wherein Indian nationals have
been advised to refrain from
undertaking travel to Yemen
in view of the precarious security situation in the country.
Tom Uzhunnalil, a priest
from Kerala, was abducted by
after the Islamic State militant
group, which attacked a care
home run by Mother Teresa’s
Missionaries of Charity.
Gunmen had stormed the
refuge for the elderly earlier
this month and killed a
Yemeni guard before tying up
and shooting 15 other
employees.
Four foreign nuns, including an Indian, working as
nurses were among those
killed.
chargesheet against the accused
under Section 376(2)(L) of the
Indian Penal Code (sexual
assault with a mentally or physically challenged victim), the
victim’s mother approached the
Delhi High Court to allow
shifting of the case to the Special
Court trying POSCO cases.
The High Court in June last year
turned down the request forcing the 60-year old mother to
approach the Supreme Court.
Issuing notice on the peti-
tion, a bench of Justices Dipak
Misra and Shiva Kirti Singh
sought responses from the
Delhi Government and the
accused. The court was convinced by the argument of the
petitioner that the mental age
of the victim should be taken
as the criteria for classifying an
offence under POSCO instead
of the chronological age.
The petition filed by advocate Aishwarya Bhati said, “In
view of her present functional
age of three to four years following the heinous crime and
her previous functional age of
8-10 years, the matter be transferred to the Special Court
established under POSCO Act
as she remains a child in the
interest of justice.”
The POSCO Act prescribes
specific offences of sexual abuse
and assault and the punishment
becomes aggravated in cases
where the victim is mentally ill
or where the accused is in a
position of trust or authority.
fter the BJP, it’s the
Congress’ turn now to
move the Lok Sabha Ethics
Committee. The Congress has
approached the panel seeking
“expulsion” of Union Minister
Jitendra Singh over reports
alleging that an absconding
murder accused was present at
his residence last month. It said
it is a “serious” matter that
adversely impacts Parliament’s
dignity.
The move comes close on
the heels of the BJP complaining to the panel about Congress
vice president Rahul Gandhi’s
alleged British citizenship. The
panel had served notice to
Rahul, who replied on March 23.
In a petition to the panel
headed by LK Advani, that is
also examining the complaint
against Rahul, the AICC cited
media reports about presence
of a murder accused of 2013
Kishtwar communal clashes
Hari Kishan alias Kasooru at
the residence of Singh, who is
Minister of State in Prime
Minister’s Office.
It was also reported that a
Constitutional institution,” the
AICC said in the petition.
“It is unbelievable that
Singh had no acquaintance or
familiarity with Kasooru, more
so, when he (Kasooru) is a local
BJP leader of Paddar, which is
part of his Parliamentary constituency and has campaigned
for him and other BJP leaders.
Kasooru was neither a stranger
nor an outsider to Singh.
“...It is a clear case of giving protection to an accused
person, who is involved in
serious crimes. This act of
Singh is totally unethical and
contrary to high standards of
morality, dignity, decency and
value in public life as required
under the Code of Conduct of
a Member of Parliament,” the
AICC alleged in the petition.
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C
RPF Director General K
Durga Prasad on Friday
ruled out any sabotage or leakage of information from within
the force or from other security forces about the movement of
the seven paramilitary personnel killed at Melawada in
Dantewada on Wednesday.
He said the Naxals had
planned a “deliberate ambush”
and brutally killed seven of its
troops, travelling to deliver a
cooler for an ailing sniffer dog,
in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada
and a court of inquiry is on to
find out how the information
of the “secret” movement was
leaked.
Prasad said the landmine
blast that took place near the
Melawada village on March 30
was a “setback” for the paramilitary and they are looking
at new measures and protocols
to “avoid” such incidents in the
future.
“However, there will be no
knee-jerk reactions. We will
take considered action,” he told
reporters here.
The DG, who came back to
the force headquarters here
after a visit to the ambush spot
on Thursday, said the Naxals
shot from a “close range” three
jawans after they were thrown
out of the vehicle by the impact
of the blast and lay almost lifeless on the road.
“No one was supposed to
know this. But some one saw
their movement and then passed
on the information (to Naxals),”
he said.
Prasad said he would not
like to hazard a guess from
where the information was
leaked as the TATA-709 vehicle
which was sent to fetch an air
cooler for an ailing Belgian
Malinois patrol dog of the force
could have been “spotted” while
either leaving the force camp at
a place called Renganar or from
a market place from where four
more troops, who were going to
their camp after leave, boarded
the ill-fated four-wheeler.
Seven Central Reserve
Police Force men were killed in
the deadly blast carried out by
Maoists that left a massive sixfeet deep crater on the road in
the worst Maoist violenceaffected Dantewada district of
the State.
The CRPF boss said it is suspected that Naxals dug a “fox
hole tunnel” from near a culvert
to plant almost 40-50kgs of
explosive beneath the ‘pucca’
black top road.
From April 14, on the 125th
birth anniversary of Ambedkar
?8>=44A=4FBB4AE824Q
=4F34;78
ontinuing with its agenda
of pro-rural push, the NDA
C
Government is embarking on
an 11-day ‘Gram Uday Se
Bharat Uday Abhiyan’ (Village
Self Governance campaign)
from April 14, on the 125th
birth anniversary of Dalit legend Bhimrao Ambedkar.
The mega campaign which
aims to generate nation-wide
efforts to enhance social harmony across villages, strengthen panchayati raj, promote
rural development and foster
farmers’ progress will be kicked
off by Prime Minister Narender
Modi from Ambedkar’s hometown Mhow in Madhya
Pradesh.
Sharing details with
reporters here, Union Minister
for Rural Development,
Panchayati Raj and Drinking
Water and Sanitation Birender
Singh said, the campaign will
culminate on April 24, marked
as National Panchayati Raj Day
with Modi’s address to all the
gram sabhas across the country from Jamshedpur.
The event will be beamed
to all the villages across the
States.
The 2016-17 Budget,
which the Government has
termed as pro-poor and pro-
rural, will act as a reference
point for the people in the villages, said the Minister.
During the 11-day long
campaign, special event ‘Social
Harmony Programme’ will be
conducted in all gram panchayats in collaboration with
Ministry of Panchayati Raj and
the Ministry of Social Justice
and Empowerment. In this
programme, villagers will hon-
?=BQ =4F34;78
iger State Madhya Pradesh
is all set to have world’s first
T
White Tiger Safari. These rare
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our Ambedkar and resolve to
strengthen social harmony, the
Minister added.
Subsequently, between
April 17- 20 ‘Village Farmer
Assemblies’ will be organised in
gram panchayats with an aim
to promote agriculture. In these
assemblies, information regarding schemes regarding agriculture such as the Fasal Bima
Yojna, Social Health Card etc.
will be provided to farmers and
their suggestions for bringing
about improvements in agriculture will be sought.
Preceding the main event
of gram sabha meetings for
Panchayati Raj Day, a national meeting of tribal women
gram panchayat presidents
from Fifth schedule areas of ten
States will be held at Vijaywada,
focusing on panchayat and
tribal development.
this gene mutation or the
hereditar y chromosomal
change.
Yet, It shares the same
zoological name is Panthera
tigris tigris as its yellow counterpart. Both are believed to
come from the same stock, said
the experts. Even their habit
and the habitat are the same,
and so is their life cycle ranging from 16-20 years.
With this event, the NDA
Government aims to penetrate
deep into the hinterland, rural
areas and Tier-2 towns and
showcase its achievements of
the last two years since its coming to power.
In this direction, the rural
people will be made aware of
the schemes aimed for their
development, said the Minister.
In the Budget 2016-17, the
Government has already taken
initiatives for development of
agriculture and the rural sector
in the country.
Agriculture and farmers’
welfare have received a sum of
C35,984 crores and for rural
development as a whole an
amount of C87,765 crores has
been assigned in the Budget for
2016-17. Apart from this, a
sum of C38,500 crores has been
allocated for MGNREGS.
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in December 18, 1969, a holiday was declared in local
schools and markets were
closed as a mark of respect for
the dead white tiger.
The white feline since then
had become a subject of
research by wildlife biologists,
said the experts. For the
researchers at large, the mystery is how the yellow tiger
turned white, and what caused
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Govindgarh with its white
tigers caught attention from far
and wide. In 1960, US
expressed its interest in white
tiger following which a delegation visited Rewa. The white
tigress “Mohini” reached
Washington from Govindgarh
and the then US President W
D Eisenhower was known to
have received her.
Further, when Mohan died
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felines are being reared in
Mukundpur Zoo and Rescue
Centre in Satna district of
Rewa division. It will be dedicated to the public on April 3,
by Environment Minister
Prakash Javadekar and other
senior Ministers.
Elated over the development, sources informed that
the zoo will have three white
tigers, including a male named
Raghu and two females —
Vindhya and Radha.
The charisma of white
tigers had been mesmerising
since it was first spotted in the
region in 1951. As per legend,
the then King Maharaj
Martand Singh during his
hunting trip, found a white
tiger cub from a cave near
River Komar in the Vindhyan
region. It was brought to the
Govindgarh Palace, where it
was tamed and named
“Mohan”.
BJP MLA, who took Kasooru
to Singh’s residence, was also
named in police records.
When contacted, Jitendra
Singh dismissed the allegations,
saying “as elected representatives, we are expected to meet
any public deputation that seeks
appointment and this particular deputation was led by three
MLAs including one exMinister of Jammu & Kashmir
who came to present a memorandum regarding demand for
scheduled tribe status.”
He outright rejected the
Congress charge that he “sheltered” the accused. Earlier too,
he had denied any connection
with Kasooru.
Submitting copies of the
newspaper reports as well as
the purported case documents,
AICC Legal Department
Secretary KC Mittal alleged
that the conduct of the Minister
in allowing the wanted accused
to surface at his residence and
having a photograph with him
was “unethical”.
“The facts in public
domain are of serious nature,
having adverse impact on the
dignity of Parliament, a prime
In its complaint, the AICC
claimed that Kasooru, a local
leader from Paddar and nine
others were accused in an FIR
of “murdering” a 52 year-oldLassa Khandey during the 2013
communal riots that took place
in Kishtwar, Jammu & Kashmir
in 2013.
The AICC urged the panel
to “take cognizance of the
facts” and the evidence
annexed and “expel” Union
Minister Singh as MP or pass
any other order, which may be
considered appropriate keeping
in view the nature of allegation.
8=B7>AC
ow shell out more to pay
for entry tickets for 116
monuments under the
Archaeological Survey of India
(ASI). The Union Culture
Ministry on Friday effected a
three-fold hike in the entry fee
for the monuments for domestic visitors and 100 per cent for
foreign tourists.
For the 32 ‘World Heritage
Monuments’, the ticket price
has been increased to C30
from C10 for the domestic
visitor, while the entry fee for
foreign nationals has been
hiked to C500 from C250.
As natives from South
Asian Association for Regional
Cooperation (SAARC) and
Bay of Bengal Initiative for
Multi-Sectoral Technical and
Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) countries are treated at
par with Indians, hence they
will charged similarly.
For monuments other than
the World Heritage ones, the
entry fee has been increased
three-fold to C15 from C5 for
the domestic visitor, while foreigners will have to pay C200
against C100.
“The enhancement comes
after a period of more than 15
years as the last increase took
place in 2000...The enhanced
rates are at par with entry fee
at monuments abroad,” the
official added.
Justifying the move, the
official said this would not only
boost the economy of the sector but also help in providing
better services and amenities to
tourists.
Last year, the Ministry
had announced that it would
implement the hike in entry
fee for monuments across the
country from November 1
but it was postponed due to
pressure from the tourism
lobby.
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?=BQ =4F34;78
he CBI on Friday started
the process of handing over
T
documents of over C5,000 crore
worth of assets and 79 luxury
cars of Pearls’ Group, seized by
it, to the special committee of
SEBI that will liquidate the
properties in order to refund
money to the defrauded
investors.
CBI sources said the
agency had recovered about
20,000 documents related to
the group’s properties estimated to be worth C5,000 crore
which was said to be in addition to the 66 offices located in
upscale localities in the national capital.
The agency had also taken
into its possession original
documents of 79 luxury cars
from PGF and PACL which
included Rolls Royce, Porsche
Cayene, Bentley, BMW 7-series
and handed over the documents to the committee.
The sources said C108
crore which has been frozen by
CBI and deposited at the Delhi
High Court in the case has also
been transferred to the SEBI
account.
