16
S even civilian protesters, three terrorists and an Army jawan were killed, besides scores of youngsters wounded, in the counter-terrorist opera- tion by security forces in a vil- lage in South Kashmir’s Pulwama district on Saturday morning. The killings evoked wide- spread condemnation from both separatist and mainstream political leadership in Kashmir while authorities snapped mobile internet services in sev- eral areas of the Valley, includ- ing Srinagar. The separatists have called for three-day shut- down against the killings. Eyewitnesses said young- sters were killed after security forces opened fire on the civil- ians who were protesting against the anti-terrorist oper- ation in Kharpora Sirnoo vil- lage in Pulwama. The protesters were march- ing towards the encounter site apparently to disrupt the counter-terrorist operation to give safe passage to the holed up terrorists. The civilians’ death occurred after three local Hizbul Mujahideen terrorists were killed in an encounter in the area. An Army jawan was also killed in the operation while another injured was admitted to military hospital. The slain terrorists were identified as Adnan, alias Tahir Hizbi, a resident of Karimabad Pulwama; Bilal Ahmad, alias Hashim, a resident of Rajpora Pulwama; and a former Army man Zahoor Ahmad Thokar of Sirnoo Pulwama, who desert- ed the Army ranks last year to join Hizbul Mujahideen group. Thokar was one among senior commanders. Sources said in the initial phase of operation, two civil- ians were killed in action fol- lowing heavy violent clashes amid stone pelting with police and paramilitary forces after news spread about the killing of three terrorists in the area. Five more civilians succumbed to grievous injuries while at least two dozen injured civil- ians were undergoing treat- ment at various hospitals in Pulwama and Srinagar. Reports said a large num- ber of people, mostly youth, pelted stones on security forces near the encounter site at Sirnoo village. The security forces used first lobbed tear smoke shells. As the situation could not contained, they used pellets and then live ammunition to quell the protests. Local sources said the forces fired indiscriminately leading to large number of injuries. I n the backdrop of Congress and petitioners of the Rafale case in the Supreme Court crying foul, the Centre on Saturday moved the apex court seeking correction in the Rafale judgment where a reference has been made about the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report and Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC), saying “mis- interpretation” of its note has “resulted in a controversy in the public domain.” In the application, the Centre said the two sentences in paragraph 25 of the judg- ment appeared to have been based on the note submitted by it along with the pricing details in a sealed cover, but indicat- ed the words used by the court lent a different meaning. The Government moved the application a day after the Opposition Congress and oth- ers raised questions on the issue and accused the Government of misleading the apex court on CAG report. While Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, who chairs the PAC, had said no such report had come to him, petitioners Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie and Prashant Bhushan too flagged the alleged wrongdoings of the BJP led Modi Government in the matter. Kharge said he will request PAC members to summon the Attorney General and the CAG to ask them when the public auditor’s report was tabled in Parliament. The SC had on Friday dis- missed the pleas challenging the deal between India and France for 36 Rafale jets saying there was no occasion to “real- ly doubt the decision making process” warranting setting aside of the contract. T he Congress has invited leaders from across the political spectrum for the swearing-in ceremony of party stalwarts Kamal Nath and Ashok Gehlot who would take charge as Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan on Monday. The Congress will also form its Government in Chhatisgarh on Monday but the Chief Minister candidate will be announced on Sunday morning in Raipur following which the invitations for the oath cere- mony will be extended. While the oath ceremony at Jaipur is scheduled at 10.30 am, Bhopal timing is at 1.30 pm followed by Raipur at 4.30 pm to facilitate the leaders includ- ing Congress High Command to move conveniently. After selecting Chief Ministers of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, Congress president Rahul Gandhi held hectic parleys with top party leaders on Saturday to decide on the top post for Chhattisgarh. Sources said Rahul met Chhattisgarh’s four potential Chief Minister can- didates — TS Singh Deo, Tamradhwaj Sahu, Bhupesh Baghel and Charan Das Mahant — at his Tughlaq Lane residence and held dis- cussions with them. This was the third round of discussion that the Congress chief held before selecting the Chief Minister for Chhattisgarh, where the party romped home to power after 15 years with two-third major- ity. Congress’ central observ- er Mallikarjun Kharge and AICC in-charge for party affairs in Chhattisgarh PL Punia were also present at the meeting. T he Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday seized assets worth 20.87 crore belonging to Pradip Burman, who is Director of Dabur India Limited, for allegedly holding assets abroad in violation of provisions of Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA). In another case, the ED seized immovable property worth 10.28 crore of Shravan Gupta, Additional Managing Director, M/s Emmar MGF for holding US$ 15,40,650 in his bank account with HSBC, Switzerland under FEMA. The seizure order in Burman’s case has been issued pursuant to an investigation which prima facie revealed that the he had deposited $3.21 million in his account with the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) in Zurich, according to ED offi- cials. “Burman had declared before Income Tax Authority that he had earned US$ 32,12,000 whereas he had not shown this amount in his Income Tax Returns filed in India for the period 2007-08. Income Tax Authorities have filed a prosecution complaint against Burman in the Court of Metropolitan Magistrate which is pending,” ED officials said. Investigation revealed that Burman had deposited US$ 32,12,000 with HSBC, Zurich and holding the same in con- travention of Section 4 of FEMA, 1999 and failed to repatriate the entire amount to India till date. Following the investiga- tions it was found movable assets, identified in India to the tune of 20,87,80,000 held by him in his name. The seized assets comprised 50,000 tax free Government bonds of the Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO) and the Indian Railway Finance Corporation (IRFC) , which were pur- chased on different dates for 5 crore, 4 crore, and 11 crore, amounting to over 20 crore. D isplaying bestial instinct, two men raped a stray dog, tied the animal behind their scooter and dragged her to death in Rajendra Nagar in Ghaziabad. One of the accused was arrested on Saturday, said Ghaziabad police. “After seeing two scooter- borne men dragging a dog with their scooter, some resi- dents rushed to catch them. One of the two men on scoot- er fled but one was caught,” said social activist Ruchin Mehra. Animal lover Ruchin, who rescued the dog, said skin of the dog was fatally ripped off. “We took the body and the accused to police station where police registered a case and arrested the culprit,” said Ruchin. “One of the accused iden- tified as Mohd Nafees, a resi- dent of Gali No. 6, Shaheed Nagar, confessed to his crime. He revealed his accomplice name as Mohd Tosim, a resi- dent of the same locality,” said the senior police official, adding before dragging dog to death the accused had raped the dog several times. “During interrogation, the accused said the dog had bit- ten several people in the local- ity therefore decided to throw her out of the locality. But the two men decided to teach the dog a lesson and tied the dog with the scooter and dragged her,” said the senior police official. “We have arrested the accused and attempts are being made to arrest his co-accused,” said Inspector Sahibabad police station Ran Singh. T he RLSP on Saturday received a major setback with all its members in the bicameral legislature of Bihar declaring that they are still with the NDA as they accused party president Upendra Kushwaha of pursuing personal interests in announcing a break-up with the NDA. Both the RLSP MLAs — Sudhanshu Shekhar and Lalan Paswan — and its lone MLC — Sanjiv Singh Shyam — made a statement to this effect at a joint press conference here. They also pitched for a ministerial berth for Shekhar, a first-term MLA and the youngest among the three. We will also approach the Election Commission with the claim that we represent the real RLSP and we enjoy the support of most workers and office- bearers in the party, Shyam said making it clear that the RLSP was heading towards a split. The RLSP has three MPs, including Kushwaha. Among the two other Lok Sabha mem- bers — Arun Kumar from Jehanabad and Ram Kumar Sharma from Sitamarhi — the former has been charting an independent course for past two years. C hhattisgarh’s powerful OBC leader Bhupesh Baghel who single-handedly guided Congress to rout BJP in Assembly polls, has dis- played his superb fighting ability before party’s central leadership on Saturday in Delhi for the Chief Ministerial post and refused to back down despite all odds. Congress which has staged a stunning victory in the mineral-rich State after 15 years, is struggling to zero in on a single name for the CM post and the party deferred its scheduled legislature party meeting in Raipur till Sunday. Congress president Rahul Gandhi tweeted a photo on Saturday with four of his Chhattisgarh’s comrades which gave impression that his blue-eyed boy and party’s lone Lok Sabha MP from the State Tamradhwaj Sahu has clear edge over Baghel, TS Singh Deo and Charandas Mahant. But latest reports con- firmed that Baghel has refused to pull out from the CM race despite Congress general secretary and party incharge for Chhattisgarh PL Punia has reportedly sided with Sahu. Baghel has played his power game very smartly on Saturday and unconfirmed reports say that Congress has finally conceded to Baghel’s Chief Ministerial claim. There is a sense among rank and file of the Congress in Chhattisgarh that Baghel deserves to be the Chief Minister of the Congress Government because he led the party from the front for the past five years and took the dominant BJP Government head-on. RNI Regn. No. CHHENG/2012/42718, Postal Reg. No. - RYP DN/34/2013-2015

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Page 1: &ˇ!ˇ ˇ ˙ ˇ ˘ ˇ ˇ˙ ˇ ˙ ˇ ˆ ˙˝ ˛ ˚ˆ · 2018-12-16 · Mahant — at his Tughlaq ... Gandhi tweeted a photo on ... lone Lok Sabha MP from the State Tamradhwaj Sahu

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Seven civilian protesters,three terrorists and an Army

jawan were killed, besidesscores of youngsters wounded,in the counter-terrorist opera-tion by security forces in a vil-lage in South Kashmir’sPulwama district on Saturdaymorning.

The killings evoked wide-spread condemnation fromboth separatist and mainstreampolitical leadership in Kashmirwhile authorities snappedmobile internet services in sev-eral areas of the Valley, includ-ing Srinagar. The separatistshave called for three-day shut-down against the killings.

Eyewitnesses said young-sters were killed after securityforces opened fire on the civil-ians who were protestingagainst the anti-terrorist oper-ation in Kharpora Sirnoo vil-lage in Pulwama.

The protesters were march-ing towards the encounter siteapparently to disrupt thecounter-terrorist operation togive safe passage to the holedup terrorists.

The civilians’ deathoccurred after three localHizbul Mujahideen terroristswere killed in an encounter inthe area. An Army jawan wasalso killed in the operation

while another injured wasadmitted to military hospital.

The slain terrorists wereidentified as Adnan, alias TahirHizbi, a resident of KarimabadPulwama; Bilal Ahmad, aliasHashim, a resident of RajporaPulwama; and a former Armyman Zahoor Ahmad Thokar ofSirnoo Pulwama, who desert-ed the Army ranks last year tojoin Hizbul Mujahideen group.Thokar was one among seniorcommanders.

Sources said in the initialphase of operation, two civil-ians were killed in action fol-lowing heavy violent clashesamid stone pelting with policeand paramilitary forces afternews spread about the killingof three terrorists in the area.Five more civilians succumbedto grievous injuries while atleast two dozen injured civil-ians were undergoing treat-ment at various hospitals inPulwama and Srinagar.

Reports said a large num-ber of people, mostly youth,pelted stones on security forcesnear the encounter site atSirnoo village.

The security forces usedfirst lobbed tear smoke shells.As the situation could notcontained, they used pelletsand then live ammunition toquell the protests. Localsources said the forces firedindiscriminately leading tolarge number of injuries.

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In the backdrop of Congressand petitioners of the Rafale

case in the Supreme Courtcrying foul, the Centre onSaturday moved the apex courtseeking correction in the Rafalejudgment where a reference hasbeen made about theComptroller and AuditorGeneral (CAG) report andParliament’s Public AccountsCommittee (PAC), saying “mis-interpretation” of its note has“resulted in a controversy in thepublic domain.”

In the application, theCentre said the two sentencesin paragraph 25 of the judg-ment appeared to have beenbased on the note submitted byit along with the pricing detailsin a sealed cover, but indicat-ed the words used by the courtlent a different meaning.

The Government movedthe application a day after theOpposition Congress and oth-ers raised questions on the

issue and accused theGovernment of misleading theapex court on CAG report.While Congress leaderMallikarjun Kharge, whochairs the PAC, had said nosuch report had come to him,petitioners Yashwant Sinha,Arun Shourie and PrashantBhushan too flagged thealleged wrongdoings of theBJP led Modi Government inthe matter.

Kharge said he will requestPAC members to summon theAttorney General and the CAGto ask them when the publicauditor’s report was tabled inParliament.

The SC had on Friday dis-missed the pleas challengingthe deal between India andFrance for 36 Rafale jets sayingthere was no occasion to “real-ly doubt the decision makingprocess” warranting settingaside of the contract.

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The Congress has invitedleaders from across the

political spectrum for theswearing-in ceremony of partystalwarts Kamal Nath andAshok Gehlot who would takecharge as Chief Minister ofMadhya Pradesh and Rajasthanon Monday. The Congress willalso form its Government inChhatisgarh on Monday but theChief Minister candidate will beannounced on Sunday morningin Raipur following which theinvitations for the oath cere-mony will be extended.

While the oath ceremonyat Jaipur is scheduled at 10.30am, Bhopal timing is at 1.30 pmfollowed by Raipur at 4.30 pmto facilitate the leaders includ-ing Congress High Commandto move conveniently.

After selecting ChiefMinisters of Rajasthan andMadhya Pradesh, Congresspresident Rahul Gandhi heldhectic parleys with top partyleaders on Saturday to decide

on the top post forChhattisgarh. Sources saidRahul met Chhattisgarh’s fourpotential Chief Minister can-didates — TS Singh Deo,Tamradhwaj Sahu, BhupeshBaghel and Charan DasMahant — at his TughlaqLane residence and held dis-cussions with them.

This was the third roundof discussion that the Congresschief held before selecting theChief Minister forChhattisgarh, where the partyromped home to power after15 years with two-third major-ity. Congress’ central observ-er Mallikarjun Kharge andAICC in-charge for partyaffairs in Chhattisgarh PLPunia were also present at themeeting.

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The EnforcementDirectorate (ED) on

Saturday seized assets worth�20.87 crore belonging toPradip Burman, who isDirector of Dabur IndiaLimited, for allegedly holdingassets abroad in violation ofprovisions of Foreign ExchangeManagement Act (FEMA).

In another case, the EDseized immovable propertyworth �10.28 crore of ShravanGupta, Additional ManagingDirector, M/s Emmar MGF forholding US$ 15,40,650 in hisbank account with HSBC,Switzerland under FEMA.

The seizure order inBurman’s case has been issuedpursuant to an investigationwhich prima facie revealedthat the he had deposited $3.21million in his account with theHong Kong and ShanghaiBanking Corporation (HSBC)in Zurich, according to ED offi-cials.

“Burman had declaredbefore Income Tax Authoritythat he had earned US$32,12,000 whereas he had notshown this amount in hisIncome Tax Returns filed inIndia for the period 2007-08.Income Tax Authorities have

filed a prosecution complaintagainst Burman in the Court ofMetropolitan Magistrate whichis pending,” ED officials said.

Investigation revealed thatBurman had deposited US$32,12,000 with HSBC, Zurichand holding the same in con-travention of Section 4 ofFEMA, 1999 and failed torepatriate the entire amount toIndia till date.

Following the investiga-tions it was found movableassets, identified in India tothe tune of �20,87,80,000 heldby him in his name. Theseized assets comprised 50,000tax free Government bonds ofthe Housing and UrbanDevelopment Corporation(HUDCO) and the IndianRailway Finance Corporation(IRFC) , which were pur-chased on different dates for�5 crore, �4 crore, and �11crore, amounting to over �20crore.

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Displaying bestial instinct,two men raped a stray

dog, tied the animal behindtheir scooter and dragged herto death in Rajendra Nagar inGhaziabad. One of the accusedwas arrested on Saturday, saidGhaziabad police.

“After seeing two scooter-borne men dragging a dogwith their scooter, some resi-dents rushed to catch them.One of the two men on scoot-er fled but one was caught,”said social activist RuchinMehra.

Animal lover Ruchin, whorescued the dog, said skin ofthe dog was fatally ripped off.“We took the body and theaccused to police station where

police registered a case andarrested the culprit,” said

Ruchin. “One of the accused iden-

tified as Mohd Nafees, a resi-dent of Gali No. 6, Shaheed

Nagar, confessed to his crime.He revealed his accomplicename as Mohd Tosim, a resi-dent of the same locality,” saidthe senior police official,adding before dragging dog todeath the accused had rapedthe dog several times.

“During interrogation, theaccused said the dog had bit-ten several people in the local-ity therefore decided to throwher out of the locality. But thetwo men decided to teach thedog a lesson and tied the dogwith the scooter and draggedher,” said the senior policeofficial.

“We have arrested theaccused and attempts are beingmade to arrest his co-accused,”said Inspector Sahibabadpolice station Ran Singh.

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The RLSP on Saturdayreceived a major setback

with all its members in thebicameral legislature of Bihardeclaring that they are still withthe NDA as they accused partypresident Upendra Kushwahaof pursuing personal interestsin announcing a break-up withthe NDA.

Both the RLSP MLAs —Sudhanshu Shekhar and LalanPaswan — and its lone MLC —Sanjiv Singh Shyam — made astatement to this effect at ajoint press conference here.

They also pitched for aministerial berth for Shekhar,a first-term MLA and theyoungest among the three.

We will also approach theElection Commission with theclaim that we represent the realRLSP and we enjoy the supportof most workers and office-bearers in the party, Shyamsaid making it clear that theRLSP was heading towards asplit.

The RLSP has three MPs,including Kushwaha. Amongthe two other Lok Sabha mem-bers — Arun Kumar fromJehanabad and Ram KumarSharma from Sitamarhi — theformer has been charting anindependent course for pasttwo years.

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Chhattisgarh’s powerfulOBC leader Bhupesh

Baghel who single-handedlyguided Congress to rout BJPin Assembly polls, has dis-played his superb fightingability before party’s centralleadership on Saturday inDelhi for the ChiefMinisterial post and refusedto back down despite all odds.

Congress which hasstaged a stunning victory inthe mineral-rich State after 15years, is struggling to zero inon a single name for the CMpost and the party deferred itsscheduled legislature partymeeting in Raipur till Sunday.

Congress president RahulGandhi tweeted a photo onSaturday with four of hisChhatt isgarh’s comradeswhich gave impression thathis blue-eyed boy and party’slone Lok Sabha MP from theState Tamradhwaj Sahu hasclear edge over Baghel, TSSingh Deo and CharandasMahant.

But latest reports con-f irmed that Baghel hasrefused to pull out from theCM race despite Congressgeneral secretary and partyincharge for Chhattisgarh PLPunia has reportedly sidedwith Sahu.

Baghel has played hispower game very smartly onSaturday and unconfirmedreports say that Congress hasfinally conceded to Baghel’sChief Ministerial claim.

There is a sense amongrank and file of the Congressin Chhattisgarh that Bagheldeserves to be the ChiefMinister of the CongressGovernment because he ledthe party from the front forthe past five years and tookthe dominant BJPGovernment head-on.

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Page 2: &ˇ!ˇ ˇ ˙ ˇ ˘ ˇ ˇ˙ ˇ ˙ ˇ ˆ ˙˝ ˛ ˚ˆ · 2018-12-16 · Mahant — at his Tughlaq ... Gandhi tweeted a photo on ... lone Lok Sabha MP from the State Tamradhwaj Sahu

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Aspidey overdose once the radioactive spider bites one too many inone too many verses. You could call

this animated spiderman thingie withseven spideys climbing the walls anoverdose, indeed. What with the humourquotient kind of sticking back on the wallswith the web and being left behind formost part of this swinging movie full ofemotion, confusion and altered realities.

So here you have a Black boy, a blondgirl, the original Peter Parker of coursethough with an expanded waistline andtrack pants instead of the spidey suit and apiglet if you please as spidermen! Thesituation gets complicated when a PeterParker is a dead man walking after beinghit fatally by Mr Big (you can’t imaginehow big and boxy he is) who of coursewants to destroy the world which tookaway his wife and child!

The rigmarole created is cool enoughfor kids but one must say here that themissing mirth in the film takes away a lot

from what could have been an entirelyenchanting world of webs and action.Having said that, it is also true that themulti-dimensioned spideys cook up quitea rollicking fare by being entirelycontemptuous of any kind of parentalstoryline and creating their own funmoments and sequences that may not everfigure in the Marvel comic book.

The imagination takes wings aseveryone from a piglet to a disillusionedPeter Parker get together to save the worldfrom the dark force. And, while doing so,these enemies of crooks inhabit thesummit of highrises in an altered NewYork skyline with the same gravitas as theoriginal spiderman has done over so manymovies.

The newness of the storyline, theintention to have fun at work, the brilliantanimation work and the near-perfect voiceovers by everyone from Shaimik Moore toNicholas Cage are what make this film sogreat.

An overdose of spidey cinema hasbeen the bane of critics for many years butnot much can be said in the negative forthis Sony production which soars the nightheights with elan and novelty, drawing inall and sundry, and from all ages, into theweb once again.A new homecoming forspidey guys so sit back and enjoy.

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;3�"� �� �!������������#����� ������"<�What is your new show LadiesSpecial 2 all about?

The concept of the show is verydifferent and people will get to seethe journey of three women whocome from completely differentbackgrounds, how they met in atrain and start connecting witheach other, the challenges they faceand how they fight with it. It is a veryspecial show sans saas-bahu drama. �What is your role in it show?

I play Prarthna Kashyap, a 30-year-old single woman from a north-Indian family. She is a mature andresponsible person and also thesole breadwinner for her family. Allher energy is spent in taking care ofthe family. She has given up on herdream of getting married becauseshe thinks it is too late for her. Thewhole story essays the everydaystruggle of an unmarried womanand the mental stress that she goesthrough because of the society.�What made you say yes to thisrole?

