16
T he sound of honeybees downloaded from the inter- net to keep elephants away from railway tracks has created quite a buzz after the novel idea intro- duced by the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) brought down the number of accidents. The NFR has this system in place across four of its divisions at select level crossings where elephant zones exist. The idea was implemented in late 2017 and this year only six elephants have died after col- liding with a train. In 2013, the number of elephants killed was 19, in 2014 it was 5, in 2015, it was 12, in 2016, it was 9, while in 2017, it was 10. “We installed this in Rangiya division and once it was successful we have installed it in other locations as well. This was started barely six months back,” said Lokesh Narayan, Additional General Manager, NFR. Unlike in Kenya, where boutique beehives are dangled from fences to keep elephants away, NFR uses an electronic “buzzer” to keep the animals at bay.While elephant-repulsion techniques such as the chili bomb and electric fences have been used earlier, this buzzing sound has been the most effec- tive and cost-efficient. It is a simple device that amplifies the recorded sound of honeybees downloaded from the internet. F or the first time since Independence, the Army is set to replace canvas shoes issued to its jawans with mod- ern sports shoes. More than 80,000 pairs of new shoes will be used for final field trials in various com- mands. If they meet the required standards, the entire 11-lakh strong Army will get these shoes within the next two to three years. It has taken more than ten years for the Army to shortlist a private company to supply the shoes as per its specifica- tions. The trials will take place in four commands, including Southern, South Western, Western and Central. All the these commands will get 20,000 pairs each for eval- uation and the trials will take place for about two months starting next month, officials said here on Thursday. Giving the details of the selection procedure and rea- sons for delay, they said the idea to replace standard issue brown or white canvas shoes with modern sports shoes was first mooted in 2009. In 2010, the global tender or request for proposal (RFP) for 1.75 lakh pairs was floated. At least five Indian and multinational com- panies responded, they said. However, an objection over use of leather in manufacturing the sports shoes made the Army withdraw the RFP in 2011 and a fresh tender was floated with new specifications with focus on synthetic mater- ial used in shoes. Fourteen companies, including several reputed inter- national brands showed keen- ness, officials said. After extensive trials at the initial stages, two Indian com- panies managed to meet the standards and were asked to supply 1.75 lakh shoes as a pilot project in 2015. Following several rounds of modifi- cations, one com- pany was found to be ready to sup- ply 80,000 pairs last year, they said. The Army has given some more time to the other company to carry out the required changes to be ready to supply more than 90,000 pairs, officials added. At present, the Army issues two pairs of canvas shoes in a year to the jawans for physical training (PT) and participating in sporting activ- ities. Once the sport shoes are inducted, the jawans will be entitled for one pair a year, they said. I n a blow to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the Supreme Court on Thursday prevented the State Election Commission (SEC) from announcing the results of nearly 20,000 uncon- tested seats, where only candi- dates from the ruling party had filed nomination papers. The Bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra took notice of this fact while hear- ing an appeal by the SEC against a May 8 Calcutta High Court order which directed the poll panel to accept all nomi- nations filed through email by Opposition party candidates in the elections due for May 14. Terming the order as “bad”, the Bench, also comprising Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud found no rea- soning for the HC to interfere in the election process, espe- cially when the last date of nomination had expired on April 23. The HC had held the Information Technology Act applicable to the process of fil- ing of nominations, governed purely by the Representation of People Act. The SC also asked the State poll panel to ensure “free and fair” panchayat elections on May 14 in the State. But before the State Government could celebrate this order, the Bench took note of the submissions made by the CPI(M) and the BJP who com- plained of their candidates being threatened, beaten and prevented from filing nomina- tions. Due to this reason, they alleged that 20,076 seats out of the total 58,692 seats in the State will not have any polls as it will fall straight into the kitty of the ruling party in the State whose candidates will get elect- ed unopposed. Continued on Page 4 T he National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and the Minister of Road, Transport and Highways on Thursday spoke in two voices on the inauguration of the Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE), even as the Supreme Court said that it will throw open the highways to public from June 1 if it was till then not formally inaugurated by the Prime Minister as proposed by the NHAI. With the 135-kilometre long super highway connecting Kundli to Palwal via Ghaziabad and Greater Noida expected to substantially reduce the traffic load of Delhi, the Bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta asked the NHAI to report the status of the pro- ject. On April 18 when the mat- ter was last heard, the author- ity informed the court that the project will be inaugurated on April 29. The NHAI informed the Bench that the Prime Minister is expected to inaugurate the project on May 29. The amicus curiae and advocate Aparajta Singh who surveyed the project informed that the expressway is ready for inauguration. The Bench wondered why the project was held up for want of inauguration, suggest- ing that even a law officer appearing for the Centre was equipped to inaugurate. Giving time till May 31 to the NHAI for completing inauguration, the Bench directed, “NHAI must ensure that inauguration takes place on or before May 31 or else traffic will be thrown open to public from June 1.” Soon after this, Union Minister for Road, Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari sang a different tune and said that that the delay was on account of the project being incomplete. He said as and when it is complete, the Prime Minister will inaugurate it. He was quoted by ANI as saying, “The Eastern Peripheral Expressway is still under con- struction. It will be completed soon. We will take a date from the Prime Minister for its inau- guration and will immediately open it. He (PM Narendra Modi) has no connection with the delay in the opening of the expressway. We were left with little construction work and that is why we shifted the date.” A s Karnataka poll campaign ends and the State gears up for poll on Saturday, consumers should be ready for big hit on petrol price front. For every one dollar rise in Brent crude prices of one barrel, the oil companies in India hike petrol and diesel prices by 40 paisa per litre. Since April 24 when last time the petrol price was revised, Brent crude prices in interna- tional market have gone up by nearly $5 a barrel. It means, the oil companies could be forced to hike prices by 2 per litre after May 12. Oil marketing Companies (OMCs) revised the petrol prices last time on April 24 when the crude prices flared to $74.01 a barrel. Then OMCs increased the prices of petrol by 13 paise and 18 paise for diesel. The daily revision stopped there. Next day, global crude price fell to $73.07 a barrel, but OMCs did not react. Since then global oil prices have risen by almost five dollars, but OMCs have ignored the situa- tion even as they accumulated losses on their books and their share prices nosedived on stock exchanges. To offset the accumulates losses of nearly three weeks and to catch up with the current prices of nearly $78 per barrel, OMCs will be forced to increase petrol and diesel prices by at least 2 per litre. This could push up inflation and put a great deal of pressure on economy. The margin of oil compa- nies have shrunk from 3.14 per litre of petrol and diesel on April 1 to an estimated 1.8 per litre on May 10. During the Gujarat polls also, OMCs lost more than 1.5 a litre on mar- keting margins during the peri- od of campaigning through artificial freezing of prices. However, the Government later allowed them liberty to recov- er the losses. Going by the Gujarat experiment, it is safe to assume that in addition to a hike of 2 (40 paise x 5) a litre, which the OMC will have to unleash on consumers to catch up with the current price, they will also have to go for additional hike to offset the losses suffered dur- ing three weeks of price freeze. The Economic Survey 2018 said that every $10 per barrel increase in the price of oil brings down GDP growth by 0.2-0.3 percentage points. While the survey said the oil price was expected to grow by 12 per cent in the FY19, the price rise has overshot the upper limit of this percentile range in the first three months itself. India imports 82 per cent of its total oil requirement and Brent crude oil makes up around 28 per cent of India’s total imports or every $1 rise in crude oil prices of a barrel, the impact on the current account deficit is around $1 billion. While Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had last month denied reports that the Government had issued any directive to OMCs to keep petrol and diesel prices on freeze, the way the oil compa- nies had to helplessly watch their margin slip, showed that they were forced into inaction. However, with three more State Assembly elections round the corner, will the Centre afford to give freehand to the OMCs is a million dollar question. T he bitter and intense cam- paign for the high-stake Karnataka Assembly polls ended on Thursday with all eyes on the turnout on the D- day on March 12. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi con- nected with the voters through ModiApp from Delhi on Thursday, Congress president Rahul Gandhi fired at him from the “ground zero” in Bengaluru. In his address via “app” to the ST/ST/slum morcha work- ers of the BJP, the PM spoke about Dalit welfare programmes undertaken by his Government and slammed the Congress for ignoring BR Ambedkar. He also reminded the party workers that the BJP had the maximum number of MPs belonging to the SC/ST, OBC and minority communities. Modi criticised the Congress for not allowing Parliament to function and scuttling the move to give Constitutional status to the OBC Commission. Modi held 21 rallies criss- crossing the State, while Rahul addressed 10 rallies and reached out to people by hold- ing roadshows. Many pre-poll surveys are predicting a fractured mandate with the JD(S) playing a king- maker role. More than 25 senior leaders from the BJP campaigned on the last day of the campaign. Addressing a Press confer- ence in Bengaluru, Rahul Gandhi on Thursday slammed Modi for distracting public from real issues and claimed that the Congress will win hands down in the State. He also said it’s a war of ideologies and RSS wants to take over Karnataka. Continued on Page 4 A 45-year-old woman chopped off her tongue and offered it at a village temple in Morena district of Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday. Guddi Tomar, a devotee of Goddess Durga, suddenly chopped off her tongue and offered it at the Bijasen Mata temple in Tarsama village, about 50 km from Morena district headquarter. Following this, she fell unconscious. The woman's husband, Ravi Tomar, said his wife had been visiting the Bijasen temple every day in the morn- ing and evening since they got married. "We have three sons. My wife is an ardent devotee of Goddess Durga. She suddenly Continued on Page 4 F our Army trucks were dam- aged in a fire that broke out on a moving goods train near Maramjhiri station in Betul dis- trict on Thursday. No one was injured in the incident and the fire was put out soon, District Collector Shashank Mishra said. Four Army trucks were completely damaged as the fire engulfed four wagons of the train, he said. The trucks were being transported from Bangalore to Faizabad on a special goods train in Betul district of Madhya Pradesh. The inci- dent took place on the Betul- Itarsi rail track between Darakhoh and Maramjhiri, 8 km from district headquarters around 12.30 pm. Several fire tenders were pressed into service. There were 90 jawans on board in the same train. Police said four trucks were damaged in the fire. There are no reports of any injury. The train was stopped after its guard noticed the blaze, they said. The cause of the fire has not been ascertained yet. The schedule of several trains on this route has been affected due the incident. Many passenger trains were stopped at different stations. Power supply of the overhead line had to be snapped for fire fighters. According to the sources, a bro- ken overhead line apparently triggered the fire. RNI Regn. No. MPENG/2004/13703, Regd. No. L-2/BPLON/41/2006-2008

ˇ˚ˆ ˙ ˙((,-(). (,/+ (01- ˝!˜˚# ˇ$%&’˚˜%&˜% ˛()˜˚ ˆˇ Gopal Subramanium, Kapil SIbal, P Chidambaram, Shyam Divan, Arvind Datar, KV Vishwanathan, Sajan Poovayya among

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�������������������������������������������������� ����������������� ��������� �������������"����� �������� ��#������ ������������������ ���� ����������������� ��$����"�����������%�������&'% ����� �������� ��� �������(� ��!�����) ������������ �������������������� �������*��� �������� ��� ��������%�������% ���!

���������������������������������������������+����� ����������� ���� ��� ������ �,�"�����-��� �����.� ��� �� ��� �������� ����������� ���,�"�������,����'������/� �0������� ���������� �����������12!3������ ��� �+����!

����� )$4�5��+

The sound of honeybeesdownloaded from the inter-

net to keep elephants away fromrailway tracks has created quitea buzz after the novel idea intro-duced by the Northeast FrontierRailway (NFR) brought down thenumber of accidents. The NFRhas this system in place acrossfour of its divisions at select levelcrossings where elephant zonesexist.

The idea was implementedin late 2017 and this year onlysix elephants have died after col-liding with a train. In 2013, thenumber of elephants killed was19, in 2014 it was 5, in 2015, itwas 12, in 2016, it was 9, whilein 2017, it was 10.

“We installed this inRangiya division and once it wassuccessful we have installed it inother locations as well. This wasstarted barely six months back,”said Lokesh Narayan, AdditionalGeneral Manager, NFR.

Unlike in Kenya, whereboutique beehives are dangledfrom fences to keep elephantsaway, NFR uses an electronic“buzzer” to keep the animals atbay.While elephant-repulsiontechniques such as the chilibomb and electric fences havebeen used earlier, this buzzingsound has been the most effec-tive and cost-efficient.

It is a simple device thatamplifies the recorded sound ofhoneybees downloaded fromthe internet.

����� /64�7685+

For the first time sinceIndependence, the Army is

set to replace canvas shoesissued to its jawans with mod-ern sports shoes.

More than 80,000 pairs ofnew shoes will be used for finalfield trials in various com-mands. If they meet therequired standards, the entire11-lakh strong Army will getthese shoes within the next twoto three years.

It has taken more than tenyears for the Army to shortlista private company to supplythe shoes as per its specifica-tions. The trials will takeplace in four commands,including Southern, SouthWestern, Western and Central.All the these commands willget 20,000 pairs each for eval-uation and the trials will take

place for about two monthsstarting next month, officialssaid here on Thursday.

Giving the details of theselection procedure and rea-sons for delay, they said theidea to replace standard issuebrown or white canvas shoes

with modern sports shoes wasfirst mooted in 2009. In 2010,the global tender or request forproposal (RFP) for 1.75 lakhpairs was floated. At least fiveIndian and multinational com-panies responded, they said.

However, an objection over

use of leather in manufacturingthe sports shoes made theArmy withdraw the RFP in2011 and a fresh tender wasfloated with new specificationswith focus on synthetic mater-ial used in shoes.

Fourteen companies,including several reputed inter-national brands showed keen-ness, officials said.

After extensive trials at theinitial stages, two Indian com-panies managed to meet thestandards and wereasked to supply 1.75lakh shoes as a pilotproject in 2015.Following severalrounds of modifi-cations, one com-pany was found tobe ready to sup-ply 80,000 pairslast year, theysaid. The Army

has given some more time tothe other company to carry outthe required changes to beready to supply more than90,000 pairs, officials added.

At present, the Armyissues two pairs of canvasshoes in a year to the jawansfor physical training (PT) andparticipating in sporting activ-ities. Once the sport shoes are

inducted, the jawans willbe entitled for one paira year, they said.

����� /64�7685+

In a blow to West BengalChief Minister Mamata

Banerjee, the Supreme Courton Thursday prevented theState Election Commission(SEC) from announcing theresults of nearly 20,000 uncon-tested seats, where only candi-dates from the ruling party hadfiled nomination papers.

The Bench headed byChief Justice Dipak Misra tooknotice of this fact while hear-ing an appeal by the SECagainst a May 8 Calcutta HighCourt order which directed thepoll panel to accept all nomi-nations filed through email byOpposition party candidates inthe elections due for May 14.Terming the order as “bad”, theBench, also comprising JusticesAM Khanwilkar and DYChandrachud found no rea-soning for the HC to interferein the election process, espe-cially when the last date ofnomination had expired onApril 23. The HC had held theInformation Technology Actapplicable to the process of fil-ing of nominations, governedpurely by the Representation ofPeople Act.

The SC also asked the Statepoll panel to ensure “free andfair” panchayat elections onMay 14 in the State.

But before the StateGovernment could celebratethis order, the Bench took noteof the submissions made by theCPI(M) and the BJP who com-

plained of their candidatesbeing threatened, beaten andprevented from filing nomina-tions. Due to this reason, theyalleged that 20,076 seats out ofthe total 58,692 seats in theState will not have any polls asit will fall straight into the kittyof the ruling party in the Statewhose candidates will get elect-ed unopposed.

Continued on Page 4

� ������������� /64�7685+

The National HighwayAuthority of India (NHAI)

and the Minister of Road,Transport and Highways onThursday spoke in two voiceson the inauguration of theEastern Peripheral Expressway(EPE), even as the SupremeCourt said that it will throwopen the highways to publicfrom June 1 if it was till thennot formally inaugurated by thePrime Minister as proposed bythe NHAI.

With the 135-kilometrelong super highway connectingKundli to Palwal via Ghaziabadand Greater Noida expected to

substantially reduce the trafficload of Delhi, the Bench ofJustices Madan B Lokur andDeepak Gupta asked the NHAIto report the status of the pro-ject. On April 18 when the mat-ter was last heard, the author-ity informed the court that theproject will be inaugurated onApril 29.

The NHAI informed theBench that the Prime Ministeris expected to inaugurate the

project on May 29. The amicuscuriae and advocate AparajtaSingh who surveyed the projectinformed that the expresswayis ready for inauguration.

The Bench wondered whythe project was held up forwant of inauguration, suggest-ing that even a law officerappearing for the Centre wasequipped to inaugurate. Givingtime till May 31 to the NHAIfor completing inauguration,

the Bench directed, “NHAImust ensure that inaugurationtakes place on or before May 31or else traffic will be thrownopen to public from June 1.”

Soon after this, UnionMinister for Road, Transportand Highways Nitin Gadkarisang a different tune and saidthat that the delay was onaccount of the project beingincomplete. He said as andwhen it is complete, the PrimeMinister will inaugurate it.

He was quoted by ANI assaying, “The Eastern PeripheralExpressway is still under con-struction. It will be completedsoon. We will take a date fromthe Prime Minister for its inau-guration and will immediatelyopen it.

He (PM Narendra Modi)has no connection with thedelay in the opening of theexpressway. We were left withlittle construction work and thatis why we shifted the date.”

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

�� 9����������������������������������� ������ �������:�;����������������

�� 6(�������� ����� �������������������� �������������"��� ��� �� ���� ��'����2:����<�������"��������6��� ����� �������������������������������������

�� ����� ��������� ��������� ������������ ������ �������� ���������� ��=2!�������������� ����� ������� ������ ���"������

�� ����<������ ���������������� ����� ���� ��������������������6��� ��� ������������������ ����������:�;�������

������������� ������������������������������� !"#�������$��������������������%�����&������������������'�

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

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�� ������������ /64�7685+

As Karnataka poll campaignends and the State gears up

for poll on Saturday, consumersshould be ready for big hit onpetrol price front. For every onedollar rise in Brent crude pricesof one barrel, the oil companiesin India hike petrol and dieselprices by 40 paisa per litre.Since April 24 when last timethe petrol price was revised,Brent crude prices in interna-tional market have gone up bynearly $5 a barrel. It means, theoil companies could be forcedto hike prices by �2 per litreafter May 12.

Oil marketing Companies(OMCs) revised the petrolprices last time on April 24when the crude prices flared to$74.01 a barrel. Then OMCsincreased the prices of petrol by13 paise and 18 paise for diesel.The daily revision stoppedthere. Next day, global crudeprice fell to $73.07 a barrel, butOMCs did not react. Sincethen global oil prices haverisen by almost five dollars, butOMCs have ignored the situa-tion even as they accumulatedlosses on their books and theirshare prices nosedived on stockexchanges.

To offset the accumulateslosses of nearly three weeks andto catch up with the currentprices of nearly $78 per barrel,OMCs will be forced to increasepetrol and diesel prices by atleast �2 per litre. This couldpush up inflation and put a greatdeal of pressure on economy.

The margin of oil compa-nies have shrunk from �3.14per litre of petrol and diesel onApril 1 to an estimated �1.8 perlitre on May 10. During theGujarat polls also, OMCs lostmore than �1.5 a litre on mar-keting margins during the peri-od of campaigning throughartificial freezing of prices.However, the Government laterallowed them liberty to recov-er the losses.

Going by the Gujarat

experiment, it is safe to assumethat in addition to a hike of �2(40 paise x 5) a litre, which theOMC will have to unleash onconsumers to catch up with thecurrent price, they will alsohave to go for additional hiketo offset the losses suffered dur-ing three weeks of price freeze.

The Economic Survey 2018said that every $10 per barrelincrease in the price of oilbrings down GDP growth by0.2-0.3 percentage points. Whilethe survey said the oil price wasexpected to grow by 12 per centin the FY19, the price rise hasovershot the upper limit of thispercentile range in the first

three months itself.India imports 82 per cent

of its total oil requirement andBrent crude oil makes uparound 28 per cent of India’stotal imports or every $1 rise in

crude oil prices of a barrel, theimpact on the current accountdeficit is around $1 billion.

While Oil MinisterDharmendra Pradhan had lastmonth denied reports that the

Government had issued anydirective to OMCs to keeppetrol and diesel prices onfreeze, the way the oil compa-nies had to helplessly watchtheir margin slip, showed that

they were forced into inaction.However, with three more StateAssembly elections round thecorner, will the Centre afford togive freehand to the OMCs isa million dollar question.

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

� ���������� �� ���� ����������������"� ���=!�2�������� ���� ������������� �������� ����������������!>�������� �'�����

� 7���������)�?���� ������� :�9'���� ��� ���������!@�������� ����"������������������������ �� �������������� �����������������0���� ������!5 ���:�����) ���������������� ��������������� ��� �������� ����

� ) �����������)�?����(������:������������� ��������������������� �� �����"�� �����A2������(�@B�������:� ��������9'�� ���������� �������� ��� �������� ��������� ����������������:������ ������� ������� �� �� ������ ������"��� � ����������� ����������������������� ��"�� ���������0�

!���� ��!��� <6/)�8$C$

The bitter and intense cam-paign for the high-stake

Karnataka Assembly pollsended on Thursday with alleyes on the turnout on the D-day on March 12. While PrimeMinister Narendra Modi con-nected with the voters throughModiApp from Delhi onThursday, Congress presidentRahul Gandhi fired at himfrom the “ground zero” in

Bengaluru.In his address via “app” to

the ST/ST/slum morcha work-ers of the BJP, the PM spokeabout Dalit welfare programmes

undertaken by his Governmentand slammed the Congress forignoring BR Ambedkar.

He also reminded the partyworkers that the BJP had themaximum number of MPsbelonging to the SC/ST, OBCand minority communities.Modi criticised the Congressfor not allowing Parliament tofunction and scuttling themove to give Constitutional

status to the OBC Commission. Modi held 21 rallies criss-

crossing the State, while Rahuladdressed 10 rallies andreached out to people by hold-ing roadshows.

Many pre-poll surveys arepredicting a fractured mandatewith the JD(S) playing a king-

maker role. More than 25senior leaders from the BJPcampaigned on the last day ofthe campaign.

Addressing a Press confer-ence in Bengaluru, RahulGandhi on Thursday slammedModi for distracting publicfrom real issues and claimedthat the Congress will winhands down in the State. Healso said it’s a war of ideologiesand RSS wants to take overKarnataka.

Continued on Page 4

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$�#���������'"����������������#���(�������(�����$������������%������ #%&

4����' ���?������������ ��� �&�����"�� ��������� � �������������?����� �� ��� ��������<%,*���'����������D�4�������<%,����������>����"����� �C����� ����������������� ������� � � �����=@:����� ��� ������ ��� ��&�����"�D ��� ������

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,� �������������<%,��������� ������������������� ��������������������!�4��� ������� ���:�������� ��� �������� ����������� ������ ��� ���� ����

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A45-year-old womanchopped off her tongue and

offered it at a village temple inMorena district of MadhyaPradesh on Wednesday.

Guddi Tomar, a devotee ofGoddess Durga, suddenlychopped off her tongue andoffered it at the Bijasen Matatemple in Tarsama village, about50 km from Morena districtheadquarter. Following this, shefell unconscious. The woman'shusband, Ravi Tomar, said hiswife had been visiting the Bijasentemple every day in the morn-ing and evening since they gotmarried.

"We have three sons. Mywife is an ardent devotee ofGoddess Durga. She suddenly

Continued on Page 4

������������� <59,�8

Four Army trucks were dam-aged in a fire that broke out

on a moving goods train nearMaramjhiri station in Betul dis-trict on Thursday.

No one was injured in theincident and the fire was put outsoon, District CollectorShashank Mishra said. FourArmy trucks were completelydamaged as the fire engulfedfour wagons of the train, he said.

The trucks were beingtransported from Bangalore toFaizabad on a special goodstrain in Betul district ofMadhya Pradesh. The inci-dent took place on the Betul-Itarsi rail track betweenDarakhoh and Maramjhiri, 8km from district headquartersaround 12.30 pm.

Several fire tenders werepressed into service. Therewere 90 jawans on board in the

same train. Police said fourtrucks were damaged in thefire. There are no reports of anyinjury.

The train was stopped afterits guard noticed the blaze, theysaid. The cause of the fire hasnot been ascertained yet.

The schedule of several

trains on this route has beenaffected due the incident. Manypassenger trains were stoppedat different stations. Powersupply of the overhead line hadto be snapped for fire fighters.According to the sources, a bro-ken overhead line apparentlytriggered the fire.

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������������� <59,�8

One of Charlie Chaplin’s dif-ficult productions ‘Circus’

was screened at Bharat Bhavanhere on Thursday. The moviemarked the sixth day ofChildren’s Film Festival.Another movie ‘Victor’ direct-ed by Asit Ranjan Sen was alsoscreened.

The Circus is a 1928 silentfilm written and directed byCharlie Chaplin. The film starsChaplin, Al Ernest Garcia,Merna Kennedy, Harry Crocker,George Davis and HenryBergman. The ringmaster of animpoverished circus hiresChaplin's Little Tramp as aclown, but discovers that he canonly be funny unintentionally,not on purpose.