The Supreme Court on
February 2 had appointed the
expert committee headed by
the former Chief Justice of
India RM Lodha to monitor
the sales of assets and refund of
money to the investors of
PACL.
Meanwhile, bail pleas by
Pearls group executives
Gurmeet Singh and Subroto
Bhattacharya were rejected by
a sessions court here.
The Securities and
Exchange Board of India
(SEBI) has initiated recovery
proceedings against PACL Ltd
and its promoters and directors, including Nirmal Singh
Bhangoo, for their failure to
refund C49,100 crore to
investors.
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N
ow that Vijay Mallya
has returned to the
headlines, it is
important to turn
to a question that
did not receive adequate attention while the storm raged. What
does the entire episode reflect in
terms of capitalism and its legitimacy, and the country’s prevailing economic system? Mallya
borrowed, allegedly on terms
that should never have been
given, and has not repaid much
of it. He has not paid salaries to
a section of his employees and,
allegedly, been a tax-defaulter. It
is hazardous to judge a system by
an individual’s conduct and competence. But for the massive
recession that began in 2008 and
is considered only second in its
severity to the Great Depression
that began in 1929, one would
have regarded the Mallya episode
as yet another of the many controversies that bedevil most
countries’ economies. Also, the
system he manipulated so
brazenly, no doubt with the full
complicity of those who did not
protect its integrity which they
should have, has been showing
signs of pervasive corruption for
a long time.
An important common element in the 2008 crisis and the
Mallya scandal is reckless lending by banks. In the case of the
latter, it has led to a massive
accumulation of outstanding
loans to the tune of thousands of
crores of rupees. In the case of
the former, it led to a meltdown
of the American economy which
then travelled to the rest of the
world, spreading havoc. The
question arises whether reckless
lending can undermine this
country’s banking system, pushing the entire economy is into a
crippling recession.
One must start by examining
the causes of the 2008 crisis. At
the root of it was an enormous
housing bubble fuelled by mortgage deals that offered alluringly low interest rates at the beginning but had built-in provisions
for their subsequent steep
increase and repeated refinancing, requiring high fees to be paid
at every stage. Mortgage dealers
deliberately went for the poor
and poorly-educated Americans
who, like most of their compatriots, longed to possess their own
homes. Many of the victims,
who came to be called subprime borrowers because they
had low and/or irregular
incomes, were unable to detect
the hidden dangers; some, who
expressed doubts, were disarmed
by false assurances.
These were high-risk loans
which Wall Street, the banks and
their executives blinked at — in
fact, encouraged — not only
because of the provisions for
steep interest escalation but
because they securitised the
mortgages, repackaged them in
many ways, and sold to one
another and banks and financial
institutions outside the US, making large profits at every step.
And high profits meant high
bonuses and pay hikes.
Joseph Stiglitz, who exposes
all this with remarkable clarity in
Free Fall: Free Markets and the
Sinking of the Global Economy,
writes, “Indeed, many of the new
‘innovative’ products based on
mortgages had some critical features in common: while they
may not have helped borrowers
manage risk, they were designed
to shift as much risk away from
the bank as possible and to generate as many fees as possibleoften in ways that the borrower
was never really aware of. The
products were also designed,
where necessary, to get round
regulator y and accounting
restraints that might restrict
lending and risk-taking.”
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The bubble was bound to
burst sooner than later because
many people could not pay the
rising interest rates and recurring refinancing fees built into
their mortgage agreements. The
process was accelerated by
declining prices of houses following glut of new ones. The
result was payment defaults and
foreclosures. The effect of the
bubble’s collapse was disaster on
a national scale because, as
Joseph Stiglitz puts, the US
economy “was out of kilter:
two-thirds to three-quarters of
the economy (GDP) was housing related: Constructing new
houses or buying contents to fill
them, or borrowing against old
houses to finance construction.
It was unsustainable-and it wasn't sustained. The breaking of
the bubble at first affected the
worst mortgages (the sub-prime
mortgages, lent to low income
individuals) but soon affected all
residential real estate.”
Crookedness was doubtless
an important cause of the crisis.
As Stiglitz says, “The wheeling
and dealing of the mortgage
industry in the United States will
be remembered as the great
scam of the early twenty-first
century.” Mortgage originators,
B>D=318C4
however, were not the only guilty
ones. At least as culpable were
Wall Street companies which,
besides exploiting the borrowers,
had innovated financial instruments that “had allowed the
banks to hide much of their bad
lending, to move it off their
balance sheets.”
Crookedness, however, does
not thrive in a void. It requires
an environment that condones
— if not encourages — it and
provides those so inclined to
resort to it with at least some
measure of impunity. A system
that places profit maximisation
above all else, including ethical
conduct, and lacks regulatory
mechanisms that can keep delinquents and delinquent and reckless banking practices in check,
provides a fertile soil for it. The
US, as Stiglitz points out, had a
fairly effective regulatory system
in place until the 1980s, which
witnessed its systemic whittling
down under the Reagan presidency. The process continued in
the 1990s and the first decade of
this century and did not spare
even provisions for restricting
predatory lending in the subprime sector.
All this was the result of an
economic approach that celebrated the sovereignty of the
market, ascribed to it powers of
self-correction, and of ensuring
stability for the economy and
prosperity for the people.
Regulations were regarded as
unnecessary obstructions that
only hobbled the economy. The
crisis has discredited this ideology which has been described as
market fundamentalism. But its
proponents continue defending
it blaming the crisis on individual delinquency, an unforeseen
accident and so on, overlooking
the fact that delinquencies
require opportunities to create
havoc and the numerous crises
that have occurred till date
debunk the idea of an accident.
In India, money had been
lent not to sub-prime borrowers
but corporate giants who have
defaulted. Sound banking practices have not been followed—
whether due to political pressure
or corruption among bank officials. Despite the availability of
Government bail-outs for public
sector banks, a crisis situation
may develop if things do not
change. A message has to be sent
to bank managers to behave and
corporate entities to repay. It
would be more difficult to insulate banks from political pressure
to sanction bank loans.
FY_\U^SUcdU]cVb_]
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Sir — This refers to the report, “Out
of the world! Windies put India out
of WT20 Cup” (April 1). India’s loss
to the West Indies in the T20 World
Cup semi-final, after a magnificent
knock from Virat Kohli, can be
widely attributed to the two let-offs
for Simmons due to over-stepping.
However, one should also
think what would have happened
if Kohli had been run out twice in
the same over as soon as he came
in to bat, despite both chances
being very easy pickings. Perhaps
this truly was a divine interjection
to level the ‘playing field’.
NS Rajan
Bangalore
4UcdY^ibe\Uc
Sir — This refers to the report,
“Out of the world! Windies put
India out of WT20 Cup” (April 1).
One had never even dreamt that
India would lose the match to the
West Indies in the T20 World Cup
semi-final. After having set a target of 193 runs for West Indies, we
felt that it was a walk-over, but destiny had something else for us. The
batting of Lendl Simmons and
Andre Russell paved the way for
the victory of the West Indians.
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1P]VP[^aT
Opener Johnson Charles too
contributed well by scoring 52 runs.
The 193-run target seems to be the
highest total achieved in a chase by
the Caribbeans in the knock-out of
T20. And no team has ever won a
T20 international at Wankhede
Stadium after losing the toss.
R Gururajan
Ooty
@b_eTTYQc`_bQ
Sir — This refers to the editorial,
“Bridging the India-EU gap”
(April 1). Prime Minister
Narendra Modi’s direct and seemingly effortless outreach to the
Indian diaspora in Brussels makes
for a commendable performance.
While interacting with the
Indian community in Belgium,
the Indian Prime Minister outlined
some of the achievements of his
Government in the past year. He
also subtly pointed out to the
tremendous loss of national time,
manpower and resources — under
successive leaderships in the past,
which failed to keep a check on corruption or even provide for a basic
standard of living to a vast majority of the Indian population.
Modi’s hour-long address was
keenly perceived by a receptive
audience, with a sense of pride and
satisfaction. The honour in being
‘Indian’ could be felt among the
large gathering. This explains
Modi’s success in sharing people’s
Mann ki Baat as much as his own,
which surely deserves full praise
and appreciation.
Isha Shah
New Delhi
5]`\_iUUcµg_Uc
Sir — This refers to the article,
“Labour reforms will send positive
signals” (March 31) by Gautam
Mukherjee.
The
NDA
Government’s proposal to introduce
new labour laws is welcome, but one
hopes that the Government looks
into this issue from the employee
point of view too. In small sectors,
many employers are not paying
their staff on time.
While the employer’s lifestyle
is not affected, it is the employee
who is hit hard. Dearness
Allowance is a benefit that only
Government employees enjoy. The
situation is worsening day-by-day.
The young are vulnerable without
jobs; even if they have a job, they
are not paid on time. Hire-and-fire
is the current policy.
Rajendra Vora
Via web
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s per media reports, leaders of
A
United Democratic Madhesi
Front have given ultimatum to the
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Government of Nepal to address
their grievances by mid-April. They
have threatened to launch an
unprecedented massive agitation
again as they call their last-ditch
effort “now or never”. Eminent leaders from Madhesi-based political
parties have openly declared that
they could go to the extent of reimposing economic blockade to
pressurise Kathmandu to provide
them their due.
In early February 2016, the
Madhesi Front leaders had unilaterally opened Birgunj-Raxaul trading
point after 135 days of blockade with
the expectation that Kathmandu
would favourably reconsider their
demands for the formation of two
States under the federal structure,
ensure proportional representation
in Government bodies, facilitate
electoral constituencies both for the
House of Representatives and the
National Assembly on the basis of
population and correct citizenship
— related discriminatory clauses. But
then no significant effort was made
by the Government to address their
grievances thereafter.
Until the economic blockade
was lifted, the entire population of the
country in one or the other way experienced its heat due to severe shortage of goods, including the essentials
like petroleum products and LPG. To
counter this move, Kathmandu tried
to play “China card” by allowing
China to open trade and transit
routes through Nepal’s northern border to provide essential items to
Nepal. It also entered into agreement
with China for the import of petroleum products. But given the geoeconomic realities, China did little to
avert the crisis.
However, the ruling elites in
Kathmandu is not interested in
resolving the Madhesi crisis as this
gives them enough excuse to foment
anti-India hysteria in the Himalayan
nation and get adequate backup
from certain sections of the society
to perpetuate their control over the
Madhesis, Tharus and other indigenous population. Of course, the
Government amended certain provisions of the Constitution and set up
a political committee to re-draw the
provincial boundaries. But the
Madhesi Front leaders rejected such
measures as they believe that their
issues would not be addressed
through such superficial measures.
In the meantime, the Nepali
Congress after the 13th Convention
of the party is making more serious
endeavour to woo the Madhesis as it
fears it may lose its vote bank in this
region. Mahesh Acharya of the Nepali
Congress admitted that the formation
of political mechanism to address
demand for the provincial boundaries
was unilateral in character and so it
was likely to widen gulf between the
Government and the Madhesi parties. Also, the newly elected general
secretary of the Nepali Congress,
Shashanka Koirala, has claimed that
his party is committed to resolving
the Madhesi issues through “consensus, collaboration and trust building” as Madhesis happen to be the
cradle of democracy.
In New Delhi, there is a growing
perception that that permanent peace
in Nepal cannot be maintained unless
the Madhesis are given legitimate
rights within the framework of the
new Constitution. There is a feeling
that the Madhesis would not remain
silent as long as the State’s discrimination towards them continues. New
Delhi is highly concerned that any
escalation of conflict right across its
border in Terai is likely to make its
impact on India. The more the
Madhesis are excluded by the State in
Nepal, the more there will be the tendency for them to secure active support from the border inhabitants as
well as the establishments in Patna,
Lucknow or even Delhi. This is but
natural as the Madhesis have close
relations with the people across the
border in India.
Importance of Nepal in India’s
foreign relations cannot be undermined. Nepal is not what the other
neighbours are for India. India’s border with China, Pakistan, Bangladesh
and Myanmar is sealed. Even with Sri
Lanka there is sea between the two
countries and so there cannot be
direct impact of turmoil from one
country to the other. India’s relations
with Bhutan are intact as it is a stable nation. But Nepal is the only
country in India’s neighbourhood
with which it has open border ever
since the history of civilization.
Therefore, any turmoil in Nepal will
have direct bearing on India.
Today, Nepal is of biggest concern for India. New Delhi can’t
afford to ignore the Madhesi issues.
Therefore, New Delhi reiterated its
position to Kathmandu during the
recently concluded meeting of the
SAARC Foreign Ministers in Nepal.