I was both surprised and excitedwhen the show came to me. I'm fromnorth India so was able to relate toit. When I read the script, I was surethat every woman would be ablerelate to my character.�How has your journey fromSmrita in Teri Meri Love Stories toPrarthna been?

It has been amazing. I have beenfortunate enough to work with goodpeople and get good shows withgood concepts. I am want to beknown in the industry for my hardwork. I want to create an imagewhere people appreciate my workand my performances, just likeRadhika Apte and Swara Bhaskarwho are known for their strongperformances.�How did acting happen?

It came as a surprise for mebecause I am a professional singer.I come from a musical family. Ilearnt singing from my father.Acting happened when I performedin India’s Got Talent Season 1 andSonali Bendre was the judge. Shetold me in front of everyone that‘you have a pretty face, you shouldtry your hand at acting.

Her words clicked in my mindand I thought of giving it a chance.But coming from a conservativefamily, it was difficult for me to

convince my father. I told him that if Itried acting, I may get a chance to sing inthe music industry as well. My motherplayed an important role in my life andshe convinced my father. I came toMumbai, gave auditions for differentshows and the rest is history.�What challenges did you face?

There is a long list. There were timeswhen I lost some good shows, my namewas suggested for them but thensomehow I missed out on them. But I ama positive person, so if something didn’tgo well, I simply believed that there issomething waiting for me. There are somany challenges in the industry that atsome point, you feel like giving up. But Iam not the kind of person who gives upon things easily. Having said that, the onlycontrast in me and my character is thatI am a fun-loving person and Prarthna isvery serious, quiet and mature, other thanthat, we are more or less the same.�How hard is it to get into the skin ofthe character?

It is very difficult because we have tobehave like our characters. If I amlaughing right now and someone will askme to get into my character, then I willhave to become serious. When I read myscript, I prefer to not talk too muchotherwise I get distracted from becomingPrarthna. During 12 hours of shoot, I livethe character in order to do justice to it. �Any reality show that you would liketo be a part of in future?

I would like to do Jhalak Dikhla Jaabecause I am a trained Kathak dancer andnot many people know that. I would liketo show my dancing skills as well to theaudience.�What kind of roles are you looking atin the future?

I want to play a typical Punjabicharacter like the one Kangana Ranautplayed in Tanu Weds Manu and Queen.�What is the one change that you wouldlike to see in the industry for actors andother professionals?

I would like to see lesser shootinghours for actors because it is not just

a matter of 12 hours for us. If we includethe travelling time as well it is almost 15-16 hours that we invest in our work. Sothere is no personal life left for us. Alsowhen you play a character for so long,you become like them in real life whichis good and bad as well. I haveexperienced this while playing Tara in EkBoond Ishq and I started behaving like herin real life. It will be better to reduce theworking to 10 hours a day than 12.

8����.�������)����!����& �0((�<*�����+9����������4�.��(��(4*�������� ���� ����,��� ��� �����B��� �������$�G���� !�I�� ��� ��� �������6��������������6��

6����������"�������=>���*5���1�%�����������������2������.� ���/����� ����#6�.� ����/� ������������,�������� ��������33��*�#� �������������1�)?@89:

Arare week when both big movies were fromthe Marvel and DC worlds and both wereimpactful in their own way. Aquaman, the

underwater (mostly) action-thriller, stitched togetherwith a lot of CGI perfection, is a Bollywood styleaction romance family drama kind of apocalypseapproaching movie which keeps you seated andengaged till the very end.

When it’s Hollywood, almost always the worldhas to come to an end and for the heroes to get intoaction. Aquaman is no different with the aquaticbeings of the legendary city of Atlantis, helmed by anunscrupulous power monger, is all set to attack thesurface beings in a concerted, hi-tech move tobecome the Ocean King. As always, there is one heroto foil all the evil designs on a grand scale and bringback humanity as we know it from the brink.

The larger than life man here is a half-breed anda love child of a surface-ocean couple which hassince separated due to the tidings of the underwaterkingdom’s rules. Nicole Kidman, the queen ofAtlantis, does a super short cameo full of tenderloving care before she has to leave her child andpartner to return to the machinations of her nativekingdom.

Jason Momoa as Aquaman is big, quirky andhappening as is this underwater extravaganza fromthe extended DC verse which is on a high tide allthrough and that’s really something that theaudiences would want as thrills on the waterfront. Amust see in that sense and not just for action junkies.The tender emotions too have been woven in.

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Page 3: &ˇ!ˇ ˇ ˙ ˇ ˘ ˇ ˇ˙ ˇ ˙ ˇ ˆ ˙˝ ˛ ˚ˆ · 2018-12-16 · Mahant — at his Tughlaq ... Gandhi tweeted a photo on ... lone Lok Sabha MP from the State Tamradhwaj Sahu

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The oath taking ceremonyfor the newly appointed

Chief Minister of Chhattisgarhwill be held on Monday atScience college ground inRaipur from 4.30 pm, All IndiaCongress Committee (AICC)General Secretary and party’sIn-charge of Chhattisgarh P LPunia informed on Saturday.

Chhattisgarh GovernorAnandiben Patel will adminis-ter oath of office and secrecy tothe newly appointed ChiefMinister.

Meanwhile, at ScienceCollege ground, the prepara-tions for oath taking ceremo-ny are going on in full swing.

Raipur City Mayor PramodDubey, Chief Secretary AjaySingh, Raipur District CollectorDr Basavaraju S and othersenior officials are regularlyinspecting the venue to ensureadequate security and betterseating arrangements for thedignitaries and the generalpublic.

Three stages will be erect-ed at the venue-one for oathtaking ceremony, second forVVIPs and third for the newlyelected Members of LegislativeAssembly. LED screens will beinstalled at the venue at differ-ent points so that maximumoutreach of event is ensured.

Already, the traffic plan hasbeen released for the public in

view of the ceremony as keynational political leaders andVIPs are expected to arrive toparticipate in the event.

As per the traffic plan, thewhole area has been dividedinto four sectors to facilitatemovement of VVIP, VIP,

Ministers and general public.For VIP route to the oath

ceremony from Ring RoadNumber one to upper part ofRaipura Bridge and then U-turn to Rohanipuram new roadto Gol Chowk to Science col-lege ground.

For the general public, theroute is Ring Road Numberone to Sarona bridge, nearToyata showroom to AmanakaPolice station road to KangerValley Academy School toNCC ground for parking. Theywill then have to walk to the

Science College ground.During the oath ceremony,

the movement of heavy vehiclesin Ring Road 1 and Ring Road2, had been banned. The vehi-cles moving from the GE RoadRaipur to Durg-Bhilai will bediverted to Ring Road Numberone to Pachpedi Chowk toKalibadi-Shastri Chowk toPandari Bus-Stand.

With Congress returningto power after 15 years, it islikely that there will be rush ofparty leaders and workers fromdifferent parts of State to par-ticipate in the oath taking cer-emony. Additional to it the sup-porters of leaders will alsorush to be with their leadersduring the ceremony.

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The fifth Chhattisgarh StateAssembly will have a

unique combination ofsenior-most members andnew members in the 90-mem-ber House.

A total of 39 members ofLegislative Assembly are firsttimers. This time, the mem-bers comprise as more edu-cated MLAs as compared tolast assembly (2013).

As per informationreceived, in year 2013, thenumber of post graduateMLAs were 31 and in year2018 it has increased to 34. Atotal of 13 professional grad-uates while nine are doctors.

There are three MBBS,four BAMS while three areholders of Doctor ofPhilosophy (PhD).

Similarly, six MLAs areadvocates and four MLAs are

engineers.Out of the 90 MLAs, Dr

Renu Jogi (Kota), Dr PreetamRam (Lundra) and Dr VinayJaiswal (Manendragarh) areMBBS doctors, Dr RamanSingh (Rajnandgaon), DrKrishnamurti Bandhi(Masturi), Dr Shiv Dahariya(Arang) and Dr PremsaiSingh Tekam (Pratappur) areBAMS doctor. Ph.D MLAs areDr Charandas Mahant (Sakti),Dr Rashmi Ashish Singh(Takhatpur) and Dr LaxmiDhruv (Sihawa).

Amitesh Shukla (Rajim),Ravindra Choubey (Saja),Rashmi Singh, Kismat LalNand (Saraipali), DharamlalKaushik (Bilha) andNankiram Kanwar (Rampur)are laywers. Similarly, engi-neers are Ajit Jogi (Marwahi),Shailesh Pandey (Bilaspur),Umesh Patel (Kharsia) and UD Minj (Kunkuri).

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The construction of 4,62,276houses have been complet-

ed in Chhattisgarh as onDecember 10, 2018 underPrime Minister Awas Yojana(Gramin), the CentralGovernment has informed.

Chhattisgarh is among fourother States which has thehighest number of PradhanMantri Awas Yojana–Gramin(PMAY-G) beneficiaries as onAugust 2018, the CentralGovernment has informed.

The other States are-Odisha, Rajasthan,Maharashra, Jharkhand whichare on course for completion ofPMAY-G houses within theprescribed time-frame, itinformed.

To ensure quality con-struction of a house and tofacilitate availability of trainedmasons in the rural areas,Rural Mason Trainings arebeing organised. A total of25,000 trainees have beenenrolled, out of which 12,500trainees have been trained andcertified.

The rural mason traininghas been initiated in 11 Statesand the States of Chhattisgarhand Madhya Pradesh havetaken the lead and have thehighest number of certifiedrural masons.

It is targeted to train onelakh rural masons by March,2019 which will contributetowards not only the qualityconstruction of PMAY-G hous-es in rural India but also to theskilled manpower pool of thecountry. In addition, this willalso help in getting better liveli-hood opportunities for thetrained Masons.

States have also taken ade-quate steps to ensure continu-ous availability of constructionmaterial at reasonable prices sothat the pace and quality ofconstruction is not adverselyaffected.

So far, 38.22 lakh PMAY-Ghouses have been completed.With Assam and Bihar alsospeeding up completion ofhouses, we hope to complete 60lakh PMAY-G houses by June,2018 and one crore byDecember, 2018.

The performance of therural housing scheme hasshown upward swing,increased nearly four times inthe last four years. This isdespite the fact that it took afew months to complete theprocess of beneficiary regis-tration, geo-tagging, accountverification etc. after the pro-gramme’s launch on November20, 2016.

Towards meeting the targetof construction of one crorePMAY-Gramin houses by

December, 2018, while morethan 76 lakh beneficiaries havebeen sanctioned houses,approximately 63 lakh benefi-ciaries have received 1st install-ment.

The Highest number ofPMAY-G houses have beencompleted in the State of UttarPradesh during the financialyear 2017-18 followed byMadhya Pradesh and WestBengal.

Construction of bigger andbetter houses has been possi-

ble due to transparent benefi-ciary selection, capacity build-ing of beneficiaries, timelyavailability of funds to thebeneficiaries, structured mon-itoring and course-correctionbased on the feedback onimplementation

The faster completion ofquality houses under PMAY-Ghas been facilitated by paymentof assistance directly into thebeneficiary account throughIT-DBT platform directly fromsingle State Nodal Account

maintained at the State level.Use of IT-DBT platform hasensured transparent, hassle-free and quality programmeimplementation. Payment tobeneficiaries under PMAY-G,is routed through PublicFinancial Management System(PFMS).

Ministry of RuralDevelopment has developed aPerformance Index incorpo-rating various parameters ofprogress under PMAY-G. TheIndex acts as a tool not only tomonitor progress of PMAY-Gon various parameters acrossStates, Districts, Blocks andGram Panchayats but alsoinstills healthy competitionamong them. It also helps inidentifying areas of improve-ment and to motivate themtowards better performance inimplementation of the pro-gramme.

The ranking of State/UTsand below on PerformanceIndex is done on real timebasis and changes everydaybased on the performance ofthe State/UT and below. Thenational ranking of districtshas also been introducedwhich places the performanceof a district in the national per-spective.

Pucca houses constructedunder PMAY-G with facilitieslike toilet, LPG connection,electricity connection, drink-ing water etc., are changing therural landscape at a very fastpace. In some States PMAY-Ghouses are coming up in clus-ters/colonies which are gen-erally for landless beneficiariesand these are provided manyfacilities in convergence withvarious Central and Stateschemes.

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Chhattisgarh State Assemblybuilding and its premises

are being spruced up to wel-come the newly electedMembers of LegislativeAssembly.

State Assembly SecretaryChandrashekhar Gangradesaid, “All the arrangementshave been put in place. The ses-sion for holding Assembly willbe notified only after the ChiefMinister takes oath of office.

Based on the direction ofChief Minister on dates tohold the Assembly session, thenotification of session will beissued and then all the newlyelected members will beadministered oath in a cere-mony, he said.

As per officials, generallya two-day session for admin-istering oath to the newlyelected members of LegislativeAssembly is held. With theoath ceremony scheduled onMonday evening for the ChiefMinister and the formation ofCabinet will take a week; sothe session is expected onDecember 26 and 27.

The Assembly is thenexpected to be called for

Budget session in the monthof February and March. WithLok Sabha Election sched-uled in year 2019, most like-ly in month of May, the elec-tion model code of conductmay be imposed by April. So,the State Assembly budgetsession can be convened earlyalso.

Meanwhile, as per reports,the new Government to beformed by the Congress party,will have to make budgetaryprovisions for allocation forthe paddy bonus of two yearsand waiver of loansannounced for the State’sfarmers. It will have to alsomake provisions for reducingthe power tariff including fornew schemes, if launched,keeping an eye on the upcom-ing Lok Sabha elections.

Notably, as per normaladministrative process, all thedepartments have already pre-pared the draft budget pro-posal after holding discus-sions. The draft is likely to betabled before the new ChiefMinister, who wil l thenfinalise the draft and then hewill take the decision, either totable supplementary budget orthe normal budget.

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

������ ����������������� ������������������� ������� �'����� ������� ��'����� �'���������('��'')���� ���������� �����������*����+����� �������� �� �'��''�'��� ������������� ����� ��� �������������� ���� ������,��������

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With Lok Sabha polls nownearing, all party work-

ers will have to be ready to fightit out using full force against theOpposition, former PWDMinister and BJP leader RajeshMunat said on Saturday.

He was addressing theparty's Raipur (North)Assembly constituency workersat BJP’s divisional office‘Ekatma Parisar’ here.

“We have successfullyimplemented developmentalworks as per the aspirations ofthe people of the State. Withoutany break in all the sectors ofdevelopment, the works wereundertaken,” he said.

During the meeting, otherparty leaders also addressed theworkers and thanked them forthe efforts put for the StateAssembly election.

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The Congress Governmentwould not work with feel-

ing of revenge but will work tostamp out corruption andwasteful expenditure,

Chhattisgarh PradeshCongress Committee Secretaryand Chairman of Media CellShailesh Nitin Trivedi said onSaturday. He said that both theissues are the need of the hour.

The Congress party has

expressed strong disapproval ofpurchase of new vehicles by theoutgoing Government in theState, he said.

Trivedi further raisedquestion over the purchase of14 new SUVs by the outgoing

BJP Government.“The BJP has lost and new

Government has not beenformed yet and even the oathceremony has not been held;then how come the new vehi-cles have been purchased,” he

questioned.Around �3 crore have been

spent on purchase of newvehicles which raises manyquestions, Trivedi said. Thepublic want a clarification onthis too.

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Page 4: &ˇ!ˇ ˇ ˙ ˇ ˘ ˇ ˇ˙ ˇ ˙ ˇ ˆ ˙˝ ˛ ˚ˆ · 2018-12-16 · Mahant — at his Tughlaq ... Gandhi tweeted a photo on ... lone Lok Sabha MP from the State Tamradhwaj Sahu

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As many as 14,01,454 voterswill cast their vote for 136

wards in the general electionsof municipal corporations andcommittees in districts Hisar,Karnal, Panipat, Rohtak,Yamunanagar, Fatehabad andKaithal on Sunday.

Out of the total voters,7,44,468 are male voters and6,56,986 are female voters, saida spokesman of Haryana StateElection Commission.

As many as 1,292 pollingstations have been set up, outof which 304 are sensitive and166 are hyper-sensitive pollingstations.

The highest number ofpolling stations (303) has beenset up in Yamunanagar district,the maximum number ofhyper-sensitive polling stations(71) in district Rohtak and themaximum number of sensitivepolling stations (71) in districtPanipat, the spokesman said.

He said that a total of3,921 polling officers, 1292presiding officers, 146 super-visors, 83 duty magistrate, 781reserved staff have beendeployed for the elections.

A strength of 7,016 Policepersonnel has been deployedfor polling duty including 825Lady Constables, 3,007 con-stables, 1,049 HeadConstables,620 Non-GazettedPolice Officers, 86 Inspectorsand 27 Gazetted Police Officershave been deployed for elec-tions.

The voters would directlyelect the mayor for the first

time in the state.The election is to be con-

ducted by the use of EVMs forwhich about 1,685 control unitsand 2,959 ballot units will beused, the spokesman added.

Director General of Police(DGP), BS Sandhu said thatentire police administration isfully geared up to conduct free,fair and peaceful elections. Allthe concerned RangeADGPs/IGs and districtSuperintendents of Police havebeen asked to ensure adequatePolice arrangements for ensur-ing peaceful conduct of pollswith the help of District

Administration, he said.The election is for the seats

of mayor and members of allwards of five municipal cor-porations including Hisar,Rohtak, Yamunanagar, Panipatand Karnal and of two munic-ipal committees includingJakhal Mandi (Fatehabad) andPundri (Kaithal).

The BJP is contesting on itssymbol for the posts of bothmayor and councilors while theINLD-BSP has fielded its can-didates for the post of mayor.

The civic body polls wouldbe a popularity test for theManohar Lal Khattar led BJPGovernment, which has recent-ly completed its four yearsterm in Haryana.

The State ElectionCommission has advised all theelectors to carry with them theelector’s photo identity card orany one of the alternative doc-uments for establishing theiridentity at the polling station,to cast their vote.

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The AAP MLA from Sunam,Aman Arora on Saturday

raised the bar for other law-makers by surrendering hisTA/DA and other perks for thefirst day of Punjab VidhanSabha session when no actualwork had taken place.

In a letter written to theSpeaker of Punjab AssemblyRana KP Singh, Arora hadcontended that his consciousdoes not allow him to takeTA/DA and other perks forDecember 13 when sessionwas adjourned within 11 min-utes after paying obituaries tothe departed souls, and noissue concerning the State or itspublic was discussed.

Arora further wrote thatChief Minister Capt.Amrinder Singh had recently,while justifying shorter assem-bly sessions had said that itcost state exchequer a whop-ping Rs 70 lakh a day to con-duct the assembly proceed-ings, then how could the CM,his government and theSpeaker could be so insensitivethat they let Rs 70 lakh of pub-lic money go down the drainjust for 11 minute ofObituaries, whereas thereshould have been a sitting ,may be after a short intervalafter that , so as to discuss pub-lic issues.

Arora said, in a situationwhere the state is under a debtof Rs 2.5 lakh crores, farmersare committing suicides, nojobs for the youth, industry andtrade in shambles, teachers areforced to work on reducedsalaries and mafias running theroost, such kind of wastefulspending totally reflects theinsensitive attitude of the gov-ernment towards the state'sfiscal health.

Cautioning the StateGovernment and the Speakerto be more concerned to thestate exchequer in future, heappealed to the Speaker tohave a sitting after the obituaryreferences in the sessions tocome, else he would not takeTA/DA and other perks citing'no work- no allowance'.

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Punjab Chief Minister Capt.Amarinder Singh has writ-

ten to Union Minister of RoadTransport & Highways NitinGadkari seeking early approvalof the proposed Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Expresswayproject.

The Expressway has beenproposed as a greenfield pro-ject by the Government ofIndia to connect the nationalcapital with the important reli-gious cities of Amritsar (inPunjab) and Katra (in Jammu& Kashmir).

A spokesperson of theChief Minister’s office onSaturday said that earlier thisyear, the Chief Ministers ofPunjab and Haryana had metUnion Minister Gadkari todiscuss the proposed align-ment of the expressway, whichwould pass through the statesof Haryana and Punjab up tillAmritsar. Thereafter, thePunjab Government had con-veyed its consent for adoptionof alignment starting from

Amritsar and going straightupto the International Airport,New Delhi. However, a formaldecision on the approval of thealignment was yet to be takenby the Ministry of RoadTransport & Highways, thespokesperson said.

The Chief Minister hasurged the Government of Indiato expeditiously approve theproject as it would lead toimproved connectivity and fos-ter greater socio-economicdevelopment of the region, thespokesperson added.

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Canadian Minister(Migration), Christopher

Kerr on Saturday met PunjabTechnical Education andEmployment GenerationMinister Charanjit Singh

Channi to streamline immi-gration process.

Kerr visited Punjab with anaim to regulate movement ofyouth to Canada especiallyPunjabi youngsters, who wantto embark study abroad.

Kerr, who is looking after

Migration affairs of India,Nepal and Bhutan was accom-panied by Rahul Sharma,Managing Director,Government of Alberta.

Channi said thatMemorandum ofUnderstanding (MoU) will be

s i g n e db e t w e e nGovernmentof Punjab andGovernmentof Alberta,Canada tostreamline them i g r a t i o nappl icat ionprocesses forstudents andsaving theimmigrationaspirant stu-dents fromfraud com-m i s s i o nagents onFebruary 7,2019.

C h a n n isaid this is incontinuationof initiativetaken by thehigh level del-egation thatv i s i t e dCanada this

year tofacilitatea s p i r i n gy o u t h s ,creation ofjobs forPunjabisove rs e asa n dexploringeducation-al oppor-tunities forboth thecountries.