The production of the filmwas the most difficult experi-ence in Chaplin's career.

Numerous problems anddelays occurred, including a stu-

dio fire, the death of Chaplin'smother, as well as Chaplin's bit-ter divorce from his second wifeLita Grey all of which culmi-nated in filming being stalled foreight months.

The owner and ringmasterof a traveling circus blameseveryone but himself for the cir-cus' troubles. He is especiallyhard on his stepdaughterMerna, one of the circus riders.

A poor and starving trampcomes into the realm of the cir-cus solely as means to get awayfrom the police as he is mistak-en for a pickpocket working thecarnival midway, the Trampwho unwittingly has on hispossession one of the stolen wal-lets.

As the tramp and his pur-suers enter the circus ring dur-ing the middle of a perfor-mance, the audience mistaken-ly believes he is one of the cir-cus clowns. As such, he becomesthe biggest hit of the show.

������������� <59,�8

One of MunshiPremchnad’s classic sto-

ries ‘Shatranj ke Khiladi’ wasbrilliantly staged at ShaheedBhavan auditorium here onThursday. The play was stagedunder the Deshraag series.

Directed by Dinesh Nair,the play was organized byDirectorate of Swaraj Sansthanin collaboration withDepartment of Culture,Madhya Pradesh.

Director of the DineshNair said that the story of theplay by Munshi Premchand iscentered on the game chess.The story depicts decadentroyalty of Central North India.

It is set around the life ofthe last independently rulingNawab (noble) Wajid Ali Shahand concludes with the Britishannexation of the Nawab's

kingdom of Awadh in 1856.The two main characters arethe aristocrats Mirza Sajjad Aliand Mir Raushan Ali who aredeeply immersed into playingchess.

Their desire for the gamedestroys the competency ofthe characters, and makesthem irresponsible in theirduties towards their familiesand society. They deriveimmense pleasure in devel-oping chess strategies andignore the real life invasion bythe Brit ish. Their cityLucknow falls to Britishattackers as they are busyplaying a game of chess.

For past two months, theartists had rehearsed for the

play. With the intelligent useof light design and set back-drop, the play became evenmore interesting to watch.Besides, the essence of MunshiPremchand’s writing style waskept intact.

Nawab Wajid Ali Shah ofLucknow and Awadh, the cen-tral character of the play waskeenly interested in music,hence the Kathak dance andThumri was also used in thedrama.

Other than the play, anexhibition on Revolt of 1857showcasing the bravery of therevolutionaries was also inau-gurated at Swaraj Art Galleryon Thursday. The exhibitionwill be on view till Sunday.

������������� <59,�8

Aplay ‘Kalaya Tasme Namah’was performed here on

Thursday at Raviindra BhavanAuditorium leaving the audi-ence with an unanswered ques-tion about superstitious beliefsand unknown intuitions.

With fine direction by NitiShrivastava, the play was splen-didly performed by the artistsby Creative Art and CultureDevelopment Society, Bhopal.

The play was performed onthe first day of 28th IftekharTheatre Festival ‘Yaadien’.

The story revolved aroundthe life of a fortune teller. He isa known and one of the trust-worthy fortune tellers of thecity.

Whatever he says nevercome out as a false statement.Suddenly this known and cel-ebrated fortune teller leaves hisskill and become aloof from his

fortune telling. What situa-tions made him to do so, wasall about Kalaya Tasme Namah:

The play begins with intro-ducing Vinayak Rao, the for-tune teller being interviewed bya journalist. As the journalistbegan his series of questions,asked Rao why he gave up for-tune telling, what was the rea-son behind this decision?

Rao then takes the jour-nalist in a flashback wherethis all began.

Rao has a family and hisson is not-so-concerned aboutjyotish vidya. His sonMadhukar once discloses thathe loves a girl named Sushma.

On hearing this Rao thenreads the kundalis and thenRao tells that after 11 monthsof marriage, Sushma will die.

One fine day, Rao’s friendcomes to visit him with hismentally-ill daughter Shaku.She is an adult with an under-

developed mind. Madhu thenthought of an idea of marryingShaku, she will then die andthen Sushma and Madhu willget married.

Rao explains Madhu thatthis will be a murder. ButMadhu was blinded in his ownworld of illusions.

Somehow the marriagehappens, but there was some-thing else the destiny restoredfor Madhu: Shaku didn’t die.

Rao tells the journalist thatthere is no gain in telling thefuture.

Rao quoting the fact thateven Lord Krishna says tobelieve in karma then oneshould do what is ordered forhim by his lord and not try tochange the destiny.

The play was muchenjoyed by the theatre buffs.

The intense acting skills bythe artists made the playworthwhile to watch.

������������� <59,�8

Madhya Pradesh will bedeveloped as a model

State for Van Dhan Scheme,”said Managing Director ofTRIFED, Pravir Krishna.

Addressing the mediaper-sons here on Thursday, Krishnasaid that a formal meeting washeld with Additional ChiefSecretary KK Singh.Representatives of other Statesand districts and officers offorest department and repre-sentatives of self help groupswere present.

While talking about theVan Dhan Scheme, Krishnasaid that the scheme waslaunched in Bijapur on April14. Now the scheme will getinto another phase where aproper development of tribalsis planned.

Krishna informed that firstthe project will be workedupon in Madhya Pradesh and

Chhattisgarh and then it will beestablished in other 27 States ofthe country. “The major motiveis to increase the income oftribals by enhancing them inother skills as well,” saidKrishna.

A planning of transforma-tion of Haat Bazaars and estab-lishment of godowns with theexpenditure of Rs 12 lakhswill be done. Elaborating moreabout it, Krishna said that acorporate-like marketing struc-ture is prepared for minor for-est produce (MFP). Forestdepartment and MadhyaPradesh Forest Federation willbe the nodal agency for refram-ing and implementing thescheme.

Around 30 self help groupsof 10 members will be formedin different districts. NationalSchedule Tribe FinanceDevelopment Corporation(NSTFDC) will provide thema working capital of Rs 1 lakh,

machinery worth Rs 1.5 lakhwill be provided from TRIFEDfor them to work.

The ribals will be trainedon how to do simple valueaddition to get better prices forminor forest produce theygather, Krishna added. 15 VanDhan development centers in13 districts will be opened bythe end of July.

“For instance, tamarind inits raw form would hardly getany price for them. But ifdeseeded and the outside huskremoved, it can fetch doublethe price. These simple valueaddition centers would beopened in tribal households,”he said.

It was also decided that50% plantation will be donewith the saplings of forest pro-duce than can be helpful fortribals. “Instead of bamboosand other plants , saplings ofMFP should be planted,” addedKrishna.

������������� <59,�8

Governor Anandiben Patelsaid at the 94th meeting of

the University CoordinationCommittee that the examina-tion results of the universitiesshould be declared on time andthe process of new admissionsshould be completed beforeJuly 1.

A welcome programmeshould be organised or stu-dents taking admission in thefirst year on July 1. The pres-ence of students already study-ing in the colleges should beensured in the programme. Itshould also be ensured that theUniversity calendar reachesall the students taking admis-sion on time. Admission reg-istration fee should not becharged from students belong-ing to the SC-ST taking admis-sion in the universities and col-leges.

Patel called upon the Vice-Chancellors to take active partin Madhya Pradesh Anti-

Tuberculosis Campaign. Shesaid that the Vice-Chancellor,Registrar and Professors ofthe University should adoptone child each with TBbetween the 0-18 age groupwith the support of the districtcollectors. They should sendnutritious food includingfruits, jaggery and pulses to theT.B affected child.

Patel told to prepare sum-mer time plan to ensure par-ticipation of universities inthe Centre’s Cleanliness

Awareness Programme. Underthis, work for cleanliness for100 hours should be under-taken in villages. In this, shetold to make students writeessays and plays on the needfor toilets and cleanliness,organize competitions and giveprizes on behalf of the Centre,state government and univer-sity to winners. The worksundertaken under theCleanliness AwarenessProgramme should beuploaded on the website and

sent to the Centre and the stategovernment.

The Governor said that thepresence of the Vice-Chancellorsshould be ensured in the pro-grammes and functions orga-nized in the universities. If theVice-Chancellors have to gooutside the state or the country,then they will have to give anapplication with full details andreasons in advance. They can goon the tour only after takingprior permission. Governor Smt.Patel issued instructions to theVice-Chancellors to provide thecorrect and complete informa-tion related to the professors,teachers and employees to theHigher EducationDepartment.Additional ChiefSecretary Finance APShrivastava, Additional ChiefSecretary Higher Education BRNaidu, Principal Secretary to theGovernor M Mohan Rao andVice-Chancellors of theUniversities besides officials ofthe related departments werepresent at the meeting.

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A45-year-old mentallyretarded woman was raped

by two miscreants atHarrakheda under Gungapolice station area. The mattercame to fore after she got eightmonth pregnant and a case wasregistered on Wednesday.

The victim was not able toprovide the details of theatrocity as she was not able tospeak properly and the mat-ter surfaced when the victimhad gone to her mother’shouse.

Police said that the victim’shusband had deserted heraround 20 years ago and she

used to live in the area alongwith her son and few days agowhen she had gone to meet hermother the atrocity by theaccused was revealed.

The victim told her moth-er that her neighbours Wahidand his brother Shahid sexual-ly assaulted her few monthsago.

In the investigation policefound that the accused used tovisit the victim but the locals

never thought that the twomight commit rape. Theaccused have raped her multi-ple times.

The police have registereda case under section 376 and 34of the IPC and have startedsearch for the accused.

Meanwhile, AyodhyaNagar police have booked a 24-year-old youth for sexuallyexploiting a 16-year-old girl byusing indecent videos and pho-

tographs at Prakash Nagar.The accused ShubhamChouhan sexually exploitedthe victim for the past one anda half year.

The victim in her com-plaint stated that the accusedoffered her tea laced with seda-tive and later took her videosand photographs.

He used the video andphotographs to blackmail herand sexually exploited herthreatening making video andphotographs public.

The police have registereda case under section 376 2(N)of the IPC and section 3 and 4of the POCSO Act and startedsearch for the accused.

������������� <59,�8

Under the series of ‘Exhibitof the Month’ at Indira

Gandhi Rashtriya ManavSangrahalaya, a traditionalobject “Garudasan” (An altarfor the worship of HolyScriptures) has been displayedfor a whole month.

Director of NSC & NGMA,Mumbai, Shivprasad Khened,Ex Director of IGRMS, Prof KKBasa, Retd Geographer of AnSI,Sumit Mukherjee, Director ofIGRMS, Prof SK Chaudhuriand Joint Director, IGRMS,Dilip Singh, jointly inaugurat-ed the Exhibit of the Month atVeethi Sankul indoor exhibi-tion building.

This Exhibit of the Monthhas been curated by N

Sakmacha Singh (MuseumAssociate).

Garudasan is a three tieredwooden platform used by thefamilies of the AssameseVaisnavas to set a place of wor-ship in the specified place of thehouse. This colourful woodenaltar is used for worshiping theHoly Scriptures like the BhagataPurana, Gunamala etc.

Garuda (an Eagle), beingthe vehicle of Lord Vishnu, thisAsana (altar) is named after thesculptures of Garuda it containsin all the three tiers of the plat-form. Unlike the massivelybuilt structure of Singhasana(multitiered wooden altar forHoly Scripture) worshipped inthe Satras (VaisnaviteMonastries), the three tieredGadudasana is traditionally

meant for worshipping at home. The faith in the worship of

Holy Scriptures using Asanas(altar for Holy Scriptures) issaid to have emerged with theneo-vaisnavite movement inthe late 15th Century AD, laidby Mahapurush Srimanta

Sankardev and his disciples.This exhibition attempts todescribe the socio-cultural sig-nificance and the Philosophicalthought lingering with thereligious utilities of Singhasanaand Garudasana by theVaisnavites of Assam.

����� C64�

Public Relations, WaterResources and Parliamentary

Affairs and Rewa district incharge Minister NarottamMishra today reviewed the devel-opment works of WaterResources Department in Rewa.He said that according to the pre-scribed target complete thedevelopment works within thetime limit. He directed toenhance various irrigation facil-ities for farmers.Minister Mishrawas apprised with the informa-tion on development worksunder Bansagar project that theconstruction of Bahuti canalunder the project is 65 per centcomplete. This will benefit 65thousand farmers of Rewa andSatna district. This canal is to becompleted till December 2018.

The Minister said that thefoundation laying and dedicationof various development works ofthe Water ResourcesDepartment will be done thismonth itself. He will be visitingevery Vidhan Sabha of the dis-trict this month. He issuedinstruction to the WaterResources Department officialsalso to start various developmentworks.

He said that next week LiftIrrigation Scheme will be dedi-cated in Gudh of Rewa district.Similarly, development workswill also be started in Mangawanand Devtalab areas.

������������� <59,�8

A42-year-old woman diedwhi le her husband

escaped with injuries aftertheir scooter was hit by aspeeding truck at Samardhaculvert in the evening onWednesday.

Two injured personsincluding a woman wererushed to Noble hospital aftertheir scooter was hit by aspeeding truck at around 8.30pm where woman wasdeclared dead while manescaped with injuries.

The deceased was identi-f ied as Rita Lalwani ofMandideep while the manwas identified as her husbandShailendra Lalwani.

In the initial investigationpolice seized the truck andnabbed the errant driver butfailed to reveal that the dri-ver was in an inebriated state.

Police said that the scoot-er was hit from behind nearthe culvert which injured the

couple and resulted in thedeath of the woman.

The two have gone toBairagarh to attend a mar-riage and were on their wayto house after the function ontheir scooter.

The injured is undergoingtreatment at Noble hospital.The body was sent for thepost mortem after the pre-liminary investigation.

The police have regis-tered a case under section 304A of the IPC and have start-ed further investigation.

The reason of the acci-dent has yet to be deter-mined and would be investi-gated, said police.

Meanwhile, a 40-year-oldman died of snake bite at afarm under Shahpura policestation area on Wednesday.The deceased AshokKushwaha was rushed aftersnake bite at farm where heworks and later during treat-ment at a private hospital hewas declared dead.

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As heat waves intensifythroughout the city and the

suburbs, the residents arebreaking all records for powerconsumption. With so manypeople relying on air condi-tioners and coolers to remaincool, the power grids arealready being strained to themaximum this summer.

According to statisticsavailable from the MadhyaPradesh Electricity Board, elec-tricity worth Rs 2 crore is con-sumed in the city every day.Sources in the MPEB said thatthe daily consumption of elec-tricity in Gwalior alone is 43lakh units. This is 50 per cent

more than the normal con-sumption. It is estimated thatthe burning up of electricitywill break all previous recordsin the coming days.

The lack of programs andplanning to reduce the powerconsumption through controlsand energy pricing and theabsence of consumption basedenergy billing are imposingenormous environmental aswell as economic costs. It hasbeen observed that the daypeak builds up in the afternoonand the second peak, around 10in the night. There is less con-sumption of energy during themorning hours due to slightbreeze and cooler atmosphere.

As the power consumption

threatens to break all barriers,the officials in the ElectricityBoard are engaged in EnergyAuditing so as to give a posi-tive direction to preventivemaintenance and to identifythe lines that are running onloss. According to sources inthe Board this auditing will alsohelp to identify those whosteal electricity.

Speaking to media per-sons, Akshay Khare, the CityGM of the MPEB said thatthere are 2.5 lakh consumers inthe city and around 43 lakhunit of electricity is being con-sumed every day. He addedthat with the heat wavesexpected to rise further theconsumption too will go up.

������������� <59,�8

House of a BHEL employ-ee was targeted by mis-

creants and valuables worth Rsone lakh were burgled from C-Sector in NCAR under Piplanipolice station area onThursday.

The victim Subhash Sarkarfound that the valuables weremissing when he returnedfrom work on Thursday.

A complaint was lodgedwith the Piplani police by thevictim stating that he came tothe house for lunch at 12 noonand returned after lunch. Laterwhen he returned after work ataround 4.30 pm electronicgoods and other valuables werefound burgled. The burglarywas committed between 1 pmand 4 pm when the victim wasat work in the factory.

The victim is posted asArtisan at BHEL. Based on thecomplaint after the preliminaryinvestigation the police have

registered a case under section454 and 380 of the IPC andhave started further investiga-tion.

The area is prone to bur-glaries as the area remainsdeserted and secluded andlack security guards.

The employees have raiseddemands of security by CISF orprivate security but no atten-tion was paid to the demandsby the management.

Meanwhile, batteriesworth Rs 45000 were burgledfrom a school at Hinotia Alamunder Kolar police station areaon Thursday.

Police said that the securi-ty guard Mannu Ahirwar ofthe school found that batteriesof two vehicles and invertorswas found missing and lodgedcomplaint with the police inthe morning on Thursday.

The police have registereda case under sections 457 and380 of the IPC and started fur-ther investigation.

������������� <59,�8

Online admission processfor the first year under

graduation courses/ firstsemester PG courses for theacademic year 2018-19 inGovernment and Governmentrecognized aided private col-leges, besides Governmentunaided colleges being rununder the Higher EducationDepartment will be carriedout throughwww.epravesh.nic.in portal.

Interested students cantake admissions in the first yearunder graduation courses andPG first semester by registeringthemselves on the E-Praveshportal. Admissions of registeredstudents will only be consid-ered.

Admission will start afterdeclaration of the Board ofSecondary Education’s 12thclass examination as per thetime table issued separately bythe Higher EducationDepartment. Admission pro-cedure will have three stagesand one CLC stage.

About 469 government,827 private, 74 private govern-ment aided colleges will beavailable for admission.Students can also take admis-sions in the approved minori-ty colleges located in the state.

A list of these colleges willbe uploaded on the website ofthe Higher EducationDepartment shortly.

Various changes have beenmade in E-Pravesh 2018-18 as

compared to previous years.Exemption from tuition feehas been given to the childrenof registered labourers of theunorganised sector for takingadmissions in both the gradu-ate and post graduate regularcourses in government/privateaided colleges.

There is an arrangementfor free online registration forgirl students of all the categoriesin the first stage only. If anyfemale student get herself reg-istered in other stage from thefirst stage then the prescribedcharges will be charged.

Moreover, compulsion ofmaximum age limit has beenabolished in under graduateand post graduate courses.

Lectures will commencefrom the first week of July forstudents, who get admissions inthe first year.

An arrangement for onlineadmission fee payment is beingmade under the Digital IndiaProgramme.

This will facilitate a betterpayment facility to studentsand their parents. An increasefrom 3 per cent to 5 per centhas been made in reservedseats for disabled students.

This arrangement willfacilitate more higher educationopportunities to disabled stu-dents.

Along with this, informa-tion in connection to admis-sion will be given to studentsfrom time to time by SMSalerts.

It is mandatory to giveoption to select online col-lege/subject/ course again forsuch registered applicants, whodo not take admissions after theallotment or those who do notreceive allotment.

������������� <59,�8

Leader of Opposition in theState Assembly Ajay Singh

demanded from Chief MinisterShivraj Singh Chouhan to pur-chase garlic on MSP and pro-vide free storage for those whowant to keep their yield.

He appealed that CMChouhan should stop harmingfarmers and close Bhavantarscheme to provide relief to thefarmers.

The reason behind the sig-nificant decrease in the pricesof garlic from Rs 5000 perquintal in January 2018 to Rs1000 and Rs 500 within fourmonths is due to Bhavantarscheme. As soon as CMChouhan announced toinclude garlic under Bhavantarscheme the middlemen pulledthe rates in the market.

Providing the loss whichthe farmer would incur overthe yield Ajay Singh said thatcost of producing garlic perbigha land is around Rs 25000and the yield is 15 quintal.

Farmers sold garlic at Rs 5000per quintal three months agowhich earned him a profit of Rs2500 per quintal and after gar-lic was included in Bhavantarscheme the rates decreased toRs 1000 per quintal and ifBhavantar scheme benefits arealso added farmer would incura loss of Rs 2500 per quintaland which is less than theinvestment made by the farmer.

The worsening conditionsof the farmers have been wit-nessed in the rule of CMChouhan who makes tallclaims of farmer’s son and gov-ernment of farmers and underthese conditions they are forcedto dump their yield.

In the past seven daysseven farmers have committedsuicide and one of the farmershave committed suicide in CMChouhan’s constituencyBudhni area.

����������� � <59,�8

Indira Gandhi RashtriyaManav Sangrahalaya will

organise the next chapter ofits popular series, MuseumPopular Lecture on Friday atRock Art conference hall

from 4 pm. In this lecture, Sumit

Mukherjee (Retd Geographer,AnSI, Kolkata) will speak on‘The World of OriginalAffluent Society’: Experiencesamong the Onge and theshompen of the Bay Island’.

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Ahead the crucial ShahkotAssembly bypoll, Congress’

divided house came to the foreduring a rally on Thursday,held before the party candidateHardev Singh Laddi filed hisnomination papers for May 28elections.

Punjab Chief MinisterCapt Amarinder Singh, Stateparty chief Sunil Jakhar, Stateparty affairs in-charge AshaKumari and co in-chargeHarish Chaudhary, formerChief Minister Rajinder KaurBhattal, Jalandhar MPChaudhary Santokh Singh,besides others accompaniedLaddi to file his papers.

However, all the Congressleaders, opposing Laddi’s can-didature, were missing from theparty rally.

Visibly unaffected by theabsence of party leaders, ChiefMinister said that it really doesnot matter for four-five people.

Laddi too targeted thoseopposing his candidature in hisfiery speech during rally. “Iexpress gratitude to the ChiefMinister Capt Amarinder whohas reposed faith in me despitethe ongoing malicious cam-paign against me. I assure you(Captain) that I will come outclean out of this controversyand raise your head always.”

In fact, Capt Amarinder’spresence, along with the party’stop brass including the Cabinet

Ministers, was ensured to dis-play a show of strength espe-cially at the time when partycandidate is embroiled in amajor controversy.

The SHO, who bookedLaddi in a mining case, has alsobecome the centre of bye-elec-tions with the opposition par-ties targeting the rulingCongress of shielding theoffender while victimizing thecop.

Entire campaign is con-centrated on the mining whilethe issues pertaining to theconstituency and the peoplehave take a backseat.

Laddi had unsuccessfullycontested the 2017 assemblyelections, losing to the formerMLA Ajit Singh Kohar, whosedeath has necessitated thebypolls. He will contest elec-tions for the second time. Heclaimed of changing the two-decade history in Shahkot —the seat which Akalis havebeen wining since past 21years.

His name was announcedby the party high command, onthe insistence of the ChiefMinister, after a ‘sting opera-tion’, allegedly showing himdemanding his share of goon-da tax in illegal mining activi-ties, went viral.

A complaint was filed withthe Election Commission onthe issue, following whichMehatpur SHO PS Bajwabooked Laddi and four othersin a mining case.

Coming in Laddi’s defence,Capt Amarinder said that heknows him for long time andthe whole controversy is oppo-sition’s creation ahead ofShahkot bypolls.

“Every vote for Laddiwould be a vote for the futureof Punjab as the Congress is theonly party that could bring thestate’s progress back on trackand that believed in imple-menting every single pollpromise. I have known Laddifor a long time as a man witha clean heart and commitmentof purpose,” said CaptAmarinder.

Taking a dig at SAD pres-ident Sukhbir Badal’s demandfor Laddi’s arrest, CaptAmarinder dismissed his state-ments as frivolous alleging thatthe former Deputy ChiefMinister was used to talkingout of his hat. “Does he(Sukhbir) represent the EC?”he quipped.���������������

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Chief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh lashed out atthe Akalis and the Aam AadmiParty (AAP) for spreading acanard over the issue of schoolHistory books while urging thepeople of Shahkot to vote forthe betterment of their area andthe state.

“The Akalis, led by theBadals, had failed to do any-thing for Punjab or its peopleduring their 10-year rule, whileAAP’s Sukhpal Singh Khaira ismisleading people by spreadinguntruth instead of raising issuesrelated to the people’s welfare,”said the Chief Minister, whileaddressing the public rallybefore accompanying Congresscandidate for Shahkot by-elec-

tion Hardev Singh Laddi forthe filing of his nominationpapers.

Chief Minister said that hewon’t talk big like SAD presi-dent or Khaira but could assurethe people of Shahkot of imple-menting all their genuinedemands.

Coming down heavily onthe Akalis for ruining the stateduring their regime, CaptAmarinder said that they hada history of damaging Punjab’sinterests, right from the time ofthe state’s reorganization.

Capt Amarinder alsolashed out at the Akalis forpoliticizing religion, pointingout that it was their ownEducation Minister DaljitCheema who had set up thecommittee in 2014 for review

and finalization of the Historysyllabus.

“They (Akalis) could noteven stop the imposition ofGST on Langar at HarmandirSahib nor could they get itwaived off, despite their allybeing in power at the Centre,”the Chief Minister pointed out,adding that this showed theirduplicity with regard to theSikh Gurus and religious insti-tutions.

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A high level delegation,comprising of party MPSukhdev Singh Dhindsa, MPBalwinder Singh Bhunder, for-mer Minister Mahesh InderSingh Grewal, former MinisterDaljit Singh Cheema and MPNaresh Gujral will meet theElection Commissioner ofIndia on Friday to submit adetailed memorandum on theprevailing circumstances inShahkot assembly constituen-cy which is going to polls onMay 28.