However, a section of the people
in India treat the Madhesi issue
purely as an internal affair of Nepal
and so they don’t want this country
to get involved. Have those people
ever thought as to what would have
been their own position if they were
like Madhesis in India? Would they
have tolerated such discriminatory
provision in which the Indians marrying with foreigners could have little scope either for their spouse or the
children to reach top positions in
Government jobs? Will the Punjabis
or Bengalese ever accept their homeland to be mixed with other States?
Will the Biharis or Uttar Pradeshis
ever tolerate if they had the same
number of representatives in the Lok
Sabha or the Rajya Sabha as the States
like Sikkim, Nagaland or Arunachal
Pradesh? Will any Indian tolerate if
electoral constituencies for Parliament
are ever fixed on the basis of geography instead of population? But this is
what is happening in Nepal with the
Madhesis. Most of their ancestral land
has been cut into pieces and merged
with the hill states in the seven
provincial model of federalism. Also,
the electoral constituencies in the
country have been fixed not on the
democratic principle of population,
but more on the basis of geography.
Recent developments show that
the Madhesis are being left in the
lurch. Their struggle against the
State for the restoration of their rightful place in the Constitution has not
attracted enough support from India.
But this does not mean that New
Delhi has totally given up its interest in Madhesis. It cannot afford to
do that considering the fact that the
agitation is still continuing across the
border. Only the border that was
blocked by the Madhesi Front leaders on Birgubnj-Raxaul and other
such trade points along the NepalIndia border is open, but their
protests continue.
During the six-month-long
protests, the Madhesis have become
more aware of their rights. More than
that, the youth and women, cutting
across caste, religion and other barriers, have become more radical and
so their movement to secure rightful
place in the Constitution through
peaceful means cannot be suppressed.
By all indications, it appears that
Kathmandu has been given a chance
to address the grievances of
Madhesis. If Kathmandu ignores
this golden opportunity, the Madhesi
Front leaders might be compelled to
take more stringent measures even to
the extent of re-imposing economic
blockade along Nepal-India border,
which could prove disastrous for
Nepal and also affect India to a certain extent. To avoid this chaotic situation, New Delhi needs to intensify its engagement with Kathmandu
to ensure the Madhesis enjoy the
same treatment as other people in the
country and are considered an essential element in the progress of the
nation. By doing so, India could contribute in making Nepal a peaceful,
prosperous and stable nation in its
neighbourhood.
(The writer is Executive Director
of Centre for Economic and Technical
Studies, Kathmandu, Nepal)
?4AB?42C8E4
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he current political crisis in
Brazil is centred around a
T
multi-billion dollar scandal
probe, popularly known as ‘Lava
Jato’ or Operation Car Wash, an
investigation launched by Judge
Srgio Moro as early as in March
2014. It is focused on Brazil’s
huge State-controlled oil company Petrobras’ contracting
process under which its executives and Government officials
allegedly conspired to award
massively inflated and lucrative
contracts to companies working
for it. President Dilma
Rousseff ’s political trouble
began in early 2015, when allegations surfaced that she has
indulged in political graft and
bribery while chairing the
Petrobras Board of Directors
from 2003 to 2010. It is also
alleged that Rousseff had used
funds from Petrobras to support
her second term presidential
election campaign in 2014.
Besides the President, top politicians from almost all parties and
billionaire businessmen, the
most important personality
who is being implicated in the
Operation Car Wash is Brazil’s
ex-President Lula. The political
climax of the investigation
came, when Lula was brought to
a local police station on March
4, 2016, under the warrant of a
judge, called ‘Conducao coercitiva’ (Bench warrant) which
implies that a person is commanded to appear before
authorities to give testimony.
The prosecutors allege that Lula
had received massive illicit benefits from the kickback schemes
of Petrobras while he was in
office from 2003 to 2010. What
investigators have found is that
this is perhaps the biggest
money laundering and political
corruption scandal in Brazil’s
history so far.
The Brazilian political fiasco has reached a critical stage.
Rousseff is receiving renewed
calls from international
observers and millions of
Brazilians to step down from
office. The latest public opinion polls conducted by
Datafolha Institute indicate
that 68 per cent of her countrymen want her to quit. But
despite having constant trouble
in managing the top political
hot seat, she has redoubled her
effort to hold on, saying she
“will never resign”.
The current political crisis
is reminiscent of another historic street march more than
half a century ago which
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ensued in a military coup of
March 31, 1964 to Brazil.
How it all began?
More or about a decade
ago, Brazil, the largest country
of South America was revered
as a “role model” for the rest of
the developing nations in the
continent. Its economy was
moving upward and a huge
trade volume of raw materials
and commodities with China
helped the country come out of
the long economic slowdown.
In fact, Brazil had a longdrawn agenda which propelled
its economic growth with hightech industries, extensive training and development of its
engineering professionals, etc.
These measures led the nation
to become a true leader of the
developing world. The most
remarkable feature of this period was an innovative welfare
programme known as “Bolsa
Familia” (Family Allowance)
with its sole emphasis on nutrition and education that spearheaded the fastest improvement in the social and economic sectors. Astonishingly,
“Bolsa Familia” fought a crusade through decades old stagnant Brazilian economy to wit-
ness the light of the day; it lifted nearly 40 million people out
of poverty. Consequently, this
success translated into a second-term electoral victory for
Lula. This further helped in
bringing his protégé Dilma
Rousseff to power to continue
the reign of Worker’s Party.
Despite having the gains of
the last decade, millions of protesters across 300 cities in
Brazil have upped the ante
against Lula and Rousseff,
demanding her immediate resignation and a jail term for her
mentor. Majority of the protesters are middle class whites,
who have long enmity towards
the PT and for its populist Leftwing economic policies. Also a
very disturbing sign of the
protest is that a section of
demonstrators are raising slogans for return of the military
rule in Brazil. But thankfully,
today’s military in Brazil is contented with their regular job,
displaying no ambition to play
an active role in politics.
Despite Brazil’s rich and the
poor living cheek-by-jowl for
decades, the gap between them
has become wider enough to
pose a serious blow to the survival of the country’s political
system in case the antiGovernment protests prolong.
This and many other protest
movements in the recent past
have brought to light the deep
fissures already developed
between the rich and the poor,
the black and the white. On the
other hand, the proGovernment protesters comprise people belonging to
mixed-race and working class
who have mainly benefitted
from social welfare schemes
launched by the PT in the past.
To them, the anti-Government
rallies calling for the impeachment of the President is equivalent to an attempted coup
against a popularly elected
Government of the country.
Both the demonstrating factions display their sharp differences in the colours they are
wearing as well — those carrying green & yellow Brazil’s
flag and banners calling for
President’s ouster; and those
wearing red supporting the
Government and its allies.
Could she be really
impeached?
Taking into account the
strength of the Opposition in
Brazil and their dubious record
of corruption in public life,
possibly Rousseff is all set to
retain her presidency at least
for the time being. It seems
there are only three possible
exits for Rousseff from the
Plantalto, the presidential
palace. First of all, it would be
the sole responsibility of the
Justice Moro-led investigation
team to prove that the
President herself has obstructed or blocked the Petrobras
investigation by all possible
means. Although a Senator
belonging to her party claims
that she has obstructed the
investigation process, allegations are yet to be proved in the
court of law. Apart from this,
her deliberate attempt to safeguard Lula from the prosecution trial may surely embolden grounds for impeachment.
Second, the country’s top electoral court (TSE) may call for
a fresh Presidential poll provided it could come to the conclusion that Rousseff ’s 2014 reelection campaign was funded
by bribes received from the
Petrobras scandal. It is a cumbersome process which might
take considerably a longer time.
The TSE has traditionally
turned a blind eye to campaign
finance violations in the past,
and over a period of three
decades, it has taken action
against only a few politicians of
lower order. Even if it takes a
decision to remove Rousseff,
the decision of the TSE could
be appealed in the Supreme
Federal Tribunal (STF) which
may not agree with the TSE.
Third, Rousseff may honorably
step down on her own before
she is forced to step down
through the established constitutional mechanism of the
country. It seems quite unlikely at the moment.
Apart from the third option,
the rest of the two possibilities for
removing Rousseff might either
be difficult or ineffective as the
time passes by. Though the differences between the Right and
the Left are all out on the street,
the move to “Fora Dilma” or
‘“Dilma out” may not be successful as the Opposition is
widely polarised and too tainted to vigorously pursue the
issue. In the event of her departure, Vice-President Michel
Temer, the leader of the Party of
the Brazilian Democratic
Movement (PMDB), would take
over as the President as per the
constitutional provisions.
Unfortunately, there are allegations pending against every single politician in the presidential
succession: Vice-President
Temer, Chamber President
Eduardo Cunha, Senate
President Renan Calheiros, STF
President Ricardo Lewandowski,
as well as Senator Aecio Neves,
Rousseff ’s rival in 2014 presidential election. All of them are
directly or indirectly implicated
in the Petrobras scandal.
Interestingly, out of a total of 594
members of the Brazilian
Congress, 352 are currently facing criminal cases. Therefore,
Rousseff ’s impeachment might
open an opportunity for the voters to choose a new President
(most probably a tainted politician), but the same old corrupt
and criminal politicians would
continue to rule the country’s
Congress till their term ends in
2019. Thus, she could fairly
claim legitimacy to continue in
office as none of the allegations
made against her justified the
impeachment immediately.
Indeed impeachment is more of
a political game played carefully than a purely legal one. The
ruling PT has already created a
strong popular narrative about
coup mongering (golpismo) of
the Opposition parties against
the Rousseff Government, particularly targeting PSDB and
the DEM that had their historical ties with the past authoritarian regimes of Brazil. The
probe against the ruling coalition
and Lula is termed as a “politicised probe” by many independent observers. Also there is
strong evidence to suggest that
politicians have tried to influence
the ongoing investigation
process. In fact, the head of the
Impeachment Committee has
suggested that the mood of the
street protesters should be carefully assessed by the
Congressmen concerned while
deliberating on the charges
against the President. This simply suggests that it is a ploy to
oust an unpopular elected leader
by the Opposition. Rousseff
built one more ring of protection
by inducting Lula as her Chief of
Staff on March 16; Lula would
surely help the President survive.
Lula being the Chief of the Staff
(equivalent to a Minister rank)
is enjoying partial immunity
from immediate prosecution,
and he could only be tried by the
Supreme Court. Finally, the Lava
Jato suspects are given extra and
crucial mileage by the judiciary
while flouting the legal norms in
the process of investigation.
Justice Moro has released the
recorded conversations between
Lula and his associates, including President Rousseff. This
clearly violates an established
judicial norm that only the
Supreme Court may disclose
such conversations in case one
of the parties (currently the
President) has legal immunity.
This all would make Rousseff ’s
stay longer unless an extraordinary mass mobilisation takes
place to oust her.
The only fear is that if this
investigation is watered down or
somehow managed politically to
cover up the “entire episode”
through smart manoeuvres (it
seems so till now), the same old
political and the business elite
would continue ruling the sixth
largest economy of the world,
help entrenching corruption
and misrule — the emerging
rule of law in Brazil. But very
cautiously Rousseff once
acknowledged in early 2014
that “this (scandal) may change
the country for ever”. So let’s
wait and watch what “Fora
Dilma” awaits Brazil!
(The writer is an
independent political analyst
based in Delhi)
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H
olding that it was fundamental right of women to
enter temples and it was the
State’s duty to protect it, the
Bombay High Court on Friday
directed the Maharashtra
Government to take “all necessary steps” to implement
strictly the Maharashtra Hindu
Place of Worship (Entry
Authorisation) Act 1956 which
prescribes six months’ imprisonment to those prohibiting
anyone from entering the place
of worship.
Invoking Articles 14, 15
and 25 of the Constitution, A
Division Bench of Chief Justice
DH Waghela and Justice MS
Sonak asked the BJP-led saffron
alliance Government to take
“pro-active” steps to implement women’s rights “are fully
realised and not allowed to be
encroached upon by any
authority".
On a day when the State
Government assured the High
Court that it would implement scrupulously Maharashtra Hindu Place of Worship
(Entry Authorisation) Act
1956, Chief Justice Waghela
noted: “The Maharashtra
Government shall take all necessary steps to implement the
Act. Ultimately it is the fundamental right of a woman and
our (Government) fundamental duty to protect this right”.
