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Page 2: ˘ 3 - ˝˚ ˝˝ #˘*˜˝˝ ˘+ ˙ˆ˛5 %*˛ ˇ˘˝˝%*+%ˇˆ#!5ˇ$ $ˇˆ *˜˝$ˇ ...€¦ · AIIMS Rishikesh. Founder of Prajnanam Vedic Centre, ... things around, spreading the

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Jayalakshmi HK is a scientist,musician, clinical nutrition

consultant and medicalastrologer who recently visitedHaridwar for special session onnutrition and dietetics for dia-betic children at Ram Krishnamission hospital, held series oflectures for corporate groups inSIIDCUL, Max hospital andAIIMS Rishikesh.

Founder of PrajnanamVedic Centre, she was a childprodigy in music having begunher classical music journeylearning from her mentor GuruShri Maniswamy, AasthaanVidwan of Mysore Maharajasat the age of four and renderedmusic concerts at the age of 10.

Post graduate and doctor-ate in food science and nutri-tion, she was honoured withrecognised awards Dr BC RoyMemorial award for clinicalnutrition, Bhale BharathExcellency Award for musictherapy and others for her con-tribution in the field of Vedicknowledge in the past 26 years.

Jayalakshmi has been asso-ciated as scientist, researcher incollaborative projects ofUniversity of Groningen,Netherlands and KarnatakaUniversity Dharwad. She haspublished many scientificresearch papers on clinical,conventional and community

nutrition. Her wisdom comesthrough her parents Yashodaand Krishnamurthy HS.Talking to The Pioneer, sheshared her views on variousaspects.

What is the basic differ-ence between Vedic nutritionand western concept of nutri-tion?

Western science of nutri-tion works based on the infer-ences drawn from observa-tions made over a couple ofdecades. It is mainly based onphysical clinical parameters ofhuman body like body type,age, sex, weight, BMI while ourIndian rishis of yore had drawnthe facts (not the inferences)thousands of years ago explor-ing five ‘koshas’ (sheaths) of aperson.

Our Vedas are fact based

knowledge books to which thewestern science is now wakingup. Body, mind and spiritrealms have been recentlyaccepted by WHO. In my opin-ion, if both Vedic (Ayurvedic)and Allopathic systems of med-icine are integrated, this worldwould be occupied by health-ier and happier beings pavingrhw way to healthy society.

What is the impact ofcurrent dietary trends inIndian cities and whatchanges need to be made fora healthier society?

Food must be taken as perRitu Chakra (seasonalchanges). The local and sea-sonal fruits, vegetables andcereals are most suited to one’sbody for balancing our five ele-ments -Agni (Fire), Vayu (Air),Akasha (Ether), Prithvi (Earth)

and Jal (water). The currenttrend is shifting on practicingdietary meals without consid-ering five elements in dietaryhabits.

This cannot make healthysociety. That is the reasonlifestyle diseases are on risethese days. The more we turn toVedic nutrition, the more shallwe be in tune with nature andless prone to diseases and dis-orders. To systematise ourhealthcare system, it should begiven a as a mandate by gov-erning bodies to inculcate the‘Ahar Vigyanam’ (Indian scienceof nutrition) as given in Vedas.

How would you dividethe world population withpredominant tattvas (ele-ments)

The whole population ofthe world is spread equally infive elements of fire, air, ether,earth and water with fractionof 20 per cent each. Naturekeeps itself and its beings bal-anced with these elements. Wecan assess which element ismore predominant in a partic-ular human being throughsome genuine diagnostic toolswhich includes physical para-meters like complexion of skin,hair texture, waistline and bodytype and other aspects.

How do the constituentelements influence the incli-nation of people?

Every person is unique onthis earth. One or two elements

are predominant in each per-son on this earth. People withpredominant Akasha or etherare naturally blessed. They donot have much toxins and arebroad minded who forgiveothers easily.

Their dietary requirementsalso vary according to the pre-dominant element in the body.Jal tattva people require lessdosage of medicines. Jal andPrithvi people have low basalmetabolic rate. Jal tattva peo-ple need less calories. They areexcellent in planning and aregood resource persons. Agniand Vayu tattva people aremore focused while ether peo-ple are more balanced.

Being involved in musictherapy, how does musicaffect a person?

Indeed one of the bestways to reduce stress is musictherapy. Any pleasant musicbelow 40 Hz is soothing.

Malkauns Raga is for stressrelief and for low BP people itis good and it also reducesanger. Bhoop Raga if sungafter 9 pm enhances oxytocinlevels in body, it helps correctreproductive disorders. KalyaniRaga is to forgive everyone,Sarangi Raga enhances spiritualbraveness, Raga Neelambari isfor insomnia.

Such Indian songs must bepopularised which have goodclassical compositions, may befrom films or folk music.Yaman Raga can be sung atanytime. However, harshmusic above 60 Hz casts neg-ative impact on human mind-set, delinquent minds prefersuch harsh sounds.

You are the youngestpanel member of High Courtof Karnataka and otherreputed organisations. Whatis your success mantra?

Divinely blessed, I am thefirst to upscale the many sci-entific authentications on theconcept of music therapy ofSaama Veda and medicalastrology (Graha chikitsa)Ashtanga Chikitsa ofAyurveda globally.

The principle of ‘SatyamevJayate’ is ultimate to me. I col-lect positive vibes when Ideliver any talk so that makesimpact on people.

When the five elementsare balanced, proper intellectemerges which helps toupscale others.

Upscaling ecofriendlythings around, spreading theknowledge of health and nutri-tion I want to train everyoneto know this Vedic health andnutrition science. Over a lakh‘sadhaks’ (seekers) have beentrained.

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The pass percentage of girlsin Dehradun region stood

at 93.03 per cent which ismuch higher than 86.50 percent of boys

As expected the Girls out-smarted the boys in the class Xresult of Central Board ofSecondary Education (CBSE)which was declared onMonday.

The pass percentage ofgirls in Dehradun region stoodat 93.03 percent which is muchhigher than 86.50 percent ofboys. In the result, theDehradun region of CBSEagain stamped its authorityover other regions of countryas seven students from theregion were among 13 studentswho secured first rank.

In Uttarakhand, ShagunMittal of Delhi Public School(DPS), Dehradun was statetopper with 497 marks out of

500.

The Dehradun region ofCBSE covers all Uttarakhandand districts of Western UttarPradesh.

Releasing the result, theregional officer of CBSEDehradun, Ranber Singh saidthat students of region havecome out with flying colours.

The result shows that out of89847 boys who appeared inthe examination, 77718 clearedthe examination. Similarly53156 out of the 57141 girlswere able to clear the exami-nation.

A total of 153677 studentswere registered for the exami-nation in the Dehradun regionout of which 152227 studentsappeared in the examination.

In these examinations,13973 students would have tosit in the compartmental exam-ination from the Dehradunregion.

The data released by theCBSE shows that with the pass

percentage of 99.63 percent the

Kendriya Vidhyalayas (KV)have topped the list of schools.

The Government aidedschools also performed wellwith pass percentage of 99.23.

The students of JawaharNavodaya Vidhayalas had apass percentage of 98.57 whilethe famed private schools whocharge heavy fees from the par-

ents lag behind with only 94.15percent.

In the Dehradun region,1664 schools have been affili-ated under the CBSE this year

as compared with 1478 schoolsregistered last year.

The board had set up 414examination centres in theentire region.

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Amid sporadic incidents ofviolence in West Bengal and

a grenade attack in Pulwama,political heavyweights RajnathSingh, Sonia Gandhi, RahulGandhi and Smriti Rani onMonday tested their popularitythrough ballots in the fifth phaseof polling for 51 constituenciesin seven States. The polling per-centage was a tad dull in thisround with 62.87 per cent aver-age turnout across the country incomparison to 65.56 per centpolling in the previous round.

West Bengal recorded high-est 74.42 per cent polling whileJammu & Kashmir had 17.07 percent polling. Uttar Pradeshrecorded 57.06 per cent, Bihar57.76, Rajasthan 63.69, MadhyaPradesh 64.61, and Jharkhand64.60. Amethi and Rae Bareilirecoded around 54 percentagepolling.

Polling was held in 14 seatsin UP, 12 in Rajasthan, 7 each inWest Bengal and MadhyaPradesh, 5 in Bihar and 4 inJharkhand, leaving 158 LokSabha seats in the next tworounds on May 12 and May 19.After this round, 27 seats are leftto be decided in the remainingtwo phases in UP. PrimeMinister Narandra Modi’s con-stituency Varanasi will go to pollson May 19.

The BJP and the SP allegedrigging and booth capturing inAmethi and Kunda seats.

In J&K, polling began on aviolent note with terrorists lob-bing a grenade on a polling sta-tion in Pulwama, but there wereno reports of casualty. Pollingwas held in Pulwama andShopian of Anantnag Lok Sabhaconstituency which includesKulgam.

There are 18 candidates inthe fray for Anantnag con-stituency, including PDP presi-dent and former Chief Ministerof Jammu & Kashmir,Mehbooba Mufti.

Bengal reported stray inci-dents of violence in Bangaon,Hooghly and Barrackpore seats,an election official said. The BJP

accused Trinamool Congress ofrigging the booths and demand-ed re-polling in Barrackporeand accused the ElectionCommission of not being effec-tive in ensuring fair polling in theState.

Incidents of clashes betweenTMC and BJP workers, hurlingof bombs, candidate getting hurtdue to lathicharge by Centralforces, manhandling of a con-testant and beating up of apolling agent were reported fromseven Lok Sabha constituencieswhich voted in the 5th round inWest Bengal.

Singh, who was allegedlyinjured during the scuffle, was

later seen chasing "fake voters" inNaihati area.

"Our agents were notallowed inside booths. Peoplewere not allowed to vote prop-erly and I went there to have alook. I have the right to enterbooths but police stopped meand hit me," Singh told PTI.

Alleging that police are notdoing anything to stop rigging insome booths of Barrackporeseat, Singh demanded thatpolling be stopped and re-pollingordered.

Maximum number of "sen-sitive" booths in Monday's elec-

tions was in Barrackpore seatwhere TMC sitting MP DineshTrivedi was pitted against Singh,who switched over to the BJPrecently after he was denied aticket by party supremo MamataBanerjee.

In Howrah's Balitikuri,TMC candidate and formerIndia footballer PrasunBandyopdhayay was "manhan-dled" allegedly by Central forceswhen he tried to enter a booththere.

Bandyopadhyay said, "I hadgone there to see poll proceed-ings. There was nothing wrongin it. But the Central forcesmanhandled me for no rea-

sons." An FIR was lodged inthis connection, he said.

Bombings were reportedfrom outside a booth at Hingliin Bangaon constituency fol-lowing a clash between twogroups allegedly owing alle-giance to the TMC and the BJP,in which two persons wereinjured, the official said.

There is also a report that aCPI(M) agent was beaten up anddriven out of a booth inArambagh constituency.

At a booth in Hooghly seat,BJP candidate Locket Chatterjeewas seen threatening a polling

officer. She is contesting againstTMC's two-term MP Ratna DeNag.

In UP Union HomeMinisters Rajnath, Smiriti, Sonia,Rahul were in fray. BJP trustsIrani to give a tough fight toRahul this time round as thewinning margin of the latter haddipped from over three lakhvotes in 2009 to over one lakhvotes in 2014.

Rajnath is contesting fromLucknow, a seat held five-timesby BJP patriarch Atal BihariVajpayee. He is pitted against SP'sPooam Sinha, wife ofShatrughan Sinha who recentlyjoined Congress quitting BJP.

Former Union minister andCongress candidate Jitin Prasadis contesting from Dhaurahraagainst former Chambal brigandMalkhan Singh contesting fromPragatsheel Samajwadi Party(Lohia).

In the Faizabad parliamen-tary constituency, under whichthe temple town of Ayodhya falls,sitting BJP MP Lallu Singh is tak-ing on Nirmal Khatri of theCongress. Khatri is a formerUttar Pradesh CongressCommittee chief.

Among early voters inLucknow, included Rajnath, BSPsupremo Mayawati, Deputy CMDinesh Sharma and DGP OPSingh.

Polling was completed inDhaurahra, Sitapur,Mohanlalganj (SC), Lucknow,Banda, Fatehpur, Kaushambi(SC), Barabanki (SC), Faizabad,Bahraich (SC), Kaiserganj andGonda constituencies where atotal of 182 candidates are in the

fray.Rajasthan witnessed polling

in 12 Lok Sabha seats where twoformer Olympians, includingUnion Minister RajyavardhanSingh Rathore (Jaipur rural),are among the 124 candidates infray. The constituencies wereGanganagar, Bikaner, Churu,Jhunjhunu, Sikar, Jaipur rural,Jaipur, Alwar, Bharatpur, Karauli-Dholpur, Dausa and Nagaur.Discus throw gold winnerKrishna Poonia and Congressnominee (Jaipur Rural seat) andUnion Minister & BJP leaderArjun Ram Meghwal (Bikaner)are other candidates in the fray.Poonia, a Jat, is challengingRathore, a Rajput, who wonJaipur Rural in 2014 with amargin of 3.32 lakh.

In Madhya Pradesh -Tikamgarh, Damoh, Khajuraho,Satna, Rewa, Hoshangabad and

Betul - voted. "Minor issuesrelated to EVMs were reportedat some places but they weresorted out," officials said.

In Rajasthan and MadhyaPradesh Congress is looking toimprove its tally vis-à-vis the BJPas the latter had swept both Statesin 2014 elections.

In Jharkhand Koderma,Ranchi, Khunti (ST) andHazaribagh constituencies wit-nessed voting since early morn-ing to elect their representativesfrom among 61 contestants.

Bihar saw polling in five LokSabha seats of Sitamarhi,Madhubani, Muzaffarpur, Saranand Hajipur parliamentary seatsamid tight security, with nountoward incident reported fromany part of the State. Senior BJPleader Rajiv Pratap Rudy is seek-ing election from Saran LokSabha seat.

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Super-cyclone Fani (meaning“hood of snake” in Bengali)

kicked up a different sort of“storm” in West Bengal asPrime Minister NarendraModi and Bengal ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjeeengaged in a bitter slugfest ona day when the State went forthe fifth phase of polling.

Minutes after the PrimeMinister alleged during anelection rallies at Tamluk andJhargarm that after Fanirepeated phone calls from thePMO yielded no responsefrom the Chief Minister’s officein Kolkata, Mamata hit backsaying neither she was boundto respond to the calls from an“expiry Prime Minister” norModi as a outgoing incumbenthad any right to call a reviewmeeting.

Mamata said she could nottake the call as she was busycampaigning for elections.

The Chief Minister whowas out of town had forthwithsuspended her poll campaignsand moved to Kharagpur to

oversee the relief measures inthe aftermath of the cyclone.

The ruling TrinamoolCongress had earlier attackedModi for “playing politics withnatural calamity,” saying, “thePrime Minister had under-mined the federal norms bybypassing a democraticallyelected Chief Minister by hold-ing discussions with theGovernor over the conse-quences of Fani.”

While Modi reacted onMonday saying it was “not mewho had ignored the ChiefMinister but she refused to takemy call,” Mamata exploded,“Why should she speak to anexpiry Prime Minister” whohad “no right to call a reviewmeeting.” The Chief Ministerwas holding another electionrally at Kotulpur.

Saying that Mamata wouldnot speak to him because shewas too proud to do so, Modisaid, “Didi is so arrogant thatshe didn’t speak to me. I wait-ed for her call but she wouldnot call back. The ‘speed break-er’ Didi was more interested indoing politics.”

Mamata said, “ Today thisman has come to shed tears forBengal as this is election sea-son. Where he was when wewere fighting floods. HisGovernment gave us nothingfor flood relief.”

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For the first time 13 studentshave topped jointly the All

India level in the Class Xresults declared by the CentralBoard of Secondary Education(CBSE) on Monday.

As per the data, institutionwise, Kendriya Vidyalaya hasoutperformed others with apass percentage of 99.47.According to a CBSE state-ment, 13 boys have scored 499out of total 500 marks. The sec-ond rank has been secured bya total of 26 students whohave scored 498 out of 500. Thethird position has been sharedby 59 students who havesecured 497 marks out of 500.

Girl students have onceagain outshone the boys withpass percentage of 92.45 against

90.14 per cent for boys.Howerver, boys towered overgirls in ranking. The transgen-der students have also donewell in the Board exams withthe pass percentage of 94.74this year, while it was 83.33 percent in 2017.

Also, the girls pass per-centage has increased by 2.31per cent this year. The passpercentage of boys has alsoregistered a sharp rise of 4.82per cent. The differently abledcandidates also performedwell with a pass percentage of95.99.

As per the data compiledthe CBSE, there is a steep riseof 4.40 per cent in the overallpass percentage this year. Theall India pass percentage thisyear is at 91.10, while it was86.70 per cent last year.

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Another Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) MLA, Devinder

Singh Sehrawat from Delhi’sBijwasan, joined the BJP onMonday at the party office inthe presence of BJP leadersVijay Goel and VijenderGupta. On Friday, AAP legis-lator from Gandhi Nagar AnilBajpai had joined the BJP.Hitting hard at the AAP,Sehrawat said he was not eveninvited for party functions andwas insulted.

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Chief Justice of India RanjanGogoi on Monday got a

clean chit from the SupremeCourt’s In-House InquiryCommittee which “has foundno substance” in the allegationsof sexual harassment levelledagainst him by a formerwoman employee of the SC.

The 3-memberCommittee, which completedits task in 14 days, proceededex-parte as the woman hadopted out of the enquiry onApril 30 after participating forthree days. After opting out ofthe Committee enquiry, shehad issued a press statementdescribing as “very frightening”the atmosphere of the paneland raised various objectionsincluding denial of her lawyer’spresence.

Immediately after the officeof apex court’s SecretaryGeneral came out with thefindings of the committee, thewoman issued a press state-ment saying that she was “high-ly disappointed and dejected”.

She said “gross injustice”has been done to her as awoman citizen of India and“worst fears” have come true,and all hope of justice andredress from the highest courtof the land have been shattered.

She said that she will con-sult her lawyer and decide onthe next steps.A notice by theoffice of Supreme CourtSecretary General said thereport of the Committee, head-ed by Justice S A Bobde, “is notliable to be made public”.

The Committee, also com-prising two woman judges ofthe SC — Justices InduMalhotra and Indira Banerjee— had on May 1 recorded thestatement of the CJI.

“The In-HouseCommittee has found no sub-stance in the allegations con-tained in the complaint datedApril 19, 2019 of a formeremployee of the SupremeCourt of India.

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Taking a jibe at PrimeMinister Narendra Modi,

Congress president RahulGandhi on Monday saidthe Prime Minister is a“boxer” who with his“56-inch chest” enteredthe ring to fight unem-ployment and corruptionbut instead punched hisown coach and veteranBJP leader LK Advani.

Campaigning forparty candidate ShrutiChoudhary in Haryana’sBhiwani, which is known asIndia’s Boxing nursery and has

produced renowned boxers likeOlympic medalist VijenderSingh, Rahul said, “In the lastelection, India put a new boxer,Narendra Modi, in the ring. The

boxer, whoboasted of his56-inch chest,entered the ringto fight unem-ployment, farm-ers’ woes, cor-ruption andother issues. Butthe first thing he

did was to deliver a punch onhis coach Advani’s face.”

Continuing his tiradeagainst Modi, the Congress

chief said, “For the last fiveyears, this boxer has hit India’spoor, weaker sections, farmersand now people are saying theydo not want this boxer. He failedto understand who he is fight-ing against.”

“After he punched Advaniji, he runs after his team. Oneby one, he punches Gadkariji,Arun Jaitley ji, dhar, dhar, dhar,”Rahul said amid loud applause from the gather-ing.

The boxer knocked outsmall shopkeepers with demon-etisation and Gabbar Singh Tax,he said referring to the Goodsand Services Tax (GST).

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Prime Minister NarendraModi on Monday dared the

Congress to contest the nextphases of the Lok Sabha polls onthe Bofors scandal in which for-mer Prime Minister RajivGandhi was an accused.

“If the Congress and its‘Raagdarbaris’ are so much con-cerned about corruption whydon’t they come up with issue ofBofors scandal in last two phas-es of elections that will coverPunjab and Delhi. It is the best

time for them to clear them-selves,” said Modi while address-ing a massive rally at TataCollege Ground in Chaibasa inJharkhand.

Recently at a rally inPratapgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Moditook a swipe at Congress pres-ident Rahul Gandhi’s father andRajiv Gandhi, calling himBhrashtachari number 1 (cor-rupt number 1).

There were allegations thatSwedish defence manufacturerBofors had paid huge kick-backs to Rajiv and others for thesale of its artillery gun to India

when he was the PM. Also,Modi said “mahamilavat” of theOpposition parties are keen toform a “khichdi” Governmentat the Centre.

Modi also alleged the grandalliance of Opposition partiesdoes not at any cost want aGovernment with absolutemajority. He said people mustvote for a strong majority-ledGovernment and not a remotecontrolled-led regime.