He said that keeping inview of the increasing passionof Punjabi youth to studyabroad, Punjab Governmenthad taken the initiative forbright and prosperous futureof the younger generationcraving for study abroad andwould create vigorousemployment opportunities,which is the motto of PunjabGovernment.

Earlier, Canadian delega-tion held discussions withTechnical Education Minister,Charanjit Singh Channi in thepresence of senior officials ofthe Punjab Government whichincluded Secretary TechnicalEducation and Industrial train-ing Punjab, DirectorEmployment Generation,Director Technical Education,

Advisor Skill Development andVice Chancellor IKGPTUJalandhar, VC MRSPTU,Bathinda over the issues ofmigration.

During the meeting, issuesrelated to setting up of a PunjabGovernment’s portal aimed atfunneling students and immi-grants interested in Canada,Skill Development for overseasEmployment, studying abroadprograms in variousUniversities, Colleges,Polytechnics and ITIs of Punjaband how the immigrationDepartment of Govt. of Canadasupport such Initiatives ofGovt. of Punjab.

Secretary TechnicalEducation and IndustrialTraining DK Tiwari said thatPunjab Government is makingall efforts to save youngsters

from fraudster agents and pro-vide them legal pathway to goto Canada through SkillDevelopment .

Sandeep Kaura, AdvisorSkill Development MissionPunjab took the delegation tovisit existing Skill develop-ment Centers being run byGovernment of Punjab inAmritsar and Ludhiana anddiscuss with CanadianMinister the way forward inskilling the youth of Punjabas per the labor marketrequirements of Canada.There is acute shortage ofskilled manpower in Canadain different sectors, he said.

The delegation membersalso visited Golden TempleAmritsar to pay obeisance andwas honored by district admin-istration.

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Himachal Chief MinisterJai Ram Thakur on

Saturday said that the StateGovernment would provide15 satellite phones for all thedistrict headquarters as wellas tribal subdivisions of Kaza,Pangi and Bharmour of thestate to strengthen communi-cation network for effectivecommunication, particularlyat the time of disaster andother emergency conditions.

Thakur said this whilelaunching the redesign andredeveloped website ofHimachal Pradesh StateDisaster ManagementAuthority at Vidhan SabhaComplex in Dharamshala.

The Chief Minister saidthat it has been usually feltthat during the naturalcalamity such as landslide,avalanche, snow and earth-quake, the normal mode ofcommunication gets disrupt-ed and lack of communicationis a biggest hurdle in relief andrehabilitation.

He said that the satellitephones would prove a boonfor effective communicationfor carrying out relief andrehabilitation work at the timeof natural calamity.

Thakur also said that thewebsite contains informationabout relief and relief norms,which would prove quite use-ful to the general public. Thewebsite would prove veryinformative and exhaustivefor the general public as wellas administration as it con-tains extensive informationon hazard profile of the state,and status of current vulner-ability and detailed hazard,risk and vulnerability analysis,he added.

While congratulating the

officers of the authority fortheir endeavours, the ChiefMinister said that the websitewould provide seamless expe-rience to the visitors whilenavigating the site and educatethem about disaster manage-ment activities and safeguards.

Additional ChiefSecretary Revenue ManishaNanda said that the websitegives details about the ongo-ing programmes for capacitybuilding and new schemeslaunched by the state on“Hospital Safety”; “Building aCadre of Volunteers forDisaster Risk Reduction”;“Securing Lifeline Buildings”;and “Training and CapacityBuilding of Masons,Carpenter and Bar Benders atPanchayat Level”, etc.

She said that the profilesof trained personnel andresource persons/experts/master trainers havebeen put in the website so thattheir services can be utilizedby all concerned.

While highlighting thesalient features of the website,Special Secretary Revenue,DC Rana said that separatecorners for citizens and NGOshave been dedicated to involvevoluntary sectors for disastermanagement in the state.

He said that a separateplatform namely, Inter AgencyGroup (IAG) has been creat-ed and integrated with thiswebsite to facilitate their reg-istration and entry. He saidthat the website also containssafety tips for various hazardsand safe construction prac-tices. The resource list con-tains list of helipads districtwise with geo-coordinates,telephone directory of gov-ernment offices/officials, etchas also been included in thewebsite, he added.

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Haryana Shehri VikasPradhikaran (HSVP) has

constituted zonal level com-mittees for recalculation andredetermination of recoveryof additional price on accountof enhanced compensationfrom the HSVP allottees in caseof sale of plots by allotment.

Giving details, aspokesman of the Pradhikaransaid that the committees con-stituted at Panchkula,

Faridabad, Gurugram, Rohtakand Hisar zones will start cal-culation or re-calculation ofadditional price immediatelywhich would be based on therepresentation received fromResident WelfareAssociations/allottees of thesector.

All the disputed as well asfresh cases of calculation ofadditional price would beexamined by the zonal com-mittees in view of the latestprinciples approved by the

HSVP, zonal committees wouldconsult the RWAs/ residents ofthe respective sector beforefinalizing the calculations. Thecalculations done by the zonalcommittee shall be duly audit-ed by the empanelled charteredaccountants, the spokesmansaid.

He further said that thevarious RWAs/allottees of theplot were contesting the calcu-lations of additional price beingdone on the basis of existingpolicy (copy of policy available

on the HSVP website).In pursuance of the meet-

ings held with the RWAs, someclarifications/additional prin-ciples were approved by thePradhikaran in its 115thMeeting.

Another meeting was heldwith All Haryana Sectorenhancement Sangharsh Samitialong with the representativesof different Resident WelfareAssociations, where some moreprinciples were approved, headded.

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Punjab and Haryana braved cold weather conditions onSaturday, with the Met Department recording Adampur the

coldest place in the region at 3 degrees Celsius.Chandigarh, the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana, record-

ed minimum temperature at 6.8 degrees Celsius.In Haryana, Narnaul recorded a low of 4.6 degree Celsius,

two notches below normal. Hisar and Karnal recorded the min-imum temperature at 7 and 6.4 degrees Celsius respectively.Ambala and Bhiwani recorded respective minimum tempera-tures at 8.3 degrees and 7.3 degrees. Among other places inPunjab, Amritsar, Ludhiana and Patiala braved cold weather at5.6 degrees, 7.9 degrees and 8.6 degrees, respectively.

Fog reduced visibility at several places, including inLudhiana, Hisar and Bhiwani, a Met official said.

The maximum temperature recorded was 21.4 degrees inAmritsar, 22.6 degrees in Ludhiana, 22.1 degrees in Patiala, 22.3degrees in Chandigarh, 21 degrees in Ambala, 19.5 degrees inNarnaul and 20.6 degrees in Karnal. The Met Department hasforecast dense fog at isolated places on December 16 and 17 inPunjab and Haryana.

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Page 5: &ˇ!ˇ ˇ ˙ ˇ ˘ ˇ ˇ˙ ˇ ˙ ˇ ˆ ˙˝ ˛ ˚ˆ · 2018-12-16 · Mahant — at his Tughlaq ... Gandhi tweeted a photo on ... lone Lok Sabha MP from the State Tamradhwaj Sahu

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Senior Congress leader PChidambaram on Saturday

took a dig at Finance MinisterArun Jaitley for saying that theNDA Government got theRafale aircraft deal at a cheap-er price, questioning if it was so,why did it not buy sevensquadrons instead of two.

In a series of tweets,Chidambaram said Jaitley hasbeen maintaining that in theRafale deal, negotiated by theNDA Government, the price ofthe aircraft was cheaper by 9per cent or 20 per cent. “If so,why did the government buyonly 36 aircraft and not 126 air-craft,” he asked.

The former finance andhome minister said the IndianAir Force has been maintainingthat its fighter aircraft strengthis depleted and it needs at least7 squadrons (126 aircraft).“Then, why did the governmentbuy only 2 squadrons (36 air-craft),” he questioned.

Chidambaram said the air-craft maker was willing to sell126 aircraft and according tothe finance minister the priceis cheaper. “Then, why buyonly 36 aircraft? Will someoneplease solve this mystery?

“By buying only 36 aircraftwhen 126 aircraft are on offer,the Government has gravelycompromised national securi-

ty,” he said.In a relief to the Modi

Government, the SupremeCourt on Friday dismissed thepleas challenging the dealbetween India and France forpurchase of 36 Rafale jets, say-ing there was no reason to“really doubt the decision mak-ing process” warranting settingaside of the contract.

The apex court rejected thepleas seeking lodging of an FIRand the court-monitored probealleging irregularities in the�58,000-crore deal, in whichboth the countries have enteredinto an inter-governmentalagreement. A bench headed byChief Justice Ranjan Gogoidealt with “three broad areas ofconcern” raised in the petitions— the decision-makingprocess, pricing and the choiceof Indian offset partners — andsaid there was no reason forintervention by the court onthe “sensitive issue” of purchaseof 36 jets.

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Starting from Saturday, themaximum speed limit for all

vehicles plying on the YamunaExpressway connecting GreaterNoida with Agra in UttarPradesh is fixed 75 km perhour from December 15, 2018to February 15, 2019.

The decision was taken inview of number of accidentsdue to foggy weather conditionin winter. “If vehicles foundexceeding 75 km per hourspeed limit, challan will beissued,” said officials. Earlier,the maximum speed limit wasfixed 100 km per hour for carsand 60 km per hour for heav-ier vehicles.

According to officials ofYamuna Expressway, the newspeed limit will be applicablefrom Saturday. “During win-ters, the number of road acci-dents increase due to foggyweather, which decreases visi-bility on the expressway road.To avoid and curb the numberof accidents, the speed limit hasbeen revised,” said officials.

The Yamuna Expressway,besides connecting Delhi toAgra through Noida-GreaterNoida Expressway, touches1,182 villages of Gautam BudhNagar, Bulandshahar , Aligarh,Hathras (Mahamaya Nagar)and Mathura district.

According to Yamunaexpressway authority officials,the maximum speed limit of 75km per hour will also be set onthe expressway mobile app -Highway Saathi, to guide thecommuters through the jour-

ney. On exceeding the speedlimit, a message will be sent tothe driver’s phone immediate-ly. This app which waslaunched in 2017, makes dri-ving safer on the expressway.

The app alerts the com-muters about traffic snarls,accidents and public amenitiesand also send SOSs alerts incase of emergencies. The appalso integrates the digital mapof the Greater Noida-AgraExpressway. Voice-basedoption for queries is also avail-able through the app. Users canupload images of an accident oran emergency, which will beshared with the expresswaycontrol room, expresswaypatrol, and other app users inthe vicinity. This will ensurethat people using the YamunaExpressway are aware of anemerging situation, and realtime assistance will be madeavailable to the commuters inthe quickest possible time.

Apart from this, in case ofaccidents, people can contact

the toll free line, or send a mes-sage on Whatsapp. An extraarrangement of four ambu-lances and cranes, as precau-tionary measures in case ofemergencies, has also beenmade on the expressway.

A total of 4,956 accidentswere reported across theYamuna Expressway ever sinceit was inaugurated. Out ofthese, 1,161 accidents weredue to speeding while 595were due to tyre burst. Fogacross the highway caused 235accidents while 2,965 were dueto other reasons.

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Union Minister NitinGadkari on Saturday asked

private players to invest liber-ally in expressways, waterwaysand irrigation projects as wellas towards the ‘Clean GangaMission’. “Private playersshould consider investing infast-growing expressways,highways, waterways, irrigationprojects and projects under‘Clean Ganga Mission’,” roadtransport and shipping minis-ter Gadkari said on the side-lines of an event in the nation-al Capital.

The Government hadbrought down the cost of landacquisition drastically to �80lakh per km from �7.5 croreper km earlier for the devel-opment of expressways,Gadkari said adding that pri-vate players should take advan-tage of the reduced land acqui-sition and labour cost. He fur-ther said that land can even be

made available to IndianRailways for bullet train routes.

“Access controlled express-way of Delhi would reduceautomotive pollution by 60per cent in the city as the traf-fic will pass through the exter-nal ring roads without enteringDelhi. The Bengaluru-Chennaiexpressway would be opera-tional from January next yearand the 12-lane Bombay-Delhiexpressway, currently under

construction, would reducethe distance between the twometros by 120 km,” the Gadkarisaid.

He suggested the use ofmethanol and LNG as fuel toreduce the cost of logistics andadded that the Governmentintent to achieve the target ofbuilding roads at 40 kms/dayby the end of this fiscal year.Gadkari said the Governmenthad decided to use 111 rivers

for waterways and soughtindustry’s cooperation in trans-port of goods through thischannel to reduce transporta-tion cost.

Under the ‘Clean GangaMission’, about 10-15 per centof the 280 projects had beencompleted. A total of 150 bio-digester units were to beinstalled along the river toupgrade sanitary conditions.Ganga rejuvenation was now asuccess story, he said, addingthat by March-end 2019, closeto 80 per cent of the river

would be clean and in the fol-lowing year the Ganga wouldbe fully clean.

He urged the Indian indus-try to contribute to the missionthrough electronic fund trans-fer and help create employmentopportunities for the local pop-ulace. The Minister said hisMinistry will be starting thecleaning work in Yamunashortly. WAPCOS has signedan MoU with the Australiancompany Dopplemayr, havingtechnical expertise in buildingropeways, cable cars forenhancing the public trans-portation in hilly areas likeJ&K, Uttarakhand, HimachalPradesh thus positively impact-ing tourism in these states.

He said that theGovernment is collaboratingwith a Russian company for thefeasibility of introducing airboats. A pilot would betaken up on January 26, 2019on river Yamuna from Delhi toTaj Mahal.

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India and France Saturdayheld discussions on deepen-

ing bilateral strategic partner-ship through cooperation inthe Indo-Pacific region,defence, space and civil nuclearenergy sectors.

External Affairs MinisterSushma Swaraj and Frenchminister of Europe and ForeignAffairs Jean Yves Le Drian dis-cussed ways to furtherstrengthen bilateral coopera-tion.

“We had very fruitful talks.We closely looked at all theaspects of our mutual ties. Weare taking our cooperation for-ward in the Indo-Pacific region,which will not only benefitthese two countries but alsoother countries in the region,”she told reporters.

Noting that the foundationof India and France relations isbased on “mutual trust”, Swarajsaid the two countries are look-ing to strengthen their ties invarious sectors.

“Our defence relations arehistoric and we have beeninvolved in a number ofexchanges in the form of train-ing and joint exercises,” shesaid.

The External Affairs min-ister also reiterated the resolveof the two countries to jointlyfight against terrorism.

“We both are also workingin strengthening our ties inspace sector. We both are alsoleading fight against climatechange,” she said.

“Last year, our bilateraltrade was worth 9.62 billioneuro, if we both have to reachthe trade of 15 million euro by2022 we both will have towork towards further strength-ening our trade relations,” shesaid.

There will also be anexchange of 10,000 studentsbetween the two countries by2020, Swaraj said.

Her French counterpartLe Drian said the two leadersreviewed the status of theEuropean Pressurized Reactor

(EPR) project in Jaitapur,Maharashtra and adopted anaction plan to guide our workfor the coming months so as toadvance as efficiently as possi-ble towards the final decisionfor building this power plant.

“Six EPRs account for atotal capacity of almost 10GW, which is a significantcontribution to India’s aim ofproducing 40 per cent of itselectricity from non-fossil fuelsby 2030, in keeping with itscommitments made ahead ofthe Paris Climate Conference,”he said.

The Jaitapur project willalso contribute to Make inIndia as it involves transfers ofproduction, technology, jointresearch and training, Le Drianadded.

He said the discussionbetween the two leaders was“characterised as always by agreat convergence of views andshared ambition”.

“It is not by chance thatFrance and India are celebrat-ing the 20th anniversary of

their strategic partnership thisyear. It is because we attach thesame importance to multilat-eralism, respect for the rule oflaw, the same ambition to usherin a just and sustainable world,”he said.

“It is also because Indiaknows that in France it has apartner that has never failed itand on which it can count inthe future.

This holds true on thestrategic front, notably with thestrengthening of our exchangeson the Indian Ocean, whichtoday are fast developing andour shared commitment tofighting terrorism, as we mark10 years since the deadlyMumbai attacks,” Le Drian said.

“This holds true on theeconomic front: our companiesare investing and innovating inIndia under the Make in Indiaprogramme. On the fronts ofurban development and thedigital economy, our compa-nies are present and working tobuild the India – and France –of tomorrow,” he added.

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The CPI(M) has filed anintervention plea in the

pending Special Leave Petitionin the Supreme Court chal-lenging the constitutional valid-ity of Article 370 of theConstitution, which grants spe-cial status to Jammu &Kashmir.

The intervention plea isfiled through advocate-on-record Resmitha R Chandran.Senior advocate PVSurendranath will argue thematter in the apex court for theparty.

“The party is of theunequivocal opinion thatArticle 370 shall in no cir-cumstance be annulled, mod-ified or repealed. The partyopposes the relief sought in theSpecial Leave Petition,” CPI(M)leader and MLA Kulgam MYTarigami said in a statement.

“The special status guar-anteed to the State of JammuKashmir under theConstitution of India which hasassumed the permanent featureof the Constitution requiresprotection as any alterationwould be against the policy offederalism envisaged by theframers of the Constitution,” hesaid.

Jammu & Kashmir acced-ed to India in unique circum-stances and it poses a uniqueproblem which requires aunique solution, he said.

It was the only State to declare its intention to haveits own Constitution drafted by its own constituent assem-bly as far back as March 5,1948, he said.

“Federalism is a basic fea-ture and part of basic structureof the Constitution. To pro-mote fraternity among all thecitizens, assuring the dignity ofthe individual and the unityand integrity of the nation isour constitutional motto asdeclared in the preamble of ourConstitution,” he said.

Tarigami said the relativeautonomy of States on federalprinciple was a pre-conditionfor preserving and developingunity and integrity of thenation.

“Federalism also presup-poses acknowledgment of his-torical realities and specialnature and objective factorswith respect to deferent statesand their population,” he said.

Article 370 grants specialstatus to Jammu & Kashmirwhile Article 35A empowersthe state legislature to definepermanent citizens.

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ADelhi court on Saturdayextended by four days the

CBI custody of ChristianMichel, alleged middlemancharge-sheeted and arrestedin the AgustaWestland VVIPchopper case.

The 57-year-old Britishnational was produced beforeSpecial Judge Arvind Kumar.The probe agency told thejudge that Michel needs to beconfronted with various docu-ments in the case and hadsought further custody of forfive days.

It also said that the accusedwas required to be taken to thepremises of Pawan Hans IndiaLtd in Mumbai to verify hisversion of his alleged attempt-ed negotiations to buy backWG-30 helicopters, to identifythe shipper and to confront theofficials of Pawan Hans India.

The agency said that volu-minous documents have beenreceived from various countriespursuant to the ‘Letter ofRequests’ and the accused wasyet to be confronted with anumber of them.

The defence counselopposed the CBI applicationfor further remand sayingalready enough time was grant-ed to the agency and nothingincriminating was foundagainst accused.

“Keeping in view the factsand circumstances, submis-sions made by the parties, I

deem it fit to grant further fourdays PC remand of the accused.Accordingly, the accused isremanded to PC for four days,”the judge said. Michel wasarrested in the UAE and extra-dited to India on December 4.

The next day, he was pro-duced in the court whichallowed his five-day custodialinterrogation by the CBI whichwas later extended by fivemore days.

Michel is among thethree alleged middlemenbeing probed in the case bythe Enforcement Directorate(ED) and the Central Bureauof Investigation (CBI). Theothers are Guido Haschkeand Carlo Gerosa.

Both the agencies noti-fied an Interpol red cornernotice (RCN) against himafter the court issued a non-bailable warrant against him.

The CBI has alleged therewas an estimated loss of Euro

398.21 million (about �2,666crore) to the exchequer in thedeal that was signed onFebruary 8, 2010 for the sup-ply of VVIP choppers worthEuro 556.262 million.

The ED, in its charge sheetfiled against Michel in June2016, had alleged that he receivedEUR 30 million (about Rs 225crore) from AgustaWestland.

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The 15th RajasthanAssembly has at least 46

MLAs with criminal caseslodged against them comparedto 36 MLAs elected in the StateAssembly elections in 2013.

Out of the 199 members oflegislative assembly (MLAs), 46MLAs have declared criminalcases against themselves.Twenty eight MLAs havedeclared ‘serious’ criminal casesagainst them, says theAssociation for DemocraticReforms (ADR) report.

In the 2013 Assembly elec-tions, 19 MLAs had declared‘serious’ criminal cases againstthem. Parsadi Lal of Congresswho contested from Lalsotconstituency of Dausa districthas declared one charge relat-ed to murder. Four MLAs, allfrom Congress, have declaredcases related to attempt tomurder (IPC section 307).

Comparing the candidatesas per their political affiliation,25 out of 99 MLAs fromCongress, 12 out of 73 MLAsfrom BJP and two out of sixMLAs from BSP among otherregional political outfits havedeclared criminal cases againstthemselves in their affidavits,the report said.

Sixteen out of 99 MLAsfrom Congress, seven out of 73MLAs from Bharatiya JanataParty (BJP) and two out of sixMLAs from Bahujan SamajParty (BSP) have declared ‘seri-

ous’ criminal cases againstthem.

According to report, out ofthe 199 newly elected MLAs,158 are crorepatis compared to145 MLAs in the 2013 assem-bly elections.

A total of 82 out of 99MLAs from the Congress, 58 of73 MLAs from the BJP, 11 of 13Independent MLAs and five of six BSP MLAs have declared their assets worthover �1 crore.

Among the richest MLAswho have declared their totalassets in IT returns areCongress leaders ParasramMordia (172 crore) and UdaiLal Anjana (107crore), andRamkesh Meena (39 crore), anIndependent.