Meanwhile, SAD has alsoasked the poll panel to protectthe life and liberty of all policeand civil officials in Shahkotassembly constituency, sayingthat the manner in which anSHO, who had received DGP’sCommendation Disc, was vil-ified by the Congress govern-ment had demoralized theentire official machinery anddashed all hopes of a free andfair by-poll.

SAD spokesperson DaljitSingh Cheema, in a memo-randum to the ElectionCommission, said that the

treatment meted out toMehetpur SHO ParminderSingh Bajwa by the Congressgovernment had demoralizedthe police as well as civilmachinery in Shahkot. “Unlessremedial action is taken by theEC, free and fair elections arenot possible in the constituen-cy,” he said.

The memorandum saidthat the Congress governmenthad sent a clear message toofficials that in case they didnot toe the party’s line, theywould also meet the same fateas the Mehatpur SHO. “Incase the EC does not moveimmediately to ensure protec-tion of all these officers inShahkot, the entire electionprocess will become a farce,” itadded.

The memorandum alsobrought to the notice of the ECthat complete anarchy hadbeen let loose by the Congressparty in Shahkot and that thishad been widely reported inthe media.

Cheema said that despitethe fact that the case againstLaadi was registered on solidgrounds on May 4, the entiregovernment machinery took itupon itself to discredit thepolice officer and put pressureupon him to rescind his deci-sion.

“This is done despite thefact that a non-bailable case hasbeen registered against Laddi.Even the Pradesh Congresspresident as well as the ChiefMinister Capt AmarinderSingh resorted to a vilificationcampaign against the officer byterming him as mentally unsta-ble and amoral,” Cheemaadded.

SAD requested the EC togive directions for protection ofthe life and liberty of the policeofficer, besides calling forimmediate arrest of Congresscandidate Hardev Laadi as wellas protection from persecutionof Mehatpur SHO as well as allother government officials inShahkot constituency.

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SAD is all set to add theyouth power in the ensuingShahkot assembly by-election.To assess the party’s prepara-tions for the same, formerminister and senior SAD leaderBikram Majithia onWednesday took a meeting ofall zone heads of the YouthAkali Dal (YAD), and exploredvarious strategies to ensurevictory to the party candidateNaib Singh Kohar.

Majithia asked the YADleaders to tell the voters aboutCongress candidate’s criminalbackground, besides warningthe people to “not to let a law-breaker turn into a lawmaker”as it could prove a curse for theregion.

He also asked the youthleaders to talk with peopleabout the development workdone in the constituency dur-ing the SAD-BJPGovernment.

During the meeting,Majithia was apprised aboutparty’s current position inShahkot assembly constituen-cy by the zonal heads whoattended the meeting, and theways that may help in tilting theelection campaign in favour ofSAD candidate were also dis-cussed.

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Haryana Chief MinisterManohar Lal has invited

Israeli Aerospace Industry(IAI) to set up ancillary unitsin the Hisar Aviation Hubbeing set up by the HaryanaGovernment.

He has also invited theconsortium of cyber securi-ty companies under Israelaviation industry to set upbase in Haryana which hous-es top 200 companies in theworld.

The Chief Ministerextended the invitation dur-ing his visit to the IAI wherehe was explained by Israeli

officials the innovationsmade in the field of aerospaceand defence Industry.

During the discussions,officials from IAI evincedkeen interest in the aviationhub and agreed to visit Hisarnext month.

Notably, the IAI hasentered into $1billion con-tract with Government ofIndia under which it is oblig-ed to invest or procure 30 percent material from the localmarket. The officials assuredto explore Haryana as a toppriority.

When IAI explained itsstrength in combating cyberattacks and efficiency in

cyber security, the ChiefMinister asked the consor-tium of cyber security com-panies under Israel aviationindustry to set up base inHaryana.

He also visited the man-ufactur ing plant ofUnmanned Ariel Vehicle(UAV) and jets, took keeninterest in the process ofmaking planes and invitedIAI to set up ancillary unitsin the proposed HisarAviation Hub.

Manohar Lal also inviteddifferent sections of aviationl ike FB O (f ixed basedOperations) MRO, and man-ufacturing units to come andbe a part of the upcomingrevolutionary project inHaryana.

He explained that Hisarbeing a brownfield airport, itenjoyed other advantages likeproximity to DelhiInternational Airport as wellas to the proposed industri-al corridor, has less humidatmosphere which is vitaland essential for UAV andother defence materials.

The Chief Minister alsoapprized them how Hisaraviation hub could be madeinto a manufacturing basefor Israeli aviation industryfrom where the entire south-eastern market can be servedas it enjoyed strategic geo-graphical location.

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Chief Minister RaghubarDas, amid acute power

cuts going on due to short sup-ply and extreme summer con-ditions, has said that providingreliable and uninterrupted sup-ply was one of the main agen-das of his Government. Alongwith reiterating the commit-ment to energise every house-hold of the State by this Diwali,he also tasked officials of theDepartment to work religious-ly for this.

Speaking on the occasionof a mobile applicationlaunched by Jharkhand BijliVitaran Nigam Limited(JBVNL) on Thursday, the CMstressed that the target would

be met at any cost. “Our aim isto take power connection toevery home of the State by endof this year but if possible, doit by Diwali. Staffs and officialsshould work tirelessly toaccomplish the task. Thosewho are inefficient shouldmake way for the others,” saidthe CM and also distributedappointment letters to 493technical staffs for better exe-cution of power maintenancesystem.

The CM while underliningthe role of quality electricitysupply for setting up a devel-oped State, said that Jharkhandwould enter into the league by2022. “No development caneven be dreamt of withoutpower. We in Jharkhand areheading with this aim.Providing 24x7 power is amongour top priorities and everyoneshould chip in to fulfill it ontime,” added Raghubar Das.

The mobile App named as‘Saral’ would facilitate applyingfor online connection, loadcorrection, name change, bill

generation and payment to theconsumers besides, allowing

real time monitoring of theprojects run by JBVNL, main-

tenance of transformers etc.Single window for resolving

complaints of the consumers inspeedy manner through tollfree numbers-- 1912, 1800-123-8745, 1800-345-6570-- hasalso been setup.

“Technology is the key inthis era but only that would notwork. We have to ensure thatthese services are workingproperly. Besides dedication,the officials and staffs should

also be provided with propertraining. Since the Governmenthas come we have gone on warfooting to recruit manpower inevery department which wasnot the case earlier. Here onlypolitics has been done in thename of domicile that wasused as an alibi to stop recruit-ments,” added the CM.

He used the occasion to

refer to series of works takingplace all over the State toimprove power infrastructurecoming in the form of newtransmission lines, power sub-stations, cabling and latest cir-cuit breakers etc over the lastfour years. On the front ofpower generation the CM saidthat Prime Minister NarendraModi would lay foundationstone for 4000 MW plant dur-ing his upcoming Jharkhandtrip and also talked aboutexpansion of PTPS with twomore 660 MW units.

“These steps would makeus a surplus power State in theyears to come. We would beable to sell electricity to otherStates besides, meeting ourdomestic demands,” said theCM. Also present on the occa-sion was Chief Secretary SudhirTripathi, Principal Secretary tothe CM Sunil Kumar Barnwal,Energy Secretary Nitin MadanKulkarni, MD of JBVNL RahulPurwar, JREDA DirectorNiranjan Kumar and othersenior officials.

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From Page 1sliced off her tongue yester-

day afternoon when she wasoffering prayers at the temple," hesaid.

Following the incident, peo-ple present in the temple took herto Morena's district hospital whereshe is undergoing treatment,Porsa police station in-chargeAtul Singh said. The police offi-cer said the woman took the stepout of her own faith and belief.

This is not the first time thatsuch an incident is reported. In2016, an 11-year-old girl cut offher tongue with a knife and'offered' it to Lord Shiva in Raigarhdistrict of Chhattisgarh.

In the past as well, three inci-dents had taken place at the tem-ple, where girls had sacrificed theirtongues to Lord Shiva, the villagerssaid and claimed that all the girlsrecovered without any medicaltreatment.

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Ni n e t y - t w o - y e a r - o l dMahathir Mohamad was

on Thursday sworn in as theworld’s oldest elected leaderafter a stunning election winthat swept Malaysia’s estab-lishment from power aftermore than six decades.

In a huge political upset,former strongman Mahathir’sOpposition alliance broke thegrip on power of the BarisanNasional (BN) coalition, whichhad governed Malaysia unin-terrupted since its birth as anindependent country in 1957.

It capped a dramatic polit-ical comeback for Mahathir,who previously ruled the coun-try with an iron fist for 22 yearsand came out of retirement totake on Prime Minister Najib

Razak after the leader becameembroiled in a massive corrup-tion scandal. In a ceremony atthe national palace steeped in

centuries-old Muslim Malaytradition, Mahathir was offi-cially sworn in as PM by KingSultan Muhammad V.

Mahathir, dressed in tra-ditional Malay dress, took the

oath of office in a elaboratelydecorated room, with politicalallies and senior Governmentofficials in attendance.

“I, Mahathir Mohamad,after being elected as PrimeMinister, swear to carry out mytask with all my ability, and thatI will be loyal to Malaysia andpreserve and defend the con-stitution,” he said.

As he was sworn in, fire-works lit up in the night skyacross Kuala Lumpur as peoplecelebrated.

Earlier, Mahathir and hiswife Siti Hasmah Mohamad Aliwere driven into the palace pasthundreds of well-wishers wav-ing flags and chanting thenational anthem.

Mohamad Azlan Shah, amember of Mahathir’s party inthe crowd, said he was “very

proud”.“Our struggle to change

Malaysian politics is not wast-ed. We believe Mahathir canmake a change,” he told AFP.

One of the most remark-able aspects of Mahathir’scomeback has been his recon-ciliation with jailed oppositionicon Anwar Ibrahim, his for-mer nemesis. Their relationshiphas loomed large over theMalaysian political landscapefor decades.

Anwar was Mahathir’sheir-apparent until the pre-mier sacked him in 1998 overpolitical differences, and he wassubsequently jailed on chargesof sodomy and abuse of power.

As it became clear that BNwas facing a historic wipeout,Najib disappeared for hoursand only surfaced Thursday

morning to tell a press confer-ence that he accepted the peo-ple’s will, although he stoppedshort of conceding defeat. Hiscomments were slammed byone analyst as “unstatesman-like”.

Najib’s defeat could be justthe start of his problems --Mahathir has vowed to bringhim to justice over allegationsthat billions of dollars werelooted from sovereign wealthfund 1MDB, which the scan-dal-hit leader set up and over-saw.In Mahathir, the oppositionfound the perfect person totake on Najib. He is a staunchMalay nationalist who couldappeal to the country’s biggestethnic group, and whose yearsin power were remembered asa prosperous period in thecountry’s history.

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From Page 1Senior advocate PS

Patwalia who appeared for theBJP candidates submitted thatthe State Government wasappearing in the disguise of theSEC as their repeated com-plaints to the poll panel havegone unheeded.

Expressing concern oversuch a large number of seatsbeing kept out of polls on May14, the Bench asked SEC coun-sel senior advocate RakeshDwivedi whether the results

had yet been published. Heinformed the court that theCommission had put out a listof 34.2 per cent seats where noelection is to take place. TheBench found this figure toohard to ignore as it directed theSEC not to publish the resultsof these 20,076 seats withoutthe orders of the apex court.The court further emphasisedthe duty cast upon the SEC tohold free and fair elections onMonday. The matter will nextbe heard next on July 3.

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The Government has inten-sified efforts to seek the

release of seven Indians abduct-ed in Afghanistan.

According to the Ministryof External Affairs (MEA),both Foreign Affairs MinisterSushma Swaraj, and NationalSecurity Advisor Ajit Doval arein touch with their counter-parts in Afghanistan to expe-dite the release of the Indians.

“We are in touch with dif-ferent people who are involvedin the exercise through theAfghan government,” RaveeshKumar, MEA spokesperson,said. He, however, refused toshare any specific details citingsensitivity of the case.

Seven Indian engineerswere abducted in the restivenorthern Baghlan province ofAfghanistan on Sunday. Theywere abducted by the Talibanmilitants near the Cheshma-e-Sher area. The Indian engineersof KEC International, an RPGgroup company, were workingon a project for construction ofa power sub-station in thecountry.

Shortly after the newscame, Swaraj had a telephonicconversation with her Afghancounterpart SalahuddinRabbani during which she hadsought all possible help ofKabul in securing the releasethe Indians. Doval too had atelephonic conversation withhis Afghan counterpart HanifAtmar on the issue.

“I would not like to get intothe details of the people andauthorities with whom we arein touch with. This is a sensi-tive matter. The lives of sevenIndians are involved and, there-fore, I would not like to sharemuch on where we are at thispoint of time,” said the MEAspokesperson.

Afghan media, quotingBaghlan governor AbdulhaiNemati, reported that Talibanmilitants were behind theabduction of Indians and theywere moved to the Dand-e-Shahabuddin area of Pul-e-Khumri city. This is not the firstcase of abduction of Indians.Two years back an Indian idworker Judith D’Souza wasabducted in Afghanistan andwas later released with thehelp from Afghanistan gov-ernment.

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Breaking protocol, Presidentof Panama Juan Carlos

Varela Rodriguez accompaniedvisiting Vice President MVenkaiah Naidu on the latter’svisit to the famous PanamaCanal. This was an unscheduledengagement of the PanamanianPresident on Tuesday that sur-prised the diplomats of both thecountries.

At the end of the banquethosted by him in honour ofNaidu, President of Panamasaid “Mr.Vice President, I havedecided to accompany you onyour visit to the Canal anddelighted to give you company”.Naidu responded “Excellency,

it is an honour you would bedoing to the people of Indiaand an indication of the impor-tance you attach for improving

the relations between the twocountries,” an official com-muniqué said here onThursday.

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Government has initiatedinter-ministerial consulta-

tions on a draft ordinance tooverturn a Supreme Court ver-dict that put safeguards on arrestof those accused of committingatrocities on SCs and STs, offi-cial sources said on Thursday.

A draft is ready with theMinistry of Social Justice andit could be placed before theUnion Cabinet in coming daysif the government’s review pleabefore the Supreme Court failsto yield a favourable ruling.

“The next hearing is onMay 16 and much woulddepend on that,” said a seniorofficial in the Social Justice and

Empowerment Ministry.Another government func-

tionary said there is no clarityas yet on exact date for the pro-posal to be placed for theCabinet approval.

“But a cabinet note detail-ing the reason for bringing theordinance has been circulatedto ministries for consultations,”the functionary said.

The proposed ordinancewould make it clear thatnotwithstanding any judge-ment or any other law in force,the provisions of the Act shallremain valid.

“Once promulgated, thiswould mean the ordinancewould overturn the SC order,”explained a law ministry official.

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Maintaining that India willhave around 969 million

Internet users by 2021, UnionInformation and BroadcastingMinister Smriti Irani onThursday pitched for putting inplace “laws, ethics and rules” toensure that no one player dom-inated the digital media indus-try. Inaugurating the 15th AsiaMedia Summit (AMS) 2018here, she said the Indian mediaindustry looked upon the dig-ital world not only as a chal-lenge but also as an opportunity.

“Do we look at the newevolving technologies from aposition of suspect, or do welook at it from a position ofopportunity, from a position ofconsolidation or further expan-sion,” the I&B Minister askedat the opening session.

Within the next threeyears, India would have over969 million Internet users, shesaid. “This is the time to putlaws, ethics, rules into placewhich help us balance out theindustry so that we don’t haveone dominant player who rulesthe roost,” Irani stressed.

The three-day media sum-

mit is being hosted by the I&BMinistry jointly with the IndianInstitute of MassCommunication (IIMC) andpublic sector firm BroadcastEngineering Consultants IndiaLtd (BECIL). The theme of thesummit is: ‘Telling Our Stories- Asia and More”.

Irani said India was thefastest growing advertising mar-ket, which was expected to touch10.59 billion US dollars by theend of 2018, and mobile spendwas estimated to grow to 1.55 bil-lion US dollars in 2018. TimesGroup Managing DirectorVineet Jain said with more than

900 TV channels and about17,000 newspapers, India was themost diverse and vibrant mediamarket in the world today.

Later addressing the dele-gates, Union Law and ITMinister Ravi Shankar Prasadsaid government always prefersself regulation in media andmedia needs to understandthat in a democracy everyoneshould be accountable.

“We in India have alwayscelebrated diversity. We havealso appreciated how our peo-ple are getting informed andmature by the proliferation ofmedia- news, magazine, tele-

vision channels and now digi-tal media. We support self reg-ulation but media needs tounderstand that no institutionin a democracy should remainunaccountable,” he said

Prasad informed the dele-gates that the Government hasset up a committee headed bya former Supreme Court judgeto recommend on a legislativeframework for data protec-tion. There is a need to strikea balance between data avail-ability, data utility, dataanonymity, data innovationand data privacy, he said.

Bangladesh InformationMinister Hasanul Haq Inu out-lined six complex challenges theworld faces today, listing themas poverty, gender disparity, ter-rorism, ICT revolution, cli-mate change and uneven glob-alisation. CambodiaInformation Minister KhieuKanharith said, “We are tryingto improve the state of the pressin Cambodia. We seek to main-tain strong relationships withthe fourth estate.”

UNESCO Director (NewDelhi) Shigeru Aoyagi talkedabout the role of the media increating peace and partnershipon the planet.

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BJP ‘Kisan Morcha’ onThursday opposed the

Modi Government’s supportto Genetically Modified (GM)crop saying it was not good forthe farming community.Nevertheless, it has set out totrain BJP workers to impartinformation in each village onpro-farmer policies of the partyin last four years.

As the Lok Sabha pollsdraw closer, BJP ‘Kisan Morcha’head Virendra Singh ‘Mast’ hasorganised a three-day Nationalworkshop to train BJP workerswho would be deployed ineach village to do ‘samvad’(dialogue) with villagers ongovernment’s welfare policiesand schemes for farmers. Theworkshop will be held atGurugram, Haryana, from May18 to May 20 and train 220 BJPworkers who, in turn, in batch-es of five each, would visit vil-lages and coordinate in imple-menting pro-farmers ‘Yojanas’of the Modi government.

He said soon after com-pleting the national workshopfor training, the Morcha wouldset up such workshops in eachdistrict by next month.

Asked whether heapproved government’s backing

to GM crop, Singh said he dis-approved of “those opposingGM crop in the past support-ing it now. .. it is not good”.

The issue on having a reg-ulatory mechanism before giv-ing clearance to GM crop ispending before the SupremeCourt. A PIL has been filed onthe issue. Government hasclaimed that it has a sound reg-ulatory mechanism in place.

Singh, a BJP MP fromBhadohi Lok SabhaConstituency in Uttar Pradesh,said he has been interactingwith farmers in each district forpast one year and flagged ani-mal husbandry , sheep rearing, tree plantation and water-recharging as areas which hesaid could increase income andmitigate deteriorating envi-ronment around.

“Dialogues with farmers in

villages would shift the urban-centric discussions to rightplaces,” he said even as he didnot favour modes of commu-nication and campaigns like“road shows” . “ Road showsare westernized ways of cam-paigning”, he said and accusedthe Congress of westernizingthe poll culture. When hisattention was drawn to PrimeMinister Narendra Modi andBJP President Amit Shah alsomoving with the trend andleading road shows inKarnataka, the MP said he wasstationed in Karnataka villageshaving ‘samvad’ with them.

He said if solar irrigationis implemented it would cut thecost of irrigation by 40 per centand double the income offarmers. He lauded Modi-gov-ernment for earmarking 52percent budget for agriculture.

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Union Minister NitinGadkari on Thursday said

while he has written toPresident Ram Nath Kovindrequesting him to donate hisone-month salary to the CleanGanga Fund (CGF), set up bythe government to aid efforts torid the river of pollutants, hewould also urge Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, Ministers,MPs and MLAs and people todo the same.

The CGF has been formedto receive voluntary contribu-tions from individuals andorganisations. Contributionsto the Fund enjoy 100 per centtax exemption.

The government has tillnow received Rs 250 crore in theCGF after it was approved bythe Union Cabinet in September2014, he said. Gadkari added atleast one crore people shouldcome forward to help raisefund for the river cleaningefforts, which is high on the

government’s agenda.“I have written a letter to

the President. And after thePresident, I am also urging all,the Prime Minister, Ministers,MPs, MLAs and all to donatetheir one-month salary to theCGF,” he told reporters here.

Gadkari said all peopleshould join the cause sharingwhatever amount they canthrough digital transfer. “Somepeople have donated even Rs300 per month in theCGF...People can share Rs 500,Rs 1,000 and whatever amountthey want to share,” he said.

Gadkari stressed there wasno shortage of fund for theNamami Gange programme,which has a non-lapsable pro-vision of Rs 20,000 crore.

He said the governmenthad already signed MoUs withcorporate houses in connectionwith works such as construct-ing ghats and roads, installinglight and sound show, devel-oping parking spaces and otherpurposes.

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Of over 79 per cent ofwomen who deliver in

health institutions in India,more than half of them, 41 percent, breastfeed within the firsthour, UNICEF said onThursday on Mother’s Day.

On the occasion, the UNbody released a new analysis onthe number of babies missingout on breastfeeding whichfound that approximately 7.6million babies each year werenot breastfed globally.

The analysis noted thatbabies were much more likelyto be breastfed at least once inlow- and-middle-income coun-tries like Bhutan (99 per cent),Madagascar (99 per cent) and

Peru (99 per cent) than thoseborn in Ireland (55 per cent),the US (74 per cent) or Spain(77 per cent).

According to the Unicef, 95per cent children in India atsome point were breast fed intheir early years.

“The National FamilyHealth Survey (NFHS) dataindicates that 54.9 per cent chil-dren are exclusively breastfedand exclusive breastfeeding ison an average for 2.9 months.Use of water and other fluids isone the main reasons for dis-continuation of exclusivebreastfeeding,” a Unicef state-ment said.

“However, within low-and-middle-income countries,wealth disparities affect howlong a mother will continue to

breastfeed her child. Babiesfrom the poorest families haverates for breastfeeding at 2years that are 1.5 times higherthan those from the richestfamilies,” it added.

The US alone accounts formore than one-third of the 2.6million babies in high-incomecountries who were neverbreastfed.

The gaps are widest inWest and Central Africa, LatinAmerica and the Caribbean,where babies from the poorestfamilies have breastfeedingrates at two years that arenearly double those fromwealthier families, said the UNbody.

However, the UN agencypraised countries like Indiaand Vietnam for putting in

place strong policies to protectand promote breastfeeding.Others like Turkmenistan havevery high rates of mothers giv-ing birth in baby-friendly hos-pitals.

Almost all mothers in NewZealand and Sri Lanka givebirth at a baby-friendly facili-ty. Additionally, cultural andpolitical contexts, includingsupport from fathers, families,employers and communities,play a decisive role, said theUNICEF.

It has called for Increase infunding and awareness to raisebreastfeeding rates from birththrough the age of two as wellenact paid family leave and putin place workplace breastfeed-ing policies, including paidbreastfeeding breaks.

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Aday before he leaves for theHimalayan Kingdom,

Prime Minister Narendra Modion Thursday described histwo-day visit to Nepal as areflection of his Government’scommitment to the “neigh-bourhood first” policy. He saidas Nepal entered a new era,India would continue to remainits steadfast partner to imple-ment its vision of ‘samriddhaNepal, sukhi Nepali’.

Modi’s visit, starting Friday,will be his third visit to theneighbouring nations as PrimeMinister.

“It reflects the high prior-ity, India, and personally I,attach to our age-old, close andfriendly ties with Nepal,” thePM said in a statement.

He said his visit closely fol-lows the state visit of NepalesePrime Minister K P Sharma Olito India last month. “Thesehigh-level and regular interac-tions reflect my government’scommitment to the ‘neighbour-hood first’ policy, in consonancewith the motto of ‘sabka saath,sabka vikas’,” the statement said.

Modi said the two coun-tries have completed several

bilateral connectivity anddevelopment projects in the lastfew years, and initiated trans-formational initiatives for thebenefit of their people.

“Prime Minister Oli and Iwill have the opportunity totake forward our recent wide-ranging discussions in NewDelhi on issues of mutual inter-est, and to advance our coop-erative partnership acrossdiverse sectors,” he said.

“As Nepal enters a new eraof consolidating gains ofdemocracy and achieving rapideconomic growth and devel-opment, India will continue toremain a steadfast partner ofgovernment of Nepal to imple-ment its vision of ‘samriddhaNepal, sukhi Nepali’ (prosper-

ous Nepal, happy Nepal),” readthe statement.

In addition to Kathmandu,Modi said he was also lookingforward to visiting Janakpurand Muktinath. Both theseplaces attract a large number ofpilgrims every year.

“They are living testimonyto the ancient and strong cul-tural and religious ties betweenthe peoples of India and Nepal,”he said.

The prime minister said hewas also looking forward tomeeting the political leaders andfriends in Nepal. “I am confi-dent that my visit will furthercement our people-centric part-nership with Nepal on the basisof mutual benefit, goodwill andunderstanding,” Modi noted.