Stressing on the need togive a majority Government inJharkhand, he said the future ofthe nation will be decided in

these five years. He also noted that a strong

Government in the State willensure better utilisation ofCentral funds and pave way forbetter tomorrow.

Modi said his Governmentwill not allow anyone to lootand exploit coal in Jharkhand.He expressed concerns that theprevious Governments wereinvolved in exploiting naturalresources. The PM also attackedthe Congress for joining handswith coal scandal convictMadhu Koda and his family tofight elections.

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All arrangements have beenmade for the Char Dham

Yatra slated to start fromTuesday. Meanwhile, onMonday, the ceremonial pro-cession of lord Kedarnath start-ed from Ukhimath.

The Char Dham Yatra willbegin today with the reopeningof the portals of Gangotri andYamunotri shrines. The portalsof Kedarnath and Badrinathwill be reopened for the pil-grims on May 9 and May 10respectively.

Tourism secretary DilipJawalkar informed that despiteheavy snowfall experienced inKedarnath this time, all possi-ble attempts are being made bythe State government and dis-trict administration to pro-vide all facilities to the devoteesset to arrive here.

The arrangements will becompleted before reopeningof the shrine’s portals.Arrangments for 3,000 pil-grims staying overnight are

available in Kedarnath. The dis-trict administration has beendirected to make the Yatra

route proper while the policehave been directed to focus onsafety of pilgrims and traffic

control. All medical officershave been directed to ensureimmediate medical treatment

facility when needed. Further, the travellers are

advised to carry adequatewarm clothing considering thecold en route. In case of anymedical requirement on thebridle path, they should contactmedical relief posts set up onthe route.

Meanwhile, the ceremo-nial procession carrying thefive-faced idol of lordKedarnath departed from hiswinter abode at theOmkareshwar temple inUkhimath on Monday. Theprocession will halt at Fata onMonday night.

On May 7, the processionwill halt at Gaurikund andreachy Kedarnath on May 8.The portals of Kedarnathshrine will be reopened to thedevotees at 5:35 AM on May 9.

The Badrinath KedarnathTemple Committee chairmanMohan Prasad Thapliyal isalso monitoring the Yatraarrangements. He said that theBKTC has completed all prepa-rations.

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Three men were arrested ina case which resulted in the

death of a scheduled caste manJitendra Das who was alleged-ly beaten by the upper castemen purportedly for diningwith them during a marriageparty in Shrikot in Tehri dis-trict. The incident which hap-pened on the night of April 26left Jitendra Das severelyinjured, though the police statethat post-mortem report hasnot clearly revealed the exactcause of death. Doctors haveadvised to preserve his viscerabefore conducting the last rites.The family of the deceased per-formed the last rites of JitendraDas with the help of villagerson Monday at Nainbagh.

Director General (DG)Law and Order, Ashok Kumarsaid, “Three accused have beenarrested on Monday. Earlier thecase was registered under theIPC sections 147, 504, 506 andSC-ST Act, now IPC section302 (murder) has been added.”

Circle Officer (CO)Narendra Nagar, Uttam Singhwho is also the investigatingofficer in this case informed themedia on Monday, “Three

accused Soban Singh, GajendraSingh and Hukam Singh havebeen arrested.”

It is pertinent to mentionhere that that the sister ofdeceased Jitendra Das on April29 filed a complaint in KemptyPolice Station against sevenaccused Soban Singh, GajendraSingh, Hukam Singh, Kushal,Gabbar, Gambhir and HarbirSingh.

According to the com-plainant, on the night of April26, Jitendra Das was beatenbrutally by these seven accusedupper caste men for diningwith them. Next morning hewas found unconscious by hisfamily members and was takento Nainbagh community healthcentre.

He was referred from thereto Mahant Indresh Hospital inDehradun on the same daywhere he succumbed to hisinjuries on Sunday morning.However, the post-mortemreport was not able to clarifythe exact cause of his death.

It is also worth mentioningthat Tehri SeniorSuperintendent of Police (SSP)Yogendra Singh visited the vil-lage of deceased Jitendra Dasafter his last rites.

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The alleged murder of aDalit youth in Nainbagh

area of Tehri district by somemiscreants belonging to uppercastes in a marriage ceremonyhas heated up the politics inUttarakhand. Even as the inci-dent is snowballing into amajor political controversy, theopposition Congress hasslammed the government forwhat is termed dismal law andorder condition.

Launching a scathingattack on the state govern-ment, the spokesperson of stateunit of Congress party, GarimaMahara Dasauni said that it isunfortunate that such heinousand inhuman crimes are beingcommitted even after 72 yearsof independence. She said thatthe incident has put up a ques-tion mark on the functioningof the state government. Thecongress leader said that thedelay in police action andreported negligence clearly

shows that the police are tryingto cover up the incident. Sheexpressed surprise at the factthat only three persons have sofar been arrested and other cul-prits are roaming free. Dasaunisaid, “The law and order situ-ation in the state is in shamblesand the criminals are under nofear of government.’’Demanding resignation of theminister and officials con-cerned for the shocking inci-dent, she said that that exem-plary action should be takenagainst the culprits so that anexample is set before the peo-ple of the state.

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The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) hasdecided to take up the case of a Dalit man dying after being

beaten by upper caste men in Tehri district. NHRC senior mem-ber Jyotika Kalra said this to former Rajya Sabha MP Tarun Vijayand other members of a delegation which met her on this issue.

According to Vijay, Kalra said that she will form a high levelteam to investigate and report to her immediately and send theteam to Tehri.

Vijay was accompanied by International Human RightsDefense general secretary and Supreme Court advocate RajeshGogna and social activist from Garhwal, Arvind Maikhuri.

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Municipal CorporationDehradun (MCD) con-

tinued to conduct its anti-encroachment campaign on

Monday. During the campaignwhich was conducted fromClock Tower to ISBT and inHathibadkala, five to six truck-loads of materials and 12 dis-play boards were seized. It is

important to mention herethat the officers from MCD re-visited Hathibadkala in theevening to seize materials fromthose who had encroachedagain on the space cleared ear-

lier.Land Department

superintendent of MCDDharmesh Painuly said,“The campaign onMonday was conductedon the route from ClockTower towards ISBT andHathibadkala.”

He further stated,“Five to six truckloads ofmaterials were seized onMonday along with 12d i s p l a yboards.”

When asked abouttheir re-visit in theevening at Hathibadkalahe said, “We went theiragain in the evening tosee and ensure that theydo not set their shops onroadside.

However, we foundencroachment again andwe took necessaryaction.”

It is worth mention-ing here that the MCD

officials conducting this cam-paign have stated that thosewho are repeatedly gettingtheir materials seized or payingchallan are now hesitating toencroach again.

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The association of the oust-ed field workers of the 108

ambulance service has decidedto intensify their agitation.Enraged at the governmentfor doing nothing to addresstheir problem even as theirDharna at the protest site inParade ground entered seventhday on Monday, the associationhas decided to hold protest out-side the state headquarters ofthe 108 emergency ambulanceservice from Tuesday.Addressing the agitators onthe day, the Vice President ofthe state unit of Congress PartySurya Kant Dhasmana saidthat the BJP government in thestate has removed more thanten thousand youths from jobs.He said that it is unfortunatethat a vital service like 108emergency ambulance serviceis virtually halted at a timewhen the Char Dham Yatra isstarting in the state. Dhasmanasaid that the state governmenthas not even paid pendingsalary of two months to theseworkers.

On the day, the regionalpolitical outfit UttarakhandKranti Dal ( UKD) alsoextended its support to theworkers. The leader of theUKD, Latafat Hussain said thatthe state government has failed

to protect the jobs of the youthin the state.

The general secretary ofthe association of field workers,Vipin Jamloki said that morethan 700 workers of the ambu-lance workers were thrown

out from the job for no fault oftheirs.

He said that the agitation ofthe association would be inten-sified now as the governmenthas failed to heed the demandsof the workers of the ambu-

lance service. The contract of GVK-

EMRI Company to operate108 emergency ambulance ser-vice ended on April 30 after thenew company, CAMP tookover the operation of ambu-lance service.

The new company CAMPis offering less salary to theexperienced worker which isthe bone of contention betweenit and the association of work-ers.

The workers are demand-ing that they should beabsorbed into the new compa-ny on existing salaries.

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In a novel initiative, the medical healthand family welfare department has

decided to celebrate, 8th day of everymonth as blood donation day for theThalassaemia patients. The Thalassaemiaaffected patients require blood transfusionat regular intervals to survive. In anorder, the additional secretary, health andMission Director (MD) National HealthMission (NHM), Yugal Kishore Pant hasasked all the district in -charges that the8th of every month should be observed as‘ Give Blood for Thalassemics’ so that thesufficient blood is collected for transfusionto the patients of Thalassaemia in the state.

In order to create awareness among the

general public for patients affected withThalassaemia, May 8 is celebrated as‘World Thalassaemia Day’. Pant said thatall the blood banks have been directed toorganise special voluntary blood donationcamps so that awareness is created for dis-eases like Thalassaemia, Anaemia andHaemophilia.

He said that the message that suchpatients need regular blood transfusion

should be spread among masses. It is worthmentioning here that under theHaemoglobinopathy programme ofNational Health Mission (NHM) thehealth department teams are visiting thegovernment and aided schools for tests ofHaemoglobin and Thalassaemia inHaridwar, Almora, Dehradun and Nainitaldistricts.

The department has deployed eightteams under the programme in which stu-dents of class IX are examined. As per thedata available with the health departmentthere are 260 Thalassaemia patients in fourdistricts of Uttarakhand. Free blood trans-fusion is done for these patients at 40 gov-ernment and private blood banks in thestate.

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The Bharatiya Janata Partycommittee formed to probe

into the dispute between two ofits MLAs from Haridwar dis-trict will start its investigationfrom Wednesday.

The probe could not beginearlier as the coordinator of thisthree-member committee, BJPstate general secretary andMLA Khajan Das was sent toHimachal Pradesh to partici-pate in the party’s campaign forthe Lok Sabha elections.Talking to The Pioneer, he saidthat he was reaching Dehradunon Monday night. He said thatthe party’s committee will startthe probe into the matter fromWednesday.

The committee will con-sider the reports published inthe media and also question thetwo MLAs in question amongother office bearers of the partyfrom Haridwar.

It will be recalled that in thenear past, Khanpur MLAPranav Singh ‘Champion’ andJhabreda MLA DeshrajKarnwal had been levellingallegations at each other for

some time. While Championhad alleged that Karnwal hadused a false caste certificate,Karnwal had questionedChampion’s qualifications. TheBJP State unit had also issuednotices to the two MLAs seek-ing their explanation for whatwas deemed as indiscipline.However, soon after that theirdispute had been resolved onApril 18 after the interventionof the chief minister TrivendraSingh Rawat.

The situation appeared tohave returned to normal untilthe last week of April when theJhabreda MLA filed a petitionin the high court in a case con-nected to the controversyregarding his documents.

Even as this fuelled anoth-er round of statements by theMLAs in question in the media,the BJP State president AjayBhatt formed a three-membercommittee with Khajan Das asits coordinator to probe thewhole matter.

The committee also com-prises State minister rank posi-tion holder Vishwas Dawarand BJP state minister KuldeepKumar as members.

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For the Char Dham Yatra that is scheduledto start from today with the reopening of the

portals of Gangotri and Yamunotri shrines,three police officers from Dehradun andHaridwar district conducted joint inspection onMonday.

Dehradun Senior Superintendent of Police(SSP) Nivedita Kukreti informed that the pur-pose of this inspection was to identify the bot-tlenecks and the places where maximum prob-lems occur at the time of Yatra.

Kukreti informed, “Three officers- SP,Rural, SP, Traffic from Dehradun and SP, Trafficfrom Haridwar are doing a joint inspection onall Yatra routes that come under Dehradun andHaridwar districts.

They are identifying the points where prob-lems occur, especially the choke points wherewe usually face issues.

We are trying to deploy maximum forces.The idea is to deploy these forces in such a wayso that at least one officer is appointed to super-vise them too.”

She further stated, “Few cameras are alsobeing installed at these points and we will beable to monitor the feed from these camerasonline.

In addition to that, at the choke pointsinstead of deploying force in two 12-hour shifts,we are going to station force in three shifts.

This is to make sure that the policemendon’t feel extra pressure and remain alert whileon duty.

Traffic is a tough duty especially during thiswhether, when it is not possible for someoneto stand for 12 hours.

Keeping this in mind, we divided the entirearea in sectors and the responsibility of thesupervising officer has also been set.

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The Centre on Mondayannounced the release of an

additional �1,000 crore to thecyclone-hit Odisha asannounced by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi. This amountwould be in addition to the�341 crore that had been pro-vided to the Odisha’s StateDisaster Response Force inadvance.

As announced by PrimeMinister after his aerial surveyand review of relief effortswith the Odisha Government,the Home Ministry hasannounced a further release of�1,000 crore for assistance tothe state, the statement said.

In the National CrisisManagement Committee(NCMC), headed by CabinetSecretary PK Sinha, OdishaGovernment informed thatrestoration of Power andTelecommunication infra-structure continue to remainthe major priority in theCyclone affected areas of theState.

Around 50% powerrestoration has been reportedwhile more works need to bedone in Bhubaneswar and Puri.The NEET examination, whichwas postponed, will now beheld on 20th May. Medicinesdispatched by the Centre have

been received and all measureswere being taken to prevent anyoutbreak of diseases.

Reviewing the relief mea-sures, Cabinet Secretarystressed that power connectiv-ity need to be restored on pri-ority basis as drinking watersupply, telephone connectivityand banking operations needelectricity.

The option of deployingvehicle-mounted mobile tow-ers, as requested by Odisha, is

being explored to provide con-nectivity in Puri and Khurda.

More than 2,500 gang menare working in Odisha torestore power lines, substa-tions and Steel Ministry hasdispatched about 5,500 steelelectric poles and another15,000 will be supplied by 14thMay.

Cabinet Secretary directedthat more manpower should bemobilized to restore power.He also suggested that mobileservice operators need to oper-ationalize their towers in coor-dination with the StateGovernment.

Ministry of Petroleuminformed that majority ofpetrol and diesel retail outletsare functional and sufficientstocks of diesel and other fuelsare available in Odisha.

Three mobile dispensers ofDiesel of 6000 liters capacityeach are being pressed into ser-vice.

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Sacked BSF jawan TejBahadur Yadav on Monday

moved the Supreme Courtchallenging the ElectionCommission’s decision to can-cel his candidature from theVaranasi Lok Sabha con-stituency from where PrimeMinister Narendra Modi iscontesting.

Yadav, who was dismissedin 2017 after he posted a videoonline complaining about thefood served to the troops, wasfielded by the Samajwadi Partyas its candidate from theVaranasi seat.

Yadav, in his plea, termedthe decision of the poll paneldiscriminatory and unreason-able and said it should be setaside.

The SP had initially field-ed Shalini Yadav as its candi-date to contest against Modiand later nominated the sackedBSF jawan. The poll panel haddismissed Yadav’s nominationWednesday.

He was served notices bythe Varanasi returning officerover “discrepancies” in the twosets of nomination papers sub-mitted by him.

In the first set of papers onApril 24, he had mentionedthat he was dismissed from theBorder Security Force.

On April 29 he submitteda second set of papers as the SPnominee, but did not give outthis information.

He was also required tosubmit a no-objection certifi-cate from the BSF, giving rea-sons for his dismissal.

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The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a pleachallenging the Jammu and Kashmir

Government’s order restricting civilian traffic for aday in a week on a stretch of the national highwayfrom Udhampur to Baramulla for the movement ofsecurity forces.

Counsel for the State Government told the benchcomprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and JusticeDeepak Gupta that the order restricting traffic onthe national highway was taken due to theongoing election and will remain in force till May

31.The bench, after hearing the submissions, said,

“We are not inclined to keep this petition pending.”The State Government had issued an order on April3 in which it said that keeping in view the Pulwamaterror attack, another car bomb attack on securityforces’ convoy at Banihal and movement of forces dur-ing the Lok Sabha elections, no civilian traffic move-ment will be allowed on the NH stretch from 4 AMto 5 PM once a week.

The order had said there would be one “dedicatedday every week” for movement of security forces’ con-voy when there would be no civilian traffic on thenational highway from Baramulla to Udhampur from4 AM to 5 PM.

The regulation of the vehicular movement on theNH would remain in force till May 31, it had said.

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The Supreme Court onMonday asked Congress

MP Sushmita Dev to bring onrecord the ElectionCommission’s orders givingclean chit to Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and BJPPresident Amit Shah on com-plaints of Model Code viola-tions. A bench comprising ChiefJustice Ranjan Gogoi and JusticeDeepak Gupta has now listedthe plea of Dev, a Congress MPfrom Silchar Lok Sabha seat inAssam, for hearing on May 8.

Senior advocate A M Sighvi,appearing for Dev, alleged thatthe poll panel has passedunreasoned orders dismissingthe complaints of the Congressparty on violations of MCC

(Model Code of Conduct) bythe prime minister and Shahwho are accused of using armedforces in their campaign.

The bench asked the law-maker to file an additional affi-davit bringing on records theorders passed by EC on thecomplaints of MCC violations by the top two BJPleaders.

The EC has given clean chitto Modi for two of his speech-es — one in Latur last monthurging first time voters to ded-icate their votes in the name ofBalakot air strike heroes and sol-diers killed in the Pulwamaattack, and the other in Wardhaon April 1, where he indicatedthat Wayanad constituency hadmore voters from the minoritycommunity.

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The Supreme Court onMonday said it would hear

together on May 10 the pleasseeking review of its verdict onthe Rafale fighter jet case andthe contempt petition againstCongress President RahulGandhi for wrongly attributingto the apex court the “chokidarchor hai” remark against PrimeMinister Narendra Modi.

A special bench headed byChief Justice Ranjan Gogoisaid the petitions seekingreview of its December 14 ver-dict of last year will come up forhearing on May 10.

The bench, also compris-ing Justices S K Kaul and K MJoseph, expressed surprise as tohow the review pleas and thecontempt petition againstGandhi were listed on differentdates when it had earlierordered that both the cases willbe heard together.

“We are little perplexedthat the two cases are listed ontwo different dates when theorder was that these matterswill be heard together,” thebench said.

Gandhi had made the con-temptuous remark, “chowkidarchor hai”, against Modi, whichthe apex court had said waswrongly attributed to it.

The top court had on April30 given another opportunityto Gandhi for filing one moreaffidavit for his remark.

Though Gandhi, throughhis counsel, admitted that hemade a mistake by wronglyattributing the remark to theSupreme Court, it observedthat in the affidavit filed earli-er, at one point the CongressPresident admitted the mistakeand at one point denied mak-ing contemptuous remarks.

During Monday’s briefhearing, advocate Prashant

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The Supreme Court on Mondaydirected the CBI to complete its

probe by June 3 into the alleged mur-der of 11 girls at a shelter home inBihar’s Muzaffarpur and asked theagency to file a status report.

A bench comprising Chief JusticeRanjan Gogoi and Justice DeepakGupta said that since the matter was“urgent”, it would be heard by a vaca-tion bench on June 3.

“Office to list the matter on June3 before the vacation bench of thiscourt. In the meantime, the ongoinginvestigation, as stated in the reply ofthe Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI), be completed and all necessaryactions in accordance with law,including filing of status reportbefore this court, be also completed,”the bench said in its order.

The bench initially asked the CBIto complete the probe related toalleged 11 murders within two weeks

keeping in view the urgency of thematter, but later asked it to do so byJune 3.

Attorney General K KVenugopal, appearing for CBI, toldthe court that completion of probe onthis aspect “will not be possible” with-in two weeks.

He said that 11 girls were sup-posed to have been murdered and asper CBI’s recent affidavit filed in theapex court, it was found that therewere a total of 35 girls with identicalnames who at one time or the otherhad stayed there.

“11 girls are supposed to havebeen murdered. In one case, wehave recovered bones also,” he toldthe bench.

In the affidavit, the CBI had toldthe court that 11 girls were alleged-ly murdered by key accused BrajeshThakur and his accomplices and a“bundle of bones” was recoveredfrom a burial ground in Muzaffarpurshelter home sexual abuse case.

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The Congress on Mondaycame out with its own

report card on the ModiGovernment’s flagship schemesand alleged that none has metits target. It said the PrimeMinister “will sink in his ownwave of lies”.

Addressing a Press confer-ence at the Congress head-quarters, party leader NavjotSingh Sidhu shared detailsabout various schemes of theBJP Government.

Talking first about the“�20,000-crore” NamamiGange scheme launched in2015, Sidhu said that WaterResources Minister NitinGadkari had claimed that 80per cent of Ganga cleaningwork will be completed by2019.

“Out of �20,000 crore ear-marked for the scheme, only�6,000 crore has been spent.Only 10 per cent of the sewagetreatment plants have beenmade. The Ganga is mostunclean in Varanasi,” Sidhuclaimed. Modi representsVaranasi in the Lok Sabha andis contesting again.