In a landmark direction
that will help eliminate gender
bias at places of worship in the
State, the HC bench said: "The
acting Advocate General has
assured the court that the government is against gender discrimination. Keeping in view
Article 14, 15 and 25 of the
Constitution of India, the
Government can take proactive steps to ensure that the
fundamental rights of a citizen
are fully realised and not
allowed to be encroached upon
by any authority".
Hearing a Public Interest
Litigation filed by senior advocate Nilima Vartak and activist
Vidya Bal challenging prohibiting the entry of women in
the Shani Shingnapur temple,
the HC bench directed the
secretary of Maharashtra's
Home Department to ensure
that the policy and purpose of
the Act “is fully carried out, and
directions are issued to all district
collectors
and
Superintendents of Police”.
Earlier, Acting Advocate
General Rohit Deo gave an
undertaking to the high court
saying that it would take “all
necessary steps” to comply
with the provisions of the Act
which prescribes a punishment of six months’ imprisonment for those preventing anyone from entering a temple.
"The provisions of the Act
shall be scrupulously implemented. The Government is
completely against gender discrimination. A circular or
directive shall be issued to all
district authorities informing
them about the Act and its provisions," the acting AG told the
high court.
The HC bench, which had
on Wednesday made a telling
observation that “no law prevents women from entering a
place of worship and if men
are allowed, then women too
should be permitted”, averred
that while the Maharashtra
Government’s statement was
“good enough”, it was necessary for the state administration “to strengthen the hands
of the authority who is on the
field”.
“Making a statement that
the Act and its provisions will
be implemented and enforced
and that you (Government) are
against gender discrimination
is good enough. But you have
to strengthen the hands of the
authority who is on field and
has to take action as per the
Act,” the HC bench said.
While disposing of the PIL,
the HC bench made it a pointed that the direction it had
passed to the State Government
was general in nature and not
specific to any particular temple, the Judges noted: "This
court can only pass a general
direction. We cannot go into
individual or specific cases. If
any person has grievance that
the Act is not being implemented, then he or she can
approach local authority with
their complaint".
During the course of his
submission before the high
court, Acting AG Deo clarified
that the provisions of the Act
would not be of any help if a
temple in the State did not
allow any person, irrespective
of their gender, inside the sanctum sanctorum. “However, if a
temple allows men in the sanctum sanctorum but prohibits
women, then this Act and its
provisions can be used,” he said.
Describing the high court’s
direction to the state government to ensure the entry of
women into the temples as the
“victory of women power”,
Bhumata Rangranai Brigade
(BRB) convenor Trupti Desai –
who and her fellow activists
had been campaigning for the
past three months against the
gender bias at temples in the
state, announced in the afternoon that she and colleagues
would go to the Shani
Shingnapur temple on
Saturday.
“We welcome today’s ruling of the Bombay High Court.
This is a victory of women
power and the campaign we
had launched. In view of
today’s ruling, my other fellow
women activists and I will go
to the Shani Shingnapur temple and offer prayers and offer
prayers to the presiding deity at
the platform,” Desai said.
Replying to a question,
Desai said that she had not spoken to either the temple management or the Shingapur villagers who had in the past
opposed the entry of women
inside the Shani temple. “I
have not spoken to the temple
management or the villagers.
Unlike in the past, this time
around, the state Government
is on our side. We will tell the
police this evening that we
intend to go the Shani temple
and ask them to facilitate our
smooth entry up to the platform near the presiding deity,”
she said.
It may be recalled that on
January 26, 500-odd activists
were detained by the
Ahmednagar police at Supe toll
naka, while they were on their
way to storm the Shani
Shingnapur temple and force
entry inside the temple’s sanctum sanctorum.
Subsequently on March 7,
more than 100 women activists
owing affiliation to the BRB, led
by Trupti Desai, were detained
when they were on their way
from Pune to Nashik to storm
the Trimbakeswar temple seeking an entry into its sanctum
sanctorum.
The failed attempt by the
BRB women activists to storm
the Shani Shingnapur temple
on the occasion of Republic
Day had come in the wake of
a sensation that a woman from
Pune had created by breaking
a five-century-old taboo,
climbed up to “chauthara” (a
platform) housing the idol of
Lord Shani on November 28
last year.
The act of her performing
puja had been captured on the
CCTV of the temple the following morning. Irked by the
incident, the temple management sacked seven security
personnel and “purified” the
idol by performing an
“abhisheka” with milk on the
following day.
Ironically enough, the
protest action by BRB had
come a fortnight after the temple management created history of sorts by electing unanimously Anita Chandrahas
Shetye as the first-ever woman
chairperson of the temple trust.
After her election as the
chairperson of the temple
trust on January 11, Anita
Shetye had announced that
she would continue enforce
the five-century-old tradition
of barring women from
climbing up to “chauthara”
housing the presiding deity to
offer prayers.
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T
he authorities in Kashmir
closed down National
Institute of Technology (NIT)
after clashes broke out between
sections of students over Indian
cricket team’s defeat in the semifinals of the T20 World Cup in
Mumbai Thursday night.
The NIT, located at Nigeen
in Hazratbal area of Srinagar, in
the vicinity of University of
Kashmir campus, has predominantly non-local students
on rolls. Sources said the clashes erupted when some
Kashmiri students celebrated
the Indian team’s defeat.
They said the non-local
students came out of hostels
and chanted slogans in favour
of Indian team and marched
carrying national flag. The
authorities on Friday closed
entry gates of the NIT when the
non-local students began
protests inside the campus.
They were demanding adequate security.
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“In view of the prevailing
indiscipline created by the students, the Institute is closed till
further orders from today, the
1st of April, 2016. The students
are, therefore, directed to vacate
the hostels,” Registrar NIT, FA
Mir said.
He said the decision has
been taken after the agitating
students refused to maintain
discipline despite repeated
requests by the Institute authorities as well as the local administration,” he said.
Many non-local students
updated the goings-on inside
the campus on social networking sites. This created
panic among their families
and relatives.
However, police said the
situation has been brought
under control. A police official
said that some miscreants tried
to create law and order problem in the Institute. “The situation was brought under control and everything is normal
now,” he said.
The incident took place in
the backdrop of Indian’s cricket team’s defeat at the hands of
West Indies at Wankhade
Stadium, Mumbai. People in
several parts of Srinagar and
major towns of Kashmir Valley
celebrated India’s ouster as
youngsters danced on streets
and firecrackers were burst.
In many areas, pro-West
Indies slogans were chanted.
Such scenes were also witnessed
inside the Kashmir University
and NIT campuses also.
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final year student of the
Indira
Gandhi
A
Government Dental College,
Jammu was suspended by the
college authorities following
complaints by the fellow students that he allegedly thrashed
students and also burnt down
Indian Tricolour after India
was ousted out of the T-20
World Cup semi-final match in
Mumbai late Thursday night.
According to college authorities, the trouble on the campus
started around 11 pm on
Thursday night after India was
defeated in the T-20 World cup
semi-final match.
A final year student who is
a close relative of former
Congress Minister allegedly
grabbed Indian Tricolour from
one of the students and reportedly burnt it down minutes
after the students and staff
members dispersed after the
match was over.
The students had sought
special permission to watch
cricket match inside the college
auditorium on big screen and
the permission was granted by
the college authorities after
senior staff members also
agreed to remain present to
enjoy the cricket match.
Initially college authorities
resisted students pressure to
suspend the nuisance maker
but when local leaders also
intervened and staged protest
demonstrations the college
Principal submitted a written
compliant to the nearby police
station seeking action against
the student.
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udiciary in Tamil Nadu experienced a jolt with the Madras
JHigh
Court suspending a judicial magistrate from service on
Thursday, hardly 48 hours after
he acquitted two granite companies of all charges of illegal
mining and ordering “criminal
prosecution” against an honest
and young IAS officer for initiating legal actions against the
companies.
On Thursday, the Madras
High Court had sacked from
service an additional district
judge for granting bail in an
"unusual manner" to a doctor
arrested for his involvement in
kidney racket in the State.
KV Mahendra Boopathy,
judicial magistrate, Melur in
Madurai district had acquitted
PRP granites and another
company of all charges of illegal granite mining levelled
against them by Anshul
Mishra, former district collector. Mishra’s complaint was in
continuation of the report submitted to the Government by
his predecessor U Sahayam
who found that the State
Government suffered losses to
the tune of C16, 338 crore due
to illegal mining.
Mishra too was transferred to an innocuous post
within days of filing the complaint. On Tuesday, Bopathy
acquitted PRP Granites owned
by mining don P R Palanisamy
of all charges and ordered
criminal prosecution against
Anshul Mishra "for making
false statements on oath".
Meanwhile, P N Prakash, a
judge of the Madras High
Court, 'smelled a rat' in the
way Boopathy was handling
the granite mining case and
called for either contempt proceedings or disciplinary action
against the latter.
Thursday saw two senior
district judges, A M Basheer
Ahmed and P Saravanan mak-
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ing a surprise visit to
Boopathy's court. They also
held discussions with all senior
Government officials in the
district. By Friday noon,
Sanjay Kishan Kaul, the Chief
Justice of Madras High Court
(CJ), after carefully studying
the report submitted by the
senior judges ordered the suspension Boopathy. The CJ has
appointed another judge in
place of Boopathy.
R Anburaj, additional district judge, Dharmapuri, was
on Thursday sacked from service by a full Bench led by
Justice Kaul of the Madras
High Court on charges of
impropriety and irregularities
in granting bail to a doctor
arrested for his involvement in
kidney trade.
Dr V M Ganehsan, a
nephrologist based in Salem
had been arrested by the
Dharmapuri Police in June
2013 on charges of cheating,
forgery and criminal intimidation. Ganeshan's lawyer had
filed a bail application in the
Dharmapuri district court on
June 21, 2013. S Vanangamudy,
principal district judge, posted
the case for hearing for June 25,
2013 and proceeded on leave
for two days.
Anburaj, the additional
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criminal cases if any against
them. This has helped the voters a lot to know about their
candidates.
Anant Kumar Singh, the
Independent MLA from
Mokama is not only rich in
muscle and fire power but also
has assets of over C28 crore.
Singh, who was earlier JD (U)
MLA was denied ticket this
time by the party for his role in
the brutal murder of a youth
before the polls, but contested
Independent and won from
behind the bars. He is still in jail
and took oath of the membership of the Assembly only on
Thursday.
Of the 71 JD(U) MLAs, 53
and of 80 MLAs of RJD 51 are
crorepatis. Altogether 29 MLAs
of BJP and 18 of Congress also
figure in the list of 162 legislators whose assets are worth
over C1crore.
However, the case of the
richest MLA Poonam Devi
Yadav is quite mysterious. In
2010 Assembly election, which
she had won, she had declared
total assets worth C1,87,71,624.
Now with over C41 crore, she
registered a sharp increase of
2103% in her assets. Similarly
Purnima Yadav, Congress MLA
from Gobindpur, has assets
worth C16.15 crore. In 2010,
when she was JD(U) MLA she
had assets worth only C2.78
crore.
There are many other
MLAs falling in this category
who amassed huge wealth in
just five years. They include
Vijay Kumar Sinha (BJP)
from C4 to C15 crore, Lalit
Kumar Yadav of RJD from
C2.83 to C12.90 crore,
Avaneesh Kumar Singh of
BJP from C1.25 to C8.18 crore,
Veena Devi of the same party
from C4 to C10.72 crore and
Shivjee Rai of JD(U) from C74
lakh to C7.36 crore. Faiyaz
Ahmad of RJD however had
assets worth C15.83 crore in
2010 but now showed assets
of C10.43 crore, a decrease of
over C5 crore.
district judge, who was holding the charge of the principal
district judge took up the
matter for hearing on June 24,
2013 itself and granted bail to
the accused. Following allegations of irregularities in the
granting of the bail, the
Madras High C ourt's
Registrar (Vigilance) held a
probe which revealed that
Anburaj granted the bail by
stating that the Public
Prosecutor had dropped the
contention. But the PP had
denied this in his statement.
The Principal District Judge
who returned from leave ruled
that the bail was not legally
sustainable and hence dismissed the bail plea.
The two incidents in quick
succession come about within
weeks of C S Karnan, a judge
in the Madras High Court,
staying the Chief Justice of
India's (CJI) order transferring
him to the Calcutta High
Court. The Apex court had
then issued an order restraining Karnan from doing any
judicial work. The issue was
sorted out following Karnan
calling on the Chief Justice of
India and tendering apologies
for his "erroneous action" and
explaining it as a fall-out of
mental frustration.