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New Delhi: The Centre onThursday carried out a reshuf-fle at the joint secretary level.Delhi’s Education Secretary and1993 batch IAS officer ofAGMUT cadre, Punya SalilaSrivastava and 1989 batchSikkim cadre IAS officer GovindMohan have been appointed inthe Home Ministry.

Srivastava was also themember of the probe commit-tee set up by the Delhi gov-ernment to probe irregularitiesin DDCA. Mohan, a 1989-batch IAS officer of Sikkimcadre, is at present JointSecretary in the Department ofEconomic Affairs (DEA).

Sunil Bharthwal, JointSecretary in the Steel Ministry,has been moved to theDepartment of Economic Affairs(DEA) to succeed Mohan. LokRanjan, currently Joint Secretaryin the Department of FinancialServices, has been appointed asJoint Secretary in theDepartment of Personnel andTraining (DoPT).

SC Barmma, currentlyworking as Joint Secretary inthe Department of Justice, hasbeen appointed in the samecapacity in the Ministry ofCulture, for an overall tenureup to his superannuation onMay 31, 2020, the order said.

Vikram Sahay, a 1992-batch officer of Indian RevenueService (Income Tax cadre),will be Joint Secretary, theMinistry of Information andBroadcasting while IAS officerBhawna Garg has been namedDeputy Director General ,UIDAI, Chandigarh under theMinistry of Electronics andInformation Technology.

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Afive-judge ConstitutionBench of the Supreme

Court on Thursday reservedorders on the validity of the2016 Aadhaar Act, bringing anend to a 38-day marathonhearing over four months.

The bench, headed byChief Justice Dipak Misra,examined a host of petitionsfiled by individuals and orga-nizations raising apprehen-sions that Aadhaar was a toolfor state-sponsored surveil-lance and this affects the dig-nity and privacy of an individ-ual. Several top notch lawyersincluding Gopal Subramanium,Kapil SIbal, P Chidambaram,Shyam Divan, Arvind Datar,KV Vishwanathan, SajanPoovayya among othersappeared for the petitionersand questioned the efficacy ofthe Unique IdentificationAuthority of India (UIDAI) tostore biometrics of 130 billioncitizens.

Attorney General KKVenugopal led the defence onpart of the Centre followed bysenior advocate RakeshDwivedi for UIDAI, by pre-senting a live video demon-stration of how the processworks, the enhanced safety netfor storing biometrics, and thedetails of the project whichmake it almost impossible to behacked or misused.

The bench, also comprisingJustices AK Sikri, AMKhanwilkar, DY Chandrachudand Ashok Bhushan asked the

petitioners whether it was correctto fault the system when it ben-efited the Government to checkpilferage of funds under variouswelfare scheme and to help trackblack money hoarders.

The petitioners contendedthat while issuing a blanketorder to link all services,schemes with Aadhaar, the Actwas making redundant allother identity documents usedby citizens so far. By mandat-ing Aadhaar, there was hardlya choice available with citizensfrom parting with their valu-able biometrics, they argued.Moreover, services like widowpension, provident fund, andscholarships were such ser-vices/benefits that accrued toan individual as a matter ofright and such benefit couldnot be deprived for want ofAadhaar. Further, the linking ofAadhaar with mobile phoneSIM and banking services wasalso criticized as excessive, as itdid not classify under anyscheme or benefit whereGovernment could be inter-ested to protect its revenue.

There was also a challengeto the introduction of the 2016Aadhaar Act as a Money Bill inParliament when it essentiallywas a substantial law in itself.Arguments were advanced bypetitioners that such a movewas political in a bid to preventdiscussion in the Rajya Sabha.However, Centre contendedthat the law dealt with “target-ed delivery of subsidies” forwhich funds came from theConsolidated Fund of India tojustify it as a Money Bill.

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In my previous column, I discussedthe issues with the Ordinance, stip-ulating death penalty in cases of rapeof minors under 12 years of age, thathas recently been proposed by the

BJP Government and promulgated byPresident Ram Nath Kovind. I comment-ed on how the measures proposed underthe Ordinance essentially take the easy wayout and may be a case of the cure beingmore harmful than the disease. In thisweek’s column, I will propose certainsteps that can help tackle the importantissue of reducing crimes against women.

The current scenario: While the entirefocus of the Prime Minister and theGovernment is on Karnataka and on cam-paigning, the recent horrific rape inJharkhand has once again brought to lightthe crucial issue of women safety. Currently,India has a variety of laws that are aimed atprotecting the rights of women, includingstrict penalties for crimes against womenunder the Indian Penal Code (IPC).Although against a horrific and despicablebackdrop of violent rapes and cases of sex-ual assault, the past few years have especial-ly seen a spate of amendments to the crim-inal laws of our country to tackle this prob-lem. Statistics, however, do not hint that thesemeasures have contributed towards anymeaningful improvement in the situation.

The National Crime Records Bureau(NCRB) statistics indicate how crimesagainst women increased over 8.7 per centbetween 2014 and 2016. Another troublingtrend is the increase in instances of domes-tic abuse. A primary reason for the stead-ied increase in the number of crimesagainst women is the lack of focus on gen-der sensitisation. Therefore, the foundationof any approach, that is aimed at tacklingthese violent crimes, must first focus on theissues faced by women. Secondly, it must begrounded in the belief that women must betreated as absolute equals in society.

Gender sensitisation: The term ‘gender’refers to the socially constructed roles,behaviours, activities and attributes that a soci-ety considers appropriate for men andwomen. Gender sensitisation is a practice ofmaking people aware of such prejudices androles that the society has attributed to bothmales and females and the primary purposeof gender sensitisation is to make peopleaware of such prejudices and differencesbetween males and females. As stated above,while theoretically, there are a number of lawsand programmes that are aimed at improv-ing the status of women and reducinginstances of crime against them, numbers onthe ground show that such measures haveunfortunately not shown tangible results.

A large reason for this chasm betweentheory and practice is the lack of gender sen-sitisation programmes and conversationsaround gender in our country from the stage

of drafting of legislations to the point of imple-mentation of policies. Gender sensitisationprogrammes, however, should not be limit-ed to the Government or the state but mustbe encouraged across age groups, ie, fromchildren to adults and across forums and insti-tutions (right from schools to offices).

To better understand how gender sen-sitisation can be useful specifically in the con-text of reducing instances of crime againstwomen, one can look what the numbers tellus. For example, in order to ensure safety ofwomen, it is important that women feel com-fortable enough to report instances of violenceagainst them. However, Indian police estimatethat only four out of 10 rapes are reported.One of the reasons behind this abysmally lowreportage is that currently, women areashamed of being victims of such brutalcrimes because they fear being ostracised andcriticised by their family, their communityand society as a whole.

Instead, men and women must be awareof how in cases of rape or other forms of vio-lence against women, there is no blame thatcan be attached to the victim. It is also imper-ative that women feel safe to approach theState or their family/communities for guid-ance and support and not be ridiculed.Another example where gender sensitisationis required is at the time of drafting legisla-tions to protect women. I have discussed thisin greater detail in my previous column wherethe Ordinance could do more harm thangood. Therefore, Governments need toapprise themselves of ground realities andavoid quick fire measures.

Words to action: There is no denying

that in most cases of rape or assault onwomen, there is a set of standard lines express-ing grief and anguish that are surely gettingworn out. Unfortunately, lack of ambition ofmoving from ephemeral words to tangibleaction is not only limited to comments to themedia and the public but extends to theGovernment and the executive as well.

For example, with respect to police ref-orms, various committees and commissionshave noted that police officers are overbur-dened and ill-equipped to conduct inves-tigations in a professional manner. One ofthe recommendations that have been sug-gested is training the police officers on mod-ern investigative techniques. Anotherimportant change that must be introducedis the establishment of specialised investiga-tive units within the police which will sole-ly deal with investigation of crimes as op-posed to law and order issues.

These changes will indubitably help thepolice achieve a higher conviction rate withrespect to crimes against women. This is per-tinent to note in light of the Ordinance, whichprovides for a shorter period for investiga-tion but completely ignores the manner inwhich investigations are conducted. This isakin to putting the cart before the horsebecause it will almost certainly result in fewerconvictions due to a weak case by the pros-ecution against the accused.

Another example is that of ‘One StopCentres’ (OSC). This was an initiative that wasannounced by the present Government in2015 to ensure that women, who are victimsof rape and other forms of violence, can accessthe police and medical help at one place.

While this is a noble cause, as per reports andaccounts available online, hospitals that arerequired to maintain such OSCs are eitherunaware of the requirement to maintain orhave not set up the relevant infrastructure inaccordance with the guidelines that have beenset in place. RTI inquiries that have beenmade in relation to this initiative too do notindicate any real focus on this initiative sinceits announcement.

This seems to be a classic move of thecurrent administration where the focus is onannouncing bombastic changes but there islittle or no follow-up on such initiatives. It ishardly surprising then that the abysmally poornumbers on the ground reflect the costs ofthese insincere efforts.

Ultimately, the root of the problem ofviolence against women in our country isour ignorance or blatant disregard for theissues that are faced by them. Therefore, inorder to make strides towards reducinginstances of violence, the need of the houris to focus our efforts on sensitising, edu-cating and informing the public in orderto start chomping away at the root of thispoisonous tree. At the same time, howev-er, we must buttress these efforts by imple-menting measures and guidelines that arealready in place rather than drafting newguidelines or legislations. There is nodoubt that the measures discussed abovewill take time to bear fruit but if there isany problem that deserves our time,patience and energy, it is this one.

(The writer, Jharkhand PCC president, isa former MP and IPS officer. Views expressed are personal)

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Sir — US President DonaldTrump’s pull out from the JointComprehensive Plan of Action(JCPOA) or the Iran nuclear dealand his resolve to reinstate economic sanctions on theIslamic Republic is one of thebiggest foreign policy decisionstaken by him during his presi-dency till date.

While the move has beenhailed as “a decisive step” to reinin Iran’s nuclear ambitions, themove by the US clearly defieslogic. Actually, the scrapping ofthe pact will cause serious loss tothe Iranian economy and bringits people back to the era of suffering and misery whenTehran was struggling under thestrain of sanctions.

Another fallout from theunravelling of the pact is the pos-sibility of Iran to immediatelyresume work on its nuclear pro-gramme. For Tehran, however, allis not completely lost yet.

The nexus it has carefullycultivated over the years withRussia and Syria has received aboost with the re-election ofVladimir Putin as President.

India needs to work withcountries with a shared interestin the JCPOA to ensure thatPresident Trump’s exit from theIran deal does not harm itsinvestments and plans for theregion. India and other countrieson the same page must alsoengage with Iran to discourage itfrom retaliator y malign behaviour that may furthermuddy the waters.

P Arihanth Secunderabad

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Sir — US President DonaldTrump’s decision to unilaterallypull the US out of the 2015 Irannuclear deal and re-impose sanc-tions on Iran “very shortly”despite Tehran fulfilling all itscommitments represents a majorsetback in the diplomatic processinitiated by his illustrious prede-cessor Barack Obama.

Trump described the land-mark deal negotiated and signedduring Obama’s presidency as“horrible and one-sided anddefective at its core” and calledit a “great embarrassment” to theUS. But he did not elaborate onthe whys and wherefores.

Trump’s decision, not quiteunexpected, may have pleasedhis domestic electoral base aswell as the hardliners in Iran, butit cost the US’s trustworthiness.The ‘full support’ to his decisionby Israel, Saudi Arabia and UAEand the plea of other signatoriesof the deal — UK, France,Germany, Russia and China — tonot obstruct the implementationof the deal showed the geopolit-ical dimension of the US’ with-drawal from the deal.

It will be fair to ask whatgood will the backing out fromthe deal serve when nuclear dis-armament is a lofty goal to worktowards and attain. It is to behoped that other world powerswill keep the deal going andcounsel the US to avoid a mili-tary confrontation with Iran.

G David MiltonMaruthancode

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MA Jinnah’s recent appear-ance, albeit in a portrait‘discovered’ after more

than 70 years, has not only creat-ed turbulence at the AligarhMuslim University (AMU), buthas raised some fundamental ques-tions that needs to be confronted.The sudden discovery and calls forits removal reek of the worst kindof politics and could well be eitheran attempt to influence the votersof Karnataka, or be meant to lay thefoundation for creating a divisiveissue to be exploited during thegeneral election.

That said, those against its removalare displaying an identical proclivityfor mayhem and may have similaragenda which makes them equally cul-pable. We are, therefore, likely to see

this needless confrontation gainingtraction over the time and becomingan highly inflammable issue bereft ofreason. Finally, there are those, witha liberal bent of mind, who are keento avoid giving the issue a communalcolour. They make the argument thatit is only a portrait from a bygone eraand a part of our historical heritagethat cannot be wished away and, there-fore, must not be tampered with.

But history is a strange beastsince it’s not just a simple recount-ing of facts but their interpretationimmensely complicated by circum-stance, perception and ideologicalbaggage of who is telling the storyand why. Take the example of theBritish conquest of the subcontinentand the hundreds of thousands,known and unknown, who opposedthem, many making the ultimatesacrifice in this quest for freedom.

Surely, in the three entities thatemerged finally from this struggle,there must have been those, regardlessof their ethnicity or religion, whose val-our, sacrifice and contribution musthave been worthy of recognition byeach of the three States. Mahatma

Gandhi and Netaji Subhas ChandraBose immediately come to mind,though there would be numerous oth-ers worthy of such honour.

Surprisingly, however, there wasbut only one family, the Suhrawady’s,which received such universal acco-lades from India, Pakistan andBangladesh. Thus, we have theSuhrawardy Avenue in Kolkata, theKhayaban-e-Suhrawardy in Islamabadand the Suhrawardy Udyan in Dhaka.What is truly ironic, of course, is theuncontestable fact that only a hand-ful from our subcontinent wouldhave ever heard of them; and even lesswho would be aware of their contri-butions that resulted in them beingbestowed such an honour.

For record, the Avenue in Kolkatais named after Lieutenant-Colonel SirHassan Suhrawardy, though many,including this writer, were under themistaken impression that it wasnamed after his famous nephew,Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, erst-while Chief Minister of Bengal in 1946and subsequently the Prime Ministerof Pakistan. Sir Hassan was an eminentsurgeon, politician and also the first

Muslim Vice Chancellor of CalcuttaUniversity. However, his chief claim tofame, for which he was probablyknighted and had the Avenue namedafter him, was the incident on Febr-uary 6, 1932, in which he, “by his cou-rageous and timely” intervention sa-ved the life of the Chancellor of Ca-lcutta University and Governor of Be-ngal, Sir Stanley Jackson, who was shotby a 21-year-old revolutionary BinaDas during the annual convocation.

Sir Stanley survived the assassina-tion attempt and Das was jailed fornine years. While the British appreci-ation of Suhrawady’s act at that timewas expected, surely we, who claim togreatly value the sacrifices of our free-dom fighters, can only see his actionsas that of a traitor and a betrayal of ourcause. Then, shouldn’t post-indepen-dent India have taken the initiative toreplace his name with that of Das?Surely, that would have reflected ourcommitment to our freedom fightersas well as our contempt for turncoatsmore than anything else could have,apart from being poetic justice!

As for Huseyn Suhrawardy, histerm as the Chief Minister of Bengal

certainly didn’t go well as he was heldresponsible for orchestrating the ‘GreatCalcutta Killings’, the riots on theMuslim League organised ‘DirectAction Day’ that resulted in the deathof thousands, mainly Hindus. Theseriots lasted for around a week till theArmy was finally able to regain con-trol, and were the precursor to thespate of communal killings that madethe Partition inevitable.

He went on to become the fourthPrime Minister of Pakistan and wasresponsible for promulgating the1956 Constitution that nullified thelarge majority that east Pakistanisenjoyed in Parliament by virtue oftheir 56 per cent share of the popu-lation. In essence, this move reducedBengalis to the status of second classcitizens, a situation finally rectified byits secession leading to the formationof Bangladesh.

After his short-lived term as thePrime Minister, he was considered asan anti-national by Gen Ayub Khanand was forced into exile in Lebanon.He died shortly thereafter, thoughthere were credible suggestions that hewas assassinated. That both Pakistan

and Bangladesh yet went on to hon-our him for his rather dubious achieve-ments seems remarkable and eminent-ly nonsensical.

In all of this, one thing is clear thatwhatever one may wish to believeabout Jinnah’s character and leader-ship, he was unquestionably culpablefor the violence that rocked Calcutta,the rest of Bengal and subsequentlyspread to north. All of those who wereforced to flee their homes and busi-nesses in areas that went on to becomePakistan, having suffered unspeakablehorrors along the way, can never for-give him for the tragedy of Partitionand the consequent destruction oftheir families and way of life.

Whatever be Jinnah’s connectionwith AMU, surely, those families thatcame into India as penniless refugeespost-Partition, deserve better than toonce again be faced with religiouszealots keen on putting Jinnah on apedestal that he is undeserving of. Thisis not about politics or patriotism butjust plain empathy for our fellow cit-izens who suffered because of hisactions. Too high a price has been paidby our people for him to be dignified

by being placed on our walls. The uni-versity authorities have been at faultfor not having replaced such so-called doyens of yesteryear with heroesof post-independent India, those whohave made the nation and communi-ty proud. Surely, that was not too muchto ask.

It is not that such acts are with-out precedent, after all, Stalin’s statueshave been toppled across the erstwhileSoviet Union, as have those of SaddamHussein in Iraq. As a matter of fact,there is a growing popular movementat the present time in the US to removethe statues of popular Confederateleaders, such as General Robert E Lee,that continue to adorn parks and pub-lic spaces in southern States whoseattempted secession led to theAmerican Civil War.

Surely, we too need to clear thedetritus of history that divides andholds us back through consensus,without letting past antagonisms getthe better of us.

(The writer is a military veteranand consultant with the ObserverResearch Foundation. Views expressedare entirely personal)

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In 2017, UNESCO added KumbhMela under its list of Conventionon Intangible Cultural Heritage(ICH) which was adopted in2003. In 2016, yoga was added

to the same list of this Convention. Inboth cases, the agency under theMinistry of Culture, which handled thenomination process and submitted thecompleted nominations, was theSangeet Natak Akademi. Both, yogaand Kumbh Mela have been added tothe 2003 Convention’s ‘RepresentativeList’ which is meant for intangible cul-tural heritage that is well looked afterby communities (as defined under thisConvention) and the state party(which means the country); whosefuture is in no way threatened.

These two additions in successiveyears to the UNESCO’s culture list(which now has 13 ‘elements’ of ICHsfrom India) signal the need to take intoaccount several considerations con-cerning how our culture and heritageare viewed administratively and pop-ularly. Likewise, it signals that the activ-ities of the Ministry of Culture needcareful scrutiny, and most important-ly, we must be alert to the assimilationof a very recent internationalist inven-tion to label knowledge and practices,some of which reach far back into ourhistorical record as a civilisation.

In the late 1990s, with the 1972World Heritage Convention alreadyover 20-years-old, UNESCO comme-nced discussions on practices whichcelebrated and enabled the transmis-sion of knowledge (values, techniquesand meaning). This culminated in the2003 ICH Convention which wasratified by India in 2005. Whereas, theWorld Heritage Convention is seen asa heritage embodied in structures, nat-ural landscapes and tended land-scapes; the ICH Convention is seen asencouraging the recognition of knowl-edge — the ways in which it is coded,the manner in which it is transferredbetween generations, the meanings andvalues attached to such codes, forms oftransmission and their enactments.One is for built or natural form; andthe other is for an abstract concept.

India has 36 listings under theWorld Heritage Convention (28 cultur-al sites, including monuments andstructures, seven natural sites, onemixed site) and is, therefore, more con-versant with this mode, considering thebuilt (or landscape) cultural heritage.

Of the 13 Indian intangible cul-tural heritage elements, several canreadily be identified with what theICH Convention considers intangible,such as Sankirtana (the ritual singing,drumming and dancing of Manipur),the Buddhist chanting of Ladakh,Chhau and the Kalbelia folk songs anddances of Rajasthan. Moreover, therewere 23 elements nominated during2010-12 to the ICH Convention’s

representative list which have not yetbeen considered for listing.

In a hurry to get as many of India’sICH ‘elements’ pushed into the showcaselist of the UNESCO’s ICH Convention(there is another called the urgent safe-guarding list to which India has not sub-mitted a single nomination), theMinistry of Culture and its autonomousorganisations like the Sangeet NatakAkademi and the Indira GandhiNational Centre for the Arts have over-looked both the important considera-tions mentioned earlier and have alsooverlooked the effects of not correctingsome fundamentally weak areas of theICH Convention.

This writer’s association with theUNESCO 2003 ICH Convention isalmost a decade old, and ever since 2011,he has provided training and advice toa number of countries in the Asia-Pacific region on how the Conventioncan positively assist in their identifying,documenting and safeguarding endoge-nous knowledge systems and associat-ed traditions and practices. This, thewriter has done, keeping in mind theobjectives of what UNESCO calls a“normative instrument” — ie, its cultur-al conventions, including the 2003ICH Convention — which do not nec-essarily coincide with the objectives ofthe Ministry of culture, or arts. And,therefore, especially while approachingfundamental concepts and terminolo-gies, one must particularly be sensitiveto not deliver an abstract ‘internation-al’ package into a local environmentthus, displacing local means of describ-ing knowledge, its value, functions, con-tributions to social and communityidentity and terminologies.

Unfortunately, neither the Ministry

of Culture nor the Sangeet NatakAkademi or the Indira GandhiNational Centre for Arts have invest-ed serious efforts to determine the cor-respondences between the internation-al terminologies and the concepts of a‘normative’ cultural instrument such asthe UNESCO 2003 ICH Conventionand Indic systems of knowledge andworldviews where there is no distinc-tion between tangible and intangible.According to the writer, there is onefundamental difference: That the liv-ing practices that form our intellectu-al and artistic heritage are not compart-mentalised, as is done by the UNESCOcultural Conventions (including alsothe 2005 Convention on Diversity ofCultural Expressions).

There is another fundamental dif-ference and that is the religious and spir-itual core that breathes life into our intel-lectual and artistic heritage. But this, inthe 2003 Convention, is not a consider-ation. That is why we find in the text ofthe yoga nomination file that there is nota single mention of ‘yoga’ being one ofthe systems of Hindu philosophy andalso not that it is an ‘Upaveda’. Its descrip-tion instead includes “Yoga is a time hon-oured Indian holistic system of person-al, physical, mental and spiritual well-ness” and “Indian mythology traces theorigin of yoga to the God Shiva”.

With yoga having become popularin the West several decades ago; and astoday it is known and followed world-wide, it is yoga’s ‘universal’ (to employa preferred cultural convention term)trait that is more favoured in descriptionsthan its Vedic and later Vedic origins.Giving such an emphasis is naturally lessfeasible with the Kumbh Mela, which isdescribed in its nomination file correct-

ly as the largest human gathering in theworld, but is qualified strangely as “a con-gregation of pilgrims mostly Hindus”and further with “the festival though par-ticularly revolves around the Hindu rit-uals and mythology, it is in reality, an allencompassing, religiously tolerant andinclusive festival”.

The use of phrases like these that areagnostic in nature or at best religion-neu-tral may have to do with the perceptionsheld by the Ministry about the outlooktowards practices and knowledge sys-tems held by the 2003 ICH Convention.Examining the yoga and Kumbh Melatreatment for this Convention, the per-ception which appears to have been heldis that the religious or spiritual aspect ofpractices and knowledge systems mustbe muted and that their textual interpre-tation will gain in validity only if ade-quately glossed through gender, inclu-siveness, tolerance and caste/equality.

In my view, the listings of yogaand Kumbh Mela in the representa-tive list of the 2003 ICH Conventionbrings several adverse consequences.First, by the listing, an entire systemof philosophical thought and practicehas been reduced to ‘ICH’. Identifyingand safeguarding ICH is good andbenefits, especially, traditional culti-vation, handicrafts, hand weavers,rural household industries and the fes-tivals and social practices associatedwith them. But Indic intellectual,artistic and customary heritage is farmore often than not considerablygreater than the very recent, ratherEurocentric vision which formed theConvention.

Second, the ‘success’ of these two list-ings is likely to encourage both theMinistry and the State Governments to

proffer what they consider candidateICH elements to the 2003 Conventionin a race for recognition. This writer’sexperience with countries that have doneso is that the effects on the tradition bear-ers of ICH are more negative than pos-itive. A UNESCO listing inevitablymeans encouraging a hierarchy inwhich the listed ICH — such as the 13from India — are accorded a status supe-rior to those unlisted, provincial or local.In the absence of a national or statemeans of according equal recognition toour vidyas, kalas, natya and nritya, artshumble and mundane — all of which area source of identity for their participants,listing becomes a liability.

Third, professionalism thatUNESCO circulates to countries con-cerning the mechanics of itsConventions and the minutiae of itsnomination and reporting processestends to be mistaken both for knowledgeabout culture and how to document thatknowledge. The two are completely dif-ferent — one concerns a country’s cul-tural, knowledge, practices and built ornatural forms; the other concerns aninter-governmental process. This is themost adverse consequence for it causesentirely endogenous viewpoints andtools (definitions, vocabularies, valuesand meanings, roles, sciences major andminor) to become subordinate to whatis a detailed administrative manual. If notguarded against stringently, within thecourse of two generations, the verymodes of perceiving our extraordinarydiversity of intangible cultural practicesand forms will have been replaced.