“The National GangesCouncil was supposed to meetonce a year. The PM is its chair-man and the CMs of the fivestates that have Ganga basin areits members. This Council hasnot met even once in last fiveyears,” he said.

On the much publicisedDigital India scheme, Sidhusaid, “Digital India was sup-posed to connect 2.5 lakh vil-lages with broadband connec-tions by February 2019. Only1.1 lakh villages have got theoptic fibre cable as yet...Theinternet has not worked ineven two per cent of villages,”he said. “Now this work isbeing outsourced to companiessuch as Reliance andVodafone,” he alleged.

Under the ‘Skill India’ pro-

gramme, the ModiGovernment promised skillenhancement for 40 crore peo-ple, according to Sidhu but“only 41 lakh people have beentrained”. “Out of 41 lakh, only6 lakh people have got place-ment,” he claimed.

Sidhu also talked aboutthe progress in the Atal Missionfor Rejuvenation and UrbanTransformation (AMRUT)scheme, which was launched in2015.

“AMRUT scheme has 500cities under it where sewagefacilities and water connectiv-ity has to be provided. Its pro-ject utilisation is just 3 per cent.Can you imagine? In BJP-ruledstates of Assam and Bihar, nota single project has been com-pleted,” he said.

On the Mudra scheme,Sidhu said the average sanc-tioned loan under it comes to�46,000. “The person, who hasan annual income of �1.11lakh, you are giving him a loanof �46,000 and asking him tostart a business. What a jokethis is?” he asked.

“Just one per cent of theloans given under the Mudrascheme were above �5 lakhs,”he added.

About Saansad AdarshGram Yojana, Sidhu said, “Inphase 3, 78 per cent of the 786MPs (Lok Sabha and RajyaSabha) have not adopted anyvillage...46 per cent of theUnion Ministers have not iden-tified any village. The schemedoes not have any budgetaryallocation.”

He also talked aboutJayapur and Nagepur - two vil-

lages which have been adopt-ed by the PM in Varanasi.“Under Swachh BharatAbhiyan, 400 toilets were madein these two villages. In 80 percent of the toilets, cow dungand firewood are beingstored...The PM installed solarstreet lights. It does not havemotor or batteries,” said theformer BJP MP.

Sidhu alleged that out of�684 crore allocated under the“Beti Padhao, Beti Bachao”scheme, 56 per cent of themoney has been used in adver-tisements featuring the PM.“Can you imagine? These arethe flagship programs of thePM Modi...Liar-in-Chief is hisname.

Then he (PM) complainsthat Sidhu has called me a liar.Only the weak complain. Thebrave ones defeat their oppo-nents. Should I call you Raja Harischandra?” heasked.

About Fasal Bima Yojana,Sidhu said it is “even a biggerscam than Rafale scam”. “I amsaying it categorically.” “Underthe UPA Government, 4.85crore farmers were insured.Under the Modi Government,4.87 crores were insured. Thepremium taken under the UPAregime was just �10,560 crore.All of these are Governmentcompanies such as LIC,” hesaid.

“Under the ModiGovernment, while the numberof people insured are the sameas UPA, the premium taken is�47,408 crore...The premiumhas increased by five times,” headded.

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The Khadi and VillageIndustries Commission

(KVIC) has distributed morethan one lakh bee boxes amongthe farmers and unemployedyouths across the nation in lessthan two year under a pro-gramme named ‘HoneyMission’ launched in August2017 from the PresidentialEdifice at RashtrapatiBhawan.

During this process, KVICachieved many landmarks.First, on 21st May 2018 onWorld Honey Bee Day, KVICmade a World Record of dis-tributing maximum number ofbee-boxes in a single day bydistributing 1,000 bee-boxesamong 100 Mishing Asamesetribe in the Kaziranga forestarea, beating previous best of841 in Israel in 2016.

KVIC also made a newWorld Record of distributingmaximum number of 2330bee-boxes in a single day in theZangalee Army area atKupwara in Jammu & Kashmiramong 233 beneficiaries, inassociation with Indian Army’sSadbhawna Programme.

KVIC Chairman VinaiKumar Saxena said that fol-lowing the Prime Minister’s callof ‘Sweet Revolution’, the KVICimmediately made an actionplan on this line named ‘HoneyMission’.

“We have so far distributed1,01,000 bee-boxes, across thecountry, which had happenedfor the very first time in India.We have not only distributedbee-boxes, rather under ‘HoneyMission’, we have also created

more than 10,000 new employ-ment, besides creating around25,000 additional man daysthrough the fabrication of Beeboxes and Honey Extractors,”he said, adding, “The KVIC hasalso provided the bee-keeperspractical training about exam-ination of honeybee colonies,acquaintance with apiculturalequipments, identification andmanagement of bee enemiesand diseases, honey extrac-tion and wax purification, andmanagement of bee colonies inspring, summer, monsoon,autumn and winter seasons.

Saxena, who himself mon-itors the progress of ‘HoneyMission’ round-the-clock, fur-ther said that besides produc-tion of healthy honey and wax,bee-keeping would open manyjob avenues for the unem-ployed youths and aspiringyoung entrepreneurs.

“Being the nodal agency ofPrime Minister EmploymentGeneration Programme(PMEGP), the KVIC wouldprovide loans for setting upunits of processing, packagingand labelling units for thehoney,” he added.

It may be noted thatthrough ‘Honey Mission’, so far246 metric tonnes of honey hasbeen extracted through theseBee-Boxes only, valuing over Rs4 crore.

Besides, if the farmers areto be believed their crops yieldhas increased up to 30 percentafter the implementation of‘Honey Mission’.

However, assessment ofgains in crops’ yield in terms ofmoney, has not been ascer-tained as yet.

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Two non-BJP States — WestBengal and Karnataka —

have agreed to ‘gift’ their twogrey wolves and colourful KalijPheasants each respectively tothe upcoming Gorakhpur Zooin BJP Chief Minister AdityaNath Yogi’s hometown in UttarPradesh.

While the Padmaja NaiduHimalayan Zoological Park (alsocalled the Darjeeling Zoo) inWest Bengal has agreed to partaway with a pair of grey wolves,Sri Chamarajendra ZoologicalGardens, popularly known as‘Mysuru Zoo’, which is one of theoldest zoos of the country, willhand over two bright malepheasants to the ShaheedAshfaqullah Khan Prani Udyanalso known as Gorakhpur Zoobeing constructed in the samenamesake district.

A distinctive pheasant withbare red facial skin, the KalijPheasant has a backward-point-ing crest with a vertically com-pressed tail. Males are iridescentblack and silver while femalesare grayish-brown. Thesewinged beauties are found inforested areas, usually in themountains.

Although the Indian graywolf is distributed in a vast areaof peninsular India, the actualestimates of wolf populations areavailable only from

Gujarat and Rajasthan(Jhala & Giles, 1991). Only a fewreports on the occurrence ofwolf are available from Karna-taka The Indian Grey Wolves aresocial animals, i.e. they live inpacks and generally with onepair amongst them which givesbirth to a litter of pups duringthe colder months. After shift-ing the pair of wolves whichhave been given name as Ajay

and Kumda, the Mysuru Zoowill be left with nine pairs.

Not keen to lose on the time,the UP Government wants thatthe Central Zoo Authority(CZA), under the UnionEnvironment Ministry, shouldgive permission to keep the‘gifted’ animals at Lucknow Zoofor transit period till the con-struction work of the enclosuresis completed. A total 33 enclo-sures are being constructed tohouse the animals in the zoo tobe sprawled in the area of 121acres of land.

The cost for transportationof the gifted animals will beborne by the Gorakhpur Zoothat will have state-of-the artfacilities such as amphitheatre,snake park, avian enclosures andbutter fly park among otherbasic facilities.

Sources in the Ministry,which oversees the functioningof the CZA, said that the pro-posal is being studied as keep-ing the ‘gifted’ animals for a tran-sit period in a zoo, other thanwhere they will be permanent-ly housed is usually not in theinterest of the animals trans-ported from their original enclo-sures.

In fact, the proposal to con-struct the Gorakhpur Zoo hadbeen pending for quite a longtime during the SP governmentwhich was approved by theCentral Zoo Authority andSupreme Court in Mayawati’stenure, in 2010. However, itgained momentum after theBJP Government took over theregime in the State. It will be thefirst in the eastern UP and big-ger than the Lucknow zoo.

Initially, it was called asGorakhpur zoo which wasrechristened by the SPGovernment after revolutionaryAshfaqullah Khan, in May 2012.

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Atwo-year-old controversialclip featuring sacked BSF

jawan Tej Bahadur Yadav pur-portedly claiming to kill PrimeMinister Narendra Modi for asum �50 crore surfaced on thesocial media on Monday“shocking” the BJP which high-lighted how mainstream polit-ical parties were embracingsuch a person.

Yadav was fielded by theSamajwadi Party as a Lok Sabha

candidate from Varanasi con-stituency against Modi.However, his candidature wascancelled as he was dismissedfrom service.

Reacting to the develop-ment, BJP leader GVLNarasimha Rao said, “It is veryshocking that yet another con-spiracy to assassinate the PrimeMinister has come to light bysomeone who was drafted as aLok Sabha candidate against thePM in Varanasi by theSamajwadi Party. In a stunning

video, Tej Bahadur Yadav isheard asking for Rs 50 crore toassassinate Modi.”

Rao alleged that TejBahadur is also seen acceptingthat he has links with terror out-fits like Hizbul Mujahiddenand Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). Hesaid the BJP requested alldemocratically spirited indi-viduals, institutions and polit-ical parties to condemn suchviolent plans in an unequivocalmanner. “We condemn it, weexpect all agencies to take note

of this threat,” Rao said. The EC rejected Yadav’s

nomination as he was unable tosubmit a certificate to affirmthat he had not been sacked foreither corruption or disloyaltyduring the last five years. Yadavhas now approached theSupreme Court terming the pollpanel’s decision as discrimina-tory and unreasonable andsought reversal of the pollpanel’s decision in order toaallow him to contest the elec-tions.

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The HRD Ministry onMonday assured the

Karnataka Government it wouldsoon decide on their request toallow over 500 students from theState, who missed the NEETexam on Sunday due to a traindelay. HRD Minister PrakashJavadekar announced that theNational Testing Agency willconduct NEET exam again forthose students of Karnatakawho missed their exam as theirtrain was delayed which hascome as a major relief to the can-didates.

NEET for these studentswill be conducted on May 20.Nearly 365 students from northKarnataka had missed appear-ing for the National Eligibilitycum Entrance Test (NEET) on

May 5, as the train in whichthey were travelling reachedBengaluru over seven hourslate.

“Happy to announce thatKarnataka Students whomissed NEET exam due to rail-way delay will get anotherchance,” HRD MinisterPrakash Javadekar tweeted.

Chief Minister H DKumaraswamy held a meetingwith Chief Secretary T MVijaya Bhaskar and HigherEducation Department offi-cials on the issue. The studentsmissed the National Eligibilityand Entrance Test (NEET) onSunday as their train reachedBengaluru an hour after thescheduled reporting time andalso due to a change in an examcentre, reportedly without anyprior information.

Kumaraswamy had also

urged Javadekar and RailwayMinister Piyush Goyal toensure that the students whomissed the test get anotherchance to write the NEET.

Union Minister D VSadananda Gowda also wroteto HRD Minister PrakashJavadekar, seeking an earlysolution to the issue. He saidthe situation could easily havebeen averted had the NationalTesting Authority given widepublicity on the change inexam centre and intimatedstudents well in advance.

“I shall be grateful if youcould kindly look into thematter and do the needful to

provide one more opportuni-ty to the missing students towrite the exam,” Gowda said inhis letter.

According to reports, over500 students from variousplaces in North Karnataka dis-tricts failed to make it to theexam venue due to a five-hourdelay in Hampi Express whilethe others missed the oppor-tunity due to a change in anexam centre. One of the can-didates tweeted to Javadekarthat the train was runningbehind schedule by seven hoursand that they would miss thetest for no fault of theirs.Former Karnataka ChiefMinister Siddaramaiah hadtweeted on Sunday highlight-ing the issue. Candidates hadstaged a protest outside the rail-way station for missing the testfor no fault of theirs

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Nobody from the village ofBurhan Wani, the poster

boy of terror group HizbulMujahideen, voted on Monday,while just 15 from the nativeplace of Pulwama suicidebomber, who nearly broughtIndia and Pakistan to a war,cast the ballots, officials said.

Also, zero polling was wit-nessed from the villages ofother top militant commandersin south Kashmir, the hotbedof militancy in the Valley, offi-cials added.

Wani’s Shareefabad villagein the Tral area decided to givea miss to the elections as no onefrom the village went to exer-cise their franchise.

Just 15 votes (of the total350) were polled In Gundibagh,a village that hit the interna-tional headlines on February 14

after one of its residents AdilDar became a suicide bomberfor Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorgroup and triggered a blast inan explosive-laden car near aCRPF convoy killing 44 per-sonnel, the officials said.

Also, zero voting wasrecorded from Noorabad, thevillage of Zakir Musa, the so-called chief of Ansar-Gazawat-ul-Hind terror group;Beighpora, the village of theincumbent Hizbul Mujahideencommander Riyaz Naikoo; andSheikhpora, the village ofMudassir Khan, the master-mind of February 14 terrorstrike, said the officials.

Wani’s killing in anencounter with security forcesin 2016 had triggered a massiveunrest in the valley that leftnearly 100 people dead andthousand others, includingsecurity forces, injured.

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Living miles away from theirnative place for the past

three decades, displacedKashmiri Pandits on Mondayvoted with the hope for an endto terrorism and peacefulreturn to their homeland.

“We want that SouthKashmir should be freed fromthe twin grave threats (terror-ism and radicalisation) to thecomposite culture ofKashmiriyat,” 65-year-old PyaraLal Pandita, who hailed fromPulwama district of theAnantnag Lok Sabha con-stituency, said after casting voteat a special polling station here.

Kashmiri Pandits, whohave been voting in exile for thepast three decades in Jammu,

Delhi and Udhampur for theirnative Assembly and parlia-mentary constituencies, saythe situation in Kashmir isgetting worse due to rampantradicalisation and terrorism,weakening the possibility oftheir return to and rehabilita-tion in Kashmir Valley.

Arvind Koul, who hailsfrom Shopian, says his com-munity members cannot returnto their homeland unless anduntil there is restoration of“composite culture(Kashmiriyat) and humanity(insaniyat) as existed before theemergence of terrorism in thevalley” in 1989-1990.

For 21-year-old SunitaBhat from Tral of southKashmir, “Peace and securityare first and foremost condi-

tions for settlement of a minor-ity community.” “TheGovernment should considerthese before formulating arehabilitation policy,” she said.

Meanwhile, some KashmiriPandits staged demonstrationsoutside a special polling stationhere on Monday after theyfound their names missingfrom the voter list.

Anantnag district went topolls on 23 April, while votingin Kulgam district took placeon 29 April, while Shopian andPulwama districts voted onMonday. The ElectionCommission set up 21 specialpolling stations for KashmiriPandits in Jammu, one inUdhampur and four in Delhi toensure their participation in thedemocratic process.

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Notwithstanding the soaringmercury, several centenarians

cast their vote in Rajasthan duringpolling for 12 Lok Sabha con-stituencies in the desert state onMonday, setting an example for theyounger generation.

Veera Singh, a 114-year-oldresident of Raisinghnagar inSriganganagar district, reached thepolling station to vote this morn-ing. 104-year-old Gangaram and102-year-old Gurdayal Kaur exer-cised their franchise in Jaipur andSuratgarh town of Sriganganagardistrict respectively.

“It shows their dedicationtowards fulfilling their responsibil-ity towards democracy and they arean inspiration for young generation,”chief electoral officer Anand Kumarsaid.

Apart from the centenarians, a

couple of grooms in Jaipur andNagaur too reached the pollingbooths to exercise their franchiseas the national duty took prece-dence over their marriage.

In Lalana village of Parbatsar inNagaur, a groom riding a marereached the polling station to casthis vote whereas in Malviya Nagarof Jaipur, another groom chose toget his finger inked before exchang-ing his wedding vows.

Deputy Chief Minister SachinPilot voted at a polling station inJalupura area here whereasRajasthan Chief Electoral OfficerAnand Kumar and his deputy DrJogaram and state chief secretary DB Gupta and his wife also voted.

In the second phase, ElectionCommission has set up 133 pollingstations where women are handlingelection process and security.

A total of 2.30 crore people,including seven lakh first-timers,are eligible to vote in 12 Lok Sabhaseats. The State has 13.82 lakh vot-ers in 18-19 years of age group. Asmany as 134 candidates are in frayin the second phase of election.

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Chief Minister YogiAdityanath alleged on

Monday that during earliergovernments in Uttar Pradesh,people got electricity onMuharram and Eid, but not onHoli and Diwali.

Addressing a public meet-ing in Domariaganj con-stituency in Siddharth Nagardistrict, Adityanath said the sit-uation was different now, say-ing Prime Minister NarendraModi believed in ‘sabka saath,sabka vikas’ (support for all,development for all).

“Earlier, power connec-tions were given on caste linesand people didn’t get electric-ity on Holi and Diwali, but onMuharram and Eid,” theBharatiya Janata Party (BJP)leader said.

Adityanath’s remarks isreminiscent of Modi’s com-ments at a rally before the 2017assembly election in the state.

The PM had said if people getelectricity on Ramzan, theyshould also get electricity dur-ing Diwali.

Adityanath also mockedat the SP-BSP-RLD alliance.“Shivpal Yadav (Akhilesh’suncle) says that he has no sis-ter. So, where did the ‘bua’(aunt) came from?” he asked,referring to Bahujan SamajParty chief Mayawati.

“Everyone knows that thenew relationship is built to hideeach other’s sins and the rela-tionship will eventually break

on May 23,” the CM said.He said the people would

give a befitting reply toCongress general secretaryPriyanka Gandhi Vadra forher remarks that wherever herparty was weak in the state, ithas fielded such candidateswho would cut into the BJPvote share.

“People will give a befittingreply like a ‘muhnochwa’ to thevote-cutter remarks of the ‘she-hzadi’ (princess’),” Adityanathsaid, in an apparent referenceto Vadra. In 2002, villagersinsisted that a light-emittingflying object, or the ‘muh-nochwa’ (face scratcher), cametowards them in the dead of thenight and scratched their face,and even gave them mild elec-tric shocks.

The ‘muhnochwa’ wasreportedly seen in about 30 dis-tricts and hundreds of peoplewere said to have suffered seri-ous scratches and bruises onthe face and arms.

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Bihar Opposition leaderTejashwi Yadav on Monday

predicted a political earth-quake when the results of theongoing Lok Sabha polls aredeclared on May 23.

“Wait for May 23, there willbe a political earthquake,”Tejashwi Yadav told the mediahere.

The Rashtriya Janata Dal(RJD) leader claimed that ChiefMinister Nitish Kumar willresign either on May 23 orshortly after that.

Tejashwi Yadav also saidthat differences between theruling Janata Dal-United andthe Bharatiya Janata Party weregrowing and will soon lead toa conflict.

He made the remarks asvoting for Bihar’s five parlia-mentary seats of Sitamarhi,Madhubani, Muzaffarpur,Hajipur and Saran was on.

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Launching an electoralblitzkrieg in Bihar, BJP pres-

ident Amit Shah on Mondayurged the people to vote forPrime Minister Narendra Modi“for only one reason, he hasmade the country secure.”

Addressing five rallies inthe State, Shah said “here arethe names of more than 100welfare schemes launched bythe Modi Government. Youneed not, however, vote foryour NDA candidate becauseof the improvement in yourlives these measures mighthave brought. Simply vote forone reason, Modi has made thecountry secure”.

Shah, who arrived herelate Sunday night, addressedduring the course of the dayfive back-to-back rallies in asmany Lok Sabha constituencies— Sheohar, PashchimChamparan, PurviChamparan, Siwan andMaharajgang. At present, theBJP holds all the five con-stituencies and except for

Siwan, which has been given upin favour of Chief MinisterNitish Kumar’s JD(U), its MPsare seeking re- election fromtheir respective seats.

“Recall the 10 years of UPArule when Aliyas, Maliyas andJamaliyas from Pakistan used toattack our armed forces at willand the government headed byMauni Baba (former PMManmohan Singh) and leaderslike Rahul Baba could not utter

a word. Contrast the situationwith now when every bullet firedfrom across the border is retal-iated with a mortar shell (golikaa jawaab gola se)”, Shah said.

“When 44 CRPF personnelwere killed in Pulwama,Pakistan massed its troops alongthe borders fearing yet anothersurgical strike. But our NarendraModi is the man with a 56-inch-chest. He commissioned theAir Force to do the needful and

the terror hideout in Balakot wasbombed and the militants wereblown to smithereens(aatankwadiyon ke purze purzeuda diye)”, said Shah evokingwild applause from the crowds.