The candidates electedhaving fewer assets includeyoungest MLA Rajkumar Roat,Mukesh Kumar Bhakar andRamniwas Gawriya.

As per the report, 59

MLAs have declared their edu-cational qualification to bebetween 5th pass and 12thpass while 129 MLAs havedeclared having an education-al qualification of graduate orabove. There are seven MLAswho have declared themselvesto be just literate. Out of 199MLAs, 23 are women as against28 from the same gender in the2013 State polls.

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Prime Minister NarendraModi Saturday welcomed

the strengthening of tiesbetween India and France inareas such as defence, space,counter-terrorism, maritimesecurity, and civil nuclear coop-eration.

He also conveyed his con-dolences to the families of thevictims of the recent terroristattack in France’s Strasbourgand said that India stands withthe country in the fight againstterrorism.

On Tuesday, a gunmankilled four people at theChristmas market in theFrench city of Strasbourgbefore being shot dead.

Modi made these remarkswhen French Minister for

Europe and Foreign AffairsJean-Yves Le Drian called onhim.

The Prime Minister warm-ly recalled the State visit ofPresident Macron to India inMarch 2018, as well as theirrecent interaction on the side-lines of the G-20 Summit inArgentina, a statement fromthe Prime Minister’s office said.

Le Drian briefed the PrimeMinister on recent develop-ments in the bilateral relation-ship, and French perspective onregional and global issues, itsaid.

The Prime Minister wel-comed the strengthening ofbilateral ties in all spheres,including defence, space,counter-terrorism, maritimesecurity, and civil nuclear coop-eration, the statement said.

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The Congress said Saturdaythe Supreme Court, which

gave the Government relief inthe Rafale jet case, has not goneinto the pricing and technicalaspects of the aircraft and it isonly a joint Parliamentarycommittee that can probewhether there was any irregu-larity in the deal.

At a Press conference,Congress leader Kapil Sibalpointed to a part of Friday’sjudgment in which the

Supreme Court said the mate-rial placed before it shows theCentre did not disclose inParliament the pricing detailsof the fighter jet but revealed itto the Comptroller and AuditorGeneral.

The apex court also saidthe CAG report was evenexamined by the PublicAccounts Committee ofParliament.

Reacting to this, Sibal saidMallikarjun Kharge, the chair-man of PAC, has said he neverreceived any such report on

Rafale jet.“Who is responsible for

this? Who said this? It was theGovernment who said this.How did the attorney generalpass the affidavit?” he said.

He also rebuked theGovernment for not reading itsown affidavits.

“This is a very seriousmatter and there should be anaction in this case because themessage among people is thatCAG has cleared andParliament has seen the deal,which is wrong,” he said.

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Washington: A major US-China trade deal is likely to hap-pen soon, President DonaldTrump said on Friday, assertingthat Beijing wants to make it"big and very comprehensive".

He also said China's posi-tion has been weakened by theeconomic impact of the tariffswar with America.

Earlier in the day, China

pressed on with its trade wartruce with the US andannounced that it will suspendextra tariffs added to 'Made inAmerica' cars and auto parts forthree months from January 1.

"China wants to make a bigand very comprehensive deal.It could happen, and rathersoon!" Trump tweeted.

"China just announced that

their economy is growingmuch slower than anticipatedbecause of our Trade Warwith them. They have just sus-pended US Tariff Hikes. US isdoing very well," he added.

Earlier this week, top offi-cials from the US and Chinahad a conference call on tradenegotiations.

The phone call follows upon the 90-day tariff cease-fireagreed by Trump and hisChinese counterpart Xi Jinpingat a meeting in Buenos Aires onthe sidelines of the G-20Summit.

The US-China trade con-flict stem from the Trumpadministration's demands that

China make sweeping changesto its intellectual propertypractices, rein in high-tech-nology industrial subsidies,open its markets to more for-eign competition and takesteps to cut a $375 billionAmerican goods trade surplus. PTI

��C���>����������������� � �6� �1�(���New Delhi: Union MinisterNitin Gadkari on Saturday askedprivate players to invest liberal-ly in expressways, waterways andirrigation projects as well astowards the 'Clean GangaMission'.

"Private players should con-sider investing in fast-growingexpressways, highways, water-ways, irrigation projects andprojects under 'Clean GangaMission'," road transport andshipping minister Gadkari saidwhile addressing the 91stAnnual General Meeting of theindustry body FICCI throughvideo conferencing.

The government hadbrought down the cost of landacquisition drastically to Rs 80lakh per km from Rs 7.5 croreper km earlier for the develop-ment of expressways, Gadkari

said adding that private playersshould take advantage of thereduced land acquisition andlabour cost.

He further said that land caneven be made available to IndianRailways for bullet train routes.

"Access controlled express-way of Delhi would reduceautomotive pollution by 60 percent in the city as the traffic willpass through the external ringroads without entering Delhi.The Bengaluru-Chennaiexpressway would be opera-tional from January next yearand the 12-lane Bombay-Delhiexpressway, currently underconstruction, would reduce thedistance between the two met-ros by 120 km," the ministersaid. He suggested the use ofmethanol and LNG as fuel toreduce the cost of logistics and

added that the governmentintent to achieve the target ofbuilding roads at 40 kms/day bythe end of this fiscal year.

Gadkari said the govern-ment had decided to use 111rivers for waterways and soughtindustry's cooperation in trans-port of goods through this chan-nel to reduce transportationcost. Under the 'Clean GangaMission', about 10-15 per centof the 280 projects had beencompleted. A total of 150 bio-digester units were to be installedalong the river to upgrade san-itary conditions.

Ganga rejuvenation wasnow a success story, he said,adding that by March-end 2019,close to 80 per cent of the riverwould be clean and in the fol-lowing year the Ganga would befully clean. PTI

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Chennai: The All India BankEmployees Association(AIBEA) which has called for anationwide strike on December26 opposing the merger of Bankof Baroda, Dena Bank andVijaya Bank, on Saturday saidthe move was unwarranted as itwould not be beneficial to theeconomy and the people atlarge.

"The merger will also affectthe interests of employees, theirjobs and job security. The movewould also affect employmentopportunities in the bankingindustry," the Association gen-eral secretary CHVenkatachalam said here.

Noting that several vil-lages were yet to receive bank-ing services, he said, "there isa huge exclusion of people.Banks need to be expanded. Noneed for consolidation".

Referring to theGovernment's contention thatthe merger would make thebanks stronger, Venkatachalamsaid, "there is no evidence tothis conclusion. Last year sixbanks were merged with SBI.But SBI (State Bank of India)has not become any bigger."

"After merger of the sixbanks with SBI, the non-per-forming assets have furthergone upto �2.25 lakh crore.Hence, it is also a wrong pre-

sumption," he said. The mergers of the banks

would "surely" result in closureof branches and would endan-ger job security, he added.

Urging the Centre to taketough measures to recover badloans, the association said the

Government was instead tryingto divert the attention and focuson resorting to bank mergers.

Claiming that the total NPAin Bank of Baroda, Dena Bankand Vijaya Bank was �80,000crore, he sought to know if thesebad loans would automaticallybe recovered if these bankswere merged.

Opposing the merger ofthese three banks, nearly 10 lakhbank employees and officerswould take part in the nation-wide srike on December 26, hesaid. PTI

Mumbai: The Reserve Bank prefers fundamental changes tosmoothen loan flow to micro-businesses through a public cred-it registry, rather than doling out forbearances, DeputyGovernor Viral Acharya said on Saturday.

The statement comes almost a month after the central board"advised" the monetary authority to consider a restructuringscheme for stressed standard assets of micro, small and medi-um enterprises borrowers up to Rs 25 crore.

The advisory was issued amid pressure from Governmentto do more to support small businesses, which have been impact-ed by the twin shocks of note-ban and GST introduction.

The poll-bound government has also been pitching for eas-ing the prompt corrective action norms, under which the RBIhas placed 11 of the 21 state-run banks, which will enable banksto lend more.

"At RBI, we are quite excited about how we can solve thecredit problems at the grassroots for micro entrepreneurs in afundamental way rather than saying that when they default wewill just give them forbearance and give them another six ornine months to pay up," he said while addressing IIT-Bombay'sannual Techfest.

Acharya, an alumni of the premier engineering institute,said RBI is putting together a public credit registry that will givebanks the entire profile, including past loan details, and also reg-ular income flows of borrowers.

This can make a lender more confident and also reduce therate of interest for a borrower as the risk assessment becomeseasier, Acharya said.

When asked about privacy concerns of such a registry,Acharya admitted that it is a "delicate" matter and advocatedan access rights design upfront rather than a lot of information

being gathered by companies.The Deputy Governor also

said in most countries whichhave a public credit registry,there exists a separate legislativeframework that focuses on crit-ical aspects including accessrights. PTI

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London-based shipping-to-retailing conglomerate

Foresight Group Internationalplans to invest $500 million inIndia across offshore drilling,shipping, port and LNG sectorsover the next five years. The fam-ily trust-owned group is commit-ted to a long term purpose andwill be making investments acrossvarious sectors in India with along-term growth perspective, acommuniqué issued by the groupmaintained on Thursday.

"India always had greatprospects in terms of the LNG andport sectors since beforeIndependence. We have previouslymade an investment of around$350 million in cyber rigs whichare working with ONGC and $30million in Pavers England brand-ed retail, Group's joint venturewith Pavers Limited UK whichwas India's number one FDI forsingle brand retail. Having thisinvestment done, India will con-tribute to upto 44 per cent ourglobal operations," Ravi KMehrotra, Founder and ExecutiveChairman, Foresight GroupInternational, said.

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CENTRAL PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT NOTICE INVITING e-TENDER

The Executive Engineer, 'G' Division, CPWD, EastBlock-ll, Level-II, R.K. Puram, New Delhi-110066 on behalfof the President of India invites online percentage ratetenders from the approved and eligible contractors ofCPWD for the following work:

1. NIT No. - 37/EE/G-Divn./2018-19, Name of work:Upgradation of Kitchen in GPRA Chanakyapuri, New Delhi,dg. 2018-19. (SH: Providing & fixing modular kitchen inplace of old existing provision in 20 Nos. DI & 20 Nos.CII Flats) Estimated Cost:- Rs. 21,46,058/-, EarnestMoney: - Rs. 42,921/-, Period of completion: 03 (Three)Months. Last date and time of submission of tenderUpto 03.00 PM on 24.12.2018The tender forms and other details can be obtained fromthe website www.tenderwizard.com/CPWD. The PressNotice is also available on www.eprocure.gov.in

Page 7: &ˇ!ˇ ˇ ˙ ˇ ˘ ˇ ˇ˙ ˇ ˙ ˇ ˆ ˙˝ ˛ ˚ˆ · 2018-12-16 · Mahant — at his Tughlaq ... Gandhi tweeted a photo on ... lone Lok Sabha MP from the State Tamradhwaj Sahu

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After clinging on to powerfor nearly two months, Sri

Lanka’s ex-strongman MahindaRajapaksa, who was appointedPrime Minister by PresidentMaithripala Sirisena in a con-troversial move, resignedSaturday to end the politicalturmoil and pave way for thereturn of ousted premier RanilWickremesinghe.

The 73-year-old ex-presi-dent signed a letter of resigna-tion during a multi-religiousservice at his home here thatwas attended by several law-makers of United People’sFreedom Alliance (UPFA),Buddhist and other religiousleaders.

Sirisena also agreed onFriday to reinstateWickremesinghe on Sundaydespite previously insisting thathe would never reappoint himas Prime Minister.

Rajapaksa resigned aftertwo crucial Supreme Courtdecisions made the embattledformer strongman’s efforts tocling to premiership untenable.

He was appointed as PrimeMinister on October 26 by

President Sirisena in a contro-versial move after sackingWickremesinghe, whichplunged the country into anunprecedented constitutionalcrisis.

Wickremesinghe hadrefused to step down assertingthat his sacking was illegal.

Rajapaksa had sought tosecure a majority in the 225-member Parliament but failed.Sirisena then dissolvedParliament and called snapelections on January 5.

However, the SupremeCourt overturned his decisionand halted the preparations forsnap polls. The Supreme Courton Thursday unanimouslydeclared that the dissolution ofParliament by Sirisena was“illegal”.

The apex court on Fridayalso refused to stay a courtorder restraining Rajapaksa,73, from holding the office ofPrime Minister until it fullyheard the case next month.

After signing the resigna-tion letter, Rajapaksa said thatfollowing the February 10 localgovernment election, the aim ofhis party is to have a generalelection.

However, he said that hehas no intention of remainingas Prime Minister without ageneral election being held,and in order to not hamper thePresident in any way, heresigned from the position ofPrime Minister and made wayfor the President to form a newGovernment.

“The Supreme Court hasdelivered a judgement againstthe holding of the general elec-tion that had already been

declared. Since that judgementis a long and complicated doc-ument, I will study it carefullyand in due course express myviews on the constitutionalimpact it will have on thefunctioning of the parliamen-tary system of government,”Rajapaksa said.

Rajapaksa said that since ageneral election can no longerbe held, the UPFA cannotimplement any of the measuresthey had planned to take “to

prevent the country frombecoming another Greece.”

“The change of govern-ment that the people expectedhas now had to be put off. Butthe people will definitely get thechange they desire. No one canprevent that,” he said.

Wickremesinghe’s UnitedNational Party (UNP) onSaturday said that Sirisena hasagreed to reinstate him in thepost after a discussion with himover the phone on Friday.

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Defiant “Yellow vest”demonstrators gathered

on the Champs-Elysees in Parison Saturday morning for afifth and decisive weekend ofprotests despite calls by theFrench Government to stayhome. President EmmanuelMacron, facing the biggest cri-sis of his presidency,announced a series of conces-sions on Monday to defuse theexplosive “yellow vest” move-ment which swelled up fromrural and small-town Francelast month.

He is hoping the package oftax and minimum wage mea-sures, coupled with a terrorattack on Tuesday night inStrasbourg and bitter winterweather, will help bring calm tothe country after a month ofviolent clashes and disruption.

The last three Saturdayshave been marked by violentdemonstrations, but by middayon Saturday the situationappeared calm in Paris and thenumber of protesters was downamid an overwhelming show offorce from police.

Around 60 people hadbeen arrested in the capital by11:00 am (1000 GMT) com-pared with 500 at the same timelast weekend, according to fig-

ures released by the local gov-ernment.

“I’ve come to demonstratepeacefully; as soon as there’sviolence, I’m leaving,” MonaemZarhouni, a 43-year-old fatherof two, told AFP in the capitalon Saturday.

“My wife’s unemployed tooand we live on 700 euros (800dollars) a month. It’s tough,we’re always struggling,” hesaid.

“Last time, we were herefor taxes,” a 28-year-old “yellowvest” called Jeremy told AFP ashe joined a group gathering infreezing cold on the Champs-Elysees shortly after 8:00 am(0700 GMT)

“This is for the institutions:we want more direct democ-racy,” he said, adding that peo-ple needed to “shout to makethemselves heard.”

Throughout the morning,riot police played a game of cat-and-mouse with groups of pro-testers who moved around thecentre of Paris, much of whichhas been cordoned off for traffic.

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Lille (France): A driver died inBelgium near the border withFrance on Friday evening afterhitting a truck which hadslowed down due to a blockadeby “yellow vest” protesters, alocal government official said.

The death takes to seventhe number of people whohave died in incidents linkedto the anti-governmentprotests in France whichbegan on November 17 overrising petrol and diesel costs.

Most of the deaths havebeen in accidents at blockadesor barriers set up by protest-ers on roundabouts or onroads leading to motorways.

On December 1, an 80-year-old woman was fatallyinjured by a tear-gas grenadefired by police in Marseille.

AFP

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Russia wants to sit down withPentagon officials for “open

and specific” talks on allegedviolations of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty, theRussian Defence Ministry saidon Saturday.

The US claims Russia isviolating the INF treaty, and onDecember 4 issued an ultima-tum that Moscow come intocompliance with the accord in60 days, or else Washington willwithdraw. Russia denies it’s inbreach of the treaty.

Russian Defence MinisterSergei Shoigu sent his coun-terpart, US Defence Secretary

James Mattis, a proposal forlaunching a dialogue threedays ago, according to a state-ment Saturday. But Russia saysit hasn’t received any officialreply from the Pentagon, whichspokesman Maj. Gen. IgorKonashenkov said proves thatthe US is unwilling to maintainprofessional dialogue withMoscow on security issues.

On Friday, the Russianmission to the UN submitted adraft resolution calling for theinternational community tosupport the INF treaty againstWashington’s threat of with-drawal, warning that a collapseof the treaty could underminenuclear arms control across the

board. Washington begansounding off on a potentialRussian violation of the INFtreaty under President BarackObama.

Under President DonaldTrump, those allegations havebeen specified and coupledwith threats of unilateral with-drawal from the landmark1987 arms agreement, whichbanned an entire class ofground-launched missiles withranges between 500 and 5,000kilometers (310-3,100 miles).

The US claims that a newRussian missile, designated byNATO as the SSC-8, operatesin ranges forbidden by theINF treaty.

Ramallah: Israeli troopsdemolished the home of aPalestinian accused of the Maykilling of a soldier on Saturday,completing a night-long incur-sion into the Palestinian-con-trolled city of Ramallah.

The raid on the West Bankcity where Palestinian presidentMahmud Abbas has his head-quarters comes as Israeli forces

search for the perpetrator of aThursday shooting that killedtwo Israeli soldiers. The incur-sion late Friday triggered clash-es with angry residents follow-ing a week of rising tensions.

Both Army and borderpolice units took part in theoperation, including membersof the commando unit in whichthe soldier was serving. AFP

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Asenior Government min-ister called on Saturday

for British MPs from all partiesto “forge a consensus” on Brexitto avoid a potentially damaging“no deal” withdrawal from theEU in March.

Work and pensions minis-ter Amber Rudd said Brexitcould succeed “if politicians arewilling to try a different wayand only if a coalition of thosewho want what’s best for thiscountry argue a little less andcompromise a little more”.

Her comments, in an arti-cle in the Daily Mail newspa-per, come after Prime MinisterTheresa May returned from anEU summit without the reas-surances she said she needed toget her Brexit deal through theHouse of Commons.

Few people now believe theagreement, forged over 17months of tough negotiationswith Brussels, will pass in a voteof MPs planned for January.

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Officials from around theworld are still working to

agree on the fine print of theParis climate accord after twoweeks of talks, even as workersdismantle sections of the con-ferenced venue around them.

Diplomats and ministersprepared for a closing meetingat noon on Saturday, a day pastthe original deadline, but suc-cess was still uncertain.

The UN talks in Katowice,Poland, are meant to provide arulebook for all signatories ofthe 2015 accord, ensure finan-cial support for poor countriesand send a signal that countriesare prepared to increase theirefforts in years to come.

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US President Donald Trumphas named his Budget

director Mick Mulvaney asinterim White House chief ofstaff, putting a halt to a chaot-ic search to who will take overone of the most importantpositions in the federalGovernment.

The US President tweetedon Friday that Mulvaney “hasdone an outstanding job” in hisadministration and would takeover from John Kelly in thenew year.

“I am pleased to announcethat Mick Mulvaney, Directorof the Office of Management &Budget, will be named ActingWhite House Chief of Staff.

�'������ ���������� �(��������������)�Doha: Turkey’s ForeignMinister said on Saturday hiscountry would “not give up” onfinding out the truth about themurder of Saudi journalistJamal Khashoggi inside thekingdom’s consulate inIstanbul.

“We haven’t received anynew information or outcome ofthe investigation from theSaudi side,” Mevlut Cavusoglusaid on the sidelines of a con-ference in Turkish ally Qatar.

“Turkey will not give up onthis, we will go to the end.”Earlier this month, the minis-ter said Turkey was in talks overa possible United Nationsinvestigation into the October2 murder, which has provokedglobal outrage. AFP

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Several thousand Ukrainiansrallied outside one of Kiev’s

main cathedrals Saturdayahead of a historic synodexpected to establish anOrthodox church independentfrom Russia.

Ukrainian priests were tomeet in Kiev’s 11th-centurySaint Sophia Cathedral to work towardsfounding the church, in whatKiev authorities hope will be afurther step out of Russia’sorbit.

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Afederal judge in Texas onFriday struck down the

entire Affordable Care Act,popular as Obamacare, rulingthat the health-care law’s indi-vidual coverage mandate was“unconstitutional”, handing amajor political victory to US

President Donald Trump whohas long been seeking its end.

The ruling was over a law-suit filed this year by a group ofRepublican governors and stateattorneys general. It came on theeve of the Saturday deadline forAmericans to sign up for cov-erage in the federal insuranceexchange created under the law.

In a ruling, that is likely tobe challenged and was immedi-ately opposed by the Democrats,District Court Judge ReedO’Connor ruled that the indi-vidual mandate of AffordableCare Act requiring people tohave health insurance “can nolonger be sustained as an exer-cise of Congress’s tax power”.

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Continuing her sizzling form, Indianbadminton star P V Sindhu pro-

gressed to the summit clash of theWorld Tour Finals for the second suc-cessive time but it was curtains fordebutante Sameer Verma in men's sin-gles on Saturday.

The 23-year-old Indian, who fin-ished runner-up at the last edition,staved off a strong challenge from thefighting Ratchanok Intanon ofThailand, a 2013 world champion, toemerge a 21-16, 25-23 winner in atense semifinal that clocked 54 min-utes.

Sameer, however, had to swallowa bitter pill after squandering a match

point advantage in the second game togo down 21-12, 20-22, 17-21 to AllEngland Champion and WorldChampionship Silver medallist ShiYuqi of China in the men's singles

semifinals.Sindhu came into the match with

a 3-4 record against the Thai player butshe was buoyed by her recent resultsas she has not lost to Intanon in the lasttwo years.