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ut of 243 Bihar MLAs, 162
are crorepati. Poonam
Devi Yadav of JD(U) from
Khagaria tops the list of the
crorepati legislators. She has
total declared assets of
C41,34,45,969 of which
C2,15,70,969 are movable
assets. Closely following her
comes Ajeet Sharma of the
Congress. The MLA from
Bhagalpur has total assets
worth C40,57,35,981.
These facts have been
compiled by Bihar Election
Watch (BEW) and Association
for Democratic Rights (ADR),
released on Friday by Patna
High Court judge Samrendra
Pratap Singh who was happy
to note that after the Election
Commission's (EC) directive
that all the contesting people
are supposed to file their
details including assets, educational qualification and
?C8
he people of Gujarat would
now heave a sigh of relief as
they will avail CNG, PNG and
even electricity at reduced rate
from the new fiscal.
While the Gujarat Government on Friday announced a
price cut in compressed natural
gas (CNG) and piped natural gas
(PNG) by Gujarat Gas Company
Ltd (GGCL), the Gujarat
Electricity Regulatory Commission in its order has enforced a
price cut in electricity cost for
consumers in the State.
According to Minister
Saurabh Patel, the State-owned
GGCL has reduced PNG prices
by C2.77/standard cubic meter
and CNG prices by 90 paisa/kg,
with price cuts effective from
midnight.
“As many as 12 lakh piped
gas connections and over eight
lakh vehicles in the State would
benefit from the decision,” the
Minister said.
The CNG and piped cooking gas prices across the country were poised to fall after natural gas rates were on Thursday
cut by a steep 20 per cent. The
prices of natural gas produced
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from existing fields of Stateowned ONGC and Reliance
Industries Limited had been
cut to USD 3.06 per million
British thermal units effective
Friday. The global natural gas
prices too have been under
pressure due to steep fall in
crude oil prices, to which the
gas prices are generally linked.
There was also good news
on the electricity front, as GERC
in its order has cut down the
prices of power from 10 paise
per unit to 28 paise per unit for
various consumers across the
State, both purchasing power
from State-owned unit or private sector. Despite being one of
the major hydrocarbon hub,
with more than two-thirds of
country's hydrocarbons being
produced or passing through
the State, people in Gujarat
generally pay one of the highest costs for their energy needs.
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C
learing the air over the
issue of Government formation in Jammu & Kashmir,
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on
Friday said a near-total consensus has emerged between
the alliance partners PDP and
BJP to form the Government in
the State. However, the final
date of swearing-in ceremony
was yet to be finalised.
“We are ready to form the
Government from our side
whenever the PDP leadership
decides to move ahead we are
ready to join them,” Ram
Madhav told reporters here in
Jammu after chairing a meeting of the party core group at
the residence of Dr Nirmal
Singh.
Clarifying on the delay
caused in arriving at a decision
Madhav told reporters, “we
have extended support to the
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A
sking the
cops to
pull up their
socks Chief
Minister
Akhilesh
Yadav on Friday asserted that
providing better law and order
and effective check on crime are
the top priorities of his
Government and that he would
make no comprises on that
front.
“Providing better law and
order and effective check on
crime are the top priorities of
my Government. Policemen
have to see that there is no injustice with common people and
they should work continuously for redressing their problems,”
Yadav said. “This will also
increase people’s faith in them,”
he said while addressing a meeting of senior police officials here
at Tilak Hall on the occasion of
‘Police Week’ on Friday noon.
“As Uttar Pradesh is the
biggest state population wise,
the challenges before it are also
different. In the changing scenario, challenges before the
police have increased and the
government is aware that police
has to work under difficult situations,” Yadav said. The chief
minister said that exchange of
views during such functions as
Police Week have positive
results and everybody comes to
know about the good works
being done by their counterparts in other areas.
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he largest Islamic seminary
in India, the Darul Uloom of
T
Deoband, has in a fatwa asked
Muslims not to chant ‘Bharat
Mata ki Jai’, saying it is “not in
consonance with Islam”.
“We received thousands of
queries on the issue so Darul
Uloom Deoband has issued a
fatwa saying ‘Bharat mata ki Jai’
is not in consonance with Islam
and we will not say it. But we love
our country immensely and we
can raise slogans like ‘Hindustan
Zindabad’ and ‘Madre Vatan
(motherland)’,” the seminary
said in a statement.
“It is not allowed in Islam to
represent the country as a
Goddess’ idol and raise slogans
hailing her,” Ashram Usmani, a
spokesperson of the seminary,
explained.
The fatwa, or religious
edict, questions: “Only a human
can give birth to a human, so
how can the country be called
mother?” Hyderabad parliamentarian Asaduddin Owaisi
provoked a controversy recently when he declared at a public
meeting that he would not
chant the slogan “even if you
put a knife to my throat”.
arada tended to sting the
Trinamool Congress again
N
with more footages showing its
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PDP leadership ‘in principle’ to
form the Government in the
State and we have conveyed to
the Governor NN Vohra that
since the first meeting took
place at a shorter notice we
needed to carry out more discussions to work out the basic
modalities of formation of the
Government”.
He said after holding series
of meetings yesterday Dr
Nirmal Singh and PDP Chief
Mehbooba Mufti held detailed
discussions and every thing
became clear. He said now
both the parties are ready to go
together and form the
Government as soon as possible.
Commenting on the issue
of differences over distribution
of portfolio allocation Ram
Madhav said every thing will be
clear and known to you once
the process of Government
formation will be over.
When quizzed over the
final date of swearing-in he said
what is the final date and time
that PDP will tell you.
He said though we are also
kept in the loop but PDP leadership is also in touch with the
Governor and the final date of
swearing-in will be decided by
them.
He said our agenda is to
deliver clean Government,
good governance and development oriented Government
and it is the common objective
of both the parties for which we
came together.
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overnor Ram Naik stressed
need of improving the law
G
and order situation along with
modernisation of the State
police force. He asserted that
the government should take
care of welfare of the men in
uniform so that they served the
nation with full honesty and
devotion. He also reminded
that how during his tenure as
union petroleum minister, he
gave petrol pumps and gas
agencies free of cost to family
members of Kargil Martyrs.
Addressing the senior
police officers soon after taking salute of the ceremonial
parade here at Reserve Police
Lines on Friday morning, Naik
said that the prime duty of men
in uniform is to maintain harmony and peace, to facilitate
terror free atmosphere to every
citizen, and to initiate stern
action against anti-social and
criminal elements. ``You all
must make people particularly the women to realise that
they were safe and even in case
any one visits police station is
search of justice, the cops must
understand the problem and do
their best to get it resolved”,
asserted Naik while praising the
role of the cops in maintain
peace and communal harmony. He called on the police to
take fresh pledge for working
for the welfare of common
man as Ceremonial Parade is
the most auspicious occasion
for such commitments towards
the society.
Giving suggestions to the
UP police to have some inspiring slogan which would motivate the cops to work for welfare of the society, Naik said
that in his home state in
Maharastra, the police had a
slogan
``Sadarchadaya
Khalinigrahadya’ which meant
that one should work for safety of good people and punish
the criminals. He said that
such slogan should be also
drafted for UP police as it
would not just inspire the cops,
but would also send a good
message of the UP police
amongst the masses.
Laying stress on modernisation of UP police, Naik said
that the cops must be armed
with latest sophisticated
weapons, vehicles and other
gadgets so that they could easily take on any eventuality and
would also accept challenge
thrown before them with the
latest changes in crime trend.
He also stressed need of facilitating training to every cop so
they must not just remained fit
but would also keep themselves
aware of how to resolve any
problem.
top Minister Firhad Hakim
and senior yet jailed leader
Madan Mitra offering “tender”
favours to some fictitious businessman.
The latest footage released
by the State BJP on Friday
showed Hakim offering the
make-believe businessman on
the other side of the sting camera that he would help him get
tenders after the elections.
“Why don’t you join the
construction business? A lot of
KMDA (Kolkata Metropolitan
Development Authority) projects will be announced after
the elections … leave your
email and I will send you the
tenders,” Hakim who was
recently seen in C5 lakh-deal
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T
he National Human
Rights C ommission,
NHRC has taken suo motu
cognizance of media reports
about the deplorable condition of the residents of the
drought hit districts of the
Bundelkhand region in Uttar
Pradesh as well as neighbouring Madhya Pradesh
where, due to the scarcity of
food, the people are living in
distress and starving to death.
According to official communique released on Friday,
the Commission said to have
observed that the media
reports, carried on March 28
2016, exposing the plight of
the poor inhabitants of the
Bundelkhand region, if true,
raises serious issues of violation of human rights to life,
equality and dignity of the
people. Accordingly, it has
issued notices to the Chief
Secretaries of Uttar Pradesh
and Madhya Pradesh calling
for detailed reports within
four weeks.
The media reports said
that people are forced to eat
chappatis either with salt or
potatoes in the Bundelkhand
region which spreads across
the States of Uttar Pradesh
and Madhya Pradesh. The
crops of gram and pulses
have failed due to no rain.
Most of the population
belongs to the Scheduled
Tribes and they do not have
their own land. There are no
irrigation facilities and the
crops depend only on rain.
Even the schools are not functional and the students are
being deprived of the mid-day
meal. There is no work for
the villagers under MNREGA.
Earlier in the month of
December, 2015 also, the
media had reported that the
people in the drought hit
Bundelkhand region are
forced to eat chapattis made
of grass.
=0H0=30E4Q 60=378=060A
ujarat Government is all
set to announce new medG
ical policy to provide subsidy
in another Narada footage,
said. Your newspaper does
not however own up the
responsibility of the sting
footage
Incidentally the KMDA
an arm of the Urban
Development Ministry has
been supervising the construction work of Vivekananda
Flyover that caved in on
Thursday killing 25 people
and injuring about 90.
The other Trinamool
leader and former Minister
Madan Mitra now in jail in
connection with the Saradha
scam is shown in the footage
as assuring the businessman of
“setting” things with the Chief
Minister and get him projects.
“A bridge will not fall then
what else will fall in a State
where the Government is
steeped in so much of corruption!” wondered senior
party leader Rahul Sinha
revealing the footage.
6dYPaPc72SXb\XbbTb
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he Gujarat High Court dismissed the habeas corpus
T
filed before it after the midnight of September 22 last year
following the mysterious disappearance of the 22-year-old
Patel reservation stir leader
Hardik Patel.
Patel is also convener of
Patidar Anamat Aandolan
Samiti (PAAS). At present, he
is in Surat jail for various cases
related to pro-quota agitation
including a case of sedition.
Habeas corpus petition was
filed against Hardik following
a public meeting in Tenpur village in North Gujarat district
Aravalli. There the young proquota leader addressed a gathering without taking permission from concerned authority.
While dismissing the petition on Friday the court
imposed a fine of C5000 on the
two petitioners — Dinesh Patel
and Ketan Patel who are also
close aides of the PAAS con-
vener. As far as the then advocate of Hardik Patel, BM
Mangukia is concerned; the
court said that if such conduct
continues in future, his case
may be referred to the Bar
Council.
“The court dismissed the
petition on Friday. It has no
substance as it was not well
founded. The court in its order
has mentioned five issues and
has not refrained police from
initiating any action under
charges of perjury in the matter,” said PAAS convener’s
Counsel Zubin Lokhandwala.
According to Lokhandwala
earlier Hardik had said that he
was kidnapped by people who
were in police uniform after he
left the venue of meeting at
Tenpur. “Those who kidnapped
Hardik, took him to
Surendranagar and later on
dropped him from vehicle on
the road. They also threatened him to kill in case he
would not stop agitating for
reservation to Patels under
OBC category,” he added.
9RcUZ\¶dSRZ]a]VR+94ZddfVd
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Ahmedabad: The Gujarat
High Court on Friday issued
notice to the State
Government on the bail plea
of Patel quota agitation leader
Hardik Patel in connection
with the sedition case filed
against him in Surat.
Hardik has challenged an
order of the Surat sessions
court refusing him bail two
weeks back. Surat police’s
crime branch had opposed the
bail claiming that Hardik may
tamper with evidence and
influence the witnesses if
released.
Admitting the petition
Friday, Justice A J Desai issued
notice to Gujarat Government,
posting the matter to April 7.
Hardik has been lodged at
Lajpore jail in Surat since
September last. He is facing
another sedition case in
Ahmedabad. Chargesheets
have been filed in both the
cases.
The 22-year-old Patel
leader, on October 3 last,
allegedly advised a Suratbased activist from his community to kill the policemen
rather than ending his life.