Lambasting the Congressfor promising abrogation ofArticle 370 and its ally OmarAbdullah of the NationalConference for demandingrestoration of the post of PrimeMinister in Jammu & Kashmir,the BJP chief asserted “at presentwe are in power. But in futureeven if we cease to be in powerwe will fight tendencies whichare sympathetic to Kashmir’ssecession, till our last breath”.

In Siwan, Shah came downheavily on Lalu Prasad’s RJDwhich has fielded Hina Shahab,the wife of jailed mafia don-turned-politician MohdShahabuddin, and said “thename of this land of first pres-ident Dr Rajendra Prasad bythe reign of terror unleashed byShahabuddin. The RJD, withthe help of the Congress, isworking towards bringing backthe bad old days”.

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Amid palpable tension in theair, a little over 14,000

‘brave’ voters stepped out oftheir houses in ‘disturbed’ dis-tricts of Shopian and Pulwamain the third and final phase ofpolling in the Anantnag LokSabha constituency, sealing thefate of PDP Chief MehboobaMufti, on Monday.

However, in the cold desertregion of Ladakh, an estimat-ed 64 per cent electorate exer-cised their right to vote in amulti cornered contest.

According to ChiefElectoral Officer, J&KShailendra Kumar, “the fifthand final phase of polling in theState passed off peacefully onMonday”.

He said, the twin districtsof Shopian and Pulwamarecorded around 2.81 per centvoting while LadakhParliamentary constituencyrecorded 64 per cent pollingduring the day. He said, Kargildistrict recorded little over 73

per cent polling while Leh dis-trict recorded around 55 percent polling.

Overall poll percentage inall five phases touched 44.15per cent in the State, he added.

Since morning majority of

polling booths in Shopian andPulwama districts wore adeserted look amid tight secu-rity arrangements. Hardly anyvoters approached the pollingstations in Shopian, Wachi,Rajpora, Pulwama and Tral

segments of Anantnag. To scare away voters,

unidentified militants lobbed agrenade at a polling station inPulwama while a petrol bombwas hurled at another pollingstation in Shopian. No loss of

life was reported in both theincidents.

Reports of clashes betweenprotesters and the securityforces were received from var-ious areas of both Pulwama andShopian. Separatists have also

given a separate election boy-cott and a shutdown call in Shopian and Pulwamadistricts.

In Ladakh, the contest wasfour-cornered betweenJamyang Tsering Namgyal ofthe Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP), Rigzin Spalbar of theCongress and two indepen-dents, Haji Asgar Ali Karbalaiand Sajjad Hussain.

In Anantnag, the maincontest is between MehboobaMufti of the PeoplesDemocratic Party (PDP),Ghulam Ahmad Mir ofCongress and Justice (retired)Hasnain Masoodi of theNational Conference.

Till late evening, all thepolling parties returned safelyfrom Shopian and Pulwamadistrict. Barring few reports ofclashes the deinduction processwas completed peacefully.

Local reports claimed atleast four locals receivedinjuries when security forcesused tear smoke shells to dis-burse them.

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Ahelpless ElectionCommission of India

watched Bengal’s poll percent-age drop by notches even assporadic violence, bombingand booth-capturing marredthe fifth phase of elections toowith both the Opposition BJPand Left Front and the rulingTrinamool Congress accusingeach other of “rampant rigging.”

Amid news of sporadicviolence coming in fromBongaon, Howrah, Hooghly,Arambagh and Barrackporethe State witnessed 73.97 percent polling till 5 pm, ECIsources said not expecting theoverall poll percentage to cross78-79 per cent mark a well 4-5 per cent short of the normalpolling rate in an otherwisepolitically sensitive State.

Reports of violence andbooth jamming came in fromBarrackpore where the turn-coat TMC strongman and for-mer MLA Arjun Singh wasfighting against former UnionMinister Dinesh Trivedi.

While a suave and com-posed Trivedi was seen playingcricket with children amid over-seeing polling, Singh ran frombooth to booth alleging massiverigging by TMC workers. Hereportedly exchanged fisticuffswith police officials before com-plaining that “the police werehelping the TMC rig elections.He fell down and injured him-self while chasing away ‘outsiders’.

Bombs were hurled at HimliSaolapara in Gaighata Assemblysegment of Bongaon parlia-

mentary constituency whereone TMC supporter receivedhead injuries. Later the CAPFresorted to massive lathi-charge.

At Howrah outgoing TMCMP and former India footballerPrasun Banerjee was physical-ly assaulted allegedly by the BJPsupporters and the centralforces when he “went to abooth to check rigging.”

Sporadic violence wasreported from parts of Hooghlyconstituency where BJP’sLocket Chatterjee said “90 per-cent polling was rigged inDhaniakhali Assembly seg-ment,” demanding repolling. A

BJP supporter accompanyingChatterjee allegedly smashedan EVM alleging rampant rig-ging. Reports of violence alsocame in from Chandannagar inHooghly, Arambagh, Bhatparain Barrackpore.

At Arambagh CPI(M)polling agents were literallykicked out of the polling boothsby armed TMC goons theyalleged adding “all the while the CAPF jawans lookedthe other way.

However, Special Police Observer Vivek Dubeysaid the poling was by and largepeaceful.

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Even as the Supreme Courtstayed the Tamil Nadu

Speaker’s move to initiate stepsto disqualify the threeAIADMK legislators owingallegiance to TTV Dhinakaran,one of the former MLAs whowas disqualified earlier blamedthe AMMK leader for his greedto become the CM of the State.

V Senthil Balaji, formerminister and one of the 18 for-mer MLAs who were disqual-ified under the provision of theanti-defection law by theSpeaker, said at Aravakurichithat it was Dhinakaran’s greedto become the chief ministerwhich resulted in the politicalimpasse in the AIADMK.Balaji was in the AIADMK andhad won the 2016 assemblyelection from Aravakurichionly to switch over to theSasikala-Dhinakaran campafter the demise of the thenchief minister J Jayalalithaa inDecember 2016.

After his disqualification,Balaji crossed over to the DMKand is the party candidate for

the by-election to be held onMau 19. This is the first time aformer associate ofDhinakaran is blaming the lat-ter for his ambition to becomethe Chief Minister.

The trouble in theAUADMK began in early 2017with Dhinakaran declaring hisplan to contest the RK Nagarassembly by-election causedby the death of Jayalalithaa,who was representing theconstituency. Chief MinisterEdappady Palaniswamy wasquick the writing on the wallabout the danger posed byDhinakaran’s election as MLA.

Dhinakaran who was easedout of the AIADMK alongwith Sasikala launched AmmaMakkal Munnetra Kazhakamand has been claiming that hewas the rightful heir ofJayalalithaa.

Though he had declaredthat he would seize the partyand the government with thehelp of his sleeper cells, noth-ing has happened since then.Dhinakaran failed to get theparty symbol of Two Leaves allocated to the AMMKby the EC.

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Ahead of the beginning ofholy month of Ramzan, the

Pakistan Army has deliberate-ly scaled up tensions along theLine of Control in frontierPoonch district.

On Monday, the PakistanArmy violated ceasefireagreement for the fifth time ina row since Thursday.

Local villagers living inthe direct line of fire alsopressed panic buttons onMonday as several shells land-ed in the civilian areas.

Following intense shellingin the forward areas some ofthe thickly forested areas alsocaught fire.

According to preliminaryreports, a BSF officer alongwith two civilians receivedsplinter injuries during ‘unpro-voked’ ceasefire violation alongthe line of control in Krishna Ghati sector of Poonchon Monday.

The civilians, injured in theshelling, were identified asAshiq Hussain and MasoodAhmad, both residents ofMankote area in Poonch.

BSF spokesman in Jammusaid, “Ceasefire violation wasreported along LoC inMendhar, during retaliatory firea Sub Inspector Gokul AnandOjha of 168 BN received splin-ter injuries on his left thigh. BSFspokesman said, “injured offi-cer was evacuated to a near byhospital and his condition isstated to be normal”.

Ministry of Defence PROin Jammu, Lt-Col DevenderAnand said, the unprovoked

ceasefire violation was report-ed in KG sector around 2.45p.m. He said, Pakistan armyinitiated ceasefire violation byshelling with mortars and fir-ing of small arms. The firingwas going on till 6.30 p.m inthe forward areas of KG sec-tor, local reports said.

In response to heavyartillery firing from across theline of control, Indian armyjawans too retaliated ‘effec-tively’ and ‘strongly’ using sim-ilar calibre of weapons.

Ground reports suggestedPakistan army has been con-stantly using artillery guns totarget civilian areas.

At present, the Indian armyauthorities are closely studyingthe pattern of cross LoC firingas they fear Pakistan armymay have been providing coverfire to a large group of infil-trators to sneak inside theIndian territory. However, theIndian army has not confirmedany reports of infiltration bid inthe area from across the line ofcontrol.

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In a move thatwill further

boost the IndianNavy’s capabili-ties, Vela — thefourth Scorpeneclass submarineconstructed byMazagon DockS h i p b u i l d e r sLimited (MDSL)for the Navy —was launched atthe KanhojiAngre Wet Basinof the MDSLhere on Monday.

Veena AjayKumar, wife ofDr Ajay Kumar,Secretary, Def-ence Production,who was the chief guest on theoccasion, launched the subma-rine, in the presence of ViceAdmiral AK Saxena.

The submarine was towedto Mumbai Port Trust (MBT)for separation from the pon-toon, after which she willundergo rigorous trials andtests, both in harbour and at sea before delivery to theIndian Navy.

‘Vela’ is one of the sixScorpene-class submarines arebeing built by the MDSL in col-laboration with M/s NavalGroup (formerly DCNS) ofFrance Messrs DCNS ofFrance. These submarines, postinduction, would form the coreof Navy’s conventionalSubmarine Arm.

The state-of-art features ofthe Scorpene-class submarinesinclude superior stealth and theability to launch a cripplingattack on the enemy using pre-cision guided weapons. Theattack can be launched withtorpedoes, as well as tubelaunched anti-ship missiles,whilst underwater or on sur-face. The Stealth features willgive it invulnerability,unmatched by many sub-marines.

They are designed to oper-ate in all theatres including theTropics. All means and com-munications are provided toensure interoperability withother components of a NavalTask Force.

Cmde Rakesh Anand,Chairman and ManagingDirector, MDSL said on theoccasion that the launch of theP15 B Destroyer ‘Imphal’ onApril 20, and the subsequentlaunch of `Vela’ were indeedsome of the major events hisorganisation so far this year.

Monday’s event reaffirmedthe steps taken by MDSL in theongoing ‘Make In India’ pro-gramme, which is being active-ly implemented by theDepartment of DefenceProduction (MoD).

Currently, eight warshipsand five submarines are underconstruction at MDSL whichwas one of the India’s leadingshipyards with a capacity tomeet requirements of theIndian Navy.

The Scorpene class of sub-marines can undertake multi-farious tasks typically under-taken by any modern subma-rine which include anti-surfaceas well as anti-submarine war-

fare. The transfer of technolo-gy involves appropriate tech-nical support by Naval Groupto MDSL in the field of con-struction, integration and testsof the submarines in Indiawhich is achieved throughtransfer of technical data pack-age to MDSL through infor-mation system as well as on jobtraining to MDSL’s personnelon critical technologies.

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The Election Commission ofIndia has relaxed the Model

Code of Conduct to facilitateeffective implementation ofrelief works in 151 drought-affected villages in Maharashtrain view of public interest.

Responding to a letter writ-ten by Maharashtra chief min-ister Devendra Fadnavis after thecompletion of the four-phasedLok Sabha polls on April 30, theECI — in a letter written to theState Chief Electoral Officer(CEO) — said that it had noobjection to the state govern-ment undertaking drought reliefworks in the affected areas “inview of public interest involved”

The ECA — in its letter tothe CEO — stated that thestaffers involved in the countingwould not accompany the min-isters on any tour during theperiod. In its April 30 letter,Fadnavis had urged the ChiefElection Commissioner to relaxthe Model Code of Conduct asthe elections for all 48 LokSabha seats in the state were overon April 29.

“Maharashtra is reelingfrom severe drought and heat-wave. The code of conduct,which was enforced during elec-tions, should be relaxed. Theelections for all 48 Lok Sabhaseats have been concluded in thefour phases,” Fadnavis had saidin his letter. Fadnavis said theState Government needed totake a re-look at drought reliefmeasures and expedite projects.

The CM said the Gover-nment needed to fast-track pro-jects such as digging of wells,repairs in water supply projects,repairs of water canals for dis-tribution of water from dams andother reservoirs to villages.

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Although the Congress was inthe vanguard of the freedommovement, many of its mem-bers are still not comfortablewith the core values in our

Constitution and the democratic way of life.A case in point is the recent statement ofa dyed-in-the-wool Congressman PCChacko that the Nehru-Gandhi family is“the first family in the country.”

In the mid-1970s, the then Congresspresident, Dev Kant Barooah, had pro-claimed that “Indira is India and India isIndira.” What followed was terrible conse-quences for the country’s citizens. Taken inby such sycophancy, Prime Minister IndiraGandhi displayed fascist tendencies andturned our democracy into a dictatorship.While the assertion of the Congress leader,Mr Chacko, that the Nehru-Gandhi fami-ly is the “first family of the country” goesagainst the very grain of our democracy andConstitutional dharma, we must admit thatthe family has many firsts to its credit.

Here are some of them:In 1946, when the All-India Congress

Committee (AICC) asked its State units topropose the name of the person who, in theirview, should become party president and thefirst Prime Minister of India, not one PradeshCongress Committee (PCC) voted forJawaharlal Nehru. A dozen of them wantedSardar Vallabhbhai Patel to become theparty president and Prime Minister. Threeother State units proposed no candidate. Yet,though he did not secure a single vote,Jawaharlal Nehru, backed by MahatmaGandhi, became the first Prime Minister ofIndia. The Congress and historians close tothis family have written tomes, describingNehru as a “great democrat” but have hiddenthis dreadful truth from the Indian public.Nehru, therefore, has the unique distinctionof getting the top job without a single vote inhis favour!

Nehru was also the only Prime Ministerunder whom India suffered a humiliatingdefeat in a war with China, thanks to his wool-ly-headed approach to international relationsand gross misreading of China’s real inten-tions. He was also the Prime Minister whopreferred to beseech the United Nations onJanuary 1, 1948, and internationalise theKashmir issue, rather than allow the IndianArmy to throw out the infiltrators.

Yet another first for Nehru was the man-ner in which he initiated dynastic politics inthe country. He manipulated the party boss-es and ensured the appointment of hisdaughter Indira Gandhi as the Congress pres-ident in 1959.

Indira Gandhi, too, has many firsts to hercredit. She was the only Prime Minister tosupersede four judges of the Supreme Court(three of them in April 1973, and one inJanuary 1977) and propound the theory of a“committed judiciary”— that is, committedto the Congress. She was the only Indianleader to crush democracy and replace it with

dictatorship during the dreadedEmergency, which she imposedin 1975. She was the first nation-al leader to abolish the need forquorum in Parliament so that afew Congress MPs could makelaws for the entire country. Shewas also the first and only PrimeMinister to empower thePresident to amend theConstitution through an execu-tive order. She was also the firstleader of the Congress to giveparty tickets to two people, whohad hijacked an aircraft in 1978.Soon after she returned to power,she ensured the withdrawal ofcases against the hijackers, gavethem party tickets in the UttarPradesh Assembly elections in1981 and ensured their victories.

Thus, she made sure that thehijackers became honourablemembers of the Uttar Pradeshlegislature. Thereafter, her succes-sors in the family — RajivGandhi and Sonia Gandhi —have repeatedly honoured one ofthe hijackers with a party ticketto contest the Lok Sabha electionsfrom Uttar Pradesh. Such is therespect that the Nehru-Gandhisaccord to this individual that theyhave given him the party ticketfive times and made desperateattempts to ensure the presenceof this man in the House of thePeople.

Rajiv Gandhi is anothermember of the family to achieve

many firsts. He was the onlyPrime Minister to be directlyaccused of taking kickbacks inan international arms deal. Hewas also the second PrimeMinister after Indira Gandhi tobring a law to crush press free-dom. A united media forcedhim to eventually back off.

Two members of this fam-ily — Jawaharlal Nehru andIndira Gandhi — have theunique distinction of conferringthe Bharat Ratna upon them-selves. Later, Rajiv Gandhi, too,was awarded the Bharat Ratnaposthumously. All the threemembers of this family, whobecame Prime Ministers, havea special attribute — complete-ly ignoring national leaders likeSardar Vallabhbhai Patel and DrBR Ambedkar. It was left toother party Governments toconfer the Bharat Ratna onthese great national leaders.

Yet another first, which isnow etched in stone, is that thisis the only political family in thecountry to name all majorGovernment schemes, nation-al projects and institutions andmost of the sports trophiesafter its own members to thecomplete exclusion of every-body else.

Sonia Gandhi is probablythe only foreigner to get herselfincluded illegally in the voters’list in our country. This hap-

pened in 1980, when she wasstill a citizen of Italy. Someonelodged a complaint with theChief Election Officer, Delhi,and he removed her namefrom the voters’ list because shewas not a citizen of India.

Sonia Gandhi and RahulGandhi are two members ofthe Nehru-Gandhi family whoare members of the Lok Sabhaand who consider it infra digto ask questions in the House.Obviously, they take theChacko principle seriously. Alook at the parliamentaryrecord of the two Gandhisshows that they have neverasked a single question in theirparliamentary careers.According to a study conduct-ed by PRS India, on an average,MPs asked 300 questions in the15th Lok Sabha and 293 ques-tions in the 16th Lok Sabha.Compare their record with thehighest number of questionsasked by an MP in the 16th LokSabha — 1,181 — and you getan idea of what an active MPcan do during question time.This is the record of the “Firstfamily.” Mr Chacko, please stopusing expressions that militateagainst our democratic ethos.India is the biggest democracyin the world, not a monarchy.

(The writer is an author spe-cialising in democracy studies.Views expressed are personal)

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Preventive measures” (May 6).The cyclonic storm named Fani,the worst witnessed by India in 20years, crossed the Odisha coastnear Puri with wind speeds ofabout 200-220 kmph but couldnot inflict as much damage as wasexpected. Odisha’s managementof the natural disaster has becomea template for the world to followgiven our population. It seemedlike the State had learnt lessonsfrom past. All its arms performedto perfection — there were weath-er alerts, preparedness andinformed public participation.

Post the disaster, the Centre aswell as the State Government arefaced with a hefty task of rebuild-ing infrastructure. Fani has left atrail of destruction across theState with considerable structur-al damage being inflicted to pri-vate and public properties. To thisend, the Union Government hastaken timely action. It has releasedemergency funds and deployedNational Disaster Response Forceteams. The State Governmentpressed into action even before thecyclone was about to hit Odisha.More than 12 lakh people were

shifted to safe places and 26 lakhwere alerted through SMS. TheState has shown commendableperformance and was rightlyapplauded by the UN as well.Going further, the rehabilitationexercise is not just the responsibil-ity of the Union or the StateGovernment. It must become anational mission.

MC JoshiLucknow

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Genuine scores?” (May 4).The high percentage of markssecured by students in the CentralBoard of Secondary Educationclass XII examination is a clearrevelation that our academic sys-tem places too much emphasis onmarks. The result is that our stu-

dents are negatively impactedand miss the rank by a whisker.

Objective questions neithercorrectly reflect a student’s intel-ligence nor should they be a yard-stick for assessing their capabili-ty. Students who come fromsmaller towns and rural areas areat a great disadvantage as they areunable to get admission in reput-ed colleges. Time has come for arevamp of our education system.

Greater emphasis must be laid oncreative education by focussingon greater flexibility and chang-ing patterns of examinationbecause marks are not everythingto test a students’ capability.

KR SrinivasanSecundèrabad

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Preventive measures” (May 6).The lower number of humancasualties reported from Odishawhen a gigantic storm, Fani,crossed its landmass is in itselfproof that the State has learntfrom the 1999 experience.Certainly, advancements inweather forecasting aided theauthorities in minimising theloss. But the focus now should beon creating infrastructure that isresilient enough to withstand theonslaught of nature’s fury. This isall the more important as climatechange-induced extreme weath-er has become the norm ratherthan the exception.

SrikantVia email

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Despite all the confusion, carnage and hor-ror of the Sri Lankan suicide bombattacks, that killed at least 359 people and

left hundreds more injured, one thing that isabundantly clear is the utter futility of suchattempts by religious bigots to change the worldto their likeness. Of course, there is also a starkreality that Governments around the world areforced to confront and for which politicians paya heavy price: That despite the strictest of con-trols imposed, little can actually be done to con-trol the turn of such events. In the case of SriLanka, the security and intelligence establish-ment appeared to have become complacent ifnot comatose after it defeated the LiberationTigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2009.

Politicians try and make a living by tryingto convince the citizens that they have the nec-essary expertise and required abilities if givena free hand to make their lives safe, secure andcomfortable. Nothing can be further from thetruth as at the end of the day, howsoever sophis-ticated and technology-dependent the data col-lection, analysis and dissemination process maybe, they are all finally subject to the frailties andfollies of human beings.