The Olympic Silver medallist willnow fight for the title with Japan'sNozomi Okuhara, to whom she hadlost an epic World Championshipfinal, last year.

"I was leading by 2-3 points but shetook a lead in the end and I was mak-ing simple errors and I was nervous butI managed to be patient and fought foreach point and finished on top,"Sindhu said.

I have improved I believe. I amcomparatively stronger now because

earlier I used to keep thinking after los-ing points."

"It is going to be a long match. Itis never easy as we know each othersgame and on the day we have to strate-gies and play our game. There hasalways been long rallies and we haveto be patience.

World No 6 Sindhu has lost a lotof major finals, including the RioOlympics, two World Championshipsin 2017 and 2018 and the Jakarta AsianGames, to settle for Silvers in the lasttwo years.

"I know I have won a lot of Silversbut there is no pressure, I will just playthe way I have played in the last fourmatches and if I can win this title itwould mean a lot to me."

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Skipper Virat Kohli played apivotal role with a workman-

like 82, lifting India from a dou-ble blow at the beginning ofinnings to 172 for three in thesecond Test against Australia onSaturday.

Kohli's unbeaten knock cou-pled with Ajinkya Rahane's coun-terattacking 51 helped India tonot only overcome the cheap dis-missals of Murali Vijay (0) and KL Rahul (2), but also put the vis-itors in a position from wherethey will look to dominate therest of the game.

The India captain stitched a90-run unbroken partnershipwith Rahane by stumps on thesecond day, the stand comingafter he added 74 with Adelaidehero Cheteshwar Pujara (24) forthe third wicket.

This was after Australia'stail wagged to add 49 runs totheir overnight total to finish at326. India trailed by 154 runs.

Post tea, Kohli and Pujara(24) batted in much the samemanner as they did in the firstsession. Their pace of scoring wasslow, but they batted with assur-ance until Mitchell Starc (2-42)provided the breakthrough.

It came seven overs after thetea break as Pujara glanced adelivery down leg only to becaught behind, as his 74-run part-nership with Kohli for the thirdwicket came to an end.

Rahane then joined Kohli inthe middle, and initially he faced

some issues getting used to thepace and bounce off the pitch.Unlike Pujara though, he took thebowling head on and counter-attacked with two boundaries anda six.

It set the pace for his part-nership with Kohli, who was solidat the other end, and grindingdown the Australian attack. TheIndian skipper reached his 20thTest half-century off 109 balls asIndia crossed 100 in the 43rdover.

Their 50-partnership came

off 106 balls as the duo settleddown to see off the last hourbefore stumps. They cut down onthe risks even more, only occa-sionally coming forth to play theirshots.

In doing so, Rahane reachedhis 17th Test half-century beforeend of play as the two batsmenwere sure in their shot selectionand avoided any further damageto the Indian innings.

Earlier, Kohli and Pujarahad seen India to 70 for two attea. Post lunch, India were imme-diately under the pump as JoshHazlewood (1-50) knocked overKL Rahul (2) in the third overafter resumption of play.

Rahul was in two mindsabout how to play a full deliveryaimed on the off-stump and wasbeaten all ends up as the balldestroyed his stumps.

Earlier, India were placed atsix one at lunch with Starc bowl-ing Murali Vijay for a 12- ballduck. This was after IshantSharma's 4-41 helped the visitors

bowl Australia out for 326 runsin their first innings.

Starting from overnight 277-6, Australia added 49 runs to theirtotal for the loss of four wickets.Tim Paine (38) and Pat Cummins(19) frustrated Indian bowlingand enhanced their eighth wick-et partnership to 59 runs.

But Umesh got the break-through with an over of fulldeliveries, knocking offCummin's off-stump in the105th. Two balls later, Bumrahtrapped Paine lbw and the deci-sion stayed despite a DRS reviewfrom the batsman.

Nathan Lyon (9 not out)stayed unbeaten for the thirdinnings in a row as he addedquick-fire 16 runs with MitchellStarc to push Australia to ahealthy total on a tough wicket.

Ishant then finished offthings with two wickets in twoballs, with Starc and JoshHazlewood (0) caught behindwith some acrobatic help fromRishabh Pant.

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Harendra Singh's outburst against umpiring afterIndia's quarterfinal loss to Netherlands didn't go

down well with the world body (FIH) and its PresidentNarinder Batra on Saturday hinted at a strict actionagainst the coach for his indecent behaviour.

India lost 1-2 to Netherlands in quarterfinal tocrash out of the tournament on Thursday.

Soon after the defeat, Harendra blamed poorumpiring for his side's unexpected early ouster, sayingFIH seriously need to address the issue as his side hasbeen on the receiving end of poor on-field decisionstwice this year.

But the India coach's vitriolic outburst came backto haunt him as the FIH chief said a team should begraceful in defeat and questioning umpires is againstthe spirit of the game.

"Being the FIH President I have to follow certainprotocols and I have my strong reservations against thiskind of behaviour. A sport has to be played in the rightspirit," Batra said in a press conference also attendedby FIH CEO Thierry Wiel on Saturday.

"One should be graceful whether you win or lose.Finding a fault is very easy. You should rather appre-ciate and respect. They (umpires) have only two eyes.They are doing a job, a thankless job. They will get crit-icised by anybody who loses," he added.

Harendra's job has been under the scanned eversince India failed to defend its Asian Games title inJakarta and the World Cup was his last opportunity tosave his skin.

It seems the India coach is set to lose his job withHockey India mulling to take a drastic decision on thematter after the conclusion of the World Cup.

A former chief of Hockey India, Batra, who has con-siderable influence on the national federation, furtherindicated that some radical changes are on the offingin Indian hockey.

FIH CEO Weil, too felt it was not wise to blameumpires after a defeat.

"I think the beauty of sports in principle is that youhave a winner and a loser. The day you win, you arehappy. The day you lose, you are sad, which I under-stand. Even Argentina team cried on the bench," he said.

"I would just recommend (that) and definitely sayumpires have a tough job, decision to be made with-in seconds. It (questioning umpires) is not acceptable."

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World No 4 Netherlands brokeAustralia's dream of clinchinga hat-trick of World Cup titles,

beating the two-time defending cham-pions 4-3 in sudden death in a pul-sating semi-final of men hockey'sshow-piece tournament here onSaturday.

The Dutch thus took a sweet revengeof their 1-6 loss to the Kookaburras inthe summit clash of the 2014 World Cupat the Hague.

The match went intoshoot-out after bothNetherlands and Australia werelocked 2-2 at the end of regulation60 minutes.

Glenn Schuurman (9th minute)and Seeve van Ass (20th) scored for theDutch before Tim Howard (45th) con-verted a penalty corner and EddieOckenden (60th) found the equaliser forAustralia just 26 seconds from the finalhooter.

In the shoot-off, Daniel Beale, TomCraig and Jake Whetton scored forAustralia while Jeroen Hertzberger, VanAss and Thijs van Dam were on targetfor the Dutch to take the encounter intosudden death.

But it was not to be Australia's day,as Beale's attempt was saved by Dutchgoalkeeper Pirmin Blaak afterHertberger scored to take Netherlandsto their second consecutive World Cupfinal.

Netherlands will face Olympic Silvermedallist Belgium in Sunday's summitclash after the Red Lions spankedEngland 6-0 in the other semi-final ear-lier in the day.

World No 1 Australia will look fora consolation Bronze medal when theytake on England in the third-fourth placeplay-off match on Sunday.

After sitting back initially, theDutchmen got into the groove slowlyand had the first real scoring chance inthe fourth minute through a penalty cor-ner but Mnk van der Weerden's flick waskept away by Australia goalkeeper

Andrew Charter.Netherlands kept up the pressure on

the Australian defence and minutes latertook the lead through Schuurman, whoscored from close range after being setup by Jonas de Gues' brilliant run downthe right flank.

Van Ass doubled Netherlands' leadafter his shot from right corner of thebox went into the goal following a deflec-tion from Australian Tim Howard's stick.

Trailing by two goals, the Australianscame out with purpose after the changeof ends as they attacked in numbers insearch of breakthroughs.

Australia pulled a goal back just atthe stroke of third quarter throughHoward who scored from a penalty cor-ner after their variation went wrong.

Netherlands goalkeeper Blaak had awonderful match, inflicting brilliant

saves now and then to deny theAustralians.

But the Australians did not give uphope and fought till their last breath,which resulted in getting the equaliserjust 26 seconds from full time throughOckenden and take the match intoshoot-out.

� ���������� ����(Olympic Silver medallist Belgium

created history by making their maid-en appearance in the men's hockeyWorld Cup summit clash, thrashingEngland 6-0 in a lopsided first semi-final.

Alexander Hendrickx (45th, 50thminutes) converted two penalty corners,while Tom Boon (8th), Simon Gougnard(19th), Cedric Charlier (42nd) and

Sebastien Dockier (53rd) were the othergoal scorers for the world number threeat the Kalinga Stadium.

Prior to this, the Red Lions' best per-formance in the World Cup was a fifth-place finish in the last edition of the tour-nament at The Hague, Netherlands in2014.

The Belgium players, who woreblack armbands to pay respect to theirteammate Gougnard whose fatherpassed away before the match, domi-nated possession in the first two quar-ters and created a couple of promisingchances, two of which resulted in goals.

It didn't take long for Belgium totake the lead as Boon deflected inFlorent van Aubel's measured crossfrom the left in the eighth minute.

Belgium doubled their lead in the19th minute through Gougnard, whoscored from a rebound after Hendrickx'sflick from their first penalty corner wassaved by England captain and goalkeeperGeorge Pinner.

Belgium extended their lead in the42nd minute through Charlier, whoscored with a fierce shot from a closerange.

Seconds from the end of the thirdquarter, they made it 4-0 whenHendrickx found the back of the Englishnet from his team's second penalty cor-ner.

Belgium continued to toy with theEnglish defence and pumped in twomore goals in the fourth and final quar-ter to make the last-four contest a thor-oughly one-sided affair.

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Striker Akashdeep Singh faces a possible twomatch suspension for breaching Code of

Conduct at the end of India's quarterfinal lossagainst the Netherlands.

According to a statement from the world body,the International Hockey Federation's technical del-egate had recommended Akashdeep's case toFIH's disciplinary commissioner.

As per the recommendation, Akashdeep facesa possible two match suspension at the next top FIHevent.

The striker had allegedly "used foul languageor gesture (s) that was seriously obscene and offen-sive or having a 'seriously insulting nature to anoth-er participant or any other third person at the con-clusion of India's quarter-final against theNetherlands on Thursday".

In his decision, FIH technical delegate ChristianDeckenbrock indicated that if India had still beenin the competition, he would have suspendedAkashdeep for the next two matches.

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The year that will come to a close inabout two weeks has seen the releaseof a rather unique set of movies —Andhadun, Mulk, Badhaai Ho, Raazi,Stree, and Pad Man being some of

them. Mulk, a movie about the post-Partitionprejudice against Muslims, and Badhaai Ho, amovie about three generations of a family com-ing to terms with the idea of a woman in herlate 40s having a sex life, getting pregnant, anddeciding to keep the baby, were two of the mostrecent ones. And what stood out in both films,apart from good storylines and compelling por-trayals, was the performance of 62-year-oldNeena Gupta whom the camera, the audience,and even mainstream cinema and televisionmissed dearly in the past few years.

Best known for her work in the 1998 showSaans, her 2000 show Siski, and several com-mercial as well as art films like Gandhi, Mandi,and Khalnayak, Gupta had been somewhatmissing from TV as well as movies since 2006.Kamzor Kadi Kaun and Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahinwere two of her last widely watched showsaround that time. And her response to why thathappened is so unpretentious that one feelsunnerved and is filled with awe at the sametime. “I was not being offered many good roles.I have been doing only one play — Mera WohMatlab Nahi Tha. It’s with Anupam Kher andhas been written and directed by Rakesh Bedi.Of the play, I have done many shows in the pasttwo years,” she says. The play shows Kher andGupta as estranged lovers who meet when theyare older, reminisce and talk about what hadmade them drift apart. Clearly, Gupta, who isan alumna of NSD (National School of Drama)found the meat in theatre when cinema failedto provide it to her. But thankfully for the audi-ence, cinema, too, came around eventually. “Ofcourse, I have changed a lot since the NSDdays,” the actress says. But what seems to haveremained constant is the willingness to fearless-ly and unapologetically put oneself out there tofind work, “good work”.

A glimpse of her straightforward, digni-fied, and adorably hungry approach to workgot a lot of hits on Instagram recently whenshe put: “I live in Mumbai and working; am agood actor and looking for good parts to play,”as her status. The status was appreciated bymany including actor Priyanka Chopra whosaid it “inspired” her, and Gupta and Sir VivianRichards’ daughter, Masaba, who said this kindof uninhibitedness to ask for work has beenpassed on to her “genetic(ally)” from hermother. Masaba wrote, “Just the other day, Iwas telling someone... how I am neverafraid/shy to ask for work. It’s obviously genet-ic. My mother put up this post on herInstagram today. I mean, my 62-year-oldNational Award-winning mother. She told me Imust always work, no matter what. It keepsyou from getting old. She told me they don’twrite for women her age anymore. I don’tthink anyone can replicate what she did for TVanymore; she complains that she can’t do PR,but says ‘I do good work, that’s my PR’”.

It’s not surprising then that when wecalled Gupta for this interview, the phone wasanswered by not an assistant or a secretary, butthe actor herself. During the conversation,Gupta told us that she picked her most recentroles because of the highly relevant social issuethat Mulk dealt with and the strength of the

character of the mother and uniqueness of thestory in Badhaai Ho. In the Indian society,older women, even the ones in their late 40s,are often looked down upon if they pay atten-tion to their looks or sex life. Even for hercharacter in Badhaai Ho, her mother-in-law isshown to be getting angry at the fact thatGupta still wears bright lipstick and paysattention to her appearance. The expectationfrom women in this particular age group isthat they will resign from desire and focus onbeing a good mother or mother-in-law. Guptahas never conformed to that expectation. Inthe 1980s, news reports regularly talked abouther relationship with West Indian cricketer,Viv Richards, with whom she had a daughterout of wedlock. While Gupta and Richardsparted ways, she and her daughter Masaba areactively a part of each other’s lives. In 2008,the actress married Vivek Mehra, a charteredaccountant and partner with PwC India.

So, as far as meeting the expectations ofsociety is concerned, obviously it’s been diffi-cult. Just like it was for her character in themovie. “But the blame lies with the women,too,” she believes, “As they themselves startresigning to these expectations — be it theirchildren’s or their elders’. They make a habit ofcompromising — be it food, clothes, or lifestyle.You must ask for what you want and deserve.My mother never conformed to such stereo-types. She was a self-reliant woman and didwhat made sense to her. That’s what she taughtme, so my way of life only came naturally tome. And yes, I think that’s what I have tried toteach my daughter, too.” The lesson seems tohave been imparted well as Gupta’s daughteronce reacted to Internet trolls by saying, “I’m aproud Indo-Caribbean girl, who does not knowhow to shrink and crumble in the shame ofsomething you and your society cannot handle.It’s just in my ‘illegitimate genes’.”

The actress says that while her character inBadhaai Ho was quite different from her per-sonally, it was a character full of strength in itsown right who might not shut down her tem-peramental mother-in-law but still knew rightfrom wrong. Her own pregnancy was quite dif-ferent from her character’s in the movie, shesays, as unlike the mother in Badhaai Ho, whoeventually has the whole family taking care ofher, Gupta had to do it all alone. But she has“absolutely no regrets” as it all turned out wellfor both her and her daughter.

As the mother of a famous fashion design-er, Gupta believes she tries to be involved butnot controlling. “Masaba would often ask mewhat kind of look I want and design clothesspecifically for me,” she shares. And like anymother and daughter, they have “our shareand more” of disagreements and fights. “Thereare so many disagreements between us aboutso many things,” she says. But like any motherand daughter, they, too, soon get over it.Masaba and Gupta have both praised anddefended each other publicly on several occa-sions. On a personal level, when in doubtabout something, Gupta turns only either toher daughter or her circle of close friends. Butas opposed to speculation about a friendlyrelationship with her ex, Sir Vivian Richards,she says, “No, Vivian Richards is past. I justlike to confide in my husband.”

Luckily for her fans, Gupta is working ona series of new films. One of them is titled

Meetha Paan and is about the lives anddesires of older people. While she has alsodirected in the past, for now, she says, “I amhappy doing the different kind of roles thatare coming my way. So, no directing for now.”Gupta says that she thoroughly enjoyedworking with Ayushmann Khurrana andwould “definitely want to” work with some ofthe other newer actors and even try her handat digital content as and when the rightopportunity presents itself.

Television, however, she says “is goingthrough a phase” where the kind of qualityshows that were being made once are not beingmade anymore. “But I think it will pass. Just likeour movies have changed, television will too.” Assomeone who stayed away from the camerasimply because of lack of good parts to play inthe past few years, Gupta says that she feelsextremely happy that Indian cinema has finallyopened up to newer topics where there is nodistinction between an artsy movie and a com-mercial success. It has been worth the wait asshe now has not one but several parts that aredifferent, relevant, and have been written forwomen her age. These are not limited to whatour society would have usually liked to see these

women as — doting mothers or connivingmothers-in-law. Instead, they are realistic char-acters that have depth and can both inspire andreassure the audiences in equal measure.

It’s only fitting then that at this time, oursociety, too, has finally become a little morereceptive towards women who have #MeToostories to share. “Irrespective of what happensnow or how long they took to talk, I think it’s avery big deal that they have spoken — so manyof them and so confidently. It just could nothave happened earlier.” While there have alwaysbeen women who have been able to shut downpredatory men then and there, it’s commend-able that all women can talk about it now, shesays. Talking about one of the cases that hascome up — Alok Nath’s — Gupta says, “I havenot done many shows or movies with him.There was this show called Maryada but evenin it there were not many scenes that we didtogether. Moreover, I have always had thisimage due to which such people would not tryanything with me. But I am just happy thatwomen are finally speaking up,” she says.

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The significance of archi-tectural heritage is oftenlost on the people of ourcountry. In New Delhi, ifyou ask someone what is

Feroz Shah Kotla, nine out of 10people will tell you that it is a crick-et stadium. Most of them have for-gotten that it is also an excellentarchaeological site. It is a fortresswhich was built by Sultan FirozShah Tughlaq to house his versionof Delhi city called Ferozabad in theyear 1354. Similarly, in Cuttack,Odisha, when you ask people aboutthe Barabati Fort, you will find thatto the general public, its importancehas been reduced to that of asports complex.

The congested streets and poor-ly maintained heritage buildings ofCuttack city are enough to disillu-sion and disappoint anybody whocomes here in the search a pristinesetting or learn about Odisha’s his-tory. It’s tragic that the city hasbecome oblivious to the rich her-itage which practically stares themin the face. Only about 8 km fromthe centre of the messy city, at theapex of a delta formed by the riverMahanadi on the north and its dis-tributary, the Kathajodi on thesouth, stands the medieval structureof the Barabati Fort. This fort mightbe in ruins today but it is an assetnonetheless as it speaks volumesabout a hidden aspect of our sharedhistory. It has seen the rise and fallof various dynasties — Afghan,Mughal, Maratha and later, even theBritish empire. Even the remains ofthe fort in this small archeologicalpark offer invaluable insights intowhat Cuttack has been through.

The remains suggest that thefortress was built of khondalitestone. The area has a citadel wallbuilt with laterite blocks. Remainsof a temple, too, have been foundhere. Upon excavation, 32 pillarsalso built of laterite blocks werefound standing in the area like sen-tinels. The 102 acres of area that thisrectangular fort covers is still guard-ed with several stone gates, bastionsand ramparts.

It’s believed that this fort wasquite small in size. It is just 2,150ft in length and hardly about 1,899ft in breadth. Another theory sug-

gests that Barabati may have beena part of a bigger fortificationwhich was reduced later to a smallone. Stories begin to unfold themoment one enters the fortress areaand starts to look around.

Odisha is thought of as thesacred land of Hindus as it boasts ofthe Jagannath and Lingaraja tem-ples. It has a glorious past whichdoes not deserve to be forgotten.

According to the description ofthis land offered by Chinese travel-er Xuanzang, it was a booming cen-tre of Buddhism in the 6th centu-ry. It housed several stupas, monas-teries and related learning schools.From the 7th century onwards,Hindu kings overpowered thecrown and dynasties like Kesari,Ganga and Chalukya brought agolden era of temple architecturehere giving India some its best dis-play of cultural heritage.

Our mythology, too, containsreferences to this land. While oneversion says that this land wasruled by the third son of Bali, thedemon king, another version in theMahabharata says thatDuryadhana was married to adaughter of Angada, who was theruler king of this land.

The political unification of Odishawas done between 1118 and 1134when king Chodagangadeb of Gangadynasty defeated the last Somavamsiking Karnakeshari. It was the timewhen victorious king Chodagangadebbuilt several forts to protect his king-dom and also shifted his capital fromKalinganagar to Katak. Legend has itthat he also built a fort near Cuttackbut whether that is Barabati or not isnot clear in history.

Madala Panji, a chronicle of thePuri Jagannath Temple, covers variousperiods of history. It gives the stronghint that another ruler namedAnangabhima Deva III built a newcapital near Barabati village. He namedit Varanasi Katak. It was at this timethat the royal family shifted fromChauwdar and started living here.Thus, the idea of establishing a fort atBarabati village between the fertile landof two rivers named Mahanadi andKathajori was logical. Also, a recentdiscovery of a copper plate from thisarea suggests that a donation of landwas made by Anangabhima Deva III.