“If you have so much
courage...Then go and kill a
couple of policemen. Patels
never commit suicide,” Hardik
allegedly told Vipul Desai,
who had announced he would
commit suicide in support of
the quota agitation.
PTI
for new medical colleges, hospitals and nursing homes to
purchase expensive medical
equipments.
“Just as the industry, business and farmers get subsidy,
under the new policy, new
medical colleges, hospitals,
taluk-district level nursing
homes, young doctors will be
entitled to subsidy for purchase of latest medical equipment that costs as high as C510 crore,” State Health
Minister Nitin Patel on Friday
said.
He said Gujarat had less
than 1,000 medical seats and
this forced bright students
from this State to shell out
lakhs of rupees in donation to
get admissions in various
medical colleges across
Maharashtra and Karnataka.
“Our daughters and sons
had to go outside the State to
get medical education. We
studied the situation and
decided to increase the number of intakes in engineering
and medical colleges. Last
year we opened 150-seat med-
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ical education facility in
Himmat nagar and another
150-bed facility in Junagadh.
Today there are over 3100
seats in medicine. Now another 150-seat medical education facility is coming up in
Nadiad and I assure the State
Government will extend full
cooperation in this project,” he
said.
He said the State
Government-operated medical facilities across Gujarat
serve more than 1.25 crore
patients every year.
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=4F 34;78) Amid growing
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mid fears that 15,000 jobs
A
may be lost, the UK on
Friday said it will appoint independent advisors once the sale
of Tata Steel’s UK business
commences and, alongwith the
Welsh Government, help in
securing a buyer for the country’s largest steelmaker.
Government also assured
the workers that “all possible”
ministerial, official and diplomatic influence will be exerted
to secure the steel industry’s
long term future.
“Business Secretary Sajid
Javid will today visit Port Talbot,
where Tata Steel UK’s largest
plant is based, to meet workers
and the management,” UK
Government said in a statement.
Tata Steel, one of the flagship firm of the over $100 billion Indian conglomerate Tata
Group, earlier this week disclosed plans to sell its entire UK
business.
The move has threatened
over 15,000 jobs amid a deepening crisis in the UK’s oncestoried sector that the Indian
conglomerate had entered nearly a decade ago with a $14-billion takeover with much fanfare.
“He (Javid) will say that
once formal Tata sales process
is underway, independent advisors will also be appointed by
the Government,” the statement said.
,QGLDWRVWD\RQKLJK
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will continue on the current path of growth for a couIplendia
of decades more, bringing
benefits of liberalisation to its
people and eliminating the curse
of poverty, Finance Minister
Arun Jaitley said here on Friday.
Asking Australian superannuation funds industry leaders to
invest in India, he emphasised
that the growth path the country is moving on, it will stay on
it.
“Its only then India can
eliminate the curse of poverty,”
Jaitley said, hoping that the
growth rate would last for at least
10-20 years.
“We do believe that 7.5 per
cent rate can be improved upon...
And government is concentrating on several areas specially
rural India,” he said. “People in
India are benefiting from the
whole process of liberalisation,”
he added.
Jaitley was speaking at a
round-table meeting with top
leaders of superannuation fund
sector.
It added that as Prime
Minister David Cameron has
already said, the UK
Government intervention
helped ensure that Tata
announced a sales process for
Port Talbot, rather immediate
closure allowing ministers to
play an active part in finding
a sustainable solution, including engaging with market for
potential buyers.
“Javid will work with
Commercial Secretary to the
Treasur y Jim O’Neill,
Chancellor of Duchy of
Lancaster Oliver Letwin and
Welsh Secretary Alun Cairns as
well as Welsh Government in
helping secure a buyer for
Tata’s Steel assets following
their announcement of their
intention to divest their UK
assets,” the statement added.
During his visit to Port
Talbot, Javid will also meet the
members of the Welsh
Government, unions and local
MPs.
On his visit, the Business
Secretary said: “I’m going to
Port Talbot to meet staff and
management, who are understandably extremely anxious
about their future.
“I will listen to them, and
I want to reassure them myself
that the Government is on
their side in working hard to
achieve a long term solution for
them, for the region and for the
wider UK steel industry.”
He further said: “Whilst
we can’t change the status of
the global steel market, we can
and are playing a positive role
in securing a sustainable
future.”
The Government said the
measures imposed in January
on reinforcing steel bar
imports are starting to have
effect as imports during the
months declined 99 per cent
from January 2015.
Tata Steel, which operates
UK’s biggest steel plant at Port
Talbot in south Wales, is losing
1 million pounds ($1.4 million)
a day in its UK operations.
Tatas had entered the
British steel sector, which once
dominated the British economy, in early 2007 with acquisition of Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus after a fiercely
fought takeover battle -- which
till date remains the biggest
ever overseas acquisition by an
Indian group.
clamour for recovering over
C9,000 crore dues to banks
by now-defunct Kingfisher
Airlines, Vijay Mallya-led
United Breweries (Holdings)
Ltd on Friday said its nonexecutive, non-independent
director Sidhartha V Mallya
has vacated the office of
director with effect from
March 31.
This development comes
days after Mallya, who is
believed to be in the UK,
took to Twitter to ask people not to target his son
Siddharth.
“In terms of the provisions of Section 167(b) of
the Companies Act, 2013,
Mr Sidhartha V Mallya, a
Non - E x e c ut i v e ,
Non Independent Director of the
Company has vacated the
office of Director w.E.F.
March 31, 2016,” UBHL said
in a BSE filing.
O n We d n e s d ay, on
microblogging site Twitter,
Vijay Mallya said: “My son
Sid @sidmallya does not
0DUXWL+\XQGDLSRVW
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?=BQ =4F34;78
M
aruti Suzuki India (MSI)
and Hyundai Motor
India on Friday announced
their best ever annual sales in
the fiscal ended March 31,
while Mahindra & Mahindra
and Honda Cars India (HCIL)
posted marginal sales growth
in 2015-16.
For the 2015-16 fiscal,
MSI posted sales of 14,29,248
units, a growth of 10.6 per
cent. This comprises highest
ever domestic sales of
13,05,351 units and 1,23,897
units of exports.
“We posted record
(domestic) sales in 2015-16.
While the industry grew by
around 7 per cent, we grew
11.5 per cent during the fiscal,”
MSI Executive Director
Marketing and Sales R S Kalsi
told news agency PTI.
Rival Hyundai Motor
India Ltd saw its sales rise 15.1
per cent in 2015-16 at 4,84,324
units compared to 4,20,668
units in 2014-15.
HMIL Senior VicePresident
(Sales
and
Marketing) Rakesh Srivastava
said the company achieved the
best ever yearly sales due to
strong performance of models
like Creta, Elite i20 and Grand
i10.
Homegrown utility vehicles major Mahindra &
Mahindra’s domestic sales during the FY16 rose by 5 per cent
to 4,58,065 units compared
with 4,34,568 units in 2014-15.
M&M Chief Executive
(auto division) Pravin Shah
said the last financial year
was significant for the firm
considering the number of
new product launches which
were well received by the customers leading to a positive
growth both in domestic and
overseas markets.
“Going forward, we hope
to see good opportunity with
our wide product portfolio.
Further, the likely softening of
interest rates in the upcoming
RBI monetary policy will help
the automotive industry to
maintain its growth momentum in FY2017,” he added.
Honda Cars India Ltd
(HCIL) said in the fiscal ended
March 31, 2016, its domestic
sales were at 1,92,059 units as
against 1,89,062 units in
2014–15, up 2 per cent.
Commenting on company’s sales performance, HCIL
Senior Vice President –
Marketing & Sales Jnaneswar
Sen said: “Year 2015-16 was an
eventful and rewarding year
for HCIL. We continued our
growth journey in the market
making this year as 4th consecutive year of annual sales
growth.”
On the outlook, he said:
“The new fiscal year holds
tremendous opportunity for
our further growth as we will
enhance our product line-up
with the launch of new models and expand our dealer
network.”
He said with the upcoming launch of Honda BR-V, the
company will will mark its
entry into a new product segment.
In March, MSI’s domestic
sales increased by 14.6 per cent
during the month to 1,18,895
units as against 1,03,719 units
in the same month last year.
Sales of mini segment cars,
including,
Alto
and
WagonR,however declined 8.7
per cent to 36,678 units in the
month from 40,159 units in
the year-ago month.
6A7@afed`_Y`]U
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_`c^deZ]]2ac$!
=4F 34;78) Retirement fund
body EPFO on Friday deferred
till April 30 implementation of
new norms that restrict 100 per
cent withdrawal of provident
fund by members after unemployment of more than two
months, among others.
The EPFO subscribers
who are out of job for more
than two months can file for
full and final settlement of
provident fund till month end.
In view of practical difficulties faced in implementation of the notifications, the
new provisions will come into
effect from May 1, 2016, a circular by the Employees
Provident Fund Organisation
(EPFO) said.
“Accordingly, all the claims
received up to April 30, 2016
are to settled as per the provisions existing prior to the issue
of the notification dated
February 10, 2016,” it added.
Earlier in February, the
EPFO amended the EPF Scheme
1952 to tighten the various
norms for withdrawal of provident fund including increasing
age limit for filing such claims by
retiring employees to 58 years
from 54 years.
?C8
The company said sales of
the compact segment comprising Swift, Estilo, Ritz, Dzire
and Baleno increased 20.9 per
cent to 46,786 units in March
this year as against 38,710
units in the same month last
year.
Rival Hyundai Motor
India (HMIL) sold 41,201
units last month in the domestic market as compared with
39,525 units in March 2015, up
4.2 per cent.
Utility vehicle major
Mahindra and Mahindra saw
its domestic sales rise up 19
per cent during the last month
at 48,967 units compared with
41,105 units in March 2015.
Similarly, Renault India
reported 160 per cent jump in
its domestic sales at 12,424
units in March. It had sold
4,782 units in the corresponding month last year.
“In a short span of time,
we have exponentially grown
our reach in terms of sales and
network expansion... This
month, we recorded our best
ever sales figures in India,”
Renault India Operations
Country CEO and Managing
Director Sumit Sawhney said.
deserve all this abuse as he
had nothing to do with my
business. Slam me if you
must but not a young man.”
Later in that day, liquor
baron Vijay Mallya and
Kingfisher Airlines Ltd had
submitted in a sealed cover
a proposal for repayment of
C4,000 crore out of the loan
amount of C6,903 crore to
the consortium of banks led
by State Bank of India by
September this year.
Along with Mallya and
Kingfisher, the proposal was
also submitted by United
Breweries (Holdings) Ltd
a n d K i n g f i s h e r Fi nv e s t
(India) Ltd.
?C8
9:VXVSHQGVVDOHRIVHOHFW
9HQWRPRGHOUHFDOOVXQLWV
?=BQ =4F34;78
G
erman auto maker
Volkswagen (VW) is halting sales of a select version of
its mid-sized sedan Vento in
India with immediate effect
due to inconsistent Carbon
Monoxide (CO) emissions and
is recalling 3,877 units of the
car.
Emissions of Vento
equipped with 1.5-litre diesel
engine and manual gearbox
were observed to be sometimes exceeding the threshold
limits during the Conformity
of Production tests done by the
ARAI, Volkswagen India said
in a statement.
“At the same time,
Volkswagen India is temporarily holding back sales of
the manual gearbox version of
the Volkswagen Vento with
1.5-litre diesel engine with
immediate effect,” it added.
The company is analysing
the issue and will propose
technical measures to ARAI to
solve this inconsistency at the
earliest, it said.
Once approved and confirmed by the competent
authorities, Volkswagen India
will implement the measures
and resume the production
and sales of the vehicle, it
added.
“The same technical measures will also be implemented in the impacted vehicles
that are already with customers,” it said.
Volkswagen India said the
problem impacts only the
manual gearbox version of
Vento with 1.5-litre diesel
engine and is not connected to
the global NOx emissions
topic.
“All other diesel models
and variants of Volkswagen
India, including Vento 1.5
TDI with automatic transmission (DSG) and all diesel
Polo cars, conform to the
norms and will continue to
be produced and sold in
India,” it said.
$YLDWLRQSROLF\OLNHO\WREH
FOHDUHGE\&DELQHWWKLVPRQWK
=4F 34;78) A degree of “con-
sensus” among various stakeholders on issues in draft civil
aviation policy including norms
for international flying by
domestic airlines has “emerged”
and it is likely to be approved by
the Cabinet this month, a top
official said on Friday.