It has emerged that in the case of Sri Lanka,actionable intelligence provided by Indianagencies was not acted upon because of the on-going factional fight between PresidentMaithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister RanilWickremesinghe. This apart, there’s also the per-ception that these agencies were keen on cre-ating a rift between Sri Lanka and Pakistan overthe issue. Also, there may well have been a senseof complacency, not least given the commonperception that Indian agencies rarely get it right— the Pulwama tragedy being the latest one ina long line of such disasters.

Fortunately, the Sri Lankan Government didmove rapidly after the attacks. Once it had over-come the initial shock, it was able to identifythe perpetrators and put in place a series of mea-sures that have till now prevented a repeat ofsuch attacks from being executed. Also, exceptfor a couple of minor incidents, they have beenable to prevent reprisals against the Muslimcommunity, the overwhelming majority ofwhose members are upright and loyal citizens,who were equally shocked and incensed by thesenseless atrocities perpetrated in the name oftheir religion. This ensured that much of thesubsequent intelligence that enabled the policeand security forces to stop further attacks wasprovided from within the community.

Finally, one could not help but appreciatePrime Minister Wickremesinghe’s promptaction to publicly apologise for the inability ofhis Government to forestall the tragedy. He fur-ther ensured accountability by sacking thedefence secretary and police chief for inactionon their part and for deliberately withholdingintelligence about possible terrorist attacks. Ourpolitical leadership will do well to learn fromthis. They must keep their egos under controland focus on accountability every time theycome short instead of clinging on to their chairsas they all do.

Interestingly, while the Islamic State (IS) lostno time in claiming responsibility for the attacks,

its ability to actually coordinate andexecute such a sophisticated and com-plex attack, involving seven suicidebombers, seems quite doubtful. Thefact that it is on the run obviouslymakes organising such an attackextremely challenging, though it maywell have been able to radicalise theperpetrators online.

On the other hand, dismissingtheir involvement as out of handwould also be quite foolish, given thatits ideology has attracted a large num-ber of followers in recent years. Wehave already seen some pointerstowards this in our neighbourhood aswell as in Jammu & Kashmir.Moreover, we must also remember thata vast number of our population emi-grates to the Middle East in search ofjobs and it is not inconceivable thatsome among these workers may wellhave fallen prey to this radical ideol-ogy and returned to South Asia tocarry forward the Islamic State’s waragainst non-believers. It will indeed beinteresting to learn what interrogationsof suspects — captured before theywere able to act — brings out.

Then there is, of course, the alter-native narrative that suggests theinvolvement of Pakistan’s Inter ServiceIntelligence (ISI) along with Chineseintelligence to create an environmentwithin the country that can enable for-mer President Mahendra Rajapaksa toonce again win the presidential hus-tings due in the near future. That hewas rabidly anti-Indian in his past twotenures as President is not underdoubt as also his wholehearted supportfor Pakistan and China.

This perception is supported by

the belief that Indian agencies wereable to provide such detailed action-able intelligence only because they hadcaught and interrogated some mem-bers of a module, connected to the per-petrators at Coimbatore.

It has been a long-standing beliefwithin our security and intelligencecommunity that after the withdrawalof the Indian Peace Keeping Forcefrom Sri Lanka and the subsequentrefusal of the Indian Government tosupply the Sri Lankan armed forceswith weapons, the Sri LankanGovernment turned to Pakistan forassistance. It is at this time thatPakistan’s ISI established a foothold in that island nation, which was used to radicalise, train, arm andemploy Islamists for operations inSouth India.

Let us not forget that Sri LankanMuslims have sided with Pakistansince the Partition. And have beenunited by the “big” presence of Indiain the neighbourhood to coalescetheir mutual interests. Let us also notforget that during the 1971 LiberationWar of Bangladesh, when India with-drew landing and overflight rights toPakistan, Sri Lanka extended landingand refuelling facilities to PakistanInternational Airlines. As the PakistanArmy launched operations againstthe Mukti Bahini, Pakistani militaryaircraft landed and took off from theKatunayake international airport.While Sri Lanka insisted these aircraftwere civilian, there were reports thatthey actually carried armed troops.And as the Tamil separatists also keptthe island Muslims at bay, Pakistan’s ISIgot actively involved in the local gov-

ernment’s counter-offensive strate-gies.

In this particular case, while thereis the possibility that these elementsmay well have acted independently, itcould just as well have been a “falseflag” operation to push the blame oncadres of the Islamic State, who in theirpresent condition, would have beenmore than happy to accept responsi-bility for obvious reasons.

One way or the other, the NationalThowheeth Jama’ath, the local militantIslamist group involved in the attacks,neither had the sophistication nor theability to carry out such attacks andclearly unknown foreign organisa-tions provided them with the neces-sary technical and logistic support.

Finally, in our context, there havebeen credible reports that Islamistshave been successful in establishing afairly strong presence in States such asWest Bengal and Kerala, where theynow seem to be becoming increasing-ly assertive. They have got away withthis primarily because localGovernments have been reluctant toact against them in the foolish hopethat by doing so, they would gain thesupport of the Muslim community toconsolidate power. This bodes ill forthe country in the long run andrequires the Union Government toundertake necessary measures, someof which may well make them unpop-ular, if we are to avoid a turbulent andextremely violent future.

(The writer, a military veteran, aconsultant with the Observer ResearchFoundation and a Senior Visiting Fellowwith The Peninsula Foundation,Chennai)

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Access, retention and success,which mean bringing childrento school, retaining them for at

least eight years (up to 14 years of age)till they pass grade VIII or ideally for12 years till they pass the senior sec-ondary level, have been the mantra ofthe education sector since the JomtienConference was held in 1990.

Ever since, our educational plan-ners as well as the Governmenthave done a stupendous job inimproving the quality of educationin schools. Today, India can boast ofgreat achievements for havingexpanded school access to childrenin outlying areas. Several policies andinitiative have been launched andthey have only grown sharper and

tighter in details with the passage oftime. But a closer look will reveal thatat the grassroot level, little haschanged. Students from low-incomefamilies and first generation school-goers continue to face complex chal-lenges. While for the first time Indiawas able to bring the school dropoutrate to less than three per cent, a largemajority of the children still remainsout of school. We can claim advance-ments in school infrastructure andthe provision of mid-day meals toour students but why is it that learn-ing levels among the severely disad-vantaged and first generation chil-dren have not changed? Why is it thata majority of drop-outs continue tobelong to the poor and less-privilegedfamilies?

A major reason for childrendropping out of school is unpre-paredness. Children who do not livewith their immediate families find itdifficult to adjust to the school envi-ronment. They also do not under-stand the importance of schoolingand there is no one back home toconvince the child why he/she mustattend classes. It is not that our edu-

cationists or policy-makers are notaware of this fact. It was, perhaps, thisrealisation that prompted them tolaunch programmes like theIntegrated Child DevelopmentScheme (ICDS) and Anganwadicentres. But clearly they have notbeen able to reap desired results. Theschemes were expected to supportthe mother by way of providing cru-cial information and medicine dur-ing pregnancy and prepare her childfor school. Instead, centres provid-ing such services have remained low-quality child minding centres.

The need of the hour is to bifur-cate the lower primary from the ele-mentary school and conjoin it withthe pre-school so as to provide qual-ity language and life skills training toall children aged between three andeight. Many children, who sufferfrom various types of disabilities, donot receive the attention ofAnganwadi teachers as also prima-ry teachers as they lack the requiredtraining to detect disabilities.Detection should be an essentialcomponent of the teachers’ trainingprocess so that they know how to

deal with such situations and referthem to the appropriate agencies.

Further, it is often said that chil-dren have the capacity to learn manylanguages between ages three andeight. So, it is essential that teachers areproficient in at least three languages.

The absence of a professionalagency for the design, developmentand implementation of a well-concep-tualised scheme is also one major rea-son why programmes are arbitrary innature. Pre-school to lower primaryeducation ie, institutions for childrenaged between three and eight years,should be seen as a continuum. Lifeskills training as well as literacy andnumeracy skills should be providedin the mother tongue and within theinstitutions. Any national body, ide-ally the National Council forEducational Research and Training(NCERT), should be designated as thenodal agency for designing a plan forcomplete development of the child.

Adequately, for the teachers, theNational Council for TeacherEducation (NCTE) must design anddevelop training norms and decideon the standards required to be

appointed a shikshak at these centres.And this, without much formalintervention.

It goes without saying that theRight to Education Act, 2009, did notdo much good to this age group ofstudents. In fact, it worked againsttheir interest. By giving scant atten-tion to early childhood education, thenation has deprived the poor and theless-privileged children of their rightto education. The non-formalschools, which were run by voluntaryorganisations like the Ekal Vidyalaya,and who have been doing great ser-vice to children in far-flung areas,have been declared illegal/unlawful.Perhaps, we need to re-examine ifthis sector can be covered under theRTE or be made free for NGOs, thephilanthropists and others to con-tribute.

Traditionally, education of thisage group has always been seen as adharm and the society contributedtowards making it possible. Weshould rely more on the local com-munity for running these schools.Mothers of children studying inthese centres and other volunteers

should be roped in to run themsmoothly and ensure a check andbalance system born of participation,not of imposition. They should notbe seen as a Government establish-ment but as a community centre ofthe society.

So where did we go wrong andwhat needs to change? We have toemphasise that mother and child carecentres are not just about health butalso about literacy/education of both.The major reason behind the poorperformance of these centres andschemes is the involvement of inap-propriately trained personnel to man-age them. The nodal Ministry forthese centres should be the Ministryof Human Resources Developmentalone with experts from areas of med-icine, nutrition, psychiatry and so on.If the quality of pre-primary educa-tion determines the “success” of thechild, then, should not all childrenhave the right to access a uniform pre-school education?

(The writer is professor of educa-tion at the Indira Gandhi OpenUniversity. Views expressed are per-sonal)

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Page 10: ˘ 3 - ˝˚ ˝˝ #˘*˜˝˝ ˘+ ˙ˆ˛5 %*˛ ˇ˘˝˝%*+%ˇˆ#!5ˇ$ $ˇˆ *˜˝$ˇ ...€¦ · AIIMS Rishikesh. Founder of Prajnanam Vedic Centre, ... things around, spreading the

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The NTPC School of Business(NSB), one of India’s premier

management institutes for thepower sector has achieved 100%summer placement for its firstPGDM (Energy Management)batch. Under the institute’sSummer Internship Program(SIP), a host of renowned com-panies including the IndianEnergy Exchange, PowerTrading Corporation, PowerFinance Corporation, AMPSolar, ACME Solar, GMRTrading, participated in theprocess, offering internships tothe students.

Gireesh C Tripathi, DeputyDirector General (NSB) andSunil Maheshwari (ProfessorIIM-A), Chairman ofGovernance Committee ofNSB congratulated the stu-dents and the placement cell forthis remarkable feat shortlyafter the process for the insti-tute’s first batch concluded.

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The US on Monday said itcannot ensure the sale of its

crude oil to India at conces-sional rates to make up for thecheaper Iranian oil going out ofthe market.

“Oil is owned by privatepeople, so the government can-not force people to make con-cessionary price,” USCommerce Secretary WilburRoss, who is here to participatein a trade forum, told reporters.

India this month stoppedimporting crude oil from Iranfollowing the US move to endsanction waivers.

Iranian oil was a lucrativebuy for Indian refiners as thePersian Gulf nation provides 60days of credit for purchases,terms not available from sup-pliers of substitute crudes —Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq,Nigeria, and the US.

Also, Iran made arrange-ments to ship the oil to Indiaincluding providing insurancecover during transit. In the caseof most other suppliers includ-ing the US, refiners have makeshipping arrangements andpay for insurance.

“Iran is a problem, if youhave seen recent terrorismincidents, and we should bedoing whatever we can againstterrorism,” Ross told reportersafter meeting Finance MinisterArun Jaitley.

US Ambassador to India

Kenneth Juster said, “The USworking with other countries,including Saudi Arabia, toensure an adequate supply of oil”.

New Delhi has lined upsupplies from alternate sourcessuch as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait,UAE and Mexico to make upfor the lost volumes from Iran.

India was the second-biggest buyer of Iranian crudeoil after China. It bought some24 million tonne of crude oilfrom Iran in the fiscal endedMarch 31. Iran supplied morethan a tenth of its oil needs.

US President DonaldTrump last year withdrew fromthe 2015 nuclear deal betweenIran and world powers and

revived a range of sanctionsagainst the Persian Gulf nation.It, however, granted a six-month waiver from sanctionsto eight countries — China,India, Japan, South Korea,Taiwan, Turkey, Italy, andGreece — but with a conditionthat they would reduce theirpurchases of Iranian oil.

The waiver began inNovember 2018 and expired onMay 2. India, the world’s third-biggest oil consumer, meetsmore than 80 per cent of its oilneeds through imports. Iran in2018-19 was its third-largestsupplier after Iraq and SaudiArabia, meeting over 10 percent of total needs.

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Investorwealth

e r o d e dby �1.24l a k hc r o r eMondaya m i dhuge sell-ing pres-sure inthe equi-ty marketwhere the Sensex plunged 363points.

Tracking weak global sen-timent amid fresh trouble forthe world economy after the USvowed to further raise tariffs onChinese goods, the BSE keyindex closed at 38,600.34,plunging 362.92 points or 0.93per cent.

Led by the sell-off in thebroader market, the marketcapitalisation of BSE-listedcompanies dropped�1,24,380.06 crore to�1,50,37,633.14 crore.

“Global indices bled todayas the US-China trade warcondition further intensified.The worsening situation hasput the entire world in a stateof flux where even a tiny esca-lation can cause big damage,”

said Umesh Mehta, head ofresearch, Samco Securities Ltd.

From the 30-share pack, 25scrips witnessed sell-off led byYes Bank, Tata Motors, BajajFinance, Tata Steel and HDFC.

On the BSE, 1,634 scripsdeclined, while 831 advancedand 200 remained unchanged.

Sectorally, BSE consumerdurables, metals, realty, capitalgoods and auto indices fell upto 2.82 per cent.

In the broader market, theBSE mid-cap and small-capindices also ended lower by upto 0.85 per cent.

Chinese bourses sank ledby Shanghai Composite Indexthat plunged 5.58 per cent.Benchmark indices of Japan,Hong Kong and South Koreaalso witnessed sharp declines.

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Shares of Yes Bank onMonday dropped by over 5

per cent, wiping out �2,135.29crore from its market valua-tion, after ratings downgrade.

The scrip tumbled 5.30per cent to close at �166.30 onthe BSE. During the day, ittanked 5.75 per cent to�165.50. It was the worst hitamong the 30-front-line shares.

On the NSE, sharesdropped 5 per cent to close at�167.

In terms of volume, 43.12lakh shares of the companywere traded on the BSE duringthe day, while over 4 crore unitschanged hands on the NSE.

The company’s market val-uation fell by �2,135.29 crore to�38,515.71 crore on the BSE.

The private sector lenderhad a double whammySaturday after domestic ratingagency ICRA downgraded itslong-term ratings along with anegative outlook, citing a spikein its lower-rated advancesand falling core capital buffers.

The agency downgradedratings on instrumentstotalling borrowings over�33,000 crore by the lender,ICRA said.

The bank had also report-ed its maiden loss of over�1,506 crore in the Marchquarter, driven by a near ten-fold spike in provisions.

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The country’s services sec-tor activity fell to a seven-

month low in April owing tosofter rise in new businessand disruptions arising fromthe elections, a monthly sur-vey showed Monday.

However, predictions thateconomic conditions willnormalise after the electionsunderpinned opt imismregarding the outlook andsupported a stronger upturnin employment.

The seasonally adjustedNikkei India Ser vicesBusiness Activity Index, fellfrom 52 in March to 51 at thestart of the 2019 financialyear, pointing to the weakestupturn in output since last

September.Despite the moderation,

the services PMI was in theexpansion territory for the11th straight month. In PMIparlance, a print above 50means expansion, while a scorebelow that denotes contraction.

“Although the Indian pri-vate sector economy looks tobe settling into a weakergrowth phase, much of theslowdown was linked to dis-ruptions arising from theelections and companies gen-erally foresee improvementsonce a government isformed,” said Pollyanna DeLima, Principal Economistat IHS Markit, and author ofthe report.

The general election, thatbegan on April 11, is cur-

rently underway. Votes will becounted on May 23.

However, poll was notthe only reason cited for theslowdown. In the service sec-tor, competitive conditionsand a shift towards onlinebookings among customersreportedly restricted newbusiness gains and in turngrowth of activity, Lima said.

On the employmentfront, buoyed by ongoingimprovements in new workand optimistic growth pro-jections, service providersplaced more people in jobsduring April.

Meanwhile, the seasonal-ly adjusted Nikkei IndiaComposite PMI OutputIndex, that maps both themanufacturing and services

industry, fell from 52.7 in to51.7 in April, indicative of aslight pace of expansion inaggregate activity that wasweaker than seen on averageover the series history.

On the prices front, thereport said that rates of infla-tion for input costs and out-put charges remained weakby historical standards.

“Another key takeawayfrom the latest results is thelack of inflationary pressuresin both the manufacturingand service sectors, whichcoupled with slower economygrowth offers room for a fur-ther cut to the benchmarkrepurchase rate,” Lima said.

The next meeting of RBI’sMonetary Policy Committeeis scheduled on June 3-6.

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Bridgestone India Private Ltd’stwo plants in India have opted

for using solar power to reduce1,50,000 tons of CO2 emisssion.The Pune Plant in Chakan hasinstalled 1 MW of Solar capaci-ty and another 4 MW of capac-ity is being set up. The Indoreplant in Kheda, in MadhyaPradesh has 1 MW solar energycapacity that is being enhanced byanother 1 MW capacity slated tobe operational by the third quar-ter of 2019.

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New Delhi: Thomas Cook(India) Ltd., integrated traveland related financial servicescompany, has signed an agree-ment with SentosaDevelopment Corporation(SDC), Singapore to bring moretourists from India to Sentosa,a holiday island-in-the-city thatis home to a diverse array ofnovel leisure experiences. MoUwas signed between MaheshIyer - Executive Director andChief Executive Officer,Thomas Cook (India) Ltd., andQuek Swee Kuan, ChiefExecutive Officer, SDC. PNS

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Ride hailing major OlaMonday said Ratan Tata,

Chairman Emeritus of TataSons, has invested in its EVbusiness — Ola ElectricMobility (OEM).

This investment, which ispart of OEM’s series A roundof funding, is in Tata’s person-al capacity, Ola said in a state-ment.

Details of the funding werenot disclosed.

“His investment in OlaElectric will bring his deepexperience and mentorship tothe company’s ambitions tomake electric mobility viable atscale,” it added.

Tata is also an earlyinvestor in ANI Technologies,Ola’s parent company. He hadinvested in ANI Technologiesin July 2015.

In March this year, OEMhad announced raising �400crore in a funding round led byTiger Global and Matrix India.

“The electric vehicleecosystem is evolving dramat-

ically every day, and I believeOla Electric will play a key rolein its growth and develop-ment,” Tata said.

Ola Electric is currentlyrunning several pilots involvingcharging solutions, batteryswapping stations, and deploy-ing vehicles across two, threeand four-wheeler segments.

Bhavish Aggarwal, co-founder and CEO of Ola saidTata has been a mentor to himpersonally, and an inspirationin shaping Ola’s journey overthe years.

“I’m very excited to wel-come him on board Ola Electricas an investor and a mentor....We are privileged to have hisguidance and support onceagain, as we work towards ourgoal of a million electric vehi-cles in India by 2021,” he added.

OEM was initially estab-lished to enable Ola’s electricmobility pilot programme inNagpur.

In 2018, Ola subsequentlyannounced ‘Mission: Electric’to bring 1 million electric vehi-cles on Indian roads by 2021.

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China’s top trade envoy ispreparing to travel to

Washington for crucial talks, aChinese official said Mondaydespite US President DonaldTrump threatening to imposemore punishing taxes on $200billion worth of Chinese prod-ucts, citing slow progress innegotiations.

The brief statement fromChinese Foreign MinistrySpokesman Geng Shuang cameas media reports said Beijingmay cancel the high-level tradetalks with the US, leading totumbling of shares prices acrossthe world amid worries that thetwo major economic giantswere once again on the path ofconfrontation.

Asked whether the topChinese envoy Vice PremierLiu He would visit Washingtonas planned, Geng said, “aChinese team is preparing totravel to the United States fortrade talks.”

Reacting to the reports,Geng told journalists, “What Ican tell you is that the Chineseteam is preparing to travel tothe US for the trade talks.”

He parried a spate of ques-tions whether the talks wouldbe resumed on Wednesdayand declined say when thetrade team would go toWashington.

About Trump’s threat toimpose punishing tariffs on$200 billion worth of additionalChinese products, Geng played

it down saying that such a sit-uation prevailed earlier.

“As to the US threat onChinese tariffs, I think such sit-uation appeared many timesbefore. China’s position isalways clear cut and the USknows that clearly. Regardingthe trade talks between Chinaand the US those consultationshave been held for the 10thround and made positiveprogress.”