Historians argue this is enough to con-clude that this fort was built byAnangabhima Deva III sometimebetween 1229 to 1238.

The Afghani invasion of Bengalin 1568 saw the fall of the last Hinduking Mukundadeva. That was thebeginning of a dark era in Odisha.Like many other invasions in India,this one too entailed brutal treat-ment of people and destruction oftemples and other Hindu architec-ture. Kalapahad, a muslim who wasearlier a Hindu Bramhin namedKalachand Roy, came from Bengalas the commander of SultanSulainian Karanni and destroyedseveral great archaeological edificesof Odisha. Konark Temple andBarabati Fort both were victims ofhis zealotry as they suffered large-scale vandalism.

The game changed again in1592 when Barabati was conqueredby Mughals. Abu’l-Fazl ibnMubarak, the court historian ofAkbar, mentions it in his book Ain-i-Akbari written between 1594 to1595. He says that the fort represent-ed great architecture and it has apalace with nine asianas. Asianasis a Persian word which meanscourtyard. It has often wronglybeen translated as a multi-storeyedpalace. This was very clearlyexplained by James Fergusson, theScottish historian who came toIndia as a businessman but ended upspending his time in exploringIndia’s lost history. He visited the fortin 1837 and upon examining thestructure, he concluded that therewas never a nine-storeyed palacehere. Instead, there were severalinter-connected courts in concentriccircles at different surface levels withdeceasing floor size. Much beforeFergusson’s visit, two British tradersnamed Bruton and Cartwright vis-ited this fort in 1633. They alsonever talked about any multi-storeyed palace.

In Abul Fazal’s description itself,use of each section was detailed assections for elephants, artillery,cooking, women, etc.

The Maratha connection withBarabati is an important chapter inhistory. It is known that after thedeath of Aurangzeb in 1707, theentire central administration of the

Mughals started to crumble and cre-ated space for local governors whobecame almost independent till thetime British East India Companycrushed them. The Eastern part ofIndia was also not an exceptionwhere Murshid Quli Khan, thegovernor of Bengal became an indi-rect ruler of Odisha. It was duringhis time that inside the fort, amosque was built in 1719. Themosque still stands there.

In the western part of India, theMaratha kingdom was also gettingweaker because of internal conflictbetween several groups of Pune,Baroda, Gwalior and Nagpur.

The Nagpur region was domi-nated by Raghuji Bhosale who triedto expand his area in the east andin that process entered Odisha.They conquered Cuttack along withBarabati fort on April 19, 1742.

Though it was again recap-tured by Alivardi Khan of Bengal,Marathas regained it throughRaghuji Bhosale’s commander

Pandit Bhaskar Rao Holkar on May12, 1743. The era of Bhaskar Holkarin Odisha was a saga of extremeplunder and loot that in brutalitymay cross many earlier invasions.

In 1765, the British East IndiaCompany gained the right of tax col-lection in Bengal, Bihar and a partof Odisha from the Mughal empire.The imperial power of Londonnever looked back after this asBengal, the richest province ofIndia, was under them. It thenspread across today’s Bangladesh,Bihar, Jharkhand, a part of Odishaand the Indian part of WesternBengal. Cuttack and Ganjam werestill under Marathas.

After Robert Clive, WarrenHastings tried to capture Cuttackbut failed. In 1799, with the con-quest of Mysore, the East IndiaCompany further spread its tenta-cles. Meanwhile, China was becom-ing a big exporter of tea to Europe.Thus there was a need to expand ter-ritory for opium and indigo and

capturing Cuttack was the need ofthe hour. In 1803, Colonel Harcourtlanded at Ganjam and defeated theMarathas. By October, Cuttack wasalso taken over after Battle ofLaswari. By December 17, 1803,Barabati Fort was under a new ruler.Within the next 30 years, the fall ofBarabati started and from 1856-57when Cuttack city was in expansionand railway tracks were underinstallation in Odisha, randomstone slabs were relocated from here.

It is said that most of thebridges and roads of Cuttack citywere made with the stone slabs ofBarabati. Naturally, it did not takea long time for the structure tostart getting diminished to a mereplinth foundation. In a letter datedMay 31, 1856, a strong request wasmade to save this historical mon-ument. Over t ime, the ASI(Archaeological Survey of India)took it over. However, one needs apair of special eyes and ears tounderstand its importance.

It’s an accurate and moving portrayal of varied characters thatmakes Neena Gupta an actor worth watching, particularly after await of around nine or 10 years. While natural talent has obvi-

ously had a role to play, her performances probably also have a lot todo with the kind of person she is. Her fundamentals about work goway beyond notions about fame, age, and general expectation. Shekeeps it simple — do only good work; gracefully ask for it if it does-n’t come to you on its own. And just like work, Gupta makes nobones while talking about her personal life either. She is very clear

about the people she wants in her life.Unlike most people, she doesn’t flinchat any question about her former rela-tionships or her second attempt atmarriage. She speaks about almosteach aspect of her life with an envi-able ease and manages to keep itdirect and relevant at any point oftime. So, what hits one when talkingto Neena Gupta is not just her humili-ty but also the sense of peace that shehas with herself and her journey. Sheleaves no space for regret or unfulfill-ment hanging. This rare sense of clari-ty reflects in her work and inevitablyleaves the audiences satiated with oneperformance and waiting for the next,no matter how long Gupta takes tofind a part that is worth her time.

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It’s hardly news that KhaledHosseini’s words have thepower to make the reader

experience emotions in theirmost extreme form. His latestbook, titled Sea Prayer, uses bareminimum words. It contains apoem from a father to his son.Set in the backdrop of war andbloodshed in Syria, the booksends across the message to thereaders that words are simply notenough to convey the feelings ofthe father. And yet, the minimalwords that are used are enoughto make one’s heart ache for thepeople struggling to save somesemblance of home.

The metaphor of the seaworks on two levels in Hosseini’spoem. On one level, it brings outthe predicament of the peoplewhose existence is challenged bythe storm in the sea. They weepfor the loved ones, the happydays, and the irreplaceable assetsthat they have lost to this storm.At the same time, they also holdtheir surviving kin close to theirchest. As their powerlessness tosave them from the impendingdisaster stares them in the face,they reminisce, they negotiate,and when nothing else seems towork for them, they pray.

On this other level, then, thesea becomes an agent of God andhis natural world. It transformsinto a source of change and hopethat one can pray to when in dis-tress. Hence, the book has beenmeaningfully titled Sea Prayer.This splitting of the sea metaphorbrings to the fore a sense ofcringing in fear from the universeand praying to the same universeat the same time. This becomesrepresentative of a changing rela-tionship with the homeland.Their own land has become athreat to their very existence.They are forced to run away fromit. But, they also can’t help butworship it for it once gave themand what they know it was capa-ble of giving to their children.

The speaker indulges in apainful comparison between theSyria of his childhood and theSyria of his son’s childhood. Helaments the fact that he can’t givehis son what he got as a child. Hecan’t even begin to share his ownemotional and familial inheri-tance with him because it hasbeen lost to the socio-politicalupheaval. The only Syria that his

son has seen is the one where theskies rain bombs, the groundspits out dead bodies of peopleonce loved, and the city reeks offear, hatred, and death.

The Syria of the father’schildhood — which he describesas “a long summer” in contrastwith the unrelenting winter thatthey are now faced with — hasbeen destroyed. All that remainsare memories of Marwan’s (theson) grandparents’ house wherethe father and his brothers wouldlive carefree. The father says:

We woke up in the mornings to the stirring of olive trees in

the breezeTo the bleating of your grand-

mother’s goat…In that Syria, remembers the

speaker, Muslims and Christianswould pray together and live har-moniously. “I wish, Marwan”becomes the leitmotif in this

poem as the helpless fatherexpresses a series of unfulfilledbut yet-to-be-resigned desires. “Iwish you hadn’t been so young,you wouldn’t have forgotten thefarmhouse,” he says while talkingabout the golden past when thefamily was together and happy.“I wish you remembered Homsas I do, Marwan,” he says again,hoping against hope that his sonwill know life as he once did andnot lose the rest of his innocenceand potential to the “storm”.

The biggest loss of this fam-ily’s old Syria to this new Syria,however, has been of the moth-er. He remembers the last tripthe family had taken together.Now, just like the mothers andsisters of many other refugees,she can be found only in the thememories of the dwindling past.Hope, too, becomes slippery liketime when the father says that

the past is like a dream or a“long-dissolved” rumour evento him now.

A very Modernist break-down of language against theviolent reality of the characters’universe can be seen towardsthe latter half of the book.Majority of this part is made upof heart-rending illustrationsby Dan Williams. Hosseinichooses to use only a word ortwo on the whole page to showthe enormity of the emotionthat overtakes the father. Thesiege, the protests, the starva-tion, and the burials are notdescribed in detail; they are leftto be felt by the readers.

The most harrowing stanzain the whole poem, however, isthe one that starts and ends with“These are the things you know,”which is written against theillustration of grey and black

spots of smoke taking over Syria.It is spread out on two pages thathave just six words written onthem. They scream of the injus-tice met to the child whose child-hood memory has been reducedto these smoke spots, blankness,and a blur. The only swimmingpool that this child, who is repre-sentative of many other such chil-dren, knows is the one made outof a bomb crater.

Against all the lament andloss, the speaker somehow man-ages to regain hope. An illustra-tion shows that the father haspicked up the child and held himclose to his chest. He assures theson that the mother is still withthem as she whispers about thepromise of better days. And evenwhen he is very aware of how“deep” the sea has become, hedecides to “hope again”, and heprays — to the sea and to God.

This is the latest transla-tion into English ofKhajida Mastur’spoignant book on theclaustrophobia felt by

Islamic women restricted withinthe house set during the run upto and the aftermath of thePartition. For page after page itbuilds a tension of living in avery proscribed universe.

It records the ignominy ofreceiving word on the world out-side second-hand, based on whatthe men might have said, thedynamics between the womenand servants in the house, theirhopes, fears, frustrations andaspirations. There is the radio ofcourse, and newspapers.

There is value in this book interms of its relentless sociologicalcommentary that is relevant tothis day amongst the rank andfile Muslim communities certain-ly, and even in the rigid behaviorof most Khap Panchayats andother such organisations amongstthe Hindus. A recent stir aboutBrahminical patriarchy onlyunderlines the issue.

The partition came after thedaily struggle between Congressand the Muslim League in thebackdrop of World War II, tillthe British, much weakened,finally retreated in 1947. Andyes, the ruling dispensations didchange on the subcontinent.This gave power to the men,excited by their emergence intoindependence, but did little ornothing for the situation of orattitudes towards the women,restricted still to their housesand courtyards.

Daisy Rockwell’s rendition ofthe book is, as if it was writtenoriginally in English, without theawkwardness of a translationfrom Urdu, a much more flowerylanguage on average.

An earlier translation byNeelam Hussain titled The InnerCourtyard, published by Kali for

Women in 2001, did use a moresonorous tone that Rockwell averswas not the writing style of theoriginal.

This version then, a retransla-tion, has been undertaken by herto expose Khajida Mastur’s “spareand elegant” writing style, thistime in English. In this endeav-our, The Women’s Courtyard cer-tainly succeeds even though therestrictions of a cloistered exis-tence seem a little dated in thisage of the Internet and television.

The only men allowed intothe women’s courtyard and housewere cousins and other elderlyrelatives. There is an outsideroom, off the courtyard, with aservice door from the inside forrefreshments and the like, andanother, leading directly to theoutside for the men who cameand went.

There is a touch of AnneFrank’s restricted and secretworld in this story, with sup-pressed romances betweencousins. Frank and her familywere eventually discovered in

their hiding place, transported,and eliminated by the Nazis. But,in this story, there is a desolatesuicide, that of the protagonist’selder sister Tehmina, the ending

of life seen by the victim, asescape from a kind of prison anda life sentence. Aliya, the heroineof the piece, sees her elder sister’ssuicide however, as weakness.

Rockwell, focuses on the fem-inist leanings of the narrative,remarkable for the milieu andtime from which it has come, andlikens Mastur, like others before

her, to one of the Bronte sisters. She hastens to add, that

though the Brontes too lived cir-cumscribed and extremely shortlives, they were certainly free to

wander outside in the Yorkshiremoors.

But Mastur, who died at 53,said to be meek and unassumingin person, wrote with convictionon patriarchy, classism, chauvin-ism and misogyny. She saw themas “systemic poisons that destroyand kill women intellectually,emotionally and physically”.Additionally, Mastur points outthe role of elderly women like hermother and grandmother in “per-petuating the rigid bonds of patri-archy and class hierarchy”.

Here in The Women’sCourtyard, liberation of sortscomes after the Partition. Aliya,the protagonist, leaves her Indianamours, unrequited as they are,and part of her extended familybehind in India. She gets a joboutside, once her lower middleclass family moves from some-where in Uttar Pradesh toPakistan. She becomes the pri-mary breadwinner there, beingeducated, and is able to comeand go at last.

Aliya teaches children duringthe day, and volunteers at arefugee camp in the evenings. Buther mother waits up for her, andcomplains that she has becomelike her dead father, alwaysfocused on the outside world.

At the refugee camp, afterendless years of sheltered domes-ticity, a well-to-do doctor pro-poses to Aliya. Tempted thoughshe is at first, she turns himdown. What is the point of sell-ing my soul for secure domestici-ty she thinks? Her dead sister’sone time suitor Safdar appears,fortyish, after over a decade, thistime in Pakistan, and proposes toher. She turns him down too.This is the ironic triumph offeminism in The Women’sCourtyard, a lonely refusal tosubmit to patriarchy. That it flewin the face of a sensitive woman’snatural hopes and desires wasjust the price that had to be paid.

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The rigmarole of the rancorgenerated due to the trade

war between the arch “cooper-ators and competitors” can bequite an intellectual challengeto comprehend. The rabid con-frontation between USPresident Trump and Chinesecommissar Xi Xingpin had tobe delved into with an amal-gamative zeal so that the thawcould heal between the twonations and their gargantuaneconomies in the contempo-rary context. The shock of thetariffs imposed on trade by theWhite House on Beijing elicit-ed counter charges from theChinese who did not intend togive an impression that the Hanhad chickened out. That led tocarnage in the global economy,but on a second reading of thetrajectory of trade tariffs andcounter measures, much wasbeing made out of it as BuenosAires G-20 Summit might pavethe way for a rote rapproche-ment after the Americanmanoeuvre of “eco-contain-ment” which India too ought toattempt as the all girdlingimpact of the Chinese Beltand Road initiative.

What brought it all to sucha passé akin to the Japanese andthe American automobile warsof the Eighties? The Telegraphhas reported that Huawei is thelatest front in the tinderbox ofthe world economic healthand pelf. As opposed to the pastconfrontation and the litany oftirade, the Chinese are expect-ed to open up the financial sec-tor within the next ninety daysas part of a tentative tete-a-tetebetween the numero uno andthe numero two in the sphere

of the international economics.The sceptics and the fallenangels thought that the tradewar and the Trump-infusedexasperation of the Chinese todestabilise the American apple-cart might be filled with furtherrancor. Still, leaving apart thehistrionics, President Trumphas once again played smartand akin to a few other inter-national engagements, has, lis-tened to the Chinese plight oris this volte face a kind of aneffort to cement China as aninterlocutor par excellence inthe context of the Korean quag-mire and other theatres andfrontiers.

Still, the chicken game andthe dilemmatic tangle hangover the mystery of the Chineseelite in Canada. The SouthChina Morning Post has says,“While the presidents of Chinaand the United States were ata dinner in Buenos Aires thatresulted in a 90-day truce intheir trade war, Canadianpolice in Vancouver werearresting one of China’s cor-porate elites on behalf of theUS. It is said that DonaldTrump was not necessarilyaware of it at the time. How hecame not to be looped intoadvance notice given to theWhite House is unclear.” TheChinese are calling it as an ele-ment of deceit by theAmericans, but, the Americanstance remains that PresidentTrump was not aware of thearrest though the embarrassingincident can place a spanner inthe works of the Argentine G-20 Summit and the Sino-American detente. Still, it’sgood news that India, which is

“slated-to-be-the ally” of theUnited States, will host the G-20 Summit in 2022. Thus, theentire international system can-not look askance at the intran-sigence and the trust deficitinterceding on the behalf of realpolitic. In the words of MichaelBolton, the National SecurityAdvisor, the Chinese inclina-tion to indulge in intellectualtheft and technology transfersneed to be look into and mightbecome a staple fare of con-fabulations betweenWashington and Beijing with

the two strong men keeping thebroth turning in the nearfuture.

Intellectual property andcensorship have always bedev-iled the relationship betweenthe two nations sparring rabid-ly with each other in the pasttoo. As a part of the theft trail,the Chinese used to snoop inupon the quintessential Disneygames, compact discs and cin-ematic productions while theylay waiting en route to Japanand Korea and other destina-tions in the Far East. Such

thefts stripped the Americansoft power of its effectivenessand that led to an augmenta-tion in the American awarenessand retaliation about theChinese skulduggery. As ofnow, the American sanctionssimilar to the ones on Iran canplace the Chinese geo-politicalambitions in a quandary andthe dream can go awry sansdeft diplomacy or seethingChinese retaliation. One opin-ion which has been bandiedabout is that a smarter, self-suf-ficient and stronger China

might be on the offing, as anaftermath of President Trump’spolicy. But, in more ways thanone, the utilisation of eco-nomic strangulation on astrong foe, is, a feisty testamentto the stately striving of stulti-fying an arch rival. The nine-ty days of tariff truce is goingto be another deft geo-eco-nomic stratagem on the part ofPresident Trump and will serveas a long drawn-out pressuretactic in order to stem theChinese in their overarchwhich is bound to be coming

to a lurching halt head-onwith the all pervading regula-tor, equalizer and organiser, theUnited States of America.

The US, China and Mexicodeal serves as a backgrounderto the G-20 Summit with theAmerican Monroe Doctrinecoming into play in all its pris-tine glory with the Chinesebeing commandeered to act assecond fiddle in the geo-eco-nomics of the larger politicaleconomy. The fact that a fewnations have also agreed to fallin line with the American tar-iffs on China, speaks volumesabout the gradual but steadytransformation of the worldsystem as the world intends tolurch out of the clap trapapproach of the developmen-tal hiatus in the larger inter-national system. Thus, Indiansare not the only pivotal peoplewho might end up beingAmerican allies but nationssuch as Australia, Netherlandsand Germany too have jumpedon to the American vessel.

This is “grand standingband-wagoning” for the inter-national system with Americaacting as the leader and the reg-ulator nation in the contem-porary context. The trade warmight have rocked the boat ofthe global political economy,but, once again it’s not an irre-versible pathway to perdition.

A consultancy firm inVietnam contends that 10 percent of tariff on 200 billion dol-lar worth of Chinese importscould have been manageablebut 25 per cent of the entirestrategy might completelyscupper the Chinese profits asis evident from the perfor-

mance of a few companies inthe Chinese “eco-system.” Still,the trade war has created abubble, which, will die downafter the twin nations find away to subsist together as tradepartners. It is also an instanceof Altercasting, where in theChinese and American eco-nomic interface is not about ageo-economic interface, buttends to transform the “scantymodel” with a “plenty model”of economics. As in the lingoof IR theory, nations learn andcopy from each other as theynegotiate and function togeth-er as efficient working units inthe larger international system.“Can the Chinese learn” is themillion-dollar question as apertinent poser in today’s con-text. President Trump con-tends that the Chinese modelis not conducive to “a fair dealcompetition,” which needs tochange if the standard businesspractices have to become theorder of the day in a substan-tially closed PRC.

The final ask being thatChina needs to be high incomeand America attained that stag-gering keel and the questionwhich can be posed is that canwe have such stories in LatinAmerica and Africa, too? Thus,the idiom of, a thrift societyneeds to be changed and theDemocratic ideal of highincome societies serve as apointer in the right direction.Let the land of AbiCeleste bethe solution.

(The writer teachesInternational Relations atIndian Institute of PublicAdministration, Delhi)

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The security situation inIraq, which was ravaged by

ISIS, has been on the mend inthe last two years. It dawned onme during my recent academ-ic visit to the country. For thefirst time, I could roam aroundin the Capital city Baghdadwithout the requisite securitycover. While visiting Baghdad’sposh Karrada neighbourhood— home to all religious faiths,including mosques, Shiamourning centres Hussainiya,churches and Jewish syna-gogue — I saw the residents rel-ishing the nightlife that wasunimaginable in 2014 when Ihad visited the country. Afterpulling through its ISIS-influ-enced tumultuous phase dur-ing which Karrada witnessedmultiple deadly bombings,shops and restaurants theredare to do business well beyondmidnight. And all the credits goto al-Hashd al-Sha’abi orPopular Mobilistaion Forces(PMF).

However, the signs of crip-pling sanctions and wars aretangible. Since the exit of USoccupied forces, the econom-ic condition is still in the dol-drums. Unlike neighbouringoil-rich countries, petro-dollarshave not given the city a facelift.But certainly things are chang-ing fast, and Iraq is catching upwith other West Asian oil-richcountries in infrastructure andother developmental projects.

In his analysis, FanarHaddad believes that mostcommon handicap among out-siders trying to understandIraq is the difficulty of keepingpace with Iraq’s fast-changingsocial and political landscapes.Western and Arab impressionsof Iraq have consistently nottaken into account Iraqi reali-ty, and worse many outsidersseem unaware of just howIraqi politics influences trends,

personalities, and frames of ref-erence. Understanding Iraqisectarian relations withoutknowing these realities stemfrom that ignorance, whichfinally culminates into dis-tortive commentary on Iraq’sformidable resistance groupsPMF.