(The writer is a UNESCO Asia expertfacilitator on intangible cultural heritage,and Adviser, Centre for EnvironmentEducation Himalaya)

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Batting for operation ‘Allout’ against active terrorists

in Kashmir valley, the BharatiyaJanta Party (BJP) on Thursdaysaid announcing ‘unilateralceasefire’ at this juncture is notat all in national interest assecurity forces have establishedtheir supremacy over terroroutfits by eliminating their topcommanders.

On Wednesday ChiefMinister Mehbooba Mufti hadissued an appeal to the centralleadership to considerannouncing ‘unilateral’ cease-fire during the holy month ofRamzan and Amarnath yatraafter chairing an all partiesmeeting in Srinagar.

Following differences overthe issue the alliance partnersare expected to evolve a con-sensus before apprising PrimeMinister Narendra Modi aboutthe prevailing security situationin the state.

Addressing a press confer-

ence here in BJP headquartersState chief spokesman SunilSethi told reporters, “during theall parties meeting only a sug-gestion came up for a unilateralceasefire on the lines of onedeclared by the Atal BihariVajpayee Government”.

“We have a strong view.Unilateral ceasefire in the pre-sent situation is not in nation-al interest at all,” he added.

He said relaxation of anytype at this stage will meanstepping back on the process ofrestoration of normalcy inKashmir. “Today’s stone pelteris a potential terrorist of tomor-row. We will not agree or buyany argument that the hands ofarmy should be tied,” he added.

Sethi said militants weredemoralised due to Armyaction and a unilateral ceasefirewould ease pressure and allowthem to regroup.

He again clarified the stateBJP was not at all of this opin-ion. He also stressed that a callfor a unilateral ceasefire was

not a unanimous decision atthe meeting. The issue wasraised by Independent MLAEngineer Rashid, Sethi claimed.

There was no debate on itand BJP did not agree to it, hetold reporters.

“Our point is clear thatpressure created by Army onthe terrorists should continuealong with ‘operation all out’and to a large extent listed mil-itants have been eliminatedand only few among them areactive,” Sethi said.

On stone pelting inKashmir, Sethi said there were“stone pelting units” operatingfrom Shopian to Baramulla inKashmir. They keep movingfrom place to place to engineerstone pelting on Army and paramilitary forces, he said.

When asked aboutamnesty scheme announcedby the State Government, Sethisaid the withdrawal of FIRsagainst first-time stone peltersdid not achieve the desiredresults.

“First-time stone pelterscontinue to resort to stonepelting and have not stoppedpelting stones post amnesty. Itis a serious issue and we needto review the amnesty scheme”,he added.

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Controversy and TripuraChief Minister Biplab

Kumar Deb seems to havebecome synonymous.

Deb stirred yet anothercontroversy on Wednesday bysaying that Nobel LaureateRabindranath Tagore had repu-diated his Nobel prize award-ed to him in protest against thethen British Government.

“Kobiguru RabindranathTagore was not only a worldpoet. He was not only the per-sonality who had repudiatedthe Nobel Prize awarded to himin protest against the Britishgovernment,” said Deb whilespeaking at a function toCelebrate Rabindra Jayanti inAgartala.

Tagore won the NobelPrize in 1913 for his much cel-ebrated anthology Gitanjali(1910). The Nobel Laureate,who was awarded a knight-hood in 1915, however, repu-diated it in 1919 as a mark ofprotest against the JallianwallaBagh massacre.

Deb who took over as theChief Minister of Tripura onlytwo months back, stirred a con-troversy by saying that internet

and satellite communicationexisted during theMahabharata era. Followingthis, Deb also questioned thecrowning of Diana Hayden asMiss world in 1997.

Deb has recently advisedthe educated youth in his stateto “set up paan shops instead ofrunning after political partiesfor several years to get gov-ernment jobs and waste vitaltime of their life.”

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Adelegation of GujaratCongress headed by

Ahmed Patel submitted a mem-orandum to Governor OPKohli at the State CapitalGandhinagar on issues relatedto land acquisition of agricul-ture land, especially for BulletTrain project.

Post submission of memo-randum, Patel said the Congresswould also support the farmermovement to be organised inPalghar in Maharashtra on June3, 2018 against acquisition ofland for Prime MinisterNarendra Modi’s pet project ofBullet train.

Local political parties inMaharashtra are opposingrecent land survey being takenup by the National High Speed

Rail Corporation Ltd for theBullet Train project. The BulletTrain project is coming upbetween Ahmedabad andMumbai with Japanese collab-oration. The Bullet train is slat-ed to travel through Thaneand Palghar districts ofMaharashtra en route. This hasbeen opposed by All IndiaKisan Sabha that has launchedan agitation against Bullet train.

In the memorandum sub-mitted to the Governor,Congress alleged that the rulingBJP Government in the S0tatewas subverting the Constitutionin acquiring agricultural landfrom farmers as well as notadhering to Courts verdict onmaintaining autonomy ofPanchayati Raj institutions. Theallegations in the Congressmemorandum come in wake of

Gujarat High Court’s verdictthat the members of thePanchayat would not be able tobring about ‘no-confidence’motion against the Sarpanch forat least one year of the elections.

Gujarat Pradesh CongressCommittee (GPCC) presidentAmit Chavda, Leader ofOpposition in GujaratLegislative Assembly PareshDhanani and other senior lead-ers also remained present alongwith their senior leader AhmedPatel.

Meanwhile Patel expressedconfidence that Congresswould emerge victorious in theensuing Karnataka assemblypolls to be held on May 12.According to him out of 225seats that would go for polling,Congress candidates would winon at least 115 constituencies.

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In the wake of Gujarat’s his-torical relation with Poland

going back to World War-IIdays, Gujarat Government’sSports Youth & CulturalActivities Department willextend its support to Polandcelebrate in its IndependenceDay Centenary scheduled inOctober 2018.

A Memorandum ofUnderstanding (MoU) to thiseffect was signed betweenGujarat’s Sports Youth &Cultural Activities SecretaryVP Patel and Poland’sAmbassador to India AdamBurakowski in presence ofGujarat Chief Minister VijayRupani at the State CapitalGandhinagar.

Gujarat Government willsupport Poland in informa-tion and publicity of the cul-

tural programmes lined-up byPoland during the centenarycelebration in their country,in New Delhi and other placesin the world, under the theme‘Generation to Generation’.

This is in posit iveresponse to PolandAmbassador’s recent visit toGujarat expressing his desireto strengthen the historicbond between the tworegions.

It may be recalled thatduring the World War-II,Nawanagar MaharajaDigvijaysinh of Nawanagar(now called Jamnagar) hadprovided asylum to nearly1,000 war orphans andwomen at his BalachadiPalace in his princely statethen. When their ship dockedin Mumbai, the Brit ishGovernor too refused thementry.

Maharaja, who had heardof the plight of the refugees,sought to help them and pres-surized the Brit ishGovernment to allow therefugees to disembark.Frustrated by the lack ofempathy and the unwilling-ness of the Government toact, the Maharaja ordered theship to dock at Rosi port inhis province.

His act of generosity isclearly still remembered inPoland, where he was posthu-mously award theCommander’s Cross of theOrder of Merit by thePresident. Poland has alsonamed the Maharaja theHonorary Patron of the pop-ular Warsaw Bednarska HighSchool. In 2013, theGovernment of Poland inau-gurated the ‘Good MaharajaSquare’ in Warsaw.

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Samajwadi Party chiefAkhilesh Yadav charged that

most of the encounters done byUP Police were fake andaccused Chief Minister YogiAdityanath of misusing thepolice.

“The BJP is misusing thepolice, which is inflicting tor-ture on the people of the stateand driving fear among them.The Samajwadi Party is notonly raising questions, but alsotelling other opposition partiesthat the police under thie rgimeis continuously engaging infake encounters,” Akhilesh toldnewspersons in Lucknow onThursday. The fomer UP ChiefMinister demanded that thegovernment should provide alist of criminals carryingreward on their arrest to sub-stantiate its claim that thosekilled by the police were high-ly notorious.

The SP chief demanded acompensation of �50 lakh tothe next of kin of NarendraGujjar, against whom a ‘fakecow slaughter case’ was regis-tered. He claimed that Gujjarwas tortured to death in cus-tody by the police in Meerut.

“It is the duty of the gov-ernment to see that everyonegets justice. Has the situationworsened to an extent whereno one can plead for justice ?Will the BJP now deprive thepeople of the state of justice ?”he querried.

As many as 50 dreadedcriminals have been killed inover 1,400 encounters in thelast one year in the state,while 3,435 history-sheeterswere arrested after encoun-ters. Yadav also referred to thedeath of Unnao rape sur-vivor’s father in police cus-tody.

“The BJP says that weused to give Rs 50 lakh com-pensation when a Muslimdied. Today, when a Hinduhas died, why are you (the

BJP) not helping the Hindu,”the SP asked.

Akhilesh also blamed theBJP government for the unrestin Aligarh Muslim University.“Had the government wanted,then the situation would nothave worsened at AMU,” hesaid.

On reports of a CBI probeinto the sale of sugar mills dur-ing Mayawati’s regime, the SPchief said that the investigationwas being done keeping theupcoming Lok Sabha polls inmind.

Attacking the BJP in thecontext of Kairana andNoorpur bypolls, Akhileshsaid, “These people have beensaying that if other parties winby- polls, then Diwali will becelebrated in Pakistan. I havenever been to Pakistan, nor doI have a Pakistani visa. The BJPshould tell who went toPakistan discreetly.”

Yadav contested the gov-ernment’s claim that it was tak-ing care of cane growers in thestate. He also demanded Rs 10lakh assistance to families ofSitapur dog-bite victims. Atotal of 12 children have fallenprey to dog attacks so far.

Referring to the Investors’Summit in UP and the followup visit to the USA by cabinetminister Sidharthnath Singh,Akhilesh said, “The companieswith which the UP governmenthas inked MoUs, do not haveany balance-sheet. The pro-posed Defence Corridor is onlyto divert public attention.

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The Office of the Commissioner ofPolice, Mumbai Police Foundation

and Tata Trusts have come together to setup a Police Museum in Mumbai to con-serve and archive historic police records.

The Office of the Commissioner ofPolice, Mumbai, Mumbai PoliceFoundation and Tata Trusts on Thursdaysigned a Memorandum of Understanding(MoU) on a two-pronged project “toconserve and archive historic policerecords, and to plan for a Police Museum”.

One of the objectives drawn by thenewly registered Mumbai PoliceFoundation is a mandate “to restore arte-facts/equipment of historical value topolice history” and it is aimed towardsenhancing the efficiency of the Mumbaipolice force and ensuring social, culturaland public welfare.

Conceptualized by Mumbai PoliceCommissioner Dattatraya Padsalgikar,and his team, the Mumbai PoliceFoundation and the Office of the

Commissioner of Police, Mumbai, the pro-ject will seek to generate awareness – inter-nally through the archiving project, andexternally through the museum project –about the rich history of the city’s policeforce that came into being in 1864.

“The archiving project will be an exer-cise in organization and maintenancethat will also train police volunteers ingood practices of conservation and archiv-ing. The development of the PoliceMuseum is a project to present to citizensa slice of history from the perspective ofthe force,” a Mumbai Police Foundationpokesperson said.

Tata Trusts is partnering with theMumbai Police on this project as “animportant step in preserving the city’s his-tory and heritage”. “The Trusts have longbeen associated with the betterment anddevelopment of the city and its publicworks. The Arts, Crafts & Culture portfolioat the Trusts focuses on promoting con-servation of India’s cultural heritagethrough support of monuments, museumsand building archival facilities; supporting

performing arts and crafts; promoting artscholarship, art education and research,”the spokesperson said.

The Mumbai Police Foundation is aregistered Trust formed with the objectivesto promote and secure the welfare ofpolicemen of Mumbai and their familiesand to promote efficiency, skills, techniqueand modernization of the Mumbai policedepartment for the welfare of Citizens.Computerization of police stations anddigitization of police records, restorationof artefacts and/or equipment of histori-cal value to police history are also the mainobjectives of the Trust.

Set up in 1892, Tata Trusts has played“a pioneering role in bringing about anenduring difference in the lives of the com-munities it serves”. Guided by the princi-ples and the vision of proactive philan-thropy of its Founder, Jamsetji Tata, theTrusts’ purpose has been to catalyse devel-opment in the areas of healthcare andnutrition, water and sanitation, education,energy, rural upliftment, urban povertyalleviation, and arts, craft and culture.

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As the fiery campaign endsfor the Karnataka

Assembly polls to be held onSaturday BJP national presi-dent Amit Shah has predicteda win for his party and saidthey would get at least 130seats in the 224 memberHouse. Addressing a Pressconference in Bengaluru onThursday hours before theelection campaign comes to anend master strategist of theparty said Lingayat strongmanYeddyurappa will be the nextChief Minister of the party. Heslammed congressGovernment led bySiddaramaiah for the failure oflaw and order.

He said “Law and order

have seen a downfall inKarnataka. More than 24workers of BJP and RSS werebrutally killed in the state andthe Congress considers it apart of politics. No effortswere made to nab the culprits”.

Countering congress pres-ident Rahul Gandhi on farmersissue he accused the Karnatakagovernment of not doing any-thing for the farmers and said,“they are not even ready to giveanswers for their failure.”

Talking about the recoveryof nearly 10,000 voter IDsfrom an apartment inBengaluru, Shah said, “TheCongress is trying to win elec-tions with undemocratic ways.Recovery of voter ID cards inRajarajeshwari Nagar showshow desperately the Congresswants to win the election. Iwant to alert those whose fakeIDs have been made, thatdon’t fall in Congress’ trap anddisturb polls.”

BJP chief said during hismore than 50,000 km-longjourneys criss crossing theState found people’s angeragainst ruling congress gov-ernment and againstSiddaramaiah. He said “In thelast five years, more than 3,500farmers in Karnataka have

committed suicide. That is a173 percent rise in the farm-ers’ suicide rate. All the devel-opment schemes are stuck likethe Bengaluru traffic,” headded. Shah said there wasanger in the public against theCongress’ state government,on the other hand, there wasincreasing “affection and lik-ing” for Modi.

Shah said that he got achance to experience the peo-ple’s anger against theSiddaramaiah government. Hepredicted that the Congresschief ministerial face will loseelections from bothChamundeshwari andBadami.

Meanwhile Chief MinisterSiddaramaiah said that hisgovernment’s focused on

bringing glory back toKarnataka. “We have come along way from being the mostcorrupt state in 2010 tobecome the investment capitalof India by 2018,” he said.

JDs Chief HDKumaraswamy who is expect-ed to be the kingmaker or aking himself lashed out atCongress chief Rahul Gandhifor his remarks on JDs andsaid he does not need a secu-lar identity certificate fromRahul Gandhi.

The high voltage cam-paign for the May 12Karnataka assembly electionshave come to an end. TheKarnataka elections are seen asa preamble to the 2019 elec-tions and party’s are hoping tomake in roads into it.

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In a landmark Judgment theCalcutta High Court on

Thursday introduced an ele-ment of accountability amongsenior Government func-tionaries responsible for con-ducting free and fair electionssaying violence and loss oflives and property during elec-tions would be compensated bythe Government and the offi-cers who submitted statusreports on satisfactory law andorder situation would be heldliable for their reports.

Disposing of petitionscomplaining "hopelessly inad-equate" security measures inthe three-tier May 14 pan-chayat elections already miredby bloodshed at the nomina-tion stage which saw about 10deaths and more than 34 per-cent of the seats going to theruling Trinamool Congressunopposed the Division Benchof Chief Justice JyotirmayBhattacharya said the Courtwould rely on the report onsecurity placed by the StateElection Commission andhence would not intervene inthe election process.

"The Court said that since

the Commission was satisfiedwith the security frameworkprovided by the StateGovernment it will have to berelied on but reminded loss oflife and property would berequired to be adequately com-pensated by the Governmentand the compensation moneywould be realised from thesalary, property of the officialswho filed report on adequatesecurity" said CPI(M)'s RabinDeb.

If the salary and propertyof the officials were inade-quate for compensation thenthe Government and theCommission would have to fillthe deficient money, lawyersquoting the order said adding,"this is for the first time that theofficials who function asstooges of their political mas-ters and not responsible servantof the people and theConstitution have been madeliable and accountable for theiract of public security.

The Court, however,refused to interfere in the elec-tion process. "This means thatthe Court has made theGovernment, ElectionCommission and the officialsjointly and severally liable,"

said lawyers.The petitioners had ques-

tioned adequacy of securityforces in the elections. In 2013the then SEC Meera Pandeywent till the Supreme Court tobring central forces.

"Last time 82,000 centralforces and about 86,000 Statearmed police were used in fivephase polls. But this time theGovernment has only 46,000armed police force and 82,000civic volunteers to conduct theelections. More laughably theyhave arranged for forest guardsand excise department officialsto man violence-torn elections.This is bizarre," said BJP lead-ers.

Division Bench of the HighCourt led by Justice BiswanathSamaddar had on Tuesdayallowed e-nomination in thepanchayat elections. This, forthose who had filed their nom-inations within 3 pm on April23 the extended date for filingof nomination after failing todo so physically on account ofmassive violence and resis-tance from theTrinamoolgoons.

The Supreme Court hear-ing an appeal on the impugnedorder of JusticeSamaddar how-ever put a stay on e-nominationwhich will be heard inJuly.The Apex Court however,stayed publication of results of

the seats won uncontested tillthe next hearing.

Meanwhile even as the BJP,CPI(M) and the Congressexpressed dissatisfaction at theCourt's verdict --- the impactof the Calcutta High Courtorder saw the SEC acting in amore cautious way stretchingthe poll process till May 21sources said.

The SEC had earlier decid-ed to hold a single phase elec-tion for about 58,000 seats onMay 14 result for which wouldbe declared by May 18. Butafter the Thursday's order theCommission decided to holdelections to about 39,000 seatson May 14, initial reports said.

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Nationalist Congress Party(NCP) chief Sharad Pawar

announced here on Thursdaythat his party, Congress andother like-minded partieswould contest the 2019 LokSabha and Assembly electionsas an alliance and that he didnot foresee any impediments inseat distribution among theallies for the polls.

Addressing the partyworkers from his party’sMumbai unit, Pawar said: “Wehave already had talks with theCongress and other like-mind-ed parties and decided to con-test the forthcoming Lok Sabhaand Assembly elections inMumbai and elsewhere inMaharashtra as an alliance. Ido not foresee any problem inarriving at a seat-sharingarrangement among the vari-ous allies for the polls”.

In an apparent effort toenthuse the city party workersahead of the polls, Pawarsaid:”We expect to get morenumber of seats in the tie-upin Mumbai”.

Alluding to party’s organ-isational issues in Mumbai,Pawar said that the NCP wouldhave to give a “right face” to theparty in Mumbai. “We have togive3 a right face to the partyin Mumbai— Victories anddefeats are part and parcel ofelectoral politics. But, we haveideology and relationships

intact. Even while takingalong with us senior partyleaders, we have to give oppor-tunity to new faces,” he said.

Pawar said that in thedistribution of tickets, hisparty would give preference toparty activists who workedenthusiastically and those whowere popular among varioussections of the society.

It may be recalled that aswas the case with the Shiv Senaand BJP, the Congress andNCP had contested the 2014Lok Sabha polls as an alliance.While the Congress had con-

tested 26 seats, the NCP hadput up 21 seats. Of the 26 con-tested seats, the Congress meretwo seats. The NCP had wonfour seats out of the 21 seats ithad contested.

On the contrary, the BJPhad virtually swept the pollsby winning 23 out of 24 seatsit had contested, while theShiv Sena had bagged 18 seatsout of the 20 seats it had con-tested.

However, the all the four

major political parties - BJP,Shiv Sena, Congress and NCPhad contested the October2014 polls on their respectivestrengths.

Of the total 288 Assemblyseats, the BJP had put up can-didates in 260 constituencies.It won an all-time high of 122seats in the polls.

The Shiv Sena walkedaway with 63 seats out of 282seats, while the Congressbagged 42 seats out of 287 seatsit had contested. The NCPemerged fourth by winning 41out of 278 it had contested.

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Continuing slew of mea-sures for the empower-

ment and welfare of the farm-ers, Telangana Chief MinisterK Chandrasekhar Rao onThursday announced that fromJune 2 all the 500 odd MandalRevenue Officers or Tehsildarswill be get the authority to doland registration. So far onlythe sub registrars had thepower to register the lands.

KCR made the announce-ment while launching theambitious Rythu Bandhu or theCrop Investment Supportscheme on Thursday atDharmarajupally village inKarimnagar district.

He also launched the hand-ing over of the support offinancial support as well as thenew pattadar passbooks or theland owning documents pre-pared after a statewide landrecord streamlining program.He said henceforth the farmerswill not have to pledge theirland records with banks toavail loans.

“Rythu Bandhu schemehas the potential to change thefuture course of the country”,KCR said.

Addressing a mammothgathering KCR said, “launchingof the Rythu Bandhu schememarks the beginning of a gold-en era in the country as noother state from Kashmir toKanyakumari and Assam toMaharashtra had such ascheme to help the farmers”.

Under the scheme theGovernment will give financialsupport of �4000 per acre percrop to 58 lakh farmers in theState. KCR, who handed overthe cheques and the new pass-books to the farmers on theoccasion said that each andevery eligible farmer will getthe benefits of the new scheme.“There is no need for you to

become anxious if there is anydelay. The cheques will reachyou”, he said. “The StateGovernment has earmarked�12000 crore for the scheme inthe budget”.

Under the land recordpurification program of the 2.9crore acres land in the State, 2.3crore acre land was verified and1.4 crore acre was found cul-tivable, KCR said adding thatwhether the farmers take upthe cultivation or not, all the 58lakh farmers will get the sup-port under Rythu Bandhu.

Chief Minister also moveda resolution at the public meet-ing, passed by the audiencewith applause demanding theCentre to increase the mini-mum support price for all thecrops by 25%. He alsodemanded that the NationalRural Employment guaranteescheme should be linked toagriculture and the compensa-tion to the laborer should beequally shared by the Centreand the farmer on whose landthe laborer works.

“Once the land record isupdated following any trans-action the same will be updateon the website and the ownersif they are sitting in Australiaor London can see it”, theChief Minister said assuringthat this will protect the inter-est of the land owners and therewill not be any corruption orirregularity in it.

Listing out the achieve-ments of his government sincethe formation of the Telanganastate four years ago, “there wasa time when the farmers werecommitting suicide due to theirinability to pay the electricitybills. Now the StateGovernment was supplyinground the clock free electrici-ty to them. Today if there is apower shut down it was anews. But earlier power com-ing was a news”.

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In a straight and clear messageto persons using social media

that they should be extremelycareful about making or for-warding posts about women,the Madras High Court onThursday denied anticipatorybail to leading theatre-filmpersonality and BJP leader S VeShekher in a case filed againsthim by the Tamil Nadu Police.

The actor-cum-directorhad posted a Facebook messagereceived by him portrayingwomen in a poor light butdeleted the same followingwidespread protests from asection of society. The TamilNadu police had filed a crim-inal case against Shekher undervarious sections of the IndianPenal Code as ell as TamilNadu Prohibition of WomenHarassment (Prevention) Act.Shekher had approached theMadras High Court when hishouse came under attack bydemonstrators who demandedthe arrest of the theatre per-sonality despite him tenderinga public apology.

Justice S Ramathilagamwho heard the appeal said inher verdict that Shekher insteadof being a role model to his fol-lowers had set a wrong prece-dent. “What is said is importantbut who has said it is veryimportant in a society becausepeople respect persons for thesocial status. When a celebrityforwards a message like this thecommon people will start tobelieve it,” said the justice.

The Justice also said that

the language and words used inthe Facebook post were notindirect but a direct abusivefoul language which is notexpected from a person of hiscalibre and age. Last Thursday,while reserving the orders, theJustice had sought fromFacebook the original mes-sage posted by Shekher.

Rejecting the public apol-ogy tendered by Shekher, theJustice said: “Mistakes andcrimes are not same. Onlychildren can make mistakeswhich can be pardoned. If thesame is done by elderly peopleit becomes an offence,: saidJustice Ramathilagam.

The Facebook message wasa fallout of the incident inwhich Tamil Nadu GovernorBanwarilal Purohit was allegedto have patted a lady journal-ist during a press conferenceaddressed by him last month.Though the Governorexpressed regret over the same,the aggrieved journalist saidshe was not convinced by thepublic apology tendered byhim and this had generated alot of controversy.

The Opposition DMK andits allies who were having arunning battle with theGovernor over his style offunctioning and visits to thedistricts for interaction with theofficials, made use of the inci-dent much to the embarrass-ment of the Governor.

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Issuing a stern warning tostone pelters, Union Home

Minister Rajnath Singh said theGovernment would deal withthem with an iron fist.