President Trump’s surpriseremarks came on Sunday as thetwo countries locked in a long-standing trade war seemednear to striking a trade deal.

A high-level Chinese del-egation led by Vice Premier Liuwas scheduled to be inWashington to resume talksaimed at resolving the tradewar that has cast gloom overthe world economy.

“China is considering can-celling trade talks that are toresume in Washington startingWednesday,” The Wall StreetJournal reported Sunday quot-ing unnamed sources.

“There has been wide-spread expectations in recentdays that an accord could bereached by Friday,” it said.

Quoting an unnamedsource, CNBC News said theChinese Vice Premier will like-ly cancel the trip he hadplanned for himself and a 100-person delegation for the finalround of talks.

The US officials had pre-viously said that a deal could bereached by Friday.

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India and the US onMonday agreed to engage

regularly at various level toresolve outstanding tradeissues by exploring mutuallybeneficial suitable solutions,an official statement said.

“Both sides agreed todeepen economic coopera-tion and bilateral trade byensuring greater cooperationamongst stakeholders ,including Government, busi-nesses and entrepreneurs,”said a statement after meet-ing between visiting USCommerce Secretary Wilbur

Ross and Commerce MinisterSuresh Prabhu.

Ross is visiting India toattend the 11th Trade WindsBusiness Forum and Missionhosted by the US Departmentof Commerce.

Without giving details,the statement said the bothsides also discussed various“outstanding trade issues”and agreed to engage regu-larly at various levels toresolve them by exploring“suitable solutions, which aremutually beneficial and pro-mote economic developmentand prosper ity in both countries”.

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The 15th FinanceCommission will meet RBI

Governor Shaktikanta Dasand representatives of banksand financial institutions dur-ing its two-day visit toMumbai beginning May 8,according to an off icial statement.

The commission, chairedby NK Singh, will discussissues concerning macro-eco-nomics, financial stability andcost of borrowing of theCentre and states with the Reserve Bank.

The commission will alsodiscuss the issues concerningrecapitalisation of banks, andpossible scenarios of the BimalJalan committee report on sur-plus capital available with theRBI for transfer to theGovernment, the statement said.

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������������������.��According to World Health organisation (WHO) estimates, 10

per cent of worldwide population is affected by kidney diseases.Each year, about 17 out of 100 urban Indians suffer from kidneydiseases. Importantly, many of these are young children, posing amajor public health crisis.

To add to it, kidney diseases in children are often silent, thusmaking it difficult to diagnose especially in the earlier stages. Inthe later stages, symptoms, if present, are often nonspecific, fur-ther complicating the issue. Poor growth is the single most com-mon feature in all children. Undiagnosed, the condition can leadto life-threatening long-term effects, mainly related to heart andbrain. In the absence of appropriate preventive and corrective mea-sures, patients may eventually develop advanced kidney failure andneed renal replacement therapy (RRT) in the form of dialysis ora kidney transplant.

However, early detection can help prevent kidney diseases fromoccurring or progressing into more advanced kidney failure. Sinceearly chronic kidney diseases usually have no signs or symptoms,it is important for those with high risk to get tested regularly. Thereare simple urine or blood tests to determine the kidney health.

The common causes of kidney diseases in children in India,acute kidney injury (AKI), which is secondary to infections or diar-rheal illness, is something very important to keep in mind.Althoughpotentially reversible in most cases, AKI in children may have long-term problems that could later in life lead to chronic kidney dis-ease (CKD) which is permanent and progressive damage to thekidneys. Children often die, not from the infection, but because

of AKI caused by dehydration andlow blood pressure. Equallyimportant is the risk of glomeru-lar diseases in children affectingthe filtering units of the kidneysand there is a clear evidence thatkidney diseases first detected inadults with symptoms such ashigh blood pressure, protein andblood in urine actually begin inchildhood. Then there are somecongenital disorder and heredi-tary diseases of the kidneys whichpresent from the birth of the childand which may manifest later inlife. These include entities likevesicoureteric reflux (VUR)which results in backflow ofurine from the urinary bladder

back into the kidneys at the time of urine voiding by the child result-ing in damage to kidneys and possible urine infection. Therefore,it is very important to identify and understand childhood-relatedkidney diseases and intervene early to prevent future complications.

It is important to identify the presence of kidney disease in chil-dren. It can be done with regular antenatal checkups and fetal ultra-sounds. This can potentially help many children with kidney abnor-malities to be diagnosed even before birth. Some children devel-op facial swelling or leg swelling which can be due to abnormali-ty in kidneys causing protein leakage in the urine. Simple and rel-atively inexpensive urine and blood tests are enough to identifykidney diseases. Ultrasound scan or CT scan and other special testsmay also be required depending upon the problem.

Once a child gets a kidney disease, it can cause high blood pres-sure, enlargement of heart, low haemoglobin; affect child’s growth,make bones brittle and affect overall well being and scholastic per-formance of the child. If it enters a more advanced stage, it can resultin life threatening repercussions often requiring renal replacementtherapy to sustain life. However, with vast improvement in the reachand quality of dialysis services, the long term results of the proce-dure have significantly improved. Transplant centers are now accept-ing young patients and children for successful kidney transplants.Since early detection and treatment of kidney diseases in childrencan make a huge difference, the whole family should understandthe importance of recognising and treating kidney diseases earlyto prevent permanent and irreversible kidney damage.

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�* ��*/ The tomato is theedible, often red, berry of

the tomato plant. Tomatoescontain lycopene, which isalso used for facial cleansers.Apart from eating them assalad, one can also peel thetomatoes, and use the skin as amask on your face. It cleanses andrefreshes the skin. The lycopene in tomatoes is also reportedto control the growth of cancer cells, especially prostate,stomach, and colorectal cancer.

Tomatoes are loaded with Vitamin A, Vitamin B and potas-sium which help to decrease the cholesterol levels. In the longrun, it can prevent heart related diseases.

They also help to improve the digestive system, and the liver.They are loaded with fibre which helps prevents constipationtoo.

Loaded with vitamin C, fresh tomato juice is brilliant whenit comes to boosting the immunity levels. The Vitamin C in italso controls the increase of stress hormones, and helps your bodyto remain energised in the scorching summer, and keeps youhealthy.

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Staying physicallyactive in midlifedepends a lot on

your overall satisfactionwith life or mental wellbe-ing a decade earlier, not just your physi-cal health, suggests new research.

Men and women with high mentalwell-being at the age of 42 were morephysically active at the age of 50 comparedto those who got lower scores in mentalwell-being at age 42, said the study pub-lished in the journal Applied Research inQuality of Life.

The researchers investigated mentalwell-being through three dimensions:emotional, psychological and social well-being.

Emotional well-being indicates over-all satisfaction with life and a tendency tohave positive feelings. Psychological well-being refers to experiences of personalgrowth and the purpose of life. Social well-being tells about relationships with otherpeople and the community.

The researchers found that leisuretime physical activity did not predict latermental well-being or subjective health, butmental well-being predicted physicalactivity.

It seems that mental well-being is animportant resource for maintaining aphysically active lifestyle in midlife, saidTiia Kekalainen from University ofJyvaskyla, Finland. Walking was related toemotional well-being, rambling in natureto social well-being and endurance train-ing to subjective health, the study said.

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Summer is your skin’s worstenemy. Among all theproblems that occur

because of the scorching sunincluding heatstrokes, dehy-dration and tan, heat pimplesare the worst. They spread fastand can make you look unpleas-ing.

But worry not.Following thesesimple tips canhelp you get ridof these uninvit-ed guests.

Take fourto five icecubes. Place it ina cloth and press it against thepimples until you feel numb.Continue this manner a coupleof times. Once done, pat drywith a clean towel.

Take one tablespoon ofextra virgin oil and one table-spoon of turmeric powder. Mix

the two. Apply it over the affect-ed area. Leave it for 20 to 30minutes. Rinse off and pat drywith clean towel.

Aloe vera gel works won-ders. Take two tablespoons of

aloe veragel/extract.Apply it onthe affected

areas andleave it

overnight. Rinseoff the next morning.

Repeat the process everynight before going to bed

until it’s completely gone.Cucumber can also help in

fighting these pimples. Take halfcucumber. Blend it in a foodprocessor and apply the paste tothe pimples. Leave it on for 30minutes. Rinse off with coldwater. Repeat this step three tofour times a week until you getcomplete relief.

Come summertime and allthe skin woes begin. One

of the side effects of theheat can be heat pimples.ROSHANI DEVI shareshome remedies to treat

them

In a recent directive issued by thePrincipal Secretary of Health and Family

Welfare, Government of NCT of Delhi,HODs of hospitals or medical institutionswill file FIR against any incidents ofabuse or violence by patients ortheir attendants. As per thedirective, no individuals, be ithospital staff or doctors canfile the FIR. It will be incum-bent on the MS/Director ofthe institution to ensure thatFIR is registered immediate-ly in such cases and any non-compliance will be dealt withseriously.

Speaking about this, Dr Girish TyagiPresident Delhi Medical Association saidthat the prompt action by Chief SecretaryDelhi Vijay Dev is an important step tocombat the rising violence in the hospi-tals.

The same process should also be

adopted by the private hospitals. TheDMA also has requested the DelhiGovernment to exempt individual pre-scription only clinics from bio medical

waste registration and single windowregistration for most nursing

home setups.Padma Shri Awardee, Dr

KK Aggarwal, President,HCFI, said, that there arethree types of doctors —those who expect patients to

accept what they say withoutquestions; those who give choic-

es to patients; and those who taketime and help the patients in taking

a decision. This is the discord and thenumber one cause of miscommunicationand disputes. While the types of patientshave changed very rapidly from ignorantto enlightened, doctors are still in the firstphase, where they feel that they don’t needto spend time with the patient.”

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Has your skin gotten overly dark or darkerthan normal from just a few areas especial-

ly on the face? You may have pigmentation.Pigmentation is the excess and uneven darken-ing of the skin leaving skin looking dirty andunhealthy. Dark spots, blemishes, acne marks,Dark Patches and even tanning that’s hard toget rid of are all different kinds of pigmenta-tion.

Pigmentation can be very hard to get rid of.Skin whitening, lightening or fairness productsdon’t work for pigmentation. There are sever-al new products out there for dark spots, blem-ishes, de-tanning and others, but they also oftenend up not working because they usually lackthe scientific technology to address pigmenta-tion at the root.

Even doctors are scratching their headsbecause steroids and hormones that they pre-scribe are not perfect solutions and haveunhealthy side effects. So, they often end up per-forming expensive treatments like lasers andchemical peels to temporarily make the skinlook brighter while prescribing sunscreens toprevent pigmentation flare ups. But lasers andchemical peels also have side effects like red-ness and sensitivity. If not done correctly theycan even cause more pigmentation.�How to avoid skin pigmentation?

Best is to not get damaging treatments donelike lasers and peeling, bleaching, scrubbing,facials or others, that can damage skin and causepigmentation. Excessive sun exposure can alsocause and make pigmentation worse. But howto get rid of it if you already have it? Fortunately,there are some newage brands that are embrac-ing powerful scientific formulas to work at theroot of the skin where pigmentation begins.

Of the few available around the world, onesuch brand is Melblok. Melblok has a patent-ed technology that works on the over activemelanin cells to help control their pigmentationfor long terms results. The formulas of the dayand night creams help to dislodge pigmentationfrom deep in the skin which then clears out asthe deeper pigmented layers come up to the sur-face and shed out. Initial results are visible in28 days (around one month) eventually help-ing make the skin clearer, brighter and moreeven toned. �What is pigmentation prone skin?

Have you ever felt like your skin gets tannedeasily? Or get dark from some areas more thanothers? You may have pigmentation prone skin.Don’t worry, according to scientific research,over 85 per cent of the Indian population isprone to pigmentation regardless of gender.Living in a hot and humid country like Indiawith newage problems like pollution, stress, hor-monal changes, diabetes and others, make iteven more easy for anyone to get pigmentation.If your parents or grandparents had pigmen-tation like spots, dark circles or skin darkeningyou may also have a genetic tendency to get pig-mentation easily.

If you feel you have pigmentation prone skinthen try investing in a good skin care systemor brand that reduces and prevents pigmenta-tion. Paying a slight premium for a good brandcan go a long way in helping you get rid of pig-mentation safely.

Regular products may not be made for yourskin’s specific needs. Certain brands are show-ing the way by coming up with products thatmay help in the long run. This also leads toincreased understanding and awareness aboutpigmentation prone skin among the public.(��$��������������%��.����+�?������"�%����.H�F�����+���?

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L I S T E N T OSKIN CALL

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Asthma is a chronic diseasewith many stigmas related toit. The disease is considered

no less than a taboo where manypeople and especially parents try todisregard the fact that their child hasasthma.

According to the WHO factsheet, 100 to 150 million peopleacross the globe suffer from the dis-ease. In India, the soaring numbershave reached 15-20 million and thenumbers will continue to grow untiladequate measures will be taken tomanage the disease.

Dr Anant Mohan, HOD, Chest(Pulmonary Medicine), AIIMS saysthat asthma is a disease which isthere from time immemorial andthere ar lot of factors that can causeit. “Asthma is persistent since timememorial. It is a growing disease andthe number of patients keep ongrowing. Fortunately, the aware-ness about the disease is also increas-ing but there should certainly bemore awareness especially from thegrassroot level. There are a lot of fac-tors that cater to the disease — genet-ic, if the parents have the disease,chances are more that their child willalso have the disease, environmentalso plays a great role, increasing pol-lution, smoking are some of the caus-es of the disease,” he tells you.

Dr Gaurav Sethi, Pediatrician, InGood Hands Clinic says that earli-er it was thought that asthma isa disease of elderly. "Earlierpeople thought that asthmais a disease of the elderlybut it is not the case.Almost 50 per cent peo-ple start having thesymptoms below the ageof five years and five to 10per cent children have asth-ma. The prevalence of the dis-ease has increased and fortunatelyawareness has also increased but westill have miles to go,” he tells you andadds that there is no confirmatorytest for asthma.

“Unfortunately there is no con-firmatory test to diagnose asthmawhich makes it challenging to diag-nose the disease. Whenever a child

comes to us, we have to study the his-tory of the patient thoroughly. Wehave to examine each and everydetail and then only we confirm thatthe patient has asthma or not. Somepeople feel that since there is no con-firmatory test the disease can be mis-

diagnosed but the fact is thatthe disease is more under-

diagnosed rather thanmisdiagnosed,” DrSethi tells you.

There are a lot ofmyths prevalentamong the people

when it comes to asth-ma. “There are a lot of

myths related to the disease.First, parents are not ready to

believe that their child has asthma.They say bachcha hi toh hai, asthmakaisey ho sakta hai. This stigma hasto be removed. Second, people tendto believe that inhalers are strong andaddictive, which again is a miscon-ception. Inhalers are the best and thesafest medication. If medicine is

given through inhalers then it ismore effective without any sideeffects. Because the medicine isgiven directly to the affected area(lungs) and not through blood, sothere are no chances of infections.The dose given is also ten times lessin inhalers. Therefore, it makesthem the safest option to go for,” DrSethi explains.

However, many people feel wor-ried that how their child will takeinhaler infront of everyone. “We getacross a lot of patients who feel anx-ious and worried that how their childwill take inhaler in school. Butthere is nothing to feel worriedabout. It is just a form of taking med-icine and there is nothing to beashamed of. Awareness should bemore among the teachers also.Because when the teachers see thatthe child in taking inhaler they oftensuggest the parents to keep thechild at home. But, this is not thesolution. So, there should be prop-er awareness among the teachers as

well so they don't treat the child anydifferently,” Dr Mohan tells you.

Many patients just use inhalersto relieve the pain and not to con-trol the disease. “There are two typesof inhalers -- Controllers and reliev-ers. Controllers are meant to perma-nently control the disease. It has tobe taken on a regular basis withoutany gaps. Whereas, relievers areused to give a temporary relief. Manypatients opt relievers instead of con-trollers, which does not help much.Proper treatment and early diagno-sis is key,” Dr Sethi explains.

Using inhalers empowers you totake care of yourself. “There aremany cases in which the patient diedbecause of they were not rushed tothe hospital at the right time. It is sadbecause asthma is not a lethal dis-ease. Using inhalers empowers youto take care of yourself. You don’thave to rush to the hospital everytime you get a asthma attack. Thereis nothing to fear about usinginhalers,” he adds.

Along with proper treatment, ahealthy lifestyle is a must to preventand control the disease. Regular exer-cise and yoga along with the treat-ment also helps in curing the disease.If the disease develops at an early agethen the chances of complete reliefare more.

“If the disease is developed at anearly age then there are more chancesof complete relief from the disease,but is the disease is developed after10 to 12 years of age then chances ofcomplete relief are very less,” Dr Sethisays.

The doctor says that onset of thedisease can happen anytime. It is aperiodic disease and can show symp-toms for some time and then canremain suppressed for months oreven years. Patients should consulta doctor if they suffer from period-ic coughs , cough during running orlaughing or if they have a persistentrunning nose and sore throat. It oftenoccur during changing weather. So,the symptoms should not be ignoredand early treatment should be takenin order to prevent the disease fromgetting worse.

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= < < � � � < & 1 < 6 �Not just asthma but every dis-

order brings with it a bunchof troubles that interfere in lead-ing a normal life. Eating the rightfood is one such problem that iscommon for all diseases.Although there is no particulardiet for an asthmatic, but thereare certain foods that they areadvised against, as these maylead to aggravation or lead to aresurfacing of symptoms likewheezing, coughing and difficul-ty in breathing.In addition tothat, in some exceptional cases,food allergies may act as a trig-ger for asthma. Food allergy isdefined as an over-reaction bythe body's immune system toproteins in foods that are usual-ly safe or harmless. The mostcommon symptoms of foodallergy are hives, rash, nausea,vomiting, and diarrhoea. Themost common foods associated

with food allergies are eggs,milk, peanuts, tree nuts(cashews, almonds, filberts),soy, wheat, fish, shellfish, andshrimp.Coming in contact witha food allergen can trigger yourimmune system to over-reactand release a chemical known ashistamine. This release of hist-amine can be responsible for thesymptoms of an allergic reactionin an asthma patient, leading toan asthma attack.

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Sri Lankan authorities onMonday discovered a facili-

ty believed to be used as a train-ing centre by the suicidebombers prior to the terrorattacks on churches and luxuryhotels on the Easter Sunday thatkilled more than 250 people.

Nine suicide bombers car-ried out a series of devastatingblasts that tore through threechurches and three luxuryhotels on the Easter Sunday.The Islamic State claimed theattacks, but the governmentblamed local Islamist extrem-ist group National ThawheedJammath (NTJ) for the attacks.

The two-storey buildingwas discovered in theBlackpool area in NuwaraEliya. Details of this facility hadsurfaced during questioningof some suspects who werearrested in connection with the

NTJ in Sainthamaruthu,Kalmunai, the Times Onlinereported.

“It is believed that 38 mem-bers of the NTJ group includ-ing suicide bomber Zahranhad received training at thisfacility prior to the recent ter-ror attacks,” it said.

According to the prelimi-nary investigations, the finaltraining session which wasattended by Zahran took placeon April 17 - four days prior tothe deadly Easter attacks.

Zahran, the mastermindbehind the Easter blasts, led theattack on the Shangri-La hoteland was accompanied by a sec-ond bomber identified as IlhamAhmed Ibrahim. He was killedinside the hotel where he blewhimself up.

The training centre hadbeen set-up in the building thathad been on rent.

Police have arrested theowner of the house and twoother individuals who hadallegedly provided accommo-dation facilities at the building.

The NTJ has no history oflarge-scale attacks. The groupcame to prominence last year

when it was blamed for dam-aging Buddhist statues.

All suicide bombersinvolved in the blasts arebelieved to be Sri Lankannationals.

In a statement issuedthrough its propaganda ‘Amaq’news agency two days after theattacks, the ISIS identified theattackers as Abu Ubayda, Abual-Mukhtar, Abu Khalil, AbuHamza, Abu al-Bara’a, AbuMuhammad and AbuAbdullah.

President MaithripalaSirisena last week used emer-gency powers to ban the NTJand a splinter group identifiedas Jamathei Millathu Ibraheem(JMI).

The move to ban the out-fits came after the LankanParliament adopted a newly-enforced emergency regula-tion on Wednesday following aseries of eight coordinatedblasts, which ripped throughthree churches and three high-end hotels frequented bytourists on April 19 in thecountry’s deadliest violencesince the devastating civil warended in 2009.

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Sri Lankan security forcesshould avoid the incidents

that caused some people facesocial stigma during the searchoperations after the EasterSunday blasts carried out by a“cult” within the community, asit may lead to radicalisation ofmoderate Muslims in the coun-try, a Minister has warned.

Minister of City Planning,Water Management andHigher Education RauffHakeem said Muslims wel-come and support the securi-ty forces and police to carry outsearch operations followingthe April 21 carnage in whichover 250 people were killed.