PMF is a multi-confes-sional resistance group domi-nated by Shia armed groups. Itwas formed after the rise ofISIS, which overran the largeswathes of territory in northand some central parts, toeliminate the terror organisa-tion from the land of oldestcivilisation of Mesopotamia.

Iraqi Army, which wasweakened after its disbandingpost-US occupation in 2003,was in no position to take onthe Wahhabi-Takfiri group.The central authority inBaghdad was thrown into dis-array and could not respondsuccessfully to the newquandary. In the meanwhile,the clerical establishment inholy city of Najaf and Iraq’shighest moral authority GrandAyatollah Sayyid Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani intelligent-ly tried to pull out the countryfrom the brink of collapse andissued a historic fatwa callingupon all Iraqis, regardless oftheir religious or sectarianidentities, to join the securityforces to repel the loomingthreat of ISIS.

In response, people, espe-cially Shias, came out in hordesto join new paramilitary forcesconsidering it as “sacreddefence”.

The myth of sectarianismSome oil-rich Gulf monar-

chical regimes and theirstooges have been spreadingrumours to sully the anti-ISIS(PMF) force as rag tag militiawhich runs amok anywhere

they want. The Gulf regimes,which have a history of clan-destine support of terrorgroups and pumping petro-dollars in creating mess in theregion dubbed it as sheer sec-tarian and called it as a proxyof Iranian project of mythical“Shia Crescent” accomplishingits regional ambitions.However, Iranian supportalong with Lebanese Hezbollahin countering the hydra-head-ed ISIS phenomenon is onlybased on security compulsionsand not on ideological one. Asfar as the sectarian compositionof Hashd al-Sha’abi is con-cerned, it is cross-sectarianand multi-ethnic armed for-mations working under an

umbrella group and sanctionedby an act of Parliament and amulti-layered commissionwhich supervises its strategiesand actions. By virtue of theirmajority in Iraq, Shia groupsform the majority of PMF, andadhere to the ideology ofPolitical Islam as Iran does.However, there is no denyingthe fact that Shia individualshave committed extra-judicialkillings but higher echelons ofPMF have reiterated that theymust be brought to justiceunder the law of land. The hul-laboloo over “sectarianism” isjust a pretext to dislodge thecredibility of PMF and Iraniansupport for anti-ISIS offen-sive. The sensible clerical lead-

ership of Najaf or any politicalleader have always tried toprevent any kind of schismbetween majority Shias andother minority communities inIraq. On the contrary, the ArabShias often called as “forgottenMuslims” despite having beenmarginalised in the larger Arabworld by the farce of Arabnationalism have integratedmaximum number of politicalactors in its fold in the post-Ba’thist dispensation.

As far as the sectarian andreligious composition of PMFis concerned, it includes cross-sectarian participation.Prominent Sunni politicianand former governor ofNineveh province Atheel al-

Nujaifi’s Nineveh Guard, pre-viously known as Hashd al-Watani, and other variousSunni groups are integral toPMF. Fursan al-Jubur orKnights of Jubur, affiliatedwith prominent Sunni politi-cian and former Iraqi parlia-ment speaker Ahmed al-Juburi,too is part of PMF. Similarly,Lions of Babylon Brigades — aChaldean Christian group ledby Rayan al-Kildani andAssyrian Christians, DwekhNawsha also known as al-Fedayoun and the SinjarResistance Units (SRU) — aYazidi militia, which cameafter the breaking off the siegeof mountainous Sinjar, isprominent member of PMF.

Hashd in post-ISIS scenarioLast year on December 10,

then Iraqi Prime MinisterHaider al-Abadi hadannounced the complete vic-tory over ISIS. Since then thePMF has gained immensepopularity among the massesand considered as their firstline of defence. But when themenace of ISIS has now cometo an end in Iraq, the big ques-tion arises: What is the futureof PMF in Iraq? The pro-IranShia factions led by Hadi al-Amiri and Abdul Mahdi al-Muhandis within the PMF arenot willing to demobilise itsarmed units as they want rolein Iraqi politics. Last year inAugust, major Shia armed fac-tions within the PMF — BadrOrganisation, Kata’ibHezbollah, Asaib Ahl al-Haq ofQais al-Khazali, Harkat al-Hezbollah al-Nojaba of Akramal-Ka’abi, Syed al-ShohadaBrigade, Saraya al-Khorasani ofAli al-Yasiri — formed a polit-ical front called al-Itilaf al-Fatah or Victory Alliance, tocontest the May 2018 generalelections along with other trib-al and Sunni groups. Asexpected, they won largestchunk of the votes and playedan important role in formingthe Central Government inBaghdad under the PrimeMinistership of Adel AbdulMahdi in October this year.

In regional context, Iransees it as main component of itsso-called “axis of resistance” tostrengthen its position espe-cially since the beginning ofSyrian Civil War in 2011. Thefriendly Shia-dominatedGovernment in Iraq wouldnot only be important part ofthe “axis” but would also serveas an opportunity for Iran toscotch the increasingly harshinternational sanctions and

emanating threats from theUS, Israel or Saudi Arabia.

Prominent white-turbanedSadrist and Asai’b Ahl al-Haq(League of the Righteous)leader Qais al-Khazali had vis-ited southern Lebanon adjacentto Israeli borders and stated hisfull readiness “to stand togeth-er with the Lebanese peopleand the Palestinian cause.” Thebonhomie between LebaneseHezbollah and Iraqi Shiagroups further creates ripplesin Israel as well its patrons inthe West.

It is an open secret thatsome injured ISIS terrorists inSyria had been treated in Israeliarmy’s field hospitals and weregiven medical aid. Any demo-bilisation efforts can weakenthe resistance against ISIS aslong as the existential threatsare dormant, not completelyeliminated. Sensing thetransnational overtures of theseIslamist groups, the USAdministration underPresident Donald Trump ispressuring Iran to curb tieswith the PMF factions withrenewed punitive sanctions bydishonouring the JCPOAnuclear deal.

After cutting its teeth incountering the ISIS crisis, thevictorious PMF is posturingitself to play an important rolein Iraqi politics in post-ISISscenario. An Iraqi student said,“They (PMF) have given theirlife so we don’t have to shed ourblood on the streets ofBaghdad. So how can we for-get them?” People’s sentimentsare with PMF and they don’twant PMF is disengaged inIraq’s life in near future.

(The writer is a DoctoralFellow at Centre for West AsianStudies, School of InternationalStudies, Jawaharlal NehruUniversity, New Delhi)

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Security challenges and theirmanagement in border areashave always remained tense

and complicated. More so in acountry like India where a varietyof geographical features can befound across borders like moun-tains, deserts, swampy marshesor even tropical evergreen jun-gles. Adding to all these is thehostile nature of our neighbour-ing countries. Democracy as asustainable feature could not beseen in many of these countriesover the decades and a glimmerof hope is coming up only inrecent years. All these have madeborder management quite com-plex and unique. There is cross-border smuggling of drugs, cattle,and fake currency notes otherthan the issues of terrorist infil-tration and insurgency.

It is in this context that we need to critically analyse theproposed smart fencing projectsworking under theComprehensive IntegratedBorder Management Systems(CIBMS). Two pilot projects are being executed in two 5-km stretches across the

India-Pakistan internationalborder presently.

Basically, the CIBMS seeks toaddress the present gaps in ourborder security system throughhigh-tech surveillance equip-ment, which combine five sen-sors namely the radar sensor,electro optic sensor, ground sen-sor, micro aerostat sensor, andthe OFC based sensor. It alsointends to develop an efficientand dedicated communicationnetwork, and a command andcontrol centre, which can act asan effective back end support.This project has the potential tochange the way our forces oper-ate on the border by movingaway from the age-old practice ofphysical patrolling. It can help indetecting infiltrations via land,sea, and through tunnels by usingCCTVs, thermal imagers, andnight vision devices. Most impor-tantly, it seeks to eliminatehuman error and increase theefficiency of working.

While the stated benefits areimmense, the operational chal-lenges continue to remain. DrNC Asthana, Additional Director

of BSF, in a seminar organised byFICCI on smart border manage-ment pointed out that 12.36 percent of the Indo-Pakistan borderis riverine, while 37 per cent ofthe Indo-Bangladesh border isriverine. Water bodies across bor-ders create certain difficulties likechanging course of the river, dif-ficulty in detecting intrusions etc.If one were to get a little techni-cal, the ambient noise in waterbodies makes it difficult to deter-mine the precise nature of the

activity, thereby increasing thescope for false alarms. Thus, wemay have to require a software ofthe capability of a sonar to filterout the ambient noise and bringout the characteristic signature ofthe activity. Over and above this,we may also need to maintain alibrary of characteristic signa-tures of possible suspicious activ-ities, like cattle smuggling, toensure proper functioning.

While the exact fine print ofhow the smart fence will be exe-

cuted across the borders remainsto be seen, we need to digest thefact that we cannot go with aone-size-fits-all approach. Thegeographical terrain across bor-ders keeps varying every 10m incertain areas and this needs tobe borne in mind. We simplycannot take an Israeli design andreplicate it over here. It needs tobe in line with the local geogra-phy. Apart from this, we havecertain other issues. Take theexample of the India-Myanmar

border, which is extremelyporous. Villagers own land onboth sides and there are cross-ethnic ties among tribal commu-nities. The Government ofIndia’s plan to fence 10 km ofarea has met with huge protestsfrom the local tribals and theplan was halted subsequently.But at the same time, insurgentsare extensively involved in drugtrafficking in areas acrossManipur border. In such a sce-nario, how does a smart fence

work? It is the puzzling and sen-sitive situations like these whichneed to be given a thought andworked out before the actualplan is put to execution.

Needless to say that issuesof network connectivity, erraticpower supply, and exorbitantcost of the project will continueto linger, considering thenature and difficulty of the ter-rain where the project will beexecuted. These are issueswhich need to be looked at intandem and addressed in along-term perspective.

Once the whole plan ofaction is frozen, we also need toplan for acquiring the requiredtechnical expertise from the enduser (BSF, Assam Rifles, or therelevant Para Military Force) tooperate the platform. The soft-ware which provides the platformshould be simple and compre-hendible. It would be better if thesoftware uses maps and otherfeatures which the jawans at theborder posts are used to, ratherthan creating a new one.

While technological solu-tions are definitely the need ofthe hour, we cannot rely solelyon technology. Political solu-tions for resolving the borderdisputes with Pakistan andChina need to be pursued,which by any means of opti-mism are nowhere to be seen inthe near future. Upgradation ofintelligence network and othermeasures for border manage-ment in synchronisation withtechnology can only bring abouteffective border management.

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Both New Delhi andConnaught Place havechanged significantly inthe more than sevendecades since

Independence. The years afterIndependence were a time forrecovery from the tribulations ofPartition, but also a celebration ofthe new nation’s hopes anddreams. Nowhere were theseeffects felt more keenly than inDelhi. The population of Delhi asa whole grew from about 900,000people in 1947, to 1.4 million in1951. This dramatic increasebrought challenges, but itbrought new opportunities too,and nowhere more so than inConnaught Place. There was ini-tially an ad hoc crowding of thecorridors, as refugee shop own-ers, not finding other space,occupied verandahs and soldeverything from cloth to driedfruits and stationery. This wasnot a long-term solution, howev-er, and they were soon moved outto Baba Kharak Singh Marg andPanchkuian Road. Stalls werealso set up along Janpath.

Not all the incoming refugeeshad to make do with roadsidestalls. There were some who hadthe resources to rent space andopen establishments in poshConnaught Place. PrakashKrishna arrived in Delhi fromLahore with �60,000 worth ofbooks, and set up a successfulbookshop — RamkrishnaBookshop — which survived intothe 1990s. More far-flung com-mercial spaces were also beingcreated. At the location where acouple of provision stores to sup-ply the barracks of Lodi Estateduring World War II had stood, anew shopping centre was built —Khan Market.

Government enterprise, too,was now entering the retail busi-ness, with a view to encouragingIndia’s traditional crafts. Thesenew institutions were set up invarious temporary structures cre-ated during World War II, whichhad now been abandoned. TheCentral Cottage IndustriesEmporium was set up in officebuildings that had been built onJanpath as offices for the USarmy officials. Here it stayed till1995, when it moved into thegrand six-storey building it occu-pies today. The first set of stateemporia were established in the1960s, in a structure interestingly

called the ‘TheatreCommunications Building’. Thishad literally housed the commu-nications services of the theatreof war in the Pacific. The empo-ria moved to the Baba KharakSingh buildings in the 1970s.

The restaurant businessexpanded after Independence,with increased demand due tothe growing population.Kwality’s, which had begun withice cream, evolved into a restau-rant serving Indian as well asWestern cuisine. The proprietorsof Kwality’s built another popularrestaurant, Gaylord’s, with ele-gant Art Deco interiors. TheNirula’s family was also expand-ing, with the Chinese Room,Delhi’s first Chinese restaurant,being inaugurated in 1950. Evenwith the departure of the Britishand American clientele, therewas no lack of Indians who werewilling to be adventurous in thematter of cuisine. In 1960,Nirula’s set up La Boheme, serv-

ing Austro-Hungarian food.Restaurants were not only for

the gay party crowd. The cafes inparticular became a hub for writ-ers, poets, and artists, as was thecase with Alps, and then IndianCoffee House, both on Janpath.The early post-Independenceyears also saw new developmentsin the fields of art and culture, andmany of the new national culturalinstitutions had their beginningsin and around Connaught Place.Triveni started with one room here,and Gandharva Mahavidyalayawas housed in a building nearOdeon Cinema. The BharatiyaNatya Sangh and the BharatiyaKala Kendra were both locatedin Shankar Market, but laterland was allotted for the latterin the Mandi House area.Mandi House in time became acultural hub, with Triveni aswell as several other institutionsfinding a home here.

In other areas aroundConnaught Place, new infrastruc-

ture, to meet the needs of thecapital of a developing indepen-dent nation, was put in rapidlyafter Independence. A large plotof land, originally earmarked fora ‘fuel plantation’, was used for anexhibition ground. This was latercalled Pragati Maidan.

The foundation stone for a

Supreme Court building was laidin 1954, and that for the NationalMuseum in 1955. The need tohouse an exploding populationwas an early concern. New hous-ing began to be constructed fast,though some immigrants endedup staying for years in what hadinitially been temporary refugeecamps in places such as PuranaQila. During the course of thoseyears, housing was also requiredfor the growing numbers ofGovernment employees. This wasbecause, in contrast to the limitedfunctions of the colonial state,the Government of newly inde-pendent India sought a biggerrole, from making investments inindustry to taking measures forthe welfare of citizens.

To provide housing, largeareas of land lying vacant in theeastern portion of the New Delhisite were filled in. Residential‘colonies’ were built — KakaNagar, Bapa Nagar, Pandara Parkfor Government officials; and

Sundar Nagar and Golf Links forprivate owners. The vast majorityof those displaced by Partitionwere accommodated in coloniesthat were spread beyond the ‘coreimperial area’ in the blocks ofland that had been far-sightedlyacquired for ‘future development’.

These were the coloniesmainly in west and south Delhi.With the rapid expansion ofthese new colonies, by 1953, thenew administrative districts ofsouth and west Delhi had to becreated. Interestingly, these newdevelopments in a way drewinspiration from the original gar-den city plan of New Delhi; soinstead of compact dense plansor high-rises, they tended tofavour low-rise development ofbungalows on plots, with localparks and tree-lined avenues. Thefirst few multi-storey apartmentswere built by the Government inRama Krishna Puram in the1970s, but for long were the onlyones of their kind.

When I first came to live inDelhi in December 1985, I livednot far from RK Puram, in MotiBagh. I was, therefore, amusedto read that Swinton had said in1912 regarding the site chosenfor the new capital, ‘To the souththe site has always been unlimit-ed. Someday it may extendbeyond Arakpur Bagmochi.’ Tome it seemed in 1985, and it cer-tainly does today, more than ahundred years after Swinton’sremarks, that Bagh Mochi, sincerenamed Moti Bagh, is verymuch a part of central Delhi.The urban sprawl now extendsbeyond even the limits of the‘enclave of Delhi’ originally cre-ated in 1912, which has sincebecome the National CapitalTerritory of Delhi.

Connaught Place, too, waschanging when I arrived in Delhiin the mid-1980s. I saw the beau-tiful red-coloured StatesmanHouse pulled down, to bereplaced by what, in retrospect, isnot a bad building at all! JeevanBharti, or LIC building, was evenmore of a shock in its sharpdeparture from the classical archi-tecture of Connaught Place,though it is undoubtedly an iconof modern architecture. These andother dramatic high-rise buildingswere required for a modern busi-ness district, but it could beargued that they detract from theheritage character of New Delhi’sgrandest shopping centre.

Ironically, as the growth ofthe business district was evi-denced by the multiplying high-rises, the shopping centre itselfdeclined somewhat in the 1980sand 1990s. People were increas-ingly shopping closer home, inneighbourhood markets that wereevolving into bigger centres, suchas South Extension Market andKhan Market. The restaurantbusiness survived better, thoughinevitably some of the olderrestaurants were replaced by oth-ers. Another cause for the malaisewas a deteriorating physical con-dition, and some years of Metroconstruction, which inevitablydisrupted infrastructure. Therenaming of Connaught Place asRajiv Chowk and ConnaughtCircus as Indira Chowk in 1995seemed to underline and sum upthe degradation of the heritage ofthis historic landmark.

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Customers at a Pennsylvania Walmartstore were shocked to discover a

“Secret Santa” had paid off $29,000worth of layaway items at the store. TheWalmart store in Kennett Square con-firmed an anonymous benefactorknown only to a small handful ofemployees paid off the $29,000 bill,helping hundreds of customers finishtheir Christmas shopping.

“When customers quiet-ly pay off others’ layawayitems, we’re remindedhow good people can be,”Walmart said in a state-ment provided to thePhiladelphia Inquirer.“We’re honoured to bea small part of theserandom acts of kind-ness.” ChristineJackson said her $141worth of toys and giftswere among the itemspaid off by the Secret Santa. “Ican’t breathe right now. I don’tknow if you can hear it or notbut I’m trying not to use my

inhaler because I have asthma but I’mjust so excited,” Jackson told WPVI-TV.“I’ve been in an all-time high. When youlook at that it’s nothing but God work-ing. Do you hear me?”

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ADutch court has rejected a69-year-old man’s request to

subtract 20 years from his legalage to reflect the way he feels.Emile Ratelband filed a suit in an

Arnhem court asking to have hisofficial age in NetherlandsGovernment records changed to49. Ratelband said he feels his age

imposes unfair limits, such asmaking it more difficult toobtain a new job or get amortgage. He said he feels

healthy and youthful. “I lookat my biological age, and my

biological age is 40, 42,”Ratelband told Business Insider.

The court disagreed withRatelband’s arguments,explaining in a statement thatit found “no scope in legisla-

tion or case law to allowsuch a ruling.” “Unlike thesituation with respect to achange in registered name orgender, there are a variety of rights andduties related to age, such as the right tovote and the duty to attend school. IfRatelband’s request was allowed, thoseage requirements would become mean-ingless,” the court said.

“Ratelband is at liberty to feel 20years younger than his real age and toact accordingly,” the statement said. “Butamending his date of birth would cause20 years of records to vanish from theregister of births, deaths, marriages andregistered partnerships.” Ratelband saidhe plans to appeal the ruling.

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APennsylvania man said he receivedan unexpected call from

Hersheypark saying workers found thewallet he lost on a roller coaster fouryears ago. Jon Anson said his walletbecame a family joke after falling out ofhis pocket on the Skyrush roller coasterat the theme park in Hershey.

Anson and his wife,Jen, said they would

jokingly have their kidslook for the wallet every time they

returned to the park. “It has become ourrunning family joke,” Jen Anson toldWHTM-TV. “We don’t go toHersheypark and don’t mention themissing wallet.” The couple said theywere shocked when park officials calledthem recently to say a maintenancecrew had found the wallet. The familysaid the wallet still had all of its contentsintact, but was a bit the worse for wear.“It looked disgusting,” Abby Anson, 10,said of the wallet. “There was mold in itand the leather was all dusty.”

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Firefighters in Scotland responded toa zoo where they rescued a rhinocer-

os that got his leg and neck stuck in atire swing. The Scottish Fire and RescueService said a crew was summoned tothe Edinburgh Zoo on a report of atwo-year-old greater one-horned rhinonamed Qabid getting stuck in his enclo-sure’s tire swing. Zookeepers said Qabid

had gotten wedged in the swing before,but had previously been able to freehimself without help. Scottish Fire andRescue Service Group Manager JohnHanlin said the rhino had to be sedatedduring the rescue. “Our crew usedspecialist cutting equipment whichis normally used for the extractionof persons involved in road trafficcollisions,” he said.

“Once the firefighters man-aged to cut the tire and freeQabid, the zoo vets gave him adrug to counteract the seda-tive and bring him round— and he was quickly backto his mischievous self,”Hanlin said. The zoothanked the firefightersfor their help. “Ourgreater one hornedrhino Qabid loves toplay with his tire, it’sone of his favoritethings to do,” saidDarren McGarry,head of livingcollections at theEdinburgh Zoo.