The Home minister saidthat he would consider Jammuand Kashmir Chief MinisterMehbooba Mufti’s appeal forunilateral ceasefire duringRamzan and Amarnath Yatraafter reaching New Delhi.

Singh was speaking at theinauguration of non- residen-tial buildings for 125 Battalionof Boarder Security Force (BSF)at Jaiti Kheda-Parvar Westlocality of Mohanlalganj inLucknow on Thursday after-noon.

Singh said that the death ofa Chennai tourist in stone pelt-ing in Kashmir recently, wasindeed unfortunate andstressed that the Governmentwas determined to go toughwith stone pelters. “We have azero tolerance policy on theissue,’ he said.

On being asked to com-ment on J&K CM’s appeal tothe Centre to consider a uni-lateral ceasefire, Singh saidthat he had not been directlyapprised of Mehbooba Mufti’sappeal and he would speak toher about on reaching New

Delhi.Asked about the BJP’s

prospects against a0 unitedOpposition in the comingbypolls at Kairana (Lok Sabha)and Noorpur (Assembly),Singh said, “Despite all partiesjoining hands, the BJP will winboth seats. Besides, the BJP willwin the 2019 Lok Sabha elec-tions as the Modi governmenthas undertaken so many devel-opment works which peoplewill not be able to ignore,” hesaid adding that

“BJP staunchly believe incarrying out developmentalfor people and our govern-ments in different states areworking on these lines,” he said.

Singh assured that the BJPwas set to form Government in

Karnataka adding as it hadformed a habit of winningelections.

He said that the oppositionfailed to raise issue of corrup-tion against any BJP govern-ment, be it led by Atal orModi.

The Union minister saidthat the BJP Government wasperforming the best and peo-

ple were satisfied with its per-formance.

Earlier, Singh inauguratedthe BSF campus which has anOfficers’ Mess, a hospital, aquarter guard and other facil-ities. He was given a guard ofhonour upon reaching the BSFcampus after which he inter-acted with jawans about theglorious history of the BSF andbravery of its officers andjawans.

Hailing the BSF officersand personnel for dedicationand commitment, Singh said,“Due to it impeccable perfor-mance, BSF has become a syn-onym of trust of our country.The Union government hadapproved foundation of 261location points,” he informed.

On this occasion, theUnion minister also met fam-ilies of BSF officers/ jawans andalso participated in a tree plan-tation inside the BSF campus.

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Naya Raipur in Chhattisgarh is adream city that is emerging as

a role model to many other upcom-ing Indian cities like Amaravati inAndhra Pradesh and Ranchi inJharkhand. The contemporary andup-to-the-minute attitude of thepresent Government is all set to cre-ate a millennium city that is poisedto attain high standards for others toreplicate.

Chief Minister Dr Raman Singhhas remained in office since 2003having won three consecutive LokSabha elections in a row. Despitesporadic anti-incumbency instances

in the State, people have chosen himto steer the State to growth anddevelopment. Over the years, hisgovernment has been widely laud-ed for implementing various publicdistribution schemes, taking a firmstand on Naxals, promoting digitaltechnology and providing interestfree agricultural loans in the state.

Naya Raipur is also the ChiefMinister's mainstay as he is deter-mined to make the city a templatefor change in other parts of the coun-try. Under his leadership, several ele-ments have been incorporated in thesmart governance plan.

City Command Control Centre(CCC) is one such endeavour thatacts as the centralised hub for inte-gration of various components envis-aged under the Naya Raipur ICTenablement. The body acts as thenucleus for all the city data captur-ing, processing analytics, consolida-tion reporting, monitoring and con-trol. Teams of various stakeholdersare proposed to operate on theirrespective areas from CCC in orderto provide quality services to the res-

idents of the city of Naya Raipur. The centre proposes to stream-

line the day-to-day operations whileenabling the citizens to interact withCCC through SMS and mobile andweb interface. The proposed com-mon portal and mobile applicationswill provide a free flowing electron-ic citizen service window between thecitizens and administration to ensurethat citizens receive an appropriateresponse during an interaction withthe city management.

Naya Raipur is now the admin-istrative capital of the State. The newcity caters well to the infrastructur-al and trade requirements of theregion. The city of Naya Raipurshines among the green citiesplanned globally in the 21st Centuryand stands as testimony to a rapid-ly urbanising India. A world-classcity with state of the art infrastruc-ture, the city is a classic example ofsocial cohesiveness.

Naya Raipur Development Plan2031 envisages a Green and SmartCity with modern amenities and aninfrastructure comparable to the

most modern cities the world over.Criss Cross green walkways, MassRapid Transport System (MRTS)and Sustainable Urban DrainageSystem (SUDS) are some of the keyfeatures of the plan.

Keeping an inclusive city devel-opment in mind, the village settle-ments in Naya Raipur are declaredas urban villages with provisions forbasic infrastructure at par with thecity. An expenditure ranging from 60million to 200 million INR per vil-lage has been proposed in order tohave a more equitable social struc-ture. About 25 per cent of the totalresidential area is proposed to be

reserved for EWS and LIG housing. The development of Naya

Raipur is planned to confirm to thehighest standards of norms likeTransit Oriented Development(TOD) and people-friendly move-ment. Walkability, bicycle friendlystreets, interconnected streets, safeparking, urban parks and street fac-ing buildings are just some of the keyfeatures of the city plan.

Conservation of naturalresources has been kept in mindwhile planning various infrastruc-ture projects like city level water sup-ply, logistics hub and real estate fea-tures like hotels, golf course, sportscity and themed townships. A trans-port network based on accessibility,affordability, equitable and safemobility is a part of the New RaipurDevelopment Authority (NRDA). Arailway line connecting Naya Raipurto the main rail network within thecountry has also been planned andimplemented. The four railway sta-tions within the planning boundaryof NRDA are proposed to provideaccess to most of the sectors and vil-

lages. Other projects in the pipelineinclude Public Bike Sharing Scheme,Multimodal Logistics Hub and Lastmile Connectivity.

The development plan of NayaRaipur endeavors to make 24x7power supply with significantlyreduced transmission and distribu-tion loss and an increase in renew-able energy resources (almost 20 percent of the Mantralaya power sup-ply is proposed to be through solarenergy). In addition, features likeunderground cable network, solarpanels, wind-powered street lights,smart meters and electrical chargingstations have also been incorporat-ed in the city plan.

Basic amenities like water sup-ply and drainage and sewage systemare also well taken care of in the plan.With a fully functional water treat-ment plant since 2015, the system isbeing upgraded and SupervisoryControl and Data Acquisition(SCADA) system is being imple-mented to ensure system efficiency.Naya Raipur is on its way to becomea Zero Discharge City with 100 per

cent piped domestic wastewater col-lection being implemented. If thecivic amenities are planned to beworld-class in the city of NayaRaipur; communication, health,education and recreation are alsowell taken care of.

With 75 km of fiber optic cablesalready laid in the city, NRDA pro-poses to make the city totally Wi-Fienabled in near future.Neighborhood concept has been atthe core of planning to provideworld-class education, health andrecreational facilities. Some of thewell-known educational institutionsthat have already marked their pres-ence in Naya Raipur include IIM,IIT, IIMT, AIIMS and National LawUniversity.

The city is fast becoming thechoice for healthcare with manyupcoming facilities like AIIMS,Cancer hospital, nursing homes anddispensaries. Rightfully, the incum-bent government is judiciously at thehelm of affairs with Naya Raipurpoised to become a smart city verysoon.

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Passenger vehicle (PV) sales in Indiarose by 7.5% in April, driven by

robust sales of utility vehicles, cars andvans.

According to data released by theSociety of Indian Automobile

Manufacturers (SIAM), PV sales lastmonth stood at2,98,504 units, up7.5% from 2,77,683units in April 2017.Domestic car saleswere up 4.89% to2,00,183 units asagainst 1,90,854 unitsin the same monthlast year.

Utility vehicle(UV) sales rose11.92% to 79,136 unitswhile van salesjumped 18.99% t019,185 units during the month.

“We have started the current finan-cial year on a positive note. We expectthe industry to carry on the momentumduring the rest of the year as well,” SIAMDeputy Director General Sugato Sentold reporters here. He said all segmentsin the PV vertical - cars, utility vehiclesand vans - contributed to the salesgrowth last month. However, exports ofPVs were down 15.89% at 50,921 unitsin April as against 60,538 units in samemonth last year.

In April, market leader MarutiSuzuki India posted a growth of 13.43%in its domestic PV sales at 1,63,434units. Rival Hyundai Motor India saw

a growth of 4.42% at 46,735 units.Homegrown Mahindra &

Mahindra registered a growth of 12.94%at 21,826 units, while Tata Motors sawits PV sales jump 36.19% to 19,157 units.

According to SIAM, totaltwo-wheeler sales in April rose 16.92%to 19,58,241 units compared to16,74,787 units in the year-ago month.

“Motorcycle saleshave bounced backand we expect thetrend tocontinue,”Sen said.

Motorcycle saleslast month rose19.38% to 12,29,526units as against10,29,963 units a yearearlier.

Market leaderHero MotoCorpposted a rise of16.44% in its domes-

tic motorcycle sales at 6,07,720 units asagainst 5,21,909 units in the year-agomonth. Rival Honda Motorcycle andScooter India

(HMSI) sold 2,12,292 units as com-pared to 1,83,182 units in the samemonth last year, a growth of 15.89%.

Bajaj Auto's motorcycle salesstood at 2,00,742 units as compared to1,61,930 units in April 2017, up 23.96%.

In the scooters segment, mar-ket leader HMSI saw its domestic salesjump by 12.98% to 4,23,532 units asagainst 3,68,550 units in the year-agomonth. Chennai-based TVS Motorssold 85,586 units as compared to 79,443units in April last year, up 7.73%.

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The Cabinet Secretary-headed panel onThursday interviewed three senior

bureaucrats and six bankers for the postof RBI Deputy Governor which fellvacant in July last after S S Mundra retiredon completion of his three-year term.

Some of the bankers who appearedfor the interview included IDBI BankMD, M K Jain, UCO Bank executivedirector Charan Singh and SBI manag-ing directors B Sriram and P K Gupta

Besides, K P Krishnan, Secretary SkillDevelopment and Entrepreneurship,Yaduvendra Mathur Additional SecretaryNITI Aayog and T V Somanathan,Principal Secretary in Tamil Nadu alsoappeared for the interview beforeFinancial Sector Regulatory AppointmentSearch Committee (FSRASC), sourcessaid.

Selected name from the interview willbe sent to Appointments Committee ofthe Cabinet headed by the Prime Ministerfor final approval, sources added. BesidesCabinet Secretary, other members of thepanel included RBI Governor, FinancialServices Secretary and two independentmembers. As per the RBI Act, the cen-tral bank should have four deputy gov-ernors two from within the ranks and one

commercial banker and another an econ-omist to head the monetary policydepartment.

Although interviews were conduct-ed on July 29 last year, the governmentdecided to start the process all over againin January this year. According to a pub-lic notice published on the website of thefinance ministry earlier this year, appli-cants should have at least 15 years of expe-rience in banking and financial marketoperations.

Besides, applicants should have exten-sive experience as a full-time director orboard member and possess understand-ing at a very senior level, of supervisionand compliance in the financial sector, ithad said. The appointment will be madefor a period of three years and the per-son will be eligible for reappointment, ithad said. The deputy governor will drawa fixed salary of �2.25 lakh per month plusallowances, it had said.

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Officials of the telecomdepartment and avi-

ation ministry will meetnext week to chart out theframework and guide-lines for operationalising'in-flight' data and voiceconnectivity, a top DoTofficial said on Thursday.

Telecom Commission- the highest policy mak-ing body of Departmentof Telecom (DoT) - on

May 1 cleared a proposalfor allowing wider in-flight connectivity that isnow available in most ofthe developed markets.

The decision will pavethe way for travellers to useinternet and voice serviceson mobile phone duringflights in the Indian air-space."We plan to hold ameeting coming Monday(May 14) or Tuesday (May15) with officials of CivilAviation Ministry on this,"

Telecom SecretaryArunaSundararajan toldreporters on the sidelinesof CII Broadband Summithere.

Telecom operatorsmay or may not be part ofthe upcoming meetingwhich will look at evolvinga framework for in-flightconnectivity, she added.

Earlier, Sundararajanhad expressed hope thatthe facility will be rolledout in 3-4 months.

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President Donald Trump onThursday thanked Kim

Jong-un for releasing threeAmerican detainees as he per-sonally welcomed them back tothe US, a development seen asa diplomatic win for him aheadof his planned summit with theNorth Korean leader.

The Americans — Kim

Dong Chul, Kim Hak-songand Kim Sang Duk, alsoknown as Tony Kim — werefreed on Wednesday by NorthKorea while Secretary of StateMike Pompeo was on a visit tothe North Korean capitalPyongyang to finalise thedetails of the summit.

The trio had been jailed foranti-state activities and placedin North Korean labour camps.

Trump and his wifeMelania entered the plane out-fitted with medical facilitiesafter it landed in the early hoursof Thursday and a few minutes later emerged withthe three Americans of SouthKorean origin to wave to themedia.

“We’re starting off on a newfooting. This is a wonderfulthing that he released the folksearly,” Trump said.

Vice-President Mike Penceand his wife Karen Pence werealso on hand to welcome thethree men home.

Speaking to the media onthe tarmac at Joint BaseAndrews Air Force Base in aMaryland suburb ofWashington DC, Kim DongChul said his release felt “likea dream.” “We are very, veryhappy,” he said.

The three former detaineesearlier issued a joint statementthanking Trump for theirrelease.

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The US-led coalition saysIraqi forces in coordination

with US-backed Syrian forceshave captured five senior ISISgroup leaders.

In a statement on Thursdaycoalition spokesman Army ColRyan Dillon called the arrest a“significant blow to Daesh.”

ISIS fighters no longer con-trol significant pockets of ter-ritory inside Iraq, but do main-tain a grip inside Syria alongIraq’s border. The US-led coali-tion supported Iraqi groundforces and Syrian fightersknown as the SyrianDemocratic Forces in the morethan three- year war against IS.

US President DonaldTrump tweeted about the raid, saying those arrestedwere the “five most wanted”ISIS “leaders.”

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There may not be much Irancan do about President

Donald Trump’s withdrawalfrom the nuclear deal, butacross the West Asian, it has avariety of ways it can hit backat the United States andAmerica’s regional allies.

Iran has expanded its influ-ence far beyond its borders inrecent years, sponsoring anarmy of tens of thousands ofShiite militiamen spread acrossIraq and Syria, all the way toLebanon.

Iran also holds enormouspolitical sway in neighboringIraq and in Lebanon, where itsmain Shia ally, the militantHezbollah group, scored sig-nificant gains in weekend elec-tions. In Iraq, two powerful

political alliances expected towin seats in parliamentaryelections on Sunday also main-tain strong ties to Iran.

In his speech announcingthe US withdrawal from thelandmark 2015 nuclear deal,Trump called Iran the “world’sleading state sponsor of terror,”citing its support for “terrorist”proxies and militias such asHezbollah and Hamas, as wellas its activities in Yemen. Therivalry between Iran and SaudiArabia has torn the regionapart, playing out on regionalbattlefields and fanning sec-tarian flames in Iraq, Syria,Lebanon, Bahrain and Yemen.Trump’s decision will likelyintensify those confrontations,and could also embolden Israelto step up its own proxy battlesagainst Tehran.

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The Israeli military onThursday said it attacked

nearly all of Iran’s militaryinstallations in neighbouringSyria in response to an Iranianrocket barrage on Israeli posi-tions in the occupied GolanHeights, in the most seriousmilitary confrontation betweenthe two bitter enemies to date.

Israeli strikes have killed atleast 23 fighters, including fiveSyrian regime troops and 18other allied forces, a monitorsaid on Thursday. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory forHuman Rights said an officerwas among the regime troopskilled in the strikes and that thecasualties included foreigners.

Israel said the targets of thestrikes, its largest in Syria sincethe 1973 war, included weaponsstorage, logistics sites and intel-ligence centers used by eliteIranian forces in Syria. It alsosaid it destroyed several Syrianair-defense systems after com-ing under heavy fire and thatnone of its warplanes were hit.

Iranian media describedthe attacks as “unprecedented,”but there was no official Iraniancomment on Israel’s claims.

Israel has acknowledgedcarrying out over 100 airstrikesin neighboring Syria since thecivil war erupted in 2011, most

believed to be aimed at sus-pected Iranian weapons ship-ments bound for the Hezbollahmilitant group.

But in the past few weeks,Israel has shifted to a moredirect and public confrontationwith Iran, striking at Iranianbases, weapons depots androcket launchers across Syria,and killing Iranian troops.Israel accuses Tehran of seek-ing to establish a foothold onits doorstep. Iran has vowed toretaliate.

Reflecting the scope of theovernight attacks, Russia’s mil-itary said 28 Israeli jets wereinvolved, striking at severalIranian and government sites inSyria with 70 missiles. It saidhalf of the missiles were shotdown.

Speaking at the HerzliyaConference, an annual securi-ty gathering north of Tel Aviv,Defense Minister AvigdorLieberman said Israel wouldresponse fiercely to any furtherIranian actions.

“We will not let Iran turnSyria into a forward baseagainst Israel,” he said. “We, ofcourse, struck almost all theIranian infrastructure in Syria,and they need to remember thisarrogance of theirs. If we getrain, they’ll get a flood. I hopethat we ended this chapter andthat everyone understood.”

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Washington: US PresidentDonald Trump on Thursdayannounced that he will meetNorth Korean leader Kim Jong-un on June 12 in Singapore fora historic meeting to discussthe denuclearisation on theKorean Peninsula.

Trump’s announcementcame hours after US Secretaryof State Mike Pompeo returnedhome from North Korea withthree detained Americans.Trump, who personally greetedthe trio at the Andrews Air ForceBase, praised Kim for theirrelease ahead of their summit.

“The highly anticipatedmeeting between Kim JongUn and myself will take placein Singapore on June 12. We

will both try to make it a veryspecial moment for WorldPeace!,” Trump tweeted.

The summit, which hasbeen in the works since Trumpaccepted Kim’s invitation tomeet in March, will be the firstever meeting between a sittingUS President and North Koreanleader. US officials had consid-ered holding the summit at theKorean demilitarised zone or inMongolia, but ultimately settledSingapore as the location.Pyongyang’s weapons pro-gramme has seen tensions onthe Korean Peninsula reachratchet up in recent months,prompting fresh rounds of sanc-tions and fiery rhetoric fromTrump and Kim. PTI

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In a virtual must-win game,Rajasthan Royals have to

produce something special tobeat the mighty ChennaiSuper Kings in Jaipur onFriday.

With just four wins from10 matches, Rajasthan are insixth position on the table andneed to win their remainingfour games to secure a play-offspot.

They can take some con-fidence from their 15-run vic-tory over Kings XI Punjab intheir last game. It ended a runof three successive defeats forAjinkya Rahane-led side.

But, their next challenge isagainst the tournament heavy-weight Chennai. Ledby their talismanicskipper, CSK are sec-ond in the table with14 points. One winfrom the remainingfour games might beenough to seal a play-off spot for them.

Barring explosiveEnglish wicket-keeper JosButtler and Sanju Samson,others have failed to live up totheir billing. Below-par per-formances from all-rounderBen Stokes and Rahul Tripathihave hurt Royals badly. Theircaptain Rahane has neitherbeen impressive. D'Arcy Shorthas neither fulfilled his poten-tial.

With 332 runs, Samson isthe top-scorer for the team,while Buttler has 320 runs tohis name.

In their last match,Buttler's 58-ball 82 took thehosts to a decent 158 for eight,which their bowlers defendeddue to impressive perfor-mances from KrishnappaGowtham, Kiwi spinner IshSodhi and Jofra Archer.

The likes of JaydevUnadkat and Shreyas Gopalneed to do more. Archer hasbeen a revelation for them sofar, grabbing nine wicketsfrom five matches.

If they are to have anychance of putting together awinning streak, then the teamhas to step up in both battingand bowling, and should per-form in unison.

Chennai, on the otherhand, have returned to the

tournament - after serving atwo-year suspension - in somestyle.

They have been formida-ble as usual and have that airof invincibility around them,making them an instantfavourite for the coveted title.

Their batsmen have beenin stupendous form, firing onall cylinders.

The likes of AmbatiRayudu, Shane Watson,Dwayne Bravo, skipper Dhoniand Suresh Raina all havecontributed when the teamneeded them.

Rayudu, in particular, hasbeen sensational both as anopener and at number four. Asof now, he is at the thirdposition in the run-scorers

chart with 423 runs from 10games.

Dhoni is seventh on thechart with 360 runs, whichincluded three half-centuries.With his great performancesin the bat, he has silenced hiscritics and shown his hard-hit-ting ability again.

Watson has defied his age togive Chennai good starts at thetop of the table regularly thisseason. He has 328 runs, includ-ing a splendid 106 to his name.

However, bowling hasbeen a worry for them in thiscampaign. Their bowlers havebeen regularly taken to thecleaners by the oppositionbatsmen.

Their pacers Lungi Ngidi,David Willey and ShardulThakur need to do more afterDeepak Chahar got injuredand England's Mark Wood cutshort his IPL stint earlier thanexpected.

Their spinners RavindraJadeja and veteran HarbhajanSingh came good in the lastmatch as they restricted RCBto 127/9.

Dhoni will hope that out-ing will give his bowlers therequired confidence in thecoming games to perform atthe top level.

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Rishabh Pant put behind a couple ofrunning errors that had cost DelhiDaredevils two crucial wickets to

smash an unbeaten knock of 128 in 63balls, including 15 fours and seven sixes.

Riding on Pant's blistering form onThursday night here at the Feroz ShahKotla stadium, Delhi sealed their inningswith 187/5 against Sunrisers Hyderabad.

Having won the toss, Daredevils cap-tain Shreyas Iyer elected to bat first.

Sunrisers Hyderabad arrived with asingle change in their lineup with ShreevatsGoswami behind the wickets for the sec-ond time this season, in place of the reg-ular Wriddhiman Saha.

Delhi fielded opener Jason Roy forColin Munro besides including seamerHarshal Patel and spinner ShahbazNadeem.

Opening alongside Prithvi Shaw, JasonRoy greeted the opponents with the firstboundary in the second over.

However, Delhi's woes began early inthe fourth over as Shikhar Dhawan caughta miscued Prithvi Shaw shot off a ShakibAl Hasan delivery.

The Bangladeshi spinner claimedRoy's wicket right in the next delivery, giv-ing the hosts no room to recover with twowickets for 21 runs. Both Prithvi Shaw andJason Roy were dismissed at 9 and 11 runsrespectively to give way for skipper ShreyasIyer and Rishabh Pant

In the final over of the powerplay, Panttook Siddharth Kaul's bowling spell for a

rampage, hitting four boundaries (allfours) in three deliveries to put Delhi at38/2, and allowing room for hope thatthere was still a certain load of ammuni-tion left in the Daredevils' lineup.

But the next over changed that.

Captain Shreyas Iyer got run out after scor-ing just three runs as he broke into a sprintfor a single while Pant decided to stay putat the batting end. The error made it threewickets gone for Delhi before even reach-ing the 50-run mark.

The first big hit of Delhi's innings cameonly in the eleventh over as HarshalPatel, quite unexpectedly, clearedSiddharth Kaul's short length delivery witha powerful shot over mid-wicket to launchthe ball out for a six.

The boundary proved to be a turningpoint for the fates of the Daredevils as Iyerand Patel combined to tally 42 runs inthree overs, taking their partnership to 50runs in 30 balls including two sixes fromPatel.

But miscommunication once againtook the better of Delhi as Pant, first decid-ing to go for a second run, quicklychanged his mind to stay at the crease asPatel frantically tried to sprint back to safe-ty only to fail miserably.

With that wicket, the Pant-Patel part-nership ended at 55 runs in 37 balls asDelhi summoned Glen Maxwell to jointhe fray at 98/4.

Pant completed his half-century in thenext over with a sensational six off a ShakibAl Hasan delivery as Delhi dragged pastthe 100-run mark after fourteen overs. Hethen continued to dominate his positionon the field as he smashed four sixes andas many fours in the next four overs as heapproached his century.

Pant sent the ball out for another fourin the nineteenth over to reach his maid-en IPL century after connecting well witha Siddharth Kaul delivery.

In the final over, Bhuvaneshwar Kumardismissed Glen Maxwell for nine runs withan off stump delivery which the Australianmiscued to gift Alex Hales an easy catch.This ended Maxwell's 63-run partnershipwith Pant, in which the latter had morethan a lion's share of runs (52).

But there were still five balls to go, andPant was determined to completely putbehind his running errors to wrap up theinnings in style. Which he did.

With two 4's and three 6's in the lastfive balls, Pant walked off the pitch withan unbeaten 128 off 63-ball knock whichallowed Delhi to put up a challenging 187-run target before Sunrisers Hyderabad.

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Despite twin defeats tonemesis Mumbai

Indians (MI) in the space ofthree days, Kolkata KnightRiders (KKR) skipperDinesh Karthik feels hisside still has a "greatchance" of making theIndian Premier League(IPL) play-offs.