“(As far as) 5/20 and other
issues raised in the draft civil
aviation policy (are concerned),
a degree of consensus has
already emerged,” Civil Aviation
Secretary RN Choubey told
reporters on the sidelines of the
29th anniversary of Bureau of
Civil Aviation Security (BCAS).
Under the ‘5/20 rule’ only
those airlines having at least five
years of domestic flying experience and a minimum of 20 aircraft are allowed to fly overseas.
BCAS is country’s nodal
aviation security agency.
Choubey said that his ministry will be taking the matter to
the Cabinet this month itself,
adding, “the (new aviation) policy, which will also clear the
position on 5/20, will be
approved this month.”
The draft policy was
unveiled in October last year
and since then Government
has held extensive consultations with various stakeholders
including ministries, airlines,airport operators, ground handling
agencies, among others during
this period.
“We have already done a
couple of rounds of inter ministerial consultations. We will
now be in a position to take the
matter to the Cabinet this
month,” he said.
The policy was expected to
be finalised in the previous
financial year as certain proposals were to be implemented from April 1, 2016.
While startup carriers
Vistara and Air Asia India,
where Tatas is a stakeholder,
are demanding that the 5/20
rule be done away with, the
grouping of four private Indian
carriers comprising IndiGo,
SpiceJet, Jet Airways and
GoAir wants the rule to continue.
The proposed policy seeks
to give a boost the Indian aviation sector, which has high
growth potential, and strengthen regional connectivity.
It has suggested tax incentives for airlines, maintenance
and repair works of aircraft
besides mooting 2 per cent levy
on all air tickets to fund regional connectivity scheme.
?C8
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hina on Friday defended its
decision to once again
C
block India’s bid at the UN to
I
n the face of mounting
threats from North Korea,
US President Barack Obama on
Friday urged closer security ties
among its chief allies in Asia
and increased cooperation with
strategic rival China to discourage Pyongyang from further advances in nuclear
weapons. As world leaders
gathered for a nuclear security summit, Obama first met
with Japanese Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe and South Korean
President Park Geun-hye.
Together, they warned
North Korea would face even
tougher sanctions and more
isolation if provokes again with
nuclear and missile tests.
Then Obama met Chinese
President Xi Jinping and both
called for North Korea to give
up its nuclear weapons. China
agreed to implement in full the
latest economic restrictions
imposed by the UN Security
Council against Pyongyang.
More than 50 governments
and international organisations
are attending the two-day summit on preventing nuclear ter-
?aTbXST]c1PaPRZ>QP\P\TTcbfXcW2WX]TbT?aTbXST]cGX9X]_X]VSdaX]VcWT
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rorism - the last in a series of
global meetings Obama has
championed on the issue. The
risk posed by the Islamic State
group tops this year’s agenda but
concerns about North Korea are
also commanding focus.
“Of great importance to
both of us is North Korea’s pursuit of nuclear weapons, which
threatens the security and stability of the region. President Xi
and I are both committed to the
denuclearization of the Korean
Peninsula,” Obama said at the
start of his meeting with Xi.
“China and the US have a
responsibility to work together,” Xi said in his comments
>da]dZTb]^RPdbTU^a
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akistan has sought to allay
P
concerns about the safety of
its nuclear programme maintaining that the country had
never suffered a nuclear accident or breach of security.
At a news briefing here on
Thursday, Pakistan’s foreign
secretary Aizaz Chaudhary
said the impression that
Islamabad’s nuclear installations were insecure was baseless, Dawn online reported on
Friday.
“Pakistan’s nuclear installations are not only secure but
the world also acknowledges
that they are,” he said.
Chaudhar y said the
International Atomic Energy
Agency has recorded 2,734
nuclear incidents worldwide,
including five in India, but “not
a single accident or breach
happened in Pakistan,
although our programme is 40
years old”.
The foreign secretary said
it was wrong to describe
Pakistan’s short-range missiles
or small nukes as battlefield or
tactical weapons.
“Pakistan has short-range
and long-range missiles, and
the purpose behind both is to
deter aggression,” he said,
adding “we want to prevent
war, to prevent the space
Indians created for war” by
building military installations
close to the Pakistani border as
part of their cold start doctrine,
he added.
“Calling them battlefield
weapons creates a wrong perception.
These are for deterrence,
only and only for defence,”
Chaudhary said. “There is no
cause for concern.”
0?
made to reporters via an interpreter. As for their “disputes
and disagreements,” the
Chinese leader said the two
sides could “seek active solutions through dialogue and
consultation.”
North Korea’s fourth
nuclear test in January, followed
by a space a launch in February,
have heralded more convergence among often-fractious
powers in East Asia - at least on
the need to press the government of Kim Jong Un toward
disarming.
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U
S President Barack Obama
opened a meeting with
his Chinese counterpart Xi
Jinping with a promise of candid discussion over Beijing’s
alleged military buildup in the
South China Sea.
“We will have candid
exchanges about areas where we
have differences, issues like
human rights, cyber and maritime issues,” Obama said.
US officials have expressed
concern that China’s actions in
the South China Sea are not consistent with Xi’s pledge at the
White House last year not to pursue militarisation of the hotly
contested and strategically vital
waterway. “We do continue to be
concerned about militarisation in
the South China Sea,” said senior
Obama foreign policy aide Ben
Rhodes ahead of the meeting
with Xi.
ban Jaish-e-Mohammad chief
and mastermind of the
Pathankot terror attack Masood
Azhar, saying that it acts on
such issues based on facts and
rules in an “objective and just
manner”.
Asked about China’s
reported last minute move
putting a technical hold on
India’s submission which Indian
officials say was armed with
strong evidence of the JeM’s terror activities and its role in the
Pathankot attack, Chinese
Foreign Ministry spokesman
Hong Lei said here that China
“supports UN playing a central
and coordinating role in international cooperation against
terrorism”.
“We always deal with the listing issue (banning militant groups
and their leaders) under the UN
Security Council committee established under resolution 1267
based on facts and relevant rules
of procedures in an objective
and just manner,” he said.
“The Chinese side has
always been in communication
with relevant parties on the listing issue,” he said hinting that
China is also in touch with
India on the issue.
This is not the first time
China has blocked India’s bid to
get Pakistan-based militant
groups and leaders proscribed
by the UN.
The UN had banned the
JeM in 2001 but India’s efforts
for a ban on Azhar after the
2008 Mumbai terror attack also
did not fructify as China, one
of the five permanent members
of the UN group with veto powers, didn’t allow the ban apparently at the behest of Pakistan
again.
Last July, China had similarly halted India’s move in the
UN to take action against
Pakistan for its release of
Mumbai terror attack mastermind Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi,
saying that its stand was “based
on facts and in the spirit of
objectiveness and fairness” with
Beijing again claiming at the
time that it was in touch with
New Delhi. Stating that China
is opposed to all forms of terrorism, Hong said
“China has also taken active
part in international counter
terrorism corporation”. To
another question about Prime
Minister Narendra Modi’s
comments at the Nuclear
Security Summit in Washington
yesterday that the world community should “drop the notion
that terrorism is someone else’s
problem and that ‘his’ terrorist
is not ‘my’ terrorist,” Hong said
“China opposes double standards on the issue of terrorism”.
“We believe that all parties
should enhance communication in a bid to forge counterterrorism synergy to work
together with entire international community including
India to jointly fight against the
threat of terrorism and safeguard peace and stability of the
region and beyond,” he said.
c^fPai^]T)0\]Tbch
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A
mnesty International says
Turkey has forcibly
returned hundreds of Syrian
refugees to their homeland
since mid-January. It said this
practice exposes “fatal flaws” in
an agreement between Turk
and the European Union.
The organisation says its
research on the Turkish-Syrian
border suggests that around
100 Syrians who often have not
registered in Turkey are
expelled from Turkey each day.
Advocacy groups are concerned that the deal, which
aims to stem the flow of illegal
migrants and goes into effect
April 4, threatens the rights of
asylum seekers, and they question whether Turkey is a safe
country for them.
The EU-Turkey deal stipulates the return to Turkey of
any Syrian refugee arriving on
the Greek islands, to be offset
by resettling a Turkey-based
Syrian in the EU.
“Far from pressuring
7QcR\Qcdb_S[cSU^dbQ\ <hP]\PaR[TPabfPhU^aBdd
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05?Q ?0A8B
A
massive gas explosion
destroyed the top floors
and roof of a residential building in central Paris on Friday,
injuring 17 people, rescuers
and police said.
The blast near the Jardin de
Luxembourg park caused jitters
in the French capital, which
remains on edge after the Paris
attacks in November and the
Brussels bombings last month.
It was traced to a fire that
caused a gas stove to blow up,
sending a thick cloud of smoke
into the sky, police said.
"People were scared, they
thought it was a bomb," an
employee of the nearby
Ferrandi culinary institute said.
The force of the blast blew
out some of the windows at the
prestigious school, a witness
said.
A fireman was seriously
injured in the blast and another 16 people were also hurt,
including 10 firefighters.
"I was at home, the windows shook in my building two
streets away... We thought it
was an attack," said local resident Sylvie Guillaumin, 51,
adding that gas supplies had
been cut in the area.
The blast came more than
four months after the jihadist
attacks in the French capital in
November that claimed 130
lives and more recently the
March 22 attacks in Brussels.
French
authorities
announced last week they
had foiled an attack plot
after discovering a stash of
weapons and explosives in a
Paris suburb.
80=BQ =0H?H8C0F
M
yanmar’s House of
Nationalities (Upper
House) on Friday approved
the Bill designed to pave the
way for appointing Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi as a
consultative figure to the state.
The bill calling for appointment of a state consultative figure was submitted to the House
of Nationalities of Myanmar on
Thursday, Xinhua news agency
reported.
The bill, moved by a member of parliament from the ruling National League for
Democracy (NLD) and was
accepted by the house for
debate, aims at flourishing
democracy, building federal
union, peace and development,
it was explained.
Aung San Suu Kyi, NLD
,QGLDQILVKHUPHQ
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ifty-nine Indian fishermen
have been arrested in
F
Pakistan and their 10 boats
seized for allegedly violating the
country’s territorial waters.
The fishermen were arrested by Pakistan’s Maritime
Security Agency (MSA) while
they were fishing in Sir Creek,
a disputed area on the maritime
border of Sindh and Gujarat.
The MSA detained people
in Karachi and handed them
over to the police for legal
action. The fishermen have
been taken into custody and
cases have been lodged against
them under section 3 and 4 of
the Foreigners Act and 3 and 9
of the Fisheries Act, the Express
Tribune quoted a police official
as saying.
Both Indian and Pakistani
fishermen are often arrested for
illegal fishing since the Arabian
Sea border is not clearly
defined and many boats lack
the technology to fix their precise location.
In two goodwill gestures
last month, Pakistan freed 86
fishermen in two batches each.
chairperson,
was
on
Wednesday appointed as
Myanmar’s new foreign minister, concurrently holding
three other portfolios -- minister at the president’s office,
minister of Education and
minister of Electric Power
and Energy.
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Yangon: Myanmar military MPs
on Friday said a plan to bolster
Aung San Suu Kyi’s power with
a special advisory role was
unconstitutional, as the new
civilian government tussled with
the army just days after taking
office.
The Southeast Asian nation
was dominated by the military for
more than half a century until
Wednesday when Suu Kyi and
her pro-democracy party took
power. The Nobel laureate, whose
party secured a landslide election
win in November, has vowed to
rule the country despite a constitutional block on her becoming president.
In a surprise early act of parliamentary business by the new
government, Suu Kyi’s party proposed a bill to grant her a special
“state counsellor” position.AFP
*RRJOHUROOVEDFN$SULO)RRO¶VSUDQN
80=BQ =4FH>A:
nternet giant Google on
Friday rolled back its April
IFool’s
Day prank that it played
by introducing “send + drop
the mic” feature in Gmail for its
users that let them have the last
word in a tense and unwanted
conversation.
Google reversed the prank
after it caused several Gmail
users to unwittingly insert animated photos into business
emails and other important
communications,
Techcrunch.com reported.
“Well, it looks like we
pranked ourselves this year.
Due to a bug, the MicDrop feature inadvertently caused more
headaches than laughs. We’re
truly sorry. The feature has
been turned off. If you are still
seeing it, please reload your
Gmail page,” Google was quoted as saying.
Earlier in the day, Google
posted on its blog that “Gmail
is making it easier to have the
last word on any email with
Mic Drop”.
“Simply reply to any email
using the new ‘Send + Mic
Drop’ button. Everyone will get
your message, but that’s the last
you’ll ever hear about it. Yes,
even if folks try to respond, you
won’t see it,” Google’s official
blog read when it launched the
prank. The report noted that
“the button placement was
problematic”.
Google substituted “send
and archive” button -- which
many people use habitually -with ‘MicDrop,’ that proved to
be a disaster for many. An initial prank warning was sent out
but those who did not notice
the catch were in for a surprise.
Turkey to improve the protection it offers Syrian refugees,
the EU is in fact incentivsing
the opposite,” said John
Dalhuisen,
Amnesty
International’s director for
Europe and Central Asia.
“Having witnessed the creation of Fortress Europe, we are
now seeing the copycat construction of Fortress Turkey.
In earlier stages of the
conflict, Syrians who held
passports were able to cross at
regular border gates and even
those who entered illegally
could register with the authorities. Now only those needing
urgent medical care are
allowed to enter and there are
an estimated 200,000 displaced Syrians within 20
kilometers (12.4 miles) of
Turkey’s border.
Tightened border restrictions and new visa requirements for Syrians, the organisation said, have also pushed
Syrians into the arms of smugglers who charge an average of
USD 1,000 per crossing.
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B
arcelona looks to honor its idol.
Real Madrid gets a shot at revenge.
The second "clasico" of the season
arrives with the Spanish rivals in different states of mind.
Barcelona is focusing on paying
tribute to the late Johan Cruyff, the former star who died last week after battling cancer.
Real Madrid is hoping to avenge the
humiliating home loss to the rival earlier this season, a defeat that ignited the
club's latest crisis.
"The good thing about football is that
it constantly gives you opportunities to
get even," Madrid defender Sergio Ramos
said. "Now we have a chance to do well,
away from home, against a great team
such as Barcelona."
Saturday's game also gives Madrid its
last real chance of rejoining the title race
at the Spanish league. Anything but a victory will mean the end of the line for
Zinedine Zidane's team in the La Liga.
A win at the Camp Nou, in addition
to denting Barcelona's confidence entering a decisive stretch, would cut the rival's
lead to seven points. Atletico Madrid,
which hosts Real Betis earlier Saturday,
is nine points behind Barcelona.
"Anything is possible in football,"
Madrid striker Gareth Bale said. "We'll
fight until the end. Winning La Liga is still
possible and if we win on Saturday we'll
be seven points behind and you never
know what might happen."
A victory by Barcelona would leave
the Catalan club significantly closer to its
second consecutive league title, as Madrid
is the last big challenge on its schedule.
But many thoughts on Saturday will be
on honoring Cruyff, the former Dutch
great credited with steering the club on
its path to glory.
The club is preparing a mosaic of
90,000 cards displaying the words
"Thanks, Johan," in Catalan. The words
will also appear on Barcelona's jerseys.
A minute of silence and a video tribute are also planned for Saturday.
Here are other things to watch in the
Spanish league this weekend:
Villarreal.
3><8=0=C10A20
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Barcelona has won four of the last five
league games against Real Madrid,
including the last two at the Camp Nou
and this season's 4-0 rout at the Santiago
Bernabeu.
Madrid hasn't won at the rival's venue
since a 3-1 result in the semifinals of the
2013 Copa del Rey, when Jose Mourinho
was still in charge. The last time Madrid
won at Barcelona in the Spanish league
was in the 2011-12 season, when it won
the La Liga for the last time.
Real Madrid is on a hot streak, having won five straight games, while
Barcelona is coming off a 2-2 draw at
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With a win or a draw on Saturday,
Barcelona would match Nottingham
Forest's 1978 streak of 40 consecutive
games without a loss.
Luis Enrique's team would be three
games shy of the mark set by Juventus in
2012. The Italian team went 43 games
without a loss in all competitions.
Barcelona is the record-holder for
unbeaten games among Spanish clubs.
544;8=60C7><4
Cristiano Ronaldo has felt quite
comfortable when playing at the Camp
Nou, having scored nine goals in the last
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eight times he played at the venue.
Since the 2011-12 season, Ronaldo
scored at least one goal in seven of the
eight games at the rival's stadium. He only
failed to find the net in the league clasico in the 2013-14 season.
The Portuguese striker has scored 11
goals in Madrid's last nine games overall. He is the Spanish league's leading
scorer with 28 goals, two more than
Barcelona forward Luis Suarez.
I830=4EB4=A8@D4
Saturday will mark the first duel
between Zinedine Zidane and Luis
Enrique as coaches. The former players
faced each other many times on the field,
with the most famous encounter coming
final of the Asian/Oceania Qualifying
Tournament here on Friday.
The 22-year-old Assamese, who is a
World Championship bronze-medallist, went
down 0-3 to Thailand's Chatchai Butdee in
the summit clash. Butdee is the reigning
Asian champion.
Meanwhile, it
was a heartbreak
once again for L
Devendro Singh
(49kg), who missed a
second opportunity
to qualify for the
Olympics.
The
Commonwealth silver-medallist, who
lost in the semifinals
on Thursday, on Friday went down in the
box-off for the Olympic slot.
Devendro fought his heart out in a keenly-contested bout against Mongolia's GanErdene Gankhuyag but lost 2-1. The Indian
lost the opening round unanimously and the
second round on a split decision before winning the final in three minutes.
However, that was not enough to make up
for the deficit he conceded earlier in the bout.
On Saturday, star woman boxer M C Mary
Kom (51kg) will take on Chinese Taipei's YuTing Lin in the box-off to decide the new rankings and seedings for next month's World
Championships in Kazakhstan.
in 2003, when the two almost got into a
fight after a foul by Zidane.
Enrique was one of the first Barcelona
players who charged toward Zidane to
protest, and the former Madrid star
shoved him away with a hand to his face.
:44??DB78=6
With some help from the city rival in
the clasico, Atletico Madrid can move within six points of Barcelona if it beats Real
Betis at the Vicente Calderon on Saturday.
Atletico is looking to rebound from a 2-1
loss to Sporting Gijon in the league, a result
that unhinged the team's nine-game
unbeaten streak in all competitions.
"We face each match as if it were a
final," Atletico midfielder Saul Niguez said.
0?Q <0=274BC4A
here have been considerable
knock-on effects for Leicester
following the team's giddy rise to the
top of the English Premier League.
Qualification to the Champions
League for the first time? Almost
certainly, especially if the surprise
leader beats Southampton at home
on Sunday.
Then there's growing international recognition for its star players.
On Tuesday, England started with
two Leicester players — in this case,
Jamie Vardy and debutant Danny
Drinkwater — for the first time in 42
years in the 2-1 loss to the
Netherlands. And on the same night,
N'Golo Kante, Leicester's enforcer in
central midfield, made his full debut
for France on his 25th birthday and
marked it by scoring one of the goals
in a 4-2 win over Russia.
Leicester's fans will be saying the
same kind of things.
After narrowly escaping relegation last season because of an
incredible run of results in the
final nine games, Leicester is mounting the most unlikely of title challenges and is five points clear of second-place Tottenham with seven
games left. The club has never won
a top-flight English league title.
Training would have been
unusually quiet for Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri over the recent
international break, given the
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be in line to play against
Bournemouth on Saturday.
City is in fourth place — the final
Champions League qualification
position - and only one point ahead
of West Ham and Manchester United.
West Ham hosts Crystal Palace on
Saturday, and Manchester United is
at home to Everton on Sunday.
<0=064A;4BBE8;;0
Last-place Aston Villa is heading into its home match against
Chelsea without a manager following the departure of Remi Garde on
Tuesday. With seven games left,
Villa is 12 points from safety and has
only won three league games.
Former Leicester manager Nigel
Peasron has been linked with the
vacancy, as is David Moyes.
270A;C>=CA81DC4
increased number of national-team
call-ups. Ranieri, therefore, must
reignite the team's momentum from
before the two-week hiatus ahead of
the biggest six weeks in the club's
132-year history.
Southampton could be one of
the toughest remaining opponents
for Leicester, with the visitors from
the south coast having won their last
two games to climb within four
points of the Champions League
places. Tottenham would pile the
pressure on Leicester by beating
Liverpool on Saturday, a day before
Leicester plays.
Here are other things to watch
out for this weekend:
<0=28CHBA48=5>A24<4=CB
In danger of dropping out of the
top four, out-of-form Manchester
City has been handed a much-needed boost on the injury front.
Three midfielders - Samir Nasri,
Kevin De Bruyne and Fabian Delph
— were back in training this week
after long injury lay-offs and could
Manchester United great Bobby
Charlton will be honored for his
contribution to the club by having
a stand at Old Trafford named
after him on Sunday, ahead of
United's game against Everton.
The South Stand - the side of the
stadium where the dugouts and
changing rooms are located — will
be renamed the Sir Bobby Charlton
Stand at a ceremony. It will mark 60
years after Charlton made his debut
for United. The 78-year-old Charlton
was an attacking midfielder who
played 758 games for United and
scored 249 goals, still a club record.
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n Olympic quota place pocketed, Indian T
boxer Shiva Thapa (56kg) ended his camA
paign with a silver medal after losing in the
ico Rosberg edged Mercedes
teammate Lewis Hamilton in
another dominant display by
Formula One's top team in Friday's
opening practice session for the
Bahrain Grand Prix.
Rosberg, who has won the past
four races dating back to last season,
set a time of 1 minute, 32.294 seconds at the Sakhir circuit, half a second faster than Hamilton and a surprising 1.8 seconds faster than third-
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singles
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place Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari.
Following a 1-2 finish in the
opening race in Australia, Mercedes
remains a cut above its opposition,
with Rosberg's lap time being 5.5
seconds faster than last year's opening practice session.
Red Bull drivers Daniel
Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat were
fourth and fifth fastest, respectively, ahead of Force India driver Nico
Hulkenberg.
Toro Rosso pair Carlos Sainz Jr.
and Max Verstappen were seventh
and eighth, followed by Haas driver
Romain Grosjean and Williams driver Felipe Massa.
B elgian
driver
Stoffel
Vandoorne, who is filling in for the
injured Fernando Alonso this weekend, was 18th fastest, within a second of McLaren teammate Jenson
Button.
Force India reser ve driver
Alfonso Celis of Mexico also got his
first taste of F1 and was 21st, 2.7 seconds off teammate Hulkenberg's
time.
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D
efending champion Saina
Nehwal took another step
towards retaining her title
when she played out of her skin
to eke out a thrilling win over
Korea's Sung Ji Hyun in the
quarterfinals of the India Super
Series here on Friday.
Olympic bronze medallist
Saina defeated Sung 19-21, 2114, 21-19 in an energy-sapping
women's last-eight match at the
Siri Fort stadium.
There was hardly any winner in the grueling three-game
match as each rode on the
other's unforced errors.
Saina, who has beaten
Sung five times in the past used
her drops early on to catch the
Korean at the forecourt.
However, unforced errors
and a few deceptive returns
helped Sung to lead 8-4. The
Indian showed her resilience to
claw back at 10 before a shot
from Sung left her stranded.
After the break, Saina
turned the tables to lead 14-12
but soon Sung once again drew
parity. The Indian once again
nosed ahead to 17-15 but once
again Sung fought back and
grabbed a 18-17 lead after
Saina made a wrong line call
and then hit the net.
Another return going to
net and then failure to retrieve
a shot at the right side gave
Sung a 20-17 lead. Saina saved
two but left the next thinking
it will drop inside the line.
In the second game, Saina
lead 3-1 when Sung took a
break to attend to her right
ankle. When the match
resumed, Saina continued her
good run to lead 6-2.
Sung slowly leveled par at
6-6 when a low return from
Saina went to the net. The
Indian again surged ahead and
entered the break at 11-7.
After the interval, Saina
extended the lead to 13-8 and
then zoomed to 19-10 with the
Korean crumbling. Sung
grabbed three points before
another long shot gave Saina a
20-13 lead.
In the decider, Sung lead 52 early on but she faield to rein
her unforced errors as Saina
soon turned it around at 8-6.
The Korean looked visibly tired
as she didn't even try to retrieve
some of the shots as Saina
reached the break with a 11-7
advantage. A change of side
seemed to change the fortune
of Sung, who reeled off six
straight points to grab the lead
13-11. A net error broke the
rhythm but Saina again hit
wide as Sung lead 14-12.
Two wide shots from Sung
brought Saina to an even-knell
at 17-17 befroe he grabbed the
lead when the Korean erred at
the net.
A couple of long shots
from Sung took Saina to a 2019 lead. Sung saved one but
Saina grabbed the net after
another fierce rally and threw
up her arms in ecstacy.