There have been few inci-dents of concern during theseoperations, which should beavoided as these could lead toradicalisation of moderateMuslims in the country, he wasquoted as saying by the DailyMirror on Monday.

“Some people have suf-fered social stigma as a resultof some minor happeningsduring search operations beingsensationalised. One must not

get carried away if Islamic lit-erature written in Arabic or inTamil is found in a house. Itmay not be terrorist literature.

“There may be anti-(Osama) Bin Laden or anti-extremist literature with somepeople. The security forcescould get help from theDepartment of Muslim Affairsto interpret such literature,” theMinister told reporters.

Hakeem also said that thebombings had been carriedout by a cult living among theMuslims which earlier attackedthe “mainstream mosques incertain Middle Eastern coun-tries”.

“We as Muslims hadwarned the authorities of cer-tain activities such as speech-es made by certain people pro-moting extremism, which isagainst Islam, by certain groupsfrom time to time,” he said.

When asked about theweapons being found in somemosques, during the searches,Hakeem said places of worshipshould not be used to keeparms, adding that “terroristactivities and ordinary crimesshould not be mixed up”.

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The US supports Israel “100per cent” in its defence

against a barrage of deadlyrocket attacks by militantgroups in Gaza, US PresidentDonald Trump has said, warn-ing Palestinians that suchactions would bring them“nothing but more misery”.

Tensions flared up onSaturday between Israel andPalestine with massive rocketfire from Gaza, drawing wavesof Israeli retaliatory strikes whichcontinued throughout Sunday.

At least 23 Palestinians,including at least nine militants,were killed.

Four civilians in Israel werekilled, at least three of themIsraeli citizens.

“Once again, Israel faces abarrage of deadly rocket attacksby terrorist groups Hamas andIslamic Jihad. We support Israel100 per cent in its defense of itscitizens,” “Trump said in atweet on Sunday.

“To the Gazan people —these terrorist acts against Israelwill bring you nothing butmore misery. End the violenceand work towards peace - it canhappen!” Trump said in a

tweet.According to media

reports, the militant groupshave fired about 600 rocketstowards Israel. In response,Israel has launched about 250air strikes against terroristgroups in the region.

The flare-up comes despitea truce brokered by Egypt lastmonth. It is one of the mostsurges in violence since theconflict of July and August2014.

In that year, Israel launcheda ground offensive on Gaza fol-lowing the kidnapping andkilling of three Israeli teenagers.

The conflict killed 67Israeli soldiers. Hamas and itsallies launched more than 4,500rocket strikes that killed sixcivilians in Israel.

On the Palestinian side,2,251 people, including 1,462civilians, were killed in theseven-week conflict, accordingto the UN.

Palestinian leaders in Gazaagreed to a ceasefire with Israelon Monday to end a two-dayescalation in violence.

Israel also lifted restrictionson civilian movements incommunities around the Gazaborder.

Kathmandu: Ruling NepalCommunist Party presidentPushpa Kamal Dahal‘Prachanda’ on Monday saidarmed revolutions “have notbeen able to change any system”and that that is why Maoistshave chosen the peaceful anddemocratic path in the country.

Prachanda, who was oncea strong proponent of armedstruggle in the Himalayankingdom to overthrow themonarchy and establish arepublic country, said there isa need for serious discussion onMarxist ideology and its exper-iment in Nepal.

Addressing a programmeorganised here to mark the201st birth anniversary of KarlMarx, a German philosopherwho is considered the father of

‘communism’, he said severalarmed revolutions have “failedin the world context”.

“Such revolutions have notbeen able to change any sys-tem...That is why we have cho-sen the peaceful and democ-ratic way out,” Prachanda, whois a former Moaist leader, said.

He said socialism will notcome through the develop-ment of capitalism, and neitherit can be brought without dis-mantling the feudal system.

“We need to developnationalist capital and need tobring movement in ideologyand organisation if we are toestablish a system based onsocialist ideology...A consciousjolt is needed to bring a social-ist revolution in the country,” theformer prime minister said.PTI

Beijing: China on Mondayprotested over two US warshipssailing near islands claimed byit in the disputed South ChinaSea, saying it violates its sov-ereignty and also denounced aPentagon report on Chinesemilitary’s modernisation as anattempt to spread the “Chinathreat theory”.

The US guided-missiledestroyers ‘Preble’ and ‘ChungHoon’ travelled within 12 nau-tical miles of Gaven and JohnsonReefs in the Spratly Islands,which Beijing calls Nansha.

The latest US challenge toBeijing’s territorial claims in theregion comes amid trade ten-sions as President Donald Trumpsaid Sunday he would raise tar-iffs on USD 200 billion inChinese goods on Friday because

talks were moving “too slowly”.“On May 6 two US war-

ships without the permission ofthe Chinese government haveentered the adjacent waters ofthe Johnson reef in China’sNansha island in the SouthChina Sea, (SCS),” ChineseForeign Ministry spokesmanGeng Shuang told a mediabriefing here on Monday.

He said the Chinese navyidentified the US vessels andasked them to leave as perChinese law.

“The relevant move theUS warships infringed uponChina’s sovereignty and under-mined peace and security in therelevant waters. We deplorethat and firmly oppose that,” hesaid and asked Washington tostop such “provocations”. PTI

Washington: The US is deploy-ing an aircraft carrier strikegroup and a bomber task forcein the Middle East to send a“clear and unmistakable” mes-sage to Iran that any attack onAmerican interests or its allieswill be met with “unrelentingforce”, National SecurityAdvisor John Bolton haswarned.

Bolton said on Sunday thedecision to deploy the USSAbraham Lincoln CarrierStrike Group and a bombertask force to the US CentralCommand region in theMiddle East was in response toa number of “troubling andescalatory indications andwarnings” from Iran.

The deployment of thestrike group and bomber task

force comes after US PresidentDonald Trump last monthrefused to give waivers to coun-tries like India from buying oilfrom Iran, in an attempt toreduce Iran’s oil exports to zero.

After coming to power,Trump withdrew from theIranian nuclear deal last yearand has imposed stringentsanctions against what hedescribes as the “authoritarian”Iranian regime.

“In response to a numberof troubling and escalatoryindications and warnings, theUnited States is deploying theUSS Abraham Lincoln CarrierStrike Group and a bombertask force to the US Central

Command region to send aclear and unmistakable mes-sage to the Iranian regime thatany attack on United Statesinterests or on those of ourallies will be met with unre-lenting force,” Bolton said.

“The United States is notseeking war with the Iranianregime, but we are fully pre-pared to respond to any attack,whether by proxy, the IslamicRevolutionary Guard Corps, orregular Iranian forces,” he saidin a statement.

The US is seeking to rampup pressure on Iran to counterwhat the White House perceives to be a potential threat. PTI

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birth to a healthy baby boy onMonday.

Meghan, 37, went intolabour “in the early hours” ofMonday morning, and herhusband Prince Harry was byher side, the BuckinghamPalace said.

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Utter the word nepotism andpictures of star childrenimmediately float in front ofyour eyes. Tiger Shroff, ofcourse, can’t deny his genes

but the talk about options drying outquickly for outsiders and insiders beinggiven unlimited chances is not a new one.Tiger does believe that having a back-ground makes it easier to bag big roles andget noticed. However, “when the lights gooff at the theatre and the film starts, theaudience only sees the actor. Nepotismexists, especially because there are sonsand daughters of established andrenowned names in the industry, but italso has its own pros and cons. Gettingeasily noticed doesn’t always mean thatyou are accepted by the audience.Moreover the level of expectations isimmediately upped as the audience looksat our family backgrounds and we havethe burden of living up to our fathers andmothers. If we don’t we won’t get a sec-ond chance.”

It was not his family background thatswung it for him in his latest outing. It wason the sets of Baaghi 2 that Tiger Shroffbumped into Karan Johar and bagged therole of Rohan in Student of the Year 2,opposite newbies Ananya Panday andTara Sutaria. Talking about how differentthe film looks as compared to its previ-ous edition, he says, “Except for the school,that is Saint Teresa’s, nothing is same. Itis an all new take on the protagonists,friendship and love between them as wellas their battle to win the ‘student of theyear’ trophy. Here, more emphasis is onextra-curriculars and sports rather thanjust studies (laughs).”

The glitz and glam in the film wouldmake one question where does such aschool, which does not reflect a real worldexist? Why does the film showcase sucha thing which is not even relevant to anIndian student’s life? Tiger explains, “Iagree (laughs). It gives out the messagethat the focus shouldn’t be just on acad-emics but on other activities as well whichare important for personal growth anddevelopment. Also, we are not trying topreach anything, but there are many facetsin the film,” he says. The other messagethat it gives is that “while one should livefor others and their loved ones, at the sametime one should also follow one’s dreamswhole-heartedly. We are trying to have funand say this as an under-current in thefilm.”

Well, shooting for this film, Tiger says,was no less than “partying” since his pre-vious films have mostly been packed withaction and stunts. “As compared to Baaghiand Baaghi 2, I would say that this one wasvery light-hearted, easy-going and chilledout. A lot of physical work went into myprevious films. The scenes and my rolewere more candid and conversational. I

had to practise many things before to per-form. And it’s been a while since I havedone any such project. When you watchit, you’ll realise that every scene is so fullof fun,” he explains. It wasn’t at all diffi-cult, he says. “The role in Baaghis washeavy and I had to put in my everything.Here, I didn’t have to use my powers or‘superpowers.’”

When an actor picks up a certain kindof role in every film back to back, theindustry and even the audience, to anextent, start stereotyping him/her undera particular genre. Even Tiger, who hasdone a series of action films has beenthrough the same. He says, “Yes, you dowant to get out of a particular space andtry out more things. However, doing thesame kind of drill doesn’t confine you toa box. It takes time to get into other thingsand certainly even I will.”

However, he believes that his actionhero image gives him an edge in a com-petitive industry. “When people talkabout action heroes of the present time,one of the names could be Tiger Shroff.Yes, I am typecast but this whole thing hasgiven me an identity and made me standout. It makes me feel good.”

Besides, his appeal his inspira-tional. Tiger says, “Youngsters want tobe like heroes. They put their poster onthe wall and admire them. As an actionhero, I want to have some meaning inmy life, and I want to touch manyhearts.” For Tiger, the best part ofbeing an actor is that he can“touch and stir some emotionsin thousands of people andthen return the love thatthey give you for your work.However, the worst is thatyou don’t get enough timefor your loved ones.”

Talking about his evolu-tion since the time of Heropanti(2014), the actor says, “I havegrown more aware since thattime. The more you do some-thing, the more tricks you haveup your sleeve. At that time, Iwas very raw, naive, fresh,simply unaware, and alsovery sheltered from theworld. There was this entirebaggage of being my father’sson. I had so many insecu-rities. I would constantlythink about how will I look infront of the camera confident-ly. How will I say a certainline? How will people think ofme? How will I perform theaction? What if I hurt some-one? There were a plethora ofthoughts. I think today I canchannelise those thoughts, putthem into a framework andwork accordingly.”

The Kings, a hip-hop dancecrew from Mumbai, are thenew rulers of the

American reality television showWorld of Dance. Their choreog-rapher Suresh Mukund says afterthis victory, the 15-member crewis done with dance competi-tions.

Talking about the group’slast performance at the compe-tition, Mukund said, “We did aBaahubali act in India two yearsago that went viral, so I knew theconcept of cinematic feel andslow motion will work for sure.I kept that for the finale round.Coincidently, they asked us to doa performance with a cinematictheme in the finale round. I knewthey wouldn’t understand it(Baahubali) as it’s not aHollywood film. Then I plannedto do it in Spartan style.”

The show’s judge Ne-Yocalled it the “greatest actionfilm” he has ever seen, whileDerek Hough thought they“altered reality”. Jennifer Lopezwas happy to be surprised bytheir act.

This isn’t Mukund’s first stintat a dance show. He and VernonMonteiro were part of theFictitious Dance Group which

participated in dance realityshows like Boogie Woogie,Entertainment Ke liye Kuch BhiKarega and India’s Got Talent.Later his crew, Kings UnitedIndia, bagged the bronze at theWorld Hip Hop DanceChampionship. Asked about

competitions, he said, “I feel thatin order to grow in any talent-based field, you need to competeso that you can improvise your-self. When we won bronze, Ithought that we would stop com-peting as that was a really bigachievement. But then I started

following other dancers. I noticedthat their level was going up. Theywere coming close to us, so thatwas the time when I thought thatwe have to do something to showthat we are the best.”

World of Dance providedthem the platform to prove that

they are the real “kings” ofdance.

“It was about all the danceforms coming together on oneplatform. I thought that if we winthis, we will be the best in theworld. We also had the opportu-nity to go for America’s Got

Talent, but then we got World ofDance first,” he said. “The Kings(managed by Qyuki) will nolonger compete at dance compe-titions now. We have alreadyachieved the world’s best dancegroup title. My team is pretty set-tled right now and is doingshows worldwide,” addedMukund, who was one of theinspirations for the Bollywoodfilm ABCD 2.

The crew, consisting ofRitesh Vishwakarma, KarthikPriyadarshan, Shijin Ramesh,Chandan Achar ya, SunnyChatterjee, Mohan Pandey,Charles Edward, Pratik Gojare,Prem Bhawar, Pavan Rao, RajaDas, Hardik Rawat, AkshayVaravdekar, Hritik Gupta andNaidu Vishwakarma, has takenhome a cash prize of $1 million.The choreographer is floodedwith offers from channels tojudge dance-based reality shows.

“That’s on my bucket list. Iwant to enter Bollywood as achoreographer and ultimately, afilm director,” said the 31-year-old, who had served as an assis-tant director on ABCD 2. I wantto work with Ranveer Singh. It’sa dream,” added Mukund.

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here seems to be no end to thenepotism debate sparked off byactress Kangana Ranaut who had

called Karan Johar “a flag-bearer” of it.However, actress Tara Sutaria defends hermentor and says he doesn’t favour starkids in the industry. She says, “If you lookat Sidharth (Malhotra) and me, we arenot from the industry. That’s reasonenough to dismiss the claim.”

She feels that it’s a bit unfair. “Theviewers these days are incredibly smart.They certainly decide whether someonedeserves to be in a film or not. Whetheryou look at Sara or Janhvi or even

Ananya, they are constantly work-ing hard. They really deserve tobe where they are not becausethey are from the industry butinstead they have earned it.”

Actress Ananya Panday,Chunky Panday’s daughter, fur-

ther elaborates and explainsthat it’s a simple conceptone needs to understand,that people won’t investmoney and their time insomebody they don’tbelieve in. “At the end ofthe day we are represent-ing Karan and Dharmaproductions. Unless anduntil you are not goodenough, you don’t givethem a reason to believein you, no one would dothat,” says Ananya. The

newest kids on the blockfrom the KJo stables arein town to promoteStudent Of The Year 2

along with their co star, TigerShroff.

Ananya apprises us thateven though she is a productof this film industry she stillauditioned for the role. Andthis makes her feel proudthat she was tested andlanded the role on herown steam. She feels,“Being a part of the indus-try gives you access andcan get you into thoserooms where you canmeet big personalitiesbut then what you do in

those rooms is solely on your shoulders.”Ananya says that she wanted to be

an actor since her childhood. “I havedreamt of it. But I don’t think Karan wasaware of that. He always thought that Iam this kid who is passionate about act-ing but not of an age where I could pur-sue this as a career. I wanted to reallyaudition for this film. So I went to meethim and asked him whether I should joincollege or audition? He told me to try myhand at it and I did,” she adds.

Talking about the film Ananya tellsus that there’s a strong message in the filmabout following your dreams. She says,“It’s not about living for anyone but foryourself. Go confidently in thedirection of your passion andlive the life you have imagined.This is a bubble gum film butit also has a message which isso important for youth. Itteaches you in a fun mannerrather than by preaching.”

Tara apprises us thatthe film has many dis-parate facets to it. Thereis an emphasis on kab-badi. Then there areTiger’s dance andaction moves forwhich he is loved.About her character,she says that Mia ismuch like the youth oftoday. “She is verystrong, independentand knows what shewants and when shewants. I don’t com-pletely relate to herbecause we are oppositesin certain ways and that’swhere the exciting partcomes in as you get to play ver-satile roles. She does make mis-takes in the film but then shetries to redeem herself, which allof us do as the youth. So I havelearned that it’s okay to make mis-takes.”

Ananya completely relates toher character. She says, “Shreya isextremely loud, expressive andconfident. She doesn’t take ‘no’for an answer, is super passion-ate and a fighter as well. These

qualities match perfectly with the onesI had since school. Now that I am grow-ing up, they are even more visible. I couldalso relate so much with Poo’s characterin Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham andShanaya in Student of The Year. SoShreya’s character is a lot like how girlsare today. They can look up to her.”

Ask Ananya and Tara about whatdoes it mean to be a modern Indianwoman? They both strongly feel thatwomen are more fierce and independentthan before. Ananya says, “It is obviousfrom the fact that there are two girls inthe film with strong roles and differentcharacters. It’s so lovely to see that twowomen are given so much importanceand it’s high time. I feel empowered. Thefreedom women have these days is laud-able. No one is scared to be herself.”

Tara agrees with her and adds, “It’sactually a very exciting time as a youngwoman. The fact that we are produc-

ing, directing, writing, acting,doing everything in everysphere of life is something

which has changed over theyears. There’s hasn’t beena better time for womenin general. And it’s show-ing in our films. There’sno stopping us.”

There is always a flipside to being an actor

and talking about actors’private lives being under

constant watch. Link-up rumoursare a part and parcel of beingunder the spotlight. It has beenno different for Tara, who is

rumoured to be dating actorSidharth Malhotra. Tara said,“We were completely expectingthis to be a part of our journey.

We have just begun. But I think some-times it is fun to read these things. It’sflattering in a way that people care andwant to know about us.”

Tara ventured into showbiz in2010 with Big Bada Boom and was seenin shows like The Suite Life of Karan &

Kabir, Best of Luck Nikki and OyeJassie.

(The film directed by PunitMalhotra, will hit the theatres onMay 10.)

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Belonging to a large family innorthern, rural Bangladesh,Tayeba Begum Lipi,Bangladesh’s most avant gardeartist has an early memory of

secretly witnessing her sister-in-law giv-ing birth at home. Done under the careof a midwife, who cut the umbilical cordwith a razor blade sterilised in boilingwater. The 11th among the 12 childrenin her home, she says that she could stillhear the water boiling. The blade is Lipi’smetaphor. It is her message and a medi-um in the art of provenance.

The artist has taken over the artworld with her sculptures that are creat-ed out of stainless steel blades. She saysshe loves places that have living memo-ries and histories. Lipi’s exhibition justopened at the Sundaram Tagore Galleryin New York to rave reviews and a hostof curious gallery-goers.

Feminine everyday objectsBest known for her use of razor

blades, Lipi employs them in sculpturesof feminine everyday objects: handbags,dresses, bras, bathtubs, baby strollers,shoes and even a sewing machine.

The birthing event remains embla-soned on Lipi’s mind. Reminiscent ofFreud’s ‘primal scene,’ the razor bladesymbolises her recognition of her ownentry into the world, entanglements oflove, domesticity and physical pain. Hersculptures with glimmering chains ofblades, expose matrimonial paradoxes inrural Bangladesh: pathos-filled stories ofpatriarchy in the world of Muslimwomen and also bring upon us imagesof all that is beautiful and inviting, butspeak of pain and death and danger.

Bangladeshi MuslimsLipi’s work has been profoundly

influenced by the September 11 attacksin New York in 2001 and the July 7,London bombings in 2005. Her country-men’s responses to these events and how

the world subsequently treatsBangladeshi Muslims. She recalls expe-riencing racial discrimination duringtravels in Europe prior to 2001 — whereshe participated in residencies, exhibi-tions and workshops — and it noticeablyintensified afterward. As an artist, shealso observed Bangladeshis at homeand abroad suddenly questioning theirown identity and felt compelled toannounce their allegiance to their faith.“People felt that they had to stick to onlyone identity,” Lipi noted and added, “So,they turned to religion.”

Dissent and protestI distinctly recall seeing the bikinis

at the India Art Fair. There is a strikingway in which these undergarments

appear to be animated, despite the factthat no bodies inhabit them. The appar-ent fragility of Comfy Bikinis (2013) isbelied by the realisation that the inter-locking safety pins, which are used to cre-ate the piece, actually form a shield forthe wearer. Upon realising that theobjects we normally wear or sit on areforged from hazardous materials, Lipi’ssculptures become sites of dissent andprotest.

She wields razor blades to addressviolence against women — and this iswhat sets her apart as an artist. To drawattention to the excesses of violenceagainst women is one of Lipi’s primarygoals. In doing so, she gives voice to theanonymous, often invisible, women ofBangladesh.