KKR slipped a rung tothe fifth spot after a crush-ing 102-run defeat to MI atthe Eden Gardens here onWednesday night, daysafter MI continued theirdominance over the purplebrigade with a 13-run tri-umph at home.

With three moregames to go, KKR nowhave to win all of them toensure their safe passage tothe knockout stages andnot leave their fate on otherteams. KKR take on KingsXI Punjab next followed byRajasthan Royals at home,and table-toppers SunrisersHyderabad on the road tofinish their engagements.

"I am very disappoint-ed. But there are threegames and we take onegame at a time," Karthiktold reporters after theirhumiliating loss to MIwhich stretched their sorryrecord against RohitSharma's side to eightstraight reversals on thetrot.

"So if we win the gamesI know we have a greatchance of getting to the

playoffs. I believe in thatand want my teammates tobelieve in that," Karthiksaid.

The heavy defeat, thelargest margin in the ongo-ing edition of the IndianPremier League (IPL), sawKKR's net run rate plum-met to -0.359, the worstamong eight teams in thetournament.

"After this game, ourrun rate has taken a hit. Wewill take a call as the runrate has come to minusnow. If we play three goodgames, it will go up,"Karthik said.

Ishan Kishan's 21-ball62 in the middle overstook the game away fromKKR, Karthik said.

"He changed the runrate and played some nice

shots. We bowled in an areahe could have got out buthe took on the bowlers atthat stage."

"We succumbed topressure and played a fewbad shots and lost toomany wickets in thePowerplay. When you losetoo many wickets in thePowerplay, it's always goingto be hard," Karthik said.

Left-arm spinnerKuldeep Yadav, on whomKKR depend a lot, was hitfor four consecutive sixes inthe 14th over which turnedthe game in favour of MI.Kuldeep, a regular for Indiaacross formats, went for 43runs in three overs.

"He is somebody whobrings in a lot of control inthe middle overs," Karthiksaid of Kuldeep.

"And when he goes forruns it's hard. This game hewent for a few runs, in themiddle they took himdown a little bit but thesethings happen in a game ofcricket.

"He gets picked in allthree formats and he is aconfident young guy. Heknows it's one of those baddays which every bowlerhas in a T20 format."

Karthik added that thewicket was good for battingand 190 was a par score.

"The wicket was good,190 would have been par. Itwas 20 runs over par whichmade a lot of difference."

MI, after Wednesday'swin, made it 18 triumphsover KKR, eighth in a row,in 23 meetings.

Karthik though saidit's unfair to blame this unitfull of new faces includinghimself. "We are a newteam and a young team. Iunderstand stats wisemaybe as a team KKR hasnot (played well againstMumbai) but this is a newteam with lot of new play-ers so we were hardly awareof these things.

"If we do 3-4 yearsdown the line the samething, then I think that's afairer question. But thesehave happened with dif-ferent teams and we are anew set of boys. It's unfairto label that blame on useven though as a teamKKR has lost so manymatches which I accept."

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Young Ishan Kishan, whose battingpyrotechnics played a part in

Mumbai Indians massive win onWednesday, has credited skipper RohitSharma for backing him despite hisrepeated failures.

After some below-par outings,Kishan's day of reckoning finally cameon Wednesday night with the 19-year-old smashing a brilliant 62 off just 21balls to help Mumbai Indians' cause.

"Rohit bhaiya told me to just backyourself and attack. When your skip-per and teammates are backing you, it'sjust about playing your natural game,"Ishan said after MI thrashed KolkataKnight Riders by 102 runs onWednesday.

Picked up by MI for Rs 6.20 croreafter an intense bidding with RoyalChallengers Bangalore, the Jharkhandwicketkeeper batsman struggled ini-tially with three ducks, forcing his teammanagement to drop him down in thebatting order from no 3 to 4.

But Kishan finally showed hismettle on Wednesday when, sent in,MI looked in a disarray on 62 for 2after nine overs. The diminuitive left-hander then came in and tore apart thelikes of Kuldeep Yadav, Piyush Chawlaand Sunil Narine to help the defend-ing champions post an imposing 210for 6.

"The coach also said in the time outthat just be yourself, back yourself. Weneed some good hits today. Rohitbhaiya also said the same. 'You can hitwell just look at the ball and get withthe flow.'

"They knew that if I remained

there I can get a lot of runs. I just hadto look at the ball till the last momentand keep it going," Kishan said.

Kishan went ballistic againstKuldeep in the 14th over with four con-secutive sixes and in the processnotched up his fifty in 17 balls, the jointsecond fastest half-century of the sea-son.

"Kuldeep is outgoing for me (theone that turns away from me) but heloves to bowl the googly at me. I'veplayed him earlier as well. I knew hewould look to get me stumped bybowling outside off. My target was ifthe ball was in my arc, just get the ballout of the park," said Kishan about hisstrategy.

"It was like just watching the balland if you get them in your arc hitthem or just take a single with Rohitbhaiya batting at the other end. I knewif I missed something, he will make itup for it."

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Heaping praise on KaneWilliamson and

including him in his list oftop five current batsmen inthe world, New Zealandnational team coach MikeHesson described thatcountry's captain as havingthe skills to adapt to anyformat of the game.

The stylish Williamsonis leading SunrisersHyderabad (SRH) in thecurrent Indian PremierLeague (IPL) season, andhas been inspirational withthe bat as well as a captain.

"Any quality batsman,if they have got the skills,will adapt (to) any form ofthe game and KaneWilliamson is no different,"Hesson said ahead of thehigh-flying SRH gameagainst the struggling DelhiDaredevils.

"He does not go outand look to thrash the ball,but he times the ball, getsin good positions and hits

where fielders aren't. (Heis) an all-round good play-er," said the 43-year-oldKiwis' coach, a Star SportsSelect Dugout expert ofthe T20 League.

Will iamson hasamassed 410 runs from 10games, scoring five half-

centuries. His highest scorehas been 84.

Asked whetherWilliamson was the bestbatsman in the World,Hesson said, "Look, Iwouldn't say that."

But he was quick toadd that it was good tohave a New Zealand batteramong the top five bats-men in the world.

"There are four-five(players) who are extreme-ly good. (India and RoyalChallengers Bangaloreskipper) Virat Kohli is one,Joe Root (of England is)exceptionally good. SteveSmith (Australia), KaneWilliamson, they are prob-ably the four at themoment around the world,and AB de Villers when heis playing," he said.

"They are good in dif-ferent conditions (and)they stand out. It's nice tohave a New Zealand bats-man as one of those topfive," said Hesson, who hadalso coached Kenya.

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Indian World Cup winningcoach Gary Kirsten feels that

skipper Virat Kohli's consistentefforts of learning and improv-ing his game makes him one ofthe greatest players of the crick-eting world.

"He is a great player. He con-tinues to improve and get better.I enjoy working with himbecause he continually wants tolearn about the game and all thegreat players do that," Kirstensaid.

Kirsten, who coached Indiafrom 2008-11 and bid adieuafter the 2011 World Cup victo-ry, is currently working withKohli as assistant coach of theIndian Premier League side'sRoyal Challengers Bangalore.

The former South Africanopener, who came for scoutingcamp in Delhi on Thursday, alsobacked Kohli's decision of play-ing county cricket to get used tothe conditions ahead of theEngland tour.

"It is good for him to prepare(for the England tour). For any

player preparation is good," hesaid.

Kohli had a terrible outingthe last time when India touredEngland in 2012. The star bats-man failed to make his presencefelt and was only able to manage138 runs from eight innings.

The former South Africancoach also expects that theupcoming five-match Test battlebetween India-England serieswill be fought keenly.

Talking about growing crazefor T20s among youngsters,Kirsten says that though theshortest version of the gameappeals to the younger genera-tion, the longest format (Test)will always have a place in thecricketing world.

"I enjoy T20 cricket. It real-ly appeals to the younger gener-ation. It's very entertaining. Mykids enjoy watching T20 cricketmore than anything else.

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Too often, we allow fear, worry, anddoubt to dominate and define ourlives. We allow them to steal our

joy, our sleep, and our precious dreamsFear triggers our bodies into action,

saving us from everything from distract-ed drivers to smarmy sales tactics. Andfear has earned a place at the table in bothyour business and your life. So let’s ditchthis silly and senseless saying the call tobe fearless—and replace it with some-thing much more useful: a healthy appre-ciation of fear as a business asset insteadof a liability.

Invite fear into your life. When youfear something, move toward it. Feel it,and breathe through it. Do the things thatfrighten you. Action builds courage.Tell yourself, “This fear will pass.” Yourworld expands as your courage expands.

Positive thoughts attract success.Instead of expecting the worst, train yourmind to expect the best. Make positiveassumptions about your future.

Hold yourself accountable. Be con-sistent, be prepared, be dependable, andfocus on solutions. Be innovative, take theinitiative, and go the extra mile. If youdon’t take action despite your fear,opportunity will pass you by. Learn tothink, speak, and live as an abundant per-son. Turn off the news. Celebrate whatyou have. Be generous. Focus your atten-tion on being ready, willing, and preparedfor the beauty, wonder, connections,

good fortune, and favorable circum-stances that are yours if you are willingto work and be open to it. Strengthenyour belief in yourself by reflecting on thelast three years of your life and every suc-cess you’ve experienced.

Close your eyes and feel the celebra-tory emotion of each one. Bring the samedrive, persistence, and talent into nowand allow it to inspire and motivate you.

Step into your power and dream big.Follow it up with calculated risks anddeliberate action steps. Have no doubtabout your success. Your dreams are atstake here.

You have the power to do what ittakes to break through any obstacles thatstand in the way of yourself, your dreams,and your happiness.

We tend to beat ourselves up whenwe fail and fail to celebrate when we suc-ceed. Strengthen your belief in yourselfby reflecting on each decade of your lifeand every success you’ve experienced.You can begin as early as age five whenyou learned how to ride a bike. Write itall down. You’ll be inspired, motivatedand amazed by your list and how and canbe used to face your fear.

Fear is an illusion. We make upfrightening stories about our past and ourfuture and rehearse them until we are ter-rified. Our stories are often about thepain of the past or the fear of the future.Change the fearful stories you tell your-

self. You can find safety by learning to livein the present moment. You always havethe option to create new stories filled withpositive expectations of the future.

Make fun of your fear by laughing atit. Really let it rip. Try and see how sillyit is to hold back and give your poweraway to something that isn’t real!

Learn to think, speak, and live as anabundant person to face your fear. Stoppaying attention to all forms of negativemedia. Celebrate your life. Be generous.

Focus your attention on being ready,willing, and prepared for the success, joy,wonder, connections, good fortune, andawesome circumstances that are yours ifyou are willing to work and be open toit. You deserve the best no matter what.Accept that fact about yourself.

Life can be brimming with goodtimes of beauty and adventure or over-whelming with challenge and tragedy.Choose to stay present and breathethrough it all. Be grateful for the varied

landscape, hold onto your hat, and enjoythe ride.

When something scares the livingdaylights out of us, there are only twoways we deal with that scary thing: Weface it, or we run from it.

That’s the true essence of fight-or-flight. There are folks who go through liferunning marathons in the opposite direc-tion of life’s challenges, but that’s not you.You face what scares you, and that’s anasset.

Fear helps us set aside all the distrac-tions that cloud our judgment and iden-tify what needs dealing with—and rightfreaking now. It tells us what’s worth pay-ing attention to and makes us considermore than the superficial qualities ofevery harebrained idea that traipsesthrough our brains.

Fear tells us it’s okay to say no to thesame old, same old; that it’s okay to trysomething new. Fear also tells us thatwhat we’re afraid of might be completenonsense. In those cases, why not take thefirst step toward what scares us and seehow it all turns out?

Aristotle believed courage to be themost important quality in a man.“Courage is the first of human virtuesbecause it makes all others possible," hewrote.

Today, it's one of the more neglect-ed areas of positive psychology, butrecent research has begun to move

toward an understanding of what courageis and how we might be able to cultivatethe ability to face our fear and make deci-sions with greater fortitude.

It is difficult to conquer your fears ifyou're unable to be honest with yourselfin the first place about what exactly thosefears are. Research has found that actingcourageously requires an understandingof one's own anxieties and limitations -- denial of fear does not support coura-geous action -- and then choosing towork through them.

Living in an authentic mannermeaning acknowledging and appropriate-ly expressing one’s actual feelings,thoughts, and desires requires acknowl-edging one’s fear and risks and movingforward anyway when the cause meritsaction.

We need to build the positive opti-mism, hope, good emotions, and mean-ing and purpose to dial our lives into thepositive, which, let's face it, is where weall want to be.

To build a courageous character, themuscle of courage must be continuallystrengthened. Aristotle, the ancientphilosopher who focused most oncourage, said that we develop courage byperforming courageous acts. Recent psy-chological research also suggests thatcourage is an ethical habit that we devel-op by repeatedly practicing acts of brav-ery.

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Dressed in a white shirt, black trousersand matching jacket with a trumpet-shaped lapel pin and a grey stole

casually flung across his neck, RajeevKhandelwal walks into the room minus anyairs. And it is this ordinariness — the actorcan’t help but emphasise upon every fewminutes — that his new show,JuzzBaat…Sangeen Se Namkeen Tak isbased upon.

“I have always maintained that we aresimilar. All of us live our lives — whether itis a politician or a journalist or an actor —all of them are busy earning a living andlooking after their families. Everyone hasemotions including the celebrities. Peopleoften feel that a celebrity has different emo-tions but that is not true. Right now I mightbe dressed up well,” he says pointing to hisattire and goes on to add, “but at home, Iwould be dressed in shorts and a vest.”Khandelwal is emphatic that somewhere theshow would make the viewers feel good, con-nected and get the confidence that there areproblems in everyone’s life. The show wouldfeature guests from different fields — sports,films and other arenas who have struggledand made it.

And there is another thing that the actoris very passionate about — that of beinglabelled as just an actor without prefixes. “Ihave an objection to these slots. Everyoneis an actor whether it is someone doing the-atre or movies or TV. Actor it is. When wego to a hospital, we come to know that thisa dentist or a cardiologist, but when we talkto them we say Doctor Sahab aa gae.” Andit is for this reason that he wants to give theTV personalities a platform. “A film actor,even if he has done one flop project, gets abetter platform than a TV actor. Yet TVactors work that much harder. In 100 days,they do 50 episodes while only one film ismade in 100 days. The ability of an actorworking on TV to engage his/her audienceis much more and sometimes so is the tal-ent. But perception wise, they are consideredsmall. That is the reason I feel that we shouldwatch their lives,” he says.

The actor, who started his career witha negative role in the serial Kya Hadsa KyaHaqeeqat (2002), became a heartthrob withKahiin to Hoga as Sujal Grewal in the sameyear. But it was with his portrayal of Aamirin the eponymously named movie thatKhandelwal got both critical and popularacclaim. He also got a Filmfare Award forBest Male Debut for the movie. And succes-sively in Shaitaan, Table No. 21, irrespectiveof the box office records, Khandelwal’s per-formance has been appreciated. He returnedto TV with Sach Ka Saamna, a game showwhich again became very popular. Reporters,a show with Kritika Kamra, which receivedgood reviews was aired in 2015. Khandelwalhas also done a web series and is not very

particular about the platform. “There is nodifference in the medium. One does not actsmall in TV and even smaller in the webseries as opposed to movies,” he says. Andthis is a grouse that he holds. “People wouldsay TV actor, when I was doing serials. WhenI switched to films, they said TV actor or TVheart throb Rajeev Khandelwal is doingfilms. After several movies when I did Sachka Saamna, it was back to small screen sen-sation returns to the medium. So now I wantto confuse them — what will you call me, aTV actor, a film actor or a web actor? I amjust an actor. That’s my job. You cannot limitmy personality to one thing. The media cre-ates the perception. Things have changedand I am happy to be in the space doing dif-ferent things. I will always pick up projectsand then think of the medium,” he assertsas he holds up the phone to ensure that itrecords his point of view better. But com-ing back to the show, Khandelwal feels thatthere are several things that make it unique.“I felt that for a long time we haven’t seen ashow that isn’t scandalous and there are norevelations that make their rounds in thenews. Sometimes it is the simple stories thathave the capability to keep you spell-bound.Whether it is my story or yours — when welisten to it without any cosmetics it has theability to touch hearts. There are emotionsinvolved,” says the 42-year-old.

Moreover, the format too is different —as there isn’t any. “There will be no rapid fireor QnA session. The way that the show pro-gresses in each of the 26 episodes dependsupon each story. If I feel or the research teamfeels that a certain aspect needs to come tothe forefront then it will progress according-ly,” says the anchor of the show. The firstepisode would feature actor-brothers Ronitand Rohit Roy. As compared to his previ-ous outing, it is emotions that bind both theshows. “Driving Sach ka Saamna was easyas there was a clear format. Here the driveis difficult as there is no clear road.

JuzzBaat… willtake its owncourse. It willdevelop as wetalk,” he says.

And there isa reason why hepicked up thisshow despite notwatching TV anymore havingswitched to the dig-ital platform. “Thereare die-hard televi-sion loyalists. We donot have too many talkshows which bring outthe real side of thecelebrity. I don’t say thatI am a magician but Iknow that I have the abil-ity to connect with people.Personally I am an ordi-nary regular guy. And it isthat belief translates into theshow when you see theother side of the celebrity,”he says. The show would alsobe available on Zee5, the dig-ital platform.Khandelwal saysthat there is a reason whyviewers should log in.“Somewhere there is a humanconnect. I was so happy withthe way the show with actorDivyanka Tripathi came outfor I am sure there would beat least 10 girls if not mil-lions who would watch herand say that if she can gothrough a bad patch andcome out of it, so can I,”says Khandelwal, as hewalks off, comfortable inhis extraordinary ordinariness.

We are told that Teslas have a“Ludicrous” Mode, where the bat-

tery discharges electricity to the motorsand gives a huge boost to power. Andwhile it took a long time for electric carsto make such a mode possible, it ismechanically and physically easier thanwhat the new Mercedes-Benz E63S AMGdoes. This, and keep in mind that this isa two-ton luxury sedan, at full-bore, cango from a standing start to 100 km perhour in 3.4 seconds. That is faster thansome proper supercars out there.

Think about it, the amount of precisemechanical movement that gets done forsomething like this to happen. First, onthe Budhh International Circuit, a car likethe E63S will go through a litre of the bestpetrol just on the kilometre-long backstraight if your right foot is planted onthe floor. And that just takes a few sec-onds, really. Ask yourself if you can drinka litre of water in a few seconds. Most carshave thin fuel lines running from the tankto the engine, not this one.

Think of the engine, to be able to feedfuel inside a turbocharged V8 at quite arate of knots and having that engine con-stantly revolve 8,000 times a minute. Anengine that while supercharged pro-duces a scarcely believable 612 horsepow-er. Get your head around that for a sec-ond, six hundred and twelve horsepow-er. Any which way you slice or dice it, thatis a lot of power. And all this while youare ensconced in fairly decent luxury andlistening to music through a brilliantBurmeister system.

So, in essence that is the ludicrous-ness of this car. It is a comfortable, expen-sive but comfortable car that in aninstant converts itself into somethingbrutal. If there was a automotive repre-

sentation of Hannibal Lecter, this is it. Ofcourse, to tame that amount of power, theE63S has Mercedes’ 4Matic+ intelligentfour-wheel drive system. Like in the newBMW M5, this is slightly biased towardsthe rear wheels and there is a button thattransfers all the power to the rear wheels.While we were not allowed to use it, thelatest E63 has a “Drift Mode” to remindus of its drift friendly predecessors, par-ticularly the last-generation E63, becausethe fact is that even on “Sport+” mode,with the traction control partially dis-abled, things that you should only everdo on a racetrack or closed road, the4Matic+ system keeps the car withinsome semblance of bounds. Even if youattack a corner like a madman, you willnot leave a brown stain on the seat.

Of course, some things have changedin the new car, the engine is now a four-litre dual-turbocharged (BiTurbo asMerc calls it) V8, which has the abilityto switch off cylinders when you arecruising around. On the inside, the newcar is certainly more luxurious and thelarge screens that double up as theinstrument panel and infotainment dis-play can show you a wealth of informa-tion and allow you to change a whole hostof settings. This car might be the pinna-cle of the internal combustion engineinvented by one of this company’sfounders, but this is also a full techno-geek spaceship. You can watch variousstatistics if you want on the display, butwhen you are driving full-bore down theBIC, you are more concerned about thenext apex.

There are some negatives though. Iactually have driven the new BMW M5which is, if anything, more brutal eventhough that was partially due to the fact

that I drove that on the far more techni-cally demanding Estoril circuit inGermany. Sure, the M5 is a little teensybit down on power compared to the E63Sand while it is also four-wheel drive, theability to change modes is up close andpersonal on the steering wheel of the M5.Both cars are wolves in sheep’s clothingbut the M5 does look a bit more of thepart. And when it comes to cornering, theM5 even on the “moderate” M mode isproperly scary, let alone what happens onthe “insane” M mode.

Mercedes-Benz India does try toincentivise you to buy the Rs 1.5 croreE63S, which is around six lakhs morethan the BMW M5 and ten lakhs lessthan the Audi RS7 by providing a Rs88,000 two-year service package for thecar with unlimited mileage. Of course,that will not take care of the inevitable

tires that you will wear out and the extra-ordinary quantities of fuel you will needto buy, but this is a fun car. However,600+ horsepower on a sedan is bonkersand I can assure you with confidence thatyou will never need so much power inIndia. This is why Mercedes sells a moresedate AMG, the ‘43’ series. And that hasbecome pretty popular with folks becausebelieve it or not, of the 16,000 cars thatMercedes-Benz sold in India last year,400 were AMGs and the average age ofthe buyer? Just 30.

It is pretty cool that Mercedes-Benz,BMW and Audi still make cars like thesethat are more than supercars, complete-ly play around with physics and what acar can or cannot do, particularly at atime that even petrolheads are extollingthe virtues of electric and hybrid cars.And for that I’m grateful.

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Actress-model Neha Dhupia surprised her fansand friends from the industry with the news

of her hush-hush wedding with actor and “bestfriend” Angad Bedi, son of ex-Indian cricketerBishan Singh Bedi, at a south Delhi gurdwara onThursday.

Both released a statement saying, “Marryingyour best friend is one of the greatest feelings inthe world, and we are extremely fortunate to havefound love in each other. It has been a beautifuljourney knowing each other and after formalis-ing the wedding earlier this year, today weexchanged our vows in a beautifully simple, pri-vate and intimate Anand Karaj ceremony in Delhi.We look forward to celebrating and sharing thisspecial moment with our friends and colleaguesin Mumbai in the next couple of weeks. Thankyou for showering us with so much love. Yourblessings have truly made this day so much morespecial.”

The newly-wed couple got married in anAnand Karaj ceremony attended by close fami-ly and friends. They made the announcement viasocial media.

“Best decision of my life... Today, I marriedmy best friend. Hellothere, husband!Angad Bedi,” Nehaposted on her officialInstagram page alongwith a photographfrom their weddingproceedings.

Angad, known forhis performance inPink and Tiger ZindaHai, also posted, “Bestfriend...now wife! Well,Hello there Mrs Bedi!Neha Dhupia.”

For the ceremony,Neha looked resplen-dent in a blush pinkensemble by designerAnita Dongre. Thelehenga was intricate-ly crafted with the age-old Rajasthani embroi-deries of gota patti,zari, pearl, dori,zardozi and sequinwork. She completedher look with a piecefrom the designer’sjewellery line — adetachable chokermade in gold and uncut diamonds, which wereaccentuated by Colombian emeralds and smallpearls.

The jhumkas were in gold with uncut dia-monds, Colombian emeralds, pearls and a touchof enamel, and the maangtika was made in goldwith an emerald and Iolite. A pink bindi addedto the beauty of the actress, who won the MissIndia title in 2002.

The groom wore a cream sherwani with asaafa matching Neha’s ensemble, and he carriedmagenta accents for a dash of colour. The wed-ding was attended by Ajay Jadeja, Ashish Nehraand Gaurav Kapoor. Filmmaker Karan Johar wasthe first to announce the wedding on social mediawhich was then followed by congratulatory mes-sages from many in the film industry.

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It’s time to dust off yourshakers as World Cocktail

Day (May 13, 2018) is upon us— and with it some interest-ing new discoveries aboutwhich drinks are currently invogue. And the latest researchcouldn’t be timelier — withcocktail consumption on therise around the world.

The Old Fashioned hasbeen revealed by the world’slargest producer of spirits,Diageo, as the most populardrink being ordered in barsright now, according to a sur-vey of the world’s best bar-tenders.

Hot on the heels of the OldFashioned is the Italian darkhorse Negroni, made with one-part Tanqueray No.TEN gin,one-part vermouth rosso, one-part Italian aperitif and gar-nished with orange peel. Thissophisticated, bittersweet, con-tinental cocktail may havebeen around since the 1860s,but it’s certainly a favourite inbars right now.

Old Fashioned andNegroni’s retro charm is allpart of a cocktail revolutionthat’s taking the world bystorm. In the latest IWSRreport, beer volumes fell 1.8per cent around the world, andwine sales dipped by 0.08 percent (IWSR drinks marketanalysis 2016). But sales ofspirits like gin and whisky areon the up. And it’s the mil-lennials that are leading thecocktail charge, with almostnine out of 10 (88 per cent)younger drinkers enjoyingmixed drinks on a night out(Cellar Trends). And that’sbecause, according to WorldClass Bartender of the Year2017 Kaitlyn Stewart, con-sumers no longer see cocktailsas an afterthought.