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ABritish company is selling aunique Christmas tree online that

features only the top half of an artifi-cial conifer to protect it from babiesand cats. Catalog retailer Argos post-ing a listing online for a six-foot ‘HalfParasol Christmas Tree’ that only fea-

tures branches on the top half of theartificial tree. “Keep your perfectly

placed baubles, bows and bells outof reach of curious, crawling kidsor your cats’ playful paws withthis parasol tree,” the website

says. “If Santa’s been extragenerous, there’s plenty of

room to stack pressiesunderneath rather than scat-

tering them around it. It’salso a great alternative tothe traditional tree if

you’re a tad tight forspace,” the listingstates. The tree costs$42.47, while a sec-ond version coatedin artificial snow

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Ahandwritten missive byAlbert Einstein known as the‘God letter’ fetched almost

$3m at auction recently. Christie’sauction house in New York statedthat the letter, including the buyer’spremium, fetched $2.89m under thehammer. That was almost twice theexpected amount. The one-and-a-half-page letter, written in 1954 inGerman and addressed to thephilosopher Eric Gutkind, containsreflections on God, the Bible andJudaism. Einstein says: “The wordGod is for me nothing more thanthe expression and product ofhuman weaknesses, the Bible a col-lection of honourable, but stillprimitive, legends which are never-theless pretty childish.”

The sentence has been hailed asevidence that the physicist, one of the20th Century’s most esteemedthinkers, was an atheist. But Einsteinat times said he was not an atheist, andresented being labelled as one.

In the letter — auctioned atChristie’s in New York — Einstein, aJew, also articulates his disenchant-ment with Judaism. “For me, the

Jewish religion like all others is anincarnation of the most childishsuperstitions. And the Jewish peopleto whom I gladly belong and withwhose mentality I have a deep affinityhave no different quality for me thanall other people,” he wrote.

“As far as my experience goes, theyare no better than other humangroups, although they are protectedfrom the worst cancers by a lack ofpower. Otherwise I cannot see any-thing ‘chosen’ about them.”

Comedian Kevin Hart will hostthe next Academy Awardsceremony in February 2019,

the Ride Along actor said in anInstagram post. “I am so happy tosay that the day has finally come forme to host the Oscars,” Hart wrote.The Academy Awards are the filmindustry’s highest honours. Theannouncement came hours aftertrade publication, The HollywoodReporter, posted a story calling theOscars host position “the least want-ed job in Hollywood”.

The Academy of Motion PictureArts and Sciences, which organisesthe Oscars and normally announcesthe host, followed up with a tweetwelcoming Hart “to the family”. Hart,39, who also starred in 2017 filmJumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, fol-lows talk show host Jimmy Kimmelwho took on the gig in 2018 and 2017.

“I am blown away simply becausethis has been a goal on my list for along time,” Hart wrote on hisInstagram page. The job of hostingthe Oscars is one of the most presti-

gious but also the most difficult inshow business as hosts have to navi-gate the expectations of the A-listaudience in the theatre and millionstuning in on television, with a combi-nation of topical and insider jokes.

Hart, who is African American, isone of just a handful of black Oscarhosts over the past 90 years, includ-ing Chris Rock, Whoopi Goldberg,and Sammy Davis Jr.

Aseries of short clips filmed on aniPhone featuring the Scottishcountryside from a train window,

a T-shirt on a radiator and a cat pawingat a lamp has helped Charlotte Prodgerwin the 2018 Turner prize.

Prodger was named the winner ofthe £25,000 prize by the novelistChimamanda Ngozi Adichie at a cere-mony in London recently.

The Glasgow-based artist has beenmaking moving-image works for 20years and is on many contemporary artradars. But she is far from being wellknown and the jury said her recentwork represented a breakthrough into a

new, more expansive way of working.Speaking after her win, Prodger

said: “I feel very honoured, blown awayreally. It’s quite surreal. It feels lovely.”The artist said she used an iPhone forher work because she was on her own alot and the phone felt like an extensionof her: “Because of that ease of use andthe way you can use it while you aregoing about the world. For me, every-thing is in there.” Asked what she mightdo with the prize money, Prodger said:“I’ll live on it. I’ll pay my rent and mystudio rent and some bills. Maybethere’ll be a little treat … probably anice jacket. Don’t hold me to that!”

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Party season is upon us. And,as man lurches from onefestive knees-up to the next,finding time to smuggle abreather between canapés let

alone a quick lunchtime jog is impos-sible. Keeping in shape is a challenge.For an increasing few, the solution isfaster than dieting, less testing than apersonal trainer and promises instantresults. Shapewear, bodywear, controlpants: Call them what you will, elasti-cated sheaths designed to disciplineyour wobblies, normally marketed towomen, are now becoming a fixturein many men’s wardrobes — or so saythe marketeers, who are increasinglyadopting more creative ways of pro-moting them.

It took Spanx a decade since theirfounding in 2000 to release a line forRubenesque men, thus triggering awave of high street imitations: Marks& Spencer’s ‘Bodymax’ collectionsoon followed and, at Asos, cummer-bund-like waistbands were appendedto tighty-whities shortly after.Smaller, niche companies likeZerobodys have been streamliningbeer bellies since 2001.

Whether it’s an elbow length zip-through top or a skimpier girdle (somewearers prefer to compound ‘men’sgirdle’: Mirdle), Zerobodys strives to“help men feel great about themselves,”says founder, Shaheen Mirza, whoalways notes a spike in sales asChristmas edges closer.

His best-seller? “Our incrediblebodies vest” — a finely-woven tanktop with mercilessly taught focus on

the abdomen and serious chest sup-port. “We’re most popular amongmen aged 30-55,” says Mirza, “espe-cially those who have a wedding orbig occasion coming up”.

Perhaps you, dear reader, consideryourself above such foppery? Thinkagain. Specialist underwear store, Bang& Strike, relay that it’s not just torsosbeing tamed, but that the scaffold hold-ing everything together down there issubtly changing, too.

Emporio Armani’s ‘Magnum’ briefis one of their best-sellers, offering aconcealed jockstrap and a U-shapedvariation on the Y-front design akin toa medieval codpiece. The flatteringresult is such that, subject to consumerdemand, Calvin Klein are reportedlyreleasing a similarly repackaged versionof their iconic brief next summer.

And, as more of us are encouragedto spend an increasing amount of timesculpting ‘gym bods’, the tactics usedto flog sportswear have also becomeconflated with shapewear.‘Compression technology’ — a phrasefirst used on Spanx labels — is nowalso on countless athletic brands,which suggest that tightly binding thebody during exercise can facilitatemuscle growth, thereby enhancingmasculine physique. Seemingly simplethough they are, the underlying vestsbelie a patchwork of consideratelypositioned panels which, according tosportswear brand Atak, at least, are“scientifically proven to increase mus-cular strength”.

While a 2013 study from the BritishJournal of Sports Medicine suggests

compression wear is “effective inenhancing recovery from muscle dam-age,” and can, consequently, bolsterhypertrophy, Harri Cizmic, from theUniversity of Bath’s Department ofSports Development, believes that theresearch is inconclusive. “You’reimproving blood flow to certain areas,”Cizmic says, “but it’s going to have avery marginal effect”.

Regardless of their efficacy, brandsare vacuum-wrapping men the worldover in such garbs. Spanx and Asosmay have since wound down theirmen’s shapewear collections, but thegrowing compression wear industry —estimated to reach six and a half billionUS dollars by 2024 — looks set to fillthe pant-shaped market void, withmany men opting to don the garmentsoutside of the gym, too.

“A lot of guys are wearing themunder their day-to-day clothes,” saysCizmic, who thinks the flattering, mus-cular definition instantly offered bycompression tops is a driving factor inthe sector’s expansion.

As a flagellant approach to fitnessbecomes increasingly normalised andbrands begin to weave soft sculptureinto underwear, it’s worth asking towhat extent men of today are preparedto listen to the marketeers andembrace this trend, or not. After all,there’s really only one way to get inshape: It comes at the expense of hardwork and much sweat. Best to eat anddrink like a hopeless glutton, for ifparty season is about anything, it’s let-

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If we well and truly wish to get guid-ance and help from God, we have tosee the creation from God’s perspec-

tive. What is God’s attitude towards thecreation – His creation? This can besomewhat understood with the help of anexample of an owner of a large coopera-tion. What does the boss really want?That everything should run smoothly asfar as possible. As God owns everythingin the first place, His satisfaction is entire-ly in the smooth running of the creation.

With this objective in mind, God hasput the necessary infrastructure innature, and He ensures that the necessaryingredients are in plenty. As regards thecreation, the essentials are sufficientwater, air, heat, light and space for all liv-ing entitles in order for them to existwell. God wants the available water to beused in an optimum manner.

When we waste or pollute thesources of water like rivers, God cannotbe pleased. Same is true of the quality ofair. When we send pollutants in theatmosphere, we not only fall foul of God,we hurt ourselves, because polluted aircauses many health problems. God hasmade arrangements for sufficient heatand light, which are safe for our exis-tence, unless we deplete the ozone layerthat helps to protect the earth from theharmful radiation of the sun.

God has delegated the authority of

overseeing the working of our world togods and goddesses. These they do underthe superintendence of God and accord-ing to the rules set by God. They recordall the details of everyone’s acts — bothgood and bad. Accordingly, they rewardand punish us. Normally God does notinterfere with this arrangement; Gods rolecomes subsequently, if warranted.

God’s guidance is available to every-one if sought properly. One can pray forsuch guidance with humility; God oblig-es. He has several ways to communicateincluding through intuitions. Similarly,God helps us human beings in getting outof trouble we get into by our own wrong-doing. Again, one must deserve suchgrace (Gita). God has not created us help-less. Yes, we have limited power withinourselves but help from God is alwaysavailable to the extent required.

God has many expectations from uslike any parent would have. He wants us

to practice making sacrifices for otherslike a mother does for her toddler.Sacrifice essentially means to offer to oth-ers what one possesses. For example, if ateacher stays beyond regular hours tohelp a child, that is sacrifice. The focus

should be on what you can do for theworld and not on what the world can dofor you, which is normally the case.

God expects us to cooperate withone another. When one becomes tooself-centered, one distances oneself from

others with negative consequences. Godexpects us to be good, ie as pure as pos-sible. Not only does such a mood give alot of satisfaction but it also bringsample rewards from divine authorities.Same is true of being dutiful. (3.12)Those following dharma become special;they get promoted in the spiritual sense;they make spiritual progress. Such anattitude also brings material benefits.God even empowers such souls.

God does not want us to have unlim-ited desires, especially for lustful enjoy-ment. Only those which are according todharma are acceptable. God is muchpleased if one does welfare activities.

If we appreciate God’s point of view and follow His instructions, ie we become God conscious, we will align ourselves with God’s design. This is like being an obedient child.

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This is an old story dating back to the year1976, when the term of the lower house of theIndian Parliament was extended by one year. I

was sitting in the house of an elected Member ofParliament (MP) discussing something not quitepolitical. It was during this discussion that an aide ofthe parliamentarian entered the living room wherewe were chatting and informed him that some peo-ple from his constituency were waiting in the loungeto see him. The MP though known for his literaryleanings and poet-like humility rather curtly told hisaide, “Let those people wait”. The five years of histenure he owed to them, but the sixth year was agrace given to him by the leader of the house. Theanswer certainly had an element of haughtiness andsurprised me, given the fact that the MP was knownfor his sweet tongue. And the first thought that cameto my mind was that this pride may become a causeof his undoing. The results of the next parliamentaryelections did prove this, and with a bang. He lostand his party was wiped out from large parts of thecountry. Any conclusion? Well, yes. It only reaf-firmed the age-old wisdom that pride comes beforea fall. Leaders realise this only after their fall.However, the question why leaders fail is not easy toanswer. But that they do fail, and most of the time itis sooner than later, as history suggests. Many theo-rists have tried to find out the answer and typing thequestion “Why leaders fail” may give hundreds ofresults on the internet. Some reasons are as simpleas failure to communicate while others are complexones like the fault of self-leadership. But these hard-ly sound convincing. The one widely agreed uponreason is that the leaders fail when they stop takingfeedback and start assuming things on the basis oftheir whims that get endorsed by the yes men whohave been allowed to surround them. These syco-phants are perhaps the greatest threat to a leader’ssurvival because they are only concerned about theirown survival. If leaders allow feedback to come tothem they would be able to understand what peoplewant and will continue for long.They need to be intune with peoples’ aspirations. This, however, needsa humble mind and a responsive heart. Allowing thecritics to show them the reality is the way to effec-tive and lasting leadership. A cue can be drawn froma very famous couplet from the mystic poet SaintKabir whose golden lesson on the subject is para-phrased here — ‘let the critics be around you by giv-ing them all facilities, as they cleanse our mindwithout using soap and water’. Listening to the crit-ics helps the leaders in realising their weaknesses.But the sense of invincibility developed due to theego and reinforced by the sycophants and the yesmen make a leader turn blind to his weaknesses.This is more so in the case of charismatic leaders.These leaders gain popularity due to some uncannyattribute of their personality that creates an illusionthat their status is invulnerable. But charisma istransient and can wane easily. You cannot fool allthe people all the time. Thus, there may be manyreasons why leaders fail, yet the most important oneis to remember that pride comes before a fall.

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If someone were to tell us thatsomewhere in our backyard,deep in the ground, lay a buriedtreasure worth millions ofdollars, what would we do?

Where would we be in our every sparemoment? We would probably be outthere in our backyard, diggingfrantically until we found our pot ofgold. How could we concentrate onanything else knowing that we wereliving on top of a gold mine? Yet, thissituation is not far from what isactually happening to each of us. Wehave a buried treasure within uscontaining riches far more fulfillingthan having millions of dollars. Wehave a way to connect with our creatorwaiting to be found within us, yet wego about our lives oblivious to ourlimitless potential.

The happiness that we think canbe attained through outer wealth isillusory. The reason we want money isto buy things, thinking those objectswill give us happiness. Yet, look at thewealthy nations of the world. Are itspeople happy? If they were, why are somany people drowning their sorrowsin drugs, alcohol, or destructivepastimes, or lying on the couches oftherapists? Some of the people whohave everything money can buy, plusfame and power, are often somiserable, even end their livestragically by overdosing on drugs andalcohol. Apparently, the money, fame,and position are not offering peoplethe promised happiness. Thesatisfaction we seek is available from asource not made of matter. Thehappiness we seek is within us at thelevel of our soul. Bliss, unlimitedknowledge, power, fearlessness,happiness, and peace are the riches ofthe soul. If we can dig in the rightplace, they will all be ours.

If we knew there were richesburied in our backyard, we would nothave any trouble finding time to dig.We would steal every spare moment totake that shovel and search. If we couldapply that same level of urgency andcommitment to finding our soul, wewould find the riches within.

Unfortunately, what do mostpeople do? They spend a few minuteshere and there, often with gaps of days,weeks, or months, searching thespiritual treasures. Expecting successwith such little effort is like expectingto earn a medical degree by going to

classes or studying few minutes everyfew weeks. Spending only a fewminutes occasionally in spiritualpursuit will get us to our goal, but itmay take centuries. Time is tickingaway every moment. With eachmotion of the clock’s second hand, ourlife grows shorter and shorter. Everyminute is precious. If we wish touncover the riches of the soul, we needto make the best use of our time.

When we are in pursuit ofsomething we really want, finding timeis not difficult. When we arecommitted to our goal, we find that westay focused on the task until it iscompleted. We can hardly tearourselves away from the work that isgoing to take us to our cherished goal.It is when we feel we must forceourselves to do something that weworry about finding time. Findingtime to dig is only a problem when weare not committed to the search. Thenwe have to discipline ourselves tospend time in whatever task we wantto attain. It is a lot easier if we have astrong desire and yearning for the goal.

Similarly, if we have anoverwhelming desire to find our souland unite with the creator, finding timeis not an issue. We will become soengrossed in our inner search that wewill lose ourselves in its pursuit.

����� ���������What are the benefits of discoveringour soul? Some people want to findbliss and happiness. Others want theknowledge of what lies beyond thisworld. For some, conquering fear ofdeath is the motivating factor. Forothers, it is empowerment that drivesthem. Let us not lose precious time.How many of us know someone whowas snatched from life unexpectedly? Itmay have been a child or a teen whopassed away; it may have been a lovedone. It could have been someone whowas in the best of health. When we leastexpect it, someone we love can die. Wedo not know when our turn will come.Even if it is not death that takes us,sometimes a sickness can afflict us.Some illnesses are so debilitating that wecan no longer perform our normalfunctions in life. It is crucial that we takeadvantage of the time we have when weare fit, healthy, and functioning. Whoknows what will happen?

We do not want to end up like theman who was always too busy to

search for God until it was too late. Ifwe were to take a circle and divide itinto three slices, label each slice:Physical goals, intellectual goals, andspiritual goals, what would we have ineach of these arenas? All three areimportant. Many people think thatwhen they pursue spiritual goals, theyhave to give up everything else. That iswhat Sant Darshan Singh called“negative mysticism.” Spirituality canbe a path of what he termed “positivemysticism.” This means that whilepursuing our spiritual goals, we stilltake care of the other two aspects ofour life, our, physical existence and ourintellectual life. We first need toprioritise. We can live a balanced lifeand attend to our physical, mental, andspiritual pursuits.

Take, for example, saving money inthe bank. What generally happens isthat we want to save, but we end upmaking this our last priority. We payall our bills first, then we go throughour list of needs and wants, thinkingthat we will save whatever is left over.But sadly, we find that there is neveranything left over. Weeks pass and nota penny makes it into our savingsaccount. This is the same thing thathappens to our spiritual goals. We tellourselves that we will meditate after allother duties and chores are done. Whathappens? Night comes, sleep overtakesus, and another day passes withoutmeditating. What do financial plannerstell us to do if we want to save money?They tell us to make a direct depositinto our savings account as soon as thepay check comes. They take thesavings right off the top as if it wereanother bill to be paid. In this way, weforce ourselves to save. We need totake a similar approach.

� ��.����� ��� ��To find our soul, we need to spendsome time daily in meditation. Somescriptures refer to the concept oftithing ten percent. We can tithe onetenth of our day for our soul. If welook at the lives of people whoachieved greatness in any field, we findthat they made their goal a priority. Itis the same in the spiritual field. If wedo the work, put in regular time, makemeditation a part of our lives, we, too,can achieve success. The cornucopia ofspiritual bounties can pour into us,enriching all aspects of our life.

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As water resources get recycled, ashas been discussed in the previousissue, human life too, reincarnates

following the death of the gross body. Allthrough the run of life, a being goesthrough a continued course of learningand unlearning, acquiring varied knowl-edge and skill sets, virtues and attributes.Also, one picks up lot of negativeimprints, coming as they may withunpleasant experiences one would havehad. We are also left with lot of unfulfilleddesires. All these memory imprints pickedup during our lifetime get carried over toour next incarnation, which sets thepremise on which the new course of lifetakes off. To know how and why, a lookinto human construct and its dynamicsbecome imperative.

Going by Vedantic perception, everyliving being is structured in three layers —the causal, astral and gross bodies. Allthree, animated by the resident power-house, the soul (consciousness element)working as integrated performing-self of abeing, holds the key to all aspects of ourdynamic existence. Causal-body holds instore, memory imprints of all Karmicaccruals from the past life, whereby it car-ries in seed-form programme layout ofthe emerging life. It is also believed to

have in store the ideal on which standsour dynamic existence. This could beintuitively unearthed as did ancient India’slearned masters, to get to know the opera-tive guidelines on how to steer life in con-formity with the laws of nature.

Astral-body takes forward the pro-gramme layout to gross-body for imple-mentation in visible terms, and also lendsit with the energy vital to performance. Italso provides the platform on which allaspects of mind-functions operate.Remember, the memory imprints onecarries, are laid down almost in a softwareprogramme-like energy format. As andwhen a particular memory imprint findscongenial ground, it immediately comesinto play. Astral body does also feedcausal body with impressions of the fruitsof actions performed.

Upon death, it is just the gross-bodywhich first becomes dysfunctional andthen disintegrates. Thereafter, all funda-mental elements of existence — Prithvi,Ap, Agni, Vayu, and Akasha, constitutinga gross-body — revert back to theirrespective source in nature. The causaland astral bodies that are pure energy-formations remain intact. Guided by thesoul, they move on with all in-storememory imprints, to acquire a fresh

body encasement. These incomingmemories define what we call our des-tiny indications. Now, to figure out howthe destiny indications come into play, alook into the chemistry of mind becomesimperative. The memory imprints car-ried over from the past provide thepremise on which mind-functions takeoff. And it varies from person to person,coming as they may with varied experi-ences one would have gone through,making every being unique. Theseimprints involuntarily build individualspecific self-belief, also termed as sam-skara, which account for one’s desire-trends, in-laid potential and weaknesses.

Guided by indwelling samskara,Mind, first excites desire trends, and thennurses them. The desires, in turn, excitecorresponding thoughts, which when fur-ther gravitate following continued reflec-tion in mind, translate into action.Evidently, the fruits of action to followwill bear the imprints of the character andcontent of the desires nursed and corre-sponding thoughts excited thereto. Theimpression of fruits of action — enjoyingor frustrating — get carried over to thememory store for further add on. Thisway, we invariably remain trapped in thecircuitous web of our own making.

It may not be out of place to mention

here that the whole course of nature is sodesigned and with such precision as to actin a self-automated mode. That leaves noscope for any external agency adjudicatingour actions and administering our destiny.So, “As we sow, so shall we reap,” remainsthe driving spirit of a being in almostautopilot mode. This is the premise onwhich ‘the law of Karma’ stands. So, howwe conduct ourselves in life — be it out ofone’s own volition, guided by indwellingsamskara, or under any external influence— will define what we become due forqualitatively and otherwise. Thus goes thesaying in Brihadaranyaka Upanishad:Sayatha Kamo bhavati, tata kraturabavati; yat kratura bhavati, tata karmakurute; yata karma kurute, tadabhi sam-patyate. It literally means: You are whatyour deep driving desire is; as your desireis, so is your will; as your will is, so areyour actions; and as your actions are, so isyour destiny.” To sum up, it is our mind,which lets karmic accruals from the pastblossom out in real terms. Continued...

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