Fear and oppression She crafts the likeness of common-

place items like handbags, bathtubs andstrollers from the small, menacing stripsof metal, mainly to address the cultureof fear and oppression that defines dailylives in Bangladesh. “I did not even thinkabout why I was choosing it. I was onlylooking for a sharp, violent readymadeobject that could express my reaction tothe vulnerable political situation in bothBangladesh and Pakistan,” the artistsaid. “At some point, I questioned why Iwas attracted to this object, and then Ifound my answer in a childhood mem-ory,” added she.

Perils of a society Lipi fuses intimate subject matter

with aggressive materiality, reflecting onthe personal and political perils of a sti-fling society. “My work always express-es a paradoxical human condition that ahuman being experiences in a countrylike Bangladesh,” she explains. “Being insuch a society, a woman’s experience iscompletely different than the experienceof a man.”

She identifies a duality in her envi-ronment and translates it viscerally intothe personal experiences of her work.When you glance at her sculptures, theymake a statement — they are luminousyet delicate in a surreal way. They lookuncanny from afar, but terribly pain-inducing from up close.

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Not much is known aboutthe Dard Aryans, one ofthe ancient peoples who

are known to still live by age-oldcultural practices and beliefsdespite facing many odds. Theyare considered to be ever-vigilantsoldiers defending our frontiersalong with our Army. It is theirspirit of deep valour and couragethat needs to be saluted by com-mon mortals like us.

Their life is captured in pho-tographs by Virendra Bangroo atthe India International Centre(IIC). The images combine his-tory and the call for attention toa dwindling tribe that needs sus-tenance.

RICH CULTURAL LEGACYThe Aryan Valley of Ladakh

boasts a colourful and rich lega-cy of the Dard Aryans inhabitingthe area. According to Bangroo,the Dardic languages are a sub-group of the Indo-Aryan lan-guages natively spoken in north-ern Pakistan’s Gilgit Baltistanand Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,Jammu and Kashmir and easternAfghanistan. They speak a dis-tinct dialect of Dard-Shina,which is also known among thepeople of Ladakh as Brokskat.Interestingly, they have a dialectbut no script.

HILLSIDE PEOPLEBangroo, an assistant profes-

sor at the Indira Gandhi NationalCentre for the Arts (IGNCA),says “The word Dard itself comesfrom Daradas, which roughlytranslates into people who live onthe hillsides.” Bangroo, who hasspent years studying this commu-nity, states that the people of thisethnic community are also lin-guistically and culturally differ-ent from those living in otherparts of Ladakh. His images havea poignancy that we cannot miss.

The photographer gives uscluster of images that speak of theethnicity and rich symbolism inclothes, jewellery and distinctiveand colourful head gears. “ABrokpa tribal is identified by acolourful head gear called Tepithat has various colourful propsattached, embellished with berryflowers,” says Bangroo. The Tepi,they believe, wards off the evileye. The women wear heavymetal, gold and silver jewelleryalong with full-length sheep skincapes and sheep wool pherans.While it might look heavy, it alsolooks exotic and vintage in termsof design and allure. What enticesare the old metal coins which area compulsory part of the acces-sories.

METAL TO PREVENT SICKNESS

The men too have their own

unique customs in costume, theymostly wear maroon gowns withcummerbunds. There is a beliefthat metal worn on the body pre-vents sickness.

With absolutely no medicalfacilities in the past being farremoved from urban settlements,it seems that their head gears areworn for intrinsic meaning —each prop on the head gear hasa significant medicinal purpose.

The seven-coloured ribbons wardoff any ailments caused by thesun or sudden kinds of sicknessthat are related to the eclipses.The silver brooches ward offplanetary influences and the pea-cock feathers ward off paralyses.

BUDDHIST LEANINGSMany of them converted to

Buddhism nearly two centuriesago, the Dards as a group are fol-lowers of the Drigung Kagyu lin-eage of Mahayana Buddhism.Bangroo’s research also statesthat some members of the com-munity, particularly those onthe other side of the Line ofControl (LOC), are primarilyShia Muslims. What is deeplystirring is their belief in living inharmony with nature. Also, thefact that they still follow age-old,traditional customs of worship-ping rivers, trees and mountainsand also practice a form of ani-mism, a tradition which, accord-ing to some, hails from as far as5,000 years ago.

Bangroo belongs to the groupof scholars at the IGNCA, whichhas has had an immensely vitalcontribution in the mapping ofintangible cultural heritage of ourcountry. Bangroo, has in hisresearch, traversed the lengthand breadth of the Himalayas andworked for the preservation ofethnic cultural pockets which hasseen leaps and bounds in connec-tivity.

His work for this communi-ty in creating awareness about therich cultural diversity of theregion becomes a boon and a life-line of sorts. Through his works,we see two community museumsin the Aryan Valley, which havebecome role model institutionsfor safeguarding the cultural her-itage and sustainable develop-ment in the region.

(The show runs till 13 May.)

An exhibition of photographs byJuhi Saklani showcases thedemolished houses of Delhi’s

Sarojini Nagar and Netaji Nagar, juxta-posed with the banyan, peepul, neemand semal trees of these areas. It is cur-rently open at the Delhi PhotoCompany’s new gallery here.

The show, titled Human/Nature,focusses on the loss of Delhi’s trees as thecity’s old housing colonies undergoredevelopment. It was previously onpublic view at the Photosphere at theIndia Habitat Centre (IHC) here. “In myphotographs, these threatened treesand demolished houses are still tryingto co-exist,” said the artist, for whomDelhi’s redevelopment means loss of aquality of life that was full of trees, birds,cleaner air, and a gentler pace of living.

“In our cities, faced with critical lev-els of air pollution and severe depletionof groundwater, the only smart city plan-ning is to integrate old standing trees intoour project designs. To cut trees andcompensate by planting saplings else-where, or to transplant the trees intoalien soil where they slowly die, is nosolution,” she added.

There are no people in the pho-tographs to mirror the absence of peo-ple from the planning processes anddecision making, said Saklani. The

ruined houses and trees glowing inevening light create a surreal effect,framed in old, broken window framesof the kind used in government hous-ing. The exhibition will run till June 2at Janpath’s DPC Gallery. I�,��

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Liverpool emerged victorious from abruising battle against Newcastle toremain in the hunt for the Premier

League title, but may have sustained toomany wounds to summon a ChampionsLeague semi-final comeback againstBarcelona on Tuesday.

A late double from Lionel Messi inthe Camp Nou on Wednesday has leftJurgen Klopp's men with a mountain toclimb to overturn a 3-0 first leg defeat ifthey are to reach a second consecutiveChampions League final.

Liverpool have overcome suchdeficits before in the Champions League,most famously in the 2005 final againstAC Milan.

But hopes of another famousEuropean comeback at fortress Anfieldwere dealt a blow when Mohamed Salahwas stretchered off with a head knock asLiverpool edged out Newcastle 3-2 onSaturday to move two points ahead ofManchester City at the top of the PremierLeague.

Salah watched a thrilling end to thematch at St James' Park in the dressingroom as his replacement Divock Origiheaded home fellow substitute XherdanShaqiri's free-kick four minutes fromtime.

Origi, who also scored a 96th-minute winner to beat Everton in theMerseyside derby in December, Shaqiriand Daniel Sturridge have made impor-

tant contributions in a supporting role toa club record points tally for Liverpoolthis season.

However, with Roberto Firminoalready ruled out due to a groin injury,few would give Liverpool any hope ofoverhauling a three-goal deficit withouttwo of their prolific front three.

Klopp therefore has a difficult balanc-ing act deciding whether it is worth emp-tying the tank of his injury-hit squad oncemore on Tuesday or to save their legs forWolves' visit to Anfield on the final dayof the Premier League season.

Despite a sensational season,Liverpool's chances of winning either tro-phy are fading.

To have any hope of a first league titlein 29 years, Klopp's men must hope thatManchester City's relentless run of 12straight league wins comes to an endeither at home to Leicester in their gamein hand on Monday, or at Brighton comeSunday.

Barcelona will also not be complacentheading to Anfield a year on from lettinga 4-1 first leg lead against Roma slip awayin the quarter-finals.

Messi made it clear from before theseason began that the Champions Leaguewas his and Barca's primary target in hisfirst campaign as club captain.

Moreover, while Liverpool toiledon Tyneside, Barca coach ErnestoValverde had the luxury of making 11changes for an inconsequential 2-0 defeatto Celta Vigo having already wrapped up

the Spanish title.Yet, Origi's winner at Newcastle

personified Liverpool's persistence andrefusal to give up.

Four times in their last seven leagueoutings Liverpool have won the game inthe final 10 minutes.

Now they must harness the samebelief if Barca are to be given a fright atAnfield.

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Pep Guardiola has suggested remaining incontrol of this season's relentless Premier

League title race is his most satisfying achieve-ment as a manager.

The Manchester City boss says the Englishtop division is the toughest domestic compe-tition he has faced during a 10-season coach-ing career that has brought him 25 trophies.

City have won 12 Premier League match-es in a row, and are on course to finish just twoshort of matching last season's competitionrecord of 100 points, yet they are being pushedall the way by Liverpool, who have set extra-ordinary standards of their own.

Jurgen Klopp's side have lost just once inthe league all season, against City in January,and recorded their eighth successive top-flightvictory on Saturday, beating Newcastle 3-2 toreturn to the top of the table.

City have a game in hand, at home toLeicester on Monday, but are likely to have towin both that and their final league match atBrighton on Sunday to retain their title.

"Yeah, it's the toughest league I've everplayed as a manager, because of the quality ofthe rivals," said Guardiola, a former managerof both Barcelona and Bayern Munich.

"No doubts. That's why being there isincredible. But, of course, only one will takethe prize and the other one will be at homesad."

,����&**,�3-*-GGuardiola is thrilled his City players have

maintained their standards following lastseason's record-breaking points total, with theclub three wins away from completing anunprecedented domestic treble of PremierLeague, FA Cup and League Cup.

"Arriving at this stage, two games left with92 points, after 100 points last season, beingthere, that is the most satisfaction I've had asa manager,” the Catalan manager said.

"It's not easy, honestly. And they did itagain. Now, we try to win against Leicester andthen go to the final league game at Brightonwith it in our hands, with a chance to be cham-

pions." The standard of this season's title racehas rarely been equalled at the highest level ofEnglish football.

Since the rules were changed in 1981 tomake a win worth three points, only once hasa top-flight team finished with more than 95points, and that was City last season.

Yet both City and Liverpool are on courseto pass that total this time around; Klopp's teamhave 94 points with one match left, at hometo Wolves on Sunday.

Guardiola suggested Liverpool are one ofthe two best sides he has ever faced as a man-ager, with the other being the Barcelona teamthat thrashed City 4-0 in a 2016 ChampionsLeague meeting.

"The difference is Liverpool. We did thesame job (as last season), he said.

"In my career as a manager, I played againstincredible sides. There are two that were 'wow'.One is Barcelona with Luis Enrique, withNeymar, Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez in front.The other is this Liverpool. I think they're thebest two sides I've faced as a manager.

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Dries Mertens on Sunday over-took club legend Diego

Maradona in Napoli's all-time SerieA scorers list after bagging his 82stgoal in a 2-1 win over Cagliari whichsealed second place in this season.

The Belgian striker headed inthe equaliser after 85 minutes in

Naples to surpass formerArgentinian ace Maradona, who hit81 league goals between 1984 and1991.

Mertens is now the third bestSerie A scorer in the club's history,behind Antonio Vojak, who hit arecord 102 league goals between1929 and 1935 and SlovakianMarek Hamsik, who achieved 100before leaving to play in China thisseason.

"I'm very happy to have over-taken Maradona and to be a part ofNapoli's history," said Mertens, 31,who arrived in southern Italy in

2013 from PSV Eindhoven."We must be proud of the our

second place.""The future? If I want to score

goals in Italy I have to stay. I havealways said that I feel good here, Ihave a contract for next year and Iam very happy to stay here."

Hamsik has scored the mostgoals in all competitions for Napoli

with 121, followedby Maradona on115 with Mertensnow joint third on107 with AttilaSallustro.

Mertens saidhe is enjoying play-ing under CarloAncelotti who

took over from Maurizio Sarri thisseason.

"With Ancelotti my role haschanged. The place behind thestriker is mine. I have more free-dom and it shows."

Mertens has scored 14 goalsthis season including the last threegames.

Both of Napoli's Serie A titleswere won under Maradona in 1987and 1990.

The club are 16 points behindchampions Juventus but 10 aheadof third-placed Inter Milan withthree games to play.

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Playing against a world classteam like Australia will

provide good exposure toyoungsters and will boost theconfidence of the team aheadof next month's FIH men'sHockey Series Final, feels Indiacaptain Manpreet Singh.

The India team travelDown Under for five match-es starting on Wednesday.The tour, marked as a prepa-ration for next month'sHockey Series Final inBhubaneswar, will be newly-appointed chief coach GrahamReid's maiden assignmentwith the team.

The men's side will playtwo matches each against theAustralian national team andAustralia A and a lone gameagainst the Western AustraliaThundersticks club.

"Playing a world classteam like Australia ahead ofthe important Series in Junewill only help build our con-fidence. We had a good tour-nament in Malaysia in Marchand some of the youngstersdid well there," Manpreet said.

"While Jaskaran Singh willmake his international debut,it will be Gursahibjit's secondtournament with the Indianteam and Armaan Qureshi isalso returning to the team after

a long gap. I am confidentthese players will live up to theexpectations. It will be goodexposure for them against theworld No 2 side," he added.

The team boasts of aninteresting mix of experi-enced players and newcomers.And Reid will look to test allcombinations ahead of theHockey Series Final, whereIndia needs to finish on top toensure a place in the finalround of the Olympic quali-fier scheduled in October thisyear.

India began its seasonwith a Silver medal at the 28thSultan Azlan Shah Cup inIpoh, Malaysia and will hope

to keep up the good show.Talking about the ideolo-

gy of the new coach, Manpreetsaid Reid emphasises on hav-ing team players rather thanrelying on individual perfor-mances.

"The new coach constant-ly reminds us why a teamplayer holds more value tohim than an individual play-er with excellent skill set.

"He also instills winningmentality in every player andconfident body language hasalso been an area of focusapart from game-specific tac-tics over the past three weeksof training under GrahamReid," Manpreet said.

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The topic of when Federer willfinally hang up his racket has

followed the Swiss for several years.But the 37-year-old has been

able to put off 'Father Time' by con-tinuing to win major trophies andremain in the top 10 in the world.

And in a further show that he'snot ready to quit, Federer hasdecided to play during the clay courtseason for the first time since 2016.

Speaking in an interview withSpanish publication Marca ahead ofthe tournament, Federer was askedif he was surprised that he's still ableto compete at such a high level at 37.

And the 20-time Grand Slamrevealed the major factor in his deci-sion to carry on playing.

"A little, yes," Federer admitted."If you told me ten years ago

that this would be happening, Iwouldn't have believed it. I could

have hoped for a top ten or top 20place, but not this.

"If I'd been asked in 2009 if Iwould be playing in 2019 I'd havesaid only if I was still competitive.

"I have made my career and I donot need to play to lose in the sec-ond round in any tournament. Mygoal is to win, as I did at the begin-ning of the season.

"If I feel like I can't be the best,it's better for me to stop.

"I still enjoy the victories inMasters 1000 events or being worldNo 1, as I did last year in Rotterdam."

In a wide-ranging interview,Federer was also asked about theclay court form of Rafael Nadal andNovak Djokovic.

Both players have suffered sur-prise defeats during the clay seasonand have arrived in Madrid withdoubts surrounding them butFederer is not among thosedoubters.

He said: "Who is No 1 and No2?

"It's not like they've been undera rock for the last month, Rafacomes from making semi-finals inboth.

"I understand that because ofwhat they've won, we expect morefrom them. Nadal and Djokovic arefavourites."

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,����&**,/ Liverpool will be with-out top scorer Mohamed Salah forTuesday's semi-final, second legafter manager Jurgen Klopp revealedhe was concussed in a 3-2 win atNewcastle.

The Egyptian was stretcheredoff at St James' Park on Saturday dueto a head knock sustained as hechallenged Newcastle goalkeeperMartin Dubravka for a high ball.

"It's a concussion so that meanshe would not even be allowed toplay. So that's it," said Klopp at hispre-match press conference onMonday.

"He feels OK but it is not goodenough from a medical point ofview that is all. He's desperate (toplay) everything but we cannot doit."

Klopp will also be withoutBrazilian striker Roberto Firminodue to a groin injury.

"Two of the world's best strikersare not available tomorrow nightand we have to score four goalsagainst Barcelona to go throughafter 90 minutes," added Klopp.

"It doesn't make life easier, butas long as we have 11 players on thepitch, we will try it." AFP

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Handed a reality check in their lastleague fixture, defending championsChennai Super Kings would bank on

home advantage to seal their place in thesummit clash when they take on a confidentMumbai Indians in the Qualifier 1 of the IPLhere at Chepauk Stadium on Tuesday.

After the gruelling league phase of theongoing IPL, the stage is set for the play-offswith CSK and MI clashing against each otherfor a place in May 12 final.

There is hardly anything to differentiatebetween the two sides as both CSK and MI

have won the title three times earlier.The Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led CSK

has been patchy after a strong start and fin-ished its league engagements with a six-wick-et defeat to Kings XI Punjab at Mohali onSunday.

But CSK will be happy to return to theirden to take on table-topper MI, probably itsbiggest IPL rival, to decide which team sealsa spot in the May 12 final.

CSK boasts of a tremendous record athome this season, winning six of its sevengames at the M A Chidambaram Stadiumhere and come on Tuesday, it will act as a bigadvantage for the hosts.

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Explosive opener Smriti Mandhana lit up the open-ing game of the Women's T20 Challenge with an

entertaining 90 off 67 balls, taking Trailblazers to 140for five against Supernovas here on Monday.

After the early fall of New Zealand veteran SuzieBates, captain Mandhana anchored a 119-run standwith Harleen Deol (36 off 44), who struggled tochange gears on a slow surface at the Sawai MansinghStadium.

In fact, both Mandhana and Deol struggled to getgoing as Trailblazers crawled to 25 for one in six oversafter Harmanpreet Kaur-led Supernovas opted to field.

The BCCI is organising a bigger tournament forthe women in comparison to the inaugural editionlast year when only a one-off game was played. Fourout of the three games will be broadcast live on primetime unlike last year with an aim to attract a biggerTV audience.

At the venue, the stadium was far from full butthat did not affect Mandhana's batting. After gettingused to the slowness of the wicket, the southpaw wentfor her strokes and even smashed three sixes to gowith 10 fours.

Australians are not taking part in the event thistime owing to a scheduling dispute between the BCCIand Cricket Australia over men's ODI series.

Twelve foreigners from five countries are takingpart in the tournament and are distributed equallybetween the three teams.

Brief scores: Trailblazers: 140/5 in 20 overs (SmritiMandhana 90, Harleen Deol 36; Radha Yadav 2/28)vs Supernovas.

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A defeat, however, will provideboth the teams a second chance inQualifier 2 on May 10.

The CSK top-order has fired infits and starts in the league phase andwill need to come out all guns blaz-ing against a formidable MI bowlingattack that includes Jasprit Bumrah(17 wickets), Lasith Malinga (15wickets), the Pandya brothers(Hardik 14 wickets and Krunal 10wickets), leggie Rahul Chahar (10wickets) and possibly MitchellMcClenaghan.

Skipper Dhoni (CSK's highestrun-getter with 368 runs from 12matches, 3 fifties) has been themainstay of a rather inconsistent CSKbatting unit and along with openersShane Watson and Faf du Plessis andSuresh Raina holds the key inSaturday's game as the usually fluentAmbati Rayudu has struggled to getgoing.

CSK, however, will miss the ser-

vices of the Kedar Jadhav, who sus-tained a freak shoulder injury in thematch against Kings XI.

But Jadhav wasn't in the best ofform and his absence would open upa spot for either Murali Vijay orDhruv Shorey.

Bowling has been CSK's strongpoint so far this season and becomeseven more potent on M AChidambaram stadium's sluggishwicket.

Imran Tahir (21 scalps), thesecond highest-wicket taker thisseason after Kagiso Rabada (25), hasbeen at the forefront of an effectiveCSK spin trio, also including veter-an Harbhajan Singh and RavindraJadeja (both with 13 wickets each).

And the success of Tahir & Coagainst the powerful MI battingline-up could very well determine thecourse of the match.

MI captain Rohit Sharma (386runs), the impressive Quinton De

Kock (492, third leading run-scorer),Hardik Pandya (380) and KieronPollard will be hard to stop once theyget going and CSK's bowlers have atough task at hand.

The onus would also be on theever-improving Deepak Chahar, whohas taken 16 scalps so far, to pick upearly wickets for CSK and stifle therival batting line-up.

Going by the head-to-headrecord this year, MI holds the upper-hand having won both its encountersagainst CSK in the preliminaryphase.

MI head coach MahelaJayawardene would be aware of thejob at hand and won't take CSK light-ly despite the Lions' recent wobblyform.

CSK will certainly receive aboost by playing the Qualifier 1 athome with the crowd fully backingthe team in what promises to be acracker of a contest.