“The Old Fashioned andNegroni are classic cocktailsthat have stood the test oftime. There are countless vari-ations, but when executedperfectly in any bar around theworld, they always taste exact-ly how you want them too,”says Stewart.

Whisky Sour and MoscowMule are next, when it comesto consumers’ current likes.Espresso Martini, Dry Martini,Tom Collins and Manhattanalso squeezed their way intothe top eight favourites list.

“Any of the top cocktailscan easily be made at home.The nice thing about classiccocktails, is that they aren’tover complicated. There tendsto be three ingredient recipesthat any home bartender canattempt with ease. Simplystocking quality products likeJohnnie Walker Black Labelwhisky, Ketel One Vodka, or aquality single malt whisky likeTalisker in your home bar, willhave you a third of the way tosuccess,” adds Stewart.

Diageo World Classrecently carried out this far-reaching survey of the con-sumer preferences, in timefor World Cocktail Day 2018.No stone was left unturned infinding out cocktail secretsfrom behind bars across theglobe with respondents froma vast mix of countries, includ-ing Puerto Rico, Portugal,Greece, Norway, Iceland, UAE,Beirut, USA, Canada, HongKong and the Philippines.

“We surveyed the world’sbest bartenders from the fourcorners of the globe and it isincredible to see the renais-sance of these important andtimeless cocktails picking up

pace everywhere,” says GlobalCocktailian, Lauren Mote.“The cocktail revolution ishere people! It is time toembrace it! We hope you feelinspired to take on these clas-sics and make them your go todrinks when raising a glass toworld cocktail day.”

OLD FASHIONED2 oz Johnnie Walker 18

label4 dashes Angostura Bitters1 sugar cube1 orange peel

METHOD:Muddle sugarand bitters together in a mix-ing glass. Slowly add JohnnieWalker 18 label while stirringover ice. Stir until sugar hasdissolved. Strain over fresh iceand garnish with an orangetwist and cherry.

TIPPLE FACTOR: 22.6grams of alcohol (according toml of the serve)

NEGRONI0.75oz Tanqueray NO.

TEN Gin0.75oz Italian liqueur

0.75oz Sweet Vermouth

METHOD: Combine allingredients into a mixingglass. Stir for 10 seconds.Strain over fresh ice and gar-

nish with an orange twist.

TIPPLE FACTOR: 14.4grams of alcohol (according toml of the serve)

WHISKY SOUR1.5 oz Johnnie Walker

Black Whisky0.75 oz lemon Juice

0.5 oz simple syrup (1:1ratio)

1 Egg white2 Dashes Angostura

BittersMETHOD: Combine all

ingredients into a shaker tin.“Dry” shake for 7-10 seconds.Add ice and “wet” shake for 7-10 seconds. Fine strain into asmall rocks glass or coupe.Garnish with 2-3 dots of bit-ters.

TIPPLE FACTOR: 14.5grams of alcohol (according toml of the serve)

MOSCOW MULE1.5oz Cîroc Vodka0.5oz lime juice3.5oz ginger beer

METHOD:Build or shake.Serve in a copper mug overcrushed ice. Garnish with alime wheel and a dash ofAngostura bitters.

TIPPLE FACTOR: 14.2grams of alcohol (according toml of the serve)

ESPRESSO MARTINI1.5oz Ketel One Vodka0.5oz coffee liqueur1 oz cold brew coffee0.5 oz simple syrup (1:1

ratio)

METHOD: Combine allingredients into a shaker tin.Shake for 7-10 seconds. Finestrain into a coupe glass.Garnish with three coffee

beans.

TIPPLE FACTOR: 16.6grams of alcohol (according toml of the serve)

DRY MARTINI2 oz Tanqueray NO. TEN

Gin0.25 oz Dry Vermouth1 dash orange bitters

METHOD: Combine allingredients into a mixingglass. Stir for 7-10 seconds.Strain into a chilled coupeglass. Garnish with a lemontwist.

TIPPLE FACTOR: 21.3grams of alcohol (according to

ml of the serve)

TOM COLLINS1.5 oz Tanqueray NO.

TEN Gin0.5 oz lime juice0.25 oz lemon Juice0.25 oz simple syruptop with soda

METHOD: In a shakertin, combine all ingredients(excluding soda). Shake for 5-7 seconds. Strain into a Collinsglass over fresh ice. Top withsoda and garnish with a lemonand lime wheel.

TIPPLE FACTOR: 15.3grams of alcohol (according toml of the serve)

MANHATTAN1.5 oz Johnnie Walker

Blue Label0.5 oz Sweet Vermouth2 dashes Angostura Bitters1 dash orange bitters

METHOD: In a mixingglass, combine all ingredients.stir for 7-10 seconds. Straininto a chilled coupe glass.Express the oils from anorange peel, then discard.Garnish with a cherry.

TIPPLE FACTOR: 16.7grams of alcohol (according toml of the serve)

As we broke off pieces ofChicharron de Queso,the famous Mexican

street snack, Mukesh Rana,manager, Rodeo, pointed outwith a laugh that in its methodof preparation and looks itresembled the humble Indiandosa. But taste is where thecomparison evaporated —completely. For the Chicharronde Queso is crispy grilledGouda cheese, all frilly andcurled crisp served with freshguacamole and avocado relish— yes, absolutely droolworthyand opening up tastebuds younever knew existed.

We were at the revampedRodeo’s Connaught Place out-let, which has been aroundlonger than the millennialswho had had parked them-selves in strategic corners thatnight. The restaurant, whichstarted in 1994, was one of thefirst home-grown Tex Mexbrands which predated theinternational chain, TGIF. ButRodeo 2.0 which reopened inMarch has a new avatar whichis cool, casual and fluid asopposed to the cowboy themeof the past. “People can walkin for the quick drink afterwork with friends and col-leagues, grab a snack or go fora full meal,” says Rana. And themenu specialities are all aboutauthenticity in bite-sized por-tions.

True to its theme, theplace carries the casual and funvibe. The walls have beendone up with colourful muralsand paintings depicting festi-vals that are quintessential toMexico. The wall adjacent tothe table was painted withwhich my companion imme-diately identified as being fromthe Day of the Dead (Spanish:Día de Muertos), when thedeparted souls come downfor a feast with the living.Incidentally, we were theretrying to hold down a memo-ry of a dear one but that isanother story.

For drinks, we started withAgua de Tamarind, which wasa Mexican classic consisting offresh tamarind juice for meand kaffir lime and watermel-on margarita, which as thename suggests was fresh anddone just right with a zestykick.

In the starters we dug intoGuacamole artesenal, essen-tially tortilla chips servedalongside avocado dip dressedup with onion, tomato,cilantro, chile, serrano andlime juice. The lightness of thechips, the soft mouth feel ofthe guacamole and the crunchof the onion was a good startto the meal. We had not quitefinished with the chips whenthe server came up with the

Chicharron deQueso — and thatsuddenly hadthe effect oftransportingus straightto culinaryheaven. Iam some-what of acheese buff(I wouldavoid theword afi-cionado at theheart of which isembedded the ideaof being knowledgeableabout something. All I can sayis that I can down substantialquantity of a variety of cheese— hard, soft, blue, melted —with gusto). But even for methis was a surprise and a pleas-ant one at that for crunchycheese is something that is aworld apart. The caramelly,nutty and buttery taste ofgouda on its own was to die forbut when combined with thecreamy guacamole, the dishwas certainly not the one Iwould miss here.

One thing that makes usmerry about Mexican cuisineis that it features many dishesthat one can grab on the go.Tostadas are just that.Consisting of crispy corn or

white flour tortillas, these canbe layered with a filling of yourchoice. We stuck to ChickenTinga and Roasted Vegetables.And the complexity and thelayering of the dish wasastounding. Refried beanswere pureed and spread overthe tortilla over which wereplaced spicy chicken cooked inChile Chipotle, onion andtomato sauce, sour cream,crumbled cheese, avocado andlettuce. For the vegetarianvariants, there were roastedvegetables. Considering thefact that each of it was fin-

ished innot more than

four bites, it was cer-tainly a wonder where eachflavour came through dis-tinctly. Despite being a carni-vore, my vote in this onewould certainly go with thevegetarian version.

If you get tired of thecorn tortillas, the chefs canwhip up ones with flour aswell. So we had four differentversions — two with corn andtwo with flour. The first wasMushroom Silvestres, wherethe fungi were grilled andmarinated in a blend of chill-ies and herbs. The secondvegetarian version was witheggplant and potato, whichhad an eggplant cutlet, greenchili potato mash topped with

avocado salsa, jalapenos, friedleeks and crumbled cheese.But it was the one with cheeseand chilli, where the grilledcottage cheese filled out roast-ed chilli Poblano strips andcoated Pinto beans andAvocado Salsa, that got ourunanimous vote. The chickenversion did not match up forit tasted similar to the onewhich we had earlier.

The main course, PescadoA La Mostaza,with oreganoflavoured babypotaotes, fish in a

creamy mustardsauce and grilled vegeta-

bles, was spectacular for sev-eral reasons. The flavouring ofthe potatoes with oregano wasa snack in its own right, it wasthat delicious. The fish in themustard sauce on the otherhad was cooked just right andthe flavours were bang on. Thegrilled vegetables on the sideadded the much-needed ele-ment of crunch and created acontrast of texture with thepotatoes and fish.

We were full to the brim,but it did not take much cajol-ing to dig into the dessert(s).Churros with chocolate, thetraditional Mexican pastrywith cinammon and chocolatedip was delicious and is con-sidered one of the better ver-sions not just in India butAsia as well. The Vanilla tresleches cake, a sponge cakewhich has strawberry, peach-es, pine nuts and rose petals,despite its lush appearance,was mildly sweet and light.

This new Rodeo’s is notabout grit and gush but acomforting lull over longconversations with somethrowback music and famil-iar food. Let it sit nice andeasy. One suggestion: Theycould add more main coursevarieties than the wrapsand tortillas.

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Tottenham secured qualification fornext season's Champions Leagueafter beating Newcastle 1-0 through

Harry Kane's second-half goal to move intothird place in the Premier League onWednesday.

With Chelsea drawing 1-1 withHuddersfield on the other side of London,Tottenham is guaranteed a top-four finishheading into its last game of the season -at home to Leicester on Sunday.

Spurs will be in the ChampionsLeague for the third straight season, play-ing host to Europe's elite competition ina new stadium being built on the site of itsWhite Hart Lane ground. They haveplayed this season at Wembley Stadium.

"It is a massive achievement to quali-fy again," Tottenham manager MauricioPochettino said. "I want to congratulate theplayers ... It is a massive effort, 38 gamesaway from home is a huge effort.

"Next season, it will be fantastic forTottenham to be playing in a new stadi-um and in the Champions League."

Kane curled in the winner from theedge of the area in the 50th minute for his28th league goal of the season, leaving thestriker three behind Liverpool forwardMohamed Salah in the race to become thePremier League's top scorer.

Tottenham is two points above fourth-place Liverpool.

�����������=+��������������All that is left to decide on the final

day of the Premier League is whetherLiverpool or Chelsea takes the finalChampions League place.

And it is advantage Liverpool - by twopoints and a vastly superior goal differ-ence.

Juergen Klopp has friend DavidWagner to thank for Liverpool onlyrequiring a draw against Brighton to hold

onto a top-four finish on Sunday whenChelsea is at Newcastle.

Wagner's Huddersfield helddethroned champion Chelsea to a 1-1draw on Wednesday, ensuring the north-ern English team will have a second-everseason in the Premier League.

"This is the least you can do as afriend," Wagner said of Klopp, "to do hima favor."

Since Brighton and Newcastle werealready safe, all three promoted teams thisseason have avoided the drop.

"It's a bigger achievement than gettingpromoted," Wagner said. "We were pre-dicted as a team to get relegated."

The three teams going down are Stoke,West Bromwich Albion and, almost cer-tainly, Swansea. Although the south Walesclub can still catch Southampton onpoints on the final day, its goal difference

is inferior by nine.On a miserable night for Chelsea,

three of its Premier League records werebroken by Manchester City after thetitle-winners beat Brighton 3-1.

City moved onto 97 points, twomore than Chelsea's final total from the2004-05 season, and 105 goals, two morethan Chelsea's previous record haul fromthe 2009-10 season. Pep Guardiola'steam also now has 31 wins, surpassing theprevious record of 30 set by Chelsea lastseason.

��������������� ����As players and fans of Huddersfield,

including actor Patrick Stewart, celebrat-ed at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea playerswatched on gloomily.

This was Huddersfield's night, takingthe lead five minutes into the second half.

Willian was disposed inside theChelsea half and Huddersfield midfield-er Aaron Mooy launched a high ball for-ward. Chelsea goalkeeper Willy Caballeroraced off his line and collided with LaurentDepoitre, allowing the visiting forward to

tap into the net.Chelsea fortuitously equalized in the

62nd when Mathias Jorgensen's clearancecannoned off Chelsea defender MarcosAlonso's head and went back into the net.

As Chelsea scrambled to produce awinner to move level on points withLiverpool, Huddersfield goalkeeper JonasLossl made vital saves, including tippingAndreas Christensen's header on thepost. "This was definitely the most impor-tant save in my career, no doubt about it,"the 29-year-old Lossl said.

���� '�7C+7

Ousmane Dembele scored twice andLionel Messi added to his league-

leading tally as champion Barcelonastayed on track to finish unbeaten in theSpanish league with a 5-1 rout ofVillarreal on Wednesday.

A depleted Real Madrid, withoutCristiano Ronaldo and many other reg-ular starters lost 3-2 at Sevilla to remainin third place behind Atletico Madrid.It was an eventful night for captainSergio Ramos, who missed a penalty,converted a penalty and scored anown-goal.

Philippe Coutinho and Paulinhoalso scored for Barcelona, which hasalready won the title but it is still tryingto become the first team to go throughthe entire season unbeaten in theleague's current format.

With two matches left, Barcelonareached 90 points, 15 more than second-place Atletico. Its final games are atLevante and against Real Sociedad.

"It's a great victory, it keeps usunbeaten and that's how we want to fin-ish the season," Barcelona defenderNelson Semedo said.

Villarreal stayed in sixth place, stillin position to qualify for next season'sEuropa League. It is two points behindfifth-place Real Betis and three pointsin front of seventh-place Sevilla, whichoccupies the last spot in the qualifyingzone for the second-tier European com-petition.

Before the match, Villarreal playerslined up on the field to congratulateBarcelona for its title in a guard of honorthat Real Madrid had declined to giveits rival in their match at Camp Nou lastweekend.

Wednesday's match was postponedfrom two rounds ago, when Barcelonaand Sevilla met in the Copa del Rey final.The Catalan club won 5-0 to earn thefirst leg of its double.

Coutinho opened the scoring in the11th minute off the rebound of a shotby Dembele, and Paulinho added to thelead with a touch from close range fiveminutes later.

Messi got on the board just beforehalftime after a perfect pass by AndresIniesta. It was Messi's 34th league goal,leaving him with nine more than RealMadrid's Cristiano Ronaldo, his closestcontender in the scoring race.

Dembele scored his first goal in the87th after a low pass by Ivan Rakitic,

then closed the scoring after a long runfrom near midfield.

Barcelona has scored 94 goals in 36matches in the league this season.

Villarreal got on the board with a53rd-minute goal by Nicola Sansone.

�������� ����Sevilla defeated Madrid for its sec-

ond straight win after enduring a nine-match winless streak in all competitions.

Wissam Ben Yedder and MiguelLayun put Sevilla ahead in the first half,and the hosts added to the lead with anown-goal by Ramos while he tried toblock a cross.

Ramos, a former Sevilla player whois often jeered by the crowd when heplays in Seville, missed his first penal-ty attempt by sending the ball onto thecrossbar early in the second half. He con-verted from the spot in the final minuteof stoppage time, not long after BorjaMayoral scored Madrid's first goal in the87th.

"We played better in the second halfbut couldn't get it done in front of thegoal," Madrid coach Zinedine Zidanesaid.

The loss leaves Madrid three pointsbehind Atletico ahead of the team's finaltwo games, against Celta Vigo and atVillarreal. Atletico is at Getafe andthen hosts Eibar.

Among other players rested byZidane on Wednesday were LukaModric, Keylor Navas, Marcelo, ToniKroos and Raphael Varane.

Madrid will play Liverpool in theChampions League final on May 26.

� ���� ������Barcelona's Sergi Roberto has been

handed a four-match suspension for hisswipe at Real Madrid defender Marceloduring the Clasico on Sunday.

The Spanish Football Federation'sdisciplinary body has punished theSpaniard after it deemed his behaviourto be aggressive.

In a statement yesterday, the feder-ation's Competition Committee saidSergi had violated Article 98 of the dis-ciplinary code, in which an aggressionis considered "malicious". TheCommittee has imposed a more minorpunishment for such cases, which canincur bans of up to twelve matches.

Sergi was sent off on Sunday at theend of the first half against Real Madrid,in a match that ended 2-2.

���� C9'6

AC Milan goalkeeperGianluigi Donnarumma

gifted two goals and NikolaKalinic added an own-goal in anightmare 4-0 defeat for theRossoneri as Juventus claimeda record fourth straight ItalianCup title on Wednesday.

While the 19-year-oldDonnarumma could not beblamed for Medhi Benatia'sopener in the final, his mistakesled to the ensuing goals fromDouglas Costa and Benatia.Then Kalinic headed a cornerinto his own net.

After the final whistle,Milan captain LeonardoBonucci and Juventus counter-part Gianluigi Buffon attempt-ed to console Donnarumma.

"We have to accept it andrealize we made our ownerrors," Milan coach GennaroGattuso said.

It was the first of two titlesthat Juventus is hoping to cel-ebrate over the space of fourdays at the Stadio Olimpico.

The Bianconeri can clincha record-extending seventhconsecutive Serie A title withonly a draw against Roma onSunday.

"Now we have to ensure theScudetto mathematically andenjoy this extraordinary sea-son," Juventus coachMassimiliano Allegri said.

Juventus has won a total of13 Italian Cups, at least fourmore than any other team.

For Benatia, the braceserved as redemption after he

was blamed for a goal in a 1-0loss to Serie A rival Napoli lastmonth.

"After my error on themarking for Kalidou Koulibaly,everyone said I was useless,"Benatia said. "I haven't becomefantastic now and I wasn't use-less then. ... I gave my contri-bution, nothing more."

Milan, meanwhile, missedout on a chance to justify its pre-season spending spree and takehome a trophy ahead of likelypunishment from UEFA forfinancial fair play violations.

The last time Juventus hadbeaten Milan by at least a four-goal margin came more than 20years ago - in a 6-1 away win inSerie A in 1997.

"The guys had an extraor-dinary game and deserved thiswin, taking nothing away fromMilan, who had a good firsthalf," Allegri said. "In games likethis you need a little time to getinto gear, but we found the pass-ing lines, the spaces opened upand naturally the technique

emerged."After a slow-paced first

half, Juventus took controlwhen Benatia headed in froma corner.

Donnarumma then hadCosta's shot on his fingers butthe ball fell through his hands.

Three minutes later,Donnarumma was preparing tocollect a header from MarioMandzukic but it again slippedoff his fingers and Benatia waswaiting to pounce on it.

Milan came closest whenJuventus midfielder BlaiseMatuidi nearly scored an own-goal, hitting the post with afailed clearance.

Kalinic, who has notreached expectations at Milan,then added to the misfortune byfinding his own net with hisback to the goal by the near postas he attempted to defend a cor-ner.

Buffon preserved the cleansheet with successive saves onManuel Locatelli and FabioBorini.

�����'�7C+7

Rafael Nadal is sure NovakDjokovic will return to the

highest level in tennis despite theSerb crashing out of the MadridOpen after defeat to Britain's KyleEdmund.

Nadal's defence of his titlebegan in comfortable fashion as hecoasted to a 6-3, 6-1 win overFrance's Gael Monfils onWednesday.

But Djokovic endured anoth-er set-back, losing to world num-ber 22 Edmund 6-3, 2-6, 6-3.

In the women's event, mean-while, there were wins for top seedand defending champion SimonaHalep as well as former worldnumber one Maria Sharapova.

However, second seed CarolineWozniacki and third-seeded homehope Garbine Muguruza both fellto shock defeats.

Edmund had not taken a setoff Djokovic in three previousmeetings but the Serb is still feel-ing the effects of elbow surgery andhis opponent took full advantage.

It means Djokovic is leftreviewing another early exit aheadof the French Open later thismonth. The 30-year-old has not

gone past the quarter-finals of aGrand Slam since 2016.

"I believe a lot in dynamics, inmomentum," Nadal said.

"Small things happen that nor-mally when you're in a goodmomentum, those things don'thappen. When you don't havethat momentum, you're in a neg-ative way, these things happen.

"I think Novak, step-by-step, isgoing to be able to recover and beat the level he deserves. I don't have

any doubt he's going to be back upat the highest level."

Djokovic stormed through thesecond set on the Manolo Santanacourt and, at his best, might neverhave looked back, but he spurnedthree break points early in thedecider and Edmund pounced.

This was only the third timeEdmund had beaten a playerranked as high as world number 12and in terms of status, Djokovic isby far his biggest scalp yet.

"Kyle was just better in thedecisive moments and I was a bitunlucky," Djokovic said afterwards.

"Definitely Kyle is playing thebest tennis of his life." Edmund'sbarnstorming forehand wreakedhavoc throughout and it was nosurprise when the winners tallyshowed the Briton 30-11 ahead bythe time Djokovic sent a final back-hand long.

Belgium's David Goffin, whomEdmund lost to on clay duringBritain's run to Davis Cup glory in2015, now awaits in the last 16.

"It's not the end of the world,"Djokovic said. "Obviously, I'veplayed this sport for so manyyears and had a bunch of success.I try to always remind myself andbe grateful for that.

"At the same time, nobody isforcing me to play this sport. I doit because I like it. That's where Idraw my strength."

Nadal has enjoyed his ownresurgence over the past 12months, having reclaimed theworld number one spot andclinched two more major titles.

His latest win over Monfils wasnever in doubt and the Spaniardhas now won 20 matches and 48sets in a row on clay.

A clear favourite to claim his11th title at Roland Garros, Nadalwill now face Diego Schwartzmanof Argentina in the last 16.

"I have done a lot of things wellsince I came back," Nadal said.

"I play with the right intensi-ty, the right focus all the time. Mybackhand is working great. Theforehand is working well too, asalways.”

“What I am most pleased withis I am recovered from injury andthat makes me feel strong and con-fident."

In the women's tournament,Maria Sharapova reached the quar-ter-finals with an impressive 6-3, 6-4 demolition of France's KristinaMladenovic.

Former world number oneand five-time major winnerSharapova fired 30 winners andnine aces in her victory which gaveher a last-eight clash with KikiBertens.

Dutchwoman Bertens stunnedworld number two CarolineWozniacki 6-2 6-2. World numberone and top seed Simona Halephad earlier maintained her chargetowards a third consecutive Madridtitle as she eased past KristynaPliskova 6-1 6-4.

���� 86+�6��6C

Arsene Wenger will end his tenureat Arsenal without an away point

in the Premier League in 2018 afterhis team lost 3-1 at Leicester onWednesday.

It was the seventh straight loss onthe road for Arsenal since the turn ofthe year, an embarrassing statistic forWenger at the culmination of hisreign of 22 years. Arsenal last hadsuch a run of defeats in 1966.

Arsenal played with 10 menfrom the 15th minute at King PowerStadium after center backKonstantinos Mavropanos was givena straight red card for hauling backKelechi Iheanacho, who had putLeicester ahead a minute earlier.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyangequalized in the 53rd for Arsenal, butJamie Vardy regained the lead forLeicester by converting a 76th-minutepenalty and Riyad Mahrez made thepoints safe with a goal in injury time.

4����� ������������Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger

hit out at the referee after his side'sloss to Leicester City.

Kelechi Iheanacho punishedsome poor defending by Arsenal toput Leicester ahead before Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang found theequaliser early in the second half.

But Leicester were awarded apenalty when Henrikh Mkhitaryanbrought down Demarai Gray insidethe Arsenal penalty box.

Leicester's star striker JamieVardy stepped up to convert the spotkick while Riyad Mahrez scored thethird goal for the hosts in the 90th

minute.A clearly annoyed Wenger assert-

ed that referee Graham Scott made anerror of judgment while awarding thepenalty.

"The penalty is a very creative,imaginative aspect from the referee.We've watched it again, it's a nice diveand it's not a penalty. Mkhitaryanplays the ball," Wenger was quoted assaying by the Guardian.

Wenger also praised the Arsenalplayers for their spirited perfor-mance despite being a man down formost of the match.

"It's a frustration because I believewe played a great game and with 10against 11 we have shown quality inour game and spirit. Overall it is verysad because the decision went againstus and we are upset that we lost agame that we should not have lost,"he said. "It does not have big conse-quences but it's just a continuity ofwhat we have faced all season," headded